Let us take a trip back in time, but not too far back. Let’s look back on the year 2009, what were the highs and what were the lows. How did the year 2009 compare to 2008 in terms of Command & Conquer and its always volatile community. A lot has happened this year and covering it all in this review would take weeks. This is review is covering selected highlights and key news items. So here we go, the past 12 months in the Command & Conquer community!
JANUARY
We kicked off the new year with a huge announcement, another C&C game. On the 9th of January Red Alert 3: Uprising was announced. This was the one and only expansion for Red Alert 3 that was released back in October 2008. Reaction was mixed when news of the announcement went live around the community. Many fans were concerned about EALA’s plans that turned out to be a digital download only. What this meant was, if you wanted to purchase Red Alert 3: Uprising you had to download it. There would be no retail release, no DVD version.
Also early in the month of January, the Renegade X team began teasing us with a gameplay trailer that was nothing short of impressive. This trailer would set in month an almost 10 month wait before the community would get their hands on this total conversion mod for Unreal Tournament 3.
Another interesting piece news from the first month of 2009 was the announcement that Red Alert 3 was being nominated for a Writers Guild Award, in the best video game writing of 2008 category. This surprised many people simply because of how wacky and corny Red Alert 3’s storyline was. In the end it didn’t win the award, that went to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. But it just an honour to be nominated right?
Hot on the heels of the Red Alert 3: Uprising announcement was the news of the first two actors who be joining actors from Red Alert 3. They were Holly Valance, most well known as an Australian singer/actress. And Malcolm McDowell, who has appeared in numerous television series and movies.
The rest of January continued with plenty of Red Alert 3 coverage including some much needed patches. And towards the end the month, EA made an unexpected announcement. It was Red Alert 3 for the Playstation 3. Dubbed the “Ultimate Edition”. This news seemingly came out of nowhere because after the release of the PC and Xbox 360 versions in October 2008, the Playstation 3 version appeared to be dead and buried.
By the end of the month we had found out who else would be starring in the Red Alert 3: Uprising cast. And it was clear EA had spared no expense with the likes of 16-time world heavyweight wrestling champion, Ric Flair, as Commander Hill, Jamie Chung, (Dragonball Evolution), Malcolm McDowell (Heroes, Clockwork Orange, Wing Commander), Jodi Lyn O’Keefe (Prison Break), Holly Valance (Neighbours) and returning from Red Alert 3 were Gemma Atkinson and Ivana Milicevic.
FEBRUARY
During February, EA’s marketing machine was in full gear with start of the sometimes funny Flair Versus Bear video series. In these short videos the former WWE wrestler, Ric Flair, would take on the challenges of a Soviet bear. The last of the Flair Versus Bear instalments was very underwhelming to say the least, it was just a simple wrestling match between Flair and the Bear. It was kind of disappointing because we all expect something more interesting and hell of a lot funnier.
On the CNCNZ.com side of thing. The site, or more specifically, the forums received some upgrades. It was decided that our massive downloads section would be integrated into our forums using and add-on that is designed to make things easier for all involved. This would be the beginning of a month of fighting and many attempts trying to make it work. In the end it did not work and it was eventually removed. Our downloads section was then recoded, rebuilt and merged back into the main site.
As we began learning more and more about Red Alert 3: Uprising, such as some the unique units like the Empire of the Rising Sun’s Giga-Fortress and the Allies Cryo Legionnaire. Videos that featured previews of Red Alert 3: Uprising’s Commanders Challenge began appearing on the Official C&C Site. Clearly EA were hyping the Commanders Challenge as one of Uprising’s biggest selling points.
By the middle of the month there was more Uprising promotion. These were special videos featuring Valentine’s Day messages from the ladies of Red Alert 3: Uprising and Commander Hill (Ric Flair).
February also saw the release of the very popular Red Alert 3 Map Generator. An interesting fact, this was something that EALA had deemed impossible to do. But once again the community changed that. Now fans could side step the steep learning curve of getting to grips with the Worldbuilder and create simple maps for Red Alert 3 with ease.
