World of Warcraft & Team Fortress 2 continue to give PC gamers updates

It’s interesting for me to see the “evolution” of the PC gaming landscape. Growing up on Doom, Quake, and Duke Nukem, I’ve lived through the rise and decline of the PC gaming scene, from the introduction of first person shooters, real-time strategy games, online multiplayer, 4X strategy games, and now MMORPGs. If you’ve also grown up with fond memories of Doom & Quake, I highly recommend checking out the book, Masters of Doom. It’s a well-written book that chronicles how John Romero and John Carmack met, formed id Software, and completely shook up the gaming industry. Having said that, today’s entry will contain my more general thoughts on the PC gaming landscape, and why I’m still excited for its present and future.

It’s funny to see how the last twenty or so years in gaming went – PC games spawned new PC games such as FPS and RTS games, and introduced multiplayer gaming. I remember the days of 3DFX, Voodoo cards, and OpenGL. Since then, consoles have really grown up. FPS gaming and multiplayer on consoles have pretty much caught up to PC games, albeit the lack of certain extras among many of them such as free content updates, dedicated servers, etc. RTS games and 4X strategy games are still in their infancy on the consoles, and I can’t really see them taking off too much due to the fact that while the lack of a mouse for a FPS game is not nearly as bad as a lack of a mouse in a RTS/4X game where you’re just navigating around a map. Still, games like Halo Wars and Civilization Revolution are trying. I’ve yet to see a true console MMORPG yet on the 360 outside of Final Fantasy XI (ugh), so maybe we have a ways to go before that starts happening.

In any case, it looks like the PC gaming scene has changed drastically, forming silos around specific companies and their storefronts. Whereas the 360 has the Live Marketplace and the PS3 has the PSN store, there is no real unifying Windows store. Microsoft finally released a Windows Live Gaming store this past week, but it’s far too late and the Windows “Live Gaming” scene is practically dead anyway. I’m appreciating what each of these major PC companies are doing to not only keep PC gaming alive, but to really set themselves up to be the saviors of PC gaming.

The first and most prominent company to keep things going is Valve. If you’ve played Half-Life, Counter-Strike, etc. then you’re probably someone that  can’t dislike the company. Nowadays PC gamers have Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 to play, and while Valve has not quite delivered what they promised in their support for the Left 4 Dead franchise, Team Fortress 2 just continues to ridiculously grow. You can pick up Team Fortress 2 for only a couple dollars these days on the PC, and yet the developers keep adding more and more content. I played through Team Fortress 2 on the Xbox 360, and that was just a barebones version. On the PC, new updates come out all the time, with new weapons and customizable gear for each class, maps, hundreds of new Achievements, and all sorts of gameplay/balance changes. With the newest update, Valve is giving players the ability to customize their hats and weapons for their equipment slots, bringing this FPS game more and more into the realm of MMORPG. It’s fantastic and if you’re a Team Fortress 2 PC gamer, this is a game that just keeps on giving. Kudos to Valve, as Team Fortress 2 on the PC really demonstrates the difference between a PC FPS and a console FPS.

The other company that has been keeping PC gaming relevent for as long as I can remember is Blizzard. People still play Starcraft, Diablo II, and Warcraft III today, and excitement continues to build for the future releases of Starcraft II and Diablo III. While I’ve mentally moved on past World of Warcraft, the newest patch and the upcoming expansion are really making me reconsider jumping back into the game, as the most recently released patch adds full-on matchmaking for dungeons, which means you can easily find a pickup group through an easy to use in-game interface rather than going to town and shouting “LF1M healer”. The upcoming expansion has the developers revisiting the core gameplay world and changing many aspects of that rather than adding in a new continent like Lich King did. In a sense, it is going to bring the WoW population back to the core world, which has been a ghost town since the Expansions. Perhaps when the Cataclysm expansion hits, I may have to check WoW out again.

Stardock is a company that isn’t as strong as Valve or Blizzard but still has PC gaming relevance. In fact, outside of Blizzard, Stardock may be among the last major PC gaming companies that has not started making console games. I’m playing through Galactic Civilizations II Ultimate now, and while it’s not exactly a new game, it’s one of the best 4X strategy games I’ve ever played and I can’t imagine seeing a game of this depth and strategy on a console. The competition that Stardock’s Impulse store gives to Valve’s Steam storefront is a boon for us gamers, as it not only makes the two storefronts compete for our gaming dollars, but each store continues to introduce new features that make you feel more like part of its community. While I didn’t feel that Sins of a Solar Empire had as much depth as Galactic Civilizations II, Stardock continues to work on expansions to this game, to the pleasure of its many fans.

Another company that seems to support the PC gaming scene surprisingly is EA. Of course, the entire Sims franchise has been a huge moneymaker for EA, so they can’t be that against PC gaming. I have the new Command & Conquer 4 Beta installed on my PC, perhaps the last of the franchise that will be coming out in March. Also in March is Battlefield Bad Company 2, a PC FPS game that will support servers – something that the Modern Warfare 2 PC version took away. Let’s also not forget about Dragon Age: Origins, the new RPG game that supposedly plays a lot better on the PC than either of the console versions. So as much as anyone may dislike EA, we can see that the company is still keeping the PC hardcore gaming thriving with their string of varied PC titles: a RTS game, a FPS game, and an RPG game.

Finally, this past week I’ve written about a couple different DotA games, and aTOM boomb has shared his impressions on a couple as well. In any case, I feel like the DotA genre will continue to grow like the Tower Defense genre did. Both genres originated as custom mods in Blizzard’s RTS games, and they will most likely do quite well for PC gaming. I would be interested in seeing a FPS + DotA combination game on the 360, but that may be a few years out.

