Command and Conquer

[Husky_Khan]

I never actually played the original Command & Conquer games beyond one of the C&C Generals games. By the time I checked them out the original Command & Conquer and Red Alert looked so dated... Even when compared with the sexier (and simpler) Warcraft II.

Consider me intrigued when I realized this was a thing though. The original Command & Conquer and Red Alert games (plus expansion packs) being HD remastered.



Interest piqued. I didn't even realize this was a thing. Hope it's good. Love to give the games a try. Even if it means brushing off the dust from my EA Origins account.

Also six years between channel updates. Wowzers.

 

[PsihoKekec]

I recall playing Red Alert as kid and writing down the morse code in manual to unlock the giant ant missions.

 

[Husky_Khan]

I recall playing Red Alert as kid and writing down the morse code in manual to unlock the giant ant missions.

Yeah there's a snippet in the video that seems to reference the secret giant ant missions will be making a return as well.

 

[Doomsought]

Yeah there's a snippet in the video that seems to reference the secret giant ant missions will be making a return as well.

I'm still baffled at the people who claimed that Red Alert 3 was too silly. Red alert was always the that way.

 

[Tiamat]

I'm still baffled at the people who claimed that Red Alert 3 was too silly. Red alert was always the that way.

Admittedly it was, but Red Alert 1 had it's implied grim moments, this was a version of Stalin having a Napoleon complex and deciding to do the grand tour of Europe, with chemical weapons, nukes and implied genocide of civilians to boot. All this in spite of the hokier elements like Tanya, and time travel.

Red Alert 2 and 3 on the other hand went full bore silly Ham and Cheese with mustard on the side. In spite of that, 2 was okay. 3 on the other hand....oh god, where to begin? A big doomsday laser hidden in the face (or rather, nose) of Mt. Rushmore and actual Japanese Macross jets, for starters...

 

[Jormungandr]

I've been a fan of C&C since Tiberian Dawn, back in '95. I pretty much grew up on Command and Conquer.

Red Alert did have whacky sci-fi elements, but it was all interlaced with a 'Cold War gone hot' feel (despite being a parallel version of World War 2): it had realistic or semi-realistic vehicles (M1 Abrams, Jeeps, Frog-7 Launchers, T-80 tanks, et cetera), grim elements to the established reality (nerve gas, nuclear attacks, war-crimes), et cetera.

Red Alert 2 had far more sci-fi elements in it, but it somehow worked, despite losing the semi-realistic aspect. It had a veneer of military realism over sci-fi, like IFVs looking like actual military vehicles, but... yeah.

Red Alert 3... full-on sci-fi. It was completely whacky to the point of absurdity. It was pretty much a parody.

 

[Doomsought]

Red Alert 3... full-on sci-fi. It was completely whacky to the point of absurdity. It was pretty much a parody.

No, it just went from pulp-scifi to anime scifi.

 

[Jormungandr]

No, it just went from pulp-scifi to anime scifi.

That too.

I mean, the Empire's commando unit wore a schoolgirl outfit, for crying out loud (even if Uprising did display plans for her to have a battlesuit instead, but still).

You know the "weeb crap" stereotype that is often unfairly placed on anything Japanese comic/animated? RA3 kinda bought into that stereotype hook, line, and sinker with the Empire's stuff.

Hell, their artillery units used wave-force motion guns.

 

[Tzeentchean Perspective]

I'd buy the remaster just for the new soundtrack.

 

[Doomsought]

If I were in charge of red Alert 4, I'd charge full ahead with the crazy. The explanation is that all of the time travel has been messing with reality, resulting in psychics, super-science and all the other shenanigans.

The Allied campaign starts with a FMV of someone watching the news showing Labor has won control of the UK under an OC communist leader. Suddenly there is shaking, and you look out the window to see the UK invading the east coast. In the second mission California declares for a communist revolution and the US is now stuck in a two front war. It is quickly revealed that the Soviets fleeing the allied victory in the Red Alert 3 timeline passed through a fracture in time and landed on our moon, and began to secretly support various communists in order to prepare to take over the world. Eventually OTL allies catch up with the crazy and not-Elon-Musk builds an Orion Nuclear battleship and you invade the moon.

The Japanese Campeign follows the Japanese victory timeline in red alert 3, when suddenly they are attacked by cybernetic dinosaurs. It is Yuri from the soviet victory timeline in Red Alert 2, returned from the distant past. There are sorts of psychic shenanigans foreshadowing oncoming time-quakes, making victory bittersweet.

The Soviet campaign starts after the Soviet victory for Red Alert 1, when suddenly there is a rebellion. It is quickly revealed that the revolution is being supported by survivors from the Red Alert 2 allied victory timeline that got destroyed with Einstein's assassination. Einstein prepared a special chrono-fortress to defend against time-travel after he discovered evidence of the timeline merger in Red Alert 2. During this campaign there is a Giant Ant's mission, and the ending includes a hook for an expansion pack.

In the expansion pack, time-quakes create portals which cause each of the timelines from the base game to start fighting each-other, until they realize they need to band together in order to survive the worsening time0quakes and stabilize their respective timelines. This includes more crazy, including a very confused Scrin incursion wondering why there is no tiberium, an attack by the spynx while in egypt, and cuthulhu rising from the depths of the ocean.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

I'd buy the remaster just for the new soundtrack.