Red Alert 3 was patched to version 1.07 during February. This was a much needed update to correct some bugs and exploits that were lingering since its retail debut. Many mods started to appear in the news more frequently as well. Heavyweight mods such as Tiberian Dawn, Asylum, Mideast Crisis 2 and Renegade X all featured massive updates and in some cases playable versions were released like Mideast Crisis 2.
And speaking of things being released. As a part of the sixth anniversary of Command & Conquer Generals in February, EALA released Black Sheep – The Lost Mission of C&C Generals. Never before seen and a controversial Global Liberation Army mission that was not included in the game’s original 2003 release. Apparently it had been hidden away in a secret location at EALA for the past six years.
MARCH
Early in March the final results for Mod DB’s 2008 Mod of the Year Awards were finally made available, yes you read that right, it’s an almost 3-4 month process for these big mod awards. And it was great to see Command & Conquer modding was front and centre with the likes of Renegade X and Mideast Crisis 2 capturing the third and fourth places respectively in the Best Upcoming Mod category. Meanwhile Red Alert 2: Apocalypse Rising placed third in the Best Indie Game category. This was after 114000 votes were cast and counted.
On the 12th of March Red Alert 3: Uprising was officially released and made available for download from various online stores like the EA Store and Direct 2 Drive. The whole download process was a new thing to many people. Some were daunted by the massive 5 GB download that awaited them. Many people reported problems when purchasing via the EA Store. Eventually all the problems were resolved. To this day people are still wondering when Uprising will made available as retail package on store shelves. Clearly that’s never going to happen now.
Many fan sites were giving away download codes to get a free copy of Uprising. Including CNCNZ.com. Our contest asked fans to submit something telling us why they deserve to win a Red Alert 3: Uprising download code. Most importantly it needed to be funny, it needed to make us laugh. Unfortunately people missed the point entirely and in the end the downloads codes were awarded to people who showed the most effort.
Towards the end of March EA announced its mobile gaming range that would be debuting throughout 2009. One of these games was to be a Command & Conquer game. At the time that was all the information we had. More on what this game turned about be is covered further in this review.
By the middle of March I felt it was time refresh the site just a bit. On the 17th of March our new layout went live. Still sporting the famous blue and gold colours, because everyone likes the traditional blue style but with a key change. A fixed width design to fit widescreen resolutions. This also introduced our new Command & Conquer 365 theme. Command & Conquer 365 almost became the new name and identity for CNCNZ.com but those plans were dropped after I decided it would be better to keep our CNCNZ.com name going, a name that has been around for over a decade. So the Command & Conquer 365 name was reworked, changed around and eventually became the theme for our news coverage. Command & Conquer 365 is what we do. Command & Conquer news coverage all year long for 365 days!
Late in March CNCNZ.com jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. From this point on we began keeping our Twitter followers updated with the latest C&C news on a daily basis. This move proved to a winner for CNCNZ.com, despite a poll we ran asking if people were interested in it at all. Each time a news item is linked to, posted via Twitter, it gets around 100 views in a matter of minutes. Plus it was all about embracing new technology to spread the Command & Conquer news to new fans.
APRIL
April began with news of another patch for Red Alert 3. This was patch 1.10. It was simply a hot fix patch to correct a network online issue preventing users with no internet connection from accessing the game. Also on released for Red Alert 3 was the long awaited Red Alert 3 Mod SDK. Opening the door for the modding community to get creative and showcase their own mods. Various add-ons and art source packs were also made available to assist both the beginner modders and advanced modders.
The usual April Fools jokes appeared. The most notable prank was the profile for the “Mammoth Tank” being added to Red Alert 3. This was a joke of course but many people were fooled into thinking it was actually going to be included in the game at some point. Modders would get the chance to use it though.
Early in April we reviewed Frank Klepacki’s latest solo album, “Infiltrator”. This was some of Frank’s finest work to date on this CD. It was a return to the style of the original Red Alert era, and perhaps even some Red Alert 2 memories as well. Any Command & Conquer fan that digs the retro Command & Conquer soundtracks would enjoy “Infiltrator”. Frank was nice enough to personally send me a free autographed copy as well.
