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I returned Wednesday from the final C&C Community Summit before the release of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. Thanks to Cole (Chrono101), I've had a good portion of pictures of the event posted here, and I will have a full writeup (at least Part 1) sometime this weekend.
Here's a taste:
In the meantime, I'm up for any quickie questions you guys may have regarding C&C 3 and my experiences with said product.
Enjoy, kn0bbers!
Community Summit Overview
Contents:
Introduction
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Impressions
Commentary
Closing Thoughts
Introduction
To be honest, I find myself at a slight bit of a loss here, as there are many things that HeXetic may have already covered that I have not, and for those things that I have seen that that Canadian blunderbuss didn't, well, I’m still a tad under NDA restrictions until the 21st on that. As such, I feel that describing the summit in a diary form, then giving my impressions would be best suited for you, oh noble readers, to get a second opinion on the upcoming Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars.
Allow me to take the time to thank Aaron “I am schizophrenic and can’t come up with a solid nickname” Kaufman for the opportunity to prove this sarcastic sonofa###### wrong, and come out showing us a great title for the franchise. To be honest, I came in with the sentiment of many, expecting nothing but a Sci-Fi version of Generals, and a bunch of PR hogwash that’d make my blood boil. Instead, the only vulgarities thrown by my person were in agitation that I had fallen prey to yet another engineer rush… the oldest trick in the Command & Conquer playbook.
I know there are many of you that believe that EA is “buying” gaming journalists and journalist wannabes (such as myself) with free trips, swag, and other miscellaneous items. Please give me a moment to put those fears to rest. Many of you already know me, due to the satirical “We’ve been duped” thread, lashing out – for no apparently good goddamn reason – at Aaron and his compatriots at EALA; going so far as to question Mr. Kaufman’s relationship with Mr. “Fernando” and his maraca swinging joviality (Pro tip: that’s not a maraca). As such, I beg you to give listen to what I have to say, keeping in mind that “swag” was never the target of my trip, but was instead to tear the ever-living bejesus out of C&C3 and all who had a hand in its development. I ask only for your good faith in knowing that I came into this with utmost skepticism and… I’ll admit it… bias against Command & Conquer 3.
Keeping that in mind, let’s begin.
Day 1
My morning flight began on Frontier Airlines out of Bradley International Airport, in chilly Windsor Locks, Connecticut. To be honest, I believed that this was a bit of a political stab against me due to previous zingings I had delivered to Kaufman, so I was not in the best of moods. Nearly 6 hours later, from Connecticut, to Colorado, to California, I found myself in an unnatural environment: namely, Los Angeles. A balmy 78 degrees Fahrenheit, bringing jeans and long-sleeve shirts was not the best move for me to make.
I set foot in the Ritz-Carlton at Marina Del Rey, greeted and checked in by rather overly exuberant hosts, and then proceeded to take a power nap in anticipation for the welcome dinner at a nearby Mexican resturaunt. Waking up early, I ventured to explore the area around the marina and found that if you don’t have at least a six-figure income in Los Angeles, you should probably think about going anorexic. $20 for a hamburger just doesn’t seem to justify my hunger pangs, and I awaited the arranged meeting time of 7PM.
As 1900 hours rolled around, the congregation began. I noticed, of course, my dear friend James “Chronojam” Brodeur, emblazoned in orange… who also lost his luggage. Also in attendance was notable blogger “Gaming Steve” (more on him later), Paul “Puzzlebug” Eckhart, who you may remember from the “World’s biggest C&C fan” movie contest, Dave – aka CnCKing – straight out of Britain, as well as a host of gentlemen like Ulie from cncforen.de. There were also some webmasters from other sites such as Planet AoE, Planet CoH, CnCFiles, even people from the Empire at War community. Forgive me for not remembering names all that well, except yours, Mike… and you too Nate… you tank-rushing bastard.
Then came Aaron “Apocator” Kaufman, the self proclaimed man of the hour. Normally I’d take this moment to start making height deficiency jokes about him, as he truly is short in stature. I mean, I’m a short guy, but DAMN… when you’re chest-high to me, you need to get some 8” pumps or something. But no, let’s not go there. Let’s talk about his car. Maybe HeXetic can have a grander appreciation for it than I do, but I had no idea that EA’s Marketing Department can afford a payroll that allows Community Managers to roll in a red sports car. I mean, hell, I drive a freaking Focus, for God’s sake. Drive that shit around here and you’re probably going to have your autograph asked for, even if you’re not a celebrity. Oh, and what do we, lowly community and press members as we are, get to drive? Taxis. Freaking taxis. Thanks, Aaron, way to spread the love. Kinda makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside as I slash your tires with an ice scraper. Oh wait, you wouldn’t know what an ice scraper even IS, would you?
