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 http://www.commandandconquer.com commandandconquer.com posted:In 1995 the world was introduced to Real Time Strategy (RTS) with the launch of Command & Conquer, an action-packed hybridization of cerebral strategy and pulse pounding real time gameplay. A worldwide smash, lauded for its unique gameplay, cinematic presentation – including the now iconic villain, Kane - and dramatic storyline, Command & Conquer laid the groundwork for numerous titles to follow. EDIT: Here is an excellent video "documentary" on the series. All Your History Are Belong To Us posted:Command & Conquer was one of the earliest entries into the Real-Time Strategy genre, and has defined it for 15 years afterward. Most of you are probably pretty well acquainted with the C&C series of games, but for those of you that aren't... You may have heard about some bald evil guy that C&C fans go absolutely bonkers over? Maybe they quote some stuff he's said, or scream about the Technology of Peace, or how the actor has never aged a goddamn day in the games' long history. To keep it short, Command & Conquer games are all about massing up an utterly devastating force and then steamrolling your opponent, only to discover he just captured your Construction Yard with an engineer and sold it off. Also, the already mentioned bald dude(s) who are apparently evil and mysterious, and also beautiful women who can barely act that are reeeeally interested in you, "Commander". It's also about arguing which game in the series is your favorite and how Electronic Arts are Satan's Incarnation on Earth and have destroyed the holy shrine that was once Westwood. To not keep it short:  The Tiberium Series aka "The one where you harvest Tiberium" This series of games is what is considered the more "serious" wing of the franchise (at least compared to later Red Alert titles).  The Global Defense Initiative (GDI)Their full name is "The United Nations' Global Defense Initiative" (UNGDI or GDI most commonly, for short). It is a fictional militarized branch of the United Nations which is featured prominently in the Tiberian series of Westwood Studios' Command & Conquer real-time strategy video games. A globalized and multinational military task force, colloquially known and referred to as GDI, the Global Defense Initiative originated from a secret military alliance between the most industrialized and advanced countries under the United Nations umbrella. Sanctioned to become the international community's collective response to the proliferation of the Tiberium substance and the influence of the Brotherhood of Nod society, the Global Defense Initiative was rendered the executive branch of the United Nations Security Council. Their official emblem became the motif of a diving bird of prey, set either against a silvery, golden or bluish background.  The Brotherhood of Nod (Nod)The Brotherhood of Nod, often referred to simply as Nod or The Brotherhood, is a fictional faction which is featured prominently in the Command & Conquer franchise of real-time strategy video games by Westwood Studios and Electronic Arts Los Angeles. Revealed within the series' lore to be an ancient and secret society that allegedly predates most of civilization's recorded history, the Brotherhood of Nod began to represent a globalized as well as a highly militant Abrahamic cult during the futuristic era in which these games are set; showing the combined characteristics of a vast religious movement, a multi-national corporation and a decentralized nation-state, while being none of the three in itself. The society consistently is shown to be led by a mysterious, charismatic character who is known only as "Kane". Their emblem is a chamfered triangle enclosing a curved scorpion tail, featuring black and red as its main color elements. In an interview, Kane actor Joseph D. Kucan mentioned that the Brotherhood of Nod faction was an invention of Eydie Laramore in particular, with the two of them having extensively discussed biblical metaphor and imaged backstory.  The Scrin / The Invaders / The Visitors (Scrin)The Scrin are a fictional extraterrestrial race of intelligent beings in the Command & Conquer universe. Despite being new as a playable side, their origins as a faction go back throughout the Command & Conquer: Tiberian series. Little is known of them, except that they are believed to be responsible for the arrival of Tiberium on Earth and have come to Earth with the intention of mining it. In Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars the Scrin have become a major part of the game, as well as a playable faction. In the Tiberian Sun GDI campaign, GDI forces located and seized a massive alien vessel of unknown origin that was in the hands of the Brotherhood of Nod, identified as a "Scrin ship". Shortly afterward Nod forces tried to destroy the Scrin vessel to prevent any alien technology from falling into GDI hands. Another device of extraterrestrial origin is the Tacitus, a crystal-like orb that contains vast information on Tiberium as well as a "warning" regarding the Scrin invasion that would later occur in Tiberium Wars. The Tiberium Series' Games:  Command & Conquer - Tiberian Dawn (1995)Command & Conquer is set in the latter half of the 1990s after a meteorite crash lands near the river Tiber in Italy. The impact introduces an alien substance to the world dubbed Tiberium, which becomes of unprecedented value due to its unique property of leeching precious metals from the surrounding soil and crystallizing them. However, the process also causes emission of extremely toxic gases. An ancient and quasi-religious secret society, known as the Brotherhood of Nod, proves to somehow have foreseen the potentials of this new substance, and reveals itself to have been investing in the development of technology to harvest the Tiberium crystals ahead of the established scientific communities. They soon control almost half of the known supply of what has become the most valuable commodity on the global trade markets, and use these assets to sustain a rapidly growing army of followers worldwide under the leadership of a charismatic and self-proclaimed messianic figure, who is known only as Kane. Following a series of relentless international bombings which culminate in the destruction of the fictional Grain Trade Center in Vienna, a wave of mass panic and fear begins to sweep the globe. These acts are ultimately attributed to Brotherhood of Nod terrorists and their leader, Kane. The United Nations Security Council realizes Nod has systematically begun with the unfolding of a centuries-old plan for world domination, and sanctions the G7-based Global Defense Initiative task force to intervene on its behalf, inadvertently setting a conflict in motion that will escalate into a modern world war. The game itself is usually seen as the "father" of real-time strategy games on the PC (the true title would probably go to Dune II, also developed by Westwood). Like its predecessor, Command & Conquer was originally intended to be a high fantasy game featuring wizards and warriors. However, due to the political climate of the early 1990s, and the events of the Gulf War in particular, the developers felt that a contemporary war environment would be more accessible. The Tiberium substance was introduced to replace the spice from Dune II as the mined resource for building and expanding, with Louis Castle stating: "It solved one of the fundamental problems we had with making an RTS, which was that we wanted to have a central resource that everybody was fighting over." There are essentially two versions available: the MS-DOS version, which was later followed by a Windows version in the C&C Gold re-release. It features an improved engine and interface similar to that of its prequel, Command & Conquer: Red Alert. The new game engine runs at a resolution of 640×400, twice that of the original's 320×200 MCGA resolution. GDI campaign: The GDI campaign starts off with a beachhead invasion into NOD territory by hovercraft bearing infantry and humvees. Thus marks the start of GDI's attempts to drive NOD out of Europe for good. As the campaign wears on, GDI is plagued with a number of issues in hunting down NOD. These include being slammed in the NOD-controlled media, having their funding cut by member nations, and having to engage in subterfuge to take out well-defended NOD bases. In the end, however, GDI pins the leader of NOD, Kane, to the very first Temple of Nod, otherwise known as Temple Prime. They subsequently blast it from orbit with an ion cannon strike, seemingly killing Kane and ending the threat of NOD. Nod campaign: As a new commander to NOD, you start out working with Seth - the "Right Hand of Kane" - in elimiating the GDI presence in Africa. Part of the way into the campaign, Seth begins to conflict with Kane's ideals and is summarily executed by a gunshot to the head. Afterwards, you receive your orders directly from Kane. Using a combination of experimental weaponry, stealth tactics, and brute nuclear force, you manage to drive the GDI out of Africa and provide NOD with the base it needs to eliminate GDI completely. To mark the 12th anniversary of Command and Conquer, EA has released Command and Conquer: Tiberian Dawn for Windows as freeware. The game can be downloaded here.       Command & Conquer - Covert Operations (1996)An expansion pack titled The Covert Operations was released by Westwood Studios in 1996. It includes fifteen new "-very- difficult" single player missions, ten new multiplayer maps and seven new high quality CD audio tracks (as well as lower quality in-game versions). Unlike the original game's, the expansion's missions can be played at any time and in any order, and, with the exception of the dinosaur bonus missions, are not accompanied by briefing cutscenes. The expansion pack's files contain unused music tracks that are present in the DOS version of Command & Conquer, but not in the Windows 95 (Gold) version. Installing the expansion pack on older DOS versions of the game patches them to version 1.20. On Windows systems, a DOS emulator is needed to start the setup program. However, to install the expansion pack on the Windows 95 (Gold) version of the game, it is sufficient to just copy two specific files from the CD to the game directory.      Command & Conquer - Renegade (2002)If you've ever wanted to experience the battlefields of C&C from the perspective of a single unit (in this case, a GDI commando), then this is your game by far. In the singleplayer portion, you assume the role of Nick "Havoc" Parker and essentially run around in the final days of Tiberian Dawn and 1) blow poo poo up, 2) drive a Mammoth Tank around and blow poo poo up with that (there are, of course, other vehicles you can commandeer, but if you have the Mammoth, why should you?) and 3) hinder the Brotherhood in some evil biochemistry plot called "Project Re-Genesis". The missions take place both outside and inside buildings, which is neat, as is being able to see a Temple of Nod up close and personal. Objectives in the missions are categorized into three categories: primary, secondary and tertiary - you only need to complete the primary ones to advance. New characters include various mutants, GDI elite commandos known as the "Dead Six" and Nod elites such as the Black hand, Sakura, and Mendoza. The Multiplayer part was pretty nifty, but had its share of problems (most of which have been fixed by fan patches). Think of it as a GDI versus Nod map, complete with a functional base for each side, Tiberium harvesting (so there's the economy and protect the harvester aspect), and a bunch of gays running around on both teams trying to spawn the best poo poo available with the harvested tiberium. Also, damaging and destroying enemy units and structures earns points. You win by either eliminating the enemy base, having more points once the time is up, or on some servers if you detonate a superweapon in the enemy base. It can get goofy pretty fast, but it's also a lot of fun. While Westwood originally intended to make a sequel to Renegade set in the late Red Alert universe (known only as Renegade 2), the project was canceled before any official announcements were made. Concept art depicting Red Alert styled structures and vehicles can be found online, as well as a test level depicting a Soviet refinery. Active fan projects received permission from EA to release in a stand-alone fashion.      Command & Conquer - Sole Survivor (1997)Sole Survivor was by far the worst release from Westwood Studios. It was designed as something to try and take the C&C games into Quake- or UT-like top-down deathmatch territory, where players controlled a single unit on the map and had to collect crates to power them up, then try and kill the other players. It had absolutely no singleplayer mode. tl;dr - STAY AWAY AS FAR AS POSSIBLE.  Command & Conquer - Tiberian Sun (1999)Command & Conquer 2: Tiberian Sun takes place more than twenty years after the dramatic finale of Command & Conquer. The player joins the fight between the imperialistic Global Defensive Initiative and the hard-core revolutionaries that form the Brotherhood of Nod. Fed by the plentiful organic material found in the earth's temperate zones, the plentiful resource tiberium has expanded at an alarming rate. After turning a deaf ear to warnings of the possible side effects of prolonged exposure to tiberium years earlier, the horrific effects of tiberium mutation have forced the GDI to evacuate much of the population to arctic settlements to avoid contamination. The Brotherhood of Nod, already dealt a serious blow after the apparent loss of its charismatic leader Kane, seeks refuge from Tiberium in subterranean caves. Without Kane to guide them, the Nod have become fragmented and fractionalized and even more dangerous than before. The Nod begin to experiment with tiberium, looking for ways to enhance its population of elite troops and enlisted personnel through genetic mutation while GDI fights to maintain order in the remaining habitable land. Caught in the middle are the victims of the tiberium scourge - mutants neglected by GDI and abused by the Nod. They call themselves the Forgotten. And so a new generation of global conflict begins... GDI campaign: You play as a GDI commander working under the guidance of the highly-decorated Commander McNeil. NOD has been an underground organization for a long time, but with the apparent revival of Kane, it has begun to make its move on the world once again. Campaign missions for Tiberian Sun include fighting off enemy assaults during an ion storm, attempting to salvage a crashed Scrin ship, and retrieving the stolen Tacitus, which outlines the spread of Tiberium on Earth. In the campaign's conclusion, Kane is apparently killed by McNeil during a struggle in his hidden base. Nod campaign: The NOD campaign starts out with a civil war between different factions of NOD. One faction are the Kane loyalists that follow the memory of Kane, while another follows a leader under the influence of the GDI. Part of the way into the campaign, the GDI-controlled leader is executed and Kane makes his triumphant return. NOD then proceeds to disable the anti-missile defenses on GDI's space station, shoot it down, and launch a missile that covers the entire Earth in Tiberium. Canon: The Tiberian universe follows the events of GDI's campaign and the subsequent Firestorm expansion pack. Kane is supposedly killed, and GDI becomes even more powerful than before. NOD is once again forced underground to squabble amongst themselves, especially since the controlling AI CABAL has been destroyed. Tiberium still spreads across the surface of the planet, with the Tacitus disappearing into GDI's vaults and the mutants devolving even more. EA has released Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun and its expansion, Firestorm, as freeware. The game can be downloaded here.      