Civilization VII right before Thanksgiving has only around 7.5 thousand players right now playing it on Steam.
I have already talked about how Civilization VII was a failure and the game is basically the dark ages of the Civilization franchise. The dark ages of course had brightness in it, such as in Charlemagne’s court. Civilization VII burned brightly at the beginning as so many games do and it fails to continue capturing people’s attention.
I watched with great interest at how Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and Civilization VII would perform together as they were released close to one another.
They are different genres, but they are both historical games with have audiences that overlap.
It is a tale of two games. Both burn brightly upon release but they are not the same. Kingdom Come 2, in spite of there being a high skill ceiling for this game, managed to tell an interesting story in 15th Century Bohemia and give a narrative from many class perspectives.
Civilization VII simply seems like an entry in a franchise which is exhausted in energy.
The game should have been pc-centric not console centric as it seems that it was. The willingness to put the game in VR makes no sense for a series that has largely been on the PC. Its soul began on the PC, and the console versions were a necessary addition but the main part of the franchise’s energy.
Empire Earth has what a lot of what the gaming industry doesn’t have now. The energy and the soul which makes it special here.
The importance of a holistic integration of many gameplay and design elements into a video game is vital for keeping it going in the memories of gamers.
The Intro Screen of the Russian Campaign in Empire Earth
The Russian Campaign in Empire Earth is one of the reasons why I still love playing this game. I have not actually won the campaign even after so many years. However, its the possibilities that the campaign has which still captivates me. The ability to have a science fiction story set on Earth rather than space in an RTS was a great accomplishment. Regardless of the quality of the voice acting or the plausbility of the story, the campaign is known as the hardest in the game. You really get a sense of a futuristic struggle between Russia and America and other nations which you rarely get to see.
Why is that we cannot see that with modern RTS games. The only RTS game recently to accomplish any dynamicism in its design while honoring the past is Age of Empires IV. While Age of Empires III was in a beautiful obscurity, a middle child one could say, Age of Empires IV has regenerated the franchise and RTS games as whole. Starcraft II’s hold on the RTS genre along with other offshoot genres. However, one game cannot do it on its own here. There needs to be more RTS games out there as I see the genre as a virtual chess style game which can help enhance people’s minds here.
Instead of focusing on esports, maybe developers should focus on making their profits sustainable versus a constant stream which eventually tires out and then they have no artistic integrity. Video game companies need to start paying attention to the tension between art and business. Without capital, most art could not start but they should not let business take their soul away from their jobs. Such a compromise ends up damaging many businesses. Somehow, Japan, with its harsher corporate culture has managed to keep the soul of its IPs intact versus the West here.
Empire Earth has a been game that I have played for over twenty years. There is a reason why it stays with me. Nostalgia, a very much misused word in our age, isn’t really for software. It’s more for our physical places and the sense of time passing and a willingness to come back to it. The technical aspect of a video game isn’t what we are sentimental about here, but the atmosphere around playing the game. The game’s technical aspects are solid, not prefect, but better than what you see now, regardless of sentimental aspects surrounding our playing of the game.
Empire Earth has something unique about it. The AI cheats in the game, but it is competent and the battles, even when annoying are also exciting. There is something about the quality of the battles where every unit has a role to play, big and small. Unlike so many RTS games now, I feel the gameplay loop is similar to Skyrim’s. It has a mythic quality while still personable. This is an issue that Starfield had, where its huge nature made the player seem too small and not distinctive enough. This is another issue I have with Stellaris, inspire of its great gameplay. The mythic nature is so huge, that the player just seems to be clicking buttons on a screen.
What we need in video games again is a sense of personal stakes and personality again. Not just moving digital information on the screen.
The reason why Empire Earth is still played by players is really down to its technical brillancce combined with the memories of an industry that wasn’t perfect but knew how to make games over assets for investors in corporations.
There are not many games like Battlefield 6 or any of the Battlefield games. The vibes that every battle you are in is remarkable. One of the things that I noticed about Battlefield 6 was that the game had a gameplay flow which distinguished it from its predecessors. The realism of the game and the way how vehicles and infantry were combined together into one holistic way was why the game is outselling Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. The developers, a huge amalgamation of many studios knew what worked and even the campaign, criticized by some for being mediocre, is a starting point for even more single player experiences in this game.
Small additions to the game, such as riding on the back of tanks in the game give a great amount of realism to a rather more arcade-oriented game, even though this game isn’t really friendly to beginners. There are so many unlocks and abilities that one can find themselves having so much choice that one can go into any direction with it and choose what works with their tastes here.
What Call of Duty 7 is lacking is simply listening to the players. Call of Duty began as a serious World War 2 game, competing with the likes of older games such as Medal of Honor. However, once the game went into the modern age, everything became about our age or the Cold War era. While these games were incredibly popular, it was sowing the seeds of problems that would start cropping up with titles beginning in the mid-2010s. Video gamers had been attracted to the yearly releases of Call of Duty, and it worked for probably longer than any other franchise excluding some of the Japanese classics.
However, the Call of Duty franchise has become a tired series.
Having yearly releases has made many gamers to question whether it has been a positive impact on video gaming or whether its just another tool in the hands of shareholders.
Currently, it seems that series is really just being used by shareholders who see only money and an asset to use to manipulate us.
Battlefield as a series has had its ups and downs but it is a game series which is true to its origins.
Battlefield 6 is probably the best Battlefield game i have played since Battlefield 2142 in 2006. While I enjoyed the games after that, Battlefield 6 has a combined arms focus which makes it engaging here.
This is why in spite of the issues, Battlefield 6 will outsell Call of Duty Black Ops 7. It simply remembers what is without compromises.
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