C&C: 4

[Badnik Mechanic]

EA let slip a big one the other day... now they've confirmed it(?).

Command and Conquer 4 is in the making... and get this... it's said to be the final part in the series!?

According to the memo.

"The final part of the Tiberium saga takes place in 2062, the planet is dying. Tiberium infestation has overwhelmed human efforts to vanquish it. With little hope in finding an answer to stop Tiberium. The Global Defense Initiative and the Brotherhood of Nod find themselves with a similar goal - saving mankind from extinction.

Otherwise the only other plot detail is as follows.. "Nod's enigmatic leader Kane takes off for GDI headquarters."

It doesn't sound like too much fighting between GDI and NOD is to take place on this one... which is troubling since thats what the whole tiberium saga has been... with the odd truce here and there to fight Kabal and the Scrin.

One aspect of the multiplayer has been shown... and this is... almost new for C&C games (I say almost because it sounds like an upgrade from Red Alert 3's co-op mode), that aspect is... "A 5-on-5 objective-based multiplayer mode, requiring players to strategize and cooperate on a level never before seen in the franchise."

Tentative release date is 2010. No console details yet... but you can bet it'll most likely be PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. Not sure if that will be the order of the release however given how shocking out of sync EA has been with it's C&C releases recently.

Source

For those who do not know much about the Tiberium side of the C&C universe. Here are some videos.

C&C 1: Tiberium Dawn, what is Tiberium?

C&C 3 background trailer

C&C 3: Tiberium Wars big trailer

[Badnik Mechanic]

So the game is finally out and I've got it.

First impressions? It's one of the most boring games I have played.

Sometimes, when a game series is old, they'll try new ideas to give it a bit of new live, this has happened in a lot of game series. Sonic, Resident Evil, Mario, Crash Bandicoot, mortal kombat, final fantasy. And now we can say Command and Conquer has joined the fray.

C&C games do change slightly with each release, over the years theres been the odd tweek here and there, like limited resources, support structures, garrisonable buildings, unit cap etc etc...

But now C&C 4 has changed the game, and they've changed it a lot. So... whats the first big change.

1: You have no base.

You start the battle by picking an MCV by one of three classes, offensive, defensive and support. This then builds everything you'll need on the battlefield, tanks, planes, defensive towers, infantry. You name it.

2: No resources.

You do not collect Tiberium! Huh!? But thats the main reason for the game!? Why no tiberium? Well you have unlimited money, you can build what you like so long as it's under the unit cap, so instantly there goes a tactic of starving your apponents resources. Because they've got unlimited resources.

3: You improve by levelling up.

Each time you kill something, you get some XP, over time you can purchase new abilities for your units, these are mostly passive such as increased range fire rate etc.

4: The interface.

Everything is at the bottom of the screen. It's so small and squashed up that you can barely tell what you're building, forcing you to wait for the information to pop up. Nothing is obvious as to what it does, for instance orcas with missiles look nearly the same as orcas with machine guns in the interface, but totally different when on the battlefield.

5: The future of PC gaming.

Oh God... if this is to be the standard for PC gaming, it'll be dead by the end of the year.

When I bought it the dude at the counter said that I could not trade it in due to the install process. After you install the game you have to be connected to the net... ok nothing strange there. But you then have to keep that internet connection constant for even singe player game.

When you install the latest patch (again this is required) You then have to make an EA account and tie the game to that account using the key code, making trade ins not possible. Because the game will not work if you use a different account (at least if what I've understood is correct from the ingame chat room.... yes theres a chat room... in the main menu... christ...).

The main menu contains a chat room... and it's filled with people spoiling the plot and commenting at how bad the game is. Woo great start.

This constant internet connection is a bad idea which fails so terribly I'd be amazed if it continues. If you're playing a single player mission and your connection is cut or is lost for even a small second... you can't continue, even if you're in a solo campaign mission... can't get it back, can't get back into the game and your progress and XP is lost.

So your first 3 missions are the tutorial, you get to know the three different classes of everything. These 3 missions are boring and slow... they're so slow because of point 1.

No base building.

In past RTS games you can build like this.

Past RTS

Barracks ---- Building infantry NOW!

Tank Factory ---- Building aircraft NOW!

Airbase ---- Bullding aircraft NOW!

Support buldings --- Upgrading NOW!

