February 4, 2008

Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars

March, 2047. A massive nuclear fireball explodes high in the night sky, marking the dramatic beginning to the Third Tiberium War and long-awaited return of the most groundbreaking real-time strategy (RTS) franchise of all time. The critically-acclaimed Command&Conquer series returns with Command&Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars. Setting the standard for the future of RTS gaming once more, C&C 3 takes you back to where it all began. In 2047, Tiberium has blanketed the Earth, which is now divided into zones based on the level of Tiberium infestation. Pristine Blue Zones represent 20% of the planet's surface and are the last refuge of the civilized world. The infamous Kane has returned to lead the Brotherhood of Nod in a massive global assault on the Global Defense Initiative and the few remaining Blue zones left on the planet. Only you can stop him. The fate of humanity - and the planet - is in your hands. Welcome back, Commander. ESRB Rated T for Teen

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Great for some playing styles, but know your strategy
This is a good game, on the whole. The graphics are stunning, the interface is very effective, "planning mode" is incredibly useful, and, aside from some frustrating bugs here and there, it's a remarkable showing. However, I suspect that, depending on your playing style, you will either love or hate this game.

If you tend towards the "meat grinder", tank rush and wave-after-wave-of-pain approach in RTS games, this game is for you. There's no shortage of cool units that are plenty durable and versatile enough to keep it interesting.

However, if you're a turtle/hedgehog/porcupine like me, preferring to keep a very well defended base and strike out using precise, tactical and strategic methods, this game will frustrate you endlessly. Base defense structures are hopelessly weak and no quantity of them can save you against a major rush. Resources are limited, and there's no means of getting more without expanding your base (like the Supply Drops in Generals). There are also some pretty severe holes in the unit inventory (tough, anti-infantry vehicles, for instance) which mean that any attack will suffer mass casualties.

Although there are some good, specialized units (Snipers, Zone Troopers, etc), they don't really offer the sort of complexity and strategic benefit that they do in Generals and other RTS'es. Air Units are far too weak to do anything other than mop up a few stray harvesters, and when it comes down to it, the sole strategy for winning is "build 15 [insert most powerful unit] and rush". There is no workable counter to, for instance, a 15 mammoth rush, and in the end, the game seems to devolve into "who can churn out more units more quickly".

So, if you're a fan of sending masses of units to smack into each other, then sending more, then this is a game tailor made for your style. But, if you're a defensive, strategic and tactical sort of player, you'll likely find this game limiting and disappointing (and should seriously consider Generals and Zero Hour).

Pros

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- Incredible graphics

- Some very cool unit innovations (Zone Troopers with Jetpacks, "Call for Transport")

- Great cinematics

Cons

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- Meat-grinder, masses against masses combat is the sole winning strategy

- Defensive and air units are almost worthless

- Bugs and glitches can be really frustrating

- Slow to load

4 Stars Decent port of the PC version
Command & Conquer 3 for Mac OS X is a sound port, using most of the original code and running in Cedega.

Cross-platform (PC/Mac) online play works. The game itself uses either DirectX 8 via Cedega API or OpenGL, the latter being the preferred and default method. It doesn't look as good as the PC version, even with an X1900XT in a Mac Pro, but still runs well.

As for the game itself, well, I agree with the critics - 9/10 - but you can search around for that sort of thing.

Judging only the Mac version, it's a sound port, and runs well on any Intel Mac (PPC not supported - it's not a universal binary, it's Intel only!).