Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight
Game » consists of 3 releases. Released Mar 16, 2010
Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight is the conclusion of the 15-year Tiberium Saga with player progression, co-op play and live-action cinematics.
The Details On Command & Conquer 4
When it was first announced that a team at EALA was developing Command & Conquer 4 for release on PC in 2010, it felt like too much, too soon. Since the 2007 release of Command & Conquer 3, that studio has produced two full RTS games, each with its own expansion pack. I suppose I had just gotten a little RTS'd out. That's why EALA's recent visit to our office with a playable version of Command & Conquer 4 turned out to be such a pleasant surprise. The structure of the game looks like a pretty serious departure from what series fans are used to, which could shake things up in a way that appeals to new players while still offering enough of what makes C&C tick to keep the existing players on-board.
The big thing that first struck me about watching C&C4 in action is that it looks like a quicker, more nimble game than its predecessors. This game isn't about building a big base, entrenching, and sending out waves of units to secure your expansion across the map. Heck, in C&C4, you don't even really build a base. Instead, you're working with the crawler, a mobile construction unit that can build all of your other units while rolling around the battlefield. The catch is that it can only store four units while moving. So you'll have to deploy the crawler to let your units out onto the map. This means you aren't building war factories and barracks to build your combat units. Your crawler handles all of that for you. On top of that, if the crawler gets destroyed, it'll respawn, letting you continue the battle.
So without building structures and teching-up in the traditional fashion, unit selection is now handled by a class type, selected when you spawn your crawler. The offense class gets the heaviest units. The defense class gets infantry units, but can also build defensive turrets, useful for guarding locations. The support class controls the skies with its aircraft and can also buff other units with special abilities. But you won't have immediate access to the game's most powerful units. You'll have to earn them.
Command & Conquer 4's experience system is persistent across every mode in the game, from the campaign to offline skirmish matches to online play. An on-screen experience bar lets you know how close you are to the next level, and gaining levels confers benefits in the form of additional units, support powers, and other abilities. There will be multiple ways to gain experience, including the elimination of enemy units, completing objectives, and so on. It sounds like the developers are still determining whether players will have one experience level overall or one level per class.
The multiplayer gameplay in C&C4 will allow for two teams of five to face off in objective-based matches. One such mode will place a number of control points around the map, giving defensive players something to guard while offensive players head out to conquer additional control points. This sounds like it'll really take advantage of the class-based systems in place. Additionally, you'll be able to change classes between spawns, but changing classes will destroy any units you may have on the battlefield to prevent players from simultaneously controlling units from different classes.
The mysterious thing about Command & Conquer 4 seems to be the number of playable factions, but maybe I'm just reading into this. EA is only committing to two factions--GDI and Nod, naturally--but executive producer Mike Glosecki, who came by to show us the game, said that they're only confirming the two main factions "at this time." Take that how you will, I'm probably making a big deal out of nothing... right? Either way, it left me wondering about whatever happened to the Scrin, the alien race that debuted in C&C3. As Command & Conquer 4 is being billed as the conclusion of the series' main story, we'll probably be able to see all of those loose ends tied up when the game is released in 2010.
When it was first announced that a team at EALA was developing Command & Conquer 4 for release on PC in 2010, it felt like too much, too soon. Since the 2007 release of Command & Conquer 3, that studio has produced two full RTS games, each with its own expansion pack. I suppose I had just gotten a little RTS'd out. That's why EALA's recent visit to our office with a playable version of Command & Conquer 4 turned out to be such a pleasant surprise. The structure of the game looks like a pretty serious departure from what series fans are used to, which could shake things up in a way that appeals to new players while still offering enough of what makes C&C tick to keep the existing players on-board.
The big thing that first struck me about watching C&C4 in action is that it looks like a quicker, more nimble game than its predecessors. This game isn't about building a big base, entrenching, and sending out waves of units to secure your expansion across the map. Heck, in C&C4, you don't even really build a base. Instead, you're working with the crawler, a mobile construction unit that can build all of your other units while rolling around the battlefield. The catch is that it can only store four units while moving. So you'll have to deploy the crawler to let your units out onto the map. This means you aren't building war factories and barracks to build your combat units. Your crawler handles all of that for you. On top of that, if the crawler gets destroyed, it'll respawn, letting you continue the battle.
