C&C Labs News Wire

• Version .95 of the Shockwave mod for Zero Hour is out. Download here.
• Version 1.2 of A Path Beyond is out. Download here.
• German website C&C Inside has 50 new screens from the upcoming First Person Shooter Tiberium.
• C&C Reborn has new screens from their upcoming beta version.
• MidEast Crisis 2, a C&C 3 mod, has a new website.

Happy Holidays from all of us at Generals World! If you're traveling or late buying presents for loved ones, we wish you a safe trip as well.

Happy Holidays!
Generals World Staff

A few quick things:

• JohnWE from C&C Files has written a great summary of the Kane's Wrath Community summit that took place a few weeks ago. Not only does it break down the event itself, but it details each subfaction in a way that no other article I've seen does.
  
• Planet CNC has some good photos of the event.
• C&C Sage has some video posted on YouTube about the making of Battlecast Primetime.
• The third edition of Command School, part of C&C TV, is up, featuring a strategy by our very own Incia.
  
• The C&C 3 mod Tiberian Dawn has some pretty substantial updates, including new music.
  
• Our own mod, C&C All Stars, has passed most of its internal testing and we hope to have the patch done this weekend. Also, today's the last day to vote for All Stars at Moddb. If you haven't, please do. We appreciate it.
  

EA released the following press release, confirming our newspost from a few days ago. A C&C FPS is in the works:

>EA REVEALS TIBERIUM AND LAUNCHES
PLAYERS INTO AN EPIC BATTLE FOR POWER

LOS ANGELES, Calif., December 18, 2007 – Tiberium is a mysterious extraterrestrial crystal that shatters the energy output of traditional fossil fuels. It has the power to save our civilization. It also has the power to destroy it. Over two-and-a-half years in development, Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today revealed Tiberium™, a new intellectual property that brings a rich, original fiction to life through intense tactical action and visceral first-person shooting. Set in a stunning sci-fi world with spectacular visual effects and dramatic environments, Tiberium takes players on an adventure through an environmentally-devastated world and places them in the heart of an epic battle for control this powerful energy source.

For eleven years, an alien tower has stood dormant, looming like an unholy mountain over a wasteland once known as the Mediterranean Sea. The tower was thought to be a relic of the Third Tiberium War; a devastating war fought for control over Tiberium crystal. It is not a relic. It is not dormant. Deep within the tower, plans are in motion for an alien invasion. This is where the Tiberium adventure begins. Players step into the shoes of Forward Battle Commander Ricardo Vega and will assemble an assortment of elite squads to combat the global crisis. Armed with an intense arsenal of weapons including a transforming personal weapon system, multi-launch homing missiles, capital ship bombardments and tactical ion cannon strikes, Vega will lead the fight from the front lines.

Featuring a unique blend of first-person shooting and tactical squad combat, every moment in Tiberium is intense, every mission leaves players breathless. To take the first-person shooter experience deeper into strategic combat, players will control multiple infantry, armor, and air squads as the fight escalates. In Tiberium, Vega is the most powerful presence on the battlefield, and the squads are his most decisive weapon. Players can take multi-squad control combat into single-player or bring the action into online multiplayer battles.

“Tiberium is our ‘One Ring’, our ‘Force’. It is the connective tissue that defines this universe and tears it apart,” said Chris Plummer, Executive Producer at EA Los Angeles. “After two years of pre-production, it is exciting to finally reveal this game and its rich fiction to the world. We’ve put a lot of effort into evolving the tactical shooter experience by taking core gameplay compulsions like commanding, choice and dominating your enemies and delivering them in first-person. Some of the weapons and mechanics are truly innovative for a first-person game. We’re very proud to be part of a project that has the potential to really make a mark on the cannon of sci-fi fantasy fiction.”

Mike Verdu, VP and General Manager at EA Los Angeles added, “EALA has a long history of developing groundbreaking real-time strategy games with the Command & Conquer series. That series also originally introduced the Tiberium universe to gamers worldwide. Now, we are growing Tiberium from a simple backdrop to a fully realized universe with its own unique, hybrid squad-based shooter gameplay. This is the birth of a new franchise -- we couldn’t be more excited.”

Developed at EA Los Angeles, Tiberium will be available worldwide in Fall 2008 for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system, and PC. The game has not yet been rated by the ESRB. For more information on Tiberium, please visit: www.Tiberium.com.

We'll see how this turns out. It's noteworthy that EA has decided to not attach the C&C moniker to this game, yet it's very obviously using the C&C story.

