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.

Stalin Vs. Martians will hit major digital games retailers like Direct2Drive and Steam on April 29th, this coming Wednesday, for $20. Although I know next to nothing about the game, the sheer absurdity of it makes it a pretty tempting purchase.

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.

Smooth moves with Stalin vs. Martians!
Second Trailer of Stalin vs. Martians from Mezmer Games shows off the fast-paced arcade strategy gameplay. And dancing.

GDC San Francisco – March 27, 2009. Mezmer Games today released a second trailer from the arcade RTS game Stalin vs. Martians, developed by an alliance of three independent studios: Black Wing Foundation, Dreamlore and N-Game.

Following the avalanche of requests to see more of the gameplay in Stalin vs. Martians, Mezmer Games released a new video with in-game footage that gives everyone some answers and shows that the game is not just one big spoof. This video also nullifies all the evil rumors (probably spread by the Martians) that the gameplay would be slow.

Check out the trailer Smooth moves with Stalin vs. Martians here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5uOTWJigZ4

The video features the retro-styled song All Hail Stalinator! by Ilya Orange and Space Detective. Ilya Orange is the author of the games original score, including the now-famous tune from the first Dancing Stalin trailer. Also, you will see glimpses of the extensive fauna of different alien creatures that the Red Army will fight against. Finally, the video shows a teenage girl showing off some wicked dance moves, most likely inspired by the great leader and dancer Stalin.

The game is scheduled for release in April 2009 as the first release of Mezmer Games, the new publisher label under Paradox Interactive that focuses on indie development and digital distribution.

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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.

I remember hearing from friends about this awesome game they’ve been playing in their rooms called Halo.  They invited me up a few times, but the idea of sitting around playing a FPS on a console that wasn’t GoldenEye was insane.  I certainly wasn’t going to play some crappy Microsoft game on their crappy system.  Besides, I told myself, at best it’s just another first-person shooter, and they’re never that good.  Hell, my friends probably only liked it because it was extra gory or something.

It wasn’t until I was deployed in Iraq and had gone through two separate PS2s that I was willing to even give the Xbox a chance.  We were having problems with our PS2s in the desert constantly getting messed up from the sand.  We did what we could, but there is just no way to keep things sand free with the set up that we were working with.  I had heard that the Xbox is a little more durable than the PlayStation from some people we were supporting, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

Of course, they also told me that I HAD to get Halo.  It was simply one of those games that every person had to own if they owned the system.  I still didn’t buy into all that, and made several game purchases before I finally gave in and got Halo.  I had no idea what I was in for.

One of my teammates, Smith, and I spent pretty much all our waking hours for the next several weeks just playing the hell out of the game.  I had gotten several other ones in the mail and such, and they were great games, but Halo was just an awesome experience.  The story was spectacular, the characters were all great in their over the top way, and the gameplay was just phenomenal.  I honestly felt that I hadn’t had a gaming experience like this one since I first played Half-Life.

The very best part of the entire experience, however, was the co-op.  I probably would have only played through the game once and then forgotten about it if it wasn’t for the co-op.  It was one of the few games that I challenged myself to go through the harder difficulty settings simply because I wanted to make sure I had picked the bones of the game clean.

The entire control set up was fantastic and it really was a revolution in the genre as far as console based FPS were concerned.  Games before Halo always touted off how many weapons you could get or how many different bad guys you would see and things like that.  Things were limited in Halo, but in a good way.  You could only carry what makes sense to carry (I still don’t understand where Gordon Freeman keeps all his weapons).

With only having those weapons, you weren’t sitting around digging through some sort of inventory or dropdown to find the gun you wanted when you wanted it.  You simply pressed a button to switch.  It simplified controls but also made the game suddenly more complex.  You actually had to think about what weapons you wanted or needed now, not when to actually use them but if you even wanted to carry them.  I look at the sniper rifle and rocket launcher as great examples of the thought that had to go into what weapons you wanted to carry.

In most FPS, you had them available all the time, so you could just whip them out and snipe a bastard, or blow up their tank.  Suddenly with Halo, you really had to think about the pros and cons of each weapon.  A rocket launcher probably isn’t that great for using against a bunch of little guys, but if you drop it for that SMG, you won’t have it later.  You actually had to think about what was going on and figure out your play style.

The other great thing that Halo really introduced was the regenerating health system.  It’s all over the place these days simply because it streamlines the gameplay.  Everything before Halo had some sort of health pack or healing system where you simply had to try and survive to find more health, like it was ammo or something.  With Halo, you always had “something” to fall back on.  Granted, in the first Halo you still had health after your shield was taken out, and that you would need to find the traditional health packs for, but Bungie eventually got rid of that also.