So without building structures and teching-up in the traditional fashion, unit selection is now handled by a class type, selected when you spawn your crawler. The offense class gets the heaviest units. The defense class gets infantry units, but can also build defensive turrets, useful for guarding locations. The support class controls the skies with its aircraft and can also buff other units with special abilities. But you won't have immediate access to the game's most powerful units. You'll have to earn them.
Command & Conquer 4's experience system is persistent across every mode in the game, from the campaign to offline skirmish matches to online play. An on-screen experience bar lets you know how close you are to the next level, and gaining levels confers benefits in the form of additional units, support powers, and other abilities. There will be multiple ways to gain experience, including the elimination of enemy units, completing objectives, and so on. It sounds like the developers are still determining whether players will have one experience level overall or one level per class.
The multiplayer gameplay in C&C4 will allow for two teams of five to face off in objective-based matches. One such mode will place a number of control points around the map, giving defensive players something to guard while offensive players head out to conquer additional control points. This sounds like it'll really take advantage of the class-based systems in place. Additionally, you'll be able to change classes between spawns, but changing classes will destroy any units you may have on the battlefield to prevent players from simultaneously controlling units from different classes.
The mysterious thing about Command & Conquer 4 seems to be the number of playable factions, but maybe I'm just reading into this. EA is only committing to two factions--GDI and Nod, naturally--but executive producer Mike Glosecki, who came by to show us the game, said that they're only confirming the two main factions "at this time." Take that how you will, I'm probably making a big deal out of nothing... right? Either way, it left me wondering about whatever happened to the Scrin, the alien race that debuted in C&C3. As Command & Conquer 4 is being billed as the conclusion of the series' main story, we'll probably be able to see all of those loose ends tied up when the game is released in 2010.
Wtf. Come on. I going to sound like an old turd but EA has really fucked up this once awe-inspiring franchise. They're trying to cram in Company of Heroes/Dawn of War's style while trying to please the old fans but really, they just ruined it all together. Ugh. This just pisses me off.
" Wtf. Come on. I going to sound like an old turd but EA has really fucked up this once awe-inspiring franchise. They're trying to cram in Company of Heroes/Dawn of War's style while trying to please the old fans but really, they just ruined it all together. Ugh. This just pisses me off. "True, true.
Seems to me more like a World in Conflict style game, 4 classes to fight as each with different units and abilities that rely on each other to function effectively. Think I'd rather have more World in Conflict tho 2bh.
Weird how last week they were talking about NOD and GDI forging an alliance to save the world and this week their releasing screenshots of them fighting. Not like I actually expected this to be a damn greenpeace clean up the planet game or something.
Well, it doesn't seem you've played every C&C, ever, like me. This series needs a goddamn reboot, and I'm glad they did it. RA3 is great and awesome but it does feel a bit old really, even though they did alot of new stuff there too. C&C3 was just Generals in a new costume, which was fine but didn't exactly entice the mind.
I liked DoW and CoH for their gameplay and unique focus on units, upgrades and levelling system, special abilities, tactical cover, etc. I like C&C for its base building, teching, turtling, resource mining, massing, big-ass superweapons and units. That's what C&C is – or used to be, at least.
From your limited description of the game mechanics, it's really just sucked out my enthusiasm for the game big-time. It may end up being a good, or even great, game, but it's not really the type of RTS I'd want C&C to be.
That's just an initial reaction, anyway. Maybe the idea will grow on me. At the moment, though, count me unimpressed. :(
Another game for the 'modern generation' read people that all have attention defecit disorder. What happened to RTS games being about building a base and making strategic decisions? These days you need the reflexes of an FPS guy and the multi-tasking of an air traffic controller. Each unit has to have a billion different skills you need to micro. Soon you'll need to manually wipe their butt before a battle and babysit them so they don't kill themselves because you didn't touch them for 5 seconds. It used to be you could sit back and enjoy a nice little mind battle with a friend. Now it's rushing after 1min of gameplay and constant adrenaline pumping and everything is over after 5min as if you were playing Quake 3.
