Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars has started shipping to stores, supermarkets, and gas stations all over North America today.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS - News) today announced that the highly-anticipated Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars™ for the PC shipped to stores Nationwide today and will be available in stores worldwide on March 28, 2007.

 

"Command & Conquer is back" said Mike Verdu, VP and Executive Producer at EALA. "We've taken the mix of explosive action, deep strategy, and rich storytelling that sparked a genre to the next level. Even better, the series is returning to its roots in the Tiberium universe. Players can take command of the futuristic armies of the Global Defense Initiative, fight for Kane and the Brotherhood of Nod, or control the alien hordes of our new third faction, the Scrin. I can't wait for people to get their hands on this game."

 

Fast and fluid gameplay, a breakthrough single player campaign, the ability to transform online battles into a spectator sport, next-generation graphics, and an epic story with full-motion video sequences featuring top Hollywood talent, mark the return of the critically-acclaimed Command & Conquer™ series.

Not wasting any time, Eurogamer already has their review up, giving it 8/10.

While it's never going to leave a footprint on the history of RTS like its early ancestors did, I'm really hesitant to call C&C3's simplicity and dumbness a bad thing. It's simple and dumb because it wants to be, and has clearly worked very hard to be pretty watertight about it. While there's a certain obnoxiousness in its total refusal to innovate, in a lot of ways it's exactly the right real-time strategy game at exactly the right time. After years in the wilderness, RTS is pretty cool again right now, and something as cheerfully straightforward as this is just what's needed to stop the big braininess of Company of Heroes and Supreme Commander leading to another plunge into an inaccessibility that turns more casual players off the whole genre. On its own, it wouldn't work, but as an alternative, even a companion piece, to those it's a gentle success. This is the ying to their yang, the Question of Sport to their Have I Got News For You - it's pure trash, and it suits Command & Conquer through-and-through. Really, it has no right to try and be anything else, and it's because it knows this that it works so well.

 

Spotted at Blue's News

Whee!

 

But seriously, will Kane die for real this time?!

So it is good? Haven't gotten around to testing the demo yet.

I have, and I like it. Like the new squad system of the infantry. The build system is a hybrid between the old C&C side panel and the Generals individual structure build queu, which isn't that complicated to grasp and some other nice stuff. Oh yeah, the Ion Canon can actually be called a superweapon now, it makes the Ion Canon of the 2 prequels look like pea-shooters.

Oww, I was hoping they would not use squad systems, I don't like them that much I just hope it's not as crappy as the one in WH40k.

 

I'm getting mine tomorrow (also, as the weak individual I am, I caved in to the salesgirl ... errr.. skill, and ended up also buying STALKER and Oblivion )

Squad system?

Instead of controlling individual soldiers, you control groups of soldiers.

In comparison, the squad system is much simpler than the one used in WH40K. There's no squad-level upgrades as all the tech upgrades are purchased at buildings and are applied to all units of that type. Replacing members of a squad is done by moving them into the armory for the GDI as this heals infantry. Don't know the structure that would do the same for NOD and even less for the alien faction.

Whee!

 

But seriously, will Kane die for real this time?!

 

You can't kill the Messiah.

Instead of controlling individual soldiers, you control groups of soldiers.

 

You mean something similar to Company of Heroes?

Yes, like Company of Heroes or Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War.

I hope it is possible to replenish the squads.

 

Otherwise we'll be having 200+ 1-man squads by mid-game.

Ahem, read my previous post.

I must say tho, that even without this, it is unlikely you get into such situation since squads don't last that much when engaging in skirmishes. You'll most likely be using them to house structures and defending from them or placing them in APCs from which they can actually fire. Zone Troopers on wheels.

Ahh right, sorry.

 

You'd be surprised, though. Veterancy bonuses are nothing to sneeze at, and there are at least few people out there who can micromanage their infantry enough to save at least half of them. Of course, I'm just basing this hypothesis on the previous RTS games I've played.

Playing it right now, and... it's freaking awesome! haven't played a decent RTS in looong time (the last one being Red Alert 2, so go figure). My initial assumption that EA would screw up my favourite strategy game was luckily proven wrong. Everything is just excellent, the graphics are outstanding and surprisingly, they are not choking my system at all, running smoothly at high res. The squad system is thankfully nothing like what I had to witness in Dawn of War. They combined features from all the C&C games, like garrisoning from Red Alert 2, veterancy as mentioned, etc, etc, the menu is more or less the same as usual, except it has the Red Alert 2 configuration.

