Tiberium

Preview

Command and Conquer goes first person

July 2nd, 2008 by Keaton Arksey

previewed on PC

First Person Shooter

If there were a magical resource that could be used for a ridiculous amount of uses, what do you think would happen? Sure, people could be civil and share it, but that wouldn�t make for very fun gameplay, now would it? Tiberium, a First Person Shooter from EA Los Angeles � the people behind Command and Conquer III and the Medal of Honor series � hopes to prove that point.

In case you hadn�t notice, Tiberium takes its name from the precious resource from the aforementioned Command and Conquer series. Think of it like oil, a highly valuable resource desired by many, and fought over by all.

Of course, a FPS based upon a real time strategy series, especially one based on a beloved franchise like Command and Conquer sounds a tad risqu�. In fact, it isn�t the first Command and Conquer game to try it. Command and Conquer Renegade, another FPS that, while received fairly well, wasn�t incredibly successful.

Action

For those who don�t know Command and Conquer, here�s a short summary: after discovering Tiberium, two factions war over the material. The religious Nod and ruling GDI (who also play the role of protagonist) are warring over the material when the alien Scrin race shows up. Surprise, surprise, they want it too.

Eleven years after the events of Command and Conquer III: Tiberium Wars, the Scrin have been defeated, and you step into the shoes of Ricardo Vega. Vega is a GDI field commander pulled out of retirement (�I�m too old for this S#@^�) to investigate the abandoned Scrin tower Omega. Needless to say, something isn�t right, and some aliens are going to get their heads blown off. Command and Conquer fans will also be excited to hear that Tiberium plans to delve deeper into the origins of the GDI and Nod.

Sounds and� guns

The game uses the Unreal Engine 3.0, and looks like you would expect it to. Smoke trails trail behind grenades and rockets, and dust rises from the ground as mechs walk around. The visuals look good, even if they don�t seem to break the sci-fi mold. The game also utilizes a technology called Adaptive Sound eXperience, or ASX. Basically, it means that an AI will look at what is going on in game and deciding what noises to increase or dampen.

Unlike in other shooter games, you only use one gun, the �GD-10�. Instead of picking up new guns, the GD-10 has 4 firing modes. A carbine rail-gun, grenade launcher, sniper rifle, and anti-air rocket launcher. Some of the modes have their own unique features as well. For example, after firing the grenade launcher you can hold down the fire button, activating a gravity pulse that allows movement of the grenade after it hits the ground. Instead of having a HUD to tell you how much ammo you have, the amount of ammo is shown by a hologram on the gun itself.