  Hotspot of the Day : http://www.eff.org/ Fight the power! Quote of the Day : “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.” – Winston Churchill Rambles : Here I am on a Friday afternoon, doing fuck all.
Friends are off watching Troy , which I’ve heard doesn’t stay true to the story but is full of action and pretty boys ( LOTR: ROTK anybody?). God, I’m sick of this lack of backbone, even in action movies. Problem is, whenever I openly criticise these movies, people flag me from all around telling me I have no taste.
Bastard arse cunts. Van Helsing was a crap movie, I cannot say this enough. The women were alright, now, if they had cut out the bits where they turned ugly along with the rest of the movie, it would be an 8 out of 10. Idea : This next bit will hold no interest for non-gamers so don’t bother reading. You see, I was thinking, why don’t they invent a proper real time strategy game? I’ve followed the genre since Age of Empires (I think Civilisations is more of a strategy game so it doesn’t fall under RTS).
Anyways, Empire Earth, Rise of Nations, and Empires: Dawn of the Modern World were all fantastic games in the right direction, but I think that each is good in only a certain area while it lacks where the other are good. Follow me? Now, before I continue, it is worth mentioning that Rome: Total War (http://www.actiontrip.com/previews/rometotalwar_p.phtml) looks fucking sweet, and may have just what I will soon talk of wanting (it sure looks like it), but I’m not sure yet so I’ll just state everything I’d like to see in RTS games of the future.
Bullet point form for your viewing pleasure. - Real sieges on walls. I hate how in all these games you simply attack the wall until it is destroyed. Do you think that’s how people did it back then? Not very practical is it? In Empire Earth , you could use a siege tower to climb over the walls, and that was a cool idea, but it is inaccurate.
People used siege towers and ladders to climb onto the wall, not directly over it. Which brings me to my next bullet point. - Walls should feature troops on them. Walls weren’t just massive amounts of stone that awaited assault; they were often manned by archers and swordsmen, if the enemy got to close. I would really like to bring my longbow men up onto the walls and have them rain down arrows on my enemies. - Realistic injuries. Ok, it may seem like I’m nitpicking here, but for God’s sakes, not all cavalry units die just because their horses die, and vice-versa.
I’d like to see horses dying while their master’s live on as a weakened foot soldier. Likewise, I’d like to see people with arrows sticking out of their bodies. Of course, if somebody gets shot in the head, I expect them to die. Is it asking too much? Yes, I guess it is. - People remaining dead on the battlefield. I hate how they suddenly evaporate or turn into skeletons AND THEN evaporate.
It would be cool to utilise these corpses by making them into catapult ammo or even sticking some of their bodies to the castle walls and gates to bring fear into the hearts of the men who dare assault your walls next time. Or you could toss them into a bonfire and send the smoke (and along with it, disease) to your enemy, provided the wind is right. - Realistic wind would be funny and cool, I mean imagine having your enemy come at you with a tempest against them and when they try to shoot off their arrows, they come right back at them.
Ok, so that’s kind of stupid and pointless but I amuse myself. - Torture chambers. If anybody has played Dungeon Keeper , you know what I’m thinking of. Instead of killing all your enemies, it would be realistic for some to give up if their hero or leader has died. Then, instead of questing around the map for your enemy’s stronghold, you’d just send those surrendered units to the torture chambers where a torturer unit would ‘persuade’ the information out of them.
Of course, you’d have to hear their screams to enjoy it, why not? But, to be realistic, they’d sometimes die and you would learn zilch. - One of the things I liked about Empires: DotMW is that you could actually set fire to your enemy’s buildings and raze them. This should honestly be implemented into more RTS games because I’m sick of slashing buildings into destruction.
- Real diplomacy. How the fuck do you communicate with people without people? Get what I mean? We should have democrats and such to converse with other players, who would have immunities and such which, when violated, would bring about war and other such things. In Rise of Nations , trading is done by caravans, which I think is good. It makes sense. - Also in RoN , roads become established around the city, and to trade neighbours. Its realistic. More games should have this. Ah, I’m out of ideas. Another look at Rome: Total War shows me that it looks like the idea of walls I presented is a reality, joy is me. Maybe, one of these days, I’ll review a game rather than ramble on about a fantasy game. Probably not. 
