Is this the end?
Well folks it's been a long ride from the early 90's to 2010 but C&c has grown and evolved further than anyone probably thought possible. C&c started out as a very basic Real Time Strategy where attrition was the best strategy and the most expensive units were always the better ones to have. Before you destroyed you're enemy with waves and waves of soldiers and tanks; you had to make the coolest most heavily guarded base in the history of the world. Economics were a core foundation to the game; a faction needs resources to amass an army and to invest in infrastructure. But everyhting that made the original game and all subsequent versions popular was removed from the most recent version of C&c. EA isn't the first company to make a huge mistake with trying to reinvent a product, for example; ever heard of new Coke? It was a marketing disaster for Coke, they almost immediatly ceased production and returned to the old formula that made it popular in the first place, the original was iconic. the same goes for C&c the franchise is iconic and doesn't ever need to change... EA.. just give me new campaine, new units, and better graphics every year and you will be fine... its really not that hard just look at; Halo, Warcraft 1-2-3, Starcraft 1-2*(by the way Blizzard bent you guys over on that one), Call of Duty 1-6, and grand theft auto.
What do they have in common you ask?
THEY NEVER CHANGED ANYTHING BUT THE APPEARANCE OF EXISTING THINGS IN THE GAME, AND THEY ADDED TO THE GAME!! NOT FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGE IT! YOU GUYS DON'T DESERVE TO OWN THE RIGHTS TO THIS GAME JUST SELL IT TO BLIZZARD CAUSE THEY APPARENTLY HAVE BEEN THE ONLY COMPANY MAKING RTS' THAT UNDERSTANDS WHAT DIRECTION AND INNOVATION ARE.
Will EA fix the problem in an expansion pack? Its hard to say, but the story left off in a way that kind of implied the return of Kane and the Scrin from command and conquer 3
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Command and Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight
Command and Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight
C&c was a great game franchise that influenced many games, EA games raped the memory of C&c the original RTS. in this game EA did away with base building, instead you build all your units from a mobile walker, and even worse yet there is a food limit like in Blizzard's RTS style games. food limits and unnecessarily large bases is what made C&c what it was... goodbye Command and Conquer you will be sorely missed by many.
C&c was a great game franchise that influenced many games, EA games raped the memory of C&c the original RTS. in this game EA did away with base building, instead you build all your units from a mobile walker, and even worse yet there is a food limit like in Blizzard's RTS style games. food limits and unnecessarily large bases is what made C&c what it was... goodbye Command and Conquer you will be sorely missed by many.
Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 Uprising
Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 Uprising
New units in this expansion made the base better, RA3 lacked units that uprising brings to the table. new units include; a C130 like allied aircraft, allied artilary, soviet toxic troopers, japan got some anti air infantry and anti tank robots.
an interesting point abot ths game was that it was available in digital download copies only.
New units in this expansion made the base better, RA3 lacked units that uprising brings to the table. new units include; a C130 like allied aircraft, allied artilary, soviet toxic troopers, japan got some anti air infantry and anti tank robots.
an interesting point abot ths game was that it was available in digital download copies only.
Command and Conquer Red Alert 3
Command Conquer Red Alert 3
Red alert 3 was another version of C&c that didn't look promising for the games franchise. EA marketed the game as staying true to the original with cheesy B list Hollywood actors but is didn't. the actors were worse than ever before and you felt like EA was really trying to stay on budget for this one. The graphics were way too cartoon like and this diverged further from the original Red Alert. Another thing about this version of Red Alert is that its really hard to make a well guarded base like in the older red alerts. something new they did for this version of Red Alert was to introduce a third faction to the game Japan. in this alter reality WW2 never happened so Japan was never devastated by war.
Red alert 3 was another version of C&c that didn't look promising for the games franchise. EA marketed the game as staying true to the original with cheesy B list Hollywood actors but is didn't. the actors were worse than ever before and you felt like EA was really trying to stay on budget for this one. The graphics were way too cartoon like and this diverged further from the original Red Alert. Another thing about this version of Red Alert is that its really hard to make a well guarded base like in the older red alerts. something new they did for this version of Red Alert was to introduce a third faction to the game Japan. in this alter reality WW2 never happened so Japan was never devastated by war.
