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Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

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Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
File:C&C3logo.jpg
Developer(s)EA Los Angeles
Publisher(s)EA Games
Designer(s)Jason Bender
EngineStrategy Action Game Engine (SAGE)
Platform(s)PC (Windows)
ReleaseMarch, 2007
Genre(s)Real-time strategy
Mode(s)Single player, Multiplayer
File:Command-and-Conquer-3-screenshot.png
In-game screenshot of tanks destroying a civilian building.

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars[1] is the long-awaited sequel to Command & Conquer 2: Tiberian Sun and its expansion pack Firestorm. Taking place at the advent of and during the "Third Tiberium War", the Brotherhood of Nod - now a superpower with a majority support of the world's population - launches an unexpected worldwide offensive against the Global Defense Initiative, abruptly ending a period of seventeen years of silence and crippling GDI forces everywhere. With the odds tipped in Nod's favor this time, GDI field commanders rally their troops and begin to combat the Brotherhood's sudden and mysterious reemergence, trying to restore lost hope.

Known facts

The known facts for Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars are relatively few and far between, and may be subject to change over the course of the game's development.

The plot

The story of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars kicks off in the year of 2047 (roughly sixteen to seventeen years after the events of Firestorm). While the conflict between the Global Defense Initiative and the Brotherhood of Nod appears to have subsided substantially ever since, Tiberium infestation has begun to reach critical levels and continues to destroy the Earth's ecosystems at an alarming rate, prompting GDI to divide the world into three different geographical zones based on the levels of local infestation. 30% of the world's surface has been designated as "red zones", which have suffered the worst contamination and can no longer support human - or otherwise carbon-based - life. 50% of the regions in the world have been designated as "yellow zones", which are dangerously contaminated yet contain most of the world's population. Decades of war and civil unrest have left these regions in a state of social collapse and have continued to provide the Brotherhood of Nod with opportunity for concealment as well as large-scale recruitment over the years. The remaining 20% of the Earth's surface is unscarred by Tiberium outbreak and is relatively untouched by war. These "blue zones" are considered the last refuge and hope of the human civilized world and have been placed under the direct protection of the Global Defense Initiative.

In March 2047, the Brotherhood of Nod suddenly fires a nuclear missile at GDI's orbiting command station "Philadelphia" destroying the fulcrum of GDI's senior command structure in a single major blow. Since the end of the Second Tiberium War, Nod has silently built up its influence and its military potential into the status of a true superpower, and is now supported by a majority of the world's population through medical aid, enforcement of stability, and hate-mongering against GDI and the "blue zone" populations from within the "yellow zone" territories. Isolated and unprepared to handle the offensives led by Black Hand shock troops across the globe, GDI regional field commanders take charge directly and begin rallying their demoralized troops, hoping to win a new victory over Nod.

At some point during the conflict, a third faction has been confirmed to make itself known and enter the fray. EA has remained tight-lipped on who or what this faction is and how it will interact with the two other protagonists of the game.

Known units and structures

Concept artwork of GDI Zone Troopers crossing a Tiberium field

Actual unit lists and unit names may be subject to change over the course of the game's development.

Global Defense Initiative

The Global Defense Initiative's internal structure and organization is quite similar to a supranational and large-scale integration of all of the world's major modern day conventional armies into a single globalized military force. GDI is capable of instantly deploying vast quantities of well-trained and well-equipped soldiers backed by powerful ground, air and naval assets to any point on the globe, and this in ways that are considerably more organized, advanced, as well as on a much greater scale than any conventional real-life military force of today possibly could. GDI troops utilize both superior staying power and firepower (sacrificing some mobility in the process), making them typically much more powerful than Nod forces in direct open confrontations, but also more cumbersome and less flexible, the exploitation of which the Brotherhood is notoriously adept at through its combinations of futuristic guerilla warfare with uniquely advanced Tiberium-based technological prowess.

