Windows Good strategy game

Im going to be spending 3 days a week at my college in a few weeks and a need something to waste some time away. Basically what is a good strategy that is out now days. Ive been stuck in my fps loop lately playing Source Dod and BF2 but that is getting old and my mouse is on the fritz. Ive been looking at Empire earth 2 (loved the first one), the new stronghold (whatever the name is), Civ 4, and finally AOE 3(played demo thought was fairly good).

I use to just look at reviews of games and then buy one on that but well some ppl are 2 years olds when reviewing games and nitpick little stuff. So im looking for you good people in the forums to give me your opinion on which one i should get.

 

The new C&C's are good, and the Dawn Of War series are excellent from my experience.

From ones I haven't played, the new Civ's are supposed to be good, and Rome: Total War is held in very high regard.

If you like a bit of old-school action, the C&C decade pack is out, and that's awesome.

 

For a good overall strategy game I recommend Rome: Total War or any of the Total War series. They blend real time and turn based strategy games together very well and are highly immersive and addicting.

 

Very true, Rome is probably the best strategy game on the market but it's quite a demanding game, not something you can pick up and play for an hour at a time thing.

I suggest what Krikkit said, the CnC First Decade is a good deal, it'll take a while before you finish all the games inside there - plus the latest CnC Zero Hour still has great online play.

Though if I had to pick from you're list, I would go for Civ 4 for TBS and AOE3 for RTS. Hope that helps.

 

What about Medieval: Total War. I mean for 20$ it doesnt look that bad. Rome looks great but its 40$ for the Gold edition with the the expansion. Im willing to pay the extra money if its worth it Also what about the new rise of nations game i havent really heard anything about it.

 

Is Gold Edition the one which includes all Total War series starting from Shogun? Or am I confusing it with other, like a Platinum Pack or something?

For me personally Cossacks were always a good game. I loved large scales battles. The gameplay itself is definitely more slowpaced than in other RTS of this time (too long to develop, get started), but its worth it until the actual combat starts.

Rise of Nations is also worth checking out.

 

'Gold' editions usually just include the original game, plus a single expansion pack (usually the first)... and maybe a few mods (MP maps etc)

 

The original version of RTW just kicks ass. There's enough game to keep you busy for weeks, probably months, if you do enjoy it. Not really sure what else to reccomend, many of the more recent strategy games have been pretty CnCish in style. They're ok yes, but they're not proper strategy games.

If you're willing to go back a number of years, Homeworld has to be the most tactical game I ever played. It looks pretty good considering how old it is, but if you can manage to not let the graphics put you off, you've got a fully 3D game space with a large number of ships, formations and tactics to explore. The single player is a great game on its own(although rock hard towards the end) but the Skirmishes can be a lot easier, and are enough on their own to keep me playing for a few weeks at a time.

 

Homeworld rocked so hard!

 

It appears to be available stateside for between $5 and $10, so even if you get another game, it's worth buying sometime infered101. It does have to be one the greatest RTS's of all time, if you enjoy tactical variety.

 

Another vote for the Total War series. All of them are amazing!!

 

I really got my money's worth out of that game (not so much with the expansion); I still play it occasionally now and still enjoy it. It has a good SP story & it's great fun online with/against a couple of buddies (if you can get around the NAT issues).

 

warcraft 3 + the frozen throne expansion pack

The best strategy game iv ever played. Amazing gameplay.

 

FIrst and foremost thank you for all the replies.

I own alot of the games mentioned (cnc war3) and ive jsut grown board of them ive done what i can with them so to speak(they have been out for awhile).

This homeworld game looks very promising if it is trully as good as you say. THe best part is i cuold use it on my laptop for awhile so i dont have to lug my desktop to school and back. My laptop is a celeron 1.8 with 256mb (512 soon) of ram and only 16mb of video ram. Its not a monster killer but from looking at the system reguirments of HOmeworld it looks like it should play ok with my laptop.

Im still looking into total war but like i said would rather not have to transport main back and forth(right now atleast i have a a mod planned to build myslef a mobile gamer from an amd XP rig).

Thank you all for your help it was much appreciated. Im going to try to find a place to get HOmeworld.

 

Homeworld is a 1999 game, so it should run easily enough on that system. The first system I played it on was a PII 300 with 64MB of system ram and a 2MB ATI video card. The game actually looked better when I told it not to use the video card

But as you can probably see from comparing the above specs and your own, it'll run fine at some resolution or other

If you're into proper strategy, then Homeworld is king as far as I'm concerned, and I've played a lot of strategy games. RTW does almost equal it though.

 

Dawn of War, Homeworld 1&2

 

Homeworld rocks!
Lan games of it rock even more!

Nothing more satisfying than stealing your mate's heavy cruisers and using them agains him!

 

While its getting a bit old now, warcraft 3 reign of chaos and the expansion (frozen throne) are still amazing single player strategy games. And unlike many strategy games out there can actually be very hard.

Ive played alot of strategy in my time, but wc3 is by far the most immersive and fun.

 

I also agree, Homeworld rocks, got the expansionish thing too, Cataclysm. Took me over a year to get that one, just couldn't find anyone who sold it. And don't forget Starcraft if you dont have it already

 

Railroad Tycoon II

Been playing it recently, brings back memories.