Quick Look: Act of Aggression

I really feel bad for Craig. Genuinely nice guy.

A bit too much C&C Generals over this, which is my least favorite C&C. Also, I still think most of these would work better with sprite graphics instead of polygons, since Homeworld remains pretty much the only one that actually is in 3D. I also prefer the simplicity of C&C's mechanics, with only one resource and power to manage, juggling all these differently colored resources seems a bit much.

Doesn't seem bad though, I'll pick this up at some point.

Also, Tiberian Sun is amazing. I wish more games had it's random map generator.

It is nice to see RTS genre making a comeback. Tiberian Sun was my favourite C&C game too it's probably not best in the series but who cares.

Glad this finally got a QL!

Really enjoyed my time with the skirmish in this game.

Once you figure out some basics, AI is really no big deal. Some quick tips for Dan:

• you don't need a full compliment of workers (choppers/trucks) per refinery, they are expensive especially at the start, and depending on distance from drop off point you may only need 2 or 3, this can really drain your resources and slow you down at the start if you go overboard
• refineries always have an optimal set square grid of field to mine from that they will cover, you should not need to overlap them ever

PS: once you get to defcon1 as the US the Patriot missile system is just so kick ass, and I really really like the anti material snipers for the Chimera (European task force) faction, while the Cartel have a cool mix of infantry mercs from different countries

Dan immediately thinking of the US Army as "the good guys" is kind of funny.

Also people should play Act of War. That was a real good C&C-like game.

C&C without the personality has been done to death since the 90s. I wanted a little more flair from a game like this in 2015.

CRAIG CHRIST!

This looks unbelievable bland to me, but I still might try it, after all it's really been a while since a game like this came out.

Also that ending is great. You really did let Craig down, Dan.

Seeing as Drew missed Red Alert, wouldn't SCANLON & CONQUER be a great follow-up of Metal Gear Scanlon? :D

Indeed Craig seemed nice, too bad he had a loser canon for a partner!

LOL at the "What happened?" in the chat box at the very end. Poor Craig.

Hooo boy, that voice acting definitely sounds like non-English speakers trying (and failing) to emulate American-English inflection. (Which makes sense, since the developers are primarily French and German). During the Single-Player campaign I kept thinking of The Hat Man: Shadow Ward 's "Holy...! Suddenly die Fun Haus doesn't look so fun!"

I also think it's a bit odd that when people criticize this game for having a "lack of personality", when what they mean is "This Game isn't so Silly and Hilariously Dumb as the C&C series". The units are all real-world ultra-modern units, such as Cartel's Helicopter being South Africa's ATE Superhind and Chimera's IFV being the Russian BMPT "Terminator".

Granted, Eugen has to shoulder some of the blame for incessantly comparing the "Act of Aggression" to Command and Conquer, without trying to define their game's own strengths. I think one of the most unique features (and included in all "Act of...xx" games) is the ability to capture POWS and hold them to generate money (which...doesn't really make sense unless your guards are constantly rifling through the prisoner's wallets) or ransoming them off for a large influx of Aluminium, Oil, Rare Earths, or intel on a portion of the map. (Which is a super cool feature!)

Also, to clarify, the Chimera faction is a United-Nations based Special Operations Force (more or less), while the Cartel is the "villainous" PMC. The USArmy is...the US Army. (Interestingly, playing the Chimera Single-Player campaign will sometimes allow the player to take command of a US Army group -- which I suppose would make sense if the United States and United Nations continue to work closely together in the fictional near-future.

@ripelivejam: It's fucking Craig!

"LET'S RUSH THESE FUCKERS" is never not the correct tactic.

Yes Dan, Yvonne Strasnososofvsky.

It really doesn't look much like her anyway.

I love RTS games and I really just want a Dawn of War 3. For all that is unholy/holy give me Dawn of war 3.

Well if SEGA can get their thumbs out of their asses and make a license deal with Games Workshop, maybe Relic can get back on that horse at some point.

It's funny how after THQ went tits up, we have had the floodgates open on Warhammer 40k games and there has once again been a deluge of shit to mediocre titles, just like before the era of the Dawn of War games.