Now you see it everywhere and most games don’t even have a solid lore reason for it.  The Spartans have regenerating shields to protect them, but what does Marcus Fenix have that allows him to regenerate?  Gears of War, Call of Duty, and Rainbow Six are just a few examples of games that use a regenerating health system that allows the action to progress at a steady pace instead of having to stop the fighting and go back through an entire level scouting for a missed health kit.

The last huge improvement the Halo series introduced was with multiplayer.  I mentioned GoldenEye before and I liken my experience with the first Halo to those wonder years of fun playing the N64.  It was fun, fast, and smooth, and there wasn’t a lot of goofiness in the way.  With Halo 2, they made perhaps the greatest online multiplayer matchmaking system ever and no one seemed to care.

For the longest time I wondered why no one was doing things the way Halo 2 did them.  Being able to set up parties and get into matches together was just awesome.  Everything before that involved inviting your friends after you joined or talking to them on the phone or something so you would all try and get into the same game.

So looking back at all that, I now ask myself what I was thinking when I dismissed Halo Wars out of hand.  There is so much pedigree there that they almost have no choice but to get it right.  Ensemble Studios certainly knows where they’re doing at the helm of RTS gaming, and Halo simply lends itself to the genre.  Hell, if you go back, Halo was originally going to be a RTS game before Bungie changed things up.

The thing that has really got me sold on it however is that there is a co-op mode.  To me, whatever else Halo has done, whatever you want to say about the story or the multiplayer or the graphics, it all really comes back to the co-op for me.  Being able to play through the entire game in co-op mode just screams Halo to me.

All I really know for sure is that Halo has constantly pushed things forward and now that the franchise is branching to another genre, I expect it to do just as much for the real-time strategery genre that it has done for first-person shooters.

Title: Halo Wars Publisher: Microsoft Rating: Teen Content: Mild Blood, Mild Language, Violence Platforms: Xbox 360 Halo Wars is a strategy game based on the Halo universe. Halo Wars will immerse gamers in an early period of the Halo universe, allowing them to experience events leading up to the first Halo title for Xbox.

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?

Gary Knight, European Marketing Director, SEGA Europe, gave the obligatory PR comment: “Stormrise has been built from the ground up specifically for high def consoles to provide a more intense, frenetic style of game that, coupled with the all new control mechanic, will revolutionize the way RTS games are played.”

Well, I’m reassured, though more by this video than anything else. Notably, this is the first Creative Assembly RTS to leave history in the past and embrace a more futuristic setting. Stormrise is set in a post-apocalyptic society (something to do with the earth’s atmosphere disappearing) which sees the technologically superior Echelon square off against the tribal Sai faction.

Back to the vid, there is something that looks suspiciously like an Ion Cannon at the end. And the computer is almost definitely called EVA (possibly AVA). The Homage-o-meter will be off the charts.

Stormrise is slated for ’sometime’ in 2009.

Source: Sega. Here’s the press release and trailer

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).

The M12 LRV ‘Warthog’ will be a small, lightweight, and fast vehicle. With an attachable Light Anti-Aircraft gun or Gauss Cannon it can be used as your basic recon unit, or as a more aggressive offensive vehicle.

The UNSC Fire Base is a rapid deploying home-from-home. It comes with basic communications and fabrication abilities. OK, no big surprises there. We have the ever-fun, team-splattering Warthog and your standard RTS base unit. Still, it’s nice to finally see what the game will look like and begin to get an idea for the playable units. We’ll be sure to keep you up to date when more, hopefully interesting, units are revealed. For all the info on Halo Wars, head to the official site here.

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.

As you plant more trees, you’ll produce more mecha-fly-sperm, and be able to gradually disseminate them throughout the belt. Highlighting an asteroid gives you detailed specs like attack power and core strength, which comes in handy both when attempting conquests and when waves of enemies start pouring in from beyond the fog of war.

This is only a partially zoomed out view. I’m losing!

In addition to just how pleasant the audio-visual experience is (and relaxing until the bad guys start swarming), the controls work really well, since the viewpoint moves while zooming in or out using the mousewheel or arrow keys to center on your pointer. I mean, how awesome would it be if Google Maps would do that?

Missed yesterday’s entry on the third place winner? Check it out here.

Source: TIGSource

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?

The teaser for next issue’s cover asks, “Are you ready for a new Dawn?” with a silhouette of a what very much seems like a Space Marine from Relic’s long-standing RTS series, Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War. Not to be confused with the regular Marines from their other RTS, Company of Heroes.