 

And, they added an in-game encyclopaedia with articles you find while playing missions, quite entertaining!

 

This game is definitely worth it if you're into the classic C&C

Well, finally got around to playing the demo... and I have mixed feelings about it. There's some good things, but I can't shake the feeling that it has become nothing more than a clone of Starcraft/Warcraft and Warhammer. It used to have it's own style, now a good deal of it is gone. I don't know, I just couldn't get into it.

 

Still, I'd have to play the full game to judge it better, but so far I can point out some things that annoyed me:

1) Static camera. What's the point of a camera that you can't rotate. Which brings me to the second.

2) Why is the view stuck into the ground? What the heck is it with new games and not being able to see 3 feet away?

3) Colorful interface. Doesn't fit with C&C.

4) Many small things...

 

Finally, I really hope the other missions are not as bland as this one. Also, I hope it's possible to have optional missions, which actually affect the game somehow.

 

I think I may pass on this one, hasn't sparked any real interest in me.

1) The camera is not static, you can turn it to any angle by pressing the middle mouse button and then moving the mouse.

 

2) Not sure what you mean here.

 

3) Matter of taste.

 

4) ...

 

Erm... you did play the tutorial, the 2 campaign missions and the skirmish map, haven't you?

Hey, you're right about the camera. I tried the middle button, but I must have made a small move, since the game doesn't react immediately. Heck, I even tried to press the PgDn, PgUp keys, thinking it might have a camera like Warcraft 3, which would immediately return into position.

As for 2), even when you zoom out the most, I still can't see very much. Maybe it's just me, but I'd like to see more with the maximum zoom.

 

And yes, I completed the demo, but didn't play skirmish, since I'm not interested in that. I don't know, it just didn't sit all that well with me, still have to figure out what exactly it was that bothered me... will give it some more thought.

 

Forgot to add this before, sadly the movies don't run all that well, the picture lags terribly. The game runs fine though, although on the lowest settings. It seems I need an upgrade. Oh well, it was expected.

Is anyone else playing this? I just completed GDI's campaign last night (playing like one mission a week, studies and all) and had a blast with it.

 

I found the squad system to be very adequate, none of that WH40k nonsense about squad upgrades and such, mostly aesthetics, and it looks great! the battlefield was really exciting when two armies clashed against each other, units AI was (for my taste) particularly interesting, I would send my Mammoth Tanks against a certain building and if they came under aerial attack, they would launch rockets at them while firing the main cannons at the buildings themselves, it was really great!

 

The introduction of the Aliens was also very nicely done, though I got the feeling that particular storyline was left unfinished... hopefully more will be revealed as I play NOD's campaign, though I'd have preferred more goodies from the good guys, they're my favourite But unfinished or not, the battles were certainly interesting! the Aliens have the ability to completely swarm you at points, you're being assaulted by a tons of their vehicles while being harrassed by Planet Destroyers and a Mothership on its way (with an attack comparable to a superweapon). The Alien AI was not that stupid either, they *knew* what to target, aiming usually at my damaged Mammoths! what surprised me was that they surprised me a bunch of times, at one point they nearly took over my whole base, I sent a Mammoth attack to a forward base, completely destroyed it but with damages, and when I was too deep into their territory, I found like 6 or 7 of those damn shielded tripod thingies! Had never seen so many at the same time, completely obliterated my units, a couple of harvesters, and got really close to my base, it was real fun.

 

Some units get obsolete fast, though, due to the large amount of tiberium fields. My last mission was played almost solely on Mammoth Tanks / Planes (not the orcas) / Zone Troopers (make excellent decoys for 1000 a squad) and Pitbulls (for handling those annoying ships).

 

Loved the re-introduction of the AMVs (were they called that way?), with even Lando Calrissian () as a Senior GDI, an interesting thing is that you see GDI not only as the good guys here, you see some of the politics behind, it was very interesting, including the special option you get in the final mission, heh.

 

So, other impressions? I found this game to be very much enjoyable