my rant on C&C3

Ive been playing the command and conquer games since the original on pc, and have loved every title since. Well except generals, which felt like a badly made rts rather then a classic C&C.

After generals, i did not get my hopes up for the new C&C. Well i started playing it earlier this week, and im glad to say it felt like a Command and Conquergame again, with a building system more like red alert 2, but inproved. I was also not sure whever id like it, as its even more in the future. But now ive played it....is it just me or is Tiberium sun more futuristic?

I thought the campaign was a good inprovement on generals, as it was harder, and i got stuck many times. Although the old original campaigns cant be bested for how hard they were.

Im glad to see the cheesy movies bettwen missions are back, that was what the games were always about. they wernt ment to seem 100% serious. However the endings were done badly. I was hoping for more of a Tiberium sun like ending, which involved some movie action
After playing gernals and bfme, i was expecting the ai to be just as bad. I am however shocked to find the ai actualy trys to win! Im abit gutted now though, as in TS and RA2 i use to destroy bridges and turtle, and the ai would not bother me till i reparied a bridge, but now the ai sends in air craft strikes every second and then repairs the bridges.

Skirmish games are fun, but there is a shortage in maps, there is only one 8 player and 5 player map. ANd very few maps can have more then 2 players.
The maps arnt anything special either in my opinion. Back in TS, there were more maps containing big citys and ilands to turtle on....maybe im just being picky though....

Anouther big inprovement is air power, aircrafts are fun to use and watch, i perticuly like gdi's advanced aircraft (i forget its name).

Yet again, there is no navel units, but none of the tiberium C&C titles had trainable navel units, so i guess i did not expect them, but it would of been a nice edition.


Im also very disappointed not to see walls, as the other titles always had them. I thought it may of been possible in this game engine now, so maybe along with navel units, ill trying adding them, once we have the modding tools needed.

So i rate the game 8/10. Its been nicely done, and is a huge inprovement on the last title,
but some points let it down, so its not the same feeling i had with most of the other C&C games.

I hope that was not too much rant

I'll have to put a *Spoiler* notice in the topic description, but only because you mentioned the endings. People might get pissed off if they found out the endings were crap without actually watching them .

Which is more than true though. The endings are a real insult to any storyline-interested C&C fan. Absolutely no match for the cool TS Nod ending... gotta love that one

haha yeah the scrin is still the best campaign due to their EVA it actually has personality guess cause the foreman forgot to format it

when the WB comes out you can expect a large influx of maps that will suit ur needs

Edited by Marcjs, 14 April 2007 - 03:13 PM.

I once had a dream of a 16 player map. On the left and the right of the map where 2 great fortresses like a mix of Kane's Temple base in Sarajevo and Killian's Temple base. In every fortress 1 player could start (there where 2 fortresses). They had very limited blue tiberium, but it was very easy to defend because it had already defence systems build on walls like in Sarajevo (only way to destroy them is to destroy the wall where it was up). Then in front of those fortresses there where 4 start positions making it 10 in total. There where also on the top and bottom 3 start positions making it 16. That players haves a big field of green tiberium, basically unlimited. Tehre where mines, barbed wires, and tank traps every where. Also there was a ruined city, craters, and whatever. A real battlefield...It's cry that you can't make 16 player maps.

I have to say that i really liked the story, until the crappy Nod ending(yeah, i only played Nod, i didnt bother playing through GDI after the crappy ending). But i think that they have really messed some things up in this game. Especially the units for Nod have been fucked up, and also GDI lacks all the walkers except the Juggernaut. Nod sorely lacks an apc. For some reason they've given up the exellent subterran technology, and replaced it with... nothing? And the awesome artillery from Tiberian Sun have been replaced with those POS Beam Cannons/nerfed Prism Tanks, which is GDI technology. Also, the walkers that GDI are missing, somehow ended up in Nods hands, since their super unit is a walker called the Avatar.

The campaign was quite cool, and a big improvement from Generals. This might be the most enjoyable story EA have made in recent years, even if they did get most of it from Westwood. However the end is such a let down. They build all this excitement about these aliens and what they're gonna do, and then the final movie is over before it begins.

