eTeknix Christmas Game Buying Guide 2011

Here we will be looking at the Real Time Strategy games ideal for Christmas presents.

2011 hasn’t really been a big year for RTS Games. There have been some releases such as Age of Empires Online and ANNO 2070, but nothing as major as in other genres such as The Old Republic and Modern Warfare 3. Real Time Strategy games are not for the pick up and play types, you need to set aside an hour at least to play these games, sometimes more.

The selected games for this years Christmas Game Buying Guide are:

Stronghold 3

Stronghold 3 was released in late 2011, on the 25th of October. It, like many other RTS games focuses around building a city or base, building an army, and then attacking and overtaking the other bases or cities in the map. Stronghold 3 comes from a series of highly acclaimed Stronghold games, however this installment wasn’t as well reviewed as previous ones.

It was released with a lot of bugs and issues, however many of them have been resolved now, resulting in a solid RTS title. Ideal for anyone who would have played any of the previous Stronghold titles. Stronghold 3 can be picked up for £20-30 depending on the retailer.

ANNO 2070

ANNO 2070 is a RTS/Citybuilding game released on the 17th of November. The scenario is set in the year 2070. Global warming has melted the Arctic ice cap, which has raised the global sea level so high that what used to be mountains are all that remains of land.

You control a civilization tasked with building up the world again. The twist is that there are 3 paths you can go down, the industrial path, the green path or the one in the middle. Each represents a different game play style. This game is one that takes hours and hours to play and build up. You’ll end up playing this for weeks. You can pick ANNO 2070 up for around £20 online.