Command and Conquer 3 Kanes Wrath
Command and Conquer 3 Kanes Wrath
As good as C&c3 was and is, Kane's wrath is not that great of an expansion for one sole reason... it added a build radius to your base so you can't do it however you want. it really disrupted the flow of play for me because i'm very particular about how i build my base and this expansion made that harder. the worst part was that it became clear that EA was actively seeking to change the nature of the game as we see in C&c 4 which is a goddamn train wreck!
on the positive side there are some awesome new units, notably the Hero class tanks, spoiler alert the GDI massive MCRV is the best it holds the most infantry for a more diverse defensive capability and it auto harvests tiberium right there on the spot making you cash, i mean put that baby through the center of a tiberium field and it's allready in a few seconds paied for itself just defend it a little and you're solid gold. Did i mention that it ranks up as well?
As good as C&c3 was and is, Kane's wrath is not that great of an expansion for one sole reason... it added a build radius to your base so you can't do it however you want. it really disrupted the flow of play for me because i'm very particular about how i build my base and this expansion made that harder. the worst part was that it became clear that EA was actively seeking to change the nature of the game as we see in C&c 4 which is a goddamn train wreck!
on the positive side there are some awesome new units, notably the Hero class tanks, spoiler alert the GDI massive MCRV is the best it holds the most infantry for a more diverse defensive capability and it auto harvests tiberium right there on the spot making you cash, i mean put that baby through the center of a tiberium field and it's allready in a few seconds paied for itself just defend it a little and you're solid gold. Did i mention that it ranks up as well?
Command and Conquer 3
Command and Conquer 3
this game was the best thing to ever come out of the C&c franchise. this game had it all, a good amount of upgrades, lots of units, and lots of buildings that required big bases. also the infantry and every unit had a second ability. this was a very balanced version of the original game plus all the good additions over the years. the graphics are out of this world, the solo play missions are challenging and stimulating with pretty good replay. another cool part of the game was how it was set years in he future from the original C&c so there were many storyline developments such as Kane still appearing to be quite young.
this game was the best thing to ever come out of the C&c franchise. this game had it all, a good amount of upgrades, lots of units, and lots of buildings that required big bases. also the infantry and every unit had a second ability. this was a very balanced version of the original game plus all the good additions over the years. the graphics are out of this world, the solo play missions are challenging and stimulating with pretty good replay. another cool part of the game was how it was set years in he future from the original C&c so there were many storyline developments such as Kane still appearing to be quite young.
Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour
Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour
This was a great expansion to a really solid game, it added a few units and a bunch of extra missions, the other cool part was every faction from Generals got three new versions of themselvs so now you really had four options from choosing one of three teams. for eample USA had the base General, and three new ones with various benefits and costs like the air force general who couldn't produce tanks, but the air units were so strong and stealthy that they never really got shot down. so depending on your style of play there was probably a specific general that fit you best.
This was a great expansion to a really solid game, it added a few units and a bunch of extra missions, the other cool part was every faction from Generals got three new versions of themselvs so now you really had four options from choosing one of three teams. for eample USA had the base General, and three new ones with various benefits and costs like the air force general who couldn't produce tanks, but the air units were so strong and stealthy that they never really got shot down. so depending on your style of play there was probably a specific general that fit you best.
Command & Conquer Generals
Command & Conquer Generals
Generals was the wierdest and sweetest C&c in a way because it was present day like C&c RA but realistic looking like C&c TS. The game was based on a three army world; China, GLA (terrorists "al-queda"), and USA. It was wierd because it was the first C&c without the westwood seal of approval, but it was still called C&c, but it wasn't like C&c or RA really, very confusing indeed.
Each army had all the basic C&c units but in present day equivalent terms, the new feature was that as you killed you opponent ( and as time passed) you gained experience and ranked up in games (and started again every new game). It was like researching tech but there was a huge tech tree already. The expirence related to the fact that you were a general and after enough kills you became a 2 star 3 star and so on to 5 star where you had some powerfull special abilities that rivals the damage of super weapons. There were lots of units and the coolest was a GLA tank that would armor up and increase damage as it killed other tanks and picked up spare parts.
