Brian starts a new House and takes Tim with!

[Kinjiru]

http://pc.ign.com/news/15802.html

Basically, Brian Reynolds and 3 other Firaxians are starting a new development house. Going with him are Tim Train and the lead programmer guy from SMAC.

What does this portend for Firaxis? Read the article to hear their own spin. Ya gotta think they are hurtin' though.

What does this mean for gamers? Well, Brian and crew have something like four designs in mind. Now they just need to find a publisher that won't jerk them around...

[RedFred]

Wow! dig those cool new smilies!

Much has already been made about the Brian Reynolds departure. Gaming software is such a wide open field that it is easy for someone with an established reputation to go off and do their own thing.

Not sure how either the new company or Firaxis will do. I guess the proof is in the pudding. We will just have to wait and see what games they come up with.

[Misotu]

Yes ... but non-turn-based games ???



Not sure ...

- Mis

[Helium Pond]

I have to imagine this was some sort of issue in the conflict, because otherwise there's no real reason to specify that they'll be making real-time games. Other than the fact that that's where all the money is, I guess.

I'm also saddened by the defection of Reynolds to the RTS bandwagon. The frenzied clicking and the pressure-based gameplay that RTSes generate have nothing to do with the elegance, the leisure of the turn-based experience. Also, I have some carpal tunnel issues, and RTSes are hell on my wrists.

Sad sad sad.

[Adam_Smith]

RTS in out for me. Age of Empires is the last one I bought. I played it a few times, that's it. I will never buy another one.

[EternalSpark]

I don't think Brian "defected" to anything - he's doing what he wants to do.

I personally like RTS over TurnBased, because of its realisticness. In SMAC, if I take a LONG time to do a turn, the other guys can't do anything... it just doesn't seem right to me. SMAC was the only Turn based game I like.

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Eternal Spark
As you command, Megatron...

[Alinestra Covelia]

I prefer TBS for single player, without a doubt. Command and Conquer was generally too hectic (although this could have been due to its rather suspect combat system - sending a grunt rush into a base could usually destroy everything in it, etc) and more a matter of finger-clicking than anything else.

Star Wars: Supremacy (known as Rebellion to non-EU) was basically a TBS even though it pretended to be a RTS. And it was crap.

Starcraft succeeds in RTS...but then again it's a completely different game to Civ2 and SMAC. You have to react to battlefield developments, instead of global implications, etc, and so the time-system is more suited to RTS. Supremacy was an attempt to make a governing/strategy game RTS, and it failed.

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"In all creation, there can be no task more onerous or tedious than that of playing God." - Stephen Fry, 'The Liar'.

[The Mad Monk]

Don't mind me--I'm just BUMPing everything into veiw...