C&C Labs News

The first pictures of the TPoHW Fortress mode have been released in the gallery. As the name implies, you build a fortress in this game type. A Citadel and a wall will be built when the game starts. In this game mode, a rush in the first minutes of the game is almost impossible because units can be destroyed at the wall easily. Be warned: your enemy is able to upgrade this wall with turrents and units for further defense. A player loses the game once his Citadel is destroyed: protect this structure - at all costs!

My main aim was to recall my eventful gaming past and to thank those who have accompanied and supported me on my arduous road to success. As for that matter, I am satisfied that I have reached my purpose. Furthermore I have a lot of fans who will be delighted at my stiff job. Finally I want to give newcomers a chance to improve their skills and knowledge by hosting countless replays, ingame videos.

•  The most significant piece of information is the following:

The mysterious third faction in C&C 3 will be revealed in the January
issue of Games for Windows: The Official Magazine on sale December
19th! The in-depth cover story will also include the first hands-on
impressions for the game, so make sure to check it out!

• In addition, there's a link to a new Q&A with Richard Taylor, the Cinematic Director for the game. Here's a snippet:
  

  Q: Why do you think live action videos were the right fit to tell the story in C&C 3?
  
  A: First of all this franchise has a tradition of live action sequences for the cut scene material, but to me the most important thing is the believability and the emotional impact the player feels when a real human being looks you in the eye. I love computer generated characters as much as anyone out there. I've been involved with cg from its earliest days, but if you look right into the eyes of a cg character do you really believe that there's a soul behind those eyes? In C&C 3 the lead characters talk directly to the player..." the commander"....they look right at you and talk to you directly. Most cg characters in games talk to each other, interact with each other, but they don't directly address the player. I think the emotional charge you get when Tricia Helfer looks you in the eye and pleads for your help will touch you like no cg character can.

  You can read the full piece here.
  
  
• The next podcast will be released on Nov. 30th, and can be downloaded from the official site then. It will feature Mike Glosecki and Jason Bender, Senior Producer and Lead Designer, respectively.
  
  
• Finally, there are some new Nod and GDI wallpapers, created by EA, up.

Over at Gamespot they have a short but decent interview with EALA Senior Producer Mike Glosecki about C&C 3 on the Xbox 360. There's some discussion about why the decision was made to port to 360, and some of the differences between the two versions of the game, especially in terms of control systems, though some more details would be desireable. Here's a piece:

GameSpot: So what motivated you to bring the Command & Conquer franchise to the Xbox 360?

Mike Glosecki: We paved the way for Command & Conquer (C&C) with our recent release of The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II on the Xbox 360, which was widely acknowledged as the first "RTS on console done right." Our innovative new control system made the RTS experience accessible to a whole new audience. Now it's time to build on that foundation with Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars (C&C3). With its fast, fluid, and fun RTS gameplay, C&C3 is a natural for the console. We're improving everything about the console RTS experience. We've made the control system considerably more accessible and powerful, improved frame rate, eliminated lags and hitches, pumped up the graphics, and upgraded the underlying technology in a number of other ways.

I'm very happy to be able to finally write this newspost. While the All Stars team had a great time playing All Stars internally for quite a while now--with many of the units and ideas we're bringing back also coming back in C&C 3 news, it almost feels like we're playing that game, too--it's time you guys, who have waited (mostly) patiently for too long got to see a bit of the actual gameplay. While we're not prepared to show you guys any of the Conyard build system just yet--next video maybe--you can see many units, superweapons, and buildings in action in our new video.

The trailer mostly features the Red Alert Alliance, an army made of units from all the Red Alert games. In this trailer, you can specifically see Conscripts, Grenadiers, Grizzlies, the Grizzly Chronoshift Generals Power, Apocalypse Tanks, Tesla Tanks, Longbows, Nukes, and more, including many Tiberian Coalition units (often on the receiving end of some heavy Red Alert Alliance punishment). I think it will give you a nice taste of the mod, and our future videos will show you even more. As always, feel free to discuss the mod in our forums, where I've created a special thread for discussion of the video. Feel free to ask questions about the mod in your own threads, though some of the details may still be too much under wraps for us to give a full answer. ;)

We've got three different ways for you to view it. First, we have a High Quality Quicktime download for you, weighing in at 55MB. Second, we have a much lower quality Quicktime download for the 56kers, coming in at 6MB. For those of you who would prefer to stream it or don't like Quicktime, we have a medium quality streaming version through a Flash viewer. All in all, the video is about two minutes in length.

Enjoy!

During the lull between the Second and Third Tiberium Wars, GDI deployed sonic resonators to slow down the spread of the crystal in key Yellow Zones. GDI has even managed to reclaim some territory almost completely… to the point where small areas in a German Yellow Zone have been transformed into Blue Zones. This patchwork of reclaimed territory has been dubbed "New Eden"by the GDI leadership… and this amazing feat is being celebrated in the early months of 2047.

When C&C 3 opens, GDI has restored some sense of hope for the future. Unfortunately for them, Kane and the Brotherhood of Nod have other ideas about the spread of Tiberium, the fate of the planet Earth, and the destiny of the human race.

"C&C 3 is a perfect fit for the Xbox 360," said Mike Glosecki, Senior Producer at EALA. "Xbox 360 players will enjoy the action-packed online play and watching the epic Sci-Fi story of the game unfold as they play through the single player campaign."

To read the press release in full, click here.

German mod Tower Defense - Trinity Force has released dozens of new screenshots showing off their new defense structures. 2 of which are the Ion Cannon and the Chain Gun:

More of the screenshots can be found on their moddb.com profile Here.

We will be sharing more of the science about Tiberium in the coming months with interviews from the MIT scientists who did a lot of the research.

Beyond that, our Executive Producer Mike Verdu has not found the amount of critical time necessary to finish his blog on Tiberium.

Right now, they are doing some more shoots for the FMV's with Josh Holloway, he is going to try and get some more of the blog finished and polished this weekend while this takes place.

I'm extremely hopeful that we'll have this blog up and ready for you guys soon.

We'll be showcasing more insight on GDI, discussing Tiberium more in-depth, and you will likely to get to see another fantastic gameplay trailer, footage on Mechs, we have a lot coming. Please understand information comes in waves, we can't always have new info every week or every day.

Certainly, I'll be trying to get some more flow of info out there, but we do have a lot planned for this month.

C&C SERIES UPDATED IN JUKEBOX:
Frank has finally come across some tunes you guys have been asking about, and now we have 'em posted! Tension, Untamed Land, Red Sky, Storm Coming, Tib Sun options Screen, Firestrom options, and Map screen themes!