Command & Conquer Demo TW 3 Released

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

NYHoustonman

Platinum Member
Dec 8, 2002
2,642
0
0
Originally posted by: Zap
So, is it a regular demo, or a reserved demo that needs a registration code?

Regular demo.


I got through the tutorial (don't have time for the rest, starting up Supreme Commander), and it seems alot like Red Alert (the last of these games I played) - and that's a good thing.

 

nullzero

Senior member
Jan 15, 2005
670
0
0
Im almost done downloading from the screenshots this looks nothing more then a eye candy C&C game. I dont see any new features added to the genre from this game... The lack of strategic zoom has really made me think if its even worth getting now. I dont think I can play a next gen RTS without strategic zoom. The mini map icons look like they are still just simple dots... having a strategic icons really helps a ton... I cant see C&C 3 having much potential with future support and mods. EA is known to have horrid support for games and patches.
 

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,976
1,178
126
Originally posted by: wazzledoozle
Act of War had better gameplay than this...

Act Of War is freaking great, you can get it for $20 bucks too. I feel it was one of the best RTS games I've played. I'd love to see a sequel!
 

pontifex

Lifer
Dec 5, 2000
43,804
46
91
Originally posted by: Soviet
Awsome demo, ive only played a skirmish game against an easy AI (have to win my first c&c 3 game) and i crushed it. The mammoth mk III's power is awsome, the way you can construct things while you fight is great. For an easy AI its not half bad either, sneak attacked me a few times and destroyed a tiberium spike. Also i dont think silos will be much of a problem, they hold a LOT, money in this game is like money in ra2, it flows nicely if you know what you're doing. The mammoth isnt as effective against infantry as its mk I counterpart, in that infantry do actually stand a chance, but it will still crush a good number before succumbing to them.

One thing i didnt like, trees look pretty bad. Thats about it though, the rest of the game is great. I can see those mobile defensive deploy things becoming very useful. Two mammoths are a good defence of a remote location too.

i found the silos annoying in the previous games and they are still annoying in this one.

i did play the campaign mission and it was pretty good. there may still be hope for it yet.
 

dguy6789

Diamond Member
Dec 9, 2002
8,558
3
76
I found this demo to be highly enjoyable. It is a true sequel to the Command & Conquer franchise.

The graphics are the best of any rts at the moment, and it even runs better than Supreme Commander at the same time. Load times are also very quick. The music did not seem to be that much of an impact unfortunately. I was really looking forward to a seriously awesome soundtrack. The explosions look very impressive though.

Played a few skirmishes, then the campaign and tutorial. The game play and the building of things is a combination of Red Alert 2 and Generals. It takes the best of both worlds and makes it work very nicely.

I have not had much time to try all of the units, but of the ones I have used, I can see that they all serve different purposes. One thing I dislike about some strategy games is that all you need to do is build a ton of one unit and run over the enemy base. This game does not look like it will be that way. You will have to put some thought into both the units you build and the way you handle them in combat.

The AI difficulty is by far the hardest I have seen in a C&C game. On easiest, it was simple. I won that one quite easily. Being the C&C veteran that I am, I cranked it up to the hardest. Man was I not ready for that. I bring it down to medium. A much more even matchup, although I did still end up losing on my first go.
 

pontifex

Lifer
Dec 5, 2000
43,804
46
91
Originally posted by: nullzero
Originally posted by: BD2003
Definitely enjoyed it. The gfx are excellent, and it plays very well. Not all too different from traditional C&C, but far better than the mess that was supreme commander. Looks great, runs great, plays great.

I have to disagree supreme commander is not a mess. It ranks up there as one of the best RTS games made to date (of course everyone has their opinion but the consensus is great game, from most gamers and game reviewers).

i played the demo of supreme commander and didn't like it. way too slow and sems like there's too much going on.
 

Czar

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
28,510
0
0
Originally posted by: pontifex
Originally posted by: nullzero
Originally posted by: BD2003
Definitely enjoyed it. The gfx are excellent, and it plays very well. Not all too different from traditional C&C, but far better than the mess that was supreme commander. Looks great, runs great, plays great.

I have to disagree supreme commander is not a mess. It ranks up there as one of the best RTS games made to date (of course everyone has their opinion but the consensus is great game, from most gamers and game reviewers).

i played the demo of supreme commander and didn't like it. way too slow and sems like there's too much going on.

press + to increase the speed
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
I liked SupCom, and I've been waiting for a decent C&C game since Red Alert 1, so I'll check this when I get home from work later today.
 

