Home In Other News – 28 May 2015

In Other News – 28 May 2015

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TA

In last week’s ION, I bitched about the lack of winter. Fast forward one week and lo and behold, COLD! I can feel the flu coming for me, it’s hovering above my head as we speak. I’d get up to go get meds, but my feet are frozen to the floor. Where is summer? I miss it already!

It feels like RTS games are rare these days, at least when compared to all the choice we had all those years ago. There were many titles to choose from; Command & Conquer, Dune, Age of Empires, Starcraft, Warcraft… the list just goes on and on. I played a bunch of them! You know which RTS I remember the most though? Total Annihilation, a futuristic strategy title released in 1997. It was fantastic.

TA 01

What makes this game stick out the most in my memory is its large scale, almost non-stop battles. You see, there were no resource limits. Mineral management wasn’t about maintaining the infinite metal or energy (resources never dried up), but rather about determining how best to set up your army construction line effectively so that resources didn’t get spent faster than they could be brought in.

These resources went into building light robots, giant tanks, stealth airplanes, large warships, and a whole lot more. There were two factions to choose from, each of which had their own unique units.The most important unit of all though was the commander. This metal hunk is all you needed to get an entire base running, and all you needed to keep everything maintained.

The game almost always boiled down to killing the enemy commander. Doing so didn’t guarantee victory, but it was a pretty devastating loss to the enemy, especially because the commander could build and repair everything the fastest.

TA 2

A spiritual successor to Total Annihilation came out many years later, in 2007. You may have played it… it was called Supreme Commander. It had the same premise as Total Annihilation – resource deposits that never dried up, large scale battles, and of course, the almighty commander. I would tell you all about it, except I never got to play it. My PC couldn’t handle all those units duking it out on that (back then) gorgeous battlefield. I should actually see if I can pick it up sometime now that I have hardware that can run it.

Supreme Commander

Did you play Total Annihilation? Do you yearn for another RTS of that calibre?

In Other News: Killer instinct gets a new combatant, an open beta starts next week, Pokemon trainers get followed, and Vin Diesel is a dungeon master.

Here’s all the news we didn’t post today because we were too busy being distracted by awesome T-shirts on sale.

News

Aria is Killer Instinct’s newest fighter
Vulcun launches Hearthstone league with $100K prize pool
Dirty Bomb open beta starts next week
Binding Of Isaac: Rebirth Expansion Adding Daily Runs

Stuff

‘To Be the Very Best’ follows real Pokemon trainers
Let Vin Diesel be your Dungeon Master in this relaxing, comforting game
Former female competitive Smash player talks sexism in esports
Dote Night: Squirrel Design And Ratatoskr Art

Videos

Skywind trailer shows its updated version of Morrowind’s starting town

Dota 2 Fails of the Week – Ep. 128

DeadLock: Does Dark Souls ACTUALLY SUCK?!?

FIFA 16 – Women’s national teams are IN THE GAME

The Movies

Robert Rodriguez to direct/co-write live-action JONNY QUEST movie!
Hulk Hogan may be the bad guy in EXPENDABLES 4!
This trailer for PAWN SACRIFICE is about to explode
This trailer for A WALK IN THE WOODS will give you cramps
This trailer is a reminder to never steal Kevin Bacon’s COP CAR

Model: Total Annihilation

Last Updated: May 28, 2015

42 Comments

  1. Matthew you have just made my day. This is my favourite game of all time.
    *hats off.
    *bows
    *presents gifts

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief's Adventure

      May 28, 2015 at 16:07

      Ugh, get a room. Have you SEEN his knees?

      Reply

      • Captain JJ Hack&Slash&Dodge

        May 28, 2015 at 16:11

        Like the Bees Knees?

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          May 28, 2015 at 16:16

          More like your eyebrows 😛

          Reply

        • ReaperOfSquirrels

          May 28, 2015 at 16:16

          Hairy Bees Knees.

          Reply

      • hairyknees

        May 28, 2015 at 16:28

        They are glorious!