This could be a full-fledged sequel (i.e. not an expansion) to a generally well received and much revered RTS. I guess they’re trying to come off strong from whatever hype and excitement they may gather from the recently released expansion, dubbed Soulstorm.

And just in case, if this does happen to be another case of expansionitus (ask your doctor), let me know the time and date for the riot that’ll be starting outside the Relic offices. Save me a pitchfork!

However, in all seriousness, with what we hope this will be, along with Starcraft 2, Far Cry 2, The Sims 3, and a whole new slew of projects that have yet to be announced, this is shaping up to be quite a year for PC gamers.

Source: NeoGAF user Sinatar

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!

SAGA Enters Open Beta

Silverlode Interactive opened its servers to all players for SAGA– the persistent world MMORTS.

Provo, UT – February 26, 2008

The World’s First Collectible MMORTS entered Open Beta testing on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008. All players who sign up at www.playsaga.com will receive accounts, allowing them to create nations on the Beta servers. For the duration of the Beta test, all game features will be unlocked and available to testers. At release, a full unlocked copy of SAGA will cost $19.95; however, promotions will be available during the open beta period to purchase the full version of SAGA at a reduced price.

During the stress test conducted on Saturday, February 23rd, the servers performed excellently, with no crashes or other server issues. The SAGA servers are expected to support up to 20,000 players per realm with thousands of simultaneous users. Should a greater-than-expected number of players attempt to login to the world at the same time, a login queue will be implemented and additional realms will be brought online.

Go now to www.playsaga.com to check out SAGA Open Beta!

About SAGA – SAGA is a persistent world RTS in an epic fantasy setting. Players collect troops, build armies, conquer new lands and build up kingdoms, complete with resource collection, city building and peasant management. SAGA’s features include massive armies, multiplayer questing, guild wars, espionage, and an auction house for trading troops and spells.

SAGA has no subscription fees. Players pay as little or as much as they decide, by purchasing ‘booster packs’ of random troops and spells, which are traded and customized to create the strategic army of choice for each player. Visit www.playsaga.com

SAGA Screenshots

22 Photos

 

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.

We can’t help but imagine how great a console port of Starcraft 2 could be, given the reasonable success of RTS gems like Universe at War and Command and Conquer on Xbox 360. However, Blizzard hasn’t lost any money by sticking to its PC guns, with World of Warcraft and the original Starcraft enduring as some of the most widely-played games in the world.

PSU does offer some interesting evidence for a console shift, however. The recent Activision-Vivendi merger, which brought Blizzard under the umbrella of the industry’s largest third party publisher, could mean that Blizzard will be “encouraged” to release their products across multiple platforms.

PSU also cites a job posting on Blizzard’s website from 2006 that specifically urges candidates with experience working on console platforms to apply. Of course, this could always be for an unannounced Blizzard title.

Besides these job application and press release murmurs, the rest of the article doesn’t offer much in the way of hard facts. Many of the same arguments for Starcraft 2 on the PS3 could be made for the Xbox 360. The 360 already has experimented with RTS control schemes, to varying degrees of success, but there’s nothing stopping Microsoft or a third party from releasing compatible keyboard/mouse peripherals.

There’s also no question that Xbox Live could handle Starcraft 2’s online play just as well as the Playstation Network, as online games like Call of Duty 4 are equivalent across both platforms. And as for the hard drive requirement–well, we’ve already seen a few 360 games that require a hard drive for online play.

All in all, I don’t think it’s a matter of which console will get the coveted Blizzard port, but whether or not any console will see Starcraft 2. Following the disastrous Nintendo 64 port, I don’t think gamers will ever settle for less when it comes to Blizzard.

Blizzard is raking in tons of dough on the PC side, nearly single-handedly keeping hardcore PC gaming at the forefront, so any console ports announced would be very surprising indeed. Of course, if things do ever change, we’ll be eager to talk about it with all of you.

Source: PSU

It’s stated that Demigod will an action RPG/RTS hybrid. I can’t quite put my finger on how that combination is going to sit, but I envision it to be a little bit of Dungeon Siege along with a little bit of Supreme Commander. Consider my interest piqued.

From the information currently available, it appears as though you will solely control one of the “demigod heroes”. Some demigods rely on their own unique abilities, whereas others survive by surrounding themselves with small units, á la RTS.

It will include some sort of a single player campaign, but as with all RTS games of late, it will merely be a “training ground” for the multiplayer.

More information is said to be revealed in the February issue of Games for Windows: The Official Magazine.

Source: 1up