The month rolled on, and new life was given to an old C&C game. And by old I mean the original C&C that started it all. Nyerguds released v1.06b of his Unofficial Command & Conquer 95 Patch. This patch was compatible with both The First Decade and the CD version of C&C95. That includes the C&C95 ISOs which EA has released. Once the patch is installed on a First Decade installation, it automatically enabled the game’s ini-controlled no-CD mode. The patch even including several program bug fixes, graphics updates, mission fixes and new features, like the advanced options in conquer.ini, and a 1024×768 high resolution mode accessible through CCSetup.exe.
April also gave us our first hints at the next Command & Conquer game. As rumours and speculation began to surface. We found out about something called “C&C Arena”, was this Command & Conquer 4? Was it something completely different? There were even rumours suggesting it may be an MMORTS game.
In a logical move, download sections for both Tiberium and Red Alert were added to the Official C&C Site. Finally the official source for C&C had links to all the patches, tools and various add-ons for C&C all centralised in one location. A Generals section was mentioned but was never added.
Throughout April the Commanders Challenge Speed Corner series of articles started appearing on the Official C&C Site. Because let’s face it, some of those Uprising Commanders Challenge missions were hard and these articles helped people find the best ways to best these challenges.
And to close out the month, Command & Conquer, the classic RTS, that started it all way back in 1995 was inducted to IGN’s Videogame Hall of Fame. And deservedly so!
MAY
May started with new contest. APOC launched the Save Yuriko Contest on the Official C&C Site. Prizes included a Logitech Z-5500 surround sound speaker system, Logitech PS3 Wireless controllers and headsets, Red Alert 3: Uprising for PC, Red Alert 3: Ultimate Edition for PS3, Red Alert 3 for MAC, and exclusive rare Yuriko t-shirts.
Many mods started showcasing their work to the community. We got our first look at The Red Alert mod for Red Alert 3 from CNC Labs, C&C 3: The Forgotten, another mod from CNC Labs, released a new trailer featuring mostly combat footage, it showed off all of the infantry in the mod. And then something completely different. Derelict Studios announced that the TAKTICS mod would be making the jump to Red Alert 3. The Awakened Kingdom: The Initial Chaotic Strike or TAKTICS for short is set in the Mario universe. It introduces a brand new story, three new and completely different factions, new infantry and vehicles to crush your enemies with, new buildings to create your methods of destruction and, of course, new terrain to play in.
Since we were already on Twitter we decided to give CNCNZ.com a presence on Facebook as well. You could now become a fan on our Facebook page and keep up with the news.
Tiberian Dawn for Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars was another mod we followed, in May they impressed everyone with their gameplay trailer. And not be out down by anyone, the Renegade X team gave a us an up close and personal look at the Brotherhood of Nod in their mod.
With all the rumours about the next C&C floating around we ran a poll on CNCNZ.com during May that asked what everyone thought the next C&C game would be. Was it C&C 4, maybe another Red Alert game, would EA dare make another Generals, or perhaps it would be something completely different like a C&C FPS or MMORPG. In the end everyone was expecting an announcement for Generals 2. How wrong would they be?
At the end of the month RA3boards.com was opened. With this new site you could monitor your Red Alert 3 statistics and match history. Use it to view detailed statistics and create custom leader boards, search for RA3 players, track detailed stats and full match history, view detailed win/loss information and per-map performance breakdown and create and customize leader boards for clans or your friends.
The last thing we featured in May was a different approach to our monthly Roundtable Discussions. For the first time ever control over the questions was put into the hands of the fans, our core veteran team of panellists have did their best to answer questions covering EA’s post release support, famous names in the games, C&C on the Wii, Generals 2 speculation, Art of C&C book, Improving special editions of future C&C games.
JUNE
June began with the news about Red Alert for iPhone being confirmed. It was the first Command & Conquer game to appear on the iPhone. Around the same time we also learned that we would not be seeing any major Command & Conquer announcements concerning the future of the franchise at E3.
Our friends at Planet C&C celebrated their 10th birthday, it joined other long running fan sites like CNC Den, RA Den and of course our own CNCNZ.com as a 10 year veteran. All of these sites have been through it all this past decade but Planet C&C was the first site to begin its life covering all the C&C games.