So we make our way to the restaurant, and things are eerily silent. I’d imagine that the previous summits were a lot more boisterous, but really… when you have four guys that can’t speak English all that well directly in front of you, and Eckhart to your left… there just isn’t much to talk about. So, Aaron had everyone introduce themselves.
Now, class, it’s time to play “How much of a stubborn ass can Steppo be?” We’re here, in Los Angeles, in an open roof, very ritzy Mexican restaurant. I wonder what Steppo could order, right? Goddamn right, I ordered a hamburger. That’ll learn you to stick me on a 7AM flight, Kaufman.
The remainder of the evening consisted of CnCKing and I discussing the canon of Command & Conquer as Westwood would have indicated it to be. We came to some strange conclusions. For example, Nate had inferred that Kane is indeed immortal. I, on the other hand, referred to scripture mentioning the murder of Abel, and that God told Cain that if any man was to harm him, that harm would be visited upon that man seven times. Now, it’s been recorded that Kane has died twice, therefore Kane must die five more times. After the fifth time, Kane is no more, and the franchise would be ended.
Joe Kucan’s got JOB SECURITY, baby!
With that, we returned to our hotel, and crashed for the night.
Day 2
Today was a day dedicated to the single-player aspect of C&C 3. We didn’t ask whether or not Aaron meant the actual campaign, or just skirmish mode, but we all went our own way on that. We started with an opening conference with Aaron, Lead Balancing Designer Greg Black, Lead Designer Jason Bender, and Single Player Producer Amer Ajami. It started off with simple welcome fanfare, “Hi, welcome to the summit… be nice… don’t eat the programmers… etc, etc…”. However the stage was then handed over to Jason, who wanted to show us some of the map design in C&C 3.
Jason showed us Mission 3, essentially a Commando mission. I was both somewhat disappointed, yet waxed nostalgic that EALA had decided to go back to the original TD and RA design of the single-unit missions. What’s important here that I admired was that most of the single player missions forced the use of specific unit conventions. For example, you can be presented with two choices using your Commando. On the one hand, you can simply rush into a battle and expect a swift death, or at least a hefty dismemberment. Or, you can use the Commando’s jump-pack ability and clear entire legions of troops, getting right on top of the target structure, and taking it out in a hit.
On the other hand, I was slightly disappointed in the fact that the Commando was a bit beefy for a single infantry unit. While I understand that yes, it’s a tutorial mission and yes, you can change the difficulty, I was a bit remiss to see that Jason wasn’t even breaking a moderate sweat playing the mission from top to bottom.
Jason brought the mission to a point where we saw battleships. Yes, battleships. Unfortunately, they’re not controllable in any form other than to enable them to bombard buildings, much like the Juggernaut – albeit a hell of a lot stronger. When he reached the ships, he was presented with a multitude of “bonus missions”, which could be completed at the whim of the commander.
I like that. I felt that the secondary objectives added a flair of replayability and challenge to the campaign. Mission too easy for you? Try it with using only the Commando, and not the umpteen-hundred units sent as reinforcements. Or, try it without using the bombardment ability. It’s very keen of Jason and crew to take the concept of “Oh yeah? Well I can take you on with one hand tied behind my back!”, and presenting said braggart with a rope.
Altogether, I was impressed by the coordination and the scripting that went into the individual mission that Jason showed off. While they sometimes went a little overboard with certain conventions (*Cough* Exploding barrels *Cough*), there was plenty there that gave me that warm fuzzy C&C feeling inside.
Jason then showed us a quick sneak preview of the Scrin. Yeah, those guys. Through a quick command-line switch, they showed us what’s supposed to happen when you complete the GDI or Nod campaigns. The game starts as it usually would, EA promo, initial trailer movie, etc. However, the mouse is unable to click anything. Instead, the main menu transitions to an FMV, which is the first movie for the alien invaders.
I won’t go into detail as to what’s going on, because Aaron’s mean and won’t let me. Something about stealing my soul and murdering my children or whatnot. I don’t have children, so I don’t know where he was going with this… but I digress. The coolest thing I noticed in the movie was the Scrin’s name for tiberium – Ichor. Ichor, by definition, is “an ethereal fluid taking the place of blood in the veins of the ancient Greek gods”. Now, the Scrin didn’t strike me as a religious group, but more of an industrial organization. If so, Ichor is a marketing term for a product. If that’s true, then the Scrin are certainly a lot more evil and soulless than Nod could ever be. At the same time, if the Scrin are some all-devouring industry, then perhaps it’s EALA’s own parody against its funding company? Who knows? The FMV was cool, but we weren’t shown any more than that in terms of the Scrin campaign and storyline.
