Who makes better strategy games...

Blizzard with Starcraft/warcraft ofc

Other --- Paradox. Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, Hearts of Iron. Probably three of the best strategy series I've ever played. Too bad they're far too intelligent for the average gamer.

Paradox.

It's Firaxis (not Fireaxis).

First of all I'm ass-uming you're playing on PC because the both console versions of the game XCOM: Enemy Within got royally fucked. It's inexcusably buggy with a few game breakers in there. Try playing an Ironman game on the console version. I dare you. Horrific slow down on EXALT missions. Game breaker if you get 2 events at the same time (not a problem on XCOM: EU). Game crashes if you use the Ghost Armor while under the effect of Mimetic Skin. Corrupted saves ahoy. They lied about the # of new maps (many are recycled). Power creep was horribly skewed in the player's favor while promises that they would fix the late game went unfulfilled (I'm looking at you Ananda Gupta).

Guess how many patches they've released for the console version? 0. Inexcusable for a game that was released last November.

They did release a small PC patch (which only created more bugs from what I hear), but I still think the modders stepped in to save this obviously unfinished game if you're playing it and enjoying it, or it was more stable on PC to begin with.

Firaxis doesn't have boards so we take all our collectively justified bitching and moaning to the 2K boards. Many have sworn off buying another Firaxis game if this is the kind of treatment we can expect. Firaxis remains insultingly silent. No "we're working on a massive patch and you can expect it ####." Just silence. I would assume they switched all gears to making Civ Beyond Earth. Atleast Civ games get proper support and patches are released promptly I'm assuming.

Not so for XCOM it would appear. Even XCOM: EU with a few patches was unstable towards the late game. XCOM: EW is an unplayable mess on consoles.

My vote for Paradox. Crusader Kings 2 with GoT mod. Best fun I have had in a while. A special mention to Amplitude Studios. Both Endless Space and Endless Legend are really fun games.

This, but since they are no longer around I'll say Relic Entertainment.

Blizzard .

Then Creative Assembly and Relic (both at 2nd) . Creative Assembly could've been my number 1 but they dropped the ball with Rome 2 . Yes , the game works fine now and it is also quite decent game but that's the point . Blizzard games are polished on launch and Total War had always been more than just "decent" .

The problem here is there is no best just personal preference.

Civ gets let down with shitty multiplayer disconnects in later game on a fucking LAN ?!?
Xcom (new) gets let down with shitty game design with only having one base and using satellites, the original was superior.
Blizzard only claim to fame is Starcraft which is a combat base building RTS, there were plenty before that nothing special.
I used to love medieval totalwar (original), their later games are buggy shit.
Never heard of Riot Games...
Last game I played by Relic was Homeworld...

The best strategy game in my opinion is the original UFO:Enemy Unknown game followed by Civilization series and Age of Wonders I & 3 (2 was shit) gets a notable mention too.

Of course Sony coz there have been so many of them on PS3 and none on 360 last gen. Not one...oh wait!

Firaxis and its not even close. Civ V and XCom are probably two of my top 10 games from last gen. Creative Assembly would be up there but I think Rome 2 was a step back from Shogun 2. Relic is pretty good too but I haven't played the new CoH. I dont have any experience with Blizzard games though

Play Starcraft 2 : Wings of Liberty . You won't regret it .

Paradox,their Hearts of Iron,Crusader Kings,Victoria and Europa Universalis series are the gold standard in their genre.

I second that

Intelligent Systems.

Paradox

Currently I would say Fraxis has been the most consistent dev. The Civ series hasn't had a bad installment and all of the expansion packs for Civ V made the game much better.

Relic and Creative Assembly have really disappointed their fans lately with pretty mediocre to terrible releases. Blizzard has made 1 strategy game and a single expansion pack for it in the last decade. That's not really enough.

Did nobody read my post about the horrible treatment of the XCOM franchise by Firaxis?

My friends, regardless of your answer, it's Blizzard.

Have you played CK2?

My issue with this thread is that you're lumping "strategy" games together which are utterly different. It would be like saying who makes the best shooters and including COD, MGS, TLOU and Bayonetta developers in a list.

About 5 hours. I liked what I played of it(and what I actually understood which wasn't much lol). I need to give that game more love.

For a long time it was like a crack habit for me lol

Mechanics are hard to grasp initially but very simple when you do. Starting as ENgland in about 1080 or so (forget the exact date when Henry I takes over) is a good starting point or 1066 Dec26th after William the conqueror has been crowned. Making your own ruler is the most fun (although puts the difficulty up a little initially)

Relic, Company of Heroes 1 is the best RTS that was ever made, period, full stop, whatever. Dawn of War was great as well.