Infantry

  • GDI Rifleman Squad
  • GDI Grenadier
  • GDI Missile Squad
  • GDI Engineer
  • GDI Medic
  • GDI Zone Trooper (Heavily armed and armored infantry power suit trooper based on the refinement and advancement of both the earlier Wolverine and Jumpjet suit construction technologies. Immune to the effects of Tiberium and has short range jumpjet capability. Can be upgraded to wield infantry-sized rail gun weapons.)
  • GDI Commando
  • GDI Sniper

Ground Units

  • GDI Mobile Construction Vehicle (Deploys into a construction yard that allows the construction of buildings and thus bases.)
  • GDI Tiberium Harvester (Vehicle used to collect Tiberium in order to gain resources.)
  • GDI Pitbull (Lightly armored scouting and anti-infantry vehicle. Can be upgraded to wield mortar cannons.)
  • GDI Predator Tank (Mainstay GDI tank division vehicle. Can be upgraded to include missile launchers on a side mount which are effective against infantry and airborn units.)
  • GDI Guardian APC (Land-based troop carrier.)
  • GDI Mammoth Tank Mk III (Upgraded and modernized design of the original Mammoth Mk I tank which incorporates technology of the infamous Mammoth Mk II. Heavily armed and armored superior tank vehicle equipped with dual 150mm cannons and dual rocket pods effective against both infantry and aircraft. An onboard engineer will slowly repair up to 50% of the tank's health. Can be upgraded to be mounted with dual rail guns.)
  • GDI Juggernaut Mk III Artillery (Large bipedal mech walker armed with three howitzers for heavy long-range sieges. Unlike the earlier models these no longer need to be deployed to fire.)
  • GDI Rig (Vehicle that can deploy into a landing and repair pad to act as a forward support outpost.)

Aircraft

  • GDI Orca Gunship (Mainstay of the GDI airforces. Has onboard detection against cloaked units.)
  • GDI Firehawk Jet (Dual air-to-air fighter aircraft/bomber).
  • GDI V35 Ox Transporter

Naval Units (Available in single player games only.)

  • GDI Aircraft Carrier
  • GDI Battleship

Buildings

  • GDI Construction Yard
  • GDI Power Plant (Can each be upgraded separately with advanced turbine technology to produce 50% more energy.)
  • GDI Refinery
  • GDI Tiberium Silo (Stores Tiberium when the refinery has reached maximum capacity. If destroyed the contained Tiberium is lost as well, causing the player to lose the funds.)
  • GDI Barracks
  • GDI Watchtower (Originally a component tower with vulcan upgrade as seen in a preview screenshot in PC Gamer issue 149, but this design seems to have been replaced with a minigun tower as seen in a more recent issue of the German GameStar magazine.)
  • GDI Cannon Turret
  • GDI War Factory
  • GDI Radar Center
  • GDI Airfield
  • GDI Tech Center (Upgrade center for vehicles.)
  • GDI Arsenal (Upgrade center for infantry units.)
  • GDI Command Post
  • GDI Rocket Uplink
  • GDI Ion Cannon Uplink


Brotherhood of Nod

The Brotherhood of Nod is a mysterious, enigmatic and highly militant Abrahamic cult of an allegedly ancient origin, which in modern times began to show the combined characteristics of a religious movement, a multinational corporation and a nation-state, while actually being none of the three in itself. The globalized organization/society is led by a mysterious man known only as Kane, and at the advent of the events in which Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars will take place, its influence in the world has eventually reached nothing short of the status of unconventional superpower. The Brotherhood of Nod represents a flexible, elusive army which thrives on the synergy between cunning low-tech guerilla warfare and elite, highly-trained forces equipped with state-of-the-art communications gear and the most advanced weapon systems available, which all are derived from the Brotherhood's uniquely adept understanding of Tiberium-based technologies. Nod's tactics are highly radical and appear more cruel than GDI's, often showing little to no regard for human life, and their fascination with Tiberium also leads them to use the highly toxic and dangerous substance offensively whenever possible. Nod forces are completely dedicated to Kane and the Brotherhood's cause, and will fight and willingly die for either.

