C&C Labs News Wire

— Saturday, February 25, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 10:39:14 AM ET

HOF Winners Announced

The winners from weeks 3 and 4 in the C&C Hall of Fame contest have been announced. The winning entries featured a nice variety of screens, including one mosaic of 1000 RA2 screenshots. You can view them all here. As a reminder, here are some of the guidelines of the contest should you want to submit some of your work in the coming weeks.
We are looking for screen shots based on any of the following criteria:

* explosive action
* humor and creativity
* nostalgic effect (capturing historic moments)
* modding creativity
* cinematic flare

Submit your screen shots to rtscommunityleaders@ea.com and you just might find your explosive artwork in the Command & Conquer Hall of Fame...coming soon!
The winning screen at the end of the entire contest gets a C&C skinned GeForce 7800GT graphics card!

— Saturday, February 25, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 10:35:33 AM ET

TFD Reviewed

In one of the few mostly positive reviews I've read of TFD, GameZone has given the pack an overall score of 8.8/10:
All the storylines were so creatively done it’s a wonder that Westwood or EA has not jumped on the bandwagon and gone Hollywood. I could see how some of the titles could certainly be spun to be a box office hit. Heck, cast Kari Wuhrer (Tanya the gorgeous agent from red alert 2) in it and I would sure be at the box office! In all seriousness the creativity was second to none and I surely hope that in 10 years we will be looking at a second decade of hits.
They also called it 'one of the best values around;' there's no doubt it's a great value, but it still doesn't replace another great game.

— Thursday, February 23, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 6:44:13 AM ET

Generals Deluxe for Mac

Generals and Zero Hour will be released together in a Generals Deluxe pack for the Mac. Of course, the multiplayer will still be incompatible between Mac and PC versions, but for those wishing to play among other Mac owners or offline, and who haven't bought the games yet, this is certainly good news.

— Tuesday, February 21, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 5:55:41 PM ET

Community Happenings

Quite a bit has happened recently:
  • Nyerguds from C&C Meets Star Wars has posted a fairly comprehensive review of the problems in TFD and how to address them:
    Various TD Problems
    1. Move scores.mix from the covert folder to the main folder, overwriting the (inferior) scores.mix in the main folder.
    2. Rename the movies.mix in the covert folder to scovmovs.mix and move it into the main folder.
    3. Rename the general.mix in the covert folder to scgen.mix, and move it into the main folder.
    4. Seeing as there are no files of any importance left in the covert folder, simply remove it. No, this won't cause ANY problems at all, I tested it ;)
    * Delete logo.vqa and logo.vqp to get a much cooler intro animation.
    * Apply Windows 95 compatibility mode to preview.exe to watch the cool Lands of Lore and Blade Runner trailers :)
    * If you want to make your own shortcut to C&C95.exe, make sure to open the shortcut's properties and add ' -cd.' (without the quotes) behind everything on the Target line. Don't forget the dot behind '-cd', it's crucial.

    RA Movies Problem
    1. Use XCC Mixer to open main.mix and extract movies2.mix in your RA folder.
    2. Rename the extracted movies2.mix to scsovmov.mix.

    That's all? Yes, that's all. Really. Do this and you WILL see the Soviet movies again.

    You may want to use XCC Mixer to delete movies2.mix from main.mix and save some 400 MB disk space, but that's entirely your own choice.

    Possible side effect is a slightly longer loading time when the game launches. This is because the game has to scan scsovmov.mix for usable files. Both C&C1 and RA1 scan all mixfiles starting with 'sc' for usable files, and gives them the utmost priority. C&C1 and RA1 modding is based on this principle.

  • There's a review of TFD over at Strategy Informer. They were not pleased, giving it a 7.7/10:
    Then there is the bonus DVD with its "features". The concept was a great idea, but the execution is somewhat weak if you're not a fan of a bunch of people sitting around telling you their feelings about something. Unfortunately it feels a bit more like a group therapy session than an exciting insight into the Command and Conquer series.

  • Cold War Crisis has version 1.1 of their demo online.
  • XWIS has two detailed guides on playing C&C Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert using an DLL replacement that will add IPX support.
Last edited by Blbpaws on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 at 10:56:37 PM.

— Tuesday, February 21, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 5:23:07 PM ET

New Poll and Poll Results

Been forever since I updated the poll. C&C: The First Decade has been out for a little bit now, and here's your chance to rate it. Go over to the right sidebar to vote. Below are the results from last week's poll:

The last time I played a C&C was...
Yesterday
268
68%
Last Week
41
10%
Last Month
9
2%
Last Year
42
10%
More Than A Year Ago
29
7%

Total Votes: 389


Thanks to all 389 of you who voted!

