Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Preview
More Tiberium than you can shake a stick at
by JSnake
previewed on PC
The Battle for Tiberium continues (cont.)
There is also a wide array of different types of soldiers to train at the Barracks. You have standard infantry, which are good for fighting against enemy infantry, but are lacking in their ability to bring down tanks and enemy structures. For those, you have Missile Soldiers who fire missiles to bring down enemy structures among other things. These particular soldiers are excellent at destroying buildings, but can not be trusted to bring down a squad of enemy infantry. You also have Engineers who have the unique ability to take control of enemy structures and convert it to your array of structures. They can also repair broken objects such as bridges and other structures. Your other choices of soldiers are merely stronger but more expensive versions of infantry and Missile Soldiers. Apart from human attack forces, you also have a wide variety of tanks, fighter jets and defence posts to aid your cause.
Mine that Tiberium
In order to provide funding for all these structures, soldiers and weapons, you are forced to build refineries to refine Tiberium. Tiberium is what is used as money in C&C3 and it is also the main cause of the contamination and decimation in the red and yellow zones. When you have built a refinery, your carrier will automatically seek out the nearest Tiberium industry. When it can't carry anymore, or all the Tiberium is exhausted, it will return to your refinery and you will gain money to spend on additional resources.
While most players of C&C3 will follow a battle plan that stays roughly entirely the same throughout the entire game (start off slow, build your resources, send your soldiers out to attack once you feel comfortable with the size of your army, rinse and repeat), C&C3 still manages to throw new challenges, new weapons, new everything to keep things fresh the entire time you're playing. It is a very rewarding and satisfying RTS in terms of gameplay.
Graphically, C&C3 is astonishing. Textures are crisp and finely detailed; terrain looks almost real, great use of shading effects. Everything in the game looks great. While character models are low-poly and not very detailed at all, it's actually a good thing for an RTS because sometimes you will have hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers out on the battlefield, guns blazing. The game would become very slow, very fast. Another thing worth mentioning is that C&C3 uses live action sequences to tell the story. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw Dr. Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) from House MD greeting me as her commander! Other live-action actors include Michael Ironside, Josh Holloway (Sawyer from Lost), Billy Dee Williams (Lando from Star Wars) and Joe Kucan reprises his role as NOD leader, Kane.
In terms of sound, the game probably won?t win any awards. The sound and music isn't bad, in fact they're great! Everything is as it should be, from the battle cries of your soldiers to the pumping music playing as you head into battle. It just isn't 'wow' worthy. Also, the live-action actors act very well. The tone of their voice makes the battlefield very visceral.
Also, gamers with older PCs will be happy to hear that the game has a very stable frame rate. I was able to put every graphic and audio setting on maximum, and the frame rate was silky smooth! This was very surprising as my computer is nearing its third birthday! Minimum specs include a 2.0Ghx processor and 512Mb RAM. Not too hefty by today?s standards.
Conclusion
Overall, C&C3 looks to be a worthy entry in the critically-acclaimed Command and Conquer series. The game is probably already a definite purchase for any C&C fan, but newcomers to the series should not miss out either. Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is hitting store shelves late March. Be sure to grab a copy if you even remotely consider yourself an RTS fan!
