Introduction

Like all other consumable entertainment, PC gaming has its long-standing franchises. Blizzard's Diablo and Warcraft certainly find their way onto that list as well as Quake, Unreal and one of the games that started the real-time strategy boom, Command & Conquer (quiet down you Dune 2 and Stonkers fans in the back). When games in the big franchises come out (whether they are proper sequels or spin-offs), PC gamers take note.

Too frequently, a game late in the series never recaptures what made the original title so appealing, or they change the game all together in favor of a new take on the game world. World of Warcraft is an example of this done successfully, while Command & Conquer: Renegade is not. The Command & Conquer series stands out as one of the only big PC gaming franchises that created another franchise: Red Alert. For many years, the Red Alert series was considered superior to the franchise that spawned it. Red Alert and Red Alert 2 were both quality titles, but what really hurt the original series was the dismal showing that was Command and Conquer 2: Tiberium Sun. Many thought the original series was all but gone with the success of the Red Alert games and that we would never again be able to pit the Global Defense Initiative against the Brotherhood of Nod. Thankfully, the release of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars kicks the main C&C franchise back on track and returns gamers to the world of the G.D.I / Nod conflict with an awesome lightshow and turbo-fast game play.

Command & Conquer 3 Slide Show (35 images)

As game stories go, the Command & Conquer series certainly does not lead the pack. C&C 3 returns players to the age-old conflict between the G.D.I. and Nod, but that's really about it. Kane isn't really dead, Nod has gathered followers due to the G.D.I.'s policies regarding the populace of tiberium-infested areas of the world, and the arrogant leadership of the G.D.I. (save Michael Ironside) is ignorant about all of it. RTS games aren't really about stories, though, and C&C 3 is no exception. The plot may be ho-hum, but the presentation is top notch.

Electronic Arts resurrected the long-thought dead art of paying actors to ham it up while addressing the camera for some live-action video segments connecting the missions of the game. In previous games, these roles were filled by...well, to be kind, let's say actors and actresses who aren't currently appearing in much but are still known faces. Talented people like Michael Biehn and Kari Wuhrer spring to mind. Somehow, through some careful Hollywood manipulation, EA wrangled several actors from successful television series that are actually still on the air! Command and Conquer 3 sports an unprecedented cast including Tricia Helfer from Sci-Fi channel's "Battlestar Galactica," Grace Park also from "Battlestar Galactica," Josh Holloway from "Lost," and Jennifer Morrison from Fox's hit show "House." Billy Dee Williams, Michael Ironside, and franchise mainstay Joseph D. Kucan round out the cast making this the most star-studded production for footage used in a video game in recent memory.

Big-budget video games often employ known actors and actresses for voice work, but shooting video is a whole other monster. Kudos to EA and this list of actors for lending some legitimacy to the game. I've always enjoyed live-action video in games when it's done well. The openings of Wing Commander III and Wing Commander IV were better than some sci-fi movies I've seen, so it's nice to see live-action return. What I found interesting is that since we are in an age of higher resolutions and hi-definition video compared to the last time we saw live-action in a game, the footage is absolutely crystal clear. Forget the pixilated blockiness of yore, this footage is DVD quality or better.

Having praised it, let me now criticize some of the production values. I know that it's easier to matte actors into a digital background when the surroundings are dark, but some of the lighting in these scenes goes a tad far. I didn't like the slashes and spots of light on all the actors when a solid three-point light setup may have worked as well. It's a minor complaint, but something that started to bother me while I watched the over 90 minutes of footage.

Command & Conquer 3 adds a new faction to the fray in the form of the Scrin alien invaders. The Scrin units have a 1950s sci-fi look to them epitomized with their Annihilator Tripod that is straight out of War of the Worlds. Unlike the human factions in the game, the Scrin are not damaged by tiberium but are rather healed by it, and much of their technology is based on tiberium. The individual units are weaker than that of the other factions, but combined with the upgrades and other abilities, the Scrin become a series contender in any skirmish match. A combined force of Tripods, Devastator Warships and the Planetary Assault Carrier with shields and buzzers will cause problems for even the most well-defended base. The G.D.I. and Nod factions are played much the same as in previous iterations of the game. G.D.I. employs superior armor and firepower at the expense of tactical flexibility while Nod employs guerilla tactics mixed with stealth and speed to gain the upper hand. G.D.I. units will almost always win in an evenly matched fight by the numbers, so it's up to Nod players to carefully plan and execute hit-and-run attacks. Even with the element of surprise and speed, very few armies can withstand a small force of G.D.I. Mammoth Tanks upgraded with rail gun technology. It seems the longer games go and the more stable the economics become, the more G.D.I. players have a clear advantage. When price no longer becomes an object, it's hard to topple a well-built G.D.I. base.