In any case, while I do tend to spend more time on the 360 than the PC for my gaming, the PC gaming scene is far from dead and I have not only these major companies to thank, but all of the others that still recognize PC gaming and continue to provide us with solid titles that not only play best on the PC, but make use of the PC’s strengths as a gaming platform as well. 2010 looks to still be a big year with PC gaming, as Starcraft II has to come out…right?!

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (DS) – I know someone that worked on this game, and he’s been pretty excited about its release this week. He’s so excited that he’s been visiting various Gamestops and retail stores the last couple of days to see how many copies are coming in and who is buying them. Thus, you can understand his dismay when he discovers that most Gamestop employees never heard of it, and instead ask him if he’s interested in buying GTA: Chinatown Wars instead. Of the Gamestops that did get the game in, they only get 1-2 copies. (I guess there’s always Amazon.) It’s unfortunate that it may get lost in the flood of big name titles this month on the DS, but I’ve played through it and it’s a solid game. It’s basically Mega Man + Tetris Attack, but my only real issue with it is that the difficulty *really* ramps up in the latter half of the game. If this is your cup of tea – start looking for it! With a tiny number of copies hitting retail stores around the country, it may prove difficult to find once word gets out. For more on it check out the IGN review, which gave it a 9.0, and how much hardcore gamers are loving it over at NeoGAF.

Street Fighter IV – So begins my downward spiral. I hit 2000 Battle Points last week and was pretty happy with it, but when I tried playing some this week, I must have lost nearly all of my 20 or so matches I played, dropping me all the way back down to 1200 or so. The competition this week has been ridiculously tougher than before, and I’m seeing far less of the “Ken players” that I saw when the game first released. It’s almost like the people that weren’t that good with the game have already moved on, so now it’s only hardcore players left. I’m playing against all sorts of characters I have no idea how to fight against since I didn’t see them before, and I’m also seeing more 4000+ BP players who are just nuts. I fought one Cammy player who would just rush at me and constantly spam light attacks as well as a light jump into the air and Cannon Striking me over and over. Before I knew it, it was already over. “What just happened?!” I asked myself.

Resident Evil 5 – I grabbed this over the weekend at Toys R’ Us since it came with the free $20 gift card, but I honestly can’t figure out how to spend it. Last week they had the “any 2 $20 games for $30″, but the selection was terrible at the Times Square Toys R Us, and now this week they have “$20 off any 2 $40+ titles”. But what the heck is left for me to get considering my huge backlog? There’s some games I kind of want, but not for $10 off their $60 retail price. So yeah, that’s my conundrum over the $20 gift card. They didn’t have 1600 point cards either, but hopefully they stock them at some point since I decided I’d end up just doing that if it came down to it.

Oh as for the game itself? Decent so far. It honestly has gameplay mechanics similar to Resident Evil 4, but for some reason I’m just not that into it. I see that half of my friends list is playing the game, but for some reason I’m just not that excited to play it after having beaten the first few levels. It’s not seeming as short as I thought, but it’s not giving me an “awesome vibe” like I had when playing Resident Evil 4. Consequently, I’ve been spending more of this week playing Halo Wars and Street Fighter IV instead. Expect some impressions on the game from me next week though.

Halo Wars – Picked this up this past weekend and I’m actually enjoying it more than I thought. While it’s simpler than Red Alert 3, I’ve actually grown pretty used to the controls and it’s quite doable with the d-pad jumping between my armies and bases, hitting the R trigger to switch between unit types in my groups, etc. I think I’m at mission 9 or so, and for the most part, Legendary difficulty hasn’t been too tough although I had to restart a few times in missions 6 and 7. I haven’t had a chance to play online yet, but I’ll probably try to get some games in if I can finish up the single player campaign this weekend.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Ended up picking the PC version of this game at Best Buy this past weekend since it was $10. Ironically, it was pretty much right after I traded in the 360 version of the game across the street at Gamestop for like $15. I figured the game was pretty enjoyable and patches keep coming out for the PC version so maybe I’ll see what it’s like – plus, it has the new expansion with Ric Flair. I was shocked though to discover how zoomed in the PC version of the game was. I tried to zoom out as much as I could but it’s still probably zoomed in at least twice as much as the 360 version. Crazy stuff.

Last week cmfl3x and I presented you with a list of games that we felt were good value from a standpoint of being enjoyable for pretty much every type of gamer. This week we’ll share more “niche” titles – games that you can enjoy – provided you’re into the genre. Again, we want to look at games that are good value – ones that either have a lengthy/replayable single player campaign or plenty of multiplayer hours to keep you coming back while at the same time being enjoyable while being inexpensive.

While many Western reviewers put down Japanese developed games that don’t have a lot of production quality, I tend to still enjoy them. I like Japanese fighting games, RPGs, action/adventure games, and beat’em ups. I appreciate the linearity with many of them, and personally don’t mind if the graphics tend to appear closer to last gen technology than current. Because at the deepest level, what’s most important to me is gameplay. Is it ultimately fun to play? Here are games that I feel are ultimately fun to play and are good value, if you like the genre:

Fighting

Dead or Alive 4
[360: $29.99 on Amazon] [espionage's review]
Dead or Alive 4 was the very first fighting game released on the 360. While several others have come along since then, it’s still quite a casual friendly fighter while having a strong online mode that allows for four players sharing a room at once. If you want to get into a cheap, yet accessible online fighting game, consider this game.

