Slashdot Mirror
New Details On Halo Wars
As Halo Wars gets closer to its February release, details are gradually emerging about the game. In an interview with CVG, lead designer Graeme Devine claimed that the controls are actually better than those of a PC RTS, and said the downloadable content for the game is mostly done already, but will be held back until well after the release. Giant Bomb got some hands-on time with the game, and said the controls the controls "do work well enough, even if they're geared more toward broad tactical strokes than intensive small-group micromanagement." Kotaku has further details about the game as well. A video showing some of the gameplay is also available. Ensemble Studios has explicitly denied the possibility of a PC port.
I'll believe it when i see it. Its not often 70keys and a mouse can be replaces by a few buttons and knobs
> the downloadable content for the game is mostly done already
Then include it in the retail release.
Greedy wankers.
I remember guys ranting about how good C&C 3 for XBox 360 was on the controls. The only way I got halfway through the GDI campaign was by playing it on easy. I emphasize halfway because once I got to a point where I had to defend a base that was being attacked on at least two sides every time that Nod attacked, I couldn't accurately move my troops and assign repair orders to the base defenses.
Seriously, why can't Microsoft just release an update that enables keyboard and mouse support. There is absolutely no good reason why two sets of controls cannot be supported.
Or at least, I hope it will.
I've been playing RTS's off and on since C&C and Warcraft (the original), and I've always had a love/hate relationship with them. I love the strategy and tactics of the genre, but the whole concept of "micro" and continuously abysmal unit AI just infuriates me.
For instance, in the dominant RTS paradigm, if I have a group of units standing in a group in my base, I get two choices: leave them in "free acting" mode, where if they're attacked by some plinker my opponent sends, they'll rush headlong into whatever danger lurks outside the base, outside the range of my fortifications; or they can stand there in "hold" mode, and get picked off impassively by ranged enemy units as their mates stand around watching them bleed.
Why can't I tell them to automatically scatter and get behind fortifications to fight back? Or maybe retreat to draw the enemy into range of my big, immobile guns/cannons/wizards/what have you?
Since micro is so much harder on a console than a PC, my hope is that console RTS developers will address some of these issues, to reduce the frustration of unit management.