Help me choose an RTS

catapult37

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Hello CAG! I'm hoping you can help me choose a good RTS that I can play with my buddies over lunch breaks at the office. I used to completely love Age of Empires and its sequel, but I found it difficult to install it on my Windows 7 laptop. :)

So here's my criteria:

- runs well on slightly older hardware (say a 3-year-old laptop)
- is new enough to support higher resolutions + widescreen
- plays similarly to Age of Empires.
- ideally, something that is cheap now!

First of all, opinions on Age III and/or Age of Mythology? I've heard mixed things from fans of AoE and AoK, but they have the Ensemble lineage. Starcraft is a possibility, but truth be told, I find the environments in that game bleak and depressing. I enjoy historical settings a bit more. I like Company of Heroes, but I think the learning curve might be a bit much for the other guys. We are all familiar with the more traditional C&C/Age/WarcraftII type of game, so pick-up-and-play would be easier. Any thoughts out there? Thanks!

(Edit: another genre that might be cool is something in the Diablo/Torchlight vein or whatever this DOTA stuff is; I need enlightenment! 4 players, btw)
 
Dawn of War. The first DoW and its expansions are much like the traditional RTS with building a base and such. They have been out for like 4 years now and are pretty cheap, DoW and it's first expansion (Winter Assault) come in a gold package now and the other two expansions aren't expensive (Dark Crusade and Soulstorm), I think Steam has the entire DoW 1 pack for like $30 actually.

I believe there is a demo for DoW somewhere as well.
 
I hear good things from the Total War series, Rome should run well on older hardware. I see you mention WC2 and not WC3 which is also pretty great.
 
You know I wouldn't have thought it, but Age of Empires 3 actually scales decently. I play it regularly with maxed out settings on my desktop and stripped down on an old laptop. It doesn't look as good but it still plays fine.
 
I agree with Rome Total War. It was a ton of fun to play and it offers the best realistic battles (at least compared to most other RTS games).
 
I saw you mentioned starcraft and I cant reccomend it enough. I know the whole scifi theme doesnt sound like your thing but its one of the most balanced and well made RTS I have ever played.

Unlike most where each side feels like a copy/paste of the other side with slightly different weapons each race in SC are completely different and play different.

Its also interesting to find even after years of playing you can still find new strategies to go about defeating your foes. It has alot of subtly to it that makes it alot of fun once you get used to the game some.

Personally I always liked the terrans best myself. I like them because they have a pretty good offense but with them I can build a defense that Ive had 2 opponents at once run out of resouces trying to crack my bases defenses.

You can buy the battlechest for 19 bucks on amazon that has SC, the expansion pack and 2 strategy guides.
 
I'll sit here and voice support for Dawn of War. Pick up one of the bundles, or, if you're not looking for multiplayer/storyline, you can just buy the Soulstorm expansion (it's standalone, gives you access to every race from the games/expansions, and it's campaign is basically a "conquer all the territories" map thing [not sure how to describe it better than that >.
 
[quote name='gargus']I saw you mentioned starcraft and I cant reccomend it enough. I know the whole scifi theme doesnt sound like your thing but its one of the most balanced and well made RTS I have ever played.

Unlike most where each side feels like a copy/paste of the other side with slightly different weapons each race in SC are completely different and play different.

Its also interesting to find even after years of playing you can still find new strategies to go about defeating your foes. It has alot of subtly to it that makes it alot of fun once you get used to the game some.

Personally I always liked the terrans best myself. I like them because they have a pretty good offense but with them I can build a defense that Ive had 2 opponents at once run out of resouces trying to crack my bases defenses.

You can buy the battlechest for 19 bucks on amazon that has SC, the expansion pack and 2 strategy guides.[/QUOTE]

I actually own the battlechest for starcraft, but the license keys have long ago been lost. :whistle2:( Intellectually, I understand the love for Starcraft and its perfectly honed mechanics, and I'm looking forward to SCII since Blizzard has a way of making really scalable engines, but for some reason I can't get into those dark and desolate map settings. I'm sure I could get past this, though. I'm definitely going to try to get into the beta when it goes public.
 
My top RTS games of all time, in order from best to still great:

1) Company of Heroes;
2) Dawn of War 2; and
3) Red Alert 3.

I like the Total War series, but the newer games can be system killers. Enjoy!
 
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