Halo Wars vs Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth
Halo Wars
Halo Wars is the MMORTS spin-off that was inspired by the popular sci0fi shooter franchise, Halo. However, unlike a shooter, this time around you can choose to side with either the Covenant or the UNSC as they raise armies and battle each other on the battlefield. The game feels a lot like any other great MMORTS games, like Starcraft, but although the game supports keyboard controls, you might still want to plug in a controller because... well Halo is an XBox-exclusive series and as you might expect, its spin-offs are pretty much the same thing.The best part though is its multiplayer aspect. You can choose to play cooperatively with friends against a super strong AI in the campaign or you can go online and engage in intense, action-packed warfare with other players from all over the world through the versus game mode. However, a quick note though, waiting for its random matchmaking to find an opponent will take quite some time. So, if possible, go and meet your fellow players and add a couple of them as friends. At least when you want to play a game, you won't have to wait too long for one.
Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth
Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth lets you play as the leader of a pioneering group of spacefarers as you set off for the stars in hopes of creating a new civilization in space. The science fiction-themed in this game is a pretty far cry from the usually historical theme in the award-winning Civilization game franchise, but the game was pretty well-done mainly because it contains many of the features that had made Civilization 5 such a resounding success while changing things up a bit, such as replacing religion with affinity, just so everything is relevant to the overall theme of the game. There are also items that you can find on the alien planet that you're trying to colonize which will unlock nice storylines and quests for you to experience. And of course, there's the epic DLC, Rising Tide, which has elevated a mediocre but interestingly-themed game into an impressive one.If you're hoping for a game that's as amazing as Civ 5, Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth might end up disappointing some of you, but if you consider that this is the franchise's first attempt in doing a game that's not history-based, then well, this is a pretty good first attempt for an established, triple-A series.