Command & Conquer - Tiberium Sun - Firestorm (2000)The Firestorm expansion follows the events as they unfolded in the GDI campaign of Tiberian Sun. With the Brotherhood of Nod seemingly fractured into feuding warlords following Kane's second demise, Anton Slavik is determined to keep the dream alive through the resurrection of CABAL, a highly advanced AI developed by Nod. Unfortunately, CABAL betrays him and suddenly starts to use Nod's Tiberium cyborgs for its own evil purposes. The Global Defense Initiative, meanwhile, continues its ongoing attempt to stop the spread of Tiberium by retrieving the mysterious Tacitus device; however with the assassination of Tratos by the Brotherhood of Nod, they were left with no alternative than to use CABAL. GDI was later betrayed by the A.I. as soon as they recovered the last component of the Tacitus. The ever-increasing threat of the renegade A.I. eventually forces Slavik to approach the GDI with an alliance against a common foe. Campaign: The Firestorm campaign is unique in that it interweaves the campaigns of both sides into a single story instead of having them be two different stories. After the GDI campaign, the Nod supercomputer CABAL has gone insane and stolen control of all the Nod cyborgs and uses them to assassinate most of the Brotherhood's leaders, leaving them in chaos and largely leaderless. CABAL then begins to conquer the world through the systematic assimilation of human populations into its cyborg armies on a massive scale. CABAL also has access to the Tacitus, which is a great source of information on Tiberium. The missions themselves feature a couple of interesting ones which let you "play" as Slavic being presented as a unit on the field. It also features quite a bit of infiltration missions. After a while, the two factions stop going after CABAL separately and, uneasily, join forces to destroy his primary base and a cyborg super-unit that can be interprted as the prototype for the Nod Avatar warmech. At the very end, Kane is shown as "not dead" in a rather interesting way.      Command & Conquer 3 - Tiberium Wars (2007)Tiberium Wars takes place in the year 2047. While the conflict between the Global Defense Initiative and the Brotherhood of Nod appears to have subsided substantially ever since, Tiberium infestation has begun to reach critical levels and continues to destroy the Earth's ecosystems at an alarming rate, prompting GDI to divide the world into three different geographical zones based on the levels of local infestation. 30% of the world's surface has been designated as "Red Zones", which have suffered the worst contamination and can no longer support human or otherwise carbon-based life. 50% of the regions in the world have been designated as "Yellow Zones", which are dangerously contaminated yet contain most of the world's population. Decades of war and civil unrest have left these regions in a state of social collapse and have continued to provide the Brotherhood of Nod with opportunity for concealment as well as large-scale recruitment over the years. The remaining 20% of the Earth's surface is unscarred by Tiberium outbreak and is relatively untouched by war. These "Blue Zones" are considered the last refuge and hope of the human civilized world and have been placed under the direct protection of the Global Defense Initiative. Since the end of the Second Tiberium War, Nod has silently built up its influence and its military potential into the status of a true superpower, and by providing enforcement of stability, strategically placed medical aid and hate-mongering against GDI and the Blue Zone populations from within the Yellow Zone territories, the Brotherhood is now supported by a significant percentage of the world's population. At the advent of and during the "Third Tiberium War", the Brotherhood of Nod fires a nuclear missile at GDI's orbiting command station GDSS Philadelphia, destroying the fulcrum of GDI's senior command structure in a single major blow, then launches a worldwide offensive against the Global Defense Initiative, abruptly ending 17 years of silence and crippling GDI forces everywhere. With the odds tipped in the Brotherhood's favor this time, GDI field commanders rally their troops and begin to combat Nod's second re-emergence, trying to restore lost hope. As the conflict unfolds however, extraterrestrial forces known only as the "Scrin" suddenly enter in the battle, and alter the nature of the Third Tiberium War entirely. The story driven single player mode of Command & Conquer 3 consists of 38 missions, spread over three campaigns. Each campaign depicts the view of its respective faction on the globalized "Third Tiberium War", with the portrayed story being furthered by full motion video cutscenes which play in between each of the individual campaign missions. Players can select to start with either the Global Defense Initiative or the Brotherhood of Nod campaign. However, both campaigns of the traditional two factions are required to be completed before the bonus 4 part campaign of the new third Scrin faction is unlocked and becomes playable. Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars supports multiplayer games over LAN, and online play over Gamespy servers. Players can participate in "1v1", "2v2", and clan-based "1v1" and "2v2" ladders - each using separate Elo rating systems - or they can elect to play unranked. In addition to the official ladders, a number of independent ladders have been set up, the most prominent of which currently is "clanwars.cc". Campaign: The campaigns of Tiberium Wars interweave in a fashion similar to that of Firestorm, which was a first for a core Command and Conquer game. Tiberium Wars follows the outbreak of the Third Tiberium War, which commences once NOD launches a surprise attacks on blue zones across the world. They pull this off with surprising efficiency and almost completely cripple the GDI forces, but thanks to the herculean efforts of individual commanders, total collapse is prevented. THe GDI then proceed to counter-attack NOD forces, leading to the detonation of a massive liquid Tiberium bomb that kills a huge amount of people and summons the Scrin to Earth. The Scrin then begin building towers, with only one surviving the subsequent GDI attacks thanks to a combination of Scrin and NOD forces. The campaign ends with the finished tower becoming invincible to any human weaponry and Kane entering the tower using codes stolen from the Scrin.      Command & Conquer 3 - Kane's Wrath (2008)Kane's Wrath contains a Brotherhood of Nod campaign which spans 13 missions in length, spanning from the end of Tiberian Sun: Firestorm to Command & Conquer 3 and beyond. Broken into 3 linear sub-stories that tell Kane's story; Act 1 takes place between Tiberian Sun: Firestorm and Command & Conquer 3; Act 2 takes place separately, but during the events of Command & Conquer 3; and Act 3 shows a preview of the story to take place after Command & Conquer 3, leaving the player with a strong cliff-hanger. The entire Campaign Mode is played as Nod (a first for the series) from the perspective of the AI system LEGION, which the players represents. Kane's Wrath also features Subfactions for the existing three factions of Tiberium Wars, while also upgrading the vanilla factions.  GDI - The Steel Talons: a post-Second Tiberium War battalion, an experimental task force specialized in field testing cutting edge technologies for GDI's original and traditional "superior frontal firepower" doctrine, before future policies retired the bulk of the organization's walker arsenal in favor of improved space-based assets. This sub-faction features the Titan and Wolverine units from Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun. The Talons are not able to build Armories, limiting their infantry to riflemen squads, rocket squads, grenadier squads and their new pistol-armed combat engineers. GDI - ZOCOM: short for "Zone Operations Command", ZOCOM is an elite unit established after the Second Tiberium War which comprises the most veteran, high tech troopers of GDI, who have been equipped specifically to tackle the planet-wide Tiberium infestation and to begin the reclaiming of the Earth's Red Zones. ZOCOM units cater to technologies related to advanced sonic weaponry, special Tiberium-resistant powered armor as well as suppression and area-of-effect tactics. Zone Troopers are replaced with "Zone Raiders", their Orca gunships utilize special sonic payloads instead of their original weaponry, and ZOCOM also receives the most powerful incarnation of GDI's new sonic-based "Shatterer" unit.  Nod - Black Hand: A feared order of warrior priests within the Brotherhood of Nod, specialized in powerful and highly trained shock trooper infantry. The Black Hand’s standard infantry is the "Confessor Cabal"; a squad of six Confessor units armed with hallucinogenic grenades, as well as anti-infantry Gatling guns which can be upgraded with "Charged Particle Beams" to increase their firepower. The Black Hand's warmechs, an earlier model of the Avatar warmech, are called "Purifiers" and automatically come equipped with flamethrowers, yet cannot be further upgraded. The Black Hand forgo stealthed or air units entirely, a new vehicle called the "Mantis" serves as a specialized anti-aircraft vehicle for the faction. The new Specter artillery unit is still available to the Black Hand, but is not itself stealthed. Nod - Marked of Kane: A sinister sub-faction which epitomizes both the Brotherhood of Nod's stealthy methods and reliance on radically advanced cybernetic and Tiberium-based technologies and weaponry. The Marked of Kane replace the militia squads of Tiberium Wars with the "Awakened" cyborgs; heavy infantry units that are devastating against enemy infantry and which come with the innate ability to disable vehicles through EMP charges. Their elite "Enlightened" cyborg infantry squads are armed with super-charged particle beams and an EMP attack that has an even bigger radius than that of the Awakened. The Marked of Kane also receive deadly magnetic mines that slowly kill vehicles (unless removed by repair drones). Scrin - Reaper-17: Themed as the heavy “shock” faction of the Scrin, Reaper-17 possesses more powerful and effective vehicles and ground units. The trade-off for its enhanced ground power is a marked lack of the Mastermind and air units, except for Storm Riders and Drone Ships. The Gun Walker is upgraded and renamed as the "Shard Walker", whereas the Tripod has been upgraded to "Reaper Tripod", which converts Tiberium into extra damage in the same way the Devourer Tank can. Reaper-17 also has a new structure called the "Growth Stimulator", which functions as a normal Growth Accelerator in addition to providing a steady trickle of income like a Tiberium Spike.  Scrin - Traveler-59: The polar opposite of Reaper-17, Traveler-59 focuses on speed, teleportation and mind-control. It features new "Cultist" infantry units, as well as an upgraded Mastermind unit called the "Prodigy". Cultists have no regular attack, but can control units just like Masterminds without the build limit, but cannot take over air and epic units or structures. The Prodigy receives area-of-effect mind control and a personal blink pack in addition to its old abilities. Traveler aircraft are cheaper compared to the other two Scrin factions.Global Conquest mode: Kane's Wrath features a "Risk-like" gameplay mode called "Global Conquest", where players build and control their forces from a strategic, global level with the goal of either destroying all enemies or completing their side's alternate victory objective. Instead of the traditional Command & Conquer RTS gameplay, the mode uses a turn-based system where the player issues higher-level orders such as "build a base here" (to have the computer automatically build a base with preset structures) or "upgrade this base" (to have the computer automatically perform multiple structure upgrades on a base); the orders execute at the end of a turn and the other sides then get theirs. Combat in this mode occurs whenever two opposing forces collide on the world map; the battle can either be played traditionally (as a standard real-time C&C game) or be automatically resolved by the computer using the forces' relative strengths. Campaign: Kane's Wrath takes place as a campaign interweaving the events behind the scenes from Firestorm to after the events of the third game. After Firestorm, Kane manipulated his followers into re-uniting through political maneuvering and brute force. He then uses this united Brotherhood to rebuild CABAL as LEGION, a new AI that aids in the war against GDI before it is crippled through the interference of an insane NOD leader. After LEGION is reawakened, NOD retrieves the Tacitus from GDI and it is subsequently fused with Legion. The game ends in a cliffhanger that leads into Tiberium Twilight.      Command & Conquer 4 - Tiberian Twilight (2010, DRM Warning: Needs to be Online at all times) This game is absolute poo poo. Every warning and sperging you might have heard about it is pretty much true, it's not just because it got rid of base building and tiberium harvesting; the only enjoyment you could perhaps / possibly get out of it is 5vs5 online matches. It's basically a resurrected corpse of Command & Conquer: Arena with a lovely singleplayer campaign added to it, yet still using multiplayer game mechanics. If you ABSOLUTELY have to get it, wait for a sale somewhere and get it for like 5 bucks or something. Ugh. Okay, to be absolutely fair, the soundtrack is actually fantastic.          ONLINE DISCLAIMER PERSISTENT INTERNET CONNECTION, EA ACCOUNT, REGISTRATION WITH ENCLOSED SERIAL CODE AND ACCEPTANCE OF END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT REQUIRED TO PLAY. SOFTWARE REGISTRATION IS LIMITED TO ONE EA ACCOUNT PER SERIAL CODE AND IS NON-TRANSFERABLE. YOU MUST BE 13+ TO REGISTER FOR AN EA ACCOUNT. EULA, EA ONLINE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND FEATURE UPDATES CAN BE FOUND AT https://www.ea.com. EA MAY PROVIDE CERTAIN INCREMENTAL CONTENT AND/OR UPDATES FOR NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE, IF AND WHEN AVAILABLE. EA MAY RETIRE ONLINE FEATURES AFTER 30 DAYS NOTICE POSTED ON https://www.ea.com. Tecman fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Sep 9, 2012 |
