C&C Labs News Wire

— Thursday, July 28, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 5:22:35 PM ET

Roundup time

  • ISOTX has announced the details of their new Mid East mod, Mideast Crisis. Details at the site.
  • Tiberian Fields will be holding a Tiberian Sun World Cup where you get to represent your country. Sounds like a fun idea, and it will be part of the 10th anniversary celebration.
  • Under pressure from some, including quite a bit from me, Aaron Kaufman has said the following about EA's support in the CNC 10 celebration:
    I can assure you that EA (i.e. myself and others) will be fully supporting the C&C 10th anniversary as best we can along with the community. I’ve had initial conversations with CnCNZ regarding our participation and will loop you in on that. Rest assured it is an extremely important anniversary to us, and I want to make sure we are there leading the charge with you guys.
    Aaron Kaufman
  • Project Perfect Mod has released version 3.33 of the Open Source SHP Builder. They also are doing TS animation contest (details here to support the CNC 10 celebration.
  • Slipstream Productions is a new modding group that currently has three modding projects (Halogen, Defcon, and the new Ace Combat: Distant Thunder, which aims to bring the Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies (known as Distant Thunder in Europe) gameplay to ZH. They plan to give an update about one of the mods every day for the next two weeks.
  • Red Alert: Chrono Device has a long media blitz on.
  • CNC DEN has six new ZH replays, a new ZH shell map, and a train garrisoning tutorial.
  • For those interested in what we will be doing for the CNC 10 celebration, I can confirm that I am working on getting a number of people to interview, both current EA employees and former Westwood ones. It's going to be nice to pick their brains on the subject of CNC.

— Monday, July 25, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 10:30:36 AM ET

Two New LOTR Games Officially Announced

As I said late last night, word was spreading that EA was making two new Lord of the Rings games, at least one of them an RTS (LOTR: Tactics is being called a 'Tactical Strategy' game for the PSP). Below is part of the official press release from EA.
Redwood City, Calif., – July 25, 2005
– Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that it has been granted the rights to develop games based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic literary fiction, The Lord of the Rings. Since 2001, EA has developed games based exclusively on New Line’s Academy Award winning theatrical productions of The Lord of the Rings, as depicted by Peter Jackson. The expansion of the rights allows EA to introduce players to depths of the fiction never before explored in an EA game. The company also revealed today the first details of two new games in the blockbuster The Lord of the Rings series; The Lord of the Rings™, The Battle for Middle-earth™ II and The Lord of the Rings™ Tactics (working title). With the new games, fans will be able to step into a world that looks like the films, but experience characters, environments and battles that have been inspired by the books.
You can read the whole thing here.
Last edited by Blbpaws on Monday, July 25, 2005 at 2:34:03 PM.

— Sunday, July 24, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 7:48:07 PM ET

EA's Next RTS: BFME 2

OK, this could be it. If EA has skipped doing a CNC RTS to do a second BFME, I would not be surprised if the entire community just left. We'll see if this turns out to be true. In any event, sources everywhere are reporting that BFME 2 really will be the next RTS. For those of you who are interested, check this out as well as some images here. For those of you who can read German, you might find this interesting. We shall see how this pans out, but it seems to me that the chances for the CNC franchise are not good.

Update: According to this story EA has two new LOTR games in the works.
Last edited by Blbpaws on Monday, July 25, 2005 at 10:52:10 AM.

— Sunday, July 24, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 7:07:01 AM ET

New Poll and Poll Results

I've updated the poll. Let me just say that for those of you who think that the single player in Zero Hour was 'excellent', I'd like to hear why. It seemed to be lacking in most respects to me, especially AI. You can leave your comments in this newspost or on our forums. In any event, here are the results from the last one.

What did you think of the single-player modes in ZH?
Excellent
24
31%
Very Good
10
13%
Good
23
30%
Fair
12
15%
Poor
3
3%
Very Poor
0
0%
Awful
4
5%

Total Votes: 76
Last edited by Blbpaws on Sunday, July 24, 2005 at 11:09:10 AM.

— Wednesday, July 20, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 11:03:52 AM ET

Let the Modding News continue!

As this bleak waiting goes on, seemingly the only news is in mods (as I've said just about every week now). So, here we go:
  • An Act of War has a new render of the MH-60 Blackhawk as well as a screen from their first USA mission.
  • Cold War Crisis has released two new renders today, the T-64, and the redone BMP-2. They are also looking for voice actors.
  • Victor Charlie has released a slew of renders for their choppers, including the AH-1G Cobra, the Huey (UH-1), and the Huey Gunship (UH-1B/1C).
  • CNC Shockwave has two new renders, one of their new Battle Bus and one of T55 Mantis Tank; both are for General Juhziz.
  • Call to Arms has a render of their new 'Landable Helicopter'.
  • Joey gave Lion from CNC DEN a comic he made up, taking some not so veiled (though perhaps well deserved) shots at EA.
  • Red Alert: Chrono Device has released an in-game screenshot of the MI-26 Halo.
  • Version 0.8 of Imperial Assault is ready, weighing in at a hefty 163MB, with a 56k version coming.
  • Planet CNC has a new edition of their mailbag. They also have Part Two of their Empire At War preview.
Last edited by Blbpaws on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 at 3:05:19 PM.

