C&C3 PC demo out now

By Robert Purchese Published 27 February, 2007

Single-player taster given nod.

Invading areas for valuable resources has never been so much reckless fun, and now you can participate as EA has finally released a single-player PC demo of Command & Conquer 3.

Included in the taster is a tutorial as well as two full missions, which include classic live action video sequences featuring top-notch voice actors such as Michael "Sam Fisher" Ironside and even Sawyer from Lost. You'll even be able to watch a montage trailer showing the thespians dramatically wording-off.

One skirmish map is also included, and will feature varying difficulty settings for people like me, who often forget what game they're playing and do silly things because of it.

There are various ways to get hold of the demo, which is just over a gig in size. You can go directly to EA's servers, or alternatively follow our magical biscuit trail for other options. Wherever you go, expect a pretty hefty queue.

The perfect time to catch up with our first impressions, then, or plan a lunchtime escape plan.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • BravoGolf #1 5 years ago

    What are the PC specs for this?

  • BravoGolf #2 5 years ago

    Oh ... here they are:

    · OS: Windows XP, Windows Vista (32-bit; 64-bit versions of
    Vista are not supported)
    · CPU: 2.0 GHz or higher
    · RAM: 512 MB or more
    · Hard Drive: 1.4 GB or more of free space
    · Video: DirectX 9.0c compatible video card. Video card with 64
    MB or more memory and one of these chipsets is required: ATI
    8500 or greater, NVIDIA GeForce4 or greater. (ATI Radeon 9200
    and 9250 PCI, NVIDIA Geforce 4 MX cards not supported.)
    · Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

  • shamblemonkee #3 5 years ago

    \o/ yey!

  • in5ane #4 5 years ago

    I downloaded this last night at a measly 20kb/s... by the time it finished, it was bed time :(

    I absolutely hate places like fileplanet where you have to sign up, queue up and view twenty adverts just to downloading a file ridiculously slowly. Nice to see EA have their own link for a change, many publishers offload it onto other sites... pity I didn't see the EA link last night tho.

  • Artemis_Matsas #5 5 years ago

    downloaded this yesterday from Fileshack. You can register there for free, and have a download cap at 500kb/s.
    I downloaded it at a 200 kb/s average. Can't wait to get my hands on it! :)

  • Der_tolle_Emil #6 5 years ago

    I have yet to try this demo and the supreme commander demo. Which one first?

  • Moz #7 5 years ago

    Downloaded this morning a 1mb/s off fileplanet (Subscriptions only $10 a quarter and well worth it) took 20 mins to download which gave me time for a quick skirmish, and so far prefer it to supreme commander. The controller and interface are very similar to previouse C&C games and you can actually see which units are which (found everything to be too small in SC and if you zoom in not enough fits on the screen).

    But going to wait for the 360 demo before deciding if I get it on PC or 360.

    Anyone know if the 360 version is going to suport keyboard and mouse?

  • JediMasterMalik #8 5 years ago

    It's ok, I don't like the interface, and it all seems so simplistic. Supcom is better imo. It's quite pretty though.

  • UncleLou #9 5 years ago

    Tried it last night - it's ok, but not anywhere near Supreme Commander or Company of Heroes.

    Not that that would be the most important thing, but I also found the visuals a bit lacking - the details are nice, but animations, explosions, physics etc. are dated.

  • Moz #10 5 years ago

    A question to thoughs people who like SupCom:

    Do you have big monitors?

    Just that when I played it on a 17" Widescreen all the small units where too small to see properly what they where, when at a zoom level that let me see enough area.

  • PearOfAnguish #11 5 years ago

    Top tip: you can leech EA demos and patches directly from http://largedownloads.e a.com
    No faffing about with queues and registrations and there's no problem using download managers.

  • HyperShadow #12 5 years ago

    @Moz

    Nope, got 2 17" TFT's. Have one at fully zoomed out and the other focused on the base area.

    I've never played it with one monitor but I kow i'd struggle.

  • Artemis_Matsas #13 5 years ago

    @Moz

    1Mb/s ?

    /Shakes fist at Greek Internet providers

  • Gurgeh #14 5 years ago

    @Moz

    I struggled at first until I got used to zooming out and then zooming back in on a new area. With all the order queueing you don't need to stay zoomed in all the time, but you do need to remember what's going on where. The latest SupCom patch also has a new, smaller user interface.

  • the_sas_man #15 5 years ago

    why is no-one using gamershell.com

    I may not have got 1mb speed, but i did get 300-400k which aint too bad. Was downloaded in an hr and could use download manager.

