Command & Conquer: Generals Preview

I have fond memories of all night gaming sessions with three old friends of mine. The games that always gave us the most satisfaction and maximum bragging rights were always the Command and Conquer series. Battles were waged, strategies perfected, taunts were flung and egos were crushed under foot like so many spent shell casings. Many Real Time Strategy (RTS) games have come and gone since we began playing back in '94, some of those games we would anticipate until the day they were released, only to find the multiplayer experience somehow, lacking. Whenever a new C&C game hits the shelves, you could be sure that the first Friday night after the release, we would all be on a network trying to one up each other while our wives fumed at the early morning hour we would finally drag our butt's home.

Used to be peaceful neighborhood, and now look at it.

And away she goes!

The only complaint we ever really had was that with each 'new' Command & Conquer game, after a while, we were left with the opinion that while the graphics had been updated, the gameplay was pretty much still the same as always. The change in units was merely skin deep. We found we were not playing the games for months afterwards like we had with original and while it may have made our wives happy that we were home on Saturday nights, we felt that *something* was missing. That's changed with Generals. I'm warning you now: you have three months to start coming up with excuses for late nights in front of your PC, for building up credits with your wife for extended periods of time away from home and to start hiding your assets so that when she finally divorces you due to emotional abandonment, you will not be taken totally to the cleaners by the court. I have seen the next RTS multiplayer gaming obsession and it is Command & Conquer: Generals.

I was invited to attend the Multiplayer test at EA Studios in San Francisco this past week. I was both excited and apprehensive at the prospect. I had high hopes for what might be but I was also afraid of the game somehow not living up to all that I had heard and read about it so far. We have all seen the screenshots and we have heard about Generals winning RTS Game of

Show at E3 this year, yet I was still afraid that it would not have that spark needed for a great multiplayer game. As soon as we walked into the dimmed EA auditorium and saw the game being displayed on the movie theater size screen, my jaw dropped. To see the units in motion, the fighters patrolling the skies around the US base, the Global Liberation Army's missile buggies bouncing over the terrain, or the graceful arc of a TOW missile over a hill brought a tear to my jaded RTS eye. We were off to a good start! After taking my seat I began to notice other details, the rippling water, the trees that swayed and fell with a sickening crunch as a platoon of tanks rolled through them and the detailed buildings that dotted the map. The lights were turned all the way down and the presentation began. After quick introductions of the two developers on the far right side of the stage that were playing the on screen game (I had completely ignored them before because I was so focused on the action on the screen) we were let in on the first big news of the evening:

The game has a new ship date of February 11th 2003.

The delay is due to shipping conflicts with other games that EA is releasing. This actually made the development team happy as it gives them a bit more time to polish the game before it's released to the public.

The next bit of news was that EA had changed the way your General character was developed. Before today, you would choose from 3 different personalities that had their own unique skills and traits, like a Hero. After choosing your persona, as the game advanced and you gained experience through battle, you could upgrade the skills and perks your General added to your units. Initial feedback was that it was a bit confusing and seemed to muddle the gameplay. Instead, now as you gain combat experience, you will be able to "buy" upgrades for your faction. Each faction has different perks and abilities that can be purchased with these "star points" once you have obtained the correct rank. You start the game with one star point to purchase an upgrade right off the bat or you can save it for later to buy more powerful perks. Some can also be upgraded to a more powerful level as well. A detailed list of the faction perks and their costs will appear at the end of this text. The three factions include:

• The US force, specializes in high tech military hardware and gadgets.
• The Chinese war machine which relies on brute force to overwhelm others.
• The Global Liberation Army (The GLA), a terrorist force that uses a combination of low tech units, biological warfare and subterfuge to wreck havoc on the other side.

Each faction has its own distinct music, its own architecture style and a very different set of tactics and of course, each side has their own super weapon to strike terror in the hearts of their foes.

Resource management has changed for the better in Generals. Instead of patches of jewels or fields of glowing tiberium, now there are supply dumps left around the map that you must transport back to your base to generate income. In addition to these caches of supplies, you can also capture oil derricks to provide a secondary source of income. Missing from the multiplayer are the crates that littered the battlefield in all the old C&C games. Many a game in the old days had been saved when the final surviving unit picked up a crate and was rewarded with a new construction yard.

After we were introduced to the factions and their various tricks and toys, the floor was opened for questions. It was asked if EA feared a backlash from anyone offended by the way the GLA was represented and their use of terrorist tactics. The GLA produce trucks loaded with TNT that plow into buildings or other units destroying them, bearded men with explosives strapped to their chest and even scud missiles that leave a green 'Anthrax' fog behind to kill anything in the area. The developers feel that all factions are done with a certain Hollywood flair and they are not stereotyping or singling out any one group so there should not be a problem. And after playing the game for a few minutes I realized: he is right. All the factions have a certain larger than life feel to them. The US units look like something from a Tom Clancy novel with a high tech feel and voices that are a mix of Duke Nukem and a G.I. Joe cartoon character. The Chinese inspire and heal their troops with speaker towers that blast propaganda.

We were then led to a room with 20 workstations that were running Generals, ready for us to log on and play. We created new accounts on Generals Online and entered the Lobby to setup and join games. Your online account will track all the games you have played including statistics on games won, lost and for poor losers, the number of disconnects. We were told that they are going to add a filter to this screen so if someone has too many disconnects (and therefore may pull their cable when losing to bail on the game) you can avoid them all together. The system will also include a buddy list that will alert you when your friends log on, a chat client so you can message people, even if they are in a game and will keep you up to date on factions' win/loss percentage and which units have been used most in those games. This should help players modify and tweak their tactics to become better competitors and allow the developers to spot imbalances in the game sooner. It's an interesting idea and I hope they are able to fully implement it by the game's release date.

The first match I played was a 4 man game and I chose the US. I was soon building my base and cranking out units. The US ground troops include Rangers and missile troops. There is also a special unit like the commando from the original C&C game, which just like in Red Alert, you can only have one at a time. I quickly ran him into the GLA base to the North and began placing charges on their building. I did a significant amount of damage until a chemical spewing truck brought my party to a grisly halt. I decided I needed something with a bit more punch so I built a War factory, I started turning out tanks, hum-vees, and medic vehicles that heal units on the field. I then learned that each vehicle can have upgrades made to them. You can choose to have a small drone that flies around the vehicle allowing you to see further and revealing camouflaged enemy units or, my favorite, a floating gun pod that fires on enemy units for you and heals you as well. I was getting ready to roll my platoon into the GLA base when jets came screaming over my base and took out my power plant. I beat a hasty retreat to shore up my defenses. I started building patriot missile batteries and putting up a new power plant. That's when the tanks came in from the south. The battle was over quickly and I was out of the game. I was grinning the whole time though.