[-SG-Gunslinger]

While it is of my knowledge that a lot of you are so against EA that you refuse to look at anything they make as actually a good game. But, since this is the last CnC Tib game, I think you should know how it feels before you shun it as crap.

Upon startup of the Beta, I was greeted with a main-menu that was basically a picture of a slowly rotating earth with GDI ships flying by. Not bad, not great.
Now the Beta only lets you play online games, which I'm fine with. So my first game was a 5 Vs. 5 variation on "Capture the Point".
And ohmygosh was that fun.

First off, the music was FANTASTIC. This is some of THE best music I've heard in a CnC game, the transitions from a tension idle theme to an epic battle theme that changes depending if you're winning the battle, or losing, are seamless and sounds SO EPIC.
Anywho, the gameplay.

While many of you mourn the loss of base-building, it kinda makes the game easier and more APB-like. In a 5 vs. 5 Capture Point mode, you have to capture more Tiberium Nodes than the enemy team, but it's not as simple as capturing all of them. Each team has a Tib Meter, or Victory Meter, or whatever it's called that moves up slowly or fast, depending on how many nodes you have, and can jump by like 50 if you get a bonus Tib-Gift-Basket (don't know what they're called). First to like 2500 or so wins the match.

As for the base building. In past CnC games, 2/3 of my economy was used on base building and upkeep, and because of the crappy economy system in that game, I could get almost no money for forces. In CnC4, you just don't give a flip. You grab your crawler, build its four initial units, and rush a tib node, deploying your units once you are there. I played Offense most of the time, and the command points (while limiting the units can build, make sense for lag control because you got infinite money for some reason. You get more points if there aren't ten players on a map at once and are less) make team-work essential. So far, Offense can only build vehicles. Defense can only build defensive structures and infantry (guys in large exo-suits, so don't complain about scale), and Support can build aircraft.

Teamwork is essential because sometimes, the enemy has one defensive crawler at a base with support flying-engineers that make defensive structures and enemies you shoot at with your forces almost invincible (like a med-mech, except more mechs than meds and the mechs have medic abilities). This requires you to focus your forces on anti-xxxx depending on what's defending, or call in reinforcements. So far, doing something alone in the larger 10-people missions (the maps are pretty big) is suicide.

As for the gameplay, it's medium-length. Not forced fast-speed, but matches can range from short and sweet to ridiculously long. Like an APB match. Without a time-limit. It's fluid, you don't have to worry about bases, you just fight to the end. And frankly, I found it VERY fun. But, if you think there's less strategy involved, there's an equal amount. An example is one enemy pounding my allies with air units and air-engies. It was a stalemate. I noticed that the enemy couldn't see my crawler, and were ignoring it from its corner of the map. I also noticed that the node behind their base with TWO CRAWLERS was undefended. So I built a force entirely made of 3-command point missile-hover-thingies from the GDI tech, and with 105 command points, that's a LOT of missile vehicles. I made this swarm sneak around back, destroyed a crawler, half of another, destroyed their invicible air-fleet of super ships and air-engies, and captured the node behind their base. I thought it was a bloomin' success.

We lost the match, but that move was just awesome.

Graphics are purdy, not much to say there.

Oh, and there are tech-structures all over the map you can capture. Com-Link structures that give you a forward-Re-Deploy-Crawler zone that also allows you capture the Gift-Baskets as well. Artillery Quad-Cannon Implacements, Mutant Hovels (allows you to build Iron Heades, big mechs that smash stuff, viceroids, and a scrap-battle-buses that are really strong), and of course garrison structures for the defense class.

The things I don't like so far is the current semi-imbalance of some classes as far as air-engies go, but it's not a huge imbalance. The level-up system is kind of annoying, as you want to use the big units, but you get the bare-bones to start off with. Oh, and the scorpion tank looks freaking STUPID. It's just a giant enemy crab with an obelisk taped on its butt!

Overall:
+ Awesome Music
+ Fluid Gameplay
+ Team-work Focus
+/- Base Building
- Air Engies
- A couple units look stupid
- Leveling up is kind of annoying because of how slow it tends to be, mind you I've only played three matches.