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 The Red Alert Series aka "The one where you harvest Ore / Minerals" This series of games began as a prequel for Tiberian Dawn, but ended up spinning off its own style of games, which are usually more humorous and lighthearted. While this series is now considered as standalone, it wasn't always like that. Westwood Studios designed Red Alert to be the prequel of Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn, and by proxy of the Tiberian series as a whole. A much debated theory intended to resolve the apparent timeline error which came to exist between Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 is to consider Red Alert as the genesis of two parallel storylines. If the Soviet campaign were to be completed in Red Alert, the USSR would emerge as the dominant Eurasian power and Kane and the Brotherhood of Nod would subsequently take control of this new empire. Conversely, if the Allied campaign were to be completed, the Allies would emerge victorious and the timeline would instead lead into the events of Red Alert 2 (though Red Alert 2 completely ignores anything that could connect it to the Tiberium timeline). According to former C&C designer Adam Isgreen, however, Tiberian Dawn in fact follows on the conclusion of Red Alert's Allies campaign, while Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge take place in a second parallel universe, created by a new attempt to alter history in "Tiberian Incursion", the working title of Westwood Studios' cancelled version of Command & Conquer 3. Isgreen also implied that Nikola Tesla may have been responsible for inadvertently having attracted the attention of the Scrin through his experiments, and thus for the arrival of Tiberium on Earth. When the Command & Conquer: The First Decade compilation pack was released in February 2006, Electronic Arts adopted the policy of considering the C&C franchise to consist of three distinct universes, with this decision apparently violating the storyline connections between Red Alert and Tiberian Dawn established by Westwood Studios. With the release of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars in March 2007 however, Electronic Arts published a document wherein an explicit reference to Kane's appearance in Red Alert is made—revealing that GDI's "InOps" intelligence division is in the possession of photos of Kane which were taken by CIA operatives during the 1950s era of Red Alert.  The Allied NationsThe Allies, otherwise known as the Allied Forces, are a military alliance between the nations of Europe during the Great World War II. The organization was formed in 1946, primarily to deal with Soviet aggression against any first or second world powers and uphold the ideals defined in the World Association of Nations (predecessor of United Nations) charter. By the time of the Great World War III its primary members were America, France, Germany, Great Britain, and South Korea. It originally served as a unified military command of European armies. The Allies could not match the might of the Soviet forces, with much of Europe falling. Because of the swiftness and brutality of the Soviet strike, most governments were unable to coordinate effectively or where devastated by the invasions. As a result, the Allied forces had to also operate both as a unified command and governing body for the alliance. Despite early drawbacks, the Allies managed to hold off the Soviet onslaught and turn the tide. But the European Allies rallied and finally defeated the USSR at the a high cost of lives. The United States eventually joins the Allies, providing needed resources, troops, and officers. The USSR was defeated by the alliance, but at a high cost in lives.  The Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was the communist superpower that attempted to liberate Europe during Great World War II and Great World War III. The Soviet Generals usualy use Numbers to defeat their enemies, believing that assaulting with a large number of untrained units (Conscripts) and heavy tanks are the way to go. While gaining the upper hand initially, it soon found itself outmaneuvered and eventually defeated in the three conflicts by the Allied Forces. With the defeat of the USSR, the Allies began to help rebuild the defeated nation. The USSR was stripped of much of its former glory, including its air force. The United States set up Alexander Romanov as a puppet ruler. Premier Romanov appeared to be a man of peace, and even founded the World Socialist Alliance to aid developing nations. However, the pacifism of Romanov was a ruse. Even though the United States did not have a strong participation in the European Campaign of the Second Great World War, with the exception of food, medical, and arms aids to the Allied Nations, Romanov blamed the United States for the defeat of the Red Army and the USSR in the Great World War 2.  YuriYuri was a powerful psychic that was once Premier Romanov's chief advisor and later turned against the world in a bid to take it over with his army of genetically altered humans and beasts. Most likely, he, not Romanov, was the true ruler of the USSR in the 1970s. His appearance bears an uncanny resemblance to Vladimir Lenin, with a bald head and goatee. On his forehead are tattooed three Hebrew letters "resh", "vav", and "yod", and an odd machine is surgically implanted into his skull, possibly some sort of psionic amplifier for his powers. Yuri played a key part in both the preparation and execution of the Soviet invasion of the USA, using his mind-control technology to prevent nuclear retaliation, and later to turn the American population into mindless slaves via giant Psychic Beacons. After the Allies had finally defeated Romanov's forces through a surprise Chronosphere invasion of Moscow, Yuri resurfaced. However, he had abandoned his former employers, and revealed that during the war, he had raised an army of his own and a planned to take over the world with mind-controlling Psychic Dominators in specific points all over the world. The Allies and Soviets took up arms against Yuri, using the Allied-built time machine to travel back in time and stop Yuri from carrying out his plan.  The Empire of the Rising SunThe Empire of the Rising Sun is the Imperial regime of Japan, led by the Emperor and the Shogunate. Located in East Asia, the Empire is the third superpower with the Allies and the Soviet Union. The Empire of the Rising Sun suddenly emerged to World War III to seek its "divine destiny" to subjugate mankind to serve the Emperor and rule the world without capitalism and communism. Influenced by nationalism, militarism and imperialism, the Empire has adopted aggressive policies, viewing the Allies and Soviets nothing more than "barbaric oppressors". The Empire of the Rising Sun accidentally came to existence in the current timeline, in which the greatest mind of the 20th century, Albert Einstein, was removed from space-time continuum by "future" Premier Cherdenko. Currently however they are trying to repair the aftermath of Forever Sets the Sun. The Red Alert Series' Games:  Command & Conquer - Red Alert 1 (1996)Command & Conquer: Red Alert takes place during an unspecified period in the 1950s of a parallel universe, which was inadvertently created by Albert Einstein in a failed attempt to prevent the horrors of World War II. Starting off in 1946, at the Trinity site in New Mexico, the opening to Red Alert shows Albert Einstein as he is preparing to travel backwards through space and time. After his experimental "Chronosphere" device is activated, he finds himself in Landsberg, Germany, in the year 1924, where he meets a young Adolf Hitler just after the latter's release from Landsberg Prison. Following a brief conversation between the two, Einstein shakes Hitler's hand, with this somehow eliminating the man's existence from time and returning Einstein to his point of origin. With the threat of Nazi Germany having been successfully removed from history, the Soviet Union began to grow increasingly powerful under the rule of Joseph Stalin. Had Adolf Hitler risen to power, Nazi Germany would have emerged as a force standing in the way of Stalin's own ambitions of conquest. Instead, left unweakened, the USSR proceeds by seizing lands from China and then begins invading Eastern Europe, in order to achieve Joseph Stalin's vision of a Soviet Union stretching across the entire Eurasian landmass. In response, the nations of Europe form into the Alliance, and start a grim and desperate guerrilla war against the invading Soviet army. Over the course of the game's story, the Allies and Soviets fight out a devastating conflict for control over the European mainland, in what has become an alternate World War II. The game balance between the forces of the Allied and Soviet armies differed from other games at its time. Like the 'rock-paper-scissors' balancing of modern games, Red Alert required each player to use their side's strengths in order to compensate for their weaknesses. This stood in contrast to games such as Total Annihilation or Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, in which both sides had units with similar abilities and relied instead on outnumbering or possessing a better balanced force than their opponent. Players acquire credits to purchase structures and equipment by mining for ores and minerals (as the valuable, yet volatile Tiberium in the regular C&C series has not yet been discovered in this timeline). Rare gems generate more credits and are faster to mine, but unlike ores, do not regenerate within the map. Players can gain more credits and increase their buying power by building more ore factories and ore trucks. The Soviets' vehicles tend to be more durable and powerful than Allied vehicles, but are often slower moving and more expensive. The Soviets also have superior defensive capabilities against both ground attacks (Tesla Coil) and air attacks (Surface to Air Missiles), but are at a disadvantage on the sea. The only offensive naval unit the Soviets have is the submarine, which cannot attack land-based targets or aircraft, so it is useless unless the opponent builds any sea units, and while it is normally invisible except when surfacing to attack, it can be detected by destroyers and gunboats. When heavily damaged, it is not able to submerge. The Soviets' secret weapon is the Iron Curtain, a device that renders a selected unit invulnerable to attacks for a short period of time. In online play and computer skirmish, they have access to two of the Allied side's infantry: the Rocket Soldier and Tanya, a commando capable of easily killing infantry and destroying structures. They also have a wide selection of air units for assault (MiG-27, Yak-7 and Mi-24 Hind) and map revelation through spy planes, and could deploy infantry by air through paratroops or by the Chinook transport helicopter (the latter only present in multiplayer). The Soviet "tank rush" was a popular strategy online, involving building many heavy tanks and overwhelming the opponent with sheer numbers. The Allies' forces are generally cheaper, faster to build and more agile. Their minelayers can destroy enemy armour and their infantry can survive longer with good use of their Medic unit. They are at a disadvantage on land, as the Allies' strongest tank (the Medium Tank) is still weaker than the Soviets' starting tank (the Heavy Tank) and has the same speed. The Allies have only one air unit (AH-64D Apache Longbow) compared to three Soviet units and their defences against a ground assault are much weaker. On the sea, the Allies possess an advantage in naval power thanks to the Cruiser, which has the longest-ranged and most powerful surface-to-surface attack in the game, and the Destroyer, which is capable of adeptly taking on any type of unit type in the game - land, sea or air. The Allies' secret weapon is the Chronosphere, which temporarily relocates a selected unit to another part of the map. They also possess several other tools, such as stealing enemy resources, hiding their own units and structures, or revealing the game map with satellite technology. In online play and computer skirmish, Allied forces have access to the nuclear missile silo, an exclusive in the Soviets' single-player mode. Allied: Through the ripple effect produced by Einstein eliminating Adolf Hitler from history with the Chronosphere, the USSR never had a force to oppose it and check Stalin's growing power. Uninhibited by the elite German armies, Stalin decided to conquer the entire Eurasian continent. Upon launching a surprise attack on Europe, the Allies were forced into waging a guerrilla war against the vastly more powerful Soviet forces. This proves to be incredibly successful, and Stalin's forces are pushed back farther and farther until he is buried alive under rubble during an assault on his main stronghold. Following the destruction of the Soviet stronghold, an Allied platoon discovers Stalin buried alive in the rubble. Before they begin to remove the debris from the fallen leader, General Stavros stops them. He convinces them that they saw nothing and before they leave, Stavros stuffs a handkerchief down Stalin's mouth before covering his head with a large stone and walking away. This forces Kane, who was using the Soviet Union to get to power, and his Brotherhood underground, leading to the events of the first Command & Conquer. This has later on been retconned and now officially leads to the events of Red Alert 2. Soviet: The Soviet campaign starts out the same way that the Allied campaign does, but diverges sharply after. Instead of being stymied by the guerrilla tactics of the Allies, Stalin's forces have no problem wrecking the Allied armies. As the Soviets celebrate their victory in the newly-captured Buckingham Palace, Stalin commends the Commander for a job well done while drinking a cup of tea, only to suddenly realize the tea has been poisoned by Nadia. A disgruntled Nadia proceeds to gun him down as the poison overcomes his body. Following Stalin's death, Nadia tells the Commander that the Soviet Union is now under the rule of the Brotherhood of Nod, who plan to return to the shadows again and re-emerge in the 1990s, leaving the player as the puppet ruler of the USSR, ready to do the Brotherhood's bidding for "the foreseeable future". She is betrayed and shot in the back by Kane, who reveals himself to be the true mastermind. This leads to the events of the first Command & Conquer. EA has released Command and Conquer: Red Alert for Windows as freeware. The game can be downloaded here.      