It'll probably be available on YouTube later

 

[MelancholicMechanicus]

At leasr RE3 was self aware and took pride on the campiness. C&C 4 on the other hand... Well no one seems to have played that and those who did dread even remembering it.

I am a Generals kid myself. Also scary how odly prophetic it was of a Terror state waging war on people and USA and China being the premier world powers. I particularly love the Shockwave mod for Zero Hour, as it pretty much finished the content the devs were working on before EA rushed it to sale and really fleshes out the generals.

 

[Tiamat]

If I were in charge of red Alert 4, I'd charge full ahead with the crazy. The explanation is that all of the time travel has been messing with reality, resulting in psychics, super-science and all the other shenanigans.

The Allied campaign starts with a FMV of someone watching the news showing Labor has won control of the UK under an OC communist leader. Suddenly there is shaking, and you look out the window to see the UK invading the east coast. In the second mission California declares for a communist revolution and the US is now stuck in a two front war. It is quickly revealed that the Soviets fleeing the allied victory in the Red Alert 3 timeline passed through a fracture in time and landed on our moon, and began to secretly support various communists in order to prepare to take over the world. Eventually OTL allies catch up with the crazy and not-Elon-Musk builds an Orion Nuclear battleship and you invade the moon.

The Japanese Campeign follows the Japanese victory timeline in red alert 3, when suddenly they are attacked by cybernetic dinosaurs. It is Yuri from the soviet victory timeline in Red Alert 2, returned from the distant past. There are sorts of psychic shenanigans foreshadowing oncoming time-quakes, making victory bittersweet.

The Soviet campaign starts after the Soviet victory for Red Alert 1, when suddenly there is a rebellion. It is quickly revealed that the revolution is being supported by survivors from the Red Alert 2 allied victory timeline that got destroyed with Einstein's assassination. Einstein prepared a special chrono-fortress to defend against time-travel after he discovered evidence of the timeline merger in Red Alert 2. During this campaign there is a Giant Ant's mission, and the ending includes a hook for an expansion pack.

In the expansion pack, time-quakes create portals which cause each of the timelines from the base game to start fighting each-other, until they realize they need to band together in order to survive the worsening time0quakes and stabilize their respective timelines. This includes more crazy, including a very confused Scrin incursion wondering why there is no tiberium, an attack by the spynx while in egypt, and cuthulhu rising from the depths of the ocean.

And the only thing missing from a game like this would be background commentary from two very smartass robots and a guy by the name of Mike from the Satellite of Love.

I had the misfortune of playing Command and Conquer 4....it was an abomination. Don't waste your money...damn EA.

 

[Jormungandr]

And the only thing missing from a game like this would be background commentary from two very smartass robots and a guy by the name of Mike from the Satellite of Love.

I had the misfortune of playing Command and Conquer 4....it was an abomination. Don't waste your money...damn EA.

The unit designs had some good ideas behind them that could be re-implemented/redesigned, like the Cyborg Commando, but... yeah. TT was an abomination.

 

[Aaron Fox]

TT was basically EA knowing that RTS is effectively dead as a genre and tried to get into the MOBA. You've got to remember once Starcraft came onto the scene, RTS games simply started to dwindle because the various RTS devs were incredibly resistant in various QoL, gameplay, and other changes to stay relevant (for example, while various bits of FPS were being standardized, CoD was the one that codified them as a requirement).

The few good RTS games that remained -like Homeworld- only survived because they were the only games in their niche or part of the more focused niche of Real-Time Tactics (RTT).

 

[Husky_Khan]

I know what I'm gonna be playing tomorrow....

Command & Conquer Remastered - EA Official Site

Command & Conquer, the most genre defining Real Time Strategy game in history now remastered and available in stunning 4K detail.

www.ea.com

My fellow brothers and sisters, KANE LIVES!

ONE VISION, ONE PURPOSE!
THE TECHNOLOGY OF PEACE!
Peace....THROUGH POWER!

Thanks for the reminder Tiamat...

Guess what releases today... Well again anyways... But better looking.

Command & Conquer Remastered - EA Official Site

Command & Conquer, the most genre defining Real Time Strategy game in history now remastered and available in stunning 4K detail.

www.ea.com

 

[Husky_Khan]

No Strings Prd, a Youtuber who does older RTS lore videos among other things included plenty of CnC and even some Dune RTS content did a recap of some of his first impressions of the CnC Remastered in both campaign and multiplayer quickmatches.

Seems mostly positive though he said there were stuttering/optimization issues that were solved by reinstalling onto an SSD but seems hopeful that'll be patched out.

 

[Tiamat]

"He Who Controls the Past, Controls the Future...
He Who Commands the Future, Conquers the Past."

---KANE

 

[Husky_Khan]

Last weekend (September 26th 1995) was Command & Conquers 25th Birthday.

25 Years of Command & Conquer

On September 26th, 1995, after about a months worth of distribution issues, Westwood Studios shipped the original DOS version of Command & Conquer. It was based upon their 1992 strategy Dune II, but without a book/film license to keep them chained regarding what they could and could not do. A...

forums.cncnz.com

 

[Husky_Khan]

Command & Conquer Remastered is now on sale, from 19.99 to 12.99 on Steam, a humble discount of 35% off.