I blame the Zerg!
For me CnC3 and RA3 were the last RTS warriors amongst a sea of action games masquerading as RTS *cough*DoW2, WiC*cough*. But now, they have to jump on the band wagon.
I'm still open to this game, but instead of leaping blindly into this game as i did with previous ones. I shall tread carefully as not to crack my skull on the rocks of dumbed down RTSs.
" Well, it doesn't seem you've played every C&C, ever, like me. This series needs a goddamn reboot, and I'm glad they did it. RA3 is great and awesome but it does feel a bit old really, even though they did alot of new stuff there too. C&C3 was just Generals in a new costume, which was fine but didn't exactly entice the mind. "I think this man has hit the nail squarely on the head. Honestly, the series has been doing the same thing for the last 14 years, and despite how much I love the series, it needs a bit of a shake up.
" Worst thing about this is that the base RESPAWNS. One of the main tactics of CnC and RA is to destroy their MCV, then cranes, then war factories. But this time it's ok because EA is here to cater to the casual gamers! YAY! Don't worry if your base blows up, you get a new one! "It can't be how it appears. I have a hard time believing that blowing up an enemy's MCV won't effectively end the game.
I like the idea of the "Mobile base" , for lack of a better term. It seems like a natural evolution of the universe. SInce Tiberium is taking over the world people won't want to set up expensive military bases in areas where the "green death" is growing. So now instead of just the MCV moving out when Tiberium gets too close the whole base just walks out of the area. Maybe I'm reading too much into this but I like the way this sounds.
" Another game for the 'modern generation' read people that all have attention defecit disorder. What happened to RTS games being about building a base and making strategic decisions? These days you need the reflexes of an FPS guy and the multi-tasking of an air traffic controller. Each unit has to have a billion different skills you need to micro. Soon you'll need to manually wipe their butt before a battle and babysit them so they don't kill themselves because you didn't touch them for 5 seconds. It used to be you could sit back and enjoy a nice little mind battle with a friend. Now it's rushing after 1min of gameplay and constant adrenaline pumping and everything is over after 5min as if you were playing Quake 3. I blame the Zerg! "Wholeheartedly agree. I loved Tiberian Sun and RA2, the C&C games I grew up with. Hell, I loved supreme commander because even though to be good you needed to micro the hell out of it, I just liked building a giant goddamn army and then nuking the shit out of an enemy. It was FUN, dammit, not some giant test of skill like every game needs to be these days. I want a game that I can play in a laid back manner against computers or friends, none of this anonymous tournament scene bullshit that C&C has been about since 3.
" Another game for the 'modern generation' read people that all have attention defecit disorder. What happened to RTS games being about building a base and making strategic decisions? These days you need the reflexes of an FPS guy and the multi-tasking of an air traffic controller. Each unit has to have a billion different skills you need to micro. Soon you'll need to manually wipe their butt before a battle and babysit them so they don't kill themselves because you didn't touch them for 5 seconds. It used to be you could sit back and enjoy a nice little mind battle with a friend. Now it's rushing after 1min of gameplay and constant adrenaline pumping and everything is over after 5min as if you were playing Quake 3. I blame the Zerg! "don't even try to blame zerg
seems like they're missing the point. people like c&c because they like playing that type of game. If they want to build a dawn of war 2 using the C&C name, it should at least be treated as a spinoff. not this abomination of a sequel. i personally have always liked the base building aspect of C&C ever since i played the 1st one in DOS way back when, sucks to see a series like love do stuff like this. To be honest, I barely had enough time to get tired of C&C3 before red alert 3 came along so this is a definite non-buy for me.
Sounds cool. Despite what many people say, the RTS genre certainly needs a breath of fresh air (since every single RTS since 1998 has used the StarCraft model)
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