Other C&C 10th Anniversary Goodies.
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--> CNCNZ Interviews ex-Westwood crew: The good people from CNCNZ interviewed several Petroglyph emplyees and Rade Stojsavljevic from Activision (producer from Tiberian Sun and the expansion Firestorm). The best interview was certainly from Adam Isgreen, chief designer from Firestorm. Here's a snippet:
" 8] Although the franchise is now in other hands, are you able to disclose any further details on scrapped Westwood projects related to C&C such as the potential titles - Renegade 2, C&C 3: Tiberian Twilight and Continuum?
Some brief stuff:
* Renegade 2 was a Red-Alert 2 inspired version of Renegade that embraced the C&C multiplayer game mode as the core game play. You could build defenses on build pads, destroy and rebuild buildings, and directly or indirectly command units. The story was about a renegade Soviet commander who launches an assault on U.S. soil to restore pride to his family (He was a Romanov) after their defeat in RA2.
o There was to be some humor in the missions - you had an Idaho mission that you could knock over a giant fake potato that was the town's symbol and roll it down a hill at enemies.
o "1941" inspired boardwalk scenario with giant ferris wheel.
o The giant ants were back in yet another secret mission.
o There was an entire sub-game with spies stealing enemy tech and dogs detecting them.
o Yes, you could play as a dog. The catch was you couldn't communicate / type to your friends, but you could bark.
o The first mission was to take place at the Marin Headlands with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Kirovs were bombing the city, while a giant squid took down an Allied Carrier in the bay right behind your base. Epic coolness!
* C&C 3 went through many incarnations and changes over the years. Some of the intended C&C 3 units ended up in Yuri's (yes, that's how long ago we were planning stuff for it), and others survived into other games (Generals, ZH, etc.) while others never saw the light of day.
o Can't say any more. Ask EA.
* Continuum was a MMORPG for people that didn't like MMORPGs (i.e. stand there and swing).
o "C&C meets Zelda meets Counterstrike" - that was the pitch line I always used. C&C universe, Zelda-like controls, Counterstrike style tactical combat.
o Had instanced "crisis zones" in it (this was EQ1 era, remember), hubbed flight routes, scripted boss battles, and a lot of other ideas that have shown up in all the MMORPG since. I guess they were good ideas!
o Set in the Tiberian future, with GDI, Nod, Mutants and CABAL. Scrin to be added later. We had Los Angeles half underwater, Area 51, Dino island, Newark airport a mutant city, etc.
o Combat was much more fluid and movement-oriented than most MMORPGs. Range was important for weapons use, and there were layers of counters for the weapon types.
o Creatures had many console-game-boss sensibilities, in that you could expose weaknesses on them and then hit those for extra damage."
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Playing as a dog in Renegade 2 would be funny. Anyway, these games will never see the light of the day, and in case EA decides to release any of them, expect them different than this. You can read all ex-Westwoodian interviews at CNCNZ.
--> Louis Castle Interviewed at C&C Generals Official Site: One of the ways that the guys from EALA helped with the C&C 10th Anniversary was with Louis Castle interview. He started Westwood with Bret Sperry and today he is vice-president from EALA. He was one of the main minds behind the C&C series.They already had the part 1 of the interview a while ago. The part 2 was posted this week.
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"2] How do the methods of working for EA differ from those of Working for Westwood studios?
Conceptually, EA and Westwood are very similar – both companies are home to passionate game makers that are focused on making unforgettable games. They differ dramatically, however, on execution. Before EA acquired Westwood in 1998, we built just about any product we wanted without any idea how the market would react to it. We made products from Monopoly and the Lion King to Blade Runner – it was fun. But we also had the burden of having to ship many titles per year to keep our publishing arm active. That was tough. Once we became part of EA, we began to focus a great deal more on building fewer, better titles and try to make each one a hit. That is still the goal for our games today. We still strive to make games that touch millions of people worldwide. The market is tougher than ever and there is a lot of hard work that goes into making a hit game, but the rewards of shipping a successful title are great - creatively and economically."
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You can read the whole interview HERE. You may notice my red and underline things, but I wonder what are the definitions of 'his market'. If it's Lord Of The Rings, then it's a bad sign. I'm aware that generalizations tends to be easily equivocated or blind towards certain and important point, however, it's also clearly visible their inumerous attempts to collect opinions from many fans around the world and their approach with the community this year, which is a very positive thing. We'll see the result of it in the next Command & Conquer games.
Other than this little remark, our secret agents confirmed that some of the questions were altered or censoured inside the corporation. They were originally sent by CNC King and Sonic from CNCNZ based on the questions from the Petroglyph interviews. It would have been nice if he could post more information about the scrapped C&C projects like Adam Isgreen did. Experts says that trust only works if it's reciprocal.
-> Hexetic released his C&C Top Ten video: He released the C&C Top Ten video more than a week ago at Planet CnC. This video has the 10 best features from C&C games according to Hexetic, explained in hilarious ways. If you haven't seen this one yet, you'd better watch it! It's a very funny stuff, a masterpiece! Check it out HERE.
I hope you enjoy these things if you haven't seen it yet and a big thanks for EALA for their nice participation on the C&C 10th Anniversary.
