Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Preview

AT: One of the most difficult aspects of creating an engaging real-time strategy is making sure the AI work properly, not to mention having decent unit path-finding (which continues to be a problem in most RTS's). What's your team doing to ensure convincing behavior of enemy and friendly units?

Greg Kasavin: As you suggested, good pathfinding is essential for any good RTS game, and our approach to that particular issue was to get our most experienced, most freakishly smart engineers looking at it all throughout the development of Red Alert 3. As a result of their months of ingenious effort, we think you'll find that units in this game generally go where you tell them to.

As for the artificial intelligence in Red Alert 3, there was at least as much effort put in behind the scenes and the results are a lot more dramatic. During the solo campaign missions, you can expect for your co-commander to do a smart job of keeping pace with you, covering your back and helping you with objectives, and generally not getting in your way while being a helpful and friendly force on the battlefield. Enemy commanders are even better. You'll notice they use distinctly different tactics and will make smart, tactical decisions regularly, such as retreating their forces when they know they're outnumbered or trying to bait you into traps. At higher difficulty levels, the enemy AI gets really devious, though at the normal setting, it should behave in a very lifelike way. Maybe the best thing to be said about our AI is that it has real personality to it. You'll feel more like you're fighting with friend and foe characters rather than against the computer, both in the campaign and in skirmish mode.

AT: Could you reveal certain unique special abilities of some of the characters (besides Tanya)?

AA: Absolutely. Though since you apparently hate Tanya and don't want to hear about her special abilities, then I won't tell you anything about her. :)

Natasha, the brash commando on the Soviet side, has an ability that Generals fans might remember from Jarmen Kell, who was the GLA's iconic sniper. Using precision aiming with surprising ease, Natasha can pick off the driver of any vehicle that she encounters on the battlefield, leaving that vehicle empty and exposed for any infantry unit to walk up to it and assume control of it. Her counterpart on the Empire of the Rising Sun is a psionic schoolgirl known only by the codename of Yuriko Omega. While her abilities to pick up hapless soldiers and vehicles and crush them in midair are spectacular to behold in their own right, her special ability is utterly devastating to unprotected infantry - using nothing other than her mind, she can expel a powerful psychokinetic burst that sends nearby units flying through the air to their deaths.

AT: Any chance we'll see more characters from some of the previous games?

AA: Tanya is the only character from previous games that plays a prominent role in Red Alert 3. You're probably aware that she is played by Jenny McCarthy, who pulled off her role as a tough yet sexy commando remarkably well. At any rate, you might catch a glimpse of Dr. Albert Einstein as well, who, of course, played a huge part in the Allies' successive victories in previous Red Alert games, thanks to his experimentation with weaponizing weird and wacky technologies.

AT: From what we've heard, the game is slated for an October 2008 release. Are you sticking with that particular timeframe?

AA: Yes, unless you know something we don't... you don't, do you? Just kidding. No one could possibly know more than we do. Red Alert 3 will start hitting stores in late October.