— Wednesday, February 15, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 6:01:22 PM ET

C&C HOF Week 2 Winners

Apoc has passed along news that the winners from the second week of the C&C Hall of Fame contest, in which screenshots are fan submitted for judging by EA, can be seen here. This week's winners included screens from a mod, Renegade, RA2/YR, and others. Congratulations to the winning submitters. At the end of the contest, one winner will be selected and will receive a C&C branded nVidia 7800 GT. To review, the following are some important details in case you're interested in submitting screens for future weeks:
We are looking for screenshots based on any of the following criteria:

* explosive action
* humor and creativity
* nostalgic effect (capturing historic moments)
* modding creativity
* cinematic flare

Submit your screenshots to rtscommunityleaders@ea.com and you just might find your explosive artwork in the Command & Conquer Hall of Fame...coming soon!
Last edited by Blbpaws on Wednesday, February 15, 2006 at 11:03:50 PM.

— Tuesday, February 14, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 2:29:59 PM ET

C&C: TFD Reviewed

Gamespot has posted a review of Command and Conquer: The First Decade, the compilation pack of 12 C&Cs. They were, in my judgment, fair but critical, and gave it an overall score of 7.6 out of 10:

This package is long on great gameplay, but it doesn't seem like the developers responsible for collating everything onto one disc took a great deal of care with the materials. If you're willing to overlook a few bugs and missed opportunities, you'll find some of the greatest real-time strategy games ever made here. But given the series' pedigree, The First Decade deserved a little more polish than it got, making the whole thing seem like a sort of "don't forget about C&C" product that's intended to drive interest in a new sequel. Let's hope that the team working on the second decade of C&C is a little more respectful of the legacy.

If any fans wish to post their comments, assenting or dissenting, about the pack, feel free to do so in the comments thread.

Last edited by MicScoTho on Monday, February 9, 2015 at 7:05:56 AM.

— Sunday, February 12, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 10:39:24 AM ET

Breaking News: Next C&C Confirmed (by IGN)

In an article on IGNPC (who seem to be EA's new go-to PR place), detailing the coming RTSs of 2006, there is the following snip:
Command & Conquer: The Next Title

What is it?: What we know about this game is that it's 'in the works'. What we don't know is pretty much everything else. We've learned a few other things recently however. We know that EA's VP of Creative Development Louis Castle seems to be very fond of the Tiberium universe in the C&C series so we may see that... but considering the popularity of the Red Alert universe, we're guessing that actually might be where the next game will take place. A recent podcast with Louis Castle and Mike Verdu showed that both are very excited about the possibilities of an RTS MMO (though that's not likely for this next one) as well. However, it wouldn't be surprising to see EA LA build on the things that they've done right with the Battle for Middle-earth franchise. For instance, a strategic world map for a large Red Alert game could be possible. We won't see it released this year, but we may finally learn something as the year progresses.

Well, a title has been confirmed. However, RA3 was 'confirmed' back in December 2004. I don't think EA will make the same mistake twice, but I don't think we'll see another C&C for at least a year anyway.
Last edited by Blbpaws on Sunday, February 12, 2006 at 3:41:48 PM.

— Saturday, February 11, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 10:32:06 AM ET

Word From Aaron on TFD

Aaron Kaufman, C&C Community Manager, passed along the following about the issues raised yesterday:
Hey everyone,

I understand the many threads on this board regarding the two situations noted below, so please read on, thanks.

I wanted to let you all know that we are aware of the issue viewing the FMVs from the Soviet Mission Campaign for Red Alert 1 in C&C The First Decade and will have a fix available as soon as possible. I will keep you all updated on this.

Many of you have also inquired about online/LAN play in the original C&C and Red Alert 1. As you know, these games have never officially been available to run on Windows XP and are not online/LAN playable in C&C The First Decade. We are currently looking into a few possibilities to help enable this and I will definitely bring you the latest news on this front asap.

Rest assured this is very important to us.
It'd be nice if they'd fix it, but these kind of issues need to be ironed out in QA....

— Friday, February 10, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 6:20:33 PM ET

C&C First Decade News

A number of C&C: The First Decade stories have been circulating recently.
  • First, included in the pack were two posters, one of an unknown tank. Some are speculating that these may be from Tiberian Twilight, the long rumored, but never confirmed, final installment in the C&C saga (or at least the main part of it). Small images of these posters are below. Thanks to Ackart-The-Fox from Planet CNC for getting them. Clicking the posters will take you to his external links.


  • A thread on PlanetCNC has been set up for you to report any problems you have with the pack. Main issues reported include: multiplayer on C&C Tiberian Dawn does not work; there are issues with the playback of Soviet movies (see this thread for more information on a possible workaround; there are also numerous cases of the earlier games not working with LCD monitors--try changing the refresh rate on your monitor manually.
  • Clearly, there are plenty of issues abound with the pack. I wonder how many of them EALA knew about before the shipped it...we'll see how this shakes out.

