Hurricane Desert is a two player skirmish map that reveals how this war has spread to the farthest reaches of the Earth. Set in a desert, this asymmetrical battlefield still offers balanced and competitive play. Huge rock formations, elegant cliffsides, and a lone water source offer endless tactical possibilities. This desert is anything but dull.

See more media here. We also have a new piece of "Forgotten Fiction"–our series of story artifacts set in the time period just before the mod picks up. This one is called "The Code of the Open Hand" and is a GDI intelligence report. You can read it here and can learn more about our story–including the other Forgotten Fictions–here.

Related posts

• No related posts.

Chickendippers: Can we expect to see any familiar C&C units up-close and personal?
derek328: BF2142 and C&C3 are very similar in many ways, so players can definitely feel resemblances between units, like EU’s Tiger and GDI’s Predator tanks. Vehicles aside, infantry units will play a much bigger role in CNC2142 – they will have a clear selection of upgrades available from BF2142, ranging from motion mines to RDX explosives. With a well coordinated plan, expect to see these soldiers of the future wreck havoc!

You can read the full thing here. It’s certainly a slow time in the C&C community, but high-quality mods are keeping us all afloat until the next C&C game is announced.

Related posts

• No related posts.

For those looking for a change of base from the desolate settings of the mod’s Red Zones, look no further. GDI Space Command showcases the hub of GDI’s extraplanetary operations, a site of tremendous strategical importance. Intricate levels of detail will make you appreciate the surroundings, but don’t take your eyes off the battle for too long in this combat-heavy map.

Similar to some of the darkest missions from the campaign, Unfriendly Skies takes place in a battlefield where Mother Nature herself is also an obstacle. Devastating and unpredictable Ion Storms sweep the terrain, confronting all involved and demonstrating that in this war, even the quietest moments can quickly turn deadly.

 For those who like long battles, Alpine Valleys is an excellent choice. The map features a realistic day-night cycle, as well as ample opportunities for explosive combat between all four factions.

You can see more screenshots from these maps and the rest of the mod on our media page.

One other bit of news: the current release date we are aiming for is sometime in mid-September. We’ve made a great deal of progress with the mod, and I can say we’re probably well over 90% done, but it’s this last push that will make this mod all it can be, and we’re going to give it everything we’ve got. Thanks for your patience, and we hope it’s worth the wait. If you think you can help us get there faster, fill out a beta tester application.

Related posts

• No related posts.

Mission 4 is an immense yet beautiful challenge. You must defeat both Nod and GDI forces and clear the coastline, though you have a variety of ways to accomplish this task. The Red Zone itself poses its own challenges, however, as deadly ion storms, variable lighting, and intricate terrain confront all involved. Here are three screens (five more are available in the moddb image gallery or on our media page):

Mission 5 is a very challenging mission that features an intense fourway battle between GDI, Nod, the Scrin, and The Forgotten with an intriguing web of uncertain alliances. Set in an expansive map around the ruin of a mostly-destroyed city, players will need to use every aspect of their forces and strategies to meet with success. Here are three images (again, more available in the moddb image gallery or on our media page):

We’re making great progress on the mod, and we’re looking to add a few beta testers. If you think you can provide high-quality feedback, fill out a Beta Application now!

Related posts

• No related posts.

CNCSaga.de has interviewed Greg Black, the Lead Balance Designer for C&C 3 and Red Alert 3 about his depature from EA, C&C, and the process of making games there. It’s a great read, and here’s a bit of it: 

CNCSaga.de: In the past, when you have worked for EALA you have developed some Command & Conquer titles like Tiberium Wars or Red Alert 3. How do you appraise these titles on your own view? What do you think about them? What was good?
Greg Black: This is a somewhat tricky thing for me to answer. In truth I was probably the harshest critic of our games on the EALA RTS team. I got started with C&C back in ‘95 and was instantly hooked. I loved the story, loved the gameplay, loved the setting, and loved Kane (in a totally platonic way). For me C&C was something of a sacred game and I desperately wanted to do the series justice with all the C&C games I worked on. Unfortunately although we had a very talented team of passionate gamers, EA simply would not give us the time we felt we needed to make a truly great C&C game. In the case of C&C:3 our development cycle was something like 11 months. Compare that to Blizzard or Relic who was spending 3-6 years on their RTS titles. Our longest development cycle was 18 months on RA3, but at that time the team was split in half and added another platform (PS3), so the extra dev time was kind of a wash. EA simply needed us to keep cranking out games to keep the LA studio afloat while many its other teams floundered. So to answer your question I was not happy with how C&C3 or RA3 turned out, our games were always rushed, our engine technology aged and degraded over the years, our path finding was horrible, our online implementations were embarrassing, and ultimately our games did not, in my view, live up to the orginal C&C, or RA2, or Generals (which I also worked on but in a very lowly capacity).

I do however have to give credit to the development team. Given the circumstances under which we were making these games, (crappy tech, super compressed schedules) I think what we were able to ship was quite impressive. Unfortunately the gamer who just spent $50 on our games doesn’t have any clue how much time we had to spend on them or what the internal politics of EA were at the time, they can only see what is in the box.