APOC’s army upgraded with the arrival of 2POC as the C&C Co-Community Manager. He is another point of contact for the community.
Another new site opened its doors to the community during June. TheGunrun launched CNC-Live.com. A broadcasting website dedicated to bring you the best in live C&C coverage. It also features a completely interactive chat room for spectators to comment on the matches, as well as the TheGunrun’s personal commentary and music. It has a blog to archive personal VODs and post dates to future broadcasts. If there is a tournament that involves C&C it is going to be broadcasted live on CNC-Live.com!
TheGunrun was also busy on the modding scene. June saw the release of his C&C Retarded: Red Cocaine mod for Red Alert 3. A mod that adds a “Ridonkulous” twist to the game play of Red Alert 3, adding new BAMF Units and Structures and making your Red Alert 3 dreams come true. So many uncountable and awesome changes becomes one hell of an epic game of C&C. The C&C Retarded Mod Series has been known as the De facto mod for achieving the utmost fun in Command and Conquer.
We also found out in June that Sean Decker, formerly a producer who worked on C&C Renegade at Westwood and who was the General Manager of DICE, was named the new General Manager of EA Los Angeles. He took over from Mike Verdu who moved on to new endeavours in the area of social gaming.
June once again fuelled the Command & Conquer 4 rumours, as a survey that hinted at Command & Conquer 4 was the next game. This survey was sent out to an unknown number of C&C fans, it strongly suggested that the next C&C (possibly C&C 4) could be an “RPG-like player progression, persistent in both single player and Multiplayer modes, co-op play, and new stylized, live-action cinematics”. This survey later went on to say that this game could possibly be an “epic conclusion to the 15-year series”. It then asked fans if they found the possibility of a conclusion to C&C appealing. The survey then continued with more questions that covers what fans would like to see in future C&C games.
Another month meant another patch for Red Alert 3. Patch number 11 was the biggest one to date. Not only did it correct several exploits and critical bugs, improve balance with an array of specific fine tuning changes to each faction. It also added two free maps from Red Alert 3: Uprising.
JULY
On the very first day in July, the third release of Blitzkrieg II: The Finest Hour was made available. “After a development that outlasted the real World War 2”, this huge total conversion mod for C&C Generals offered more than 50 units per side, a grand total of 20 missions, and never before seen special powers such as Gliders and controllable Super Weapons. From the 1939 lightning fast Blitzkrieg into Poland, towards Britain’s Finest Hour and Germany’s Darkest Hour in 1945.
July saw changes to the hosting line up for BattleCast Primetime, with Command & Conquer TV and BattleCast Primetime creator David Silverman leaving EALA. We even ran a quick poll to see who the fans wanted to see join Raj Joshi as a co-host. Everyone voted for APOC to take the spot.
After a couple months guessing and speculating about the next Command & Conquer game. And despite EA’s UK PR team jumping the gun. Command & Conquer 4 was officially announced on the 10th of July. The story of Command & Conquer 4 takes place after the events of the critically acclaimed Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars.
The year is 2062 and humanity is at the brink of extinction. With only six years left until the mysterious crystalline structure Tiberium renders the earth entirely uninhabitable, the two opposing factions – Global Defense Initiative (GDI) and the Brotherhood of Nod – inevitably find themselves in desperation for the same cause: to stop Tiberium from extinguishing mankind. The unthinkable becomes reality and Nod’s enigmatic leader Kane takes off for GDI headquarters. What is Kane planning in the heart of his enemies’ base? Command & Conquer 4 draws the epic conclusion to the beloved Tiberium universe, where fans will learn the fate of Earth, Nod, Tiberium, GDI and most importantly, Kane’s motivations behind his decade-long plan.
And believe or not. We got another patch for Red Alert 3 in July. Patch version 1.12 was not a big game changing patch like 1.11 was. This patch was to fix the nasty balance exploit error with the Allied Assault Destroyer. This would be the latest patch that Red Alert 3 would receive.