— Thursday, February 9, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 5:15:29 PM ET

Castle Possibly Intent on Visiting Every Gaming Site...

Surprise! Louis Castle has been interviewed again, making me do the fourth news post about him this week. This time, he's interviewed on Gamecloud. There's not a lot of new substance, but there is one oft-repeated point:
Gamecloud: Of course, the title of the collection hints that this will likely not be the final word on C&C. Can you give us any hints about where the franchise might be going in the future?

Louis Castle: I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again...The game is called ‘The First Decade’ for a reason! C&C is an incredible series of great games and is one of our most celebrated at EALA. The teams here absolutely intend to create more C&C games and are always looking for ways to bring C&C fans and gamers everywhere new experiences. We haven’t made any announcements just yet, but rest assured, you haven’t seen the last of C&C.

There's no doubt there will be a second decade, but how will it compare to the first? Full interview here.
Last edited by Blbpaws on Thursday, February 9, 2006 at 10:15:50 PM.

— Thursday, February 9, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 3:15:51 AM ET

Verdu/Castle Podcast Out

The podcast with Louis Castle and Mike Verdu, a executive producer at EALA, is available online at IGN (which seems to be EA's new go-to PR place). From the summary:
...their discussion covers a lot of different topics over 50 plus minutes. Discussion moves from the general state of the RTS market including the future and the move to consoles, Battle for Middle-earth II on both the PC and Xbox 360 (including their commitment to Xbox Live!), and Command & Conquer.
The podcast is also available via iTunes.
Last edited by Mike on Thursday, February 9, 2006 at 10:59:31 AM.

— Thursday, February 9, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 3:13:47 AM ET

Louis Castle Interview

IGNPC conducted an interview with Louis Castle, co-founder of Westwood Studios, and now an executive at EALA:
IGNPC: How important has the community been over the years to driving change in the series? Have they contributed many big ideas?

Louis Castle: The C&C community is critical to driving change in that they are our most knowledgeable and devoted customers. It is critical that each title receives their approval not only with all the features they come to expect, but also with new ideas that some of them may have been thinking of as well. I could not point to a single feature that came from the fan base, but can say that their vocal commentary on what they like about the products has guided the development of features for every product in the series.

IGNPC: Something any member of the C&C community wants to know...where the hell is the next game in the franchise? And also, it's not C&C Renegade 2, is it?

Louis Castle: Come on! You know we have not announced anything yet! I'd like to tell the world, but for now I can say that the first decade of C&C won't be the last and that soon, we will be giving the fan base inspiration for a whole new chapter in our ongoing dialog.

I'm not quite sure when they've asked for our 'approval' on any title decision, but I could be missing something. Full piece here.

In addition, IGNPC has a preview of the fan created videos that are on the DVD. You can download it here.

— Tuesday, February 7, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 3:09:13 AM ET

The First Decade Ships Today

Just a quick reminder that C&C: The First Decade, a collection of 12 C&C games and a few extras all on one DVD, ships today in the United States. It retails for $39.99.
Last edited by Mike on Tuesday, February 7, 2006 at 11:41:01 AM.

— Monday, February 6, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 2:22:45 PM ET

News from Apoc

Aaron 'APOC' Kaufman, the EA community manager for C&C, passed along the following news to us:
This Wednesday we will be featuring a Podcast with Mike Verdu, Executive Producer of BFME II, and Louis Castle, VP of Creative Development and co-founder of Westwood Studios, creator of the Command & Conquer franchise. Together in the same room for an exclusive interview! These brilliant RTS creators will discuss the Command & Conquer and The Battle for Middle-earth franchises, looking at the similarities and differences between the two, as well as sharing their vision for the future of RTS games. Louis will also discuss the upcoming Xbox 360 version of The Battle for Middle-earth II, while Mike Verdu will focus on the soon to be released PC version.

This is the first time Louis Castle and Mike Verdu have collaborated to share their vision of RTS games together, so there’s no telling what kind of interesting facts and revelations will be brought to life.
EA sure seems to be trying to get this podcast thing going, and it will be interesting to see how it works out for them.

In addition, the first week's winners of the C&C Hall of Fame screenshot contest have been announced. Here's one of them:

You can view the rest at the Hall of Fame. If you're interested in submitting screens (you can submit up to three per week), the rules are below:
We are looking for screenshots based on any of the following criteria:
  • explosive action
  • humor and creativity
  • nostalgic effect (capturing historic moments)
  • modding creativity
  • cinematic flare
Submit your screenshots to rtscommunityleaders@ea.com and you just might find your explosive artwork in the Command & Conquer Hall of Fame...coming soon!
Last edited by Blbpaws on Monday, February 6, 2006 at 7:26:53 PM.