Command & Conquer - Red Alert 1 - Counterstrike (1997)In 1997, two expansion packs for Red Alert were released for the PC, Command & Conquer: Red Alert: Counterstrike, and Command & Conquer: Red Alert: The Aftermath. The expansion packs were designed by Westwood Studios with the "apprenticeship" of Intelligent Games; a London based game developer. Much of the development on multiplayer maps was undertaken by players from the Compuserve Red Alert ladder. New units, missions, maps and music were included in the expansions. Of particular note with the Counterstrike add-on is the addition of the secret Ant Missions titled "It came from Red Alert", where the player battles against giant red ants with Allied Forces and Soviet units. The Secret Ant Missions themselves can be accessed by holding down either SHIFT key, then left-clicking on the speaker in the top right corner of the main menu. The ants are a difficult opponent, as not only do they come in overwhelming numbers, even their lightest units can easily cut a swathe through the player's men and can take substantial amount of damage. The ants have access to scout ants, a melee only anti-infantry unit, the soldier ant, which is essentially a more powerful scout ant, the fire ant, which literally spews forth fireballs from its maw, the Tesla ant, which can generate and discharge powerful electrical bolts, and the queen ant, whom is treated as a structure by the game's engine, this however does not detract from her lethality as she can fire incredibly powerful bolts of lightning that are easily more deadly than those of the Tesla ant.  Command & Conquer - Red Alert 1 - The Aftermath (1997)The Aftermath add-on, however, added many new units available in single and multiplayer modes. New Allied units include the Field Mechanic and the Chrono Tank. New Soviet units include the Missile Sub, the Shock Trooper, the M.A.D Tank and the Tesla Tank. In addition, both sides receive the Demolition Truck. The add-on also includes hundreds of new maps as well as a new, significantly larger, map size. A cited difficulty with the add-ons is that Counterstrike and The Aftermath share a single list in the game menu, with Counterstrike's missions excluded unless its disc is in use prior to opening the menu. This issue is fixed with the Red Alert v3.03 (beta) patch, which separates the single "New Missions" list into two lists, one for each expansion.  Command & Conquer - Red Alert 2 (2000)Like all other Command & Conquer real-time strategy games, up until the expansion pack of Tiberian Sun and Firestorm, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 contains two distinct story lines depending on which faction the player wishes to play as. Both of the story lines differ in several distinct ways. However, the Allied story line is canon due to the way in which the expansion pack continues. After the attempted conquest of Europe, the Soviet Union is in utter ruin. Joseph Stalin is dead, and the Soviet military has been all but destroyed. The Allies determine that a regime change would cause mass unrest in the Soviet Union, and in order to gain both support and stability in the region, the victorious Allies name Alexander Romanov, a distant relative of Tsar Nicholas II, as the puppet Soviet Premier. Romanov acquiesces to the Allies' demands at first, though he builds up the Soviet military for "defense purposes" – a cover for an intended invasion of the United States of America. The game's story line starts off with the American military being caught completely off guard by the sudden massive Soviet invasion of the USA, with Soviet aircraft, naval vessels, amphibian forces, and paratroopers coming in on both the East Coast and West Coast and with the majority of Soviet ground forces coming in through Mexico, which had recently voted in a communist government. The USA attempts to retaliate with the use of nuclear missiles, but Yuri, leader of the Soviet Psychic Corps and Premier Romanov's top advisor, uses his mind control to manipulate the personnel charged with launching the warheads and leaves them to explode in their silos. Within hours, the USA is overrun with Red Army troops. In response, the US President Michael Dugan establishes an emergency response team headed by General Carville and the Commander (the player). Like previous Command & Conquer games, the two factions in Red Alert 2 have unique armies with their own strengths and weaknesses. To achieve victory, a player must play to their faction's strengths and exploit the other faction's weaknesses. In general, the Soviet faction is superior in the early game and in land wars because of their very powerful and advanced tanks, while the Allied faction is better in the late game with more advanced units, in naval warfare. In particular, the Soviets are better for early game rushes, which are very common in online games. The Allies tend to be better at longer games and/or big maps because they are more suited to "turtling" but the Soviets are usually better at shorter games and/or smaller maps because they are more suited to "rushing". While the Soviets are more suited to rushing, the base defenses they have are arguably inferior to Allied ones. Red Alert 2 contains three campaigns. Boot Camp, Allied, and Soviet. Each campaign is distinct in its own way. Boot Camp is simply a tutorial campaign consisting of two missions in which the player is introduced to the fundamentals of the game with the use of Allied forces. If played, Boot Camp leads into Allied Campaign chronologically. Allied and Soviet campaigns are the two main campaigns of the game, each consisting of twelve missions in which the player faces off against one or more computer-controlled opponents. In some missions, the objective is simply to defeat all opposing forces in the area; other missions have more specific objectives, such as capturing or destroying a particular enemy structure or defending a particular structure of the player's own from enemy attacks. While fundamentally different in story and units, both Campaigns are structured similarly. Both begin with the player operating a limited base (base with only basic construction available) while commanding an unusually large force against an unusually incompetent foe. Both campaigns end with the player given a hero's welcome at finishing off the remnants of the opposing forces. The game also features a Multiplayer (LAN or Online Mode) and a Skirmish mode (with the ability to custom-generate maps from some simple input-data sliders). Allied: Red Alert 2 starts off the same way for both campaigns. Under the influence of Yuri, Premier Romanov launches a massive attack on the United States. Disabling their nuclear silos, he proceeds to invade the mainland from almost every direction. Playing as the Allied commander, you drive the Soviets out of America and back to Russia, where you capture the Kremlin and imprison Romanov. Throughout the campaign you are introduced to the dangers of psionics and Soviet influence, as several main caracters are controlled or killed during the course of the campaign. Soviets: The Soviet invasion of the Americas goes off without a hitch, relatively. The real issue is internally. Yuri uses his mind control to make Romanov declare him the leader of the Soviets before killing him. The commander learns of this much later on his way to a meeting with Yuri. Instead of going to meet Yuri normally, the commander brings a massive army, which parallels the last mission of the Allied campaign. He then destroys the Kremlin, presumably killing Yuri and ending his psychic threat. Canon: The canonical campaign for Red Alert 2 is the Allied campaign, as it forces the Soviets into a position of submission, which is where they are at in the starting cinematic of Red Alert 3. However, no characters make the transition between the games, even though Red Alert 3's start can't be too far from the end of Red Alert 2. It depicts a Soviet leader's office under assault, after all. The events of Yuri's Revenge are not mentioned in canon (although it is possible they took place), so we will not be covering them.      Command & Conquer - Red Alert 2 - Yuri's Revenge (2001)In Command and Conquer: Yuri's Revenge, the story starts off assuming the Allies won in Red Alert 2. The plot is based around Yuri, the former head of the Soviet Psychic Corps, coming out of hiding to take over the world by using his Psychic Dominators. These devices have the power to mind-control everyone in the world. The game begins with a presidential briefing in the White House concerning Yuri and how he has begun to begin his take over of the world through mind control. Yuri interrupts the briefing to explain how he plans to take over the world, telling the American President Michael Dugan that he has a network of Psychic Dominators around the world, which he is now beginning to reveal. One of Yuri's Psychic Dominators is on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, which Yuri activates just before ending his transmission to the White House. The President immediately calls in an airstrike on the device, but all the attacking aircraft are shot down, although one crashes into the nuclear reactor on the island, causing the device to lose power and to not function. Despite this, Yuri activates his other Psychic Dominators around the world and the majority of the planet quickly succumbs to Yuri's mind-control. The gameplay for Yuri's Revenge is very similar to that of its predecessor, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2. The object of the game is to gather resources while training an army to defend the player's base and attack the player's enemies. This game, like real-time strategy games in general, requires much multi-tasking to ensure a victory. Several new units have been added to the Allied and Soviet armies, and an entirely new set of units and buildings have been created for Yuri's army. His units generally rely on mind control abilities and cunning rather than brute force. The multiplayer community has established Yuri to be superior to the other factions at all levels of play, due primarily to his unique ability to immobilize entire advancing armies with Magnetrons and Masterminds. Many have gone so far as to ban Yuri's forces from matches altogether for their unbalancing effect. The Allies gain some key units, the anti-tank Guardian GI, the versatile Battle Fortress, and the Navy SEAL. (a mission unit from Red Alert 2) The Soviet additions have only a small impact on their overall strategy, but the game now allows them to produce their heavier tanks at the same speed as the Allies and Yuri, rather than a rate relative to price.      Command & Conquer - Red Alert 3 (2008)The game is set in a parallel universe in which World War II never happened—in the original Red Alert, Albert Einstein travelled back in time and removed Hitler in the 1920s. After an Allied victory in Red Alert 2, the Soviet leaders travelled back in time and removed Albert Einstein in 1927, preventing the Allies from creating atomic weapons while the Soviet Union rose to power, battling the Allies in the 1950s. In this game, the Empire of the Rising Sun rises to power as a threat as well (an unintentional result of the Soviets' time travelling). All three factions are playable, with the main gameplay involving constructing a base, gathering resources, and training armies composed of land, sea, and airborne units to defeat other players. Each faction has a fully co-operative campaign, playable with an Artificial Intelligence or with another human player online. These campaigns follow a storyline, with specific mission objectives and unit restrictions applied. Unrestricted skirmish play against the computer and multiplayer via LAN or online is also available. Red Alert 3 retains the core RTS mechanics of the Command & Conquer series. Warring factions harvest resources using vulnerable collectors and then use those resources to construct military bases and forces on-site. Structures form a shallow but wide tech tree with a variety of units and elusive superweapons. Weapon types are specialized to the point where a rifleman can withstand direct hits from an anti-tank cannon. Red Alert 3's major refinements are the addition of the Empire of the Rising Sun to the factions of the sub-series, similar to what Tiberium Wars did with the Scrin faction, a co-operative campaign, and expanded naval warfare. The "single-player" campaign is now fully co-operative. Each mission is played alongside an ally. When played online, this is another human player. Offline it is one of several computer-controlled characters. Teams share income and generally start with the same forces. Computerized characters can be given simple commands, such as an order to take a specific position or to strike a specific target. The campaign has nine missions for each side. Each side's plotlines are mutually exclusive, unlike Tiberium Wars and its preceding and following expansion packs, but like the rest of the Command & Conquer games. Naval warfare is emphasized as another front. Executive producer Chris Corry has stated that many units are now amphibious, trading effectiveness for increased flexibility. Buildings and entire bases can be constructed on water, save for such things as ground unit production facilities, and players who "ignore the ocean [are] likely forfeiting a significant part of their potential economy to their opponents." Further stressing this is the fact that, despite some campaign maps being entirely land based, all