— Friday, July 15, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 6:50:52 PM ET

OMC Ends Monday

This is the last reminder that the Open Map Competition ends this Monday, July 18th! There are three sections in the competition--Tib Sun/Firestorm, RA2/YR, and Generals/ZH--each offering fantastic prizes.

— Friday, July 15, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 3:44:51 PM ET

Even More Modding Updates (and small All-Stars news)

  • CNC DEN has two new ZH maps and 14 new replays.
  • Generals: Alpha has two new renders of the USA supply truck.
  • Only War has two new pictures, one from a mission.
  • Red Alert: Regenertion has the Allied Phase Tank rendered.
  • Also, I feel it's time to announce one of the last details in the All-Stars design. For those who don't know, All-Stars is Generals World's current modification, done by the in house modding team. It aims to take the 'All-Star' units from each CNC game and put them into one mod. The last feature is one of separation between the sides, what we've been calling 'subarmies' internally. This means that the Allies will be slightly different than the Soviets. The difference will lie in one unique unit, one unique upgrade, and one unique three star Generals power. If you'd like, you can comment and ask questions in our forums.
Last edited by Blbpaws on Friday, July 15, 2005 at 7:47:39 PM.

— Tuesday, July 12, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 6:47:12 PM ET

More Modding Updates

Seems like the only things happening in the community nowadays are mods. If EA is going to announce RA3 and if it's going to be this summer, it sure looks like they are waiting for the CNC 10th Anniversary. In any case, here's the modding news:

— Monday, July 11, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 8:45:49 AM ET

Modding Updates

  • CNC Reborn has two renders of the GDI Pistol and Crowbar.
  • Vietnam Reborn has renders of the USA PACV 3, the USA rubber raft, and the NVA Type 85 construction vehicle.
  • Red Alert: Chrono Device has an in-game shot of the MI-24Z Hind.
  • Red Alert 2 mod Mental Omega is searching for experienced beta testers. More info here.
    Last edited by Blbpaws on Monday, July 11, 2005 at 12:46:22 PM.

— Saturday, July 9, 2005 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 4:49:08 PM ET

Huge Roundup

With me being gone for over a week, and with the rest of this kind staff "forgetting" to post the news, we're way behind. Here's what's happened:
  • CNC DEN has 5 new ZH maps and one new mission for Generals.
  • CNC World has 36, yes 36, new TS maps, with 20 more coming.
  • CNCNZ has a new article titled 'GLA Upgrades' about the various ways GLA units can be upgraded by picking up scrap.
  • Planet CNC has a piece on a new mod, currently unnamed.
  • Cold War Crisis has a new render and 5 new in-game screens. Render is of the M109 Paladin. They're also looking for English speaking voice actors--more info here.
  • On behalf of the staff of CNCGeneralsWorld, I'd like to offer our condolences to the legendary Frank Klepacki on the death of his father Edward Klepacki. Frank's music will be forever remembered in the CNC games preceding Generals. You can find Frank's tribute on his site.
  • Renegade: A New Hope has eight new screenshots.
  • CNC Reborn has a new Mammoth MKII skin, as well as a new, very well done, Ghost Stalker model.
  • CNCRenEclips has a slew of new renders.
  • Cannis Rules for YR has been updated to 1.8. See the change list here.
And I've also updated the poll here. The results of the last one are below. For those interested, I agree with the results of the poll. Personally, I think (and hope) we won't see a CNC for anything besides a PC for a while.

The next CNC will be...
CNC 3 for PC
26
36%
RA 3 for PC
40
55%
CNC 3 for a console
3
4%
RA 3 for a console
1
1%
CNC 3 for a handheld
2
2%
RA 3 for a handheld
0
0%

Total Votes: 72

Whew!
Last edited by Blbpaws on Saturday, July 9, 2005 at 8:53:44 PM.

— Wednesday, July 6, 2005 —

Posted By: Mike at 6:13:02 AM ET

OMC Reminder

This is a reminder for everyone who is planning on submitting maps to the Open Map Competition that there are less than two weeks left before the deadline! Submit your Zero Hour, Red Alert 2, or Tiberian Sun maps for your chance to win some great prizes!

Contestants may submit one map that they have created per game. The deadline is July 18th, so be sure to get your maps in on time!
Last edited by Mike on Wednesday, July 6, 2005 at 10:14:15 AM.

— Sunday, July 3, 2005 —

Posted By: CommieDog at 11:09:43 PM ET

All-Stars Info Updated

While working on some pieces of code for All-Stars yesterday, it occured to me that, while the design process is 'officially' over, the design of All-Stars has changed as our steady progress on the mod has revealed some problems with the original design.  So, I took it upon myself to do some updating of the pages outlining all the features in the mod.  Most of the changes are fairly minor, such as cost, but I believe the addition of the Mobile Sensor Array for the Tibs and the removal of the Sentry Drone and Technical for the Gens to be noteworthy.  Feel free to comment on these relatively recent developments.

In addition, our shortage of upgrades for the Reds continues to bother me.  I would appreciate it if anyone could offer a few suggestions, especially for upgrades researched from the War Factory.  I'm certain that Blbpaws could be...persuaded to add one or two.

Links