  • BravoGolf #16 5 years ago

    For those of you with access to newsgroups, it's available at alt.binaries.multimedia

  • AtomicBanana #17 5 years ago

    For those of you in the UK, get it from multiplay. Fast, and free - fileplanet is a waste of money and pretty much always has been :)

  • braidzilla #18 5 years ago

    Surely just get a torrent for stuff like this.

  • rudedudejude #19 5 years ago

    Is it RUBBISH?

    I can't take time away from my WoW subscription to try it out.

  • JediMasterMalik #20 5 years ago

    It's ok, not as good as I had hoped.

  • thinktank #21 5 years ago

    @moz

    I play on my 26 inch lcd (i use it as my tv also). i think this is better than the dual monitor set up (which ive tried on two 17's) you can only really concentrate on one un less you leave the other as a very expensive mini map. works great on my lcd, it has great wide screen support id recomend this path if possible

  • GamesConnoisseur #22 5 years ago

    Anyone know when or if EA will release X360 demo? As likewise would like to try both demo out before settling for either platform. Widescreen Battle of MiddleEarth II on X360 via armchair was reasonably good.

  • in5ane #23 5 years ago

    EA took down their FTP link.

    4 of the mirror servers failed on gamershell.

    Multiplay doesn't have demos as far as I can see?

    So yeah, more of the usual rigmarole to get a sodding demo. My file that i grabbed last night was actually incomplete, just sat down to play it and i can't :(

    Whats the point having a 16mb connection when I can't download from anywhere faster than 200kBs? (Without signing up)

  • dbeamish #24 5 years ago

    @Bravogolf my mate has the 64bit vista and played it fine..

  • GiarcYekrub #25 5 years ago

    EA Link seems fast to me

  • DeveloperPump #26 5 years ago

    You can download it directly from here, about 100x faster i.e. around 3 hours instead of 40:

    [link url=http:/ /www.gamershell.com/download_17978.shtml
    ]http://ww w.gamershell.com/download_17978...[/link]

  • Nomgle #27 5 years ago

    Er, we repeat :

    Top tip: you can leech EA demos and patches directly from http://largedownloads.e a.com
    No faffing about with queues and registrations and there's no problem using download managers.

    There's no need to go anywhere else for this :)

  • GiarcYekrub #28 5 years ago

    EA Link has took 2 hours to complete

  • DeveloperPump #29 5 years ago

    >Er, we repeat :
    >
    >Top tip: you can leech EA demos and patches directly from >[link url=http://largedownloads.e a.com
    ]http://largedownloads.e a.com
    [/link]
    >No faffing about with queues and registrations and there's no problem using >download managers.


    Um, your arrogant reiteration of this belies the fact that with YOUR link, I'm getting 35KB per second, but with MY link I get 140KB per second.

    >There's no need to go anywhere else for this :)

    Yes. Yes there is...

    Oh, and with my link, there is no registration or download manager. You just click on a link. It's free and just as easy as your link.

    I tend to base my statements on empirical evidence, you see...

  • in5ane #30 5 years ago

    EA ftp link wasn't available last night, now it is limited to 300 users (and is currently maxxed) The http link seems different, but I was getting 30kB/s which is shit.

    @DeveloperPump, gamershell is also shit. When I tried last night, I had several servers in their crappy downloand manager thing just simply not work or give error messages, then several at very slow speeds. Your comment tone is also condescending and unwarranted, and not true in my case.

    I signed up to fileshack, and there were still waiting times even for me after signing in.

    It's a disgrace that to reliably get good speeds on big demos, you need to pay (pay for promotional files?!), or surf several sites before finding one that is not totally dead from the load. I have the file now, but in this day and ages, this situation is pathetic.

  • GiarcYekrub #31 5 years ago

    Just to clarify the "EA Link" I was refering to was the EA's steam like software distribution client

  • rudedudejude #32 5 years ago

    It's ok not that good.

    Clearly the General engine re-hashed with a bit better gfx, nice fmv though.

  • bumgut #33 5 years ago

    Fuck this game just play WarCraft 3 again!

  • Jigglybean #34 5 years ago

    Download it from http://ww w.gamershell.com/demo_download_...

    Select the least busiest server. I get 600kbs atm. This is the best place to get any demo from

  • rudedudejude #35 5 years ago

    Its a bit of a step backward, and the large font and menus made for the 360 are a little painful, but its pure cheese and you gotta love it.

    This game is the S Club 7 of RTS'