MikeyLSU

Platinum Member
Dec 21, 2005
2,747
0
71
just played the tut. I like the game so far. Gives that old C&C feel. Game ran very smooth. My problem with SupCom was that the demo ran like crap on my system and there is no reason for it. On SupCom, I could turn all settings down to low and still get the same FPS as if it were on high(between 10-20).

This game runs at 30 with everything on high settings and 2x AA. And it looks just as good as SupCom, so I'm thinking either the demo is crap or SupCom is coded like crap.

Looking forward to getting home today and playing a skirmish

Specs:
E4300 @2.2
2x1GB DDR2 667 RAM
x1950 pro
 

BD2003

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
16,815
1
81
Originally posted by: nullzero
Originally posted by: BD2003
Definitely enjoyed it. The gfx are excellent, and it plays very well. Not all too different from traditional C&C, but far better than the mess that was supreme commander. Looks great, runs great, plays great.

I have to disagree supreme commander is not a mess. It ranks up there as one of the best RTS games made to date (of course everyone has their opinion but the consensus is great game, from most gamers and game reviewers).

If I wanted to play a game staring at 2 color icons all day, at 10fps, I'd fire up my atari 2600. SC ran inexplicably like crap, didnt look all too good, which didnt matter because you were practically always zoomed out, and it was just build, mass, and rush.

Whereas playing CC3, each unit seemed more unique and useful, and the planning feature is just sweet. I unleashed shock and awe on the enemy by orchestrating a 3 pronged attack...it was just beautiful.
 

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
15
81
My rig is an opty 170 (stock) 2gb of ram and a 7900 GTO (stock) and im running with everything on high, AA included, resolution of 1280x1280. No slowdown at all, no lag at any time, this demo loads maps extremely fast and plays without any lag, the interface is quick and there is no slowdown using it or any crashes. This is looking very good from a technical standpoint.

As for the gameplay, ive had a chance to finish the missions and do the tutorial, they were pretty sweet, especially the mammoth tank mission where you sink battleships. The guy inside the tank dosent lie when he says "Unstoppable!" and "Armor superioity!" Dunno what theyve done to the mammoth since beta testing but ive noticed two things:

1. It can annihilate anything i came across easily, took on 3 scorpion light tanks and won, without railgun upgrade. (although i never faced it avatar warmechs or tripods) I gathered from what people said in the beta it would no longer be the most powerful unit but maybe they changed that to make it more competitive. In fact i destroyed the entire demo mission base with 1 mammoth tank, medium difficulty, that was tons of fun!!

2. It dosent heal itsself up to half health like they said it would. When its elite it heals all the way though just like an elite unit should. Maybe they traded this ability for more firepower?

Oh also about the mammoth, the turret ai? suppose thats what you would call it, is much improved from generals overlord, the turret turns quickly and intelligently for the most part. So if i order the thing to retreat it will do so with the turret firing backwards, generals did this too but i dont remember it being consistent, the turret would be all over the place with the overlord usually, might be just because the overlord was slower.
 

pontifex

Lifer
Dec 5, 2000
43,804
46
91
Originally posted by: Soviet

As for the gameplay, ive had a chance to finish the missions and do the tutorial, they were pretty sweet, especially the mammoth tank mission where you sink battleships. The guy inside the tank dosent lie when he says "Unstoppable!" and "Armor superioity!"

:confused: what game are you playing? my C&C3 demo doesn't have any missions with naval units... i didn't even get to build any vehicles except for Orcas in the demo campaign.
 

nullzero

Senior member
Jan 15, 2005
670
0
0
Played the demo was lackluster at best. Im going back to playing some Supreme Commander. No strategic zoom ruined any potential this game had for me. No innovation once so ever in the game, brings nothing new to the table for the genre. Plays like any C&C game but with a pretty face lift. I rate this demo C+ for a next gen RTS, the only good thing is the ease on computer requirments.
 

RichUK

Lifer
Feb 14, 2005
10,341
678
126
Originally posted by: nullzero
Played the demo was lackluster at best. Im going back to playing some Supreme Commander. No strategic zoom ruined any potential this game had for me. No innovation once so ever in the game, brings nothing new to the table for the genre. Plays like any C&C game but with a pretty face lift. I rate this demo C+ for a next gen RTS, the only good thing is the ease on computer requirments.

Supreme Commander sucks, it?s so boring. (IMO)

Anyway, just played both campaigns and a skirmish match on the demo. This game is excellent, I love it.