It was also revealed in July that Louis Castle, who was influential in the development of many games in the Command & Conquer franchise and who co-founded Westwood Studios with Brett Sperry in 1985 was leaving his position at Electronic Arts to head up a new position as the CEO of GarageGames’ InstantAction.
With the announcement of Command & Conquer 4 there was, as expected, a flood of news concerning the new game. This included the first ever debut trailer that sets up the story. Even though it was early days, it was already confirmed that James Hannigan and Timothy Wynn, who worked on the Red Alert 3 soundtrack, would be joined by composer Jason Graves (Dead Space) as the team responsible for the Command & Conquer 4 soundtrack. Unlike Red Alert 3, veteran C&C composer, Frank Klepacki, would not be working on Command & Conquer 4.
In July it was time to have another contest on CNCNZ.com and give away more free copies of Red Alert 3: Uprising in our Second Chance to Score the Game for Free contest. Looking to promote our Twitter feed, this contest was kept very simple. Follow CNCNZ.com on Twitter and “Retweeting” a short message would put fans into the random the draw to score a copy of the game.
BattleCast Primetime 2.0 went live in late July. With a brand new look, new opening graphics and new theme music by veteran C&C composer, Frank Klepacki, it a was fresh start. Raj Joshi was the new lead host and in this first instalment of BattleCast Primetime 2.0 he was joined by Joe Kucan for the whole show.
To close out the month. The Renegade X team once again teased us all with their Summer 2009 Trailer. Showing of more gameplay than ever before. I personally think the Renegade X team won even more fans and followers with the release of this trailer.
AUGUST
August was of course dominated by Command & Conquer 4 news. But there still more Red Alert 3 coverage as EA announced Red Alert 3: Commander’s Challenge would be making its way to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The Commander’s Challenge was previously introduced in the PC exclusive, Red Alert 3: Uprising, Commander’s Challenge is different compared to Uprising. Commander’s Challenge offered 50 intense challenges against a set of nine different commanders while Uprising on the PC had the same game mode, plus the mini campaigns for the Soviets, Allies, Empire of the Rising Sun and Yuriko.
In early August we were treated to a “Director’s Cut” version of the debut trailer for Command & Conquer 4. What is the Messiah’s ploy in aligning with GDI? What is the significance of the Tacitus? Why is Manchester covered in Tiberium?!? Sam Bass commentates and offered insight to various aspects of the debut trailer.
On August 21st to August 23rd a special event took place in Cologne, Germany. It was the largest the community summit ever called C&C CommandCOM 2009. Coinciding with the Gamescom Convention. The C&C team from EALA was be there along with many representatives from C&C fan sites. And yes so was CNCNZ.com. We sent Koen to this mega event where he got to play test Command & Conquer 4, attend the main Gamescom show. Meet Joe Kucan and more. The full CommandCOM trip report can be found here if you want a recap of that. Koen took advantage of the CNCNZ.com Twitter feed and posted live updates and photos directly from CommandCOM.
During CommandCOM, Tiberian Twilight was revealed as Command & Conquer 4’s subtitle. The Tiberian Twilight name has been a name that has circulated around the community for many years now, and it’s great to see that its finally going to be officially used. We secured this short move of the big reveal.
To end the month, the Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight box was posted as nice hi-res art. The box design matches the previous games like Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars and Kane’s Wrath.
SEPTEMBER
The Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight news just kept on coming for the entire month of September. With the usual assortment of previews, Q&A’s, screen shots. Even video interviews with the likes of APOC, Joe Kucan and Mike Glosecki. So it was a busy month but there were two other news items stick out the most….
At the beginning of the month we took a moment to mark the 14th anniversary since the release of the original and all time classic Command & Conquer. Arguably this is the game that started the RTS genre and made it so popular throughout the late 1990’s and of course this past decade.
And then there was the news about the new EALA General Manager, Sean Decker. In an article posted at GamesIndustry.biz he stated that “Right now the majority of our players play single player, but when they’re done with the game about 40 per cent go on and play online”. This news item fuelled a lot of discussion. While we never really confirmed how they came up with this figure it certainly painted a clearer picture of what EALA are attempting to achieve with Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight. Bridge the gap between single player and multiplayer.