multiplayer maps have significant bodies of water in them. The central premise of all three campaigns is the same, although each follows a different variation of the storyline. Facing defeat at the hands of the Allies (presumably after the end of Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge), Soviet General Nikolai Krukov and Colonel Anatoly Cherdenko use a time machine beneath the Kremlin to travel back to Brussels in the year 1927 at the International Physics Conference and eliminate Albert Einstein. This prevents him from creating the technology that allowed the Allies to defeat the Soviet Union in the previous games. Returning to the present, General Krukov discovers that Cherdenko is the Premier of the Soviet Union and that the Soviets are on the brink of conquering Europe. However, without Einstein's existence, the Empire of the Rising Sun has risen in Japan. They have also decided to declare war against the Allies and Soviet Union. Finding that the Soviets' nuclear weapons don't exist anymore without Einstein's existence, the Soviet Union is forced, along with the Allies, into a three-way war with the Empire. Allied: The Red Alert 3 universe starts off the same way for every faction. The Soviets have gone back in time and killed Einstein, thus diverging the Red Alert timeline even further and spawning an Empire of the Rising Sun. The Allies start off fighting a losing battle against the Soviet invasion force, with Britain being the last stronghold in Europe. However, under the player's guidance, the Allies manage to push back the Soviets, eliminate most of the Imperial leaders, and imprison the Soviet premier and his leading general for crimes against humanity. Soviets: The Soviets start out on the brink of victory over the Allies, only to have the Empire come in and ruin their good time. They manage to push back the Empire, killing the Emperor and crippling its forces, before turning towards the Allies. After the Allies are defeated, the Soviet Premier attempts to kill the player, which results in a counter-attack on his volcano base that kills him. The campaign ends with the player becoming the new Soviet Premier. Empire: Japan has become the Empire of the Rising Sun in Red Alert 3, and their expansionist philosophy is extremely radical. Utilizing advanced technology, they overcome Soviet forces and kill the Soviet leaders after finding out that they had changed the timeline. Afterwards, the Empire rolls over the Allied war machine, eliminating the Allied HQ and destroying their main defense contractor, leaving the Empire as the only world superpower.      Command & Conquer - Red Alert 3 - Uprising (2009)Uprising is a stand-alone expansion to Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 released only for Microsoft Windows and offered via digital distribution. It does not require Red Alert 3 to play. It features about 30 new maps for traditional skirmish with many of these taking place in new environments. It does not contain any multiplayer elements such as cooperative play, online play or network play. A part of Uprising called Commander's Challenge was also released as Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Commander's Challenge on PlayStation Store and Xbox Live for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 respectively. It functions as a stand-alone game and does not require Red Alert 3 to play. Commander's Challenge contains only the Commander's Challenge mode of Uprising and the new units and weapons, but not the campaign or skirmish modes. Uprising picks up on where the Allied Campaign of the original game left off. Four "mini-campaigns" are available, one for each faction in Red Alert 3 and a bonus one centered around the origins of the Empire's commando Yuriko Omega. Each of the campaigns is three missions long, with the exception of the Soviet one, which consists of four. Initially only the Soviet and Yuriko campaigns are available, the campaigns for the Allies and the Empire of the Rising Sun becoming available after finishing the first mission in the Soviet campaign. The Soviet campaign focuses on the remaining Soviet resistance trying to stop FutureTech, the Allied defense contractor, which plans to create a super weapon called the "Sigma Harmonizer" (a device to selectively stop time). The Allied campaign concentrates on defeating several renegade Imperial warlords who still resist Allied occupational forces. Emperor Tatsu has seemingly begun to cooperate with the Allies, but ends up with trying to defeat the commander, as his power is restored by the fall of Takara, the last enemy commander in the Allied campaign. The Empire's campaign covers the fight against the Soviets who attempt to conquer parts of Japan. The Allies are also partially involved. Emperor Tatsu greets the commander at first mission. On the second he orders the commander to protect the tomb of his father Yoshiro, the Emperor of the Rising Sun in Red Alert 3. The Yuriko campaign recounts the story of her creation, her captivity by the Allies and her fight to rescue her sister. The Yuriko campaign uses different controls and camera than the rest of the game, allowing only to see the screen in which Yuriko is located and disabling the sidebar including minimap. Basically it's Anime-Diablo-semi-RTS and personally, I can't loving stand it.  New units: Allied Nations: Harbinger Gunship (A heavy anti-surface support plane), Pacifier FAV (A powerful amphibious anti-surface long-range field artillery vehicle), Cryo Legionnaire (Advanced anti-surface support infantry. Amphibious), Future Tank X-1 (An advanced anti-surface robotic tank) Empire of the Rising Sun: Steel Ronin (Heavy anti-surface pilot-assisted robot), Archer Maiden (Advanced anti-surface/anti-air infantry), Giga-Fortress (A powerful sea/air transformable anti-surface & anti-air/heavy bombardment unit) Soviet Union: Reaper (Heavy anti-surface/anti-air walker. Can permanently transform into stationary Reaper Turret), Grinder (Anti-surface armored vehicle. Capable of destroying any unit or building (including Construction Yards) in seconds.), Desolator (Advanced anti-infantry infantry), Mortar Cycle (Anti-surface fast attack vehicle)    
Tecman fucked around with this message at 02:51 on Mar 12, 2011 |
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 The Generals Series aka "The One That Was Very Different"  The United States (USA)The United States is the most technologically-advanced faction, and fights with a combination of powerful ground units and a large, versatile fleet of aircraft. USA forces rely on skill, mobility, and high technology to defeat the raw firepower of China and the guerilla tactics of the GLA. USA ground vehicles can construct unmanned drones to support and repair them in combat, and American troops and vehicles make extensive use of laser technology to guide weapons and defend against attack. American infantry have a number of special abilities, and include stealthy long-ranged snipers and a powerful commando named Colonel Burton with a number of abilities revolving around demolition and stealth. The USA also fields the largest air fleet in the game, including attack and transport helicopters, fighter planes, high speed bombers and stealth bombers. American Generals' abilities revolve around air power, including air strikes by A-10 Thunderbolt IIs and fuel air bombs. USA forces work best in a combined arms approach, with air power supporting tanks and artillery, which in turn support infantry, which in turn protect armor and aircraft, enabling them to defeat a much larger but less diverse enemy force. The USA has a major disadvantage, however, in that it has the slowest resource gathering in the game in comparison to troop costs, it has a less stable supply of power than China, and its high-tech units are very expensive. This can be remedied by building a large amount of Supply Drop Zones. This forces a USA player to construct a smaller, more specialized army than a Chinese or GLA player, and work to minimize losses. Chinese and GLA opponents can swarm a comparatively small American army and overwhelm it. The United States' superweapon is the Particle Uplink Cannon, which fires off a giant laser beam into space and is reflected to the desired target. This superweapon recharges itself faster than the Nuclear missile or the SCUD storm.  ChinaThe People's Liberation Army relies largely on raw power and massive numbers, culminating in a variety of powerful and heavily armored tanks, and has limited air power based on MiG Multirole Fighters. China's heavy-handed playstyle emphasizes direct assaults and sheer power to defeat American technology and GLA stealth. Chinese troops and tanks gain special bonuses when in groups, and make extensive use of propaganda (passive healing) to support their troops. China has a wide range of vehicle types, and the largest tank arsenal in the game, including several specialized tanks like the anti-infantry "Dragon" tank, super-heavy "Overlord" tank, and two separate types of artillery units. Chinese forces also make heavy use of gattling, nuclear, and napalm weaponry to destroy the enemy. China also utilizes advanced electronic warfare technology, including elite hackers, a spy called Black Lotus, and electromagnetic pulse weapons. The Chinese "nuke cannon" and "inferno cannon" are the only artillery units whose ammunition cannot be intercepted by any defenses. China has a major disadvantage in that its ground forces are generally slower than those of the other two factions. Due to having virtually no fast attack units, except for their MiGs, China is forced to make large, ponderous assaults with heavy units, a tactic that can be countered by the GLA's speed or the USA's air power. However, the Chinese forces are well-suited to winning drawn-out battles of attrition. China's unique superweapon is the Nuclear Missile, in which a rocket is fired off and creates a "mushroom cloud" upon detonation at the desired target.  Global Liberation Army (GLA)A rebel organization of Middle Eastern and former Soviet origins, GLA initially wages war against China for control of central Asian economic areas. Being technologically disadvantaged, the GLA has comparatively weak (though highly mobile) ground vehicles and virtually no air force, prompting the use of guerrilla tactics such as mining, suicide bombing, hijacking, and ambushing. The GLA has a larger array of infantry types and vehicles (including Technicals) to make up for this disadvantage, and has the widest range of stealth options. The GLA also has a very powerful economy, with various resource-gathering techniques such as salvaging wreckage, gaining cash bounties on destroyed enemy units, and building multiple "black market" structures to bring in large amounts of money over time. Also, the GLA are unique in that they have no energy requirement for any of their structures or units, and any power input available to a GLA player due to captured power plants will boost productivity even further. The GLA's upgrades make it more powerful when fully equipped, transforming a relatively weak group of units into a more respectable threat. The GLA is also unique in that its structures, particularly base defenses, rebuild themselves over time unless completely destroyed; this makes it difficult to permanently damage the GLA with many single-shot weapons or units. The GLA's toxic weapons, suicide units, and stealth and surprise abilities enable it to hit enemies from unexpected directions, and its powerful economy, combined with cheap, fast units, enables it to flood opponents with sheer numbers. The GLA's primary disadvantage is that, in terms of firepower, range, and durability, its units are outmatched by Chinese and American units, and it has a complete lack of air power. This forces a GLA player to outmaneuver or outnumber opponents, as in an even, direct confrontation the GLA will lose to superior Chinese firepower and American technology. The Generals Series' Games:  Command & Conquer - Generals (2003)Generals takes place in the near future, with players given a choice of three factions to play. In Generals, the United States and China are the world's two superpowers, and are the targets of the Global Liberation Army, a large, well-organized terrorist organization, fighting as a fanatical irregular force. The United States and China are depicted as allies in the series, and frequently co-operate with each other throughout the storyline against the Global Liberation Army, which is depicted as an omnipresent, borderless organization with unclear goals beyond opposition to and expulsion of both China and the United States. The three factions are thus engaged in a war similar to that of the real-life War on Terror. The player can play any of the three sides in any order, with each side's campaign consisting of seven missions. The storyline follows the order of China first, then the GLA, then the USA. In this order, China retaliates for a devastating GLA nuclear attack on Beijing, destroys the Three Gorges Dam, uses China's nuclear arsenal and eventually completely crushes the GLA cell masterminding all Pacific rim operations. The GLA campaign then begins, with the organization trying to recover from its recent setback at the hands of the Chinese by raising funds and instigating attacks against their American and Chinese antagonists, eventually culminating in the overtaking of the Baikonur Cosmodrome and the firing of a Soyuz rocket bearing a biological MIRV at a unnamed city. At this point the American campaign begins in which the USA engages the GLA across several locales, including Baghdad and the Caspian Sea, before defeating a rogue Chinese general supporting the terrorists and tracking them back to their base of operations in Akmola, Kazakhstan. Command and Conquer Generals operates like most other real-time strategy games, in that the player must construct a base, acquire resources, build various combat and support units, and defeat their opponent(s). Various unit types can be constructed, ranging from infantry to vehicles and air units. The player may control the United States of America, the People's Republic of China, or the Global Liberation Army, and each side has its unique characteristics and abilities. All sides share some similarities, such as training infantry at a barracks, building armored vehicles at a factory, possessing "high tech" buildings needed for more advanced units, possessing a means to acquire additional resources and possessing a unique superweapon. The game's interface is similar to that of real-time strategy games such as Age of Empires or StarCraft. The player selects buildings to bring up build orders and purchase upgrades, and can select individual units to activate their special abilities. Structures are built by selecting dedicated builder units and placing the structure anywhere on the map. As with other real-time strategy games, the various units have advantages and disadvantages against other units, and the player is encouraged to mix unit types in order to succeed and fight tactically with various unit abilities in order to win. Campaigns: The Generals campaign is, strangely enough, linear. The campaigns can be played in any order, but canonically follow the order of China, GLA, and USA. The Chinese campaign follows the CHinese as the eliminate the GLA presence in the Pacific Rim. Crippled by their setbacks, the GLA campaign follows them as they raise funds and take on vastly superior American and Chinese forces. It ends with the launch of a biological weapon on an unknown city. Finally, the American campaign picks up with the US engaging GLA forces across the globe before finishing them off in Kazahkstan.    