James and crew then asked for volunteers for a quick demonstration 1v1 match. I raised my hand, as did a fellow from the world of Starcraft. Oh, the anticipation. The match lasted about 20 minutes and, let’s face it, I was being gentle. I built up my tech tree to the fullest, then unloaded on him with every available faction power, superweapon, and aircraft I could muster. He was a good sport, we shook hands, and another notch on my Fedora was earned.
I was a little concerned however, during the match. In my initial rush, I noticed that my opponent had a sonic emitter and several zone troopers. I had decided that it’d be best to jumpjet into the middle of his base, so that the sonic emitters and railguns would do friendly fire against him. To my dismay, it did neither. I asked them for an explanation about this, and here was their response:
“They used to, but we found that they’d just rape your own tanks and people would jump everywhere. That kind of gameplay was something we played around with before, but it didn’t work out. Scrin Warships, however, will cause friendly fire against your own units if you use them improperly.”
The second problem that I asked them about was regarding the video desynchronization problem that a lot of fans have been having. Here’s what they had to say:
“We’ve been noticing this more and more in the forums. The issue seems to be, that we’ve noticed, two things. One is the CPU overheating. The other is a driver issue with Vista. There are three people on the team who have noticed this issue, and we told them to open their case and clean out the fans, and that fixed the problem.”
Note: When I got home after hearing this, I cleaned out my fan and left the case open, as well as my room window. It’s 6F outside and the CPU temp never peaked over 30C. The desynch issue continued. No, I don’t run Vista.
I had also asked them about the ability to mod Command & Conquer 3. I myself had been hoping for something a little more user-friendly than the traditional BIG replacement that we’ve been tormented with for several years on end, preferably something more like an in-game browser or mod-switch utility. Alas, there is no such plan for that in the future. We’ll just have to continue to rely on the boys at ISOTX to bail us out yet again.
I then followed up on something that was bothering me. When everyone in the community installed the C&C 3 demo, they were greeted with an advertisement for a service known as EA Link. In effect, “Steam for Electronic Arts”, it’s a streaming media suite that allows gamers to purchase and download games online, eliminating the need for useless pre-orders and trips to brick-and-mortar stores. I had thought that having such a service would allow for the release for more episodic content, vis-a-vis Half-Life 2. However, Amer said that this was not to happen. There’s no effort for map-pack downloads at $3 apiece or the like.
To quell other fears, I asked about EA Link itself, whether or not it was an honest service, or simply a way to install a malicious DRM rootkit, similar to the Sony fiasco earlier this year (and last). Here’s what Greg Black had to say:
“The only DRM feature that I know of in EA Link is that it records your CD-Key and knows what you’ve downloaded. If you found anything weird or sketchy (in regards to EA Link) in our games, let us know, and we’ll take care of it. We don’t want some squirreliness from some external EA software messing with our game.”
After, we were brought to the cafeteria for playtesting. Here’s where shit started falling apart. You read me right, we were brought to the cafeteria to test Command & Conquer 3. For Kaufman, that was much worse than it sounds. Apparently, the training room that HeXetic had gone to to play the game was being remodeled, and the testing had to be moved. Now, the training room is designed with multiple computers in mind. The cafeteria? Not so much. Apparently, they were having the worst time in the world trying to get power to that room that we had to wait nearly two hours to actually sit down and play the freaking game. The look on poor Aaron’s face was priceless. But, two hours later, we were ready to begin.
GDI
I started off, being the loyal commander that I am, with the GDI campaign. The first two missions are the same that you loyal wonderful readers have played in the demo. I can’t really divulge more than that, but let’s say it’s a very gradual campaign. What I mean to say is that the gameplay pretty much holds your hand as you move from tech level to tech level. “This is a Juggernaut… it blows things up… click here to bombard…” et cetera. For the sake of time I didn’t get too far into the campaign. However, tutorial-ness aside, I felt that the missions were actually very fun to play. Being granted a new weapon or two has a very satisfying feeling, especially when you see it in action (grenadiers, anyone?).
What negativity I have of the GDI campaign is this: What the hell is WRONG with you, Jennifer Morrison? You’re hot, you do a great job as Dr. Cameron in House M.D., and you’ve got a job where all you need to do is deliver some lines to a camera with a little feeling! How in the holy hell is this a problem for you? LANDO didn’t have a problem! We’re talking about the guy who did the COLT 40 MALT LIQUOR advertisements! How can you NOT top that? For the love of God, somebody call her up and ask for a refund.