Infantry

  • Nod Militant (Cheap cannon fodder recruited from yellow zones.)
  • Nod Fanatic (During a trailer an Orca pilot can be heard reporting that 'Nod Fanatics' are firing upon them from within an abandoned building, suggesting fanatics will be armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers or anti-air/anti-armour missile launchers.)
  • Nod Rifle Infantry
  • Nod Militant Rocket Squad
  • Nod Shadow (Glider-equipped shock troops.)
  • Nod Black Hand Commando (Elite soldiers armed with flamethrowers. Can be changed to different types of weapons through upgrades.)
  • Nod Saboteur (Technicians similar to the ones featured in Tiberian Sun and Firestorm. Will also have a more effective weapon than its previous incarnations.)

Ground Units

  • Nod Tiberium Harvester (Vehicle used to collect Tiberium in order to gain resources.)
  • Nod Raider Buggy
  • Nod Attack Bike
  • Nod Scorpion Tank
  • Nod Flame Tank
  • Nod Stealth Tank
  • Nod Beam Cannon Artillery
  • Nod Avatar Warmech (Heavily armored and extremely advanced bipedal mech walker. Can forcefully 'procure' weapon systems from other units and integrate them into its own to greatly enhance its firepower. However, it can only use technology that the Nod side possesses, captured or normal. Multiple units can be produced by the Nod player.)

Aircraft

  • Nod Venom Scout Aircraft
  • Nod Vertigo Bomber (Advanced design of the earlier Nod Banshee aircraft. Has the ability to cloak.)
  • Nod VTOL Carryall (Fast troop transport.)

Buildings

  • Nod Construction Yard
  • Nod Tiberium Refinery
  • Nod Silo
  • Hand of Nod (Nod barracks.)
  • Nod Radar Center
  • Nod Airfield
  • Nod Drop Zone (Nod's counterpart to GDI's War Factory.)
  • Nod Laser Turret (Base defense; effective against vechiles)
  • Nod Obelisk of Light (Highly advanced and very powerful laser-based ground defense.)
  • Nod Operations Center (Similar to GDI's Tech Center.)
  • Nod Arsenal (Similar to GDI's Arsenal structure.)

There are several other Nod buildings seen in recent gameplay movies that are yet to be named and/or the purpose of which is yet to be specified. Additional details on units and structures for the two sides are to be revealed at a later time according to EA's community manager.


Unknown

Other familiar units have been confirmed to make a return, although Electronic Arts has disclosed little information about which units those may be. It has been suggested by the game developers that certain units can cause Ion Storms and otherwise be able to interact significantly with Tiberium on the battlefield. The Brotherhood of Nod and the currently unknown third faction will also feature units that will be enhanced by the presence of Ion storms over the battlefield. Conversely, GDI's units will likely be hindered by these storms.

Third side possibilities

Once the player has completed both the GDI and Nod campaigns, they will be able to play a third mystery faction. Some possibilities for the third side are as follows:

File:Tiberian Twilight Concept Art (C&C).jpg
First seen in an internal EALA monitor and leaked by a visitor of the official BFME Community summit, this image is named 'Scrin Primal' by the developers of the C&C Franchise
  • The Scrin: Though never having physically appeared in any Command and Conquer game to date, the Scrin were first introduced and named in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun by the presence of a huge alien ship and later (although earlier by game chronology) in Command & Conquer: Renegade in the form of a crashed flying saucer. Very little is known about these beings, except that they are somehow connected to CABAL, Kane, and Tiberium's origin. Evidence that this side is the third playable faction comes from the short teaser at the end of the E3 demo, in which the camera pans out to show a ravaged Earth from space, and the narrator says "And then, they came". Also, the EA website notes, "Red Zones are like the surface of an Alien planet." Though potentially just a coincidence, this directly relates the possibility. Note that the word "Alien" is capitalized, meaning either a simple typographical error or implying ownership to a particular party (The Aliens).
  • The Forgotten: Appearing for the first time in C&C history in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, the Forgotten have played an integral part in the entire Tiberian storyline. The Forgotten were led by Tratos, who had the knowledge necessary to translate the Tacitus, a device holding many of Tiberium's secrets. The Forgotten also contributed three hero units in Tiberian Sun: Umagon, Ghost Stalker, and the Mutant Hijacker. In Tiberian Sun's expansion, Firestorm, Tratos was murdered by CABAL, and Umagon apparently perished of Tiberium mutation. The fate of the other two major Forgotten characters remains unknown. The Forgotten have a militia comprised mainly of antiquated and/or stolen units from both the GDI and Nod which would render them a fair threat to both of the superpowers.
  • CABAL (Computer Assisted Biologically Augmented Lifeform): Appearing in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun and its expansion-Firestorm, CABAL is Nod's AI in charge of Cybernetic Development and Tiberium Evolution. After going rogue in Tiberian Sun's expansion, Firestorm, it has become known that CABAL is somehow connected to Nod's leader, Kane. The origin and extent of this connection is unknown, as is CABAL's fate after Firestorm. Sometime prior to the development of Command and Conquer: Generals, concept art was drawn depicting CABAL's army, which was comprised of several exotic and somewhat disturbing cyborg designs.
  • Or, possibly an entirely new faction. According to PC Gamer, and according to pictures, it appears that there could be new units unknown to any speculation.

Casting

File:Cc screen kane.jpg
Joseph D. Kucan as Kane in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars.

As of October 18th 2006, several actors are confirmed to have been casted in the cutscenes of Tiberium Wars [2] -- Josh Holloway (Lost) will appear as a Nod Intelligence officer by the name of Ajay, Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) will be casted as a character named Kilian Qatar, Michael Ironside (Top Gun, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent) as the Global Defense Initiative's General Jack Granger, Billy Dee Williams as GDI Director Redmond Boyle, Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica) as Lt. Sandra Telfair, Ivana Bozilovic (Wedding Crashers) as Kirce James and Shauntay Hinton (Criminal Minds) as the reporter Brittany Bhima.

Electronic Arts Los Angeles has also stated that it will be employing the talents of several real-world news casters, including Shanon Cook (CNN reporter) and John Huck (Las Vegas Fox News anchor), to deliver TV-style reports of the Tiberium Wars within the game's cutscenes.[3]

EA has confirmed that an early trailer, in which the iconical character of Kane was portrayed, did indeed feature Joseph D. Kucan, who will return to reprise his role as the infamous leader of the Brotherhood of Nod for Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars.

Other known facts

Other known facts about the game include:

