Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
I don’t do strategy games. And yet, I love Ground Control! That’s likely because it gets rid of absolutely everything that makes strategy so unbearably tedious – resource gathering, resource management, graphs, paperwork, tax returns – and just focuses on controlling your limited gathering of bang-machines to fight for territory on the planet Krig 7-B.
RPS Feature Hit Parade
An entirely objective ranking of the 50 best PC strategy games ever made. From intricate wargames to soothing peacegames, the broad expanse of the genre contains something for everyone, and we’ve gathered the best of the best. The vast majority are available to buy digitally, a few are free to download and play forever. They’re all brilliant.
Yup, that Massive: the Ground Control and World in Conflict devs have been disarmingly silent of late. But according to reports from the Ubisoft GDC event, they’re helping to create the Far Cry 3 multiplayer. “Huh?”, you might think, but hold that back for a moment – I have more. According to Vox Game’s Brian Crecente
In working on Far Cry 3’s “online universe” Ubisoft Massive is adding elements from the indie scene and social games, they say
Go on let it out now. I’ll join you.
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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.
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.
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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