Nod
I moved on with the Nod campaign, trying to clear the ringing of Morrison’s voice out of my ears. I found that the Nod campaign was far less tutorial-based. In fact, I feel that I enjoyed the Nod missions most of all. They were well scripted and INCREDIBLY frantic. Almost every objective has a time limit, so you feel like you’re dodging the heavy hand of GDI everywhere you turn. Josh Halloway does an EXCELLENT job as Ajay – the Nod intelligence officer. He’s very gruff, with a unique sense of humor (read: “Brown their pants.”). I also found him to be far more tolerable as the advisor than Morrison was.
Cumulatively, as HeXetic reported before, all missions occur simultaneously with their counterparts, except for the Scrin, which begins at the end. There are choices to be made in terms of which mission to complete, very much like Tiberian Sun. As I mentioned before, the Scrin missions are unlocked after defeating the GDI or Nod campaign, in an effort to maintain the storyline. While one the one hand I would have liked there to be an option to play the Scrin, it’d be a lot like playing Starcraft as the Protoss in the beginning – you’ll see the end, but not know what’s going on.
The Scrin
About the Scrin… I guess I should talk about them, shouldn’t I? I wouldn’t do justice to the Scrin at all if I simply compared them to the Protoss in Starcraft. That doesn’t adequately explain who they are and what they do. Switching between Scrin and Nod/GDI is pretty straightforward, with all the structures being in the same location on the EVA interface as they would in the counterparts – Portal goes to Barracks, Gravity well goes to Orbital Uplink, etc. But really, the similarities end there.
The Scrin have a very organic feel to them. One of the most unique abilities they have, surpassing even Nod, is the capability for units to combine. Specifically, there’s a unit called a “buzzer”, which doesn’t look like much more than a swarm of hornets. These units come out of “buzzer towers”, a defensive structure that throws these pesky bastards out at anything that comes near. They do tremendous damage to infantry, and gradual damage to vehicles. They also have a decent amount of health, as they’re apparently hard to hit with a pulse rifle. Buzzers have the ability to combine with any vehicle in your arsenal, giving them an extra defensive punch as they roll into an enemy base. They’ll come into proximity of an attacking force, and swarm that unit. Remember, this is ANY unit, so even the Annihilator Tripod can have buzzers zooming around it, ready to rip into any oncoming infantry units or, more importantly, engineers.
Another main capability is that they have shields. In terms of unit-to-unit, the Annihilator was the only one I could see that had shields right out of the box. There is a shield upgrade for other units, and a “Stasis Shield” power for the Scrin that both makes a unit invulnerable, but unable to move or attack. This proved invaluable to stop a Mammoth Tank rush headed my way.
A third capability that gave me quite a chuckle was the “Wormhole”. The Wormhole gives you the ability to warp any two units permanently from one location on the map to the other. Wow. That sounds kind of familiar to me. I can’t seem to put my finger on-CHRONOSHIFT. It’s BACK! Now you can bastardly torment your friends at all due course by throwing Annihilators in random haphazard locations. It’s the ultimate griefer ability!
I’d go so far as to say that the Scrin are privileged with two superweapons – The Rift, and the Mothership. The Rift is a fairly straightforward “Click-BOOM” weapon, which sucks in all structures and units into a black hole of some sort, doing gradual damage as time progressed. The second was the Mothership, really a super-unit than a superweapon, this bad girl will warp to your base, and then you can command it as you please. Its weapons seem primarily Ion Storm based, and it can take out any building in a single shot. The drawback is its slow speed and lack of armor. This behemoth can take upwards of three minutes to make it into an enemy base, giving it all the time in the world to start pegging away at it with anti-aircraft defenses and units, ESPECIALLY rocket infantry (the weapon only takes out one unit at a time).
In terms of standard balancing gameplay, the Scrin are a bit odd. They are incredibly weak at first, using swarming type units in the first couple levels of technology, they’re very weak to any sort of tank rush you can throw at them. Once they hit the higher technology levels, however, they’re impervious to harm. Aircraft are swatted down like flies with the Ion Storm towers, tanks are reduced to slag with the Annihilator tripods, and infantry succumb to the effects of tiberium, as the Scrin deploy tiberium spreaders and corrupters.
Oh, did I mention that visceroids are back? Corruptors can actually turn infantry into visceroids, yours to control. Visceroids aren’t exactly the tiny blobules from Tiberian Dawn and Tiberian Sun. They actually have legs now, three to be exact, and are still as ugly and oozing as before.
Mutants are also back, as a sort of hirable untold faction. They are more like the mutants from Renegade, however, equipped with miniguns and available to the highest bidder. Now, before anybody gets upset here, try and remember that the TS manual said that the mutants of the “Forgotten” would, by this time, come under the influence of tiberium so much that they’d be unrecognizable. That’s definitely what these units look like. To get them, you must capture a “mutant hovel” somewhere on the map with an engineer.
