C&C 3 at E3 | | The Electronics Entertainment Expo is upon us, and we can expect an absolute deluge of new info and screens, and hopefully even a few movies. We'll keep you updated on the latest news and info, as well as collect all the various media and tidbits from all the big gaming news sites and mags. |
| Official Forums | | The Official Site is still just a teaser page at the moment, but why don't you head on over to the Official Forums to check out what the unwashed masses think about C&C 3? Of course, take the time to first ready yourself with the latest C&C 3 info. Our FAQ is an excellent place to start. |
| C&C 3 Features | | We're always striving to have the most updated C&C 3 content available. Take a look at our Screenshots, Units/Structures, and FAQ sections to catch up on the latest. |
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| Gamespot has the first Tiberium Wars trailer. You can watch it here.
A little over a minute long, it starts with a GDI base under attack. GDI then rolls out to strike at NOD. All you see in the clip are GDI units, I assume this is because the NOD units and structures still need some more work before they can be shown to the public.
It definately has a C&C feel to it though. The units have a GDI logo on them and the cranes from GDI's construction yard are there. Interesting is the jetpack the Zonetroopers appear to be using. Flying infantry anyone?
All in all, a very nice trailer, that leaves me wanting more. | |
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| Well, I come back from work to find a a new movie floating around the community. Here's a quick rundown:
The first up is a general E3 trailer produced by EA. There's a low res (23mb) version available here and a hi res (200mb) here. The actual C&C component is only 15s long, so don't be expecting anything too amazing. However, if you're interested in seeing some of the units in action, give it a download. I'm on cable and it only took me a couple of minutes to download the hi res version. I'll be sure to get some screens for our bandwidth deprived users later today. | |
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|  | | Check out what appears to be Tiberium in the lower part of this shot. | The boys over at Community Team, one of my favorite non-english fan sites, have managed to sneak out two pics of the surround system. The accompanying text does not have much in the way of new info from what I can see, but the screens show off the very impressive setup that EA LA have at E3. Check out their site for the other one.
Now, I need to get one of these for my living room. | |
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| Thanks PlanetCNC for this one. Apparently someone from a BFME forum got a chance to peek at the new C&C 3, and posted some of his observations in this thread. Here's a taste:The Game is built on the same engine BFME2 was built it, with nice saturated graphics and HDRI sun effects. The actual units such as helicopters and tanks look so realistic for there time I felt like I was watching a movie with live units. The level layout is very much like the CnC we see today, but has all the perks you can want in the new series. When I was shown the game play everything ran very smooth and was really just a jaw dropping moment. I couldn’t believe CnC 3 was actually alive. The selecting of units and placing units is very much like any other RTS on the market today, but it does have a few nice flashy waypoint and spot selection graphics, that let you know where you just sent your units.
The actual Fiction and story behind the game is probably the best I have ever seen, With showing how GDI are try to secretly save the world and as NOD is convincing the world GDI is the enemy You can only see how EA has a great story on there hands, and if you have played any of the games out of the series you know what I am talking about. But the real catch is how these 2 factions are split up in either your GDI or not GDI, until they came. Now this is the hanger they left me on, as they zoomed out from beyond the earth it seemed a space ship was coming out of deep space. What faction are they, how do they work is not known just yet.
Read the rest by following the link above. It's pretty plain to see that the author was favorably impressed, though E3 trailers are designed to do just that. The surround setup does sound very cool, though.
Which brings me to a further point. The EA apocalyptics are getting a little old, honestly. I see a few of them on the official boards and elsewhere. They rant and rave that the game WILL be horrible, that the canon is utterly DESTROYED and that the game will be Generals 2. Funny, because these guys always come back, along with their partners in crime, the evangelizers.
The evangelizer is quite possibly the exact opposite. A fan so rabid that no one dares talk to him directly, lest he have a seizure. They are constantly sucking up to developers and tend to have an absurd fascination with the exclamation point. Really, both of these guys need to chill out. There is no WAY to truly assess the quality of the final game at this point. For now, let's just see what comes our way. | |
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| While they got beat out by their less amusingly named competitors, the G-Spot do manage to land us some new info on C&C. No interview here, but they do write up their first impressions after viewing a few private trailers. Here's a taste:According to the trailer, the coverup didn't quite work out, thanks to the meddling of C&C's classic "bad guy" faction, the Brotherhood of Nod. Led by the evil mastermind Kane, Nod discovered tiberium's other potential as a powerful energy alternative, and attempted to discredit the GDI by exposing the coverup in the year 1995 (the year in which the original Command & Conquer game was released). This sequence of events polarized the world, so that the world's inhabitants aligned themselves with either GDI or Nod, a standoff that was threatening enough to global stabilty until, as the narrator of the trailer explained against a wide shot of Earth from outer space, "they came."
Read the rest here. Let's take a look at a few of the details.
Interesting to note in the above blockquote, that "they came". This definitely points towards The Scrin again. The context of a wide-angle shot of earth in space seems pretty plain to me. I suppose it could be THE RISE OF THE MACHINES (aka CABAL), but it's much more likely to mean an alien species of some sort.
It's also interesting that they've managed to add a fairly persuasive reason for the forming of GDI in the first place. God knows it's hard to dodge canon in an established and much beloved series. I think they did a pretty good job of squeezing that in there, as there isn't much to directly contradict it. Also, from a pure storyline perspective, it's a pretty likely explanation as well, given the nations who originally formed it and the amount of funding put into it (unusual for a multinational force).