Morganus_Starr posted:Make sure to pick up GenTool if you're going to be playing Generals as well. It lets you set widescreen res, windows mode, FPS limits, anti-cheat mode, etc.  Command & Conquer - Generals - Zero Hour (2003)In the expansion pack to Generals, dubbed Zero Hour, the USA campaign involves the continued deployment of United States' forces in areas such as Kazakhstan to combat the forces of the GLA. At the end of the USA campaign, the GLA is all but defeated and a majority of its forces either captured or fled. The GLA campaign picks up at the end of the USA campaign where the player must command the badly damaged GLA. Throughout this campaign, the GLA slowly begin to rebuild their forces to rise up again at the USA, and steal a next-generation weapons-grade strain of Anthrax. Eventually, the GLA grows powerful enough for the player to command an assault on the West Coast of the United States. This damages the USA reputation and results in the USA recalling forces from Europe to strengthen Homeland Security. In the final campaign of the game, the player commands forces of the People's Republic of China which has agreed to help Europe repel any GLA attack. Utilizing tactics such as Tank warfare, Tactical Nuclear Missiles and more, the player is able to successfully repel the GLA's assaults on European soil. As a result, China is thrust on to the world stage and the player is hailed as a hero by the Chinese people Zero Hour expands on the original by introducing several sub-factions (something which Kane's Wrath did for the Tiberium series): USA Generals: Airforce General Malcolm "Ace" Granger, Superweapon General Alexis Alexander, Laser General "Pinpoint" Townes    China Generals: Infantry General "Anvil" Shin Fai, Tank General Ta Hun Kwai, Nuke General Tsing Shi Tao    GLA Generals: Toxin General Dr. Thrax, Demolition General Rodall "Demo" Juhziz, Stealth General Prince Kassad       Morganus_Starr posted:Make sure to pick up GenTool if you're going to be playing Generals as well. It lets you set widescreen res, windows mode, FPS limits, anti-cheat mode, etc. Command & Conquer - Generals 2 (2013?) Command & Conquer (Free To Play)http://www.commandandconquer.com/free/ “We are thrilled about this opportunity to transform Command & Conquer into a premier online experience. For nearly two decades, this franchise has existed as something you buy; now we are creating a destination where our fans will be able to access the entire Command & Conquer universe, starting with Generals and continuing with Red Alert, Tiberium and beyond. With Frostbite 2, we are able to keep an emphasis on the AAA quality our consumers expect while staying true to the RTS gameplay they know and love – all available online for free.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9zVjFcpjeA  Command & Conquer Gameplay - Take control of multiple factions, competing for resources, building up your base of operation, and leading massive batteries of tanks, soldiers, and aircraft into battle.  Dynamic Destruction - Frostbite 2 technology allows for visceral, destructive conflict at an epic scale with a best-in-class dynamic physics engine.  Powered by Frostbite 2 - Visually stunning environments and units combined with exhilarating visual effects bring the battle to life in ways never before seen.  Continuous Live Content - An ever-evolving experience, enhance your game with an expanding array of content based on how you play. 'Command & Conquer' getting single-player after all ( http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/9/9/3304825/command-conquer-will-have-single-player-after-all ) When Command & Conquer: Generals 2 made the transition to free-to-play, Electronic Arts decided to ditch the game's single-player to concentrate on cooperative and competitive play, but that's no longer the case, an official tells Polygon. "Our intention with Command & Conquer is to create a triple-A experience," Frank Gibeau, president of EA Labels told Polygon in a recent interview. "And by that I mean we're using Frostbite tech, we're using very high-end graphics. Does that mean it's not going to have single-player? No, that's something we've obviously heard loud and clear that is important to people. The beauty of free-to-play, is that we can adjust and adapt to what we're hearing as opposed to, 'I'm sorry, it's two months from ship and it is what it is.' It's a very different model because you don't have to build as much. You build in response to your audience." Gibeau said that the decision to make the game free-to-play, and in the process rename it simply Command & Conquer, was driven by the desire to attract the largest possible audience. "We started with, 'How do we build a triple-A Command & Conquer experience?'" he said. "Is the best way to go to market, premium or is the best way to go to market, free-to-play? We're like, 'We'll get the biggest market with free-to-play and we can evolve it over time based on what we see happening inside the service." Command & Conquer will still be based in the fiction of 2003's Command & Conquer: Generals, he said. That game portrayed a near-future war between the United States, China, and a terrorist group known as the Global Liberation Army. It featured more conventional units than previous Command & Conquer games and the ability to use terrorist strategies, like a suicide bomber. Gibeau said the plan is to eventually mix in units from both the Red Alert and Tiberium series. "You're going to be able to have some stuff fans have been asking for, for years," he said. "You see the arguments, this tank in Red Alert is better than this tank over here. Our goal is to evolve the service in response to what people want and that's the beauty of free-to-play: You build as you receive information from your audience. When you build a premium game you have to go way in the hole, in terms of spending out a lot of money building a certain experience and then putting it out there to see how people respond." While Gibeau said he understands why transforming Command & Conquer: Generals 2, a traditional retail game, into Command & Conquer, a free-to-play game, can be a two-edged sword, he thinks Electronic Arts can help dispel the misconception some people have about free-to-play titles with this release. "I get why there is a two-edged sword for free-to-play in terms of why the audience thinks it's schlock," he said. "That's what we're trying to change with Command & Conquer and why we're trying to see other companies hopefully do the same thing." Electronic Arts is even open to bringing the game to consoles at some point in the future. "If at some point in the future it makes sense to come over to Xbox Live because the platform allows us to enable it there, or PSN we'll definitely do it," he said. Command & Conquer, which is in development by BioWare Victory, is expected out in 2013. Screenshots (Feb 2013):           Cancelled Games: Command & Conquer: Renegade 2 was to be another first-person shooter game using an updated version of the "Westwood 3D" engine, used in Command & Conquer: Renegade. Renegade 2 had two build versions: The first version of Renegade 2, was drafted as a connection to Command & Conquer from Red Alert 2. However, this was scrapped in favour of a Red Alert 2 based FPS that took place in the post Yuri's Revenge world. The storyline was about a rogue Soviet commander attacking America to avenge the honour of Premier Romanov (the commander was a Romanov). Most units designed were based on Red Alert 2 styles, however the Allied Light Tank and Soviet Hind Gunship were included, units which only appeared in Red Alert. Command & Conquer: Continuum was to be Westwood's second MMORPG, after Sole Survivor, set in the Tiberium Universe. It was developed on the "Westwood 3D" engine. It was cancelled due to the termination of Westwood Studios in 2003. It was to feature a moving and evolving Tiberian world, where the players could play a great role in the entire story. The GDI, Nod, Mutants and CABAL were to be major factions with the Scrin to be added later. Prominent locations included a half submerged Los Angeles, Area 51, Dino island, Newark airport, a mutant city, and other locations. Adam 'Ishmael' Isgreen and Rade Stojsavljevic stated that it was to be a non-stand-and-swing MMORPG, featuring instanced "crisis zones" in it, hubbed flight routes, and scripted boss battles. These have appeared in other MMORPGs since. Rather than static combat found in many MMORPGs, fluid and movement-oriented combat was to be implemented with range being an important factor for weapons use, and multiple layers of counters for the weapon types. Creatures were to be similar to bosses in console games in that you could expose weaknesses on them and then hit those for extra damage. Command & Conquer - Tiberian Incursion was the working title for Westwood's third "Tiberium" game (sometimes referred to as Tiberian Twilight), which was going to feature the arrival of the Scrin. An event planned for the game was the creation of Red Alert 2's universe due to the use of time travel, similarly to how Einstein creates the Tiberium Universe in Red Alert's prologue. Some elements of the cancelled game were included in Tiberium Wars. Tiberium was to be a tactical first-person shooter video game title set in the Command & Conquer universe, that was in development by EA Los Angeles (EALA). Tiberium was initially revealed when shots of the January 2008 issue of Game Informer were leaked, but was officially announced by EA just a day after. Prior to the announcement, the game had been in production for two years. In the first previews of the game by GameSpot and IGN, it was confirmed Tiberium uses a game engine based on Unreal Engine 3. On January 18, 2008, a trailer of Tiberium was released on GameTrailers with a message of more to come on January 25. It would have been, to date, the only C&C game not to include "Command & Conquer" in its title. Tiberium was cancelled on September 30, 2008 due to the game's failure to meet "quality standards set by the development team and the EA Games label". Kotaku reported Mariam Sughayer, EA spokesperson, saying "EA has suspended work on Tiberium effective immediately. The game was not on track to meet the high quality standards set by the team and by the EA Games Label. A lower quality game is not in the best interest of the consumers and would not succeed in this market." Command & Conquer: Generals 2 was the project which got morphed into the Free 2 Play Command & Conquer title that's being developed right now. “We are thrilled about this opportunity to transform Command & Conquer into a premier online experience. For nearly two decades, this franchise has existed as something you buy; now we are creating a destination where our fans will be able to access the entire Command & Conquer universe, starting with Generals and continuing with Red Alert, Tiberium and beyond. With Frostbite 2, we are able to keep an emphasis on the AAA quality our consumers expect while staying true to the RTS gameplay they know and love – all available online for free.”  Command & Conquer: The First Decade Command & Conquer: The First Decade is a compilation of the Command & Conquer series' games published from 1995 to 2003, all bundled into one DVD and updated to run optimally on Windows XP. It was released on February 7, 2006 and sold for the price of one retail game. Also included in the compilation was a bonus DVD which took a look behind the scenes of the successful franchise, including interviews with producers, old concept art, various soundbites, as well as a montage of the winning fan videos of the "Are You The Biggest C&C Fan?" competition held prior to the compilation's release. Other items included in the compilation included an A3 poster with high-quality C&C renders on both sides, one of which has been confirmed to be a teaser image for EA's Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, as well as a 65-page manual that only includes unit descriptions and hotkeys for each of the included games. Included games and expansions: Command & Conquer–August 1995 Command & Conquer–The Covert Operations–April 1996 Command & Conquer: Red Alert–October 1996 Command & Conquer: Red Alert–Counterstrike–March 1997 Command & Conquer: Red Alert–The Aftermath–September 1997 Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun–August 1999 Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun–Firestorm–February 2000 Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2–October 2000 Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2–Yuri's Revenge–October 2001 Command & Conquer: Renegade–February 2002 Command & Conquer: Generals–February 2003 Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour–September 2003 Now surely that is plenty of commanding and conquering for anyone. Bonus DVD "The First Decade" DVD case contents. The Bonus DVD included in the compilation pack is a video DVD including the following video items: The First Decade Louis Castle Interview 10 Years of Command & Conquer(TM) The Future The Community A Tribute to Command & Conquer(TM) Bonus Features: The First Decade Trailer Concept Artwork The First Decade Credits As the bonus DVD is a video DVD, it can be played on any conventional video DVD player. Unofficial 1.03 patch: http://www.cncsector.net/cnp/tfd - Info about the patch http://forums.gamesector.net/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=24 - The File, ~160 megs  Command & Conquer: The Ultimate Collection Set for release this autumn at retail and digitally via Origin, the $50 / Ł25 collection will feature all 17 C&C games released since the real time strategy series debuted in 1995, which have been updated for Windows 7 and Windows Vista. Included games and expansions: Command & Conquer Command & Conquer The Covert Operations Command & Conquer Red Alert Command & Conquer Red Alert Counterstrike Command & Conquer Red Alert The Aftermath Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun Firestorm Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 Command & Conquer Red Alert Yuri's Revenge Command & Conquer Renegade Command & Conquer Generals Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars Command & Conquer 3 Kane's Wrath Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 Uprising Command & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight Also Included Best of Command & Conquer music compilation (20 tracks, apparently) Exclusive commemorative art available ONLY with the physical edition Early access to the new Command & Conquer F2P game (formerly known as C&C Generals 2), powered by Frostbite 2 High-profile Mods: Tiberian Dawn - http://www.tiberiandawn.com/ is primarily a total conversion of the original “Command & Conquer” [1995] real-time strategy (RTS) game. It is being rebuilt as a modification, using the updated SAGE engine from Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. As the name implies, this mod will be focusing on the first Tiberian War taking place in the year 1995 in an alternate timeline of Earth, as portrayed in the original Command & Conquer game. Hardcore fans and developers of the genre later added the original project name ”Tiberian Dawn” back to the original C&C title, to prevent confusion with sequels and prequels. It was only appropriate that C&C 1’s return in this mod would lay claim to this title. This is not of course our only goal - the idea of the total-conversion was inspired by an art piece by Godwin that showed the cruelty and bitter humanity of the Tiberian conflicts - of soldiers who were not only soldiers but men and women who were human, of environments that felt alive with their vibrancy. We want to inject that into Tiberian Dawn. This same level of vibrant emotion, of humanity and struggle against a frightening opponent (Be it GDI or Nod in your mind) while trying to accept the changes to the world that Tiberium has brought. It is not an easy task we have set ourselves - and we are all dedicated to working to the best of our abilities. Tiberian Sun Rising - http://www.moddb.com/mods/tiberian-sun-rising/ Tiberian Sun Rising was a total conversion for Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars! Tierian Sun RIsing brings back GDI and Nod battleing it out during the Second Tiberium War, retelling Tiberian Sun as never before. This isn't just a remake of the hit title C&C Tiberian Sun. It is a mod making Tiberian Sun as it should have been originally so expect lots of new fun and originality while sticking to the feel Tiberian Sun had. Taking the mindset that this is the first time Tiberian Sun is being made and using the original game as a design concept. This mod will also include the additions made in Firestorm so it is a remake of Tiberian Sun and Firestorm as one to what they should have been.New abilities and units will appear in Tiberian Sun Rising as well as new kind of gameplay altogether... One of the most exciting feature's we'll be including is a dynamic growing Tiberum environment which mutates the battlefield as it spreads! You could start on a map with not much tiberium at all, and finish the battle with Vein Holes, Ion Storms and more all occuring! So watch out! Dawn of The Tiberium Age - http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dawn-of-the-tiberium-age The Dawn of the Tiberium Age is a stand-alone Tiberian Sun to Tiberian Dawn (C&C 95/Gold) total conversion and it was my intention to make it both look and play as similar to Tiberian Dawn as possible, while taking advantage of Tiberian Sun features (these include skirmish, multiplayer support, drag-scrolling, high resolutions, customizable keyboard short keys and many others). With version 1.10 of DTA the "enhanced mode" was also introduced; you get to pick whether you want to play the classic or enhanced mode when you start the game. The enhanced mode aims to improve/enhance the gameplay you're used to from TD by adding new features (like the XO Powersuit, the "Spawn visceroids" super weapon and naval battles) and refining the game balance (prices, speeds, damage, range, etc.). Tiberium Essence - http://www.moddb.com/mods/tiberium-essence This modification offers an alternative gameplay to Tiberian Wars involving many Tiberian Sun units which many CnC fans (like me) missing in vanilla CNC3 and add even new my made units which you can't find anywhere else. Story is quite the same like Tiberian Wars, but is all about what if GDI and Nod do not abandon technologies they have used in Tiberian Sun era and instead of that further developed them. But it's not only that, there are many visual, sound and balance changes which I want to see and hear in my mod, new sounds, new music, new effects (like blood and gore, new infantry deaths, new more realistic missile trails) and many more. Red Alert: A Path Beyond - http://www.apathbeyond.com/ (Also known as APB or just A Path Beyond) is a free game based on the Renegade Engine which aims to transform the first chapter in the Red Alert series into a First Person Shooter. It features most of the units from the original game and the two expansions, Counterstrike and The Aftermath. The current beta available to the public is 1.3.1. The game was named after A Path Beyond, one of the most popular multiplayer maps of Red Alert. While it began production as a modification of a commercial single/multiplayer game, it is now available as a free, standalone download with no other requirements to play. However, it lacks a single player campaign, so an internet connection is required for satisfactory play. Additionally, its recommended system requirements are higher, although the graphics actually scale very well and several improvements made grant actual performance improvements over the original base engine. A Path Beyond has been widely promoted by Electronic Arts, being the only fan project of its kind that has received this sort of support. Red Alert: A Path Beyond only features the multiplayer mode as there is no single player campaign (There are however a few coop maps). Similar to Renegade, players are divided into the two teams: Allies and Soviets. Each team starts with a base and must purchase vehicles and advanced character classes in order to destroy the enemy base and defend their own base. The game is won when one team destroys the other's base or the time limit expires and the team with the highest score is declared the winner. Damaging and destroying enemy units and structures earns points. Gameplay is a combination of FPS and RTS elements, since team members receive money from harvesting ore and must purchase their own individual equipment. Mideast Crisis 2 - http://isotx.com/mec2/ is a total conversion mod for Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars which focuses on the events after Mideast crisis, in which a massive nuclear disaster in Syria leads to widespread unrest and instability in the Middle east and leads to the forming of the Gaurdians Of Islam organization or GOI comprised of many Islamic countries in an attempt to bring about peace. However worldwide events including the collapse of the American economy and the near collapse and reconstuction of the United Nations into a more militaristic organization leads to the middle east suffering another crisis. The tension finaly boils over when the United Nations, now under the ruthless control of corporate conglomerates such as Maginoil deploys its military forces into the middleast under the pretense of a peacekeeping mission to drain its resources. This causes the Israeli Defense force (IDF) and the GOI to clash over territories, resources and political influence in the region so that the victor can become the dominant middle eastern power house and resist the UN once their enemies are eliminated. Middle east crisis 2's gameplay focuses on occupation warfare within cities using;money (from occupation taxes), gas(from oil derricks and gas stations) and special weapons (from ammo crates) as well as the tactical composition of armies. ShockWave - http://www.moddb.com/mods/cc-shockwave is a modification for the RTS game expansion pack Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour, originating from 2004. There have been six released versions to date, 0.951 being the latest. It is quite critically acclaimed and is played competitively online by fans. In February 2008 it was one of the ten mods to receive the Mod DB Editor's Choice Award. It also has dual platform support for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems. ShockWave adds a number of new units and abilities to each of the nine Zero Hour generals and their normal 'vanilla' factions. It also adds three completely new generals: General George D. Ironside (armor), General 'Tigress' Leiong Leang (special weapons) and General Mohmar 'Deathstrike' (salvage). These three new generals are of original design, but their names are derived from the 'boss generals' of the original Zero Hour, which were originally announced but removed, except for Leang, during Zero Hour's development. Also, the mod adds two generals to face the player in the Generals' Challenge: General "Anvil" Shin Fai and General Rodall "Demo" Juhziz. The mod's main goal is to make the game more interesting to play by creating more diversity and balance between the different sides. The mod features mostly skirmish and multiplayer gameplay improvements. ShockWave is a partial conversion, and thus aims to not change the feel and backstory of the original game. It is comparable to most expansion packs for RTS games in its initial setup, but without changes to hard coded elements of the game. The development team stated that they want the mod to change Zero Hour into what it could have been if developer Electronic Arts had put more time into the development process. FREE C&C games! - http://www.commandandconquer.com/classic/  Command & Conquer: Download GDI Disc, Download Nod Disc, Installation Instructions Red Alert: Download Allied Disc, Download Soviet Disc, Installation Instructions Tiberian Sun + Firestorm: Download File, Installation Instructions Tecman fucked around with this message at 14:26 on Apr 11, 2013 |
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Mar 16, 2010 13:17
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This is a really loving high class thread Tecman, looking forward to parts two and three. Now that the game is out on steam (in the next 8 hours) I'm probably going to pick it up and get my dick kicked in by people who've been playing the beta non-stop (you)
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Mar 16, 2010 13:30
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Even if they're not part of the C&C storyline, the C&C Generals games were really awesome and had far better game mechanics than, say, C&C 3 and for that reason I think they deserve a mention.
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Mar 16, 2010 13:36
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Excellent OP. Well done, Tecman. Command&Conquer is one of my favourite game series ever. Not because of the gameplay, which was good, but honestly never (besides the first part) leading in innovation and balancing, but because of the FMVs. I've been a huge fan of real actors in games since Wing Commander III. And also....   ... Kane. 
Tarquinn fucked around with this message at 13:50 on Mar 16, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 13:42
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Just reading all of that about C&C4 and it sounds loving terrible. I don't want that lovely Dawn of War 2 RTS style in my command and conquer games. I don't want a population cap, i don't want almost every fascet and staple of the series removed for this wank that's present in other games. The base moving sounds cool to an extent. But absolutely everything else about it sounds loving horrible. How on earth were so many changes green lit?
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Mar 16, 2010 13:47
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Joe Kucan is just awesome. If you've read any interview with him, you know exactly what I am talking about. 
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Mar 16, 2010 13:47
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Count posted:Even if they're not part of the C&C storyline, the C&C Generals games were really awesome and had far better game mechanics than, say, C&C 3 and for that reason I think they deserve a mention. I agree, the Generals games were pretty awesome. I am biased though - they were my first CnC games and my first RTS games in general. Does liking Generals more than some of the older CnC games (i.e. Tiberian Sun) make me a bad person?  Can anyone in the beta post some general impressions of it? So far I've heard nothing but crap, but that may be due to it being... well, a beta.
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Mar 16, 2010 13:51
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Eggn0g posted:Can anyone in the beta post some general impressions of it? So far I've heard nothing but crap, but that may be due to it being... well, a beta. Quake 3: The Tiberium RTS Game. You essentially pick a class (this will dictate your playstyle) and spawn with your crawler, then rush with your crawler to the "capture nodes" while pumping out units on the move, deploy the crawler (and the build units will spawn), then it's basically up to out-thinking the opponent, since units are free (no resources, only a fixed cap and each unit costs a certain amount of "command points" that you get back when the unit dies). When you have amassed enough victory points to win through holding the strategic points, you win. Oh, also there's some Tiberium gimmick mechanic that gives you Research points, but eh. If you try to play it as a classic C&C game, it's utterly HORRIBLE. But, for some strange reason, I kinda love it. It lets you pull off some amazing stunts if you have a competent team in a team-game, and you don't have to bother with resources at all - just grind XP for higher-tier units and blow poo poo up.