Virtua Fighter 5
[360: $19.99, PS3: $19.99 on Amazon] [espionage's review]
While Dead or Alive 4 prides itself on its online infrastructure, Virtua Fighter 5 has no competitors when it comes to single player. For the best single-player fighting game on current consoles, Virtua Fighter 5 is it. It takes about 40-50 hours to get through, as you create a player and travel through various arcades that have hundreds of different AI opponents – with some modeled after real life Virtua Fighter 5 pros. There is a ranking system, and the ability to earn money to buy accessories for your character as well. Note that while the 360 version has online, the PS3 version does not.

Realtime Strategy

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
[360: $27.99, PC: $27.99 on Amazon] [espionage's review]
Red Alert 3 didn’t sell well enough upon released and quickly dropped to the under $30 value price only months after release. But it’s definitely worth a shot as it has a very lengthy single player campaign consisting of 27 missions (pretty much double Halo Wars), a skirmish mode, and online play. For the least expensive, yet enjoyable RTS games on the 360, Red Alert 3 is the game to get.

Multiplayer Shooter

Shadowrun
[360: $29.99, PC: $19.99 on Amazon] [espionage's review]
Shadowrun has a funny existence on the 360 and PC. It’s a niche RPG game with its own fan-following, but the most recent game was converted into a Counter-Strike style online only shooter that allowed players to earn money and buy weapons, tech abilities, and magical skills. It’s a great game that also supports matchmaking, but because it wasn’t the type of game that Shadowrun fans wanted to play, and it shipped at $60 with no multiplayer, reviews were scathing. But at its current bargain price, the game is a gem. Just keep in mind that the PC version requires Vista.

Japanese RPG

Blue Dragon
[360: $19.99 on Amazon] [espionage's review]
Blue Dragon is a Japanese RPG that comes from the creator of Final Fantasy and the artist behind Dragonball and Chrono Trigger. The game is an excellent (yet very standard) Japanese RPG, but the only thing really going against it is that it has children as protagonists. This makes it difficult for some people to really get into, but if you can look past that and are interested in a Japanese RPG, Blue Dragon is a great deal.

Lost Odyssey
[360: $29.99 on Amazon] [espionage's review]
It’s a little bit pricier than Blue Dragon, but Lost Odyssey is arguably the best Japanese RPG game on the 360. After Blue Dragon, Mistwalker decided to develop an RPG that was more mature and accessible to Western Audiences, and this game delivers. If you were a fan of Final Fantasy games growing up and didn’t exactly enjoy fighting the cutesy monsters of Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey is perhaps the better one to pick up.

Japanese Beat em up

Samurai Warriors 2
[360: $19.99 on Amazon]
Out of all of the Warriors series that Koei has spawned on the PS2 and 360, Samurai Warriors has always been my favorite. Playing as characters based on real-life samurais and ninjas with various missions, leveling up, finding gear, etc. has always made Samurai Warriors (as well as Warriors games in general) a good bang for the buck if you don’t mind the gameplay that is repetitive for some as well as the PS2 quality graphics.

Warriors Orochi
[360: $29.99 on Amazon]
Very similar to Samurai Warriors 2, but instead of following historical missions and levels, Warriors Orochi combines the world of Samurai Warriors with Dynasty Warriors, allowing you to create teams from both while confronting a new made-up enemy. While the storyline to the game isn’t as tight or appeal as that of Samurai Warriors 2, there is appeal to being able to choose from dozens of characters in both worlds. It also has PS2 style graphics.

Bladestorm
[360: $29.95, PS3: varies on Amazon] [espionage's review]
This game is perhaps my favorite Koei game on the 360 (unless the studio finally decides to release a Romance of the Three Kingdoms game). While it’s a beat-em-up like Samurai Warriors 2 and Warriors of Orochi, it has a lot more gameplay depth as it chronicles your life as a mercenary in the 100 years war. The game features next-gen graphics and army management of over a dozen different unit types that you need to manage and utilize to capture castles and towns.

Earth Defense Force 2017
[360: $19.99 on Amazon]
Another hardcore beat-em-up (or shoot-em-up in this case) is Earth Defense Force 2017. While the graphics and gameplay may be a bit on the simple side, the concept of simply defending the Earth from giant ants, spiders, mechs, and space ships using whatever lasers and rocket launchers you can find has a lot of appeal. With over 50 levels and five different difficulties as well as co-op split-screen support, it’s a game you can play for dozens of hours.

Japanese Hardcore Action Adventure

Dead Rising
[360: $19.99 on Amazon] [espionage's review]
While Dead Rising is somewhat of a shorter game due to it being time based, the concept of being stuck in a mall with zombies can be enjoyed forever. On top of that, there are straight out modes that have you simply trying to survive as long as possible. The game isn’t for everyone, as it adheres very closely to linear Japanese game design and Western gamers complain about the limited save system.

Devil May Cry 4
[360: $27.99, PS3: $27.99, PC: $39.99 on Amazon] [espionage's review]
I didn’t think Devil May Cry 4 was such an innovative jump over its predecessor (in fact, I enjoyed Devil May Cry 3 more), but I have to say that the game is lengthy. If you enjoy the combat engine of the Devil May Cry games (flashy combo-based fighting) you’ll probably get good mileage out of this one with its various difficulties and optional Bloody Palace mode.

Ninja Gaiden II
[360: $27.99 on Amazon] [espionage's review]
Ninja Gaiden II has its fair share of detractors, but it’s my favorite action/adventure game this generation. I’ve sunk 100 hours into the game, and it doesn’t even have multiplayer. With several different weapons to learn and use as well as a lengthy campaign that has difficulty levels with differing enemies, if you want to conquer this super hard-core title you will be putting in 100 hours like I did.

