C&C Labs News Wire

— Thursday, March 30, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 2:41:32 PM ET

New Maps

CNC Den has four new Zero Hour maps that you might want to check out if you get the chance. Also, here at GW, we've added three new maps, including a movie map. Head over to out maps section to check them out. In the future, we hope to have many more maps more often for you to download.

— Monday, March 27, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 1:35:10 PM ET

MidEast Crisis 1.5 Out

MidEast Crisis 1.5 is out now. It's a popular mod featuring a fictional war between Israel and Syria. Here's the official release:
Yes folks, at long last, it's here! Despite a multitude of delays, we've finally got a version we're truly proud to give you. Months and months worth of diligent play testing and balancing and upgrading have gone into this revamped version of MidEast Crisis and lots of gameplay additions and modifications have been made. There's a new AI, new maps, new units, new buildings, new sounds, new particleFX and more! The diligent staff for 1.5 includes Ome Vince for leadership, coding, 3D models and skins, Bhones for maps, BlckWverve and DarkAlex for the AI, Chris Boidy for particleFX, and the forum dragon for sound effects, his ineffable wisdom, wit, and the use of his lair as a sweatshop work center. Ome Vince and the people of Isotx have played this version all they can even into the wee hours of the morning over the past few weeks, and the end result is one of the best polished RTS mods ever released. But hey, don't take my word for it, take a look at some of these screenshots and see the action for yourself!
Screens and downloads at the site.

— Saturday, March 25, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 1:17:17 PM ET

PCNC Patch Analysis

Over at Planet CNC they have a patch analysis of the 1.01 patch for TFD. It's not too favorable, but it seems accurate and worth a look.

— Saturday, March 25, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 11:29:57 AM ET

New RTS Mention in PC Gamer

In this month's edition of PC Gamer magazine, there was a small teaser:
Imagine, if you will, an RTS franchise - a hugely popular one that's been out of the lime-light for a while. No, not that one, the other one. Yes, that's it. Now imagine picking up the June issue of PCG and seeing that we've got a world exclusive scoop on the new game in the series. Wouldn't that be glorious?
Hopes have been raised before, but there general consensus was that the last hope would be E3. Might EA be taking advantage of this last shot? Time will tell.... Hugely popular? Well, C&C holds the record for RTSs sold I believe. But keep in mind, other possibilites include Total Annilation, Starcraft, and maybe one or two others. But, if it's not C&C, when does EA plan on releasing word on a new one? (Completely random guess: RA3 will be announced at E3)
Last edited by Blbpaws on Saturday, March 25, 2006 at 6:12:22 PM.

— Saturday, March 25, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 5:44:30 AM ET

Support E-mail Addresses Spoofed

Just a heads up to all of the fans out there: someone is 'spoofing' the support[at]cncgeneralsworld [dot] com e-mail address and is sending e-mails to our fans about confirmed changes of passwords. If you recieve an email from support@cncgeneralsworld.com and have neither changed your password nor created a new account within the previous few minutes, DO NOT open the e-mail. Simply delete it and please notify an administrator via a forum PM.

Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience.
Last edited by Mike on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 at 6:02:22 PM.

— Saturday, March 25, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 5:42:02 AM ET

TFD Editorial

In A Pessimist's Guide to C&C: The First Decade, former PCNC staffer Evan Sundwick gives a pretty good, and sadly accurate, analysis of the decisionmaking behind The First Decade, and why we never should have expected much from it in the first place. Here's a snip:
None of you should be surprised. Did you really expect that Electronic Arts' hegemony over the industry would result in a stunning collectors' edition pack of our historically important games?

That's all they are. As of right now, Command & Conquer is a ghost. It's a memory flitting through the brains of a select few – you – because the rest of the industry has passed it by. Generals has come and gone, and with no new releases in two and a half years, the franchise might as well not exist. Yes, Mr. Bonin and others have assured us that there is more to come, but empty promises must be filled with something, lest they collapse.
It's interesting that all these new info and viewpoints are coming out while Aaron Kaufman is on vacation, which probably accounts for the lack of an EA response to any of the allegations made in any article written over the past few days.

