C&C Labs News Wire

GamingBolt.com has recently named 15 modders who, in their view, "changed PC gaming."  Coming in at #12 on the list is our very own Blbpaws, for his work with Command & Conquer All Stars.

Here's what GamingBolt had to say:

The mammoth CnC franchise may have well have shaped RTS gaming as we know it, and its three unique storylines; Tiberium, Red Alert and Generals have often whipped fans into a frenzy over the question- who would win in a fight with _____? Well with this mod, you are free to experiment to your hearts content. All Stars brings together the nine factions together into one game. Even better, that means all the superweapons. In one game. Hell yeah.

I'd like to congratulate Blbpaws and the entire All Stars team for once again receiving accolades from the gaming community for their work, now over 2.5 years after the mod was first released. Their dedication and hard work has clearly paid dividends.

As you may already be aware, several members of the original All Stars team are now working on two other mods here at C&C Labs: The Forgotten for Tiberium Wars and The Red Alert for Red Alert 3.  From the current looks of it, I'm personally expecting that these two endeavors will be just as well received as their last.  If you haven't seen either of these upcoming mods, I encourage you to take a look.

Electric Playground informs us that they have a new video interview with Sam Bass, Lead Designer of Command & Conquer 4, who gives an overview of C&C 4 and its storyline.  

You can also hear Bass talk about Command & Conquer 4 in a recent EA podcast hosted by Jeff Green, who recently caused a bit of a stir in the gaming community by describing C&C 4's always-online requirement as "DRM fail".

With C&C 4 coming out tomorrow, there's quite a bit of news from the front: 

• EA has a new article upon on the Idris Corporation, the megacorp that is responsible for processing and transporting much of the Tiberium in the C&C world.
• Nick Laviers, one of the top music people on C&C 4, has a nice blog post up on how one of the composers, James Hannigan, wrote some of the music for the game.
• The first episode of the C&C Motion Comic is up. As Lincoln said, "those who like that sort of thing will find it the sort of thing they like." 
• The veritable Chickendippers from C&C World sends word that they've opened their new C&C 4 section, full of unit and structure information pages and--even cooler--images from the Full Motion Videos that they've unearthed from the beta files. Check it out!

The time has come to delve deeper into the story of our mod at C&C Labs, The Forgotten. We believe our mod is unique because while so many attempt to merely add to the gameplay, we seek to add to the fiction of C&C as well. That's why we're telling our story with full HD videos--see our theatrical trailer--and that's why we're proud to show off one of the missions from our campaign with you. For those of you who want even more about the story, we have an artifact, the first in a series called "Forgotten Fiction," to show off.

 Mission 3's aesthetics were designed by the talented Predatore, a wonderful addition to our staff, while the fiercesome Nod forces come to life through Drummin's creative scripting. With a Red Zone this beautiful and intricate, pictures speak louder than words:

In the Forgotten base above, you can see the Training Grounds, created by Kane Nash. It will permit you to upgrade your infantry forces, the better to take the fight to the superpowers. You can see more images on our Media page.

Sometimes, missions, even missions with videos, aren't enough to give all the depth we'd like to our story. So for those of you interested in learning more about the mysterious Forgotten, we've begun a new series called "Forgotten Fiction." It's a series of artifacts from the time in which the mod takes place. The first one is the Morning Dawn Report, a short GDI Intelligence piece on an operation into the Red Zones and their encounters with the restless natives. Give it a look (PDF) if you want to learn more about our unique universe. 

And finally, a help wanted request. We're looking for a talented artist to make cameo images for us (the pictures on the purchase icons), in a style similar to C&C 3's. If you think you have the requisite skills, email me (previous experience is very helpful). Now's a great time to join the team--we're about to hit beta for the project!

Uhud Battlefield

By Azapci

We extend a very warm CnCLabs welcome to Azapci, with this great 6 player Red Alert 3 map. It certainly looks like a lot of effort and time has been put into this map, with the addition of very high detail and terrain work. The map is on the large side, normal for a 6 player, but object content is very high. You may find the game runs a little slower, especially with all 6 player slots filled, but the quality and scope of the map only adds to the fun and pleasure during game-play.
Make a visit to our downloads section for your copy, but as usual, you can have a preview by using the thumbnails below.

Azapci's first language is not English, so I have created this version of his Map Description, retaining the original Turkish version in the included Readme file.

Author's Description: Uhud Battlefield is a map which has been designed as a 3v3 Ground war, but much fun can be had by playing various combinations, or against the AI. Each player will start the game with 2 main Ore Nodes with plenty of choice for expansion to the many isolated extra nodes positioned around the map. All the major areas on the map have expansion support.
Key areas of capture will be the Observation Stations in the Civilian region, at the centre of the map and the local Lookout stations, near the player starting positions. There are many choke points created by the hills and irregular terrain.
There is very little water in this map, so you will need to build and prepare your army for a land battle as Naval Yard production is disabled.
 

Click to Download: Uhud Battlefield