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What is the absolute best war game you've ever played and why? This includes strategy games as well.

I'd say Call of Duty 4, because the demo alone has pwned every wargame I've ever played. It replicates the look, the feel, and the thinking behind a bloodthirsty war. It's third on my list of games I MUST GET, right after Resistance and Medal of Honor: Heroes 2.

Well, "war game" is a bit general. All I have to do to say something is a "war game" is just take a commando with 50-pack abs, slap some armor on him, give him a big gun that almost never runs out of ammo, lots of enemies to kill, a post-apocalyptic future setting, and there. Your own homemade war. Well, essentially, the first Metal Slug was a war game, so I'll include that on my list. I'll also include Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, Medal of Honor: European Assault, and the game that got me into first-person shooters, Medal of Honor: Frontline. (no CoD: 4 on here; I haven't played it yet. But won't anyone consider 'Nam: 1975 on the Neo Geo? That was like, THE GAME to start the "war-game" craze.)

'Nam-1975 popularized it. And I guess I could include the original American versions of Contra and Super Contra, because unlike the Japanese versions, the sprites were re-drawn to look like human rebels/terrorists instead of aliens/robots.

...Define "war".

A lot of WWII games can be called war games because they are centralized around a war. Halo is a was between Earth and the Covenant. Advance Wars is a war between Allied Nations and Black Hole.

It's a formula. You can't tell a story without some sort of desire...period. In fiction, this can deal with the main character, in video games, it centralizes on the villain so that heroes have to strip this from them. I say this because the only way a story is good is if that desire is NOT filled, or else some sort of conflict occurs. Conflict is what really makes the story. In VGs, the goal is to reach the conclusion, or solution to the conflict, usually through some sort of crisis.

War makes this easy, but it's nice to see different parts of the crisis. I'm falling for Call of Duty 4 as a game in general, but it follows a pretty bland path for war games. I'm not saying it's bad, but it's the same stuff you see in Halo. "We'll shoot the enemy from here! You run in and kill all of them and bomb the house and stop the bomb from going off!" A single character doing all...not necessarily bad, just not too much of a war game. Now Advance Wars is a good war game, making it a strategic effort to rout your enemy. Starcraft is a good RTS, which follows the "war needs" that AW also fills.

I'd have to say though, I think Star Wars Battlefront is the best WAR example game (does the most for simulating war), and is a very good game. There might be others, but SWBF is a great blend team tactics and singular control. You might fight better than your NPC teammates, but you will not survive on your own, and must complete team-based objectives to win.

So I guess...

Turn-Based:Advance Wars Dual Strike
RTS: Starcraft
FPS/3PS, team: Star Wars Battlefront II

Star Wars Battlefront 2. Aw, yeah.
I like the engineer. I can stab people with bullets. biggrin I want a Wii version. scream

Yup, there are a LOT of war games out there. I never was a PC gamer, so I can't vouch for Warcraft, but you will love Call of Duty 4. I'll guarantee that one.

*Goes Insane*

C&C: Red Alert
Dunes
C&C: Red Alert (Second something)
C&C: Tiberium Sun
C&C: Tiberium Sun Firestorm
C&C: Red Alert 2
C&C: Yuri's Revenge
C&C: GDI and NOD
C&C: Generals and Zero Hour
C&C 3
Starcraft
Warcraft III
Age of Empires II
Heroes of Might and Magic III and Armageddon's Blade
World in Conflict
Rise Of Nations
Civilization IV
Call of Duty
Medal of Honor: European Assault
Call of Duty: Big Red One
Commandos
Soldier of Fortune
Supreme Commander
Advance Wars


Yea..I'm an RTS guy. I love RTSs.