Tweet
My copy of C&C3 (kane edition) arrived today and I indulged in an 8 hour GDI campaign binge.
Shiny is definitely a good word for this game, this may be the first game I've played which has hi-res videos, I almost never get new games anymore... the videos are nice.
The main shininess is the simply omg graphical effects of the weapons! It has some eye-popping special effects. You have to see it in game to know how good it really is, no-way could a screenshot do those effects any justice.
And although I can't yet pass judgment on whether it's more than just eye candy (having only played GDI, balance can't be assessed yet), it does seem pretty good. The GDI campaign has been enjoyable so far, I'm playing on normal difficulty and I only found one mission to be too hard/frustrating (not as in too hard to complete... but just too hard to be normal difficulty... the mission involves "power management" you'll know it once/if you've played it... yes it's a hellish resource-constrained multitasking mission) .
Adding to the shiny factor is that performance is good. My PC is no slob (it's basically a "quality gamers rig on the cheap") so it's good that C&C3 runs flawlessly on it, the game thus can't be described as a resource hog. There has been zero slowdown and load times have been very acceptable.
The interface is also solid enough, being a good and innovative blend of traditional C&C interface (side bar) and more normal RTS interfaces. Unit management may leave something to desire, but it's VERY nice that infantry units now shoot while moving forward which will make moves like flanking VERY powerful in MP also tanks can now be ordered to move in reverse!
The only gripe I have is that in the campaigns the game occasionally steals your controls for a voiceover thing, but the game continues to play, meaning units die and stuff. This includes the "Congratulations" at the end of the mission silliness where controls are disabled about 5 seconds before leaving the mission, so you get to watch the units (possibly mission critical units) you carefully preserved getting butchered by Nod forces wandering onto the screen. But that's purely just a little suspension of disbelief failure (it happened a lot worse in Generals, I seem to recall, where the congratulations phase could actually fail you the mission when that mission critical unit dies like a doofus!)
I can also see elements returning from all of the earlier Command and Conquer games. I'd describe it as a fairly equal blend of C&C1, Red Alert 2 and C&C Generals. RA2 has a surprisingly strong influence, in particular for Nod and the Alien race. GDI is of course traditional as always, but it does have some aspects of USA from Generals. There's also some nice new innovative features. I think it should do a good job of pleasing the majority of C&C fans, regardless of which previous version(s) they are familiar with.
Something curious I noted about the folder structure is that all the game files are inside /1.0/ subfolders, this leads me to speculate that it may be planned to support multiple patch versions for ease of viewing older replays, which would be very nice.
So far as first impressions go, I'm going to rate it 4.5
/ 5. The missing bit of thumb is due to the interface (particularly unit) being slightly clunky (no RTS game can ever get full marks until is has an interface which can hold a candle to TA's...)
I'm not sure if C&C3 is a game I'll get addicted to, but that may only because I don't have the time at the moment...
Shiny is definitely a good word for this game, this may be the first game I've played which has hi-res videos, I almost never get new games anymore... the videos are nice.
The main shininess is the simply omg graphical effects of the weapons! It has some eye-popping special effects. You have to see it in game to know how good it really is, no-way could a screenshot do those effects any justice.
And although I can't yet pass judgment on whether it's more than just eye candy (having only played GDI, balance can't be assessed yet), it does seem pretty good. The GDI campaign has been enjoyable so far, I'm playing on normal difficulty and I only found one mission to be too hard/frustrating (not as in too hard to complete... but just too hard to be normal difficulty... the mission involves "power management" you'll know it once/if you've played it... yes it's a hellish resource-constrained multitasking mission) .
Adding to the shiny factor is that performance is good. My PC is no slob (it's basically a "quality gamers rig on the cheap") so it's good that C&C3 runs flawlessly on it, the game thus can't be described as a resource hog. There has been zero slowdown and load times have been very acceptable.
The interface is also solid enough, being a good and innovative blend of traditional C&C interface (side bar) and more normal RTS interfaces. Unit management may leave something to desire, but it's VERY nice that infantry units now shoot while moving forward which will make moves like flanking VERY powerful in MP also tanks can now be ordered to move in reverse!
The only gripe I have is that in the campaigns the game occasionally steals your controls for a voiceover thing, but the game continues to play, meaning units die and stuff. This includes the "Congratulations" at the end of the mission silliness where controls are disabled about 5 seconds before leaving the mission, so you get to watch the units (possibly mission critical units) you carefully preserved getting butchered by Nod forces wandering onto the screen. But that's purely just a little suspension of disbelief failure (it happened a lot worse in Generals, I seem to recall, where the congratulations phase could actually fail you the mission when that mission critical unit dies like a doofus!)
I can also see elements returning from all of the earlier Command and Conquer games. I'd describe it as a fairly equal blend of C&C1, Red Alert 2 and C&C Generals. RA2 has a surprisingly strong influence, in particular for Nod and the Alien race. GDI is of course traditional as always, but it does have some aspects of USA from Generals. There's also some nice new innovative features. I think it should do a good job of pleasing the majority of C&C fans, regardless of which previous version(s) they are familiar with.
Something curious I noted about the folder structure is that all the game files are inside /1.0/ subfolders, this leads me to speculate that it may be planned to support multiple patch versions for ease of viewing older replays, which would be very nice.
So far as first impressions go, I'm going to rate it 4.5
/ 5. The missing bit of thumb is due to the interface (particularly unit) being slightly clunky (no RTS game can ever get full marks until is has an interface which can hold a candle to TA's...)I'm not sure if C&C3 is a game I'll get addicted to, but that may only because I don't have the time at the moment...
Comment