This new Command & Conquer utilizes a heavily modified version of EA's excellent SAGE engine, which makes it a visual spectacle but also keeps it running smoothly even on old hardware. On a three-year old computer, I was still able to play it at a resolution of 1600 x 1200 with many of the flourishes (save shadows and reflections) turned all the way up while still preserving a very playable frame-rate. For an older engine, this game really pushes the graphics. The air around the tiberium refineries and the alien beam weapons, which shimmer from the heat, the fire and smoke, all look very convincing. The destruction during battles is epic. When two armies made up of a variety of unit types clash, it's truly awesome. It's like seeing the greatest sci-fi battle in movie history from the Goodyear blimp. Rather than worrying about micro-managing the battle itself, I found myself sitting back just to watch all the carnage unfold. Machine gun tracers, rockets with smoke trails, extraterrestrial shield technology, lumbering siege engines and fire-belching flame tanks all mixed together in a well-choreographed futuristic super-war make this some of the best looking RTS action to date. Where Company of Heroes excelled with the grit and the dirt of World War II realism, Command & Conquer 3 captures the shine and lightshow of futuristic combat.

The first thing that comes to mind when I think about playing Command & Conquer 3 is the title's sheer speed. Games start with high resources so you can have a fully armed and operation battle station on the ground in minutes, and then be on your way up the tech tree a few minutes later. However, within those first precious minutes, you can probably expect your first rush so I wouldn't worry about climbing that tech tree just yet. As a matter of fact, unless you're playing the single-player, you may not find yourself in the upper technologies much at all. Mixing up the first layer of infantry and vehicles can get the job done quickly enough, but by doing so, you miss the fireworks that come with loading up to take out an approaching Scrin Mothership or laying waste to an enemy base with Mammoth Tanks and Juggernauts. The pace of the game is so frantic that it's almost better to build a medium-sized army, give them an "assault" order around where the enemy base is and then start working on another army. It's almost like the coach mode they put in some football games where you call the plays but they execute without any of your input.

The game's AI is clever enough to target appropriate enemies per unit, so this works surprisingly well. If you lump anti-air, anti-infantry and tanks into an assault force, the anti-air will look for air enemies before picking a ground target, and will change if one appears. Less micromanaging is a positive element when things happen at the speed of this game. It also allows you to attack from two points at once or defend on two fronts. Instilling the individual units with the smallest amount of tactical awareness really makes the battle experience that much better.

I appreciate C&C sticking to its roots and keeping the harvester and tiberium fields. But I think the evolution with the Relic Entertainment games like Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, where the resources are gathered automatically by capturing and holding certain points of the map, is a better way to go. It really focuses the combat in key areas and forces people to expand out of their base. The old-school style of resources gathering via harvesters still works in C&C 3, but too many times I found myself with no harvesters, not enough money to build another one and having to sell necessary buildings to make it up, which cost me the game. Attacking lines of supply is certainly a valid wartime strategy, but when the entire line of supply is one or two poorly armored vehicles, it can be frustrating to see them taken out so quickly.

After playing Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, my feeling is that the franchise is back with a vengeance. EA may not have pushed the envelope with any new innovations, but they did take a tried-and-true formula and wrap it up in a near-perfect presentation. With games like the Relic games I mentioned earlier and Supreme Commander out there, it seems that the real-time strategy genre is going through another boom cycle, but what more can we really do with it? We've reached a point similar to where we were with shooters several years ago, when the shooter model had been honed to a keen commercial edge, and it took something like Battlefield 1942 to take it to the next level. For the RTS genre, that game may still be out there. Until then titles like Command & Conquer 3 will keep us plenty busy with solid game play and excellent graphics.

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