— Saturday, February 4, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 6:03:54 PM ET

C&C First Decade Trailer

Over at nVidia, they have a new C&C First Decade trailer, featuring some FMV from the games, shots from the interview with Louis Castle, co-founder of Westwood Studios, and clips from the winning fan-submitted videos. You can get the video from nVidia here, and from another mirror, 3D Gamers, here. Both are currently quite slow, so we hope to have a Generals World mirror up soon.

Edit: The Generals World mirror is now online here.
Last edited by Mike on Saturday, February 4, 2006 at 11:08:24 PM.

— Friday, February 3, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 7:36:19 AM ET

EA News

Slashdot is reporting that Electronic Arts profits fell 31% from last quarter. This is being blamed on, among other things, delays and consumer backlash. In addition, EA recently announced the laying off of 5% of their employees, or about 350 people. All sources seem to indicate that no one at EALA, where C&C is based, was laid off.

— Friday, February 3, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 7:25:25 AM ET

Community News

Some brief news points overshadowed by the podcast a bit:
  • There's a new mod managing program over at CNCDEN: SwitchMM provides basic mod swapping and managing support for both Generals and Zero Hour. You can get it here.
  • The Blitzkrieg II website has some new screens and renders, including those of the Russian T-28 and T-35 tanks.
  • There's a nice article on Frank Klepacki's website entitled 'Behind the Red Alert Soundtrack.' Here's a snip:
    "Hell March": The timeless track loved by the majority of C&C fans around the globe.

    This was the first song I wrote for Red Alert, not having any idea about what Red Alert would be. I had no clue this would be the anthem for the series and for the fans. One day I walked in my office at Westwood, picked up my guitar, plugged it in, and that was the first riff I played.
    It's a good article from the person who wrote all the C&C music prior to Generals. You can read the full thing under the 'Press' tab on his website.
  • ModDB has relased their Mod of the Year awards. The only C&C mod that won anything was C&C Reborn, which collected the Most Hyped award:
    ModDB: Why? I'd be lying if I didn't say dystopia - but lets share the hype around and give another mod a chance and Reborn is that mod. It seems each week this team pushes out an update of some sort. Constant updates, constant dramas.. never boring, a bit like the classic TV show "days of our lives".

    Still this mod looks fantastic, the team has done a great deal and I'm certainly one who wants to see it released!
    Congratulations to the team!
  • CNC Den has a new ZH map pack. You can get it here.
  • Planet CNC has a nice preview of the Cold War Crisis mod. You can read it here.
  • Halogen has another media update on their site.
Last edited by Blbpaws on Friday, February 3, 2006 at 12:28:43 PM.

— Friday, February 3, 2006 —

Posted By: Blbpaws at 7:14:49 AM ET

Podcast Synopsis and Points

The Louis Castle podcast about C&C: The First Decade yesterday had the quote 'Well, we're not calling it C&C: The First Decade for nothing. At the end of the day we're absolutely commited to the Command & Conquer franchise. We're certainly not done with C&C' that's being passed all over the community.

In addition, Planet CNC has a nice synopsis of the the podcast:
  • USD$39.99 MSRP
  • All games come with the latest patches pre-applied.
  • Includes poster
  • Bonus DVD including behind-the-scenes and making-of clips, fan videos..., interviews, concept art, etc.
  • Movie resolution will not be upped. Movies and art (including music) are not being re-mastered.
  • Game resolution for the older games will not be upped. C&C and RA will still run at 640x400/480.
  • Louis said all the games will work on "modern computers"; did not elaborate further.
  • No explicit mention of whether the original C&C and Red Alert will have functioning LAN play. When asked about IPX/SPX support, he said that Red Alert 2, Yuri's Revenge, and Tiberian Sun "all required IPX to work, actually, uh, so, they're updated to work with the XP version, so you will be able to play all those products."
  • Overall, the intent is to "re-create" the original experience rather than expand upon it.

You can hear the whole thing (running time: 24 minutes) here.
Last edited by Blbpaws on Friday, February 3, 2006 at 12:15:27 PM.

— Wednesday, February 1, 2006 —

Posted By: Mike at 9:52:27 PM ET

Podcast with Louis Castle Today

Aaron Kaufman, the EA RTS Community Manager, passes along this important message:
Thursday at 12pm PST on our official site, www.commandandconquer.ea.com, we will be posting an exclusive and lengthy podcast interview with Louis Castle, VP of Creative Development at EALA and co-founder of Westwood Studios, the creator of the C&C franchise. Yours truly, APOC, had the opportunity to sit down with Louis and talk about the history and future of C&C and why the C&C The First Decade compilation is a must-have for any C&C fan, which unarguably is all of you.

Louis opens up about C&C, so this is absolutely an exclusive podcast you cannot miss. It will be available LIVE for download tomorrow at 12pm PST.

That's 3pm for those of you on the east coast. When the time comes, you'll be able to grab the podcast here. This should be good, so be sure to listen in!

Links