The games of my Life (aka "My Foundation") Part 1

STRATEGY

- Dune II (1992) – I remember I played little this game in a friend’s house (got a PC just few years later), but it looked magic to me. The different (and expressive) factions, the unit’s management… it was the first real-time strategy I played, and it marked my imagination.

- Lords of the Realms (1994) – With a hotseat game mode (multiplayer in the same PC), this was a favored to play along my sister and friends.

- Warcraft II (1995) – I played little the first Warcraft, so this one is stronger in my memory. The art, the story, the gameplay: everything was amazing.

- Civilization II (1996) – After (near) mastering this game I wasn’t the same anymore. It was like opening my eyes.

- Age of Empires (1997) – A very beautiful and well planed game. The best real-time strategy of his time.

- Starcraft (1999) – Not the storyline, not the graphics, the most amazing feature of this game was the completely different factions. Even today people are trying to do this, unfortunately without that much success.

- Age of Empires II (1999) – Age of Empires upgraded in all senses. I played this for years. The multiplayer was tasty.

- Heroes of Might and Magic III (1999) – I remember the long matches in hotseat mode with my friends… I could drag my girlfriend to play it, so it is remarkable.

- Red Alert 2 (2000) – A great game that guaranteed fans for the C&C series for long time. By the way, the nuclear explosion was orgasmic.

- Warcraft 3 (2002) – A whole new level of quality in real-time strategy games. It planted the seeds for the WoW blockbuster.

- Command & Conquer Generals (2003) – With its expansion, it was perfect. The RTS I would bring to a desert island.

- The Battle for Middle Earth (2004) – The best adaptation of a Tolkien’s work to the games. Great singleplayer campaign, wonderful “meta-map” gameplay.

- Rome Total War (2004) – The singleplayer is complete, but it would be the ultimate strategy game if there was a meta-map for the multiplayer.

- Dawn of War (2004) – The title was much improved by the later expansion Dark Crusade (because of the new races with distinguish strategies and especially the meta-map), but the impact of this 2004 release was impressive. As a fan of Warhammer 40k universe, I was completely marveled. And what an intro movie!

- Hearts of Iron II (2005) – Besides the crude art (if you can call that art), it’s an amazing work of research and game design. The game is very hard core though, scarring most starting (and experienced) players.

- The Battle for Middle Earth II (2006) – Basically, an upgraded version of the first game, but the addition of the new races is very attractive. Also, the meta-map gameplay in the Rise of the Witch King is the best of its gender.

- Company of Heroes (2006) – Next generation RTS. What can I say… 2 years old and no RTS matched it yet.

- Making History – The Calm & the Storm (2007) – Very simple presentation and graphics but… one of the most addicted games ever. A (welcomed) simplified version of the Hearts of Iron. BTW, I still use to make scenarios for this game.

- Sins of a Solar Empire (2008) – It really lacks a story line, single player campaign and a more attractive fictional universe, but there are great lessons that made the game through this list: 1) you can really simplify things for the player, avoiding repetitive tasks and too much micromanagement. 2) it's possible to unite a meta-map campaign with real-time strategy combat (I wished the Star Wars: Empire at War was as much successful on that). I guess this is the future of the RTS.