C&C Labs News

The premise is simple: Submit to me at comradealexeo@planetcnc.com concept designs for units or structures you would like to see in C&C3. They will be rated on:

1. Logic of the entry (this includes plausibility - can it work - and following canon - so no ORCA's for Nod)
2. Originality (this extends now to what we already know about C&C3; don't send me Mammoth Tanks!)
3. Deeper meanings (which you need to figure out on your own

...with a fourth category, "wild card" category in which artistic talent and just how much I/we like it are judged. Submissions can be in any visual format, including 3D models. A description of what it is you've created is also required and I strongly recommend you make it a good one.

You can start preparing and creating now, but I won't start accepting submissions until 1 JUNE, so that we here at PCNC can figure all the details out (like which prizes would be the coolest!).

Get working - I'm looking forward to see what crazy methods of destruction your sick little minds create!

Hey guys,

I've explained this before in a previous thread, but I shall do it again, hence the name of "Tiberium Wars"

Tiberium: Mysterious substance discovered in 1995 near the Tiber River in Italy.

Tiberian: Of or relating to the substance Tiberium, its molecular makeup, effects on the surrounding environment or history

In Tiberian Sun they did not fight over the sun. It was a descriptor of the new stage of Tiberium growth and progress. In Tiberium Wars this is actually the name of the war. Not to get too deep just yet but Tiberium Wars is actually the 3rd Tiberium War if you didn't put 2&2 together yet...Wait that equals 4, but you get my lingo :o)

So, hopefully that will make logical sense. GDI and Nod are not fighting over "Tiberian", they are fighting over "Tiberium", hence the name "Tiberium Wars".

The title of the game grows on you once you think about it and understand the logical sense, and I think we save face by holding to our choice here. We don't want to keep back pedaling. You don't need to always be cliche in a title and have continuity in the sub-title. The continuity is in the franchise name "Command & Conquer". Tiberium Wars is a continuation of a story in the C& C universe in the "Tiberian Storyline". I know it gets confusing, but think about the literal meaning of the title and it makes sense.

We fully understand what some of the intended titles were back in the day, but now that we are officially announced, the offiical title is Tiberium Wars :o)

Remember, continuity comes in the actual story and the franchise name Command & Conquer. And there is plenty of continuity because this is the 3rd Tiberium War.

I'll admit myself that Tiberian Twilight is a very cool name, but it doesn't conotate the story of C&C 3 well, of which you guys will learn a lot about in the coming months and when you actually play the game of course.

We're building a next generation C&C game that is true to the spiriti of this classic franchise, universe, and story.

It will all make sense guys...

• CNC Den has some nice new fan up art.
• Cold War Crisis has released a 11mb video with English subtitles that was also in a recent publication of German magazine GameStar.
• RA: A Path Beyond and C&C Reborn have agreed to put aside their differences, and have announced plans for a merger. More details will be announced soon, but hopefully this will be the end to their conflict. APB also has a new render up.
• Planet CNC has brought back their Photoshop THIS! feature, and received a record number of entries. Some of them are quite good, and all can be seen here. Apoc has also responded to PCNC, telling them he is aware of our petition for the return of Joe Kucan as Kane.
• Also want to mention that with regard to our ongoing Origins and History of C&C series here at Generals World, we're working on some great stuff (and have some great material we've been sitting on for a while) that we'll be showing off eventually. Stay tuned! ;)

Save for perhaps Kane, the most defining element of Command and Conquer's story is Tiberium. Tiberium is a plant-like substance that spreads all over the planet it infests: Earth. Tiberium is also an immensely valuable resource. Both Nod and GDI harvest it and use the profits to fund their respective war machines--though we are told Nod is more willing to do so than GDI is--and as such Tiberium figures heavily into the outcome of the war. Here, we'll look at the people surrounding Tiberium, its supposed secret, as well as its dangerous and unique composition and structure. In addition, we know enough to speculate about its alien properties and their causes, and to compare it to a similar substance seen in another Westwood Studios game.

We are pleased to note the announcement of 'Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars', the third RTS game in the Tiberian Saga.

We have not had it confirmed that Mr. Joseph Kucan will be portraying megalomaniac Kane of the Brotherhood of Nod, and we wish to express our concern.

We understand that there may have been differences of opinion between Electronic Arts and Mr. Kucan in the past, and that this may discourage cooperation on C&C3.

--*QUESTION 1: Is This a rushed game?: If you didn't notice EA has been taking a new stance on this yearly progression with at least some of their games and giving more time rather than rushing it out. Look at the delay of Medal of Honor Airborne and Superman, classic example of not rushing one game out for the holidays and another in time for the movie. That is the new EA direction, and to answer your question directly, C&C 3 is not being rushed. We've been doing a lot of pre- production on it for quite a while and it won't be something we churned out overnight Surprised) Look at BFME 2 if you want quality reassurance.


