Command and Conquer Junkie

Although it would be a little impractical to ask every single person, “what is the attraction for people who download the series”, there is no doubt there is a huge nostalgia kick for players from the original “Red Alert” but the game also offers something for jaded FPS players who are bored by other predictable games. Red Alert allows the player to use almost the entire arsenal from the Red Alert game.

“Cruise around in the Red Alert arsenal, patrolling for Soviet armor in a Longbow, or lurking under the surface as a submarine… it’s all there. That’s why I wanted to play when I first heard about it, and it got me really excited because there are so few games where infantry and vehicles can co-exist so well.

And we’re not talking just little personal transports, base-sieging Artillery is trading blows with V2 rockets that come screaming through the sky while tanks duke it out in the center, perhaps a clever Spy stealthily dispatching high-level enemy infantry while reporting their manoeuvres and stealing their units.”

Editors Choice

• Best Original Art Direction - Out of Hell
• Best Upcoming Indie Game - Overgrowth
• Best Upcoming Mod - Naruto: Naiteki Kensie
• Best Indie Game - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
• Best Multiplayer Mod - Mechwarrior: Living Legends
• Best Single Player Mod - The Nameless Mod

Players Choice

• Best Upcoming Mod - The Mortewood Plaza
• Indie Game of the Year - Natural Selection 2
• Mod of the year - MechWarrior: Living Legends

Commander, do you want to play Command & Conquer 4 on the ultimate bad-ass PC gaming rig? Yes, you do!

The fine folks at Idris (AHY-DRIS) Corporation want you to as well. In partnership with their elite technical partners, Idris Corporation has built a rare limited edition run of ultimate PC rigs to maximize your gameplay experience in C&C 4. And we’ve got our hands on one to giveaway!

To ensure this PC falls in to the “right hands”, we’ve been asked to require a “passcode activation” to enter this contest. You must enter the correct passcode to submit your entry.

Will characters from the previous game make a reappearance, besides Kane?
Kane is our only returning character, but there are references to previous CNC characters woven throughout the campaign.

Why is GDI again producing bipedal units? In the previous C&C they were mostly scratched since they considered them to costly to produce.
From a fictional perspective, we’re tackling that in our unit profiles on the CNC website. The basic backstory is that administrations change, and with that change comes a new set of priorities and incentives, leading to the return of bipedal / walker units.

From a game design perspective, it’s a bit simpler. In CNC3, we were trying to get back to the feeling of Tiberian Dawn, with an emphasis on treaded and wheeled vehicles over more science-fiction oriented designs such as walkers.

With CNC4, we had a desire to explore more of the science-fiction side of the universe, allowing us to embrace Tiberian Sun-era units such as the Mammoth Mk. II (returning as the GDI Mastodon) and to examine where other forms of battlefield technology (such as hovercraft) would be in 2077.

Keeping C&C4’s new gameplay mechanics in mind, what needed to be considered when designing new maps?

With C&C4’s new gameplay mechanics, it was no longer valid to design maps for 1v1 and follow the formula of placing natural expansion point 1, contested expansion point 2, and so on. The maps had to be bigger, better, and had to allow players freedom to choose how they want to play. We had to take a fresh approach and, unlike any other C&C title we’ve done before, the maps had to be heavily scrutinized for balance since the constant push-n-pull effect of the game can be determined by the smallest difference on the maps themselves.

In designing these maps, we had to determine ways of creatively making choke points where Offense could push through, cliff-climbing passability where players could use specific units to bypass zones, key locations for the utility of the Support Class, create tighter zones for turrets for the benefit of the Defense class, etc. Each of these Classes were weighed and measured on each map, and, players can be confident that no matter which class they are, the maps themselves will not be a detriment to their play style.

In creation of these maps, we wanted players to experience the thrill of what could happen with 4 other teammates, but also wanted 1 person to be able to make a difference. If that 1 player sneaks into enemy territory and captures an Uplink Tower / Mutant Hovel, the tide of battle can turn if a coordinated team uses that opening to deploy their Crawler or creates a massive force of the Forgotten to flank the enemy from behind.

We brought in some of our top Kane’s Wrath and Red Alert 3 e-sport players to help balance test the game and maps. How influential were they in future map designs?

The external balance team was a great resource in determining the specific characteristics of each map and their strengths/weaknesses in varying gameplay. From there, we determined the rotations for both the PVE-Ladder (player vs. computer) and the PVP-Ladder (player vs. player) from the features they highlighted on each map.

They definitely made an impact on future map design, especially in terms of providing elements to circumscribe the impact of “the middle” of the map. Though many new players consider the middle of the map to be the most important part, looking at it in a holistic view (as many RTS veterans have figured out) will make up-and-coming players realize that the key locations are actually away from the middle. Originally, the center of the map was far away from several other Points of Interest, so it seemed obvious for many teams to focus on capturing it. Now, you are no longer a minute and a half away from every other Point of Interest, so focusing your forces away from the center allows you not only to flank the enemy, but capture Forward Spawn Zones and other TCN Hubs along the way.