I want to first mention that our in-house mod Command and Conquer: All Stars is in the running for the Mod of the Year Award at the Mod Database. After three and half years of work by more than 25 people, I know the All Stars team would greatly appreciate your support. We were thrilled by the top ranks given to us by the majority of the 50,000 people who played the mod and are humbled by the news that the C&C developers enjoyed it as well. We would love to have your vote. Just go to our profile page, scroll down, and click the "Vote for Mod" button.

Also, the Command and Conquer All Stars team is ready to announce that the changes made in the second patch have all been successfully implemented and that we are targeting a release date for late next week, barring any issues with final testing. The change list for All Stars 1.2 includes:

GENERAL CHANGES

• Numerous small AI improvements and bug fixes, due to popular request
  

UNIT-SPECIFIC CHANGES

• Hover MRLS rubble model corrected
• Flak Trooper Air Force Command Center prerequisite added
• Flak Trooper weapon firing effects added
• Tanya C4 weapon damage increased from 3125 to 6250
• Rocketeer now correctly targetable by all anti-aircraft weapons
• IFV Flak Trooper weapon firing effects added
• V3 Launcher weapon damage type changed from EXPLOSION to AURORA_BOMB (damage against structures doubled)
• V3 Launcher weapon missile health increased from 200 to 225
• V3 Launcher upgraded weapon missile speed increased from 60 to 70
• Harrier rubble model corrected

We'll let you know when the final testing is complete.

A big thanks to CNCNZ for digging this one up in the Official C&C Forums: according to the January issue of Game Informer magazine, EA has been developing a new Command & Conquer FPS - succinctly named "Tiberium" - to be released sometime in 2008.  The post on the EA Forums has some pictures of the magazine.  French fansite CnCSaga also has some images you'll want to check out.  And a Petroglyph employee confirms that this is a game he worked on at EA a couple of summers ago.

I (finally) updated the poll today. Here are the results from the last one. It was pretty much split between those who had some interest in modding or play mods, and those who had none. On the whole, I think mods are a pretty important part of extending a game's life. The ability to change something to suit your wishes is a great one to have, and I'm glad EA continues to support modding to the extent that they do.

The next poll asks about your initial impressions of Kane's Wrath.

The third CNCNZ Roundtable Discussion is now up at CNCNZ.com. Topics on the agenda this time include subfactions and actors in Kane's Wrath, thoughts on some possible C&C FPS footage that recently emerged on an artist's website, BattleCast Primetime, and C&C 3 modding support.

The panel consists of Sonic and Zee Hypnotist (CNCNZ), Lion (CNC Den), Mastermind (Revora), Koen (TibEd), Mighty BOB! (CNC Source), JohnWE (CNC-Files), and our very own Blbpaws.

Here's a sampling of the discussion:

Question 1) Now that we have found out more details about the sub factions in Kane's Wrath what are your thoughts. Is the sub faction concept the right thing to introduce into the Tiberium Universe?
Sonic: The addition of sub factions added more depth to Zero Hour so I feel they will do the same for Kane's Wrath. The fact that the Steel Talons bring back some much need familiarity with the Titan and Wolverine is good news in my book. People forget sub factions are not a new thing to RTS games. They were done years ago in a similar fashion with Westwood's Emperor: Battle for Dune and they worked well for that game. Kane's Wrath sub factions follow the "Zero Hour system" and it worked well for that game so yes bring on the sub factions for the Tiberium Universe.

Zee Hypnotist: Personally, I think the Sub Faction idea is reasonable, the only thing I don't like is the way they are being represented. The names themselves sound somewhat childish, especially for GDI, considering it is an government funded international military. I support the idea of subfactions themselves, as they seem to bring diversity into the game.

...

Question 5) At the start of November, EA released version 4.0 of the Mod Software Development Kit for C&C 3. Are EA doing enough to support the modding community, do you think they should be doing more?
...
Blbpaws: Mod support is decent with the SDK, but not wonderful. The SAGE engine can be very limiting in some respects. As usual, it's up to the modders to do some serious experimenting with and digging through the files to make their projects come to life. On the whole, though, I think C&C 3 offers enough potential for modders, and I look forward to modding it.

Be sure to head to CNCNZ to read the discussion!

A quick roundup is in order:

• EALA has posted an interview with Mastermind, a C&C modder, about his experiences interning with them recently. An interesting read.
• Gamespot has a new preview of the GDI subfactions and units in Kane's Wrath. They also have some new videos of the Titan and Wolverine, which both return for C&C 3.
  
• EALA has started a new contest: "Are You the Real Kane?" More details found here.
• Episode 4 of Battlecast Primetime is available. It has appearances by the C&C 3 actors, info on the Xbox 360 version of the game, and info on the new multiplayer maps.