Looks way more like Robin Wright

What the heck 20 min no rush bro GOD.

Yeah Dawn of War 3 really needs to happen. I'm hopeful that Battlefleet Gothic: Armada will be good and give me my Warhammer 40k fix for a while.

I enjoyed C&C Generals but I remember liking C&C 3: Tiberium Wars and Kane's Wrath more. This video has mainly reminded me that Grey Goo needs a good steam sale so I can pick it up.

A modern take on Company of Heroes needs to happen.

@mr_elysia: It's good to see we've got at least two Stephen Lynch fans :)

(Three)

Dan Rarariryckert?

Geez

Listen to how good the music is, wow. It's about time we get a good RTS. I hope that someday all shooters die and RTS rises from the ashes as the true king of kings.

I wish this quick look was longer and showed the tech trees for the different factions.

this aggression will not stand, man

Can you hear me groaning at Dan's pronunciation of Chimera?

"Cum era."

I was looking forward to this game so much, and then when it came out... the sound is completely underwhelming - which to me, is the make or break factor in an RTS. The music is forgettable, the units lack any personality, and the combat doesn't pop.

And an RTS doesn't need to be goofy to have good sound design. CoH2 has absolutely stellar sound design and it's pretty self serious. As someone who still plays Generals ZH to this day, and always starved for more RTS, I got super excited with a new, Generals inspired RTS. But this.... I think I'll pass.

@605scorpion: I totally disagree on the music, this is the by far the best RTS music I've seen since the RA2/Generals days, it's nice and aggressive and gets me pumped, something that has been missing in rts games for what seems like forever now. It's no RA2 score, but then nothing is.

The units definitely don't have much personality, but they are just modern military assets essentially.

The combat starts popping once you have a serious battle going, the audio in this vid seems really low/muted too, it might be their limiters.

The fact that he can't pronounce her name is hilarious to me.

A 3 resources RTS that's quite different from CnC

They need Brad here for some Starcraft knowledge

Erm, Company of Heroes is pretty modern still.

Yeah, a bunch of bad mobile ports and rush jobs. There are a few that are taking a while to come out and might actually be good. Here's to hoping at least.

Relic hasn't announced anything major in a while. Last thing they released was an addon for CoH2, they have to be working on something more.

I love the way Dan chats with people i like to think that he always talk like that, but i also i hope during real multiplayer games he stays for the whole thing and tries to win.

Loved C&C, but everything past Red Alert just got too complicated and fiddly for me. Garrisoning neutral buildings, unit ranks and abilities, managing a 'cash flow', it all just got in the way of a good basic base builder.

Goobers.

Dan & Drew - you guys really should make time to watch Narcos. I watched it all over three nights last week instead of playing MGSV. That's how good it is.

I remember loving the World in Conflict games to.

Garrisoning guys in neutral buildings is right out of Blitzkrieg -- although that type of micromanaging was a lot easier in a real-time tactical game like that where you didn't have to worry about managing a base and training new units.

THE WAR OF NORTHERN AGGRESSION

As a Craig, this sums up my life.

The RTS is dead, long live the RTS.

I too bought the C & C collection on the Origin, but it seems that none of the older games (RA2, Generals for ex) work on Windows 8/10.

Looks nothing like Jehovah Svenstronoscopy.

Totally worth it for the last 15 seconds.

Agreed, and it seems to me like these are really common problems with most old RTS series that have tried to modernize using 3d models, for some reason. Your post almost perfectly describes the same reasons I found Age of Empires 3 to be such an absolute un-engaging load of nothing, despite being the successor to probably the most well-made RTS out there.

It's the same way with Stronghold 3 (even though it's not a traditional RTS), C&C4... hell, even Starcraft 2 and Red Alert 3 gave me that same vibe to a certain degree despite both being good games. I hesitate to say that using 3d models is detracting from all the other design elements in this genre, since surely those would be different enough aspects of development with different teams working on them, but it at least seems like using 3d models tends to detract from all the other design elements that used to be extremely strong in RTS games.

I thought Dan wasn't much of a PC gamer growing up.

Edit: lol, I posted this while watching it and he explained himself immediately after I hit post comment.