— Friday, March 24, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 3:00:23 PM ET

New Poll and Poll Results

I updated the poll today. It now asks what you thought of EA's decision to outsource the development of C&C: The First Decade to Barking Lizards Technologies. For more details about this, see Planet CNC's review of The First Decade. Then voice your opinion in our poll, or use the comments area of this newspost to be specific.

Here are the results from the last poll; it's interesting how many of you don't have it:
Rate C&C: The First Decade
A
75
36%
B
22
10%
C
5
2%
D
4
1%
F
14
6%
I don't have it
84
41%

Total Votes: 204
Last edited by Blbpaws on Friday, March 24, 2006 at 8:01:17 PM.

— Friday, March 24, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 2:54:51 PM ET

Ex-Westwoodians Form Studio

Turtle Rock Studios has been formed by a group of ex-Westwood employees, including Michael Booth, who worked on Yuri's Revenge, and on Generals for EA. They're currently not developing any RTS's now, instead working on a Source-based first person shooter. Still, it'll be interesting to keep an eye on them.

— Wednesday, March 22, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 1:30:28 PM ET

TFD Reviewed

Planet CNC has posted up a good review of C&C: The First Decade. The review reveals that EA indeed outsourced the development of TFD, contrary to what Apoc implied. It details the various parts of the compilation, and makes some strong points. Here's a snip:
I'm not going to deny that I have a bias against Electronic Arts (which is less of a "computer games company" than it is an "entertainment industry conglomerate"), but I hold companies accountable for their actions, EA and Barking Lizards have a lot to answer for over TFD, however pointing the finger is hard: the lack of testing on The First Decade could be the fault of either EA or Barking Lizards; the unmodified games could be because EA never gave Barking Lizards the source-code to the games or it could be because Barking Lizards didn't have the time nor the budget to root through the decade-old source-code and make the necessary changes to add TCP/IP support to Tiberian Dawn, or change the VQA renderer in Red Alert for example.
Full piece here.

— Tuesday, March 21, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 2:56:56 PM ET

Mod Toaster 2.1

ModToaster has been updated to version 2.1, fixing a few bugs and adding some new features. From the official post:
With the official ModToaster 2 release behind us, we’re setting up for the MeC1.5 release. Naturally there was a problem or 2 with ModToaster 2 which required our immediate attention. At first ModToaster 2 was not compatible with EA’s new package "The First Decade". The package not only altered the path but also certain registry files.

This update is a short fix to several issues:

* Internal unhandled exception when double clicking on "C&C Zero Hour" mod.
* GUI bug. Problem in GUI display when not using 96dpi.
* The First Decade game version support

— Saturday, March 18, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 5:45:01 PM ET

TFD 1.01

Aaron 'Apoc' Kaufman announced that path 1.01 is now live for C&C: The First Decade. The patch fixes bugs with movies not playing, and weighs in at a very-small 408kb. Additionally, another patch is in the works. It will fix music and registry issues, and will hopefully bring back the dinosaurs in C&C: Covert Operations.
Last edited by Blbpaws on Sunday, March 19, 2006 at 8:51:48 PM.

— Thursday, March 16, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 2:10:33 PM ET

Words from Apoc

Aaron 'Apoc' Kaufman, the community manager for C&C, has posted the following over on the official C&C forums:
Hey guys,

My sincerest apologies for my lack of response on these threads. My focus has been almost entirely on The Battle for Middle-earth II and handling all issues with the launch of the game. It has really deterred my focus in all directions. Commanding two communities is not an easy task by any means, and thats not an excuse either.

I will do my best to be much more active on these boards. Right now, my activity revolves around giving you guys concrete information. I do not want to come on here and lead on.

The issues with The First Decade have been worked on here by the development team since release. We are very close to releasing a 1st patch which will fix the movie bugs.

Do not fear, my time has admiteddly been spent with BFME II but I will make 100% more effort to discuss on here.
I never dreamed C&C would be splitting time with BFME, but it shows you how the times have changed. Hopefully we'll get some news soon.

— Tuesday, March 14, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 2:03:36 PM ET

New Maps and Replays at CNCDEN

Not much is going on in the Generals community these days (or in any C&C community for that matter), so CNC Den has some new ZH maps and replays to tide you over for a little longer. The next event which EA is scheduled to speak at is E3 in May, but I can't recall EA ever using that platform in a major way for a C&C game....We'll see what happens in the weeks and months ahead.

