Red Alert 3 Preview | Posted at 11:38 PM
IGN posted a preview of the upcoming title Red Alert 3. I also watched the developer walkthrough which was a good 15 minutes of real footage.
I've been a die hard fan of the CNC franchise, but that was for Westwood's titles (up until Red Alert 2 really, that had EA influence though). After that, the only CNC game that got any respect from me was Tiberium Wars, but it still wasn't catchy enough for me. I loved RA2 and Yuri's Revenge and I think it had a lot to do with its colorfulness, comic humor, and outrageous units.
I can't believe I am admitting this, but RA3 actually looks worthy of being RA2's successor. CNC 3 was a step in the right direction, a bigger step than Generals (finally, no more accursed bulldozers!), but RA3 looks like the real deal. What I noticed most, and I hope will stay, is that they use all of the same sound effects. Granted, for new units they could record more, but I am really glad they're sticking with the original sounds. I loved them and I couldn't see Red Alert without them, unless of course they are world's better. What's more is that they kept the same music.
My impression is that they'll be replacing most of those assets because it would make sense to tackle that last as you can build on your previous assets to minimize development time. I hope that they keep a lot of it or at least make the new SFX on the same tune as previous franchise installments. What interests me greatly is the new naval aspect. I've not played a game with a strong naval RTS element and I loved using naval units in RA. Building bases on the water sounds awesome.
Apparently there's going to be a new co-op campaign mode, that will be pretty fun. Co-op maps on RA2 were a lot of fun, I hope that proves true for this. They'll also be featuring FMV cut scenes ala CNC 3. From experience, I expect it to be really cheesy, but damn if the original RA's cut scenes weren't bad ass. CNC 3 just was dumb and super cheesy. RA2 was pretty decent but not as cool as the original. Maybe it was because I was 8 when I played the original RA and everything was badass about that game.
If they have good writers and good actors, they could pull off some decent video. But really, looking at the material RA3 has to work with, you can't expect much seriousness to go on here.
Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing how it fares. It will be on Xbox and PC, but I want to LAN it so PC it'll have to be. Maybe I will have bought a better video card by then to run it at full specs. On that note, SLi is a friggin' joke. Two 7900GS's can't match my friend's 8800GT. What a load of crap.
