C&C Generals GONE GOLD

I beta tested this game so here is my take on it.


Excellent game overall. The beta test was pretty quiet, that's because they had problems with the routers for the first month as new people kept coming in, and then it seemed like EAP almost did stop supporting it, although there wasn't many problems with the game to begin with.

Graphics: amazing, as you can see from the screenshots. Explosions are beautiful, you see shells leaving small craters, vehicles look more damaged and begin to flame as they take more damage (same with buildings). They blow up, sometimes leaving a burned out shell of a vehicle, sometimes leaving nothing but flying debris, sometimes the stuff get's launched into the air like 40 feet. Very cool effects, the super weapons are superb also. The landscape is varied and nice with good textures used on em. The 3 sides also have their own distinctive flair (especially the GLA), the water looks nice too.

Sound: great sounds, you hear tanks rumbling, shooting, machine gun firing, explotions, i *think* it supports soround sound, at least it sounded WAY better in 5.1 then 2.1, especially during huge battles, sounded like it was all around.

Perfomance: Ran pretty well on my 2.2 gig, geforce MX 400, 512 mb ram, windows XP system, although the beta was locked at 800x600. During huge battles it did crawl sometimes.

On my pentium 2.4, geforce 4 4400, 1024 ram, windows XP, machine it ran smooth as silver with everything all the way up and i never once had slow down.

Netcode: could use some work, i couldn't play it ALL during school on my college network (port was blocked or something) at home on my cable 1v1 games ran smooth as long as it was someone within a reasonable distance (even had some smooth games with people in europe tho), 4v4 games were harder to establish, because it seemed that if even 1 person was a little unstable the entire game went to hell.

Gameplay: This is possibly where this game shines the brightest (hey who would've imagined that). The thing that strikes me is that you can OUTPLAY an opponent, using strategy and tactics actually works in this game. A small group of rocket soldiers on a hill in a well placed bunker, will take out 20 tanks coming up the hill in a column. If they didn't include bunker buster units in their army, sucks for them. Rushing is helped by the fact that rocket soldiers are some of the best units in the game for the price, they do EXTREME damage to vehicles. While some of you may be like "don't people just cheese the rocket men?". Well they try, but you can combat this. Run the troops over, use a unit that is effective against infantry, use air power, special weapons etc. Every unit has a purpose in this game. I've won games where using superior tactics allowed me to beat opponents that outscored me by 30,000 points or more.

It's a great feeling after playing wacraft 3 where idiotic shit happens over and over, mass skeleton cheese, mass gryphon cheese, towering bullshit, creep abuse, lucky items. Just really stupid shit, in C&C perfecting a build order you got online doesn't mean you'll win, because there are many counters to strategies.

As for units in the game, they are great. They include infantry, tanks, some other sweet vehicles (gattling tank, flame tank, radiation tank, humvee, medical jeep, bomb trucks etc), as well as several aircraft for the chinese and the united states.

Each side has it's own distinct playstyle too. The USA is high tech with few powerful units all with special abilities. The chinese have cheaper units, that are overall weaker, but they can make large masses of em. The wild card is the GLA who have pretty much a bunch of gimmick units. Beginners will struggle with them, pros will make your head spin with some of the strats. (build a tunnel system to the back of their base, get some good base wrecking equipment, hack into the enemies systems, shut down the power for a minute or two, and unleash on their base, taking out vital structures and then running back into the tunnel before they get back, although i'm not sure if the hackers were chinese of GLA units, i think each side had a similar unit). Just cool strategies like that. GLA had a sniper guy that was nearly invisible and could kill vehicle crews so the GLA infantry units could take em over. See that 2000 dollar super tank from China? Watch out or the GLA will just kill the crew and take your tank.


Finally, the generals system is great, as you start off, you earn experience as you kill enemy units, and this in turn gives stars. Each side has different skills too choose some, these are some of the REALLY cool skills in the game. (they are usually on a timer and refresh so the earlier you get experience the better). The united states can get paratroopers, or upgrade to the mighty Aurora Bombers, some skills have 3 levels, so the more starts you put in them, the stronger they get. (level 1 paratroop drop is 10 guys, level 3 is 30 guys. 30 infantry units in this game is a force to be reckoned with, especially if the enemy isn't prepared for it). The GLA can place and angry mob anywhere on the map, at level 3 this skill is deadly. See those American powerplants over there? Spawn 25 guys with AK 47's right on top of them and take out the enemies power and shut his radar down.