So, i have mixed feelings about this game. The story is quite cool if you overlook the ending, and the gameplay is relatively interesting. Alot of cool things from Tiberian Sun, like Ion Storms and the orange toxic weed, is gone and there are basically 2 or 3 types of missions, where the goal actually is quite similar in all of them. There are regular crush the enemys base/ x structure. Then there are infiltration where you have limited forces or a single commando, and then there's defence. And in most defence missions, your real goal isn't to hold out, but to destroy the enemy before they destroy you.

I'd give it 3/5. It doesnt really do anything new, and its a step down from Tiberian Sun, but i like the story and the setting.

The Scrin campaign ending is by far the best. I really like how the campaigns tie together such that the ending of the game is really the same no matter how you play it. Each campaign just reveals more of the story. I liked learning the motivation behind the Scrin actions, and the ending is obviously a cliffhanger for the next installment.

Really, I recommend you play the campaigns in this order: GDI, Nod, Scrin. That's how I did it, and I think it gives you the best experience. First you get to see the entire war, then you learn why it started, and then you see what the aliens are up to, and find out that maybe things aren't as harmless as they seem from the end of the GDI campaign.

Well, you have to finish both the GDI and Nod campaigns before you can do the Scrin one anyway. But I did like the Scrin intro, when it zooms in on Earth from outside the galaxy, that was just great CGI. Also, I watched Independence Day yesterday. God, the Scrin Mothership is just like the ships from it, and the Stormriders are like those fighters in the film. All we need now is someone to start shouting "We will not go quietly into the night!"

I once had a dream of a 16 player map. On the left and the right of the map where 2 great fortresses like a mix of Kane's Temple base in Sarajevo and Killian's Temple base. In every fortress 1 player could start (there where 2 fortresses). They had very limited blue tiberium, but it was very easy to defend because it had already defence systems build on walls like in Sarajevo (only way to destroy them is to destroy the wall where it was up). Then in front of those fortresses there where 4 start positions making it 10 in total. There where also on the top and bottom 3 start positions making it 16. That players haves a big field of green tiberium, basically unlimited. Tehre where mines, barbed wires, and tank traps every where. Also there was a ruined city, craters, and whatever. A real battlefield...It's cry that you can't make 16 player maps.

if you want a 16 player rts get World in Conflict though no base building :( though will lag to hell


and it is technically possible to have 16 plyr maps on C&C 3 or at least was on ZH (only 8 human off course) but theirs no point will lag to hell and rather annoying to script

i agree the nod ending is a bit surpising

Edited by Marcjs, 14 April 2007 - 10:20 PM.

It was annoying, I was waiting to see thousands of Nod troops cheering after Kane started shouting at the door, but all I got was 'whoosh' and I was at the main menu. I was also waiting to see Nod going 'into the heavens' (space), but no C&C meets Star Trek unfortunately.

iron storms are still in the game, the planetry assualt carriers can create them. but yea its not the same as TS, when they appeared random, and all your aircraft in the air was destroyed.

I also miss the orange tiberium.

By the way, something ive just noticed, why is tiberium spelled diferent now?

Where is it spelled differently? The only difference I've seen is that the (crap!) title has the word 'Tiberium' instead of 'Tiberian'. I know the Scrin call it 'Ichor' rather than Tiberium however.

yea thats what i ment, Tiberian Sun...Tiberium Wars.....wtf did they spell it like that.....

Marketing. The name Tiberian Twilight would have implied the end of the series, like twilight is the end of the day. Tiberium Wars is so overly generic that they could create yet more titles spawning from this, milking the franchise for all it's worth. Although, if they didn't want to use Tiberian Twilight, they could have at least used Tiberian Incursion, which I think was the last working title for C&C3 before Westwood was destroyed.
Then again, when we are able to mod the game (should maybe be if), once I get the hang of the XML I plan to have a go at fixing their cock-ups.

Edit: Here's a parody on the initial press release by Renegade: Link.