That's as much as I can think of off the top of my head. While a lot of you think this game is gonna be retarded, I think it's well worth your money. It's actually REALLY fun. And just for once PLEASE ignore the developer! That's no excuse to declare a game sucks, even if it is pretty good.

[v1410nl]

tl;dr

summary please

[-SG-Gork]

Im not against EA, just their commitment to making games (or lack of in this case).

[-SG-Gunslinger]

There's a summary called "Overall". It gives the main points without the humor or explanations.

[-SG-GummiBear]

sound kinda like generals all over to me again really, as that review don't get me to think C&C, only "random game that might be okay" had they used this concept in a independent game or something that not part of any series hmm... maybe I would check it out. Really sounds like generals again: a okay game (but not more) that would be nice if they had not slapped a C&C title on top of it

[-SG-Gork]

the concept as a stratgey game is really good, but i dont think it belongs in the cnc saga at all :/

[-SG-Inferno]

it sucks ;_;

[-SG-TeamWolf]

I would throw my own comment in here but seeing as EA fucked up with my RA3 prem code sign up and haven't sent me an e-mail for my beta at all. Now I can't enter a code from gamespot due to my account already having access to it... How fail can you get?

[-SG-Gunslinger]

Well, you could get more fail if they somehow thought that was against the law, you were doing something illegal, and arrested you.

As far as I'm concerned, it's the fact that it's CnC that I'm playing the Beta. I want to see what happens in the story, and if this were Generals you'd actually have to collect resources.

Honestly, it's the mindset that because of the name and the developer it HAS to suck. So far, I think it's pretty dang good.

[-SG-GummiBear]

[quote name='-SG-Gunslinger' date='08 February 2010 - 01:54 AM' tim
As far as I'm concerned, it's the fact that it's CnC that I'm playing the Beta. I want to see what happens in the story, and if this were Generals you'd actually have to collect resources.
[/quote]
ehh... you obviously don't get it do you? When I compare it to generals I don't mean the concept of the game is anything near the same, but more the overall way of thinking they can do anything they want with C&C and slap it on any game and make insta profit...

and beside that I DO play quite a few other EA games, so nothing against EA as such in itself, though yes generally there is other developers that better, but EA is not as such a bad developer. They just have no fucking idea what C&C is supposed to be like

[-SG-Gurgle]

Of course you gave both Nod and GDI a try, but which side did you play once you actually got into the game? 'Cause I was at a friend's place while he was playing C&C4... he's a Nod fanatic and the Nod music is pretty much lol-GLA and lol-opera.

Graphics, awesome? They're good but not great - it's pretty much the same as C&C3 because of the SAGE engine.

Engies are dicks, they're impossible to kill... it's Renegay all over again.

[-SG-Liten]

-SG-Gurgle, on 08 February 2010 - 12:26 PM, said:

Engies are dicks, they're impossible to kill... it's Renegay all over again.

Yeah, if you don't have the right unit, such as a Wolf, you can't bring engies down. Silly counter system -.-'

[-SG-Inferno]

I have to play at low settings which makes it look worse than a fucking flash game ;_;

In other words, KW looks 10000x better for me

[-SG-Liten]

Maybe this is a sign to upgrade your computer?

[-SG-Gunslinger]

Engies are dicks. It is Renegay all over again.

But this is a Beta, EA has declared that the graphics aren't final, or as good as they will be. This is also why there's also a lot of balance tweaks, because it's a BETA.

Also, just to note, that I had discovered this today by random thought: If they brought back base-building and harvesting, you'd all be complaining that this is just CnC3:ODST. That they didn't change anything that they should've made it an expansion pack because there's not much new factors you can implement into an RTS BLUH BLUH BLUH. The thing is, people complain when a new game is too similar to the previous installment, or too different. The thing is, that doesn't change whether the game sucks or not. Your idea of what the next game should be probably isn't what Westwood's idea was because you're not Westwood! You have no idea what a CnC should be yourself, unless you're the founder and producer of the CnC series, WHICH YOU'RE NOT. Unless you can find me absolute proof that the old producers say this isn't what CnC should be, I'm think that whole argument as BS.