        Reply

    • hairyknees

      May 28, 2015 at 16:23

      :D/

      Reply

  2. Admiral Chief's Adventure

    May 28, 2015 at 16:07

    I was more of a C&C fan back then

    Reply

    • Captain JJ Hack&Slash&Dodge

      May 28, 2015 at 16:09

      The old C&C games from that time didn’t look very good compared to TA. I played them, but it always felt like they were a few years older than TA.

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief's Adventure

        May 28, 2015 at 16:12

        I played Red Alert until the cows came home, then I played some more.

        I wish I could send some of my backlog games to my younger self, to play, and enjoy!

        Reply

        • Captain JJ Hack&Slash&Dodge

          May 28, 2015 at 16:13

          Oh man. I wish I could do that too.

          Reply

    • Brady miaau

      May 28, 2015 at 16:12

      Starcraft: Broodwars all the way. Played most of the others, always came back to that.

      1 vs 7 Insane AI on Broodwars? Man that was a challenge. Also, not just 1 vs 7, had to be all insane level, not random. Special maps. And playing against friends, wow that great. Nothing like hearing friends yell from the other side of the room, “shit,, he has a fleet of battle-cruisers”, as I Shift attack them across the screen and micro-mange my tanks and marines. Ah, that was fun. And yes, I normally had a second base up before my first defence unit was built. Big chance, but if it works…..

      Reply

      • Captain JJ Hack&Slash&Dodge

        May 28, 2015 at 16:15

        Starcraft was 1998 if I recall. The year after TA came out. Man that game was brilliant through and through. I have so many great memories of playing it.
        Even though it is but a ripoff of Warhammer 40k ;P
        *waits for SC fans to go aapkak

        Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      May 28, 2015 at 16:15

      Same

      Reply

    • ReaperOfSquirrels

      May 28, 2015 at 16:17

      C&C, Age of Empires, and Starcraft are the games that put me off strategy games because I played them too much.

      #2centspitchedin
      #justsaying
      #hashtag

      Reply

      • Captain JJ Hack&Slash&Dodge

        May 28, 2015 at 16:21

        #hashtagforsupport

        Reply

      • Admiral Chief's Adventure

        May 29, 2015 at 08:01

        Same here dude, I’m just not that into Strat games anymore

        Reply

        • Brady miaau

          May 29, 2015 at 09:19

          I blame age, slowing me down, I cannot fly over keyboard and mouse as fast as these games seems to require.

          Reply

  3. Captain JJ Hack&Slash&Dodge

    May 28, 2015 at 16:08

    Supreme Commander 1 was excellent, just had TONS of bad programming. Supreme Commander 2 was absolute rubbish and Planetary Annihilation failed to deliver on most of the promises made on Kickstarter so it’s generally a big disappointment. Total Annihilation still does strategy better than all three of those combined.

    Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      May 28, 2015 at 17:16

      reinstalled total annihilation recently and having played it again, the strategy aspect of the game is severely lacking. trying to control your units is just painfull…

      Reply

      • Captain JJ Hack&Slash&Dodge

        May 29, 2015 at 08:00

        I’ve had some fun with the radar jammers and those mobile bomb that you can time-detonate, but I do agree. It’s not a complex game, and doesn’t require as much strategy as other games out there, but in my opinion I’ve still gotten more fun out it than Planetary Annihilation will ever give me. PA is a bit too much of a Jack-of-all-trade, Mastr-of-none kind of game.
        Things like Company of Heroes though, that’ssome decent strategy.

        Reply

        • Matthew Holliday

          May 29, 2015 at 09:10

          those spyders with the super light lazers and invaders? really didnt have the patience for that.
          total annihalation was just glorious back in the day when i didnt really know anything about gaming and just played.
          i just massed peewees, jeffys and brawlers because explosions.

          going back to it, i couldnt handle how slow the units moved, how they spread themselves when you told them to move, impossible to cluster because of unit collisions, not being able to make control groups, and worst of all, no attack move, only attack units and ground…
          the stuff you take for granted in the RTS games from the early 2000s onwards

          Reply

  4. Captain JJ Hack&Slash&Dodge

    May 28, 2015 at 16:17

    I wasn’t too fond of how Chris Taylor put his name on the front of Supreme Commander’s cover. Seems a bit arrogant to me. It’s not like he was the one and only person who created it.