Second is probably Westwood, because I'm oldcshool.

Firaxis, CA are great.

Don't like Blizzard's games tbh.

Relic on top. Then Firaxis and Blizzard tied for 2nd place.

Maybe Westwood.

No paradox on the list is an instant fail. Every one of those is very casual in comparison to paradox. Out of those I would say Blizzard for the original sc+broodwar with relic and company of heroes 1 right beside it. Unfortunately the sequels weren't nearly as good.

This. Any poll about strategy games where Paradox is a write-in is an auto-fail.

Paradox are unable to even deliver a fully working title on release date.

They know dam well half of their games are broken but still fucking release them anyway.

For soloplay: Those Europa Universalis guys have my vote. Fireaxis is dope, but they make strategy games for dummies to some extent. Paradox makes strategy games that are rich.

For multiplayer: Starcraft. The end.

They still fix their games and offer regular content updates. Just don't buy them at launch.

Which have made what in recent years? I'm still waiting for DoW3 bitch.

Fireaxis?

I have a lot of respect for Fireaxis but I don't personally enjoy the CiV games so my vote goes to Relic. They haven't made a bad game imo

I'm a big Total War fan but thats the only strategy series CA has made and they are pretty inconsistent between releases.

Relic released Company of Heroes 2 last year and they have been working updating that, they just released a expansion with two new factions.

I'd love Dawn of War 3 as well but I'm not sure if Relic still have the right to that series after they moved from THQ to Sega

No, we just don't give a shit.

Pretty sure GW only trusts Relic with the DoW license.

That doesn't give them a pass. They should finish their games before releasing them.

Why is Intelligent Systems not on the list?

Yea, it was just 5 hours of me just poking at things and breaking my game. I married some chick who didn't have sex. Then her dad declared war on me, I arrested my main general, then I died of some disease and I took control of my sister.

What was mediocre to terrible about COH 2 or The Western Front Armies ?

Already too many sci-fi RTS around (yeah, I know Warhammer is different, but still :p)

I'm more of a historic RTS fan myself (AOE, RON, COH,...). Though I did enjoy the DOW games.

Oh, and like with_teeth mentioned they made COH 2 and just released it's expansion: The Western Front armies. Which is currenly my most played online game.

Relic did with Homeworld 2 and the first Dawn of War, those were good, didn't think much of Dawn of War 2's cookie cutter campaign though.

I'm not to big on strategy, not that I don't like the genre but playing games on consoles and having a weak PC has limited me. Still, I thought RUSE was pretty dope. Tom Clancy's Endwar could have been better, like my criticism of Dawn of War 2 the campaign was pretty cookie cutter. Civilization Revolution was a lot of fun, I'd like to one day play a proper Civilization game.

RUSE was probably my favorite of the console strategy games. I'd love to see them make another game like this, like alternate history set during the Cold War that goes nuclear.

Probably my favorite strategy series ever though was the Close Combat series. I love those games. They're still playable, though they've been republished over a different distributor now, and they want premium price for the games to be purchased digitally. Sucks.

I have the original 1997 Close Combat 2: A Bridge Too Far from Microsoft. It still plays fine in Windows 7, no patch or mod needed. I think Matrix Games spruced up the graphics and added its own stuff with its remake.

Ensemble Studios.

Firaxis and Stardock. I really cannot believe that tc did not list Stardock, Galactic Civilization 2 is a top 10 strategy game of all time for me and alot of people. Not to mention Sins Of A Solar Empire (which they help out on) and the underrated Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes.

Paradox and Relic are good to

I also miss SSI although their old classics such as Steel Panthers have remakes freely available such as Steel Panthers: Main Battle Tank:

Do you want to win easy matches with no effort? Go Protoss. I guarantee it, you will not regret it.

Since we're posting some classics:

Paradox is a publisher, not a developer.

Paradox develop their own games. Paradox Development Studio does all the CK/EU/HoI/Vic games.

EU4 was borderline perfect on launch. CK2 was a bit messy, but they fixed it pretty quick.

Best RTS developer - Blizzard

Best Grand Strategy developer - Paradox

Best 4X developer - Firaxis

Warcraft III is possibly my favourite game of all time, but Alpha Centauri & Crusader Kings II have eaten many hours of my time.