Planetary Annihilation: Total Annihilation With Planets
That headline may seem obvious, but wow. So Total Annihilation (and, more recently, Supreme Commander) were big, but Planetary Annihilation is shooting for the stars. And potentially shooting at them, as well. It's all the absurdly large-scale mechanized warfare you've (probably) known and loved since the late '90s, but now you can zoom out into space, build a fort on an asteroid, and then crash it into an enemy planet. So basically, total insanity. After the break, you'll find a video from Super Monday Night Combat maestros Uber Entertainment explaining their ambitious RTS (ambitiouRTS, for short) and - yes - asking for money.
As explained by Planetary Annihilation's Kickstarter, the project's being headed up by former Total Annihilation devs, and the aim is to raise a whopping $900,000 to realize their grand vision in full. It certainly looks and sounds promising, though - especially when backed up by words like this:
"Play a quick skirmish with a friend on a single planet map with a low unit cap or a 12+ hour game with 40 of your closest frenemies and thousands of units. You can also hone your skills against Planetary Annihilation’s AI or team up with a friend against multiple AI’s."
"Create custom or randomized maps with our procedural planet creator. Like what you see? Save them and share them with the Planetary Annihilation community... Our engine will allow you to explore vast, new procedural worlds with diverse terrain and build on everything from small, airless rocks to huge earth-type planets. No two maps are exactly alike."
Uber's also touting "advanced modding features" and a return to the RTS glory days of yore. So basically, it's the now all-too-familiar nostalgia-rooted Kickstarter song and dance, but linked to a serious attempt at doing something new. Or - at the very least - making the old stuff so big that it can no longer fit on a single planet.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't rooting for it, but support it or don't - it's your call. As for me, I'm pretty hungry right now, so I'm gonna go bake some meatballs and have horrific trouble restraining myself from pretending they're tiny asteroid starbases.