Generals was the wierdest and sweetest C&c in a way because it was present day like C&c RA but realistic looking like C&c TS. The game was based on a three army world; China, GLA (terrorists "al-queda"), and USA. It was wierd because it was the first C&c without the westwood seal of approval, but it was still called C&c, but it wasn't like C&c or RA really, very confusing indeed.
Each army had all the basic C&c units but in present day equivalent terms, the new feature was that as you killed you opponent ( and as time passed) you gained experience and ranked up in games (and started again every new game). It was like researching tech but there was a huge tech tree already. The expirence related to the fact that you were a general and after enough kills you became a 2 star 3 star and so on to 5 star where you had some powerfull special abilities that rivals the damage of super weapons. There were lots of units and the coolest was a GLA tank that would armor up and increase damage as it killed other tanks and picked up spare parts.
Red Alert 2 Yuri's Revenge
Red Alert 2 Yuri's Revenge
Yuri's Revenge was a pretty good expansion for Red Alert 2, it went further than other expansions in that it added an entirely new faction to the game Yuri and his Russian mind controlled slave army. RA2 set up the expansion with the cinematic clip at the end when Yuri is the cause or the Soviet aggression and goes rouge. Yuri has some really awesome units from long range missile subs, to flying saucers, to mind control tanks, and a mind control and damage inducing super weapon.
Concept art
Yuri's Revenge was a pretty good expansion for Red Alert 2, it went further than other expansions in that it added an entirely new faction to the game Yuri and his Russian mind controlled slave army. RA2 set up the expansion with the cinematic clip at the end when Yuri is the cause or the Soviet aggression and goes rouge. Yuri has some really awesome units from long range missile subs, to flying saucers, to mind control tanks, and a mind control and damage inducing super weapon.
Concept art
Red Alert 2
Red Alert 2
This game marked the beginning of a new era of C&c. in my personal opinion; Once EA games got it's greasy little paws on westwood (they bought them out) and on the franchise; they lost something that made C&c great. ever since RA2 i feel like each game except C&c 3 is lacking in some way. Now when I got this game I was eagerly awaiting it's release for like a year (cough.. StarCraft2..cough..Diablo3), as I said before Red Alert in contrast to other C&c's had a special place in my heart. I remember that I got a bootleg copy early (don't worry i had a real copy pre-ordered and EA got their cash) and I loved the game. Once I got a real version, I learned that there were B and C list Hollywood actors playing characters in cinematics for the campaign. Everything was really cool except that the game seemed a little too cartoony. Tiberian Sun had great graphics, better than RA2 in ways because the shapes were more proportionately realistic so everything was more believable, but in RA2 soldiers appeared to be more than a story tall when standing next to skyscrapers, and there alwase seemed to be a playground somewhere on the map. This attitude carried on in later versions of RA to a wild extreme where I have a hard time playing the game; I find myself getting bored and playing something else. The one positive side to RA2 is that the units were great, that is to say that EA put a great mix of units in the game, they included important Red Alert units such as the tesla trooper, the demolition truck, mammoth tanks, and naval units, with even cooler new ones. another cool thing about RA2 was that both factions had individual countries that you played as in skimish or online play. Every country had a special unit that gave it a particular edge, for example; USA had aircraft carrier, France had long range artilery defense tower, British had sniper (awesome one hit to infantry), Koreans had a fighter plane, Germans had an advanced tank killing tank, the soviet army had a similar setup. Another cool thing that happened in RA2 was most units gained a secondary skill or alternate attack, this depended on the nature of the unit but an example is allied infantry dug into a sandbag bunker and gained damage and range, AWESOME for turtles. The final excellent feature of RA2 that stuck with subsequent games was the large AOE (area of effect) super weapons. In RA2 super weapons could take out an entire base if you liked to make nice neat and organized bases (like me). basically if you group building at all you better be able to knock out enemy super weapons before they fire...EVERY TIME. So basically in RA2 a nuke was way more powerful than it had ever been before
veteran army (mixed some allied some soviet same team)
A good defensive position for the soviet player (notice allied infantry in alternate mode of attack)
Super Weapons in action (soviet nuke ready to fire in the middle of allied weather machine attack)
Concept art
