I downloaded the Lord of the Rings II demo on Xbox 360 and got frustrated beyond belief after just a couple minutes. It reminded me of why I hate the genre so damn much, and now I'm not even awaiting Supreme Commander anymore. Why do people stilll play these?
I had lots of fun when the genre was blooming years ago with the first few Command and Conquer games, Warcraft II, Starcraft, Total Annihilation and Age of Empires, but with that period also started the RTS fad. Everytime a new game genre obtains mad success at retail, every company wants a piece of the pie and creates a game like that. And it's by playing some of them that I realized how much the genre sucked.
Playing a game that involves so much thinking and on top of that, measures not your ability to think critically, but instead your ability to move the mouse cursor and click as quickly as possible simply isn't fun. I'd much rather play something turn-based instead... but then again, it's rare that these are entertaining enough to get me to play, as high as my patience is...
The only thing that might change thing would be an humorous sequel to Warcraft, which Warcraft III wasn't, in contrast to the second title in the series. These games take themselves way too seriously, and Warcraft II's humor was refreshing and definitely memorable.