The Rest

The Club
[360: $12.05, PS3: $14.97, PC: $12.69 on Amazon]
The Club is a radically different game from the normal shooter, as it combines the mechanics from racing games with shooting games. Think about how you would play a racing game – going along a track trying to get the best time on corners, etc. In The Club, you play a shooter like a racing game – running through a level, and shooting guys or killing them in a stylish enough way to give you score multipliers and extra time. The game’s longevity comes from wanting to compete for the best times/scores online, so if you’re playing it just to beat it, you probably won’t get as much out of it.

Viva Pinata & Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise
[360: $19.99 on Amazon] [360: $27.99 on Amazon]
Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise is not a sequel as so much as the original game plus a bit more of an expansion to the original game. Both are great and it’s fine to just pick up the first title if you want to save a few bucks. The concept to the game revolves around managing a garden, where the various flowers, vegetables, fruit, etc. all attract different pinata animals and those in turn attract others so the concept of the game is managing your garden in such a way that you have a thriving ecosystem. You could play these games for dozens of hours if you’re trying to accomplish everything in them.

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
[360: $27.99 on Amazon]
Unfortunately, this game is still sitting in shrinkwrap for me so I haven’t had a chance to really play it yet. But from what I hear, the game is a lengthy adventure and very open to choice in that it allows you to hunt for parts and to create what you’d like in order to tackle various challenges in the huge world of the game. Need to fly your vehicle and keep it in the air for several seconds? Add whatever parts necessary and embrace your LEGO childhood….

That’s quite a list espion4ge! It seems like you did a good job covering pretty much everything, but I want to include title that’s not on the 360, but PS3:

Flower
[PS3: $10 on PSN]
This is the only game on my budget list that I haven’t gotten to play but if I owned a PS3 I’d probably download this immediately. Flower is a very different type of “game”. It uses the PS3′s Sixaxis motion controls exclusively. You play as the wind, and basically “blow” around different environments. As you touch different flower petals they bloom, and you eventually populate the entire field with flowers. From everything I’ve heard, this game = amazing graphics + great use of music + interesting narrative. If I ever get a PS3 I’m definitely picking this one up.

Well that about covers it for our two-part feature on gaming on the cheap – but you know what? Games constantly drop in price all the time so maybe in a couple weeks or months, we’ll continue to see the list of cheap, yet enjoyable games continue to increase. So my advice is, if you’re strapped for cash – just wait! It’s like deciding to save money by waiting for movies to go to video instead of going to the theatre every weekend. The savings definitely add up and based on how many games are out there today, if you’re watching your budget you can still be a gamer with plenty of games to tackle.

Over 80 hours into this game already. But I’m excited because that means a new game to play is around the corner…

Infinite Undiscovery – A few more Achievements left in the game to get and I will be totally done. I’m hoping to get them this weekend, when I beat the optional end-game boss on the hardest difficulty for that 1 Achievement point. By beating her, I should also hopefully unlock the other most difficult Achievement in the game – one that relies on me having collected every one of the unique 880 items in the game. If I don’t get that Achievement, I’m done anyway – not going through it again and trying to collect every single item.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Finally got the 1000 in the game! cmfl3x and I played a few online matches this week and it wasn’t bad, but without matchmaking, it’s time for me to part ways with the game. It seems like no one really plays 2v2 online though, as it took me maybe 20 minutes before being able to find three other players to start a game.

Street Fighter IV – Still playing this, especially whenever my brother has time to play. We’ll just hop in a room and play for hours. Surprisingly, my Sagat is giving his Abel a little more trouble than we both expected, so either I seem to be catching up to him in fighting game ability or I’m learning how to use the imbalance of my character against him. I prefer to think it’s just the former, but I’m sure it’s a mixture of both. I hit my current goal of breaking 2000 Battle Points this week, and I’m definitely starting to see higher level players. Played against a 4500 player once, and when I lost, I only lost 1 point and he only gained 1. Wha?!

Peggle – Been playing this on my DS. I’m sort of addicted to the game. I never played it much before, but with it coming out for the DS I figured I’d try it out and now I’m playing it on my subway commute home from work every night. I can definitely see why the Japanese are addicted to Pachinko – Peggle seems to take that addictiveness of watching a ball bounce around different pegs but also adds more pinball-like gameplay enhancements that are now making my subway trip home far too short each night.

Resident Evil 5 – Still struggling for a long time trying to decide if I should go pick up the game today since Toys R Us is giving out a $20 gift card with it. The thing is, I don’t know what to put the $20 gift card towards. I think it expires at the end of the April, so it’s kind of forcing me to have to use it sooner rather than later. Maybe I’ll just get at 1600 point card or something.

While the PC version of Red Alert 3 is superior, it’s still enjoyable on the 360.

cmfl3x and I have been playing this game on and off for the past two months, and it’s only now that I can finally put out a review. Either we’re incredibly slow gamers, or the game is just that lengthy. Well, it’s a little of both, as cmfl3x and I decided to play through all 27 campaign missions on co-op together and were only able to continue in progress when both of us were available and had the time to do so. That, plus 27 campaign missions is a pretty lengthy amount of time for a game, and we definitely got more than enough game length just from the campaign to justify the title’s price. For the most part, the game is enjoyable, but of course that depends on how you feel about a real time strategy game being played with a controller. If you’re open to the idea, or even looking for one with a lengthy campaign after discovering how short the Halo Wars campaign was, you should definitely give Red Alert 3 a shot.

cmfl3x will also contribute his thoughts on the game to the review.

