Console and PC owners have had slightly differing tastes in genres over the years, and the realm of strategy games is where this is most apparent. Real-time strategy games like the early Warcraft entries, the Command and Conquers, Starcraft, etc where highly popular on PC, yet came and went with little notice when ported to consoles.

Certainly the ease of control in these games with the keyboard and mouse setup, doesn’t adequately transfer over to a controller and is a major issue against these games on consoles, and the one fact most often criticized in any console release.

Consoles instead relied on turn-based strategy games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea and the classic Shining Force series to fill the void, and though these games haven’t sold drastically better than real-time strategy offerings, have developed a strong and loyal following of fans.

Recently, the DS has experienced a wave of RTS games, quite unexpectedly, and these have performed well, most notably FFXII: Revenant Wings. As consoles and handhelds continue to get their feet wet with RTS’s, the genre continues to cruise along on the PC.

RTS settings typically come in the fantasy, sci-fi or historical style, and the genre continues to get good representation across all styles. The recently released Stronghold Crusader Extreme thrusts you into a historical epic of nation building and toppling. The forthcoming Glory of the Roman Empire 2 will feature a similar play style.

Other games such as The Golden Horde focus on fantasy settings and good old fashioned monster bashing. On the other end of the technological spectrum are outer space battles and galactic confrontations like those that will be seen soon in Sins of the Solar Empire.

For just a touch of variety, the long standing turn-based strategy series Romance of the Three Kingdoms will bring its 11th instalment to PC’s, with an amount of depth and detail in its scope that often overwhelms and boggles the minds of new players. Be prepared to read the instruction manual, play through the in-game tutorials and spend a good deal of time experimenting with different tactics as you make your way through ancient Chinese history.