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Mar 16, 2010 13:57
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Tecman posted:Joe Kucan is just awesome. If you've read any interview with him, you know exactly what I am talking about. You should link some.
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Mar 16, 2010 14:00
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Tarquinn posted:And also.... Honestly, the only thing I'm remotely interested in, in C&C4 is the music (London Philharmoic) and the cutscenes. Just to see more Kane and less stupid cast members (no wrestlers etc) Although C&C3 had some pretty awesome cast members, just horrible scripts. Billy Dee Williams, Michael Ironside  Tiberian Sun has the best setting of any C&C game, the atmosphere and mood is fantastic and the FMV's are well executed (pun intended)with mainly no-name actors (except James Earl Jones & Michael Biehn who were great in thier roles) plus Nod looks like a sweet organization in that time-frame. edit: Some (possibly) handy links: Cutscenes/FMV's of the Tiberian (Tiberian Dawn, Tiberian Sun, Firestorm, Renegade, C&C3, Kanes Wrath) and Red Alert games (Red Alert, RA2, Yuris Revenge) CNCMovies: http://games.ea.com/cncmovies/ Two (of the) largest C&C news websites CNCNZ.com: http://www.cncnz.com/ PlanetC&C.com: http://www.cncnz.com/ There are quite a few C&C community member goons, probably see a bunch of them post in this topic sometime. Steppo is a pretty cool guy and used to write for planetC&C, still does occasionally. drunkill fucked around with this message at 14:42 on Mar 16, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 14:05
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Tithin Melias posted:You should link some. Here's an interview with
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Mar 16, 2010 14:08
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Tithin Melias posted:You should link some. Brand new video I just saw at cncnz.com seems to be on the bonus disk of C&C4, but one of the many videos of Joe Kucan goofing off and just having fun. edit: A link would be handy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY9vxXAH3Ns
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Mar 16, 2010 14:15
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gently caress YEAH! Awesome thread. I lost interest after Tiberian Sun's expansion came out and left the series. Last year though I got the ten year pack and played renegade which was ok and Red Alert. Still can't beat the story lines in the series. Really Top Notch. edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb-gI_pFog0 Mooch and Earl fucked around with this message at 14:59 on Mar 16, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 14:57
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Updated with the Red Alert and Generals games. If you guys find anything I've screwed up, please let me know and I'll fix it, or if you have anything you'd like me to add to the OP, say so.
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Mar 16, 2010 14:58
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Now that is a loving OP right there. Some what concerning news that absolutely no reviews of C&C 4 have appeared, despite it releasing today. The overall hype level for it seems to be pretty non-existant as well. I'm guessing this thing is going to be a stinker. Edit: Oh hey the Eurogamer review is out and http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/command-and-conquer-4-tiberian-twilight-review Fuuuuuuuuuck J33uk fucked around with this message at 16:16 on Mar 16, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 16:14
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Holy gently caress @ the OP. Gonna read through the whole thing in a moment, even though I know what it's gonna say already. Also, I'm still on the fence about getting C&C 4. I played the beta, and I didn't think the game was that bad, but I'm not sure that I want to get it right away. The C&C fanb0i in me wants to get it right now, just so I can add it to my collection.  edit: Ow, that Eurogamer review is not good.
A Nice Big Dinner fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Mar 16, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 16:27
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J33uk posted:Now that is a loving OP right there. Some what concerning news that absolutely no reviews of C&C 4 have appeared, despite it releasing today. The overall hype level for it seems to be pretty non-existant as well. I'm guessing this thing is going to be a stinker. As someone who beta tested the thing I can confirm it is absolutely terrible and no fun at all. I kinda wish they would just make a Generals 2 (1 still is one of the best in the series if you ask me). Great OP by the way.
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Mar 16, 2010 16:29
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Davincie posted:As someone who beta tested the thing I can confirm it is absolutely terrible and no fun at all. I kinda wish they would just make a Generals 2 (1 still is one of the best in the series if you ask me). Combat is godawful and nothing like other C&Cs. In my opinion, the worst thing about the beta is the ranking system (eg. BFBC2/MW2) used for unlocking more units, which is an absolutely horrible idea in an RTS.
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Mar 16, 2010 17:02
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Tecman posted:Quake 3: The Tiberium RTS Game. You essentially pick a class (this will dictate your playstyle) and spawn with your crawler, then rush with your crawler to the "capture nodes" while pumping out units on the move, deploy the crawler (and the build units will spawn), then it's basically up to out-thinking the opponent, since units are free (no resources, only a fixed cap and each unit costs a certain amount of "command points" that you get back when the unit dies). When you have amassed enough victory points to win through holding the strategic points, you win. Oh, also there's some Tiberium gimmick mechanic that gives you Research points, but eh. You're the first person i've seen that likes the new C&C4 and I really want to try it out. I hope they release the demo. But the DRM and the new game play changes really turn me off so it would have to be really good.
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Mar 16, 2010 17:30
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BattleHamster posted:Combat is godawful and nothing like other C&Cs. In my opinion, the worst thing about the beta is the ranking system (eg. BFBC2/MW2) used for unlocking more units, which is an absolutely horrible idea in an RTS. At least it's not an MMO. edit: C&C4 is crap. It's like EA forced the worst elements of Generals and RA3 together in a coop easymode slowboating mix which barely sells because Kane is in it. champagne posting fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Mar 19, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 17:30
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FearOfABlackKnob posted:You're the first person i've seen that likes the new C&C4 and I really want to try it out. I hope they release the demo. But the DRM and the new game play changes really turn me off so it would have to be really good. Definitely try it out first. It really is THAT radically different and it's very, very easy to dislike. I just happen to like the system itself once you've put through a couple dozen matches and see that there actually is a proper game behind all the bullshit, although honestly I wish they wouldn't have used it in the C&C franchise. Personally, I'm more scared of the "look at us, now our cut-scenes are so gritty and deep" crap. 
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Mar 16, 2010 17:37
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Yeah, I'm usually pretty critical when people start screaming about how something is RUINED FOREVER but coming on the heels of RA3 - which I genuinely thought was the best RTS I'd ever played - the C&C4 beta just seemed godawful in every way. Glad to know I'm not alone in this sentiment. I really want to know how it all ends, having been a fan of the series since I first played the original on Windows 95, but. I will admit I only played two matches in the beta though. It was such an incredible turnoff that was all I could stomach.
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Mar 16, 2010 18:53
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I'm not sure what went wrong with the RTS genre, but games like red alert 3, supreme commander 2; they all have such glaring flaws that their names are pretty much mud to most people now. I'll probably still buy the game when it unlocks, but I'm not holding out any hope on it being anything special; at most, I'll live with the gameplay, like the cutscenes just to see how this story ends and shelve the game within two weeks at most, which is a crying shame for a series that I pretty much grew up alongside. That said, I won't let my negative views stop me enjoying what I can of the game, and I really am looking forward to teaming up and seeing co-operative strikes with different classes; Personally I'll try all three, but I'm most looking forward to support.
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Mar 16, 2010 19:05
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came for the amazing OP and pre-C&C4 excitement, left when i found out the whole game is persistent unlocks 
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Mar 16, 2010 19:38
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Bishop01 posted:came for the amazing OP and pre-C&C4 excitement, left when i found out the whole game is persistent unlocks And don't forget Assassins Creed 2's always online DRM. I'll pass for that alone.
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Mar 16, 2010 19:41
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Everything about C&C4 sounds fantastic to me ... except the horrible Ubisoft style rape DRM and the fact that the game unlocks on steam in an hour and I barely see any buzz about it anywhere, no reviews, no best sellers list on steam or front page notice Yeah :|
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Mar 16, 2010 19:43
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I'm really only interested in the C&C series to see how they wrap up the story. It seems like they have some idea of how to end the saga with a nice conclusion. Naturally, after the ending cinematic and credits roll, we'll see a hint of Kane's dashing smile as he runs off so they can keep making games.
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Mar 16, 2010 19:46
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victrix posted:Everything about C&C4 sounds fantastic to me
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Mar 16, 2010 19:47
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Threep posted:Don't forget the part where you can't even buy it on Steam, at least right now. Or the part where they alter the time for people outside of NA at the last second to be Friday (UK) I expected this, but it still stinks. Ideya Keeper fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Mar 16, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 20:49
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Buying it now on Steam. Finalllllly.
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Mar 16, 2010 21:00
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Very nice opening. Was thinking a C&C thread was needed, what with the new games release. Certainly brings back memories reading this thread. Anyone remember playing "The hills have eyes" skirmish map on Aftermath? Civilians attacking you armed with a-bomb pistols. Madness. Techman if you need an even bigger OP, maybe a brief mention of Red Alert: Retaliation? Sure its Counterstrike & Aftermath missions on the PSOne but it does attempt a campaign style narrative along with new FMV's and cinematic briefings. Feels more of an expansion pack/brand new game compared to its original incarnation as mission packs on the PC. As for C&C4, I'm not massively interested in the style of direction its taken. Also having never been a huge fan of the capture point type RTS games doesn't help. I am however interested to see the story conclusion though and look forward to seeing it up on youtube in the next few days. All reviews fare it as average so far. When its cheaper, probably as I own everything else. Slavik fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Mar 16, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 21:05
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I am astounded that C&C4 came out and I've heard nary a peep about it. With all the time I spend on gaming sites. Its kind of weird for a big company to have such low-key (non-existent) marketing.
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Mar 16, 2010 21:22
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Slavik posted:Anyone remember playing "The hills have eyes" skirmish map on Aftermath? Civilians attacking you armed with a-bomb pistols. Madness. On a related note, that Aftermath mission where you had to go exterminate some civilians thinking it's going to be a cakewalk, until one of them runs up and loving suicide-nukes you. And then after finally beating their ridiculous overpowered units, you get wiped out by a million invincible mammoth tanks. The sheer amount of  in that expansion was worth every penny.
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Mar 16, 2010 21:34
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Sivlan posted:I am astounded that C&C4 came out and I've heard nary a peep about it. With all the time I spend on gaming sites. gently caress, i didnt even realise it was out this week. I've heard nothing about it. I predict a massive flop and the only reason i will even think to play it is to get the conclusion to the story i've been following for almost 15 loving years. My theory is that they had this idea for a lovely RTS that they knew wouldn't sell very well and so cobbled it together with the finale of one of the longest running RTS series to date in order to force people to buy it in order to find out the end of the story. gently caress you EA, i thought you'd reformed.
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Mar 16, 2010 21:41
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Count me as one of those that had the Generals games serve as their introduction to C&C. I actually liked the vanilla version and Zero Hour for what they were. Now where are my discs...
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Mar 16, 2010 21:46
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Incidently, I adore the SAGE engine for it's mouse scrolling movement as much as I hate it for its lovely networking (maybe that's changed in c&c4, dunno) Right click scroll is loving genius, and because ever RTS dev on earth is an asshat who doesn't allow custom hotkeys, you can't set screen movement to something other than the useless arrow keys. Right click scrolling is so, so, SO much better than edge scrolling. Right click scroll for life. Also BFME2 was an amazing loving game, and digging around in the data files and seeing references to chinese tanks from Generals was kind of hilarious.
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Mar 16, 2010 21:53
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victrix posted:
BFME2 is probably one of my favorites, and aside from the awful singleplayer I had a great deal of fun with that game, and to a lesser extent, the expansion pack that nobody else I know bought.
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Mar 16, 2010 22:08
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Sivlan posted:I am astounded that C&C4 came out and I've heard nary a peep about it. With all the time I spend on gaming sites. What sucks is that the C&C development team was told that they were going to get laid off after the game was released. So as of right now, those guys are packing it up and we will probably see no expansion and little to no support for C&C 4. Also, the fact that the StarCraft 2 beta has been going on AND God of War 3 being released on the same day doesn't help.
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Mar 16, 2010 22:09
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