Good
- lengthy and enjoyable campaign with co-op support
- campy/amusing cutscenes, stars, and units
- skirmish mode and multiplayer extend game length even further

Bad
- still cumbersome to play optimally without a keyboard and mouse
- somewhat of a barebones multiplayer with only 4 player support and no team matchmaking
- the shoddy AI partner if you’re playing campaign levels on Hard difficulty

Intro
The Command & Conquer franchise has been around for over a decade now. Hard to believe that it’s stayed relevant for this long but it’s a beloved Real Time Strategy (RTS) game series that has quite the fan following due to its combination of over the top campy acting with B-list actors and entertaining strategic gameplay. Red Alert 2 was definitely one of the highlights of the series, a game that was released over eight years ago – so fans have definitely been anticipating this sequel for a while. And for the most part, they should be pleased with how Red Alert 3 turned out.

EA tested the RTS waters on the 360 with The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, and ever since then, they’ve continued to release RTS games with controls that continue to improve. After Lord of the Rings, EA released Command & Conquer 3, followed by its expansion pack: Kane’s Wrath. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 makes the fourth RTS release on the 360 system courtesy of the EA Los Angeles studio. While Red Alert 3 was supposed to release on the PC, 360, and PS3 all around the same time, at the last minute EA put the PS3 version on hold. Many assumed that EA was having a lot of trouble developing it for the PS3, and would probably axe the game. Somehow, they’ve turned it around though so for PS3 owners that are eager for their first RTS game on the PS3, the ultimate version of Red Alert 3 will be releasing in a couple weeks on the PS3, containing more multiplayer maps and videos than the original PC and 360 release.

While Red Alert 3 debuted at a $59.99 pricepoint back in November, it’s sold very few numbers. In America alone, the 360 version of Red Alert 3 has sold only about 100,000 copies to date. If you remember, EA was complaining about how Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space didn’t sell enough. Well, Mirror’s Edge has sold over 300,000 copies in the U.S. and Dead Space has sold over 600,000 copies here. So what does that make Red Alert 3 then? Apparently it makes Red Alert 3 one of the fastest games to drop in price from EA, as each month since release it’s practically dropped $10 so it now retails for $29.99.

For a time, Red Alert 3 on the 360 was the best version to buy due to the DRM fiasco that EA began implementing with many of its PC games, including Red Alert 3 on the PC. In its most recent wave of published PC games, including Spore and Crysis Warhead, EA set it so that you would have only a limited number of installs of the game on a PC: 3. If you installed it, uninstalled it, and installed it again, you would have only one install remaining for the game. People thought it was completely ridiculous, and Red Alert 3 on the PC got a huge hit in public ratings simply due to the limited installs the game came with. What was even worse was the if you changed any of your hardware in your system, such as installing a new graphics card, the game would use up another install. Fortunately, EA has partially addressed the outcry of the public by allowing owners of the game to be able to unauthorize the game on their PC whenever they want, increasing the remaining number of installs left for the game again so you would theoretically never run out of installs. It’s not perfect, but it works enough that the PC version of Red Alert 3 is now the best version of the game to buy.

Gina Carano and Tim Curry lend their acting to the cutscenes of the Soviet campaign.

Storyline and Premise
What if World War II never happened? This is the question that the Red Alert series has always addressed since the initial Red Alert game was released in the Command & Conquer universe. While the main Command & Conquer series has moved towards the future, Red Alert still stays in the mid 1950′s in a world dominated by the Allied nations and Soviet superpowers due to the lack of the war. But apparently in Red Alert 3, Japan has become a superpower as well, and each of the three factions has its own storyline, missions, and accompanying cutscenes that tell the tale of how that superpower ends up besting the other two.

For those that are unfamiliar with real time strategy games, Red Alert 3 (as well as other RTS games) focuses on you building a base of buildings that either provide some sort of power or resource harvesting for your army, and the necessary production buildings that will let you produce this army. Certain units are strong against others, so the strategy of the game is that you have to figure out what to make to defeat your opponent’s units and destroy his base. Combine this with the fact that everything is real time instead of turn based, and you have yourself a war going where producing the wrong unit, not making enough resources to enable production of more units, or even simply not producing enough of the right unit type can mean the difference between victory and defeat.

Red Alert 3 tends to emphasize more sea-based combat, due to structures now constructable on water.

Gameplay Mechanics
RA3′s RTS features
Red Alert 3 captures the tried and true gameplay elements of the series so for veterans of previous Red Alert or general Command & Conquer games, they should feel right at home. Returning to the game is a unique commando unit for each side (I still refer to all commando units as “the Tanya”), the ability to garrison infantry in buildings, engineers and their ability to capture enemy buildings, and the lack of electricity powering down buildings and defensive turrets. Units can also rank up if they kill enemy units and higher ranked units have better stats like increased damage. There are no upgrades in the game, so ranking up is the closest one can get to increasing stats on their units.

The first thing players may notice that takes a little bit of a departure from previous Command & Conquer games is that Red Alert 3 has more of an emphasis on naval combat in the game. The fact that several vehicles in the game are amphibious and that almost every building in the game can be constructed on water tiles changes the strategy a bit. The barracks (infantry producer) and the factory (vehicle producer) are perhaps the only two buildings that cannot be created on water. On top of that, most infantry units cannot swim and the most powerful vehicles in the game tend to be the heavy capital warships for each faction. Their range is ridiculous and can level entire bases from practically halfway across the map.