When the game comes out we will have to set up some AT multiplayer skirmishes for sure.
 

nullzero

Senior member
Jan 15, 2005
670
0
0
Originally posted by: RichUK
Originally posted by: nullzero
Played the demo was lackluster at best. Im going back to playing some Supreme Commander. No strategic zoom ruined any potential this game had for me. No innovation once so ever in the game, brings nothing new to the table for the genre. Plays like any C&C game but with a pretty face lift. I rate this demo C+ for a next gen RTS, the only good thing is the ease on computer requirments.

Supreme Commander sucks, it?s so boring. (IMO)

Anyway, just played both campaigns and a skirmish match on the demo. This game is excellent, I love it.

When the game comes out we will have to set up some AT multiplayer skirmishes for sure.

I guess you never played Supreme Commander online. The demo is not so good and the AI is not the best but online play is very competitive and fun. Most the people who are holding out on Supreme Commander will be buying it when the mods start flowing in. I have doubts C&C 3 will be played much past a year and a half. Supreme Commander on the other hand will be played with a dedicated community for at least 5 years.
 

MikeyLSU

Platinum Member
Dec 21, 2005
2,747
0
71
well, since we are grading C&C on the Demo, it is only fair to also grade SupCom on the demo also. I was very dissapointed in SupCom, like I said earlier, for no apparent reason, the game runs very poorly on my computer. Even on low settings, while C&C runs perfectly on everything on high.

The thing about SupCom that bothered me the most was the zooming that you love so much. Graphics were pretty good zoomed in, but you can't play the game when you are zoomed in too far. And when you are zoomed out to an apporopriate level, the graphics are not so great anymore.
 

clamum

Lifer
Feb 13, 2003
26,256
406
126
Originally posted by: RichUK
Originally posted by: nullzero
Played the demo was lackluster at best. Im going back to playing some Supreme Commander. No strategic zoom ruined any potential this game had for me. No innovation once so ever in the game, brings nothing new to the table for the genre. Plays like any C&C game but with a pretty face lift. I rate this demo C+ for a next gen RTS, the only good thing is the ease on computer requirments.

Supreme Commander sucks, it?s so boring. (IMO)

Anyway, just played both campaigns and a skirmish match on the demo. This game is excellent, I love it.

When the game comes out we will have to set up some AT multiplayer skirmishes for sure.

Do you know what sort of multiplayer support it will have? Something like AOE III's?
 

nullzero

Senior member
Jan 15, 2005
670
0
0
Originally posted by: MikeyLSU
well, since we are grading C&C on the Demo, it is only fair to also grade SupCom on the demo also. I was very dissapointed in SupCom, like I said earlier, for no apparent reason, the game runs very poorly on my computer. Even on low settings, while C&C runs perfectly on everything on high.

The thing about SupCom that bothered me the most was the zooming that you love so much. Graphics were pretty good zoomed in, but you can't play the game when you are zoomed in too far. And when you are zoomed out to an apporopriate level, the graphics are not so great anymore.

I admit the demo for supreme commander is the same quality as the C&C 3 demo we will have to see how the final game comes out. Im skeptical though after playing some many EA games demos that there will be much of an improvement... BF2142 as example was the same as the retail game just about. Supreme Commander retail showed a huge improvement over the demo. Mikey can you stand playing an RTS without strategic zoom? I play on dual screen with supreme commander so I get the best of both worlds (strategic zoom map on second monitor zoomed in base on the first monitor).
 

CVSiN

Diamond Member
Jul 19, 2004
9,289
1
0
Originally posted by: QueBert
Originally posted by: wazzledoozle
Act of War had better gameplay than this...

Act Of War is freaking great, you can get it for $20 bucks too. I feel it was one of the best RTS games I've played. I'd love to see a sequel!

act of war had a sequel...

 

RichUK

Lifer
Feb 14, 2005
10,341
678
126
Originally posted by: clamum
Originally posted by: RichUK
Originally posted by: nullzero
Played the demo was lackluster at best. Im going back to playing some Supreme Commander. No strategic zoom ruined any potential this game had for me. No innovation once so ever in the game, brings nothing new to the table for the genre. Plays like any C&C game but with a pretty face lift. I rate this demo C+ for a next gen RTS, the only good thing is the ease on computer requirments.

Supreme Commander sucks, it?s so boring. (IMO)

Anyway, just played both campaigns and a skirmish match on the demo. This game is excellent, I love it.

When the game comes out we will have to set up some AT multiplayer skirmishes for sure.

Do you know what sort of multiplayer support it will have? Something like AOE III's?

I'm not too sure, hopefully the online play will be good as I look forward to playing this game online. I think the max players will most likely be 8.

The two player map in the demo was pretty big, so going by that an 8 player map will be absolutely huge, which is good for online game play.