CNCSaga.de: What do you think about Command&Conquer 4? Many people are saying C&C 4 wouldn’t be a C&C. EA wouldn’t have made big efforts. But you are a C&C-expert. What do you think about this?
Greg Black: It’s unfair of me to pass judgement on C&C4 as I did not work on it nor have I played the final game. I was however at the studio during much of C&C4’s development and have played pre-release builds. The important thing to know is that C&C4 was never meant to be a true Tiberium universe canonical game, but rather an experiment in online play. It originally started as out an Asian market online-only version of C&C 3. At some point the company executives decided it made the most business sense to add a single player campaign, call it C&C4, and put it in a box. The team of course protested this change in direction but the decision stood. The team did what they could to make a good game given the realities inside EA, but ultimately it was the product of a dysfunctional corporate culture.

Full thing here.

Related posts

• No related posts.

The English version of the contest details can be found here – check it out.

Related posts

• No related posts.

For those who prefer English, we have the Tunnel Networks to explain. For The Forgotten, they work slightly differently than in past C&C games; each tunnel network node is activated by a support power, and must be placed within a certain distance of another node or of the Construction Yard. The tunnels allow The Forgotten to move up to three units at any one time across the map at high speed. They were created by Andy Littleton and Tsumetai. We also have the Tiberium Silo, which stores the Tiberium collected by The Forgotten on the battlefield.

For those who prefer the universal language of pictures, here you go, fresh shots of a Forgotten base, the tunnel network, the Silo, and an up-close screen of the Sidewinder (as always, you can see more on our media page:

Related posts

• No related posts.

"My friends, my community, my 2^nd family,

I’ve been your C&C Community Manager for over 6 years, especially if you consider my days with the BFME franchise. I was brought in to EA as a contract marketing assistant on BFME1 back in February 2004, and soon found myself building the BFME community (I guess that was my destiny!). About 1 year in almost to the day, shortly after BFME1 shipped, the torch of being the official C&C CM was bestowed upon me by the dev team (from one great legendary Delphi), that was February 2005. And today, almost 6 years later, I sit here in front of my computer screen, still your official C&C Community Manager for one last moment, as honored and humbled as ever to have kept this role for so long. It’s become an extreme passion, a “second life”, and a place I know I can always find some of my closest friends. You guys have truly been my 2^nd family, and you guys are the reason this C&C franchise has lived on for 15 years strong and will continue, Commander!

 

As cheesy as it may sound, I’m just a sentimental APOC if you never knew, and it may just come from how emotionally tied I have been to this community, it absolutely breaks my heart to tell you today, I will be stepping down as your C&C Community Manager and leaving EA after what has been one helluva rollercoaster ride. Today is my last official day here at EALA.

 

You need to know this was *not EA’s decision*, this was 100% my own. I was not laid off, not fired, not tortured by Kane (or Joe Kucan), not part of a reduction in force, and certainly not forced out or given motivational reasons to leave. In fact, my bosses and team all provided me reasons to stay with heartfelt content, while also understanding at this stage in my career and life, doing what is best for me and my family is ultimately the right path to choose.

 

I sincerely hope my decision does not impact negatively on you, or the C&C franchise. I have a replacement whom I’d like to introduce, Per “Goodman” Bonomi, he also manages the BF Heroes, Lord of Ultima and BattleForge communities with the help of his excellent Play4Free Community Team. He’ll be in touch and on the boards very soon. He is an extremely passionate C&C fan, and someone I know can keep the ship afloat in my absence, and especially at a time when the dev team is revamping the franchise. At this stage, what’s important to me is for you to have someone you can still connect with. Things are going to be slow for awhile, but I know we’ll be leveraging the community as much as possible until our dev team is ready to pull the curtains off the future, and well beyond.

 

I want nothing more than the best for this franchise, and I don’t want my absence to invoke anything negative in the community. It was a personal choice, a leap of faith, and one that was extremely difficult when considering all the factors, most notably, my community family.

 

I’ll be staying in the gaming industry in LA. You can find me on Facebook and in a few other places soon once I rise again!

 

I’m always long winded at saying goodbyes, just who I am. Thank you C&C Community for being true friends and giving me the passion and energy to be your C&C Community Manager for such an eternity! I hope this is not goodbye, but just an update on life, as one close friend would always give to another.

 

Every day is community day,

Aaron “APOC” Kaufman"

 

I’d like to personally thank Aaron for his hard work over the last six years. In no small part, he helped sustain the franchise, and bring things like the Mod SDK to the community. He has also been gracious to fans, and both Mike and I have been able to meet him when C&C Labs was invited to Los Angeles for C&C 3 and RA3 events. I’ll remember his passion for showcasing the community’s creativity–either on the website or in person, as when he gave C&C Labs and other mod teams a chance to personally address the entire C&C development staff. Thanks for all your hard work Aaron, and best of luck in the future.

Related posts

• No related posts.