Also new to Red Alert 3 is the use of special abilities – both at the unit level and the commander level. Nearly every unit in the game has a special ability that generally has a cooldown. For example, the main Allied infantry unit can turn on a special ability to use a riot shield, allowing them to move within melee distance of enemy ranged units. At the same time, the Empire of the Rising Sun has units that can transform between ground and air. Commando units also have special powers as well: the Allied Nation’s commando unit is able to reverse time, thus warping her back several frames should she find herself in danger while the Soviet Union’s commando unit can shoot pilots out of vehicles, allowing Soviet forces to commandeer the vehicle for Soviet use. There are also special abilities at the commander level, as each Faction has a 3-column special ability tree that you unlock using points you earned from simply fighting in game. The special abilities are all quite different, and can be customized to each player’s liking. Some may prefer the ability to warp a time bomb onto any visible location on the map, while others may prefer to have the ability to do a scanner sweep of an area they have not discovered. It’s all up to the player.

Finally, Red Alert 3 is the first Command & Conquer game to be built from the ground up to be a 2-player co-op game, so all missions involve yourself and an AI commander. The AI commander can be replaced by a human commander, but when you are playing solo, you are able to sort of give directions to the AI, telling it to attack a certain location, move to a certain location, etc. You have no control over what type of units the AI builds, and this can be quite frustrating as I played a couple levels with an AI partner on hard and it would just get destroyed by a couple of Soviet blimps because it didn’t make anti-air. Like most AI-partner games these days, I felt like I had to really babysit it on the harder levels (try beating the last Allied mission with an AI partner on hard). Fortunately, the one saving grace to playing solo is that you can save at any time, so if you save often enough, you can just revert back to an earlier save should the AI partner screw up (and it will) and you can make the units it should have made to save its own base.

Adapting a PC-based RTS game for the 360 controller
I’ve played a couple RTS games on the 360. Command & Conquer 3′s controls were adequate, and Red Alert 3 is even better than that. A lot of the mapping works out pretty well for the game and there are definite conveniences that were made with the controller in mind. For example, holding down the left trigger will increase the minimap on the screen, and then moving the analog stick will allow you to quickly scroll to a point on the map rather than having to actually watch the screen scroll all the way there. You can also queue up units and buildings using the wheel that appears with the right trigger. This minimizes the need to actually go back to your production buildings to make units. Most of the button mapping is also intuitive enough that it works. I’ve also tried out Warhammer: Battle March on the 360 and the control mapping to that was horrible. It required holding two buttons down, and then hitting a third button on the d-pad to perform certain tasks. Too ridiculous. Fortunately, RA 3 does not suffer a similar fate.

Unfortunately, it’s just not really possible to achieve a level of micro that comes with having a mouse and keyboard. Coordinating various groups on different parts of the screen at once, microing their special abilities so only certain units use abilities, pulling focus fired vehicles out of harm’s way, etc. just cannot really be accomplished with a controller. You end up simply massing as many of the powerful units as you can, and sending everything at once in an attack move formation. The most you can possibly micro is perhaps the commando, as she is one of the more valuable units in the game. But even then, the commando should only be a small part of a much larger army.

Factions
While Red Alert 2 had only two factions in the game, Red Alert 3 joins Command & Conquer 3 to bring about three playable factions: the Allied Nations, the Soviet Union, and the newcomers, the Empire of the Rising Sun. Each faction has different playstyles and interesting units, as well as amusing and sexy actors/actresses playing roles in the cutscenes. The Allied nations tend to play like traditional Allied forces, being heavily strong in the water with their aircraft carriers while the Soviets dominate the ground with their Apocalypse tanks. The Japanese tend to be the most adaptable, with large mech robots and units that can transform between air and ground/sea units as needed.

Each faction plays differently enough that they are all enjoyable in their own way. At first I detested the Japanese buildings, because they spawned as little carts that had to transform into buildings, but I grew to like it a lot after realizing how quickly the Japanese could lay out a base or expand. Besides each faction’s own unique units, technology, and special abilities, there are a total of 3 different co-commanders that will accompany you throughout the campaigns. Your co-commander is already set for each campaign level, but you can choose any one you want when you play skirmish mode. Each co-commander is defined with a certain playstyle strength – some may have a tendency to favor air units, while others are strong with sea units.

Skirmish & Online Modes
There are both skirmish and online modes for Red Alert 3. Skirmish is simply offline play, with up to 3 AI opponents. You can choose 2v2, 3v1,1v3, or even FFA. You are also able to pick which particular Commanders will play each AI, and the difficulty level for that AI. Saving is also permitted during skirmish mode. What isn’t possible is the ability to play with any other human players and AI players at the same time. You can’t just create an online match for you and your friend and flip the other two slots to AI. Seems like a curious limitation for something that could have easily been added. I’m sure there are definite fans out there of co-op “comp stomping” like the good old days but sadly, it will have to stay in the past.

Online is a pretty barebones affair, where you use EA’s servers to find or create matches for up to 4 players. Unfortunately, there’s no actual matchmaking except for maybe the 1v1 “quick match” option. But if you want to play 2v2 or FFA, you have to join a room and everyone has to agree to it before switching their teams around to facilitate the game mode. It’s relatively easy to find a 1v1v game, but 2v2 public games are very hard to come by for some reason. There’s also stats and Leaderboards, but it could be a lot better than simply stats that only you can see and Leaderboards that only track a player’s Win and Loss record while not taking into account gametypes or any sort of ranking system. Still, it works and it’s not bad if you just want to play human opponents without desiring to play seriously. For the console port of the game, I consider the main focus to be on its campaign and not the online.

One of the Japanese special abilities is to drop bombs in parachutes anywhere on the map.

