Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
Preview
The long anticipated part 3 is finally here
by Howie Howard
previewed on PC
Finally here
After a very long seven year wait, the legions of Command & Conquer: Red Alert fans can finally sit back with the happy feeling that a sequel to this popular franchise is right around the corner.
Rumors circulating on the Web have been speculating for years that since EA shut down the original Red Alert developer Westwood Studios, another sequel would never see the light of day. The powers that be over at EA however know pretty much what they are doing and they know the value of the Red Alert franchise. Many of Westwood’s former programmers and graphical artists are still employed by the conglomerate. They gathered up these former artists to make sure the sequel that finally provides a climax to this popular real time strategy game will burst onto the gaming scene in a few weeks. Red Alert 3 debuts first for the PC, and then sometime during the summer months the Play Station 3 and Xbox 360 versions will come our way.
Set apart from the rest
Command & Conquer has been with us for quite some time. In fact it has spawned many expansion packs throughout the years from the popular Generals title to Tiberium Wars among others. So what makes the Red Alert series special? Personally I believe that Red Alert’s rather overt humorous way in which they are able to present the evils of war has set it apart from the other games in the series.
Red Alert 3 takes that precept even further by adding a sci-fi alternate timeline scenario in to the equation. The weapons technology incorporates a kind of ‘what if’ element into the game. What if Germany was actually able to perfect the use of some of their wacky and at the time weird weapons? What if Japan was able to pull off an upset and come out victorious in the Pacific? We will never know, mainly because of the simple fact that it didn’t happen that way in our timeline. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 tries its best to give its view of the ‘what if’ scenarios and it succeeds at what it has set out to accomplish.
The previous two Red Alert games consisted of all out warfare between the Soviet Union and the American and European Allies. Red Alert 3, with the use of an alternate timeline, adds to that conflict by throwing in a third combatant nation to make it a three for all winner World War III battle to the end. The third entrant in this war to end all wars is called the Empire of the Rising Sun. The Rising Sun Empire is in fact the Japanese Empire that we all loved to hate back during WW II.
