First month of the new year, and not a lot to show for it strategy wise. January is sort of like December that way; most publishers have either fired their shot or are saving up for the spring rush. Looks like March and April will be full of good stuff.
I am now going to include strategy games for consoles in these monthly previews. The reason for this should be obvious. I’m still overwhelmingly a PC gamer, and will probably never fully convert. But it would be crazy not to acknowledge the growing importance of the console market to strategy developers.
So you’ll see DS or 360 tags from time to time. If no platform is listed, it’s a PC title. It’s not like there will be that many console strategy games to acknowledge, but it’s worth keeping an eye out.
January 21 – Pacific Storm: Allies (Buka/CDV/Lesta), Advance Wars: Day of Ruin DS (Nintendo/Intelligent Systems)
January 24 – American Civil War: The Blue and the Gray (CDV/AGEod)
January 28 – The Sims: Castaway Stories (EA/Maxis), SunAge (Lighthouse Interactive/Vertex 4)
I wasn’t a big fan of Pacific Storm, so I have low expectations of the Allies expansion. I love ACW, but I’ve been playing it for months now; I hope the CDV push garners it the attention it and AGEod deserve.
SunAge is an interesting title. It’s one of those old-school RTS games developed by people who seem to think the genre peaked in 2000. The above release date (from Gamespot) must be for retail space, since you can buy through Gamers Gate and Total Gaming according to the official website. It’s already on its sixth patch, which shows that they are learning something from the pros. Initial reviews haven’t been very positive, and it’s not on my radar at all. Anyone else want to take the bullet for me?
I’m curious, what do you think of Advance Wars (if anything)? I searched for it on this site but I couldn’t find any indication you’ve played the titles.
Considering I’m relatively new to the DS, I haven’t played Advance Wars. But people I trust like it, so I’ll probably pick up the new one once I get the chance.
It’s one of my favorite portable games. The new one looks like it’s going to be a little weird since it’s ditching all the cute bright Saturday-morning-anime aesthetics of its predecessors. But that may work in its favor. At any rate, it seems like part of the series reboot involves taking a “back to basics” approach on the units and combat, which I think might do some good.
Advance wars is good. There is an indie PC game which is similar and good called “Brass Hats”. Worth checking out the demo.
The Advance Wars titles are polished little exemplars of handheld tactical gameplay, but I personally find them a little dry. Which somehow doesn’t stop me from buying each new installment as it is released…
Also worth investigating is Land of Legends, a fantasy-themed indie game along similar lines:
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Tiny_Hero/Land_of_Legends/1.htm
Yes, I second the LoL recommendation, although I’m not a neutral party. :)