This game marked the beginning of a new era of C&c. in my personal opinion; Once EA games got it's greasy little paws on westwood (they bought them out) and on the franchise; they lost something that made C&c great. ever since RA2 i feel like each game except C&c 3 is lacking in some way. Now when I got this game I was eagerly awaiting it's release for like a year (cough.. StarCraft2..cough..Diablo3), as I said before Red Alert in contrast to other C&c's had a special place in my heart. I remember that I got a bootleg copy early (don't worry i had a real copy pre-ordered and EA got their cash) and I loved the game. Once I got a real version, I learned that there were B and C list Hollywood actors playing characters in cinematics for the campaign. Everything was really cool except that the game seemed a little too cartoony. Tiberian Sun had great graphics, better than RA2 in ways because the shapes were more proportionately realistic so everything was more believable, but in RA2 soldiers appeared to be more than a story tall when standing next to skyscrapers, and there alwase seemed to be a playground somewhere on the map. This attitude carried on in later versions of RA to a wild extreme where I have a hard time playing the game; I find myself getting bored and playing something else. The one positive side to RA2 is that the units were great, that is to say that EA put a great mix of units in the game, they included important Red Alert units such as the tesla trooper, the demolition truck, mammoth tanks, and naval units, with even cooler new ones. another cool thing about RA2 was that both factions had individual countries that you played as in skimish or online play. Every country had a special unit that gave it a particular edge, for example; USA had aircraft carrier, France had long range artilery defense tower, British had sniper (awesome one hit to infantry), Koreans had a fighter plane, Germans had an advanced tank killing tank, the soviet army had a similar setup. Another cool thing that happened in RA2 was most units gained a secondary skill or alternate attack, this depended on the nature of the unit but an example is allied infantry dug into a sandbag bunker and gained damage and range, AWESOME for turtles. The final excellent feature of RA2 that stuck with subsequent games was the large AOE (area of effect) super weapons. In RA2 super weapons could take out an entire base if you liked to make nice neat and organized bases (like me). basically if you group building at all you better be able to knock out enemy super weapons before they fire...EVERY TIME. So basically in RA2 a nuke was way more powerful than it had ever been before
veteran army (mixed some allied some soviet same team)
A good defensive position for the soviet player (notice allied infantry in alternate mode of attack)
Concept art
Tiberian Sun Firestorm
Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun Firestorm
Firestorm was an awesome addition to Tiberian Sun, it had a great new campaign and new units that balanced and saturated the game (any more units would have been too many). In the Campaign mode Nod had developed a super AI called CABAL, and Nod had been messing with cybernetic cyborg technologies and these eventually lead to complete robots. CABAL at the end of the story takes control of a huge robot with insane weaponry and shielding, then Kane must destroy the AI before it destroys Nod. On a personal note if you buy this game and cant kill the robot, don't use artillery make a bunch of banishes and bomb it.
CABAL
Firestorm was an awesome addition to Tiberian Sun, it had a great new campaign and new units that balanced and saturated the game (any more units would have been too many). In the Campaign mode Nod had developed a super AI called CABAL, and Nod had been messing with cybernetic cyborg technologies and these eventually lead to complete robots. CABAL at the end of the story takes control of a huge robot with insane weaponry and shielding, then Kane must destroy the AI before it destroys Nod. On a personal note if you buy this game and cant kill the robot, don't use artillery make a bunch of banishes and bomb it.
Command and Conquer Tiberian sun
Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun
Command and conquer Firestorm was a really awsome addition to the C&c series, it had been a few years since the original command and conquer and red alert was really popular. Red Alert was so popular that they re-released command and conquer on Nintendo 64, more recent versions of the game have been released for state of the art gaming platforms like Xbox and PlayStation. Tiberian Sun was a total revamp of the original command and conquer, totally new units and buildings (some iconic building remained the same), and a third neutral race. in Tiberan Sun Kane is back after being presumed dead since the original command and conquer (unless you saw him in a clip in red alert), Kane and the Brotherhood seek to destroy the GDI again but this time there is a much more complex game going on. In C&c and Red Alert; damage seemed to be somewhat unbalanced, tanks killed infantry really easily and infantry couldn't really ever stop a tank, also the radius of attack of every unit was similar because of the graphics. Now in Tiberian sun there were many more unit types that had a specific type of damage that worked well verses certain buildings or units, also the type of unit determined the units armor and range. In older versions of C&C it seemed as though the longer a units health bar was the more life it had, in TS it was different there was more complex equasions happening with damage detection.