    Reply

  5. Hammersteyn

    May 28, 2015 at 16:20

    • Brady miaau

      May 28, 2015 at 16:25

      I think that would be correct. But it will not be. Teflon coating, Mr Blatter.

      Reply

    • Splooshypooh

      May 28, 2015 at 16:27

      Tempted to downvote you Hammer. That’s not even close to whats happening in reality. 🙁 Not gonna downvote though…

      Reply

      • Brady miaau

        May 28, 2015 at 16:36

        Ah, but how can the man at the top, for many years, be completely clean when some of his executive have been arrested? At the least he is then, what, guilty of closing his eyes?

        Reply

        • Blood Emperor Trevor

          May 28, 2015 at 17:42

          It’ll be the standard incompetence defense. Because they don’t get paid the big bucks to be responsible for what goes on below them. Oh wait… that’s EXACTLY WHY.

          Reply

        • Splooshypooh

          May 29, 2015 at 12:11

          I suppose… Where there’s smoke there’s fire

          Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        May 28, 2015 at 17:17

        I know, but still funny

        Reply

  6. Kikmi

    May 28, 2015 at 16:22

    LOVED both SupCom and TA. Fantastic games. Such a shame SupCom2 was an utter load of shit

    Reply

    • Captain JJ Hack&Slash&Dodge

      May 28, 2015 at 16:23

      You severely understate how terrible SupCom2 was 😉

      Reply

  7. Pariah

    May 28, 2015 at 16:25

    Wow that Dark Souls thing is such BS. It’s easy. It’s not for me. It sucks – for me. So. *moves on.

    Reply

    • Pariah

      May 28, 2015 at 16:30

      “Give you the feels.”? Really? No. It made me feel nothing but boredom and a desire to play something else. There’s nothing immersive, or emotional about it, besides for the insane desire to brag to your friends. Whoop. Nobody cares.

      Reply

  8. Reidroc

    May 28, 2015 at 16:25

    As much as I enjoyed Total Annihilation there was another RTS that was released around the same time that I enjoyed a lot more
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Reign:_The_Future_of_War

    Reply

  9. Captain JJ Hack&Slash&Dodge

    May 28, 2015 at 16:26

    One can only wonder on what they spent the $2.2mil that was raised for Planetary Annihilation on Kickstarter when it still feels like an unfinished game with nowhere near the content they promised.

    Reply

  10. Splooshypooh

    May 28, 2015 at 16:28

    Dat FIFAHZ! 😀

    Reply

  11. Brady miaau

    May 28, 2015 at 16:34

    As regards the Vin diesl, my wife follows him on facebook. He is the only celeb type person she follows and she says he posts interesting updates and so forth. And that he does indeed (as the link says) come across as a very gentle caring person

    Also, she may secrectly find him very attractive or something. Whatever, good for her!

    Reply

  12. Matthew Holliday

    May 28, 2015 at 17:14

    Total annihalation was also my favorite way back when
    nothing was cooler than an army of peewees or brawlers, or starting a skirmish on an all metal map and just creating the most impreggneble defense tower line. build up an army of nuke launchers and instanaeously emptying the map of all life.

    should probably look into supreme commander aswell.

    Reply

    • hairyknees

      May 28, 2015 at 17:37

      PEEWEES! Those were my favourite 😀

      Reply

  13. Lothy

    May 29, 2015 at 09:42

    Total Annihilation and its expansions were awesome! I wasted many an hour building the perfectly defended base and then took my time nuking the hell out of my opponent. Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance gave me that same feel and to this day I still have installed on my machine! I bought Planetary Annihilation 2 years ago when it was in early access and my gosh it was a shocking game, even when it was finally released I still couldn’t play that game without insane lag. BUT I see that they have been actively working on the game and apparently now its really great, so I still need to play it. I don’t know if LG ever did a review on Planetary annihilation, but might be worth a look at now?

    Reply

  14. Lardus-Resident Perve

    May 29, 2015 at 10:36

    Aaah, Total Annihilation (and Supreme Commander) – Great games! SC could have some slowdown in multiplayer however when the unit count got big.

    Reply

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