This month’s Computer Gaming World has a sneak preview of the upcoming RTS from Big Huge Games. It has a fantasy/steampunk theme.

No details as of yet, but it’s nice to hear that Brian Reynolds and company are working on something completely unique to the real time strategy genre. Because if I have to build one more pikeman, some one is going to get hurt.

Updated list of the strategy games for the PC and this year’s E3. A few names have been added as I increased my number of sources.

American Conquest: Divided Nation (CDV/GSC)
Battle Mages: Sign of Darkness (Buka Entertainment/Targem Games)
Black and White 2 (Electronic Arts/Lionhead)
Blitzkrieg 2 (CDV/Nival Interactive)
Brigade E5: New Jagged Union (1C Company/Apeiron)
Codename: Panzers, Phase Two (CDV/Stormregion)
Company of Heroes (THQ/Relic)
Cuban Missile Crisis (1C Company/G5 Software)
Desert Law (1C Company/Arise)
Earth 2160 (Zuxxez/Reality Pump)
Ghost Wars (Hip Games/Digital Reality)
The Guild 2 (JoWood/Deep Silver)
Heart of Empire: Rome (Deep Silver/Deep Red)
Heaven vs. Hell (TKO Software)
Heroes of Might and Magic V (Ubisoft/Nival Interactive)
Hotel Giant 2 (JoWood/Game Factory)
The Movies (Activision/Lionhead)
Outfront II(1c Company)
Pacific Storm (Buka/Lesta Studio)
Paraworld (Sunflowers)
Perimeter: Emperor’s Testament (1C Company/KD Labs)
Panzer Elite Action (JoWood/Zootfly)
Rollercoast Tycoon 3: Soaked (Atari/Frontier Dev.)
Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War (Midway/Stainless Steel)
Rush for Berlin (Deep Silver/Storm Region)
The Sims 2: Nightlife (Electronic Arts/Maxis)
Singles 2: Triple Trouble (Deep Silver/Rotobee)
Space Rangers 2: Dominators (1C Company/Elemental Games)
Spellforce 2 (JoWood/Phenomic Game Development)
Stalingrad(1C Company/4X Studios)
Star Wars: Empire at War (LucasArts/Petroglyph)
Tycoon City: New York (Atari/Deep Red)
UFO: Aftershock (Cenega/Altar)
An Untitled RTS (Deep Silver)
War Front: Turning Point (CDV/Digital Reality)
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Winter Assault (THQ/Relic)
War Leaders: Clash of Nations (CDV/GSC)
World War I (1C Company/Nival Interactive)
A World War II RTS (1C Company)
XIII Century: Sword and Honor (1C Company/One Small World)

PopTop Software, the developer behind Tropico and Railroad Tycoon 2, is developing a new game based on an American Civil War that hasn’t happened yet.

Shattered Union will be released later this year. No word on if the hypothetical war will be between the North and South again, or if states will divided into Red and Blue.

Personally, I think South Dakota is asking to smacked.

The people over at Introversion have posted a little update about the status of Darwinia, their independent real-time strategy game.

They say that have sold a few thousand copies – “good but not great”. Hopefully my upcoming review will improve their sales, but I’m not so vain as to think I could make them a lot of money.

Darwinia is a little charmer and has been getting very positive reviews from most outlets. There hasn’t been a lot of press stateside, yet, so we can only wait and see if reviews from the US giants have an impact of sales. This is a game that does not derserve to be forgotten or ignored by strategy gamers.

I’ll post more when my review is published.

My latest ponderings for the independent game minded can be found at DIYGames. It is more a less a counterpoint to all those geekier-than-thou types who claim not to care about a game’s graphics.

Me? I love graphics. No, graphics can’t trump gameplay, but they can make it more enjoyable, immersive, refreshing, amusing, etc.

My review copy of Empire Earth II arrived today (with my review copy of Cossacks II) and the box prominently featured a sticker trumpeting the game’s 94 score at PCGamer (Editor’s Choice).

That was fast. Seems like I just heard about that score last week.