What to do, what to do? I need to delve into the Warhammer demo more, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen from my brief play of it. I’ll likely only get one of these at launch, and most likely that will be Kohan II as I loved the first one.
Suppose the plus side is that by the time I look at the others they’ll be cheaper.
Boy, that’s stupid. They’re gonna really cannibalize each other’s sales.
I feel sorry for Warhammer and especially Kohan.
Warhammer’s good and will gather hype eventually but Kohan doesn’t have the cachet to stand toe-to-toe with Rome.
Brutal.
Hopefully there will be some good sales.
Kohan II gets my dough. Kohan is the only RTS that kept me interested for more than a couple of hours.
I played in the Kohan II beta so I can’t comment on it.
I will be buying Dawn of War, of the three of those.
That being said, there are about a bajillion games coming out this month and I just don’t have a bajillion dollars on me… I hope they really do fix this next year.
Forge & Jason, thanks for the votes of confidence! It wasn’t really planned this way, but heck, look at it this way, gamers get three great RTSs in ONE WEEK. How could any RTS fan be disappointed by that? (Well, their wallet/pocketbook may be disappointed…)
Seriously, it like when summer movies collide, it drives up the box office for the entire weekend, while one will come out on top, its generally good for the movie business as a whole.
Its great that we have 4-5 major RTSs that (at this point) appear to be well-crafted, innovative, fun games. The genre is not dead and it full of or dominated by clones.
We’ll be releasing a demo for Kohan 2 shortly. So if the budget is tight, try the demos and read the reviews first. :)
Design Director / Producer
TimeGate Studios, Inc.
I’m in agreement with this one. Kohan II gets my buck.
Aephir, don’t get me wrong, I think Kohan II is a good game (judging by the demo) but unfortunately it doesn’t have the marketing to help spread the word. I should really watch how I say things more carefully. =/
Jakub,
No offense taken (or, I didn’t get the wrong idea). :-) There are numerous takes on how marketing is done (long road of hype leading to game, a fast and furious amount of hype surrounding the game) etc. Each publisher’s marketing department decides what they feel is appropriate for the game and for the potential market for the game.
Kohan has a history of sneaking up on people and having great word of mouth. We really think that Kohan could be this year’s “Battlefield 1942” where it kind of exploded after release.
We think anyone who invests time in the game will agree. We also think that the demo will help convince players to do this.
<g>
Design Director / Producer
TimeGate Studios, Inc.
It’s a pretty big deal for games to get out by the end of Q3 and get solid orders for the holiday season from all the major chains. I’m sure publishers would prefer there wasn’t so much competition in the same week, but they probably think that the overall amount of sales they’ll lose this way is less than if they pushed back a week or two to get away from the others.
Just think of the RTS games coming out this year. It is a big year for the RTS genre. :) Would be tough for us all to come out this year without bumping into each other.
Design Director / Producer
TimeGate Studios, Inc.
I’m convinced… and I don’t even need a demo. I am definately going with Kohan 2 as my first RTS purchase this month. Warhammer is next and then probably Total War. I have a difficult time getting into the purely historical strategy game thing. Which is strange since I love history and minored in it in College. I guess I just want at least a little bit of the fantastic in my games.
I’m in agreement with this one. Kohan II gets my buck.[/quote]
Oh yeah, same here. Kohan is still my all-time favorite RTS, and my vote for best multiplayer RTS EVAR.
Kohan 2 will start out strong, especially with the Ceyah fielding 8-unit squads right away. They’ll need to try and overrun Dawn of War early before vehicles come into play, especially since they don’t have a lot of anti-armor capability. Rome:TW is of course the big juggernaut to look out for, since those veteran units are tough and will cause opponents (even vehicles) to rout before they can do serious damage.
In other words, newcomer WH40k will be struggling to overcome Kohan’s early advantage, with both hoping to gain a solid foothold before Rome sweeps in and gobbles up the rest of the field.
For me, the real loser here is my wallet.
The Dawn of War demo just didn’t work for me. Too RTS-ish, if you know what I mean. So Rome: TW, along with my wife, gets access to the ole’ wallet.
As a mainly historical, turn based guy, obviously Rome is the must have on that list. Kohan and Warhammer are both “play the demo and see” games.
The first two Kohans are almost the only RTS’s I own, though, and I imagine I’ll wind up with K2 eventually.
Kohan II all the way. Kohan and Total Annihilation are the only two RTS games I’ve ever heard of that sound like they would get around my dislike for RTS games and give me something I can stand to play.