I can't argue with any of that. But there are other things that for me were more important. For one, the strategic possibilities of Total Annihilation meant that you could carry out detailed plans of attack with literally hundreds of units, each performing their own unique role.

Starcraft on the other hand just seemed to have three different flavours of tank rush C&C style gameplay. It was a refinement of what went before, whereas Total Annihilation was - at the time - more like the next evolutionary step of RTS. Although that was never to be, as the only games to really follow its lead were its own spiritual successors.

Ultimately it just boils down to being a case of 'to each their own'. I like C&C style games too. But what I want most from a strategy game is, well, strategy.

Telltale Games in General

Their atrocious Jurassic Park game. I am one of those weird people who liked Trespasser , and still dreams of a sequel today (Even if I have to make it). So making an adventure game set in the Jurassic Park universe that has less standards than Jurassic Park the Sega CD game... is just really really bad.

Though I do have the Sam and Max games, and those are fun.

I'm in a love-hate relationship with Neverwinter Nights. I appreciate many of its strong points (multiplayer campaigns, character progression, etc.), but the aspects of the game which are bad (mostly the incredibly boring and repetitive 3D tiles) are so bad that they almost ruin the whole experience for me. Almost.

Maybe a replay is in order for me, as my memories can be quite old. I was earlier missing one expansion pack (The Core Contingency, that's why I later bought the GOG version too).

I don't know if it is related, but for some reason I never really cared that much for C&C games either. Odd, me liking RTS games in general... Maybe it was more related to disliking the B-movie FMV and such, than the gameplay, not sure.

I thought it looks ugly too. From design standpoint, it's fairly pretty, but color palette was chosen so badly. The entire game is grey, there are no bright colors to it - which is quite simply NOT how it works.

I like the use of specific palettes for graphics design in games. Morrowind had a brownish palette, Skyrim has a light greyish-bluish one, and I think both of them work perfectly for setting the mood.

My eyes, incapable of recognising details amongst all that grey, hurt from that mood :-P

Well, I was also a huge fan of Magic Carpet although I understand why Doom has been more successful. But I've gotta say that while there's never been an actual remake with carpets, spells and stuff several games have made use of its best portions. Firstly: For me it was kinda the prototype for online shooters and as weird as it may sound, even games like UT remind me of its gameplay. But there's been three games that I kinda perceive as spiritual successors. On one hand there was Populous: The Beginning - okay, it's an RTS but it's also about a powerful character spreading mayhem via epic spells, some of which are directly taken from Magic Carpet. Then there was Sacrifice which is even closer to Magic Carpet's gameplay as you're directly controlling a wizard on the battlefield with powerful spells and fight for souls (which kinda replace Magic Carpet's fight for mana). And then there was Giants - Citizen Kabuto where the main gamedesign (which you will only find later in the singleplayer campaign) mixes direct shooter gameplay with simple base building. And the way you gather ressources (meat) reminded me a lot of Magic Carpet as you have to abandon your base to go hunting and then servants will pick it up and deliver it to the base. The one of these that felt most like Magic Carpet to me was (quite obviously) Sacrifice. But surprisingly I don't consider a single one of these games as exciting and intense as Magic Carpet was. It's sad that the game never became the big inspiration it should have been.

Yeah, the gamedesign was actually on the same level as the cutscenes - simply crude and trashy. Really, either you like the simplicity and don't care about the massive flaws or you just love the trashiness itself - else it's really impossible to like the series. Surprisingly Dune 2000, which seemed to be a minor Westwood release next to the C&C series, was IMHO their most solid and refined RTS game. Seeing this kind of quality in that game made me wonder if they were actually making the C&C games so dumb on purpose. And even Dune 2000's cutscenes were better (including a nice performance by John Rhys-Davies).

Plants VS Zombies :
I tried, but I just can't get into it. It's boring for me.

Braid :
I played it to the end. It was pretty I guess, but I didn't really enjoy it all that much.

I can't imagine C&C being a very serious game. Einstein traveling back in time, eliminating Hitler and changing history as we know it... and ending with Stalin being assassinated by the leader of NOD who is from 50 years in the future.

It's abit of fun added into what is generally a rather dull genre.

I can't get into Braid either.

We are in luck, actually. There has been someone who went ahead and decided to make their own version of Magic Carpet, called Arcane Worlds. Funny how it is an indie developer that is actually trying, not Electronic Arts who have been sitting on the license for about 17+ years. Considering that EA has the cash and developers to do something like Magic Carpet right, that is pretty pathetic in my opinion.

I am very happy to see someone make a credible attempt at the formula. Judging from the videos, we are getting something pretty close to the original games, but there is one addition - there are portals that allow you to switch worlds mid-game, which brings up the possibility of multiple planets being linked together in a single stage. I like the look of the techno dragons, too. :)


Arcane Worlds
http://ranmantaru.com/games/arcane-worlds

Mana video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTwjF1qQipQ&feature=related

I agree with that pretty much. I recall I really liked Emperor: The Battle for Dune as well. I don't remember right now why exactly, I just did. I really should replay that game sometime.