Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I forget what we have and haven’t said about the DRM in Command & Conquer 4, but if you’ve somehow not heard, the long-story-short is that it’s very similar to Ubisoft’s always-online horror-thing. Lose your connection and you get kicked to the menu-based curb. The difference is that there’s a persistent experience rank/unlock system, a la Modern Warfare, so it’s at least trying to use its internetiness for something other than mere restriction. My personal take is that this kind of thinking is the only hope of ever justifing an online requirement, but in this case the unlock system rips half the fun out of the game by keeping the coolest units so distant, so it’s scant justification this time around. Boo. Anyway, there’s been a spot of semi-comedy to this techno-tragedy.
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The Command & Conquer 4 multiplayer beta test will indeed be open, and it’s happening today. It’s scheduled for 9AM PST, which by my calculations is in about two hours. You’ll want to be keep an eye over here for details.

Oh, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 multiplayer beta is up too. Grab those keys where you can. We haven’t got any, obviously, because why would we want them? Eh? EH? But our chums over at Fileplay have some, so keep an eye on them too.

Want to know what C&C4 looks like in play? You’ll be wanting no longer, thanks to the rabid newshounds of VG247, who have sniffed out a five-minute video with developer commentary. I’ve posted said video below. It’s all game footage. So go take a look, and then slam your fist on the beer-swollen counter of the internet, registering your drunken demands in the comments section, before toppling backwards off your bar-stool and into the heaps of discarded, useless metaphors littering the floor below.
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Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight will be released on March 16th, which means it might just nip into our gaming consciousness before Starcraft II’s “Spring” release. The fourth game in the series is probably going to have its work cut out to face down the Blizzardian behemoth, and with all the rumours of layoffs at EA, you have to wonder about the developmental fate of this beast. The first proper game trailer explaining in-game action has just surfaced, and I’ve posted it below. It’s looking rather vehicular, with a particular emphasis on stompy romping of robots. The trailer also points a beady-eye at the RPG elements which grace C&C4 for the first time. Like Dawn of War II, it’s taking that levelling-up thing quite seriously.
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Last week I sat down Jim Vessella, one of the producers at EA LA working on next year’s Command & Conquer 4. In between having our ears blasted by someone testing the building’s fire alarm, which did admittedly add an appropriate sense of apocalypse to proceedings, we chatted about how and why the RTS genre has changed, the split between single and multiplayer strategy, and how seriously we’re really supposed to take C&C’s campy cutscenes. A couple of key facts to know if you’ve not caught any preview details on C&C4 – the traditional base-building is replaced by a mobile MCV that spits out units and turrets, depending on which of three player classes you choose. No harvesting, no building upgrades – just straight-up war, akin to Dawn of War II and/or World in Conflict. Oh, and you’ll gain persistent experience points as you play, which unlocks new units and abilities.
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Semi-surprise sequel Command & Conquer 4 (its subtitle is still TBC; there’s currently a contest for fans to submit one. I’ve submitted ‘Those little red guys and little blue guys still really don’t like each other’) is starting to drop hints about its mooted formula shake-up all over the shop. Or, at least, people are cheekily scanning and summarising magazine preview features, the distillation of which is already on the game’s Wikipedia page. I’ll be sharing some thoughts on some early code I saw in a few days, but meantime here’s some detail on where the story’s going, in the former of an FMV trailer chattered over by C&C4′s ‘lore-master’ Samuel Bass.
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This is odd. The revelation that there is to be a Command & Conquer 4 is scarcely any surprise, as EA’s rejuvenated franchise seems to be on a bit of a roll these days (bar the cancellation of FPS Tiberium). That they’re saying it will finish the Tiberium saga is the shocker – surely its silly sci-fi storyline was designed to blather away forever? A red herring, I suspect – yeah, we might finally get answers as to what bechromedomed uber-bad Kane really wants, and what all those magic crystals will ultimately do to poor Earth, but that hardly closes the door on telling more tales in that future-war universe.

For those who don’t play real-time strategy for the lore, C&C4 also promises major shake-ups to the Dune 2-derived formula it’s been based around for the last 15 years…
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