Altogether, the sides are very well balanced, requiring the commander to use the strengths and weaknesses of their respective sides to turn the tide of battle. I have to tip my hat to Greg Black on this, it’s just very well done.
Dragon Dronet
After a couple hours of gameplay, we were whisked back into the conference “theatre” for a presentation by the community’s favorite propmaster – Dragon Dronet. Dragon started off showing us a DVD showing off his shop, Renegade Effects. Let’s not go into the irony of a guy working on a C&C title with a shop enumerating the title of “Renegade”. After Dragon listed off the seemingly endless list of movies or shows he’s done (Star Wars, Star Trek, Aliens, Predator, The Scorpion King, etc), he started handing out the props he’s made. My heart leapt as he handed me the idol from Indiana Jones: The Raiders of the Lost Ark. That was undoubtedly one of the coolest moments of my life, being able to hold the actual B idol from the movie… while wearing my Fedora… and holding the original Zorro whip.
He then showed us the Nod pulse rifle from C&C 3. It’s actually a refitted air soft rifle with a rotating Gatling gun attachment, and the gun sight from “Escape from LA”. Then we saw the GDI helmet, built from scratch. Very cool. Then came the Nod mask, which was actually built from a pair of Chinese fighter pilot goggles and a resculpted facemask from Chronicles of Riddick.
Altogether, it was totally freaking cool to see the process in which props were made, and the unbelievable collection that Dragon passed around.
Xbox 360
Producer (Damn, how many producers do they have on this ship?) Raj Joshi decided it was time to show us the Xbox 360 version of Command & Conquer 3. Now, I’m not going to lie, this was (I anticipated) the least favorite part of the entire Summit. I’m sure many of you agree, I felt that a console is not a proper place for a Real Time Strategy title. It didn’t work with Starcraft 64, Command & Conquer 64, Battle for Middle Earth, or any of the other RTSs that have tried to make the jump. The controls are absolutely god-awful, the graphics need to be dumbed down, and the gameplay ultimately fails in the translation. Traditionally, it’s not a good experience.
Raj had a different idea, however. He pulled one of the guys down and asked him to use the Xbox 360 controls to play C&C 3. I, of course, was prepared to laugh at and ridicule him for the clumsiness. However, I was surprised.
The controls don’t suck.
The Xbox 360 team has changed the unchangeable. I’ll explain. The entire playfield is now focused on the center of the screen. The cursor no longer moves, and instead, the joysticks are utilized to manipulate the camera itself. The left stick controls panning, and the right stick controls rotation and zoom. This, for those that play games like Halo 2, makes it incredibly easy to jump in and get to conquering. The controls, after five minutes of PC awkwardness, were so easy for dear Nate to pick up and play, that I wasn’t sure if this was scripted or not. Most of the selection controls were focused around the “A” button. Shoulders open menus, D-pad does menu selections, then “A” to make the selection. Easy-peasy. Bounding-box selections are out, instead favoring a “Paint” mode where you hold “A”, and move the cursor-camera over the units you want to select. It’s not incredibly efficient, but it’s far more intuitive than trying to fanangle a bounding box cursor with the joystick.
Xbox Live players will be greeted with a few goodies that PC gamers will have to go without. First is the game modes. Xbox Live guys get the traditional PvP and Comp Stomp modes, as well as the following: Siege, Capture and Hold, Capture the Flag, and King of the Hill. Siege mode pits multiple users against one player who has a superbase. The siege lasts a certain amount of time, and then players switch. Capture and Hold is not unlike Unreal Tournament where you keep possession of specific points on the map. Capture the Flag is self explanatory, as is King of the Hill. I’m honestly a little upset that these modes aren’t in the PC game, but it’s understandable as a method to court console gamers to an otherwise console-free genre. As is par for the course in Xbox 360-world, Everything is in High Definition, and supports 5.1 surround sound. It’s enticing, even to a PC gamer, to get a copy just for the surround-sound ability.
I had asked Raj midway through his presentation a question regarding the support of C&C 3 on the 360. Many of us had heard or experiences the horror stories of XBL support of certain franchises, namely Madden, NHL and Burnout. The overall experience was that after a specific period of time, EA’s proprietary Live servers would shut off support for these games, veritably forcing gamers to buy the latest installment, just so they could keep playing with their buddies. I asked Raj if the trend would continue with a franchise such as Command & Conquer. He responded “Absolutely not.” Definitely a relief for consolers who want something a bit more beefy out of their first-time RTS romp.
