Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars - Xbox 360 Q&A Feature

With the PC release of the long-awaited third instalment in the Command & Conquer's Tiberium series just a matter of days away, TVG decided to look further ahead - to the Xbox 360 version of the game, which is coming later in 2007. Speaking at a recent event in London's Covent Garden, we caught up with Raj Joshi, Producer of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars on Xbox 360 - Joshi has previously worked on a number of titles for EA, including the Xbox 360 version of 2006's Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth II.

Command & Conquer 3 is the second RTS to be developed for Xbox 360 by EA; what lessons have been learnt from the first title - Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth II?

There were a couple of things; intuitive controls - in Battle for Middle-Earth II it was a big struggle to think how you consolidate the controls down to a console interface. The [analogue] sticks are a no brainer; moving the camera around and zooming them in are things that people are used to, but how do you maximise the four buttons on top, and the four auxiliary buttons?

For that, you establish an interface that you feel works, but you have to draw a line in the sand and say, "OK, this is what we're sticking with for better or worse." So we buried some of the functionality deeper into the controls [in Battle for Middle-Earth II], but we tried to bring them closer to the surface here. So setting up your control groups is faster, going through your tab system, and setting up your command bar where you can access anything on the map - build, select, anything you want to do - even separating the axis [of the command bar]. In Battle for Middle-Earth II, we had an interface that wrapped around; it went horizontal and vertical. The thing is that people are very intelligent, and videogame player are very adept at learning new systems, but it's less important that we train them and more important that the moment they play something, they find it intuitive right off the bat. So optimising the controls was a key lesson we learnt.

The second lesson was optimising the software to make it run more quickly because your controls are completely tied to the frame rate. Unfortunately, when you got a hundred units on the screen in Battle for Middle-Earth II, things would all of a sudden start to become sluggish and your ability to navigate would become sluggish. So now we keep the frame rate up, optimise things a great deal; we understand the architecture a little bit more of the Xbox 360 now, so regardless of whether there's a hundred or two hundred units on screen, you can still do the resource management and the base management on or off screen.

A number of RTS titles released recently, such as Company of Heroes and Supreme Commander, have been trying to push the genre forward - for a long time it was bogged down with samey titles. How does Command & Conquer 3 push the genre forward?

The cool thing about Command & Conquer is that it has a strong legacy, and there is an expectation of what kind of gameplay to expect. One of the key things, which is something that you won't see in many titles, which may be a risk, is the Full Motion Video. There's an hour and a half of cut scenes with an amazing array of well-known actors and actresses, and then everything is integrated - as you go through the single-player missions, you get FMV updates through your mini-map, Full Motion Video appears in there. So that's one thing that it brings, instead of being just a videogame it bridges a number of media types, which I think is something that's interesting and I hope will appeal to both original C&C users and new C&C users.

I think Supreme Commander is a cool game, but one of things that they had to sacrifice is their aesthetic detail; their environments are seemingly limited in the kind of depth that they have. Command & Conquer has some amazing environments from the one that we saw [in the presentation], which was a small US town in a Blue Zone with very little Tiberium infestation.

Aesthetically and story-wise, the idea of Tiberium is an amazing resource but also the worst enemy of everybody, slowly infesting and taking over, and linking that to the introduction of the aliens and their link to Tiberium, is very compelling. There's thirty-eight missions, which is an amazing amount of content for people to play, and then you begin to bridge out - people will probably spend more time playing the multiplayer version - but the quality of the storyline, which is perhaps something that maybe RTS players aren't necessarily seeking but is a definite benefit to the compulsion of it all.

There's great online play, the addition of the Live Vision camera, which is something that we weren't really sure if we should just support it, but seeing your opponent's reaction as you decimate their base really adds to the experience. Plus, it's a bit like hanging-out with your friends while you're playing the game, which bridges a bit of space and time there.

I think single-player missions are great, along the lines of [Command & Conquer] Red Alert from years ago, and just the immersion - visually I enjoy watching people play because of things like the particle effects and the types of units there are. Like the Avatars being able to take apart a Flame Tank and put a flamethrower onto your arm, I think is fantastic - I just think that there's a lot of interesting things going on. Not to take anything away from the innovations of Company of Heroes or Supreme Commander, but the whole package of C&C is something that's compelling to me, and I'm not typically an RTS player.

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is coming out on both PC and Xbox 360, and EA aren't exactly renowned for being tied down to single console platforms - can we expect an announcement of a PlayStation3 version shortly?

Currently, we're an Xbox 360 exclusive. We're looking at a PS3 version, but the hardware is very different, and one of the core things to the Xbox 360 version is the online gameplay. Microsoft has done an excellent job with Xbox Live to make it very easy to play against other people, and we worked very closely with them to make sure that integration is seamless with that. So that's probably the biggest hurdle, but we do recognise that the PS3 is a valuable console - it's a slow adoption rate, but it's here to stay, so it's something that we're looking into.

The franchise is typically spread out into expansion packs in the past; despite the fact that you're still working towards bringing the main game out, do you anticipate releasing future expansion packs over Xbox Live or is that too restrictive?

Xbox Live is a great service, and we have everything set up in the game to be able to add more content. There will be additional multiplayer levels downloadable through packages and then an expansion pack is something that we're definitely looking into; one is expected for PC and we want to give the same amount of support for the console. I can't go into any specifics, but expect that Xbox Live is core for any Xbox 360 product, and that is something that we want to make sure C&C3 is well represented. We want to make sure that it's alive and well on Xbox Live.

Looking back at some of the RTS competitors of Command & Conquer 3, there seems to be a move to split or even remove traditional resource and micro-management from the gameplay. Was the decision not to follow suit with C&C3 purely for legacy reasons, or is there another explanation?

The designers tried to focus on tailoring the gameplay similar to the Red Alert experience, but there's definitely a division in the management and resources in the battle. Part of that is almost to minimise the amount of management that you're doing in order to allow access to them, but also to get you into the heat of battle.

Especially for the console version, we're trying to create something that's accessible to new users but also give the same type of experience that people are expecting in an RTS. So there are some decisions that were made to mitigate that difference; try and make it accessible, but also if you're a control freak, try and give that kind of ability to manage everything the way you want to.

Command & Conquer 3 will see the introduction of the Scrin for the first time in the franchise; how has their appearance changed the dynamic of the game - is the mystique surrounding them now blown away?

It's kind of curious because it's the first time that we're bringing the third faction in; everybody who is well versed in Command & Conquer all think of GDI or Nod - and Kane is of course an integral character. But the interesting thing is how the two factions see the Scrin; GDI sees the aliens as invaders, and Nod see them as visitors - almost a continuation of their lore, "This is God's way and they're coming down." The alien race is really amazing to play because they're completely different; the whole nature of the units, the way their buildings are structures, and their weapons systems, are completely different to GDI or Nod.

It's understood by most C&C players that the aliens are going to be the third faction, but it's not something that's immediately apparent. As you progress through the campaigns, the Full Motion Video shows you that there's something going on, but nobody really understands the full detail of it. But as you complete the GDI campaign, and then the Nod campaign, you unlock the third faction. My guess is that they're going to be really well received because the way you interact with the aliens is completely different.

Thanks to Raj Joshi for answering our questions; Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars will be released on PC on March 30th - the Xbox 360 version will be released later in 2007.