Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3

[Stark]

Cov, just fucking buy WiC already. It does TA, AI commanders, cooperative objective play and everything else way better than this archaic, disgustingly ugly microfest. Seriously. It's been a fucking year, and you keep buying shit like this.

[Covenant]

I didn't buy this one, I was using a borrowed DVD. I like to trade games around, though it burned me recently when a buddy lost my copy of MGS3 during a move, so basically any game he's playing now I get a chance to mess with too. It's where I got a shot to play with Obliv (on a console) before I bought it (for a PC), and why I've got Morrowind, Bloodmoon and that other Xpac sitting in my collection without having purchased them. Actually no, my brother bought Morrowind, so that's not quite the same.

That said, I'm certainly considering it. WiC might be pretty good, from what people say. I'll scrounge around a Best Buy for a discounted copy and see if I can locate one. Fallout 3 is also on my lists of "to buys", and sadly I'm a bit paranoid about buying Starcraft 2, so we'll see how that goes. I wish games had demos nowadays, like they used to.

[Stark]

Yeah, the US guys I know snagged WiC for bargain-bin prices. It's worth looking for, even if just to get someone else for me to team with in multi and school all the retards who can't play properly again.

WiC also has both a SP and an MP demo.

[open_sketchbook]

I found World in Conflict a frustrating exercise at best. Singleplayer was great fun, but I never felt that I was really contributing to the fight when I played multiplayer. I actually enjoy the micro aspect of RA3, because I like to feel that I'm doing something at all times in an RTS. In World in Conflict's multiplayer, it always felt very limiting, because I had a very small number of units and my role was really just to point them in a rough direction and let the shooting begin, and maybe drop some artillery on them. I feel that WiC is exactly the wrong scale for me, not big enough to be strategic, not small scale enough to be tactical; it felt more like I was herding my units than commanding them.

[Samuel]

I found World in Conflict a frustrating exercise at best. Singleplayer was great fun, but I never felt that I was really contributing to the fight when I played multiplayer. I actually enjoy the micro aspect of RA3, because I like to feel that I'm doing something at all times in an RTS. In World in Conflict's multiplayer, it always felt very limiting, because I had a very small number of units and my role was really just to point them in a rough direction and let the shooting begin, and maybe drop some artillery on them. I feel that WiC is exactly the wrong scale for me, not big enough to be strategic, not small scale enough to be tactical; it felt more like I was herding my units than commanding them.

What more do you want? You shouldn't be micromanaging all the time anyways- when would you think?

[Stark]

I found World in Conflict a frustrating exercise at best. Singleplayer was great fun, but I never felt that I was really contributing to the fight when I played multiplayer. I actually enjoy the micro aspect of RA3, because I like to feel that I'm doing something at all times in an RTS. In World in Conflict's multiplayer, it always felt very limiting, because I had a very small number of units and my role was really just to point them in a rough direction and let the shooting begin, and maybe drop some artillery on them. I feel that WiC is exactly the wrong scale for me, not big enough to be strategic, not small scale enough to be tactical; it felt more like I was herding my units than commanding them.

Since I can turn a battle around personally, this is just you. It's a different kind of game and expecting it to be the same as a microfest pile of stupid crap is ridiculous. Frankly, it boggles my mind someone who likes RTSs from the 90s would even try to play a modern game with new ideas, particularly one that's a short-round based, no-bases, cooperative multiplayer game ie not CnC or Starcraft again again again again again again again.

I love that people like you can use words like 'strategic' and 'tactical' with regard to RTS. I hear there's no tactics, and things like 'flank the enemy armour' or 'penetrate and disrupt rear areas' and 'combined arms assault at the weakest point of enemy lines' aren't 'tactics'. Clearly the game needs more bases with manually-fired defences, lol. It's a fascinating journey down the rabbit hole that someone who likes RA3 (a game which is basically 'tank sheperd') can describe a game with other people on your team demanding your attention, a rapidly-shifting tactical situation and objective-based play as 'herding my units rather than commanding them'.

The idea that micro play is compensating for impotence is an interesting one, however; I'm content to control battles, not tiny little army men, so units that actually have a goddamn clue are welcome. For the impotent, the need to constantly sheperd every aspect of every unit must be empowering rather than both absurd and boring as shit.

[Hawkwings]

I play WiC more micro-intensive than any other game I play. And I don't play starcraft, just to note.

It's the right scale for micro-ing for me. The action isn't too fast, so crazy clickfests are ineffective. Plus your units don't respond quick enough to dance them around enemies. I play armor most of the time, and basically the "tactics" consist of moving your tanks around to not get hit by TA strikes, targeting enemy anti-air first, and keeping your front armor facing the enemy and trying to hit their rear armor. It's a fun game, unless you've got totally inept teammates. Then it's just an exercise in futility.

I play demo WiC quite a bit, and I'm Hawkwings on there too, so look me up sometime.

[Stark]

It certainly rewards micro (especially as either armour or air), but you don't need to micro just to be competitive and it's easier in any case due to the small scale and the no-base effect. Sequentally popping smoke as armour can really extend your lifetime, as can facing control - but you don't NEED to do that shit. JSF is just all about breaking through their lines and killing all thier shit before the choppers show up to kill him (or, heaven forbid, someone actually supports him) and so micro is less necessary.

[Hawkwings]

You guys play full version? I might be getting that soon.