Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Update: cheaper Ground Control bundle here, but only for Britons.

Quite a few people sent in comments about classic, resource-free, 3D real time strategy Ground Control being on GoG.com. It’s interesting to see the game up there for a number of reasons, not least because the original game was actually freely distributed by Vivendi for quite some time. Of course with Vivendi disappearing into the ActiBlizzard merger there’s all kinds of funny things going on with the ownership of their games, their distribution and so on. Rebellion – the chaps who are making the new AvP game – now own Evil Genius, Ground Control, Empire Earth and Lords Of The Realm, and they’re distributing them via that aforementioned digital download service. I suspect a few of you will have something to say about all those games, but Ground Control was a particular love of mine, and I wanted to say a few things about the GoG bundle, and why it might actually still be worth a few dollars.

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Some are speculating this is related to the recent Actard merger, but it’s possible it’s simply ruthless, Logan’s Runny culling of the elderly. Whichever, the facts are these: come November 1st, the plug will be pulled on the official servers for 21 Sierra PC games (of varying classicdom).

Several RPS faves number amongst them: Jim’s beloved Ground Control, my semi-beloved Aliens vs Predator 2 and the revered likes of No-one Lives Forever 2, Tribes 2 and Homeworld 1. Full list and more wittering from me below the cut.

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A couple of weeks ago I had a chance to talk to Massive Entertainment founder Martin Walfisz. He’s one of the key minds behind Ground Control and World In Conflict, and arguably one of the biggest influences on the modern RTS game. In this interview we discussed how the company was founded, the fate of Ground Control, how his company forged its future direction with the alternate-history World War III of World In Conflict, and how that game was inspired by FPS games such as Call Of Duty. Also present was VP David Polfeldt, who joined Massive in 1995, but in the end he didn’t say anything.

Ground Control, as I’ve discussed elsewhere, was one of the most important games to me as a gamer. The impression I got from this interview was that the minimalist design found in that game was still the most important example of what Walfisz wanted to create, even with the blockbusting World In Conflict under his belt. Would the team return to the series? It’d be a tough call…
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This wonderful 1958 video, in addition making me wish there was a game that used that art style, reminded me of the idea of “futures lost” within gaming. A few years ago I wrote an article for The Escapist that grazed that issue, without ever capturing it. Consequently I was inspired to update and modify the piece for RPS. Read on, and then perhaps share some of your own thoughts on the subjects of both the games that educated you, and the games that gave you hopes for the future.
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With Massive Entertainment’s spectacular World In Conflict causing some big ripples in the slow depths of the real time strategy I found myself once again contemplating its sci-fi ancestor, Ground Control. This exquisitely unassuming game first trundled onto my PC in June 2000 and ever since I’ve been waiting for a worthy successor. Playing it again in 2007 was an interesting experience. I got to see how it has aged well graphically, despite the relative lack of detail and the low-res 3D, while it hasn’t aged well in terms of pacing and production. It still has a sense of style, but it certainly lacks the high-end bombast and gameplay timing of the more recent game. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help thinking, when reviewing the World In Conflict single player campaign, that Massive had missed a trick or two from their original game.
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I’m just glad I can finally talk about this without breaking an NDA or eight.

Massive have launched their open beta of their Cold War RTS, World in Conflict. I was playing in the closed beta, and biting my tongue to avoid just lobbing an enormous essay up on my blog about why I think it’s perhaps potentially the most interesting RTS of the year. I suspect I’ll end up riffing on the game for the rest of the year, assuming it holds together. Which is always a big “assuming” to make, but let’s try being optimistic for once.

With any luck, this will be to Massive’s previous Ground Control games, what Battlefield 1942 was to Codename: Eagle. That is, a game that takes relatively obscure source material and manages to bring it to an enormous audience. I can’t see why not. The WW3 setting is criminally under-used (And, as an aside, when it has been used it’s lead to some fascinating games – cross reference the definitive Soldier Sim, Flashpoint: Cold War Conflict). Massive have always believed in RTS which are inspired as much by team deathmatch games as the traditional lineage – so we have short games, no-real economics and close-teamwork. It’s different enough to be interesting but based on mechanics so simple that I suspect I’ll even be able to get Walker to play a game or two.

Highlight so far: Sweeping my tanks into the irradiated zones immediately after a nuke’s hit, which is about as apocalyptic as gaming has got this year. The little fluffy mushroom cloud slowly fading as my tank treads crush the scorched remains…

End of the world as we know it. Feels fine.