Achievement Design
I felt that the Achievements in the game were for the most part quite manageable. I applaud the developers for not having any multiplayer only Achievements in the game, as there is a healthy balance of campaign Achievements, skirmish Achievements, and multiplayer Achievements that can still be awarded from playing AI opponents on skirmish mode. The bulk of the game’s Achievements revolve around going through the game’s campaign with a friend on the hardest difficulty, which is about right. There’s Achievements for obtaining all of the bonus objectives on each mission in the game, but there’s no way to really track it so I would have liked if I knew which ones I missed in case I wanted to go back later to get it. This happened to cmfl3x and me, but luckily he found the one bonus objective we were missing, which saved us from having to replay through several levels.

I thought the Skimish Achievements were pretty interesting, as they forced you to check out every multiplayer map shipped in the game (there’s a ton), play against every Commander type (they play differently), and even see how well you can do against one AI set on the hardest difficulty or whether you can take on three AIs at once. The multiplayer Achievements were quite idiotic though, as they didn’t really make the most sense. Having to load every infantry type from two different factions into nine vehicles was stupid, and killing 25 infantry in less than a minute with a commando is equally farfetched. There are several more of these, and the reason people don’t like online Achievements like these in the first place is because they’re boostable and force people to play a certain way who are simply looking for the Achievement. Fortunately, you can get all of them by taking on an AI opponent in skirmish, but you need to be lucky that the uncooperative AI decides to do what you need in order to get the Achievements.

You think you can micro this battle with just a controller? Think again!

Final Thoughts
On the PC, I’d score this game a B+ due to its continuous support (just this past week a 2v2 matchmaking patch was released for the game, as well as more balance changes for the factions). With the 360 version, we have basically what happened with the Team Fortress 2 release on the 360: a packaged online product sent to retail to die. No updates, no balance changes, nothing. But fortunately, Red Alert 3 has a very lengthy campaign game that can entertain you and even a friend for many hours, as well as a skirmish mode that allows you to take on up three AI opponents if you wish. The multiplayer doesn’t receive updates so imbalanced tactics will still rule the day, but at least the game is functional from an online perspective which extends the replayability of the game.

I give the game a solid B. There’s plenty of gaming to be had, but is it A-level BioShock gaming? Not really, but in this day and age where most games end in 6-7 hours, it’s refreshing to actually play a game that makes you wonder when you will actually beat it. The Hard difficulty setting is no slouch at all, and I don’t know if it’s even possible to go at it without a human partner. The game doesn’t quite shake up the genre, but succeeds for being a RTS game. The only problems are that it is hampered with the limitations that come with being a console release – namely, the lack of updates and the lack of control that come from being able to use a keyboard and mouse. If you’re fine with that, the game is definitely enjoyable and worth the $30 it retails for today.

Second Final Thoughts
I think it took espion4ge and me a good 30 hours to finish the single player campaign, so I agree that it was a pretty hefty campaign. For the most part I really enjoyed the experience. I think I read somewhere that the gameplay felt kind of repetitive, but I never really experienced that. There was a mission or two that I thought were pretty annoying, but for the most part they seemed fair. My biggest complaint about the missions was that there were no checkpoints. I understand not being able to save in co-op, but a lot of missions feature two or three separate parts. Usually only one of the three parts is really difficult, but if you mess up you have to play through all of them over again.

We had some pretty intense moments in the campaign, including beating a timed stage (the last Allied mission) at the buzzer. I actually jumped up and cheered for that one, especially since it completed the campaign and there was the added bonus of 4 achievements unlocking at once for completing that mission. Now that I’m playing Halo Wars, there are definitely some things I miss from Red Alert 3, which has caused me to think of the latter more fondly. Red Alert 3 was definitely too complicated in parts, but not so complicated that it detracted from the overall experience.

I give the game a B+. The totally over the top acting, the co-op experience, and the lengthy campaign really left a positive impression on me. The biggest drawback was the lack of a full multiplayer experience, but on the console it probably would have devolved into attack-moving anyway. If you’ve played RTS on console before and enjoyed it I’d definitely recommend the game. If not, it comes down to whether you think you can handle complicated controls or not. Though it’s a bit of a different skillset, my guess is if you can pull off 12 hit combos in Street Fighter with a controller, you should be able to handle these controls no problem. You can get the game for pretty cheap now, so if you are interested, check it out! At worst, you will be buying yourself a horrible B-movie, at best, you’ll have an enjoyable gameplay experience to go along with it.

Halo Wars – Grabbed this on launch day and have been working with a friend on playing through on Heroic difficulty co-op (guess I’m used to playing RTS co-op now). We were doing fine until Mission 6 when the Covenant sent us straight back to Harvest. I was so upset I ended up beating it on my own, but it took me twice the “par” time for the map. I don’t know if I just stink at the game or the mission is unfair. Impressions on the game so far will be up this week. Teaser: Mixed bag.

Street Fighter IV - Finally beat Seth with every single character on medium. It felt more like work than fun, and it didn’t really help me get too much better at the game. I plan on spending all my time with the game online for a week or so, hoping to learn some new tricks to take back to the challenge modes.

Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 – Played this a little over the weekend to pick up some more achievements. Slowly working my way to 1000, but it’s gonna be a bit of a grind. The end of the final campaign was pretty fun, overall I definitely got my money’s worth out of this game. I’m curious as to how it plays online, espion4ge and I might try later this week.

Far Cry 2 – Playing through the back half of the game, still enjoying myself quite a bit. I’m starting to get some better weapons too so that makes everything fun. Also, the second half of the world map feels a lot different from the first half, which I think is a great design choice. More people should have tried this game! It’s not too late…

Street Fighter IV – Finally convinced my brother to pick up the game, and we’ve been spending a good amount of time this past week playing it online. Even though he had barely played it prior to picking it up, he proceeded to destroy me right after we started playing. I was only able to win one of the 8-9 matches we played and I was using Sagat! But still, ever since then he’s started using Abel and that’s all we play. I’ve been learning a lot though from playing with him and while he’s clearly better, playing with him is actually making me better too so I’m happy about that.