You can’t kill the messiah…
So Raj decided it was time to show off C&C 3 on Xbox Live. He had explained to us that he had arranged with another producer to play together, showing off their VisionCam feature. What VisionCam is is with the camera for the 360, each commander gets to see the others in each corner of the screen. The victor gets a 30-second bragging moment, where his visage is displayed on he majority of the television. Personally, I don’t care for someone ogling me while I’m playing a strategy game, but to each their own. I suppose some people like listening to 9-year-olds scream in their headsets, too (*Cough* Aaron *Cough*)
Raj starts up the game, and we can clearly see the producer on the screen. Very cool, “Wave at the camera!” moment. Then suddenly, from off camera, a gun whips out and SHOOTS the producer in the head. The producer falls off the couch, and a bald-headed figure replaces him.
Wait… I know that chrome dome.
“This isn’t fair! You have to play GDI, then!” Raj screams at Joe “Kane” Kucan as Joe relaxes into the sofa.
“GDI or not, get ready to present how I’m going to kick your ASS” Joe responds… and the game begins.
I’d like to take this moment in time to explain to everyone how much Raj Joshi SUCKS at the very game he’s producing. I believe he should hang his head in shame, and perhaps Aaron should take a picture of him crying like a little girl.
Yeah, Joe pounded the ever-living hell out of Raj. If you ever have the fortune to meet Joe, and he tells you that he’s not good at video games… he’s LYING. He’s a horrible lying bastard and he should be ashamed of himself. There, I said it.
So the game goes on, the tauntings continue, laughs abound. As the game ends, and Raj laughs it off, he beings to talk about other things. Then, Joe walks in.
I’d like to take THIS moment to say that I was the ONLY ONE who gave Joe a standing ovation. I believe that the rest of the community reps were sleeping on the job and should also be ashamed of themselves… especially YOU, Chronojam. I felt like a DICK standing up there by myself, but nooooooo… don’t stand for JOE FREAKING KUCAN. Thanks, buddy. Your anthrax is in the mail.
Joe stayed for a bit, signing autographs and doing photo ops (see above). Very cool. He talked about how impressed he was with C&C 3. I laughed a bit at this, seeing that he got the almighty SHAFTING from Electronic Arts to begin with. I told him how I was ready to start pounding some heads this morning, but I’m impressed now.
“Thanks for being fickle!” He said.
Like I said, horrible lying bastard. Good ol’ Joe.
Fun Time
The “work” of the summit essentially ended here, and it was time for the “fun” to begin. Kaufman was taking us, via charter bus, to Anaheim, where there was a dogfighting simulator LAN for us to enjoy. And beer… and you all know how much I love the beer.
On the trip, Aaron talked to us about various things… specifically about what we thought about C&C 3. I’ll have to admit, most of us… even that Starcraft bastard (Sorry Sean… had to) were mightily impressed with the game. But that’s all frivolous stuff you can read elsewhere… onto important things.
Aaron asked us about patching. He explained to us that Electronic Arts wanted to turn over a “new leaf” when it came to C&C 3 support. Particularly, he said that EALA was moving towards a system of patching where C&C 3 would receive LOTS of SMALL patches, fairly frequently… as opposed to the Generals “treatment” of only four BIG ones. We agreed that this was vital, as it kept people from screaming “NERF!” or “BUFF!”, and it made it easier for EALA to un-patch what they may have screwed up. He also wanted to know whether or not we wanted to see patches take longer, but come with free stuff, or just see the patches. We were fairly unanimous in asking for just straight patches.
“Let the community worry about more maps. Just fix what’s broken.” Chronojam said.
I’d have to agree with the sentiment.
Day 3
The ever-illustrious Day 3 was dedicated primarily to multiplayer, but was kicked off with a tour of the facility. Aaron apologized profusely for not being able to show us every step of the development process, as something went horribly, horribly wrong with the latest build at the last second. So, he had us hang out with some of the video and sound producers instead, very cool.
We started by hanging out with a video producer and compositor. They went through the process of what it took to get Kane to go from green-screen land to a full Nod temple. Again, very cool. However, instead of saying “cool” over and over again, I’ll give you the bare-boned facts, and I’ll let you say “cool” a lot. Cool.
Everything was shot in 1920x1280 progressive, over several weeks, starting September 2006. The video was piped directly into the computer of the producers with some godawful cable that I can’t bear to remember the name of. There’s over 70 minutes of footage total that the gamer will actually view in the course of the campaigns. A lot of the Cg effects you see, such as the Philadelphia explosion, was actually contracted out to another company for completion. Some of the internal compositing was actually done using the SAGE engine itself… you will see a cutscene of a Juggernaut tromping through a Yellow Zone – it was actually done by using a highly modified (top secret) build of Worldbuilder, which has plugins that allow it to interact with their compositing software, adding things like dust, lighting effects, etc. The rest, such as the 2d image flashing (think of the cinematic trailer’s “Welcome back, commander” sequence) was done by hand.