Perhaps one of the best is the air drop mines for the chinese. You can get these right off the bat with your initial star, and they are killer. One time my 3 tanks got into a fight with 10 american tanks, they quickly destroyed me, but i had some rocket men coming up to garrison in a bunker. The enemy saw this and started retreating his tanks back to his base, I guess at which route he would take (over a bridge, quickest way to his base), I para dropped the mines right on his side of the bridge, as his tanks retreated they ran RIGHT over the minefield. I saw about 6 or 7 of his tanks go up in flames. He shouted "WTF" and quit...har har.

anyways that is my take on this game, I suggest you guys try it out, it's really above a lot fo the crap that is getting released these days.

will this game run acceptably on this system:

750 MHz Duron
256 PC133
64 meg GF2 Ultra
?

BTW, what are the system requirements for this game? The website doesn't list them...

TANK RUSH!!!

Holy fucking shit Evil EA gave another exclusive demo to Vileplanet? I hate them.

I wish I could take back Sim4 and get this one instead :(

wheres the demo?

THE STREETS WILL ROLL WITH THE BLOOD OF THE NON-BELIEVERS!

I can't wait! These guys do the C&C world mucho justice!

So is this game worth 50 bucks? I was pretty disappointed in WC3... I mean, it was a good game, but it lacked some of the coolness that the C&C franchise always has.

Screenshots look damn spiffy though, that much I will say... unf unf unf!

This game looks so pretty I'll have to buy it. :(

I can be such a superficial bitch.

Heh, anyone else notice Japanese text on the Chinese buildings? :P

http://members.rogers.com/historicprints/generals/Generals-China-Propaganda%20Center.jpg

"Please do not enter."

System specs ?

does this still require those requirements of 2 ghz machine and stuff?

I've owned every C&C game and expansion, but I'm waay too busy playing AA and Simcity4 to even consider getting this one right away. Besides, I haven't even installed Warcraft3 yet.

GRAMMAR NERD ALERT

EA is a company, therefore it's an "it" not a "they," as in "confirmed their 3d strategy game." It should be "confirmed its 3d etc."

The amazingly huge beta test for this only had 2 patches... in a 2 month test...

pre-ordered using the $15 coupon i got from ea for beta testing that crappy sims online game. at least i got something out of it :)

Congrats to Mark Skaggs. He finished what he started anyway.

i don't get it. I see lots of tanks and infantry. What else does this game offer? I don't see any planes or ships.

I'm waiting for a successor to the late great Total Annihilation.. is this it?

all you have to do to play the demo is pay money to file planet!

THis is being released before Splinter Cell? bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The beta was horrible. A new patch came out before it shipped, and that was cool. Then a patch came out like a month later that fixed some stuff. But then NOTHING, no one plays it, getting online to the beta shows like 5 people online, woo. If I could ebay my beta and get more then what it cost, I would have a long time ago. Disapointing this game could have been something special, but if the game is like the beta in any way at all. Fun single player for about a day. Woo.

Hell yea its comes out the day before my birthday!

Hell yea, perfect birthday gift considering my Birthday is the 12.

I like gooooooold!

I got the mp beta and played a bit. It's beta so I can't complain about the performance (even tho it's locked at 800x600), but the gfx are nice and the gameplay is of course pretty similar to the other WW games. I'm not a huge RTS fan but I thought it was pretty good...

Can any of the beta testers comment on this game ? Pros and Cons ?

please dont just say:

OMG HI2U THIS GAME IS GREAT KTHXBYE
or
THIS GAME SUX BALLS

BOOOIINGGG!!!!

Awesome I can't wait till this comes out.

My birthday is in one week, so I guess I'll just preorder it. I seem to remember some past news being on pre-ordering this game last week.

Sweet. This game looks great.

that perspective thing is pretty coool.

i need a new computer :\

Did anyone notice the "All your base are belong to us" voiceover in trailer #3 at the end? I just heard that ..heheh

Is this game supposed to be good (ie new and revolutionary in some way?). I'm burnt out on C&C after playing the original first one so much (which was great).

this game will be huge.

Looks happy! Hmm.

Oh yeah, I think I HAVE to buy this. It just looks spiffy!