Reading between the lines further down, it seems they are having some issues juggling the ability to add super keen stuff to the engine without causing some performance bloat. It would be a shame for them to cut some of the small touches that make these early screens so intriguing. | |
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| Well, that didn't take very long. IGN has posted the first new shots of C&C 3, and they are mighty impressive. They also have an interview up with Mike Verdu. Let's get right to a clip of that:Mike Verdu: I'm actually very excited about the work we're doing on the single player campaigns. We will reward your style of play in each of the campaigns, letting you make choices before and during missions that fundamentally alter how subsequent missions play.
Each of the three campaigns in the game will consist of chapters that we're calling "Theatres of War". A Theatre of War is a specific geographic location - like Scandinavia - where you will fight a series of related missions. You can choose your missions based on your style of play and strategy. For example, one mission might be about capturing a very large airfield while another might be a battle over a huge port. You get to choose which mission you play. If you capture the airfield, then you deprive your enemy of his air support in future missions while gaining the ability to call in special air strikes. If you capture the port, you gain access to some special naval units. The choices you make affect later missions.
In addition to the cool new single player campaigns, we are updating C&C gameplay so that it feels fresh - adding mechanics that are standard to cutting edge RTS games and creating some new features and innovations to drive the genre forward. Some examples of the new features include mobile bases, units that gain capabilities based on how close they are to the center of an Ion Storm (which can be summoned and controlled by one of the three game factions), and units that can work together to grant the player new battlefield capabilities.
It's also worth mentioning the return of the side-bar interface: Our in-game UI for C&C3 is a side-bar that will feel familiar to C&C players but it has some added features that make it more useful - and make it feel interesting and new. We are combining the centralized production queues in the classic C&C side-bar with contextual space for selected units and structures. The new UI lets you quickly build units and structures, easily control grouped units, and access your build queues anywhere on the map - even in the middle of a battle. But you can still get lots of information about your selected units and activate their special abilities - which is pretty much expected in the latest generation RTS games. We think our interface for C&C3 is the best of both worlds. You can read the rest here. Quite a meaty interview, and Mike gives some good answers (though he's remaining mum, and rightly so, on the third side).
As I posted last night, I'm absolutely ecstatic that they're bringing the theater maps back, and that they will have added functionality and meaning. Empire at War showed that they can be quite fun, and I think the C&C incarnation of them will be the most impressive. The downside that is possible is that this might mean the campaign for any one player is shorter, as the missions team has to design more maps and scenarios overall. Still, a worthy tradeoff, and it gives them something to compete against Supreme Commander, which will have its own strategic layer planning.
Also interesting in this paragraph is the mention of one side controlling the ion storms. Notice they don't mention who. I think they would have mentioned GDI or Nod by name if it were they that could do it. All the clues lining up (connection to tiberium, unusual mobile base, ability to call down ion storms) makes me think that the third side is probably the Scrin (or whatever your preferred name for them is). I can't think of CABAL really lining up with all of these, despite the old concept art which clearly pegged him as a third side.
 | | Notice the change in transparency of the signs depending on your angle of viewing. Definitely a glimpse of some of the advanced effects available. | Finally, last but certainly not least, I know there will be much rejoicing over the return of the sidebar. Honestly, myself, as long as it's intuitive and offers a good degree of control, I'm happy either way. But the C&C purists will be pleased.
As I hypothesized, they are probably going to add a third tab that lets you switch between buildings to access that building's individual build queue. I see this as a mixed blessing. It will make control easier, but it also cuts out some of the skill of being able to efficiently micro production.
I'll discuss the rest of this interview in the comments. For now, let's turn to the pics. All of them pretty plainly show that they've cleaned up some of the textures and effects since the initial PC Gamer build.
The first pic shows what I would call a 'brute force' shot, the ability of the engine (not necessarily your pc) to hold up to a large amount of units on the screen. Of course, there's no action going on, besides vehicle movement. Still, the effect is quite impressive, and you can see some small touches. I like the upgraded sidemounted weapon on the llight tanks and the little details on the Mammoth skin.
The second shot is much more of what I'd call a picturesque shot. You can see the change in transparency of the street signs, as well as the textures of the trees and the waves in the water. This shot is extremely crisp.
The third shot is a bit of both. There are a large number of units on the screen, but the little touches are there. Notice the Orcas causing ripples on the water below, and the way the background cleanly fades into a foggy look. The Orca model looks a bit... well... lackluster from this angle. I think it may have something to do with the strangely upturned wings. Everything else looks pretty good, though. Interesting that there are some naval units in the shot. It's unknown whether they'll be purely support like classic C&C, or actually used like the Red Alert series.
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|  | | Tune in on Gamespot Live. | Hat tip to wadprime over at the C&C 3 Official Forums for this one. Apparently, the wonder that is the G-spot will be featuring C&C 3 on Friday at 1pm PST. If you're going to be around, be sure to check it out (if you can get Gamespot Live, that is). If you can't, well, we'll see what we can do.
I'll hunt around IGN and the others and see what else I can come up with. A lot of the gaming media are really excited about C&C 3, which isn't surprising. Expect plenty of coverage. | |
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What do we know about the team creating what is probably the most anticipated Command and Conquer game since Tiberian Sun?
We know that many of them had a part in Generals/Zero Hour and Battle For Middle Earth, but most of this team came directly from Battle For Middle Earth II. What does this mean for those who’ve never played BFME2? What ideas or designs will they be bringing over to t...
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»full bitch..