Just wondered if anyone has played it before and their impressions. I picked it up way back when during Black Friday (gold edition, both the original and Forged Alliance flavors for 20 bucks).

I just installed it (I had bought Fallout 3 at the time as well and had been playing it until now), and ran through a few missions, and don't know quite what to make of it. The thing that seems to perturb me the most is that I have no reason to actually look at the graphics itself. I just play it in the "strategic zoom" view, which has the advantage of not only viewing the entire map, but labeling units clearly (as opposed to an anti-air tank and a regular tank looking the same at ground level). Gameplay wise (at least for now), it seems to be a command and conquer-esque "tank rush" (or gunship, whatever) game. Just wanted to know if I'm playing it wrong, or if I really shouldn't expect much else outta the game.

?

No.

Give it a chance, and come play some Multiplayer, there is actually a reasonably sized community for it.

I liked it, and played in rather close so I could see the units. Sure, it caused my computer to lag when I've got over 100 gunships raining hell upon someone, but I liked watching giant robots run things over

I recently got the soundtrack, been thinking about firing it up again.

Pffft, 100 gunships.
I regularly see 2-3 hundred in MP.

It's about map control and economy management. It's really a good RTS, but the non-cheating AI aren't very good. Play giant three or so of them if you want a challenge, otherwise look online.

Micro can be very effective and is sometimes necessary, but you will often need all your attention to manage the game on a macro scale.

Yeah, played right the game will often get to a point where you are churning out a literal stream of units straight to the battle, and it seems many players skimp on the intel gathering.

Well, at any kind of competitive level, you have to. If you don't have actual fronts and a significant military presence early, you loose map control and therefore the game.

I learned early on that covering your area with radar is key, the enemy dropped a few engineers behind me, made a couple missle launchers, and killed me before i even knew i was under attack.