There were 3 major differences in TS then other C&c games that made TS better (in my opinion):
Command and conquer Firestorm was a really awsome addition to the C&c series, it had been a few years since the original command and conquer and red alert was really popular. Red Alert was so popular that they re-released command and conquer on Nintendo 64, more recent versions of the game have been released for state of the art gaming platforms like Xbox and PlayStation. Tiberian Sun was a total revamp of the original command and conquer, totally new units and buildings (some iconic building remained the same), and a third neutral race. in Tiberan Sun Kane is back after being presumed dead since the original command and conquer (unless you saw him in a clip in red alert), Kane and the Brotherhood seek to destroy the GDI again but this time there is a much more complex game going on. In C&c and Red Alert; damage seemed to be somewhat unbalanced, tanks killed infantry really easily and infantry couldn't really ever stop a tank, also the radius of attack of every unit was similar because of the graphics. Now in Tiberian sun there were many more unit types that had a specific type of damage that worked well verses certain buildings or units, also the type of unit determined the units armor and range. In older versions of C&C it seemed as though the longer a units health bar was the more life it had, in TS it was different there was more complex equasions happening with damage detection.
There were 3 major differences in TS then other C&c games that made TS better (in my opinion):
- cool superweapons (superweapons cooler than just a nuke)
- range of tech tree & unit diversity (lots of air, armored, and ground units to make)
- veteran units (after X amount of kills units ranked up their armor, damage, and recovered health)
Monday, December 6, 2010
RED ALERT Counterstrike and Aftermath
Red Alert expansions
RA had two expansion sets that came out in 1997 "Conterstrike" and "Aftermath".
Counterstrike was mainly a mission and map pack but aftermath had a bunch of new units to play with including Tesla tanks and troopers, missile subs and other cool new units. The two packs really expanded the online multiplayer capabilities of the original game platform, and this is what was cool about them. The new units balanced the game and made the soviet army better.
Some of the new units
Chrono Tank- could teleport with its built in chronosphere, had twin rocket launchers that attacked air and ground.
Demolition Truck- This bad boy was a supply truck with a nuclear bomb in it, weak armor so they were destroyed easily. Personally i liked making a chain convoy that would wear down defenses before my tanks swept in.
M.A.D. Tank- The mutually assured destruction tank was an awesome tank that blew up a few seconds after you set it off, they had a huge explosion and good armor.
Tesla Tank- A light to medium armored tank with a Tesla lightning generator in place of a cannon, great against infantry and overwhelmingly powerful in groups.
RA had two expansion sets that came out in 1997 "Conterstrike" and "Aftermath".
Counterstrike was mainly a mission and map pack but aftermath had a bunch of new units to play with including Tesla tanks and troopers, missile subs and other cool new units. The two packs really expanded the online multiplayer capabilities of the original game platform, and this is what was cool about them. The new units balanced the game and made the soviet army better.
Some of the new units
Sunday, November 14, 2010
RED ALERT
duh-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nuh-nuh!
RED ALERT oh my god this was the hottest thing when it came out, it was the illest thing ever created. this was my first PC game that i put more than 24 hours into, honestly i'm not sure that i don't have close to a whole year of hours playing skirmishes against the computer... seriously this game kept me occupied for such a long time, i remember that i was angry initially when the next Command and Conquer came out because it wasn't a new better graphic version of Red Alert it went back to the GDI-Nod future as in the original games. The big differences with Red Alert over the older games was that Red Alert had the skirmish option where you could play against the computer on a map and use every unit available in the game right away and you could build your base up from the ground any way you wanted, also unlike C&c you had infantry units, armor units, aerial units, and naval units (personal favorite). Also if you had a creative mind you could build a custom map and play on that. Another huge difference was the online aspect that was brought to RTS's, (and the awesome soundtrack)
Red Alert took place in an alternate universe explained in the game and subsequent Red Alert sequels due to time travel or more specifically a technology employed in game play called chronosperes. Chronoshperes where the allied "super weapon" in contrast to the Soviet iron-curtain. They could be used to transport any individual unit (except infantry oddly) anywhere on the map instantaneously, this is tied to time travel and quantum physics. In the storyline the post WW2 allied leaders decide to travel back in time and kill Hitler! Great idea right? Except that now Germany never fights communist Russia, and now in the late part of the century the USSR is ready to take over the world. So while the allies wanted to save lives back in WW2 they now are faced with a WW3 like scenario with full nuclear arsenals on either side of the battle lines. This came out like only a few years after the cold war ended and this was such a scary sci-fi story unfolding right in your hands, i remember feeling adrenalin from watching the intro video and all.
