Celebrating Westwood Studios’ forgotten RTS.
Imagine a universe where Patrick Stewart charges into battle holding a pug and firing sound at people, where Sting plays a ginger psycho lubed up with baby oil, and where Freddie Jones is forced at syringe point to suckle milk from a cat—all whilst under the watchful eye of a gigantic spice-puffing space vagina.
I am of course talking about David Lynch’s 1984 film, Dune, the adaptation for the big screen of Frank Herbert’s epic sci-finovel.
Dune is an intriguing and complex story about time and space, bravery and betrayal, and ultimately about one young man’s destiny to unite a universe. Set in the year 10191, the story sees two great houses battling for control of the desolate sand planet Arrakis. The planet’s mysterious spice is harvested to fund war, giant tank-eating worms roam its surface, and its indigenous Fremen warriors hold a great secret.
The Dune universe first came to PC in Cryo’s modest 1992 adventure game, however it’s undoubtedly Westwood Studios’ 1993 masterpiece, Dune II, for which the universe is best remembered on PC. Dune II: Battle for Arrakis, or Dune II: Building of a Dynasty as it was known in North America, played a pivotal role in the formation of real time strategy as a genre, and laid solid foundations for the beloved Command & Conquer that came a year later.
Then, in 1998, and in the shadow of both Command & Conquer and Red Alert, Westwood and Intelligent Games released the now largely forgotten Dune 2000.
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Denne historien er fra September 2019-utgaven av PC Gamer US Edition.
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Special Report- Stacked Deck - Monster Train, a deckbuilding roguelike that firmly entrenched itself as the crown prince to the kingly Slay the Spire back in 2020, was the kind of smash success you might call Champagne Big.
Monster Train, a deckbuilding roguelike that firmly entrenched itself as the crown prince to the kingly Slay the Spire back in 2020, was the kind of smash success you might call Champagne Big. Four years later, its successor Inkbound’s launch from Early Access was looking more like Sandwich Big.I’m not just saying that because of the mountain of lamb and eggplants I ate while meeting with developer Shiny Shoe over lunch, to feel out what the aftermath of releasing a game looks like in 2024. I mean, have I thought about that sandwich every day since? Yes. But also, the indie team talked frankly about the struggle of luring Monster Train’s audience on board for its next game.
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