-- *QUESTION 2: Will we see more?: We've all heard that there are more than 3 sides this time, very interesting and new, sound like alot of fun to me, BUT, Generals lacked something that I fear C&C 3 might

Will we see more everything? If more everything means simply diversity in units then the answer is a resounding yes. The 3 factions in the game won't look anything like each other and will all play completely different. I can't go in to details, but thats the bottom line.



-- *QUESTION 3: Advertising Vs. Reality: I know firsthand about this topic because I personally created the screenshots AND videos for The Battle for Middle-earth II and its very important to us to showcase the game in its truest form. Now from a marketing and development standpoint, we'd be absolutely dumbfounded to show you simplistic parts of the game, like say two tanks shooting at each other, there is no new innovation or cool factor in that. Our screenshots and videos will all look awesome, and they will all be representative of the game, we won't cheat corners or show you something that isn't in the game. And if we do show something that ends up changing for one reason or another, we'll tell you. That is another reason why you haven't seen hardly any of the game yet, because we want to make sure when we do show it to you, that we are showing you the reality Surprised)

How good is it, really? We see the poster for the "official" site, yeah I admit that must have taken alot of time and thought for its creation, but:

Our official site is nothing more than a simple teaser site that we crafted in 1 day just so we could have something up by the announcement with a link to The First Decade site, newsletter, and message boards. Thats the truth....there will be a very high quality full feature site later in the Summer.

-Is the same time, work, and quality going to be in the game itself? Of course it is

-Will you push it to fit on more CD's if you have to, instead of cramming it on 2 and cutting out alot of things? - BFME II was put on 5 CD's which is nearly the equivalent of a single DVD, Half Life 2 was the same. So 2 Cd's? No way, we'll cram as much as we technically possibly can on the maximum amount of space just like anyone else would.

- Will the gameplay be smooth and will the game itself have more ability for customization?

The gameplay will be fast, fun, and fluid as Mike Verdu has mentioned and customization will come on the units themselves if thats what you mean.

- Will it be easy to modify?

I am personally working with the dev team to get modders even more access to our files. At the end of the day, I think those who want to learn how to mod need to realize that modding is not intended to be easy or picked up in an hour. You need to get your hands dirty and learn the techniques and tatctics of modding. But I hope that we can continue providing modders easier access to our core files.
APOC

...EA LA is bringing back the classic live-action full-motion video (FMV) cinematic sequences from the previous games. The first trailer we watched leaned heavily on FMV and told the story presumably from the perspective of the game's main character, a biochemist-turned-GDI operative who witnessed the transformation of planet Earth after the mysterious substance known as tiberium, which "isn't of this world" (suggesting that Tiberium is an alien substance from somewhere in outer space) made its mysterious appearance. According to the trailer, tiberium acts like an ecological cancer, turning everything it touches into more tiberium. The series' classic "good guy" faction, the Global Defense Initiative (or "GDI"), was apparently founded in secret to keep the existence of the threat under wraps until the true nature of tiberium could be determined.

According to the trailer, the cover-up didn't quite work out, thanks to the meddling of C&C's classic "bad guy" faction, the Brotherhood of Nod. Led by the evil mastermind Kane, Nod discovered tiberium's other potential as a powerful energy alternative and attempted to discredit the GDI by exposing the cover-up in the year 1995 (the year in which the original Command & Conquer game was released). This sequence of events polarized the world so that the world's inhabitants aligned themselves with either GDI or Nod--a standoff that was a threat to global stability until, as the narrator of the trailer explained against a wide shot of Earth from outer space, "they came."

Verdu suggests that not all levels will take place in the desert; the game will feature three types of "zones" classified by tiberium encroachment. Blue zones will be pristine areas free of the alien substance's corrupting influence; yellow zones will be areas where tiberium has begun to corrupt the land; and red zones will be infested completely by tiberium, which apparently also has adverse effects on local weather (and can conjure up fierce ion storms in addition to killing off the local flora and fauna).

Now what I am about to say can & could change as the game is in very early development. Each of the 3 factions will have a single player campaign. You will have to start with GDI and work you way through to play all the factions. But EA is taking each faction and splitting them up into what they are calling theaters and each theater will contain between 4 to 6 missions. The cool part is they are tying the story line into each mission. So lets say you just attacked a Airfield as your primary objective, so now in your next mission the Airfield will be useable or will be used in some way within each new mission as you move forward. Also you get to choose which theater you want to play, allowing you to change up the way the story plays out, or which order the story is told.

According to the trailer, the coverup didn't quite work out, thanks to the meddling of C&C's classic "bad guy" faction, the Brotherhood of Nod. Led by the evil mastermind Kane, Nod discovered tiberium's other potential as a powerful energy alternative, and attempted to discredit the GDI by exposing the coverup in the year 1995 (the year in which the original Command & Conquer game was released). This sequence of events polarized the world, so that the world's inhabitants aligned themselves with either GDI or Nod, a standoff that was threatening enough to global stabilty until, as the narrator of the trailer explained against a wide shot of Earth from outer space, "they came."