Red Alert 3 Commander’s Challenge was finally made available to Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 gamers during September. Finally the console players could get their hands on at least a part of Red Alert 3: Uprising that PC gamers had been enjoying for many months already.
For the majority of the month, fans were given the opportunity to name two The Forgotten units in Command & Conquer 4. Contests were held to find these names. First the Forgotten Gorilla was officially renamed as the “Ironback”. In the second contest, the Forgotten Mutant Bus was given the name “Scrapbus”.
By late September, the Official C&C Site at CommandAndConquer.com was transformed into a new full featured site replacing the teaser site that stood before it. The new site was a big leap forward. It now featured an RSS feed, a dedicated section for BattleCast Primetime and plenty of Command & Conquer 4 details.
OCTOBER
We started October with a bang, and it was the long awaited release of Renegade X. The very first playable version released to the public. Beta version 0.35 was not a complete version but the essence of the original Renegade was very much present with C&C Mode, the units and structures were all recreated, updated and improved upon, harnessing the power of the Unreal Engine.
October was turning out to be a month for modding. Early in the month, MidEast Crisis 2 released a huge two part update. The first one contained a detailed post-mortem production report on what the team thought went right, what went wrong and the plans for the mod’s future development. Meanwhile the Tiberian Dawn Redux mod team released a trailer for version 1.3 of their Zero Hour mod. And announced that the mod would be released just in time for Christmas. The Blitzkrieg 2 mod team sent word that the official site for their mod had gone multilingual, it was now in English, German and Russian.
Red Alert on the iPhone got its own section on the Official C&C Site late in the month. This new section showed a summary of features, an introductory first look video and a whole bunch of in game screen shots. It was about the same time when we also heard that Red Alert iPhone had been pushed back to a November released date.
On the 24th of October CNCNZ.com marked another milestone in the long history of the site. Celebrating 12 years in the community. It was hard to believe we were already 2 years into our second decade. There were some plans to celebrate the 12th anniversary with some tournaments for both the classic Command & Conquer games and the newer Command & Conquer games, sadly these plans never ready got past the idea stage.
Also later in the month, CNC World officially turned the big 10. And launched the first of two birthday contests.
NOVEMBER
It turned out that the delay for Red Alert iPhone was only a short one, and it was finally made available for purchase from the Apple App Store for iPhone, or iPod Touch. It allowed you to experience real-time C&C strategy as the Soviet or Allied factions. Control the battlefield with touch-screen power in up to 12 combat levels. Create and command war squads in realistic environments. Manage supplies with an intuitive combat system, and escalate the game with hi-tech weapons you develop.
Early that same month. I discovered that YouTube had suspended the CNCNZ.com YouTube channel for reasons out of my control. Yes we had some videos that probably shouldn’t had been uploaded there but I had seen worse on other channels. The suspension removed all traces of the popular Tiberium Legos videos in the process. I had to rethink my plans for this area of CNCNZ.com after this happened.
There was some more fantastic recognition for the Renegade X team. The popular total conversion mod for Unreal Tournament 3 was awarded ModDB’s Staff Selection Award for October 2009. Renegade X took the honours from other popular non Command & Conquer mods like Insurgency, Neo-Tokyo, and many others.
By the middle of the month we all shocked by the news about Electronic Arts had decided it would be eliminating 1500 jobs, cutting a dozen in development games and closing several facilities. And according to multiple sources, those cutbacks include studios like Pandemic, Maxis and nearly the entire Command & Conquer team at EALA. This really hit the community hard. It possibly spelled the end for the Command & Conquer franchise.
We got confirmation of when Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight would hit store shelves. EA announced that gamers worldwide will experience an all new way to play RTS games when Command & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight releases in North America on the 16th of March 2010 and in Europe on March 19th of March 2010.
Shortly after the release date confirmation. The first game play trailer for Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight was released. For many this would be their first look at actual gameplay. Reaction to Mechanics Revealed Trailer was mixed.
