Command & Conquer 4 – Are you ready?

Electronic Arts announced a few basic bullet points for Command & Conquer 4, the latest and supposedly last in the series of real time strategy games (although there are plenty of ways to work around the phrase “epic conclusion”, and the Command & Conquer universe has about four separate lines of games). You can see the announcement here, which teases more detailed information later this month and encourages you to follow the developers on Twitter, Facebook, and their recurring “Battlecasts”. You’d think Command & Conquer was one part real time strategy game, one part social networking facilitator.

In terms of the game, the main distinction at this point seems to be:

class-based gameplay…and persistent player progression throughout all game modes

The classes seem like variations on the sub-factions from the Zero Hour expansion for Command & Conquer: Generals, which eventually found its way into the expansion pack for Command & Conquer 3 by dividing each faction into specialized sub-factions with distinct units and powers. But the main difference seems to be that you don’t get to use all of your factions units and technologies when you start playing. Instead, you have to advance your class by earning experience points in the campaign, in skirmish games, or in online multiplayer games. From a Gamespot interview with campaign lead Samuel Bass:

By having our players enter the game with a limited but carefully chosen selection of units, we create a much smoother learning curve, giving you time to come to grips with our core gameplay systems before we bombard you with added complexity. However, since players are guaranteed to receive a steady drip of new toys, they soon become conversant in the deeper gameplay elements and can compete at a higher level.

Also, there will be no misguided efforts to bring the game simultaneously to PCs and console systems. Command & Conquer 4 is entirely and only a PC game.

Source

Zack Snyder Developing Video Games For Electronic Arts

Watchmen director Zack Snyder has become the latest filmmaker to break into the video-game business, signing a deal to develop three original games for Electronic Arts, the nation’s largest third-party publisher, Variety reported.

The deal is similar to one made by EA with Steven Spielberg in 2005. Their first collaboration, a puzzle game for the Nintendo Wii called Boom Blox, was released in the spring to rave reviews but modest sales. Read more