Tiberium is our Force, our Spice, our One Ring, and our Matrix. Everything in our game world is defined by its relationship to Tiberium. GDI wants to contain Tiberium and reverse its effects. NOD wants to speed up its spread across the surface of the Earth. Kane has a vision of Tiberium as the catalyst for humanity's next level of evolution. Where did Tiberium come from? Who made it? Why is it here? If we are in the middle of a transformation, where is it taking us? These are just a few of the questions that you'll start learning the answers to in Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars (C&C3).

Our in-game UI for C&C3 is a side-bar that will feel familiar to C&C players but it has some added features that make it more useful - and make it feel interesting and new. We are combining the centralized production queues in the classic C&C side-bar with contextual space for selected units and structures. The new UI lets you quickly build units and structures, easily control grouped units, and access your build queues anywhere on the map - even in the middle of a battle. But you can still get lots of information about your selected units and activate their special abilities - which is pretty much expected in the latest generation RTS games. We think our interface for C&C3 is the best of both worlds.

I doubt we’re going to see super strong heroes in Tiberium Wars. We have seen EALA enjoys a good hero with Burton, Jarmen Kell and Black Lotus in Generals. None of these are quite ‘uber’, however. BFME is mostly tied with the movies, so of course there are going to be heroes and they’re going to be very strong. We’ve already heard that the Commando is coming back. There have also been hints dropped regarding the appearance of ‘Black Hand Storm Troopers’. We should expect to see them as a Nod version of the Commando.

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced its next generation of game titles for the upcoming Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) taking place in Los Angeles May 10-12, 2006. EA's line up of EA SPORTS and EA branded games for the Xbox 360 video game system from Microsoft, the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, PSP (PlayStation Portable) handheld entertainment system, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS , PC and mobile phones will be showcased in EA's booth #1000 in the South Hall. With a renewed focus on original and wholly-owned intellectual property EA will unveil an array of titles and the technology that drives gameplay innovation.

Shown exclusively behind closed doors, EA is presenting its recently announced next generation console action title out of EA Montréal, ARMY OF TWO; Will Wright's original PC work in progress, Spore; and the newest PC iteration in the acclaimed Command & Conquer series, Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars.

The EA SPORTS line up will go behind closed doors in the EA SPORTS Lab highlighting the technology that fuels the gameplay innovations for the '07 lineup. Madden NFL 07 will be playable on the PlayStation 3 console, Xbox 360, PSP system, Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii.

"EA is leading the industry with a new generation of games on a new generation of platforms," said Paul Lee President of EA Studios. "We're pushing the technology to provide more innovation in our EA branded games and authentic athletic performance in our EA SPORTS games. We're also leading the resurgence of PC gaming with groundbreaking titles like Battlefield 2142, Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars, Crytek Studio's Crysis and of course Will Wright's new game, SPORE."

If some of the things I saw printed on the internet are true, Joe may harbor a lot of resentment to EA (...) and I don't blame him. He put in a lot of hard work and got the short end of the stick. EA drove a lot of people to the brink of madness, not just once but several times. Some of the people who've gone back to EA say it's changed, but as the expression goes, once bitten...

All that said, I hope they do get Joe to come back and reprise his role as Kane. It wouldn't be Kane without Joe. And Joe, if you're reading this, ask for a truckload of money. You've earned it. From one of your former colleagues and still one of your fans (and hopefully still at least a little bit your friend) , I hope this finds you well.

This is just a general statement to you guys. I realize there might be some confusion going on with the current information released, some of you are angry, some of you...too angry :o)...but I understand, and most of you are at peace and would just like further details.

I will work hard with the development team to clear up what I can before E3 and after E3.

I said something similar to this in another thread which bears repeating:

There is a lot to be said for the mystique behind a game, especially one like Command and Conquer 3. You guys think you know a lot, but you've hardly scratched the surface. I fully realize you have been graciously patient over the years for a new game in the Tiberian world and now that the dream is come true, you're hungry for every detail possible and anxious to analyze every detail right down to the very pixel.

We have a great journey in front of us as we unleash more and more about Command and Conquer 3, and I promise you we have an extremely dedicated, passionate, and motivated development team here who will bring you a memorable C&C 3 experience that of course takes your values and opinions in to high consideration and further. I'm not the only one reading all the message boards, I've got a development team of community managers behind me who read them as well if you can imagine.

Just wanted to say that, continue discussing, I'll see what I can help to clear up going forward.

We strive to maintain an egalitarian atmosphere here. This is evident by our staff listing; no one has titles, we are all equals. In the same vein, we hope to foster reader participation in the forums, you guys are what make our site vibrant. In the past, we have had Chris Rubyor and several other members from "the other side" (read: EA employees) post on the forums, and we found that, by setting a high bar for discussion and having an open atmosphere where people are treated as equals, we had some very interesting debates that did not devolve into meaningless fanboyism or into outright flames. We will do our part to encourage APOC, the current community director, as well as other EALA employees to do so, but that is up to them. We hope that this iteration of CCU will be as fertile a ground for discussion as the last one was.