Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars - Xbox 360 First Impressions Preview

Think of famous RTS franchises and Command & Conquer will undoubtedly come close to the top. The series, which first arrived back in 1995 along with Blizzard's debut of Warcraft, is an icon of the genre despite being left high and dry thanks to the 2003 release of C&C: Generals. Having focused on the likes of Generals and the Red Alert series, Electronic Arts' Los Angeles Studio will be returning to the Tiberium series of Command & Conquer games - the first time in eight years.

Following a behind closed-doors unveiling at E3 2006, EA has slowly revealed further details on the third part in the series, including news that a third faction (the long elusive alien species, the Scrin) would be added to the franchise for the first time. At the time, Tiberium Wars was only announced for PC, but it wasn't that long after that an Xbox 360 version was also confirmed.

RTS titles have never been particularly successful on consoles in the past, due to awkward control systems and unforgiving visuals, and it's only with the introduction of High-Definition platforms that the opportunity to replicate the look of PC-based Real-Time Strategy games has arisen. So far, only EA has taken advantage of the opportunity created by the likes of Xbox 360, releasing Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth II on the system in 2006, though it'll no doubt be followed by others in the future (Obsidian's Aliens RTS and Ensemble's Halo Wars are just two that instantly spring to mind). So with a return to arms for both GDI and the Brotherhood of Nod, what does Kane's next-gen console debut have in store? TVG recently visited the green-tinged future for first hand look...

If you're happy and you know it, Nod your head

For gamers unaware of where in the Tiberium timeline Command & Conquer 3 takes place, the game is set over sixteen years after the events of C&C: Tiberium Sun. Earth has been split up into three zones by the Global Defence Initiative according to the levels of Tiberium infestation: Red Zones are Tiberium wastelands, deserts of green crystals that make up 30% of the surface; Yellow Zones are heavily populated areas of the Earth that are also under significant outcrops of Tiberium; Blue Zones however, are seen as the last bastions of mankind, safe areas where little Tiberium is found. With GDI carving up the world, it's perhaps little surprise to find that the Brotherhood of Nod and it's expanding population of supporters. No longer a dangerous terrorist group, Nod is now the dominant super-power, supplanting GDI in the process.

Forgetting the look of the game, which will be identical to the PC version (depending on the resolution of the PC monitor), key to the console version, is how it plays on the Xbox 360 controller. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars draws heavily from the earlier Battle for Middle-Earth II, though there was an admission by C&C Xbox 360 Producer, Raj Joshi, that the control system has been improved and tightened since then. Claims that a jittery frame-rate in the Tolkien-set title disrupted the control system were also acknowledged, allowing an opportunity for Joshi to confirm that measures were being taken to ensure it remained around 20-25 FPS. Getting to grips with the control set up for the first time, it's quite interesting that many people were rotating the gameworld more than you'd expect in a PC-based RTS - our brief look at the game's PC version saw a lot less rotating - perhaps a natural result of the two analogue sticks that control the camera. Fast and more responsive than perhaps you'd think, no doubt helped by a more refined user interface, the system will be picked up by veterans of Battle for Middle-Earth II on Xbox 360.

Not wanting to give away too much of the plot from either GDI or Nod Campaigns (let alone the third Scrin faction), it was left to the game's Skirmish mode to demonstrate what we can all expect later in the year. But not before a cut-scene from the Nod opening, introducing the return of Kane and two of his commanders (including Josh "Lost" Holloway and Tricia "Battlestar Galactica" Helfer), showed the return of that classic C&C element: the Full-Motion Video. In this Blue Zone skirmish, characterised by the lack of Tiberium deposits in the map, Nod's forces had to build up and destroy the defences set up by the GDI. Besides giving an example of the skirmish gameplay, it also allowed a sneak preview into some of the units from both sides, with the sort of high-tech gadgetry (including some gliding troops) that typify the game's sci-fi settings. For instance, Nod players will have access to Avatars, mech-walkers that can destroy other units (including its own), and assimilate their weaponry for its own use, such as flamethrowers or stealth capabilities. Not wanting to follow what is increasingly becoming a trend in the RTS genre, EALA is rooting Command & Conquer 3 directly in the more traditional structure, including resource micro-management and tank-rushing.

Eye spy with my GDI...

The Xbox 360 version will also feature functionality for the somewhat maligned Xbox Live Vision Camera, allowing gamers the opportunity to see some of the mugs (I mean 'friends') they're playing against. Multiple Picture-in-Picture screens will be available on screen, though not large enough to overwhelm the action and the interface. Besides being able to gurn to your fellow gamers in the Xbox Live Multiplayer modes, a virtual video podium will show the winners and losers after the end of the battle.

But away from superficial elements, the heart of the Multiplayer mode on Xbox 360 will focus on five different gametypes, four of which will be exclusive to the console. So what are these gametypes? Trust us when we say that they sound like the exclusive modes would be better suited to the First-Person Shooter genre: how does Capture & Hold, King of the Hill, Capture the Flag, and Siege grab you?

It remains too early to make a final judgement, but there are indications that the Xbox 360 version of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars will struggle to emerge from the shadow of the PC edition. Whilst there's little doubt that EA are trying to implement an improved RTS experience on the console, there are still plenty of questions over the genre's viability to jump from the PC platform.