Stalin Vs. Martians, the upcoming RTS that features the Red Army fighting off an alien invasion, was originally slated for an April 20th release. For unknown reasons the game was delayed, but those who can’t wait to play as Joseph Stalin don’t have to wait much longer. Read more…

I’m not exactly a fan of the Company of Heroes series, so I can’t say that I’m excited for THQ’s latest RTS, but I can say that the trailer does make the game look fun. If you’re into RTSes, or at least the Company of Heroes series, you can pick up Tales of Valor from your nearest retailer right now.

Tales of Valor delivers three intense single-player campaigns, three new multi-player modes, a brand-new “direct-fire” feature, additional maps, and new units, unlike anything previous Company of Heroes games have ever seen. Unfortunately for the seldom-seen console-exclusive RTS fans, this game is for the PC only.

Mezmer games have announced today that their epic-looking RTS Stalin vs Martians will release to “all major digital games retailers” on April 20, 2009. Executive Producer Tom Söderlund describes the game in one of the best quotes to ever come off of a press release: “One contributing factor to the success could be the high level of historical accuracy, that is completely missing from the game.” I think that about sums up this game. Roll on, April 20!

Ah, the RTS. Once a staple of strategy games, the genre’s been flooded with spinoffs, remakes, and more Age of Empires, Command and Conquer, and Warhammer releases than you can count. How are developers supposed to add vitality to a dwingling genre? With 20th-century mustachio dictator Josef Stalin and an extraterrestrial army, of course!

Independent developer Mezmer Games recently announced Stalin vs. Martians, a PC RTS which they themselves describe as “both masterfully trashy and absolutely over-the-top.” In the game, you control WWII-era USSR as they defend Earth from the Martian Invasion of 1942. With a dancing Stalin, some insane Russian techno, and fun-looking gameplay, Stalin vs. Martians looks like it’ll be loads of fun when it hits “all major digital distribution services” in April. Hit the jump for some screenshots, as well as the press release.

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I’ve never been a RTS fan, especially when the genre tries to break into the console market.  At best there is a distinct sense of a lack of control in the game, and at worst it’s unplayable.  Obviously, any excitement for Halo Wars was lost on me.  Recently, however, I got to reminiscing about the entire Halo franchise and how substantially things have changed over the course of it’s history, many of them in part due to the franchise’s own innovations.

Part of what got me to thinking about all of this was that it’s pretty much the same way I felt about first-person shooters on consoles before I played Halo.  A controller would never hold a candle to a mouse and keyboard.  There is more accuracy with a mouse than a game pad and getting weapons and items would always be quicker on a keyboard when you can just press one button for whatever weapon you needed.  Hell, at that time I was very much not an Xbox fan. Read more…

Sega have a rather flash trailer up for forthcoming PC RTS Empire: Total War, which includes a 6 February 2009 street date.

Empire, you may have guessed, is set against the backdrop of European imperialism and America’s fight for independence, and for those who haven’t been paying attention at the back, there’s a very good reason to keep an eye on it. It will be the first time one of Creative Assembly’s Total War titles has 3D, fully controllable naval combat. Previous incarnations of this aspect have been pits of auto-calculated frustration that the computer normally wins, no matter how many ships you pit against their lonesome galley, so this is quite a big step.

Busy time for Creative Assembly it seems, what with the announcement of the sci-fi flavoured console RTS Stormrise yesterday.

Source: Sega

Sega have announced Stormrise, a new console RTS for PS3 and Xbox 36o, is in development from The Creative Assembly – and it definitely isn’t is a C&C clone.

The hot potato here is something called verticality. The days of lording over the battlefield like some sort of God are apparently behind us, with Stormrise offering something more immersive – a 3D battlefield and a third-person perspective to enjoy it in. At the very least, Sega’s press release promises that we’ll be able to command units in the air, underground and over rooftops as well as on the ground.

Accordingly, there’s going to be a “simple yet effective” new control system, with the key being that you can still run the whole battle while leading a frontline squad. Apparently it will be “tailored specifically for consoles, which allows easy unit selection, rapid navigation and precise deployment.” Wait don’t all RTS titles promise that? Read more…

The steady flow of information about the units in the upcoming RTS, Halo Wars, is slowly beginning. Ensemble Studios have now revealed the Warthog and the Fire Base (above). Read more…

This happy asteroid is on my team now

This game is seriously tripped out when you zoom way in and watch the plants grow. “Is it growing? I think so. I can’t tell. Is it getting bigger? It might be,” and then the little fireworks go off.

The game Dyson, by Alex May, Rudolf Kremers, and Brian Grainger for TIGSource’s Procedural Generation Competition, is a slick and pretty, real-time strategy game about colonizing an asteroid belt. Although your minions look like fruit flies, they are actually tiny mining machines that attack the eggy looking rocks like a pack of winged sperm. Read more…

Towards the end of PC Gamer’s April issue, they teased us with a big lure– potentially being one of the lucky 2,000 to be able to beta test Football Manager! If that’s not exciting enough, how about next month’s cover story? Read more…

Indie developer Silverlode Interactive accosted me outside the press room at GDC to show me their new MMORTS (Massively Multiplayer Online Real-Time Strategy) game, SAGA. The game looks interesting enough, and given the fact that it’s essentially free, it very well may be worth your time. I checked out the beta yesterday, and I have to say that I have no idea what I’m doing. There seemed to be plenty of people who did, however, so maybe I just missed something.

Either way, SAGA has just entered open beta for the public, so you can give the game a shot for yourself. Full press release after you click the link at the end of this sentence… wait for it… okay, now! Read more…

Ken Kutaragi isn’t the only one with sweet dreams of Protoss on PS3

Starcraft 2, a PC sequel nearly ten years in the making, hasn’t been announced for any consoles. But that didn’t stop the wishful thinking of PSU, who hypothesize that the flexible Playstation Network, Bluetooth keyboard/mouse support, and required hard drive make the PS3 the best choice for porting Starcraft 2 to the console side. Read more…

In the upcoming issue of GFW Magazine, Gas Powered games (Dungeon Siege, Supreme Commander) revealed their new IP, Demigod. Interestingly enough, their new outing was in part inspired by a fan-made map for Warcraft III, Defense of the Ancients. Read more…