We moved on into the sound studio, where sound was finally overlayed onto the cinematics. I may have mentioned and confused a few of you in the previous day’s report saying that the Xbox 360 has full 5.1 surround, but not mentioning the PC version. Not to worry, the PC gets the surround sound treatment as well. Also, there will be SIX localizations for our international buddies, including German, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Korean (I believe), and English. Yeah, everybody’s going to get a piece of the C&C goodness this year. Though I didn’t like the Italian localization; it sounded like Granger wanted to have sex with the camera. Very creepy.
We moved back into the cafeteria/testing area, set to beat the living hell out of each other. A double-elimination 1v1 tournament was set up, in our honor. The prize: Signed pictures of all the actors and actresses.
Time to segue here. I got my picture of Joe Kucan. Personally, I’m a happy camper with this. However, I wanted to go for the gusto, as I’m sure my fiancée would have loved to get that signed picture of Jennifer Morrison (she’s a big House MD fan… don’t blame me). My motive set, I was ready for some ass kicking.
I lost in the first round.
Now let me try and justify myself a bit here. Firstly, I WON the first round, because David Silverman – Marketing Manager at EALA, Aaron’s BOSS – was too much of a lamer to show up to his own tournament, so I won by forfeit. So any win against an EA marketing knob is a good win for me. Then, my first opponent was Ulie from CnCforen.de, and you KNOW those crazy Germans are like the Kwisatz Haderach of Command & Conquer… the hell was I supposed to do? The battle raged for fifteen minutes, FIFTEEN. It’s not like I didn’t put up a fight! But no, he had to get all tricky-shit with his superweapon, putting it in a rather unseeming location, SURROUNDING IT with anti-aircraft and utterly tearing my Firehawks apart.
I’m not a competitive player, what can I say?
Round two, my first round in the loser’s bracket, fared a bit better. I was teamed up against Gaming Steve… I don’t know why his name is Gaming Steve, which I’ll explain more on later. I played as I normally do, expand fast, hold the tiberium spikes and extra fields, and garrison garrison garrison. Then, turtle like a ######. For some reason, that worked well. I held out long enough to starve Steve out, then I moved in with my toys – Zone Troopers, Mammoths, Firehawks, and Ion Cannon. Quick and easy, yes?
I’d like to take this moment to say that, for a “gamer”… to have “Gaming” in your name, Gaming Steve is a very sore loser. Shake my hand, you ######. It was a good game. It’s not like I ran over your grandmother or anything.
The third round… I got stomped. I played against a guy named Nate. ######ing trashed me. Apparently, Nate learned from the “tank-whore” school of Command & Conquer. He built up six refineries, and sold two. Why? Because it was easier than building them out of a War Factory. Suddenly blessed with over FOUR times my harvesting capability, he decided to remain low-tech and rushed the HELL out of me with predator tanks. I lasted six minutes. Six. I hadn’t even STARTED on my offense yet.
Let me take a moment to justify this. Yeah, I got owned by a Predator rush. Yes, I mentioned before that while you could tank-spam, it’s not a good idea. It’s still not a good idea. It was my own dumbass fault to not have some ROCKET TROOPERS hanging around to slow things down. I was paying way too much attention to expanding my base in three directions to start on the important stuff like DEFENSE. So yeah, my bad.
The rest of the coolness that was Day 3 cannot be expressed yet, due to NDA restrictions.
The day progressed on, and in the end, some crazy German got the pictures. That bastard. Heil Autobahn or whatever the ###### it is you guys do.
Concluding the day, we got our swag, our tickets, our taxi… and got the ###### out of there.
And yes, I gave Aaron “Can’t make up my goddamn mind” Kaufman a hug.
Two, even.
Impressions
Guys, I can’t stress this enough. This is Command & Conquer. Think about that statement for a minute. Think about all the years you and I have played this glorious franchise. Over TWELVE YEARS. From Tiberian Dawn all the way to today, we’ve had a singular vision as to what C&C is, was, and should be in the future. Granted that there have been many changes, adaptations, mistakes (*cough* GENERALS *cough*) and evolutions in the running, our core vision for the franchise remains the same. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars does not violate that tradition. If anything, it simply adds more to the already awesome.
I know of all the complaints that are strewn about the forums and the Community in general. But let’s take the moment to collect them all and place them on the table. Walls? Balancing? Tiberium patch growth? If these are not patchable, then they’re at the very least very nitpicky indeed.