  • The return of resource harvesting and Mobile Construction Vehicles.
  • Frank Klepacki, the game music composer for all Command & Conquer games except Generals, will not be composing the music for Command & Conquer 3. Klepacki is currently a full-time employee at Petroglyph, and both himself as the EA Community Manager have stated that he is not on the game's development team nor has he been asked to join [2]. EA's community manager has however stated that the team is aware of fans' concerns, that EA's audio team has been studying Klepacki's music from the past ten years, and that "fans will not be disappointed".
  • Command & Conquer 3 will use the pre-Generals right sidebar interface, as revealed in an interview on IGN at this link: "It's also worth mentioning the return of the side-bar interface: Our in-game UI for C&C3 is a side-bar that will feel familiar to C&C players but it has some added features that make it more useful - and make it feel interesting and new. We are combining the centralized production queues in the classic C&C side-bar with contextual space for selected units and structures. The new UI lets you quickly build units and structures, easily control grouped units, and access your build queues anywhere on the map - even in the middle of a battle. But you can still get lots of information about your selected units and activate their special abilities - which are pretty much expected in the latest generation RTS games. We think our interface for C&C3 is the best of both worlds."
  • AI will be improved and campaigns will be more immersive.
  • A brand new version of SAGE (Strategy Action Game Engine) will be used. SAGE technology was used to power the RTS series Generals, so it stands to reason that most of the SAGE benifits (zooming in and out of specific areas on the map, 360 degree roation of the map, etc) will be present in C&C3.
  • Multiplayer will feature VoIP support.
  • There is a high chance the game will eventually be released for the Xbox 360, with Louis Castle stating "and I know for a fact that they [the developers of Battle For Middle Earth 2 on 360] are doing this because these are the same guys, the same team, who's doing Command & Conquer 3 and they're definitely going to release it for the 360, you heard it here. And so what they are doing is they are really using Battle for Middle-earth II to sort of use it as a spring board to test, to see, how it is going to work for Command & Conquer 3, so they are trying to almost use this BFMEII as a beta; a very good beta."
  • EA is planning several fan summits for previews, feedback and discussions.
  • The game will not be featuring the famous dramatic installation procedures of its predecessors in the series, and will be given a generic installation sequence.[4]
  • The announced possibility of there being significant differences in game-play when playing within different types of 'Zones' is no longer being considered by the development team. [5]

Background

Old Command & Conquer 3 concept art from Westwood dating from 2002/2003 as said by Chris 'Delphi' Rubyor, currently from Petroglyph Games.

A sequel to Tiberian Sun has been expected since after Tiberian Sun’s release in 1999. A hypothetical sequel was called "Tiberian Twilight" due to EA copyrights throughout the Command & Conquer community. Work on a sequel is believed to have been started at Westwood Studios in 2001, but Electronic Arts decided to shift the focus of a sequel from a science fiction theme to a modern theme based on current world conflicts. The work on a sequel was used to make Command & Conquer: Generals and other current Sage engine based games. Just before Generals was released, EA announced that Westwood Studios in Las Vegas would be closing and would be consolidated into EA Los Angeles. This split the Westwood team, with some members not willing to relocate and thus quitting and the rest moving to Los Angeles to work at the new consolidated studio, thus effectively stopping the development of Command & Conquer 3 for the time being.

In 2004, old concept art from Westwood was revealed, under the name "Command & Conquer 3". This artwork showed a mech unit, a fully 3-dimensional environment similar to that used in the game Generals, and the original interface system from both Command & Conquer and Tiberian Sun. This revealed artwork fueled speculation that EA was working on a Command & Conquer game, which in turn set off rumors as to when the game would ship and what the plot would be; however, in December of 2004, after the EALA team settled down, then Executive Producer and Command & Conquer lead Mark Skaggs announced in a mass e-mail that the next Command & Conquer game would be Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 and not a long-awaited sequel to Tiberian Sun. However, shortly there after Skaggs left EA for reasons unknown[7] and ideas for Red Alert 3 were mothballed[8]. Mike Verdu later became the new lead on Command & Conquer.

On April 18, 2006, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars was prematurely announced. On April 20, an official press release was made.

Concern over development

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File:CnC3 CoverMain.jpg
The "C&C 3" Cover of PC Gamer issue 149

Since acquiring and shutting down Westwood Studios, EA Games has been responsible for the development of all games in the Command & Conquer universe, but the results of these games have at times been considered somewhat lacking among the fan community.

Fans of the Tiberian universe were upset with the release of Red Alert 2, primarily because the C&C fan community generally views Red Alert as prequel to Command & Conquer. The release of Red Alert 2 left many questions about the interconnection of the Tiberian and Red Alert series unanswered, with debated theories over how this should best be resolved. Ex-Westwood Studios personnel claim to have been working on a timeline that would solve the mystery and clear the confusion, but such a timeline has never emerged.

