Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars - PC Game Previews


	Platform PC Genre Real-Time Strategy Publisher Electronic Arts Developer EA LA ETA 2007
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Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

When the original Command & Conquer was released, the real-time strategy genre was about as crowded as a telephone booth with a Smurf using the phone. Now that same telephone booth is absolutely packed with Smurfs. The real-time strategy genre is not suffering any shortage of games and it takes something really special to allow that game to stand out. This is why Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars will need to be something really special to make a mark – it won’t be enough to slap the C&C label on it and hope enough fans buy it.

Set in the year 2047, amid a “spreading radioactive ice age” thanks to the alien substance known as Tiberium, the stage is set for a conflagration between the Global Defense Initiative (GDI) and the Brotherhood of NOD. The NOD leader, Kane, has his eyes on (presumably) world domination in one form or another by using Tiberium, while the GDI searches for a way to contain the spread of the alien substance, which has forced humanity to cluster in safe zones.

And there’s something else coming; something just over the horizon… a third faction (presumably) from space! As hokey as it may sound, EA LA has put some effort in to flesh out tiberium and its effects, building the story around it, wanting

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to make a really good campaign that people will want to play rather than experiment with then jump online to match wits with human opponents.

As far as Command & Conquer goes its usual stuff, however, Louis Castle, VP of EALA’s studio has been quoted saying that the saga is headed in a “new direction.” That’s a point for speculation of course – it is after all

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an RTS – but I’m really hoping that they somehow tie the Red Alert and Tiberium continuities together. Ever since the end of Red Alert when Kane is takes out Stalin, I’ve been hankering to see the mutant child that Red Alert and Tiberium would create. But I have nothing to support the idea of a cross-over, however cool it would be. However, it is worth noting that full-motion video will be back, an aspect that was sorely missing from C&C Generals. (It will be sacrilege if Joe Kucan is not cast as Kane.)

An aspect that has really evolved for the Command & Conquer games is the presentation. As hardware has become more powerful, the C&C games have set a high standard for other real-time strategy games. Tiberium Wars, like Generals before it, will be completely 3D and is likely to bring most low-end systems to their knees. A release date is a ways off at this point – an ambiguous 2007 – so there’s plenty of time to upgrade your rig. (With the recent release of Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II for Xbox 360 – also developed by EALA – I’m a little suspicious that the same will happen for Tiberium Wars so maybe you can just buy a 360.) The screenshots released so far show environments rich in detail, even if they do show a beautiful, if somewhat desolate, landscape.

With this kind of refinement of the game engine, complete with weather effects, one should expect that the developers hands are freed to concentrate on the nuts and bolts of the game, such as pathfinding and enemy AI. Mike Verdu, executive producer on the project has been quoted as saying, “If you turtle, the AI will turtle; if you rush, hey, the AI will rush you too,” which doesn’t sound like the AI has been given much of a boost.

I wish the word “dynamic” appeared more often when developers speak about AI; responding in unpredictable, unscripted ways. Verdu’s description presents a reactionary AI, though with a 2007 release date, there’s still a lot of time to muck around with what’s happening in the background.

Above everything else, Commnad & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars seems to be returning the venerable series to its roots – back to the setting that started it all.

- Omni

(August 2, 2006)


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