This is C&C 4's method.

MCV ---- Bulding 1 infantry guy NOW! Building Tank.... Soon... Building aircraft.... in a while... Building infantry guy.... Just go put the kettle on.

Imagine if youre playing an RTS and you built everything in time. So after your barracks make a gunner, you then build a tank from your seperate factory and so on. This is what C&C 4's build system is like. You cannot build anything else until 1 unit is ready.

Oh but wait... thats one type of unit. Be it a defensive, offensive or support. If you want to build other units of a different tech stance, you have to delete you MCV... thats right... delete it... select it... then press the delete button! This then takes a period of time to delete... you can then summon another one... IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH IN STOCK! Thats right, you can't then switch back to a previous MCV and then rebuild lost units!

Then it's back to the slow build method.

Bulding Units.

This is a bloody joke... You have 50 command points. Each unit costs a different level of command points.... on level 4 you unlock Mk 2 titans a basic type of tank unit. They cost 6 points each! Meaning you can only have 8 out at a time. Even Red Alert 3 allowed for giant armies! But a squad of 6 units!?

Each squad, as the command points are so restrictive you can only have a small squad and not a massive army anymore, has to perform the actions that your old army once did. But because you've now only got a small squad, gone are the days of having a huge army attack one flank, and then another attack a different side.

The speed your units move at is slow, they take an age to actually destroy anything don't seem to do the right amount of damage for the level of firepower they dish out, and some planes have this tendancy of simply dropping vertically from the sky when they're destroyed, even if you feel they should have exploded.

It's bad... really bad. Avoid.

[Remy]

So essentially it's a shite company of heroes/dawn of war 2 with all resources stripped and speed turned down to slow as shit. Although I'm not particularly attached to building and quite like dawn of war 2, this sounds particularly unattractive.

Shame. Guess there's always Star Craft 2 for RTS traditionalists.

as an aisde, I'm pretty sure the game doesn't intend you you to deconstruct and rebuild your MCV... I think the idea is in team games to have a heap of players with differant specs IIRC

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

Looks like the first C&C game in the series I'll never play. Thanks for the warning. :/

[Remy]

It seems to be reviewing decently, although i know that doesn't particularly matter too much to the betrayed CnC faithful

[BlueFlare]

Red Alert 3 and this are the only C&Cs I've never played. C&C3 was really boring and lame to me and I felt dumb after buying it (luckily not for full price though). So, judging by people's opinions how bad C&C4 really is I'm not even going to consider getting it.

I hope Starcraft 2 will be at least nearly as good as the first one.

Edited March 20, 2010 by Peter

[BlueFox]

They've attempted to make it more MP & Co-op friendly having each person take up either, Defence, Offence or Support. This really does limit it for the singleplayer because each class gets its own set of units so, Infantry for D, Tanks for At and Aircraft for Support so performing complex attack plans don't work by yourself.

[Remy]

I hope Starcraft 2 will be at least nearly as good as the first one.

Played the Beta, it certainly is. nowhere near as many drastic changes as in cnc4

[BlueFlare]

Played the Beta, it certainly is. nowhere near as many drastic changes as in cnc4

Thanks for the good news. I didn't get a chance to play the Beta but I what I've heard so far is sounding really good.

[Stacy]

Bought it, played it, completed it in a day.

Crushing is all I can discribe it. I have been playing the C&C seires since 1996 (seirously) and this game is disapointing. I like idea of crawler though the new cap is too low in my opinion. The Scorpion Tank looks like something out of RA3, cheesy design. Skirmish wise and online wise its for awhile apart from its not very C&C. Some of the units are cool (mainly GDI's and lot of designs were a tip to Tiberian Sun) but being limited to one type of class at a time can be tiresome and limits your Strategies. But the biggest problem is the campaign and its rather plot hole confusing story. I know C&C 3 had some plotholes but at least they made a actual effort to explain things and made a decent storyline. But with fuck all missions, really shot cutscenes leaves it in a right mess. Also why do you have a wife it adds nothing to the story:

When she dies I have no feelings for because their was no real development of her character.

Baldy's back but now he's gone.

Look what I found on the EA C&C fourm lol:

I never thought I would say this but my childhood has been raped like a Catholic choir boy.

Edited April 14, 2010 by Bloodfetish