This didn't ruin CnC, it only varied the gameplay so that it isn't just a new game that the only difference is story, units, and structures. Face it, the way YOU think it should be is just a pallet swap on the same sprite. I would say something about the saying goes "Accept change and get the **** off my lawn!", but I already used that on the Beta forum.

Again, this may seem mean-spirited, but I'm really pissed off at the amount of idiots who pop on chat and display their bread-crumb argument that always gets shot down by everyone else online.


...


And to answer the one question, I started playing as Nod more often. I wouldn't say the music is GLA, more as RA3 Japan with a twist. I think it sounds really really good (besides the main-menu music for Nod). Music as a whole ditched the sci-fi feel for a more cinematic orchestra feel that I think is fantastic. Sets the mood much better.

[-SG-Gurgle]

-SG-Gunslinger, on 09 February 2010 - 12:59 AM, said:

But this is a Beta, EA has declared that the graphics aren't final, or as good as they will be. This is also why there's also a lot of balance tweaks, because it's a BETA.

Yes, definitely true. We'll just have look at the finished product when it comes out then, won't we?

-SG-Gunslinger, on 09 February 2010 - 12:59 AM, said:

hurr words words. The thing is, people complain when a new game is too similar to the previous installment, or too different.

L4D2 / C&C4

-SG-Gunslinger, on 09 February 2010 - 12:59 AM, said:

The thing is, that doesn't change whether the game sucks or not. Your idea of what the next game should be probably isn't what Westwood's idea was because you're not Westwood! You have no idea what a CnC should be yourself, unless you're the founder and producer of the CnC series, WHICH YOU'RE NOT. Unless you can find me absolute proof that the old producers say this isn't what CnC should be, I'm think that whole argument as BS.

Perhaps fans who have stuck with the series since Tiberian Dawn have an (actual, real) inkling of an idea of what Westwood was planning. Also lol Brett Sperry... I wonder if he's been keeping up with what's happening with the series, and what he thinks of it all.

-SG-Gunslinger, on 09 February 2010 - 12:59 AM, said:

And to answer the one question, I started playing as Nod more often. I wouldn't say the music is GLA, more as RA3 Japan with a twist. I think it sounds really really good (besides the main-menu music for Nod). Music as a whole ditched the sci-fi feel for a more cinematic orchestra feel that I think is fantastic. Sets the mood much better.

Oh, really? In my opinion the music was pretty terrible... a random African guy singing

[-SG-Mrp]

-SG-Gunslinger, on 09 February 2010 - 12:59 AM, said:

Also, just to note, that I had discovered this today by random thought

That is not a discovery, it is just speculation. And really, you have to stop seperating yourself from people when you talk. If you want to get a message across you have to relate with people. You are a human just like everyone else. It would have been much easier to use a phrase like, What is done cannot be undone.

[-SG-Gunslinger]

If you knew how the inner-workings of my mind operated, you would know that it is indeed a discovery.
Like a freaking beehive in there.

I would also love to see what Brett's opinion on the matter is, but for the record I also have been around since Tib Dawn (played the N64 one too! Generals WASN'T the first 3D CnC game!)

[-SG-Liten]

-SG-Gurgle, on 09 February 2010 - 07:02 AM, said:

L4D2 / C&C4

So true

[-SG-GummiBear]

-SG-Gunslinger, on 09 February 2010 - 12:59 AM, said:

Unless you can find me absolute proof that the old producers say this isn't what CnC should be, I'm think that whole argument as BS.

This didn't ruin CnC, it only varied the gameplay so that it isn't just a new game that the only difference is story, units, and structures. Face it, the way YOU think it should be is just a pallet swap on the same sprite. I would say something about the saying goes "Accept change and get the **** off my lawn!", but I already used that on the Beta forum.

Actually the old WW ppl told at some point I think it was on petroglyph forums (that where most of the old WW guys moved to) an outline of how the storyline should be, can't remember it all in details, but one thing I do remember is that the tib storyline and RA storyline would merge together at one point, around 3rd or 4th game and including a renegade 2 too. (can't find the actual fact there ATM though but it been said I am 100% sure)