Poking fun at the console RTS is like kicking a sick puppy. We’re all aware that controls, camera and gameplay are significantly weaker on a console than it is on the PC. Despite popular knowledge, it's still entertaining to observe what each console RTS developer will be trying to do differently with their game. In an interview with
CVG,
Halo Wars lead designer Gaeme Devine said he observed the aforementioned issues with console RTSs and purposefully designed a game to avoid them.
From the interview:
What we've seen before on console is that people try to take a PC game and port it to a console. You end up with a half-way hybrid. There are a lot of things that we saw that were wrong - that we noted NOT to do.
He then went on to say that he didn’t think, “anyone’s done good console strategy games before” other than
Pikmin and some crazy German Megadrive game called
Hertzog Zwei. I haven’t had the pleasure of exploring the marvel that is
Hertzog, but I’m sure it’s amazing.
Personally, I’m in the camp that thinks console RTSs could work if the context was actually considered. I think a game like
Halo Wars (where the console was in mind the entire time) has the ability to break the “PC is better” wall we’ve been dealing with. What do you guys think? Will the RTS always be a PC thing?
Contest:
5:35 PM on 11.18.2008
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Good flow, What do you mean? I'm an RTS enthusiast at best, so I know how they work, but nothing of the online aspect, I was never good enough. I do think that a console control scheme could reasonably approach PC quality, but it would be complex and require a much simpler version for a standard user (Like me). I do think though that it's not likely that a controller will top a mouse in RTS. I don't necessarily need mouse level control however, if the game was made with consoles in mind. An RTS with less focus on number of units and more on management could do a lot to lessen dependence on the mouse level of control.
Why should they change it with halo wars? They are on a streek.
Secondly, yes, I think either Halo Wars or EndWar can really bring things home for console gaming. I'm interested to see how they turn out.
Not interested enough to buy EndWar just yet though. I've got other things to do.
I haven't played Halo wars yet, so I don't know if RTS games will "always" be better. Remember, forever is a long fuckin time.
Anyway, we'll have to wait and see how this turns out. I never really trusted anything Halo, it's all a bit bland.
Flow, in my opinion, is everything in the game going in motion seamlessly. Some games have it, some not so much, but this can be boiled down to personal preference.
@ Cube
Ensemble Studios does a heck of a job with RTS games. Is your comment aimed at Bungie, Halo as a franchise, or what?
halo is like the best thing they can make and it was not that impressive in 2001 and still is not and it controls like crap.
and whne it came on PC onbviously dumbed down from when it was on MAC. it failed to impress anybody on PC twice since there was better deeper FPS out.
now Ensemble Studios can dumb down the RTS for consoles and make it suck like starcraft on the n64 and make it control like crap and that is the main issue isnt it the control or lack of it on consoles with these games?
when the wii gets are RTS wake me up that might be decent with it's IR pointer that works like a mouse.
There isn't anything wrong with a console RTS, but complaining from a PC perspective implies that the targeted audience are PC Gamers. Console gamers won't give a shit about your Rise of Nations, or your StarCraft, they care about the quality of their own Console RTS games. There isn't a need for a "whats better" argument because that's like complaining about how books are better then their own movies.
P.S. Bungie will always true-heatedly be a Mac company.
and so is the command and conquer 3 and so is the supreme commander port. The fact that such a horrible version of supreme commander can be on a console even blows my mind that people might buy it.
On a side-note, since when did a DEEPER FPS mean a BETTER FPS. Some of my favorite games ever are entirely mindless romps, and in no way have some super-deep prosthetic quality to them.
Gee i dodn't know nvida and ATi sure do put out a lot of GPU's every year at the exact same time that have features with only one purpose to play games.
Well fuck nobody is playing them all that hardware must end up in a landfill next to the ET games.
No wait theere all buying that crap for spreadsheets and surfing the web!
and to run world of warcraft that can run at full on a older card.
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/07/steam-hits-15-million-users/
http://digg.com/pc_games/World_of_Warcraft_Hits_10_Million_Subscribers_2
The reason PC gaming is slowly going to die (temporarily of course, but that's a long story) is that its becoming more and more like the console gaming industry. Its become more and more watered down with these imaginary standards and consists of only a few genres. MMORPG's are the pinnacle of death since its such a simple concept its attracting a whole different crowd which is great, except you have to remember the whole reason people take pride in being a PC gamer, is that they don't have to play these horrible "CONSOLE" games. But when you attract a big group of idiots to the playing field (not literally) you must play ball. Developers have increased the production of casual pc games which again is good and all, but you're merely attracting more of the console and mother crowd. Then what we have left with are the diehard FPS fans that most likely will end up playing Valve games till the end of time. Now what happened to the large amount of variety? What happened to my PC RPGs? Oh wait, they're all First Person now and have this same fake Elder Scrolls quality to them. PC is a temporary dieing breed, and its only saving grace are the few gems that slip out, and indie game developers. Yet even they can fail from time to time.
So on xbox 360 and it don't have much else besides the crap RPG from japan that nobody bought, and multi platform PC RPG ports? and new version of a PC rpg series that started the oblvion gameplay with marrowwind?
So that scuky fake elder scrolls oblvion fallout 3 and mass effect/ japanese RPG crap is good enough for xbox 360 people.
and then there is that fable 2 crap which is a wannabe PC game pretty dumbed down to 1 button combat.
I can agree with that you win the consoles have tons o variety in the RPG department even though most of the ones that sold are PC games.
The PC is dead it don't have the Big RPg that is out this holiday fallout 3...
Halo wars wil be tha nail in the COFFIN for the PC.
I hate making you feel as if you've won, but you're boring and don't seem to be making any logical points. Ciao
Call of Duty 4 was great on PC and had a fantastic feature; Leaning. Ubelievably useful in a game like CoD and the lack of that feature made the console version feel really stiff. Another plus was I recieved a lot less verbal abuse when playing on the PC than when I played on Xbox Live.
I don't understand why anyone would want to play an RTS on a console. But we shall see...we shall see.
I mean, im pretty casual with them (just play single player, to make cool units and blow shit up) and i still need the ability to select all units, all of a type, group units to number keys, track a unit, use units secondary ability, jump to home base (or whatever).
And you need precision with your selection tool. You cant be cycling through units in a pinch, and it would just get frustrating using a controller to pick out a particular dude from a whole group.
The only way i really see it working is changing the game so much that its not really a 'normal' rts anymore. In that case, its a moot point. But itll still probably control better with a mouse and keyboard.
FPS' will always be best on PC.
That doesn't mean they can't work, and be effing fun, though, so GO GO GO (Halo Wars Developer, I'm assuming bingie but cba to confirm)