Three years after the release of Red Alert 2 came Command & Conquer Generals. Unlike previous C&C games, Generals and the Zero Hour expansion were developed by EA Los Angeles, after EA Games absorbed Westwood Studios. Longtime fans of the Command & Conquer universe were upset with changes EA implemented with Generals and Zero Hour. Generals departed from conventional Command and Conquer themes in several ways: The GDI, the Brotherhood of Nod, and the Tiberium resource were not present in this game. This game is not part of the 'Red Alert' theme either; it was an entirely separate game world. The game mechanics were more like other RTS games, such as Blizzard Entertainment's StarCraft and Warcraft III. The control bar was moved to the bottom of the screen, the unique units for each faction (the United States' Colonel Burton, China's Black Lotus and the GLA's Jarmen Kell) resembled Warcraft III's Heroes and several units had special action buttons similar to the magic spells or abilities in the Warcraft and Starcraft series. Many units' attack and defense abilities could be upgraded in specific buildings much like in the Blizzard RTS games. There were no video briefings for upcoming missions, and the introduction of "middle men" met with some resistance. Unlike in the previous C&C games, a player could build as many superweapons as they had funds for; this issue had been a major sore point for online players of Generals who frequently capped Superweapons (the game includes this option when setting up a server) or banned them altogether. In Zero Hour this ban was extended to include certain Generals personalities who were felt to be too powerful for use in online play.

Many players also found the manner in which Generals latched onto topical issues in an overtly militaristic and pro-American fashion to be tasteless and insensitive.[citation needed] However, some argued that the stereotypes portrayed in the game extend to all three factions in a "tongue-in-cheek" manner in order to demonstrate political irony in today's world conflicts. For example, the US units say phrases such as "Preserving freedom!" and "We fight for peace!", not to mention "I'll fire at anything!". Chinese units, on the other hand, say patriotic phrases such as "China will grow larger!", "Foreign devils!" and "Fighting for the Red Army." Others found the defeat of US forces to the GLA in Zero Hour as a bad omen for the US in the war on terror, particularly since elements of the GLA and there intended uses (like suicide bombers, bomb trucks, and a willingness to use anthrax in an offensive role) closely mirror methodes of attack currently faced by US forces in Afganistan and Iraq.

As a result of these changes, some fans of the series argue that Generals was not a true Command & Conquer game. Some were even going as far as to call it "Age of Generals" as a reference to the Age of Empires series by Microsoft Game Studios.

EA has not yet created and released a Command & Conquer game set in the Tiberian universe, although fans of the series are now wary of what the new game may look like. Most Westwood employees no longer work for EA Games. Although Electronic Arts has taken some liberties with the development of previous Command & Conquer games fans of the series remain cautiously optimistic that Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars will emerge as a successful game, capitalizing on previous C&Cs in the series.

Fan Sites

Media

References

  1. ^ Tiberium Wars may be a working title, however Mike Verdu, executive producer of the development team working on C&C3, has stated that he considers the name to be good for the game which suggests it might be the game's final name.
  2. ^ <http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061018/wr_nm/media_commandconquer_dc;_ylt=AlCZmb29Hxb4ew6yoF594XQjtBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM->.
  3. ^ <http://www.gamespot.com/news/6159992.html>.
  4. ^ Verdu, Mike. EA executive producer. Leipzig Game Convention interview. <http://www.gamereplays.org/community/index.php?showtopic=133473>.
  5. ^ Verdu, Mike. EA executive producer. Leipzig Game Convention interview. <http://www.gamereplays.org/community/index.php?showtopic=133473>.
  6. ^ Official in-game screenshots released to IGN on October 13th, 2006. <http://media.pc.ign.com/media/823/823989/img_3995272.html>.
  7. ^ The exact reason Mark Skaggs left EA remains unknown; according to EA he had taken "an extended leave of absence".
  8. ^ EA has not explicitly stated the Red Alert 3 has been cancelled; it is possible that an RA3 may be produced at some point in the future, but is still uncertain.
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