RED ALERT oh my god this was the hottest thing when it came out, it was the illest thing ever created. this was my first PC game that i put more than 24 hours into, honestly i'm not sure that i don't have close to a whole year of hours playing skirmishes against the computer... seriously this game kept me occupied for such a long time, i remember that i was angry initially when the next Command and Conquer came out because it wasn't a new better graphic version of Red Alert it went back to the GDI-Nod future as in the original games. The big differences with Red Alert over the older games was that Red Alert had the skirmish option where you could play against the computer on a map and use every unit available in the game right away and you could build your base up from the ground any way you wanted, also unlike C&c you had infantry units, armor units, aerial units, and naval units (personal favorite). Also if you had a creative mind you could build a custom map and play on that. Another huge difference was the online aspect that was brought to RTS's, (and the awesome soundtrack)
Red Alert took place in an alternate universe explained in the game and subsequent Red Alert sequels due to time travel or more specifically a technology employed in game play called chronosperes. Chronoshperes where the allied "super weapon" in contrast to the Soviet iron-curtain. They could be used to transport any individual unit (except infantry oddly) anywhere on the map instantaneously, this is tied to time travel and quantum physics. In the storyline the post WW2 allied leaders decide to travel back in time and kill Hitler! Great idea right? Except that now Germany never fights communist Russia, and now in the late part of the century the USSR is ready to take over the world. So while the allies wanted to save lives back in WW2 they now are faced with a WW3 like scenario with full nuclear arsenals on either side of the battle lines. This came out like only a few years after the cold war ended and this was such a scary sci-fi story unfolding right in your hands, i remember feeling adrenalin from watching the intro video and all.
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Who is Kane?
WHO IS KANE?
Kane is the charismatic leader of the brotherhood of Nod who is seemingly immortal because he reappears in multiple C&C games spanning over a century. Kane first appears in the original C&C, he is believed to be a genius and a tactical mastermind by the GDI. To his followers Kane represents something more complex, he is believed to be of religious importance, some followers of Nod believe him to be a messiah. Kane has an obsession with tiberium that is never explained untill later versions of C&C, but it provides the plot for many Nod mission and GDI counter missions.
KANE
In Command and Conquer "Tiberian Sun" and expansion "Firestorm" Kane begins to create tiberium based weapons, and experiment with advanced electronics and AI systems. This takes Nod units into a completely new direction; from realistic units (tanks, people, planes), to more sci-fi styled units (cyborgs, robots, invisible tanks). In the expansion for Tiberian sun, the cyborg / AI aspect of the game leads to the creation of a super robot / AI program called CABAL (Computer Assisted Biological Advanced Life-form). Kane is sure that Cabal is the next big thing for Nod but it proves to be too powerful. With GDI on their heels Nod was poised to win but Cabal turns on Nod and a costly battle is fought rendering Nod unable to destroy GDI.
C.A.B.A.L
The question of Kane's mortality is brought into question immediately after the first command and conquer series durring a cinimatic video in Command and Conquer Red Alert. Red Alert takes place in the present day if time travel existed (just go play the game or read the next post or two), anyway point is at a meeting of top allied leaders Kane (dressed in an allied uniform) delivers a document to a general and gives a long somewhat surprised but also seemingly threatening glare at you the player. Fans were not sure why Kane was there; did Westwood just hire the same actor? as it turns out they didn't because in command and conquer 3 Kane's Wrath you find that every Kane you ever see is a clone of the original Kane! So every time his body is killed his memories download to a new one and out pops another Kane. Later in command and Conquer 4 you find out that you too are Kane!
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