Before I begin this blog, a little history. As much as I love RTS games, few games have had the impact on me that the original Command & Conquer: Red Alert had. Everything about the game just appealed to me - from the kick arse music (Hell March especially), to the ridiculous cutscenes, to the gameplay. It all just clicked for me - even though it's a bloody hard game. I guess it was the fact that you could play as the bad guys - again, not a new feature (the original C&C let you do this), but for me, that was something awesome - and the Soviets were badass to boot!
I played one helluva lot of Red Alert and Red Alert 2 back in the day - it's the only RTS that I've dedicated hours to. So you could imagine my happiness when Red Alert 3 was revealed earlier in the year - I was delighted for two things. Firstly, it's RED ALERT 3. The second? It's not another Tiberium game! (you should also know that I can't stand the Tiberium universe - with the exception of NOD and Kane. The rest bores the shit out of me).
The initial skepticism that I had about the game quickly went as more and more news was known. Stuff about former C&C Composer Frank Klepacki returning to do the soundtrack, the addition of the Japanese faction (with PSYCHIC SCHOOLGIRLS AND MECHA), the Russians getting armoured bears....and then this:
In the space of two minutes, my fanboy instincts kicked in and I was blown away. I've always loved the C&C cutscenes, and RA3 seems to be stepping up. You don't get much more awesome than having Tim Curry as a goddamned Russian, or JK SImmons (aka Jonah Jameson from the Spiderman films) as the Allied commander or George Takei as THE MOTHERFUCKING EMPEROR. Sorry - film nerd. At least there's a lack of sci-fi TV actors (ala C&C3). This one trailer only has already made my month.
Then there's the gameplay. This is the one that I'm really sketpical about, because I wasn't too blown away with what you could do in C&C3. It felt too much like a revamped version of Generals. Not a bad thing, because Generals was a good game - but I was hoping for something more. Here's hoping that Red Alert 3 is a step up. The focus on naval combat...well, that is interesting.
Despite this - it's a Day 1 Purchase for me. Shame about the PS3 version...
That's all for now. I'm off to play some TF2 and attempt to get some Heavy Achievements. Or at least a SANDVICH (go watch the latest Meet the Team video - it's awesome).
Later.