Despite the doom and gloom hanging over the Command & Conquer 4 team at EALA they still had a game to finish. And part of the development was often talked about but ever so secret Beta Test. By the middle of the month more and more people were given access to the closed the beta. Including many from CNCNZ.com staff. Along with Red Alert 3 Premier Edition owners, Name the Game/Unit contest winners, those who pre-ordered Command & Conquer 4 and GameSpot paid members were privately testing the game. But due to an NDA, no public discussion was allowed.
The Renegade X team, keeping to their release announcements, successfully delivered another major update for their fantastic Unreal Tournament 3 total conversion mod. This updated version, 0.40, featured lots of tweaks and fixes to the overall game play as well as a brand new recreated map, Volcano.
Our first hints of the shape the Command & Conquer franchise could take after Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight is released started to appear in the news throughout November. We discovered that Jon Van Caneghem, formerly of Trion World Network “has recently joined EALA to transform Command and Conquer with some sort of new digital model that promises to re-ignite the fan base for the franchise.
To close the month, both CNC World and the C&C Comm. Center teamed together to bring us The C&C Time Machine. An archive past community sites that served the community at different periods over the years, all restored from backups. And where possible key features offered by these archived sites have been included. Some of the sites are Westwood Experience, Tiberium-MW and CnC Matrix. There is even Westwood’s old site from 1997.
DECEMBER
The final month of 2009 began with the usual round up of Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight news like previews, unit profiles, videos and screen shots.
After it was brutally taken away from us in November, the CNCNZ.com YouTube Channel was restored in early December, under a slightly different name though. All 3 seasons of the Tiberium Legos videos series were restored as well.
On the Official C&C Site, the Command & Conquer 4 Beta Uplink Series had begun. This was a series of weekly articles that featured insider tips in the multiplayer beta. Coverage of class-specific strategies, tier 3 units, map design, the upgrades system and much more. The first started with a basic overview of the new multiplayer gameplay. Part 2 followed up with a look at the Offense class, with exclusive developer tips and new screen shots.
The C&C 3: The Forgotten mod was back in the news once again. They announced they would be using immersive 1080p full motion HD video, the first mod to include such a feature to tell their story. A trailer was posted to give everyone a preview of it.
There was more from the modding world as version 1.4 of the popular Tiberium Essence mod for Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars was released. Tiberium Essence brings back the some of the high technology units of Tiberian Sun to the game, as well as other goodies, new units, high quality 3D models, a good looking Tiberium and much more. This new version brings several new units to the battlefield such as the Jumpjet Trooper and Falcon Hover Tank for GDI, Razorback, Defiler, Conqueror and Assault Mothership for Scrin and the Phantom Repair Vehicle for Nod. The soundtrack is completely revamped with new music from Vlado32. This version also comes with several new upgrades, new models, improvements on gameplay and balance
ModDB once again opened up the voting in the 2009 Mod of the Year Awards. For the past eight years ModDB has celebrated the modding culture in style with the always popular Mod of the Year Awards. Developers, gamers and enthusiasts come together to vote of their favourite mods and indie games, giving something back to the developers who created the experience they enjoyed so much. ModDB, with its heavy focus on community leaves it in your hands to select the winners, and for the past 7 years you have not disappointed with some great titles taking out the grand prize. And just like last year Command & Conquer modding is represented in a big way. Basically every C&C mod in our community is included in the first round of the awards.
The Mideast Crisis 2 team finished their year with another substantial release. Version 1.5 of their massive mod was made available. Release 1.5 of Mideast Crisis 2 is a massive update that overhauls the resource system, adds in upgradable superweapons, overhauls both the IDF and GOI factions, adds a new map ‘Comanche Down’, adds in expansion points, adds in the VR Tag system (allowing easier readability of status effects) and all among countless other bug and balance tweaks.
And lastly to close out the year 2009. EA hinted at something in store for Command & Conquer in 2010. A brand new medium, never created for the Command & Conquer franchise before, will be launched. Only this preview image was given.
And so that was CNCNZ.com’s look back at 2009. It definitely was a year of highs, like the release of Uprising, announcement of Command & Conquer 4 but we had some lows like the job cuts at EALA. As we say goodbye to 2009 we can only site back and wonder what is coming for Command & Conquer in 2010.
- Date: Thursday, 31 December 2009 | Author: Sonic