Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Comments by Christian Donlan

The Red Alert games have always been wonderfully fun and addictive. This looks just as fun and addictive.

This followed by Starcraft 2, it's good times for RTS gamers. :)

Great! Can't wait.


EA Marketing folk:

Please don't go and add phone-home DRM to this.

I just hope the 360 veriosn is easier than the current C&C - im stuck on one of the later levels as quite hard to play well with a controller... begs the question... why the F*** dont they support usb mouse/keyboard as control options for the xbox?

/answers his own question:
because xbox live players using mouse and keyboard would totally sodomise the poor controller players..
ah well. :/

It would be so easy to auto-detect the presence of a mouse and then restrict users to specific multiplayer matches. Mouse support is a must for FPS's IMO. Don't give me an excuse to buy a PS3. ;) Or worse, start fiddling with my PC again!

Tbh,
I dont think I can go back to playing basic RTSs like Command & Conquer after playing Company of Heroes.
The latter is just so much more tactically advanced, there is no comparison.

C&C was fun a decade ago when the RTS genre was still evolving, and pretty basic -- the problem is that very little has changed in that decade for C&C -- sure, shinier graphics, and perhaps more units, but at its basic core, its still that same game of Red Alert 1 that I played all those years ago:

Unit A counters Unit B
Unit B counters Unit C
Unit C in mass numbers counters everything

It gets tedious pretty rapidly.
Besides, while RA3s graphics are pretty, they look a bit...generic. Not enough character. None of the grittyness of the earlier Red Alert games, or the sheer awesomeness of the Essence Engine.

What we need more of is games like COH !
Thankfully, DoWII looks like itll be similar in its mechanics.

Perhaps it's just me, but does anyone else got the impression, after watching red alert 3, that it's just...overdone to the point of not being red alert anymore? I mean, bear paratroopers? CHINEESE ANIME GIRLS WITH TELEPATHIC POWERS?? Ehh. It's like EA took red alert and turned it into a game for toddlers. I bet in the next installment we'll have gummi bear troopers and barbie dolls.
Although, truth to tell, all westwood games went to game hell when westwood was destroyed by EA. Compare tiberium sun with next installment.

PS.
Company of heroes is a different type of strategy game, so it's hard to draw comparisons. I play faces of war myself, I hear it's similar to CoH. Though I agree, dawn of war 2 might be quite interesting (meaningful in game physics and best of all, tyranids)

Red Alert Red Alert It's A Catastrophe,

But don't worry, don't panic,

because Gemma Atkinson's going to dress up in a nurses outfit and make it all better, ahhh


....unless Benson's evil brother Rob is in it too, he was puuure evil, as i'm sure everyone remembers

For the first time in a Red Alert title, there's a fully realised third faction available

Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge

Sorry for the geekness.

Good point Robg. I honestly thought about mentioning Yuri's Revenge, but the devs themselves admitted they didn't consider that to have a real third faction, more of a tweaked variation on an existing one. The third faction this time is really, really different.

holy jesis, this stuff has become a really sad joke.
it was almost funny when they had no budget, but now with Ea's hollywood yearnings but child-like aesthetic its just an idiotic waste.
the game may well be alot of fun like the others but im not sure i could put up with the presentation.

Been playing the multiplayer beta on and off, and the balance is quite advanced (still needs a bit here and there). Secondary abilities and mixed groups are going to be what win your battles, make no mistake. There are still afew possible rushes, but they seem to be working on eliminating them. The economy model mentioned above does make it pretty hard to accumulate money, but you have the trade off of not having to micro manage your harvesters, which means you can focus on the choices and tactics.

Also, base defences have been powered up, which means they finally have a purpose in multiplayer. Only artillry type units can outrange them, so as long as you have some as well, or air-to-ground attack, you can protect your lines. Gone are the days of spamming tanks to run up and take out a wave of Obelisks because weight of numbers will win out.

Can't wait for this. Fond memories of 1 and 2, and since Fallout 3 looks like it'll be a bit of a letdown, this is now my most anticipated PC game this year.

There have been 3 factions ever since the Red Alert 2 expansion (Yuri's Revenge, Generals, CnC3). That's not new at all.

This game is shaping up to be much better than CnC3 from what i've seen / played of it. It's slower, which is a complaint for some, but i prefer it. There's more tactics and less mindless spam.

If it gets any score higher than 7 from Eurogamer then someone is going to be annoyed.

I played CoH and am playing the RA3 beta now, suffice to say I am enjoying RA3 (so far) and it shows what a well done traditional model RTS game can do. Its not exactly simple (easy to learn though) and if you don't know what you are doing there are no two free machine gun posts to fall back on. At first I wasn't really excited for it but now I will most likely buy it at release.