Infinite Undiscovery – When will this game end?! Going on 60 hours or so now and have just beat the game on the hardest difficulty. Now all that remains is that final optional (ridiculously tough) end-game dungeon and I’ll be able to move on. Too bad I’ll need about another 10-15 hours in this dungeon before I can walk away victorious.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – cmfl3x and I beat the campaign early this past week so he could move on to Halo Wars. Some of those missions make me wonder if it’s even possible to beat with an AI partner on Hard difficulty. Maybe I’ll try it out sometime since we’ll be putting out a review for it next week.

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts – Picked it up since it was on sale at Amazon for $20 this week. I wasn’t too impressed with the demo, but it seems like people that play it say it’s awesome: the equivalent of playing with Legos but in a video game. So I guess I’ll just have to see for myself. Add another game to the backlog…

Crysis & Crysis Warhead – Both were on sale for $10 each at Best Buy this week so I picked those up too. At first I wasn’t planning on Crysis Warhead due to the intrusive Securom DRM, but apparently EA has released patches on Crysis Warhead, Spore, and Red Alert 3 (on the PC) that allows you to deauthorize the game on your PC so you don’t run out of installs. My PC gaming backlog is almost up to double digits now…

Resident Evil 5 – Comes out next Friday but the sad news is: it’s a 7 hour game. What a massive disappointment. Resident Evil 4 was a 20 hour game and this is about the same length as Call of Duty 4 or Gears of War but without any sort of multiplayer. It’s practically Army of Two and even Army of Two had multiplayer! Grr.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Premier Edition
Crysis
Crysis Warhead
EA Sports 08 Collection
FIFA Soccer 09
The Orange Box

Since all of the titles retail for $29.99 each, that makes them $9.99 after coupon. You only need one coupon and it is good for all of the games in one transaction, but not more than 3 of one title. Use the in-store locator to find games you’re looking for, as the deal is only good in-store and requires a Reward Zone membership and the coupon print out. Reward Zone membership is free and you can sign up right on the website.

For those worried about DRM on some games like Red Alert 3 and Crysis Warhead, EA released patches to allow you to deauthorize the DRM on the games so you can have your installs back. In short, the games are still worth picking up for $10 each if you are interested.

I picked up Crysis & Crysis Warhead last night myself (Crysis still even had the $49.99 sticker on it but rang up for $29.99). I was considering double dippping on the PC version of Red Alert 3 as well, but it wasn’t in stock at my local Best Buy.

$20 Off Select PC Games coupon [Best Buy Reward Zone]

Street Fighter IV – I’ve been working my way through medium difficulty, trying to unlock the “Storied Reputation” achievement. I can’t say it’s tons of fun, but I do have a good handle on how to deal with Seth now. Unfortunately, that’s not really helping me with online play. I haven’t won a single match against my buddy LargeLobster yet. I need a sensei…

Far Cry 2 – I finished the first act of the game and moved into the southern part of the game world, which means I need to wander around finding/collecting things again (even though I’ve given up on collecting all the diamonds, there are other smaller things to collect that I want to do). I have to say, the story is picking up – the transition from Act I to Act II was pretty heavy. I’m really enjoying this game.

Guitar Hero World Tour – I finally finished my last band career. Having a bass career is kind of lame, even though some of the bass lines are pretty difficult. I gotta say, the game actually was a lot more fun on my second run through (when I wasn’t playing it in the wake of Rock Band 2). Go figure.

Left 4 Dead – Got some Versus play in with some buddies. Still can’t drop this game yet, probably the best 40 dollars I’ve spent in a long while.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 – espion4ge and I are almost done with the final campaign. I don’t know if it’s because the Japanese require more micromanaging, or because they have the most difficult campaign, but we’ve come across some pretty hard missions. We’re trying to finish the last two missions before Halo Wars comes out tomorrow, but if the last few missions we’ve played are any indication, we might not make our self-imposed deadline. I’m pretty curious to see how Halo Wars ends up playing, since everything I’m reading says it’s too simple. RA3 is not, so I wonder if Halo Wars will feel even more dumbed down for me.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – cmfl3x and I have continued to make our way through the campaign, just finishing off the last two missions on the Allied campaign late last night. We must have retried each of those missions 3-4 times, as it gets pretty hard on Hard difficulty. The last Allied mission is rough – there’s a timer and we ended up destroying the last building when the timer hit 0:00 (maybe it even hit -0:01 heh). It was funny because both the Victory and then the Defeat videos started playing one right after another, but luckily we got the Victory endscreen. Talk about a close call!

Left 4 Dead – Just when I thought I was done with it, the PC version has to go on sale and I ended up picking it up. Expect a write-up with my thoughts comparing it to the 360 version at some point.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 – Never considered picking this up since it’s a PC game, but the fact that it’s tied into the Live system and has its own Achievements has me interested. Maybe I’ll wait for a price drop.

Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad – Campy Japanese zombie beat-em-up playing as a girl in a bikini sounds like it could be enjoyable as I like zombies and I like Japanese developed games. A girl in bikini doesn’t hurt either but since my wife may not like the idea of seeing me play as a scantily clad woman throughout the game I’ll hold off on this one for now.

Sins of a Solar Empire – Picked it up since it was on sale at Best Buy this week. I think it got lots of 2008 PC game of the year awards, so I’m curious to check it out. Supposedly it’s a cross between an RTS and a Civilization game, but in space. I’m not the biggest space strategy gamer, but maybe this one will turn out ok for me.