— Friday, March 10, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 5:30:28 PM ET

Road to Moscow Dead

From the official release:
Here is the current situation: I, Soulreaver, left the team in the beginning of september 2005, due to educational obligations. I gave the team six months to make some progress with the mod, but unfortunately nothing happened in the last half a year and as I see it this mod is dead. I have decided to release whatever work was done for the project so someone else will be able to finish what we have started. The models, textures and some of the code can be downloaded here. I will also contact the moddb staff to see if they would be willing to host the files as well.

I apologize to all the fans of this mod for not being able to finish this project and I would also like to thank you all for supporting this mod during its last year of activity.
Sure is sad to see any mod go....

— Tuesday, March 7, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 11:55:16 AM ET

Mod Toaster 2 Coming

Word from ISOTX is that the next version of their Mod Toaster utility will be available on March 10th. Mod Toaster is a utility that supports easy swapping of mods. The new version is supposed to have the following features:
* Import/Export Mod: People can now import a mod directly into ModToaster. This allows for users/modders to create their own mod packages and customs. They can easily import them into ModToaster which will then manage them properly.
* Complete New Interface: ModToaster 2 has a complete new look along with a more user-friendly interface design!
* ModToaster 2 Advanced Cleaning System: which will clean your Zero Hour from dirty mod installations.
* Mod Manuals: Mods now also have the ability to add game manuals to their packages which people can then view through ModToaster!
* New News System: ModToaster 2 now also automatically checks for updates once in a while and a screen will pop up with the latest news!
* Mod Banners: ModToaster 2 also features mod banners! Each mod will have its own banner which ModToaster will download and show upon selection of that mod!
* Metrics System: A build-in metrics system so people and modders can now see on the site which mod is downloaded and played the most!
Last edited by Blbpaws on Tuesday, March 7, 2006 at 4:55:29 PM.

— Sunday, March 5, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 10:04:38 AM ET

Community Roundup

  • A Path Beyond has a new render of the Soviet Mammoth Tank, and some shots of the camouflage for vehicles.
  • C&C Saga has uncovered some old C&C concept art that you can see here.
  • CNC Den has six new ZH replays and a new ZH map by Lion, as well as three new Renegade skins.

— Thursday, March 2, 2006 —

Posted By: Phe0n1x at 4:12:48 PM ET

Generals Mod Review Part 1---Zero Hour Reloaded

Zero Hour Reloaded v4.0, made by Jakeydude666 (Jake Cozens)
(This mod is for Zero Hour ONLY!)


Zero Hour Reloaded is a fine example of a non-complete conversion mod which adds five new generals: USA modern weapons, China Napalm, GLA assault, Russia, and Great Britain, along with a few improvements with the standard Zero Hour generals. The mod also improves the generals rank system by increasing the number of ranks from the usual five ranks to outstanding eight ranks.

As far as I can tell, the mod is almost finished with a minimal number unit icons missing. Although, if you wish to keep your load screens you should back up certain files mentioned in the readme.txt because the mod will replace them. You can download this mod here.

My Rating: 7/10

If you have or know of an outstanding Generals or Zero Hour mod that you think is worthy of reviewing, please post them in the comments section.
Last edited by Phe0n1x on Thursday, March 2, 2006 at 9:14:32 PM.

— Thursday, March 2, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 3:27:24 AM ET

Welcome to New Staff Members

I'd like to formally welcome three new Generals World staff members: Flip1299 will our new download manager, and BL4D308 Phe0n1x will be creating and reviewing maps. Phe0n1x will also be helping me out with the newsposts. A very hearty welcome to all of them, and best of luck here at CNC Generals World!

We're always looking for more talented people. If you're interested in contributing to Generals World in any way, please e-mail myself or MicScoTho. We have a number of ways in which you can contribute.

— Wednesday, March 1, 2006 —

Posted By: Mike at 7:18:51 PM ET

Zero Hour Strategy Guides

This post is a bit late, but better late than never - right?

Our affiliate Game Replays has posted some in-depth strategy guides for Zero Hour. The guides were written by some talented and very dedicated Zero Hour players. These guys definitely know their strategy, and so if you're looking to improve your gameplay, I highly recommend taking a look.
Last edited by Mike on Thursday, March 2, 2006 at 12:19:45 AM.

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