The demo for Command & Conquer 3 was released on Fileplanet yesterday. Anyone play it? After enjoying Supreme Commander’s zoom range it feels awfully claustrophobic playing C&C 3. In general I’m pretty under whelmed, as I expected I would be. Same old stuff we saw in Generals with better graphics and an even crappier interface - typical EA. Granted, the demo is extremely limited. No multiplayer, two campaign missions, and only GDI available in skirmish. I’ll probably still buy it just for the cutscenes alone though, they’re really high quality and they make me feel all nostalgic and squishy inside. Plus I’m a sucker for an RTS. They even have the dude from Starship Troopers!
Cool new features:
You can spend money to call on transport ships at any time.
Two words: Michael Ironside. On the one hand, it’s a disappointment that he’s virtually typecast into these roles. On the other hand, who better to typecast? I hope that by the end of the GDI campaign he’s personally leading the final suicidal charge whilst screaming “DO YOU APES WANNA LIVE FOREVER?”
I admire the production values. Colorful cinematics, excellent unit animation and fun destruction physics … something I think SupCom lacks overall (realistic missile trajectories and blinding mushroom clouds notwithstanding), but they are two different takes on RTS. What SupCom lacks in artistic variety, it makes up for with strategic scope and production planning. I think Chris Taylor was spot on when he compared RTS gaming to having horse blinders on while panning around a sandbox, which led his drive toward the grand scale viewing system in SupCom. I anticipate that RTS producers will adopt a similar global zooming ability in the future rather than scrolling endlessly from side to side and/or relying on a minimap. SupCom will set a standard for it. Have to agree on the interface sucking … not in the design sense as it’s nice to look at, but in the layout sense because it takes up a ridiculous amount of screen real estate even on widescreen displays. I do like how they’re really making an attempt to solidify the fiction with background details. Even the scientific principles of Tiberium and how it grows are being addressed. They went overboard with a scientific explanation of how it fuses with other matter and gives off various forms of radiation. The story is coming full circle and we’ll finally get to see where the toxic green stuff came from. Maybe.
The high definition cinematic cliffhanger ending to the demo campaign is quite effective at building my anticipation for the GDI counteroffensive. Of course, they make the demo mission a cakewalk to build up your ego just so they can crush it in the full campaign, but I think the cutscenes will only get even more entertaining. The acting and talent has gotten better with each title, and it goes without saying that it’s nice to see Joe Kucan back as Kane. Didn’t even realize Josh Holloway had a part in it too. Maybe he’s a bad guy with a heart in this one too. C&C cutscenes have always been served with a side of cheese, but at least these are gourmet cheese.