Edited by Nighthawk, 15 April 2007 - 01:44 PM.

I really like cnc3... naturally, being from EA, they can't make a perfect game (come on, not everyone can be as good as Relic) so I'll cut them some slack. The game is nice and atmospheric, it looks good (even on my shitty pc) it's fun to play and the campaigns are a challenge. The endings are totally shit though...

Nod has some serious nerfing problems.. .the avatar is a bag of shit, an overpriced bag of shit... their awesome artillery from TS is gone... and no APC?! I totally agree with Stealthsnake on his Nod comments.. Also, the laser turrets are wank unless combined with an obelisk.

I do like the way that the new style buildings are subtly harking back to the first designs in the first game, whilst looking more high tech... but on the other hand, some fancy things have gone missing... what about the GDI Firestorm defences?

Walls are also sorely missed. Imagine Nod players building walls and then sticking turret nodes behind them... perfect.

I like the new AI, it's clever and very much capable of beating you, a big improvement...

Oh, and who stole all my maps?! Honestly... there's just not enough!

yea this name is better, but i still dont get why they spelled tiberian, "tibirium".......

Nod has some serious nerfing problems.. .the avatar is a bag of shit, an overpriced bag of shit... their awesome artillery from TS is gone... and no APC?! I totally agree with Stealthsnake on his Nod comments.. Also, the laser turrets are wank unless combined with an obelisk.

I think you mean me, but im glad to see that im not the only one who finds Nod underpowered. I would love to see someone mod in their old units from Tiberian Sun, and make Nod infantry and GDi infantry equally good as they were in Tiberian Sun. Right now Nod infantry is worth 0$, perhaps with the exception of the saboteur

Do any of you know if any restoration mods have been announced?

I think you mean me, but im glad to see that im not the only one who finds Nod underpowered. I would love to see someone mod in their old units from Tiberian Sun, and make Nod infantry and GDi infantry equally good as they were in Tiberian Sun. Right now Nod infantry is worth 0$, perhaps with the exception of the saboteur

Do any of you know if any restoration mods have been announced?

cough Shadow teams cough

owns all other Infantry nothing compares to them

even the commandos fall under their machine pistols (since they get first shot due to their cloak)

Edited by Marcjs, 15 April 2007 - 07:19 PM.

Oh yeah, forgot them. They are useable, but still not as good as Zone Troopers or those elite scrin infantry. But take a look at the other nod infantry units.

First theres millitants. They just suck. Even as meatshields. Though, they only cost 200$, so they're expendable.

Then there are rocket soldiers. Actually they are okay. Their damage is good, but the downside is their speed. It takes forever to get around with them, and they are very fragile.

Saboteurs are your standard engineers, but they come with the option to booby trap a bridge or civillian building, which is quite neat when used on bridges.

Fanatics are way too expensive for what they are. They are quite good for thinning out in an enemy attack, but are too fragile for their price.

Ah, the Black Hand. Expensive, and only good against infantry. They are quite good at clearing civillian structures, but flame tanks are more durable, faster and do more damage. For 100$ bucks extra. You might use them for garrisoning, so they can stop enemy infantry, but they have a very limited range.

Then there is the shadow team. They are actually quite exellent, as their damage is good, they are stealthed, and they can use bombs to take out enemy buildings. Their main weaknesses are enemy vehicles, and base defences. They require alot of minimanagement, but can be great in skilled hands.

Lastly there's the commando. She's good as always, but i think she's way overpriced. Potentially devastating, if you can get her behind the base defence, but like all other infantry, she's made of glass.

The only infantry unit i can recommend are Shadow Teams, and the Commando, and even those are only good for infiltrating and taking out things like power plants or lone refineries.

To be honest, in the demo, the Black Hand disappoint.

I'll not comment on them gameplay-wise, but they use a flame thrower. While this is a weapon found in their arsenal in previous games, the Black Hand are the elite, Kane's best. They'd use more advanced weaponry. The Shadow team seems to fill the role of Black Hand better. Also, I had expected to see more tiberium based weaponry for Nod, which is a pity.