Remember what I said about the rapid patching system. I had a moment to speak with Mike Verdu toward the end, and I get the impression that he has the Community foremost on his mind. Why not? We happen to be the most insufferable group of bastards that the Internet has to offer. Rapid, extended patching, and a desire to maintain the vision of C&C is all Verdu has in mind. (In all honesty, I thought it was somewhat flattering and amusing to see him deflate a little when I complimented him on the game).
The balancing is just right. I enjoy the fact that C&C3 requires you to mix up your units, instead of spamming only one type. It’s a flair for the sublime that this balancing has to offer. Nod plays absolutely frantically, GDI is slow, heavy handed, and calculated, and the Scrin are just WEIRD. Boy, that doesn’t sound appropriate now, does it?
Multiplayer, for the amount that I stayed in the tournament, was a blast to play. There’s plenty of smack-talking to go around, especially with built-in VOIP. I can’t wait to get my comp-stomp on with those toys.
I’m going to be honest with you here… I feel like a bit of a whore, now. I had come in with full reputation and expectation to do nothing but the utmost to get myself kicked off the EALA premises for being a total dick to everyone and everything. I WANTED to hate this game and the direction it was taking the Community. Honest, I did. But Aaron plunked us down and went “Shut up and play, then bash if you have to”. My expectation faltered, then utterly failed as I realized that hey, EA didn’t ###### it up this time. Everything’s in its proper place, Canon, Tradition, Gameplay, to be the next true successor of the Command & Conquer franchise. I’m beyond excited for this… never mind the fact that it’s released on March 26th… my birthday. Coincidence? I ######ing think NOT.
Really, folks… this is Command & Conquer like no other. We’re not playing a game that “feels like” C&C (a la Act of War), or “Should be the true C&C” (A la Field Commander)… no. It’s Command & Conquer, and that’s the best compliment a douchebag like me can give this game.
Commentary
But let’s not think that I’ve lost my ranty mood. That just wouldn’t be fair. I’d say that overall I was pleased with the entire event… technical glitches and all. However, I do have a problem with a certain group within that Summit.
Try and remember, that prize winners Paul & Nate aside, this was in all rights and restrictions, a PRESS summit. There’s a certain level of integrity that goes hand-in-hand with that. Personally, when I think “press”, I think of someone who tells it like it is, with a slight bit of opinion and flavor thrown in. You can’t have totally unbiased reporting (Heloooooo Fox News and CNN), but you can get as close as possible. Personally, I hope that my little journal here is sufficiently unbiased enough for you guys. But really, beyond that, no flavor is needed. I have no need to explain to you how COOL I am, or how COOL it is for me to be at EALA, or how COOL it is to play video games.
Enter Epileptic Gaming. I can’t roll my eyes high enough.
Ever since G4 took over TechTV, the concept of “making games cool” has festered across the media waves with full strum and drang. Personally, I grow tired of hearing how AWESOME it is to play video games with COOL graphics and KICK ASS controls, like “Macho Man” Randy Savage is screaming in your face about the Atari 2600 or something.
I know video gaming is cool. It’s why I DO IT. I don’t need to be reminded of it time and again. Especially from the likes of you.
The guys at EG, bless their hearts, do the same thing. They G4-ize gaming on the whole, throwing in random useless vulgarities, and using phrases like “We’re rated AO. Adults Only. Don’t let your mommy see us!” in the coolest radio voice they can try. Imagine a nasally guy trying his best to do a Solid Snake impression, and you’ll get the idea.
Guys. Report on what we care about, but don’t try to remind us how AWESOME it is to play games, or to like them. We KNOW THAT. Stick to the details, and focus less on the “drunken frat boy” mentality.
Closing Thoughts
I’d just like to remind you guys to check back here later in the month. There’s just ONE more thing that I can talk to you guys about after the 21st… and it’s VERY cool. At least I know HeXetic and I will enjoy it immensely.
An extra special thanks on my part goes out to Dario & Tim for having the balls to drop one of the biggest assholes of the C&C community (short of Aircraftkiller) on the doorstep of EALA. To Aaron Kaufman for putting up with my shit in stride, laughing where appropriate, and throwing headphones where needed. Lots of laughs… and you’re still short. To Mike Verdu for NOT ######ing this up. To Greg, Jason, Amer and Raj for being good sports, even though I question your ability to play your own goddamn game. To Joe… well… for at least showing up. To the boys in the composition and sound rooms… which were too small for the number of fans crouwding you… sorry for the body odor. To nVidia and Logitech for sponsoring the event. And, to you guys for reading this.
This post has been edited by Steppo: 11 March 2007 - 09:43 AM
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