Why do I want to review this?.. Because I've been playing C&C and Dune games from EA/Westwood since back in the days of having to network LANs using IPX/SPX in DOS to play games (don't make me whip out my Ansi Art from the old BBSs back in my immature days when I went by Sinister X of ACiD Productions lmao).
Anyways... nostalgia aside, on with the review:
Graphics: The graphics are up to par with the Red Alert series of games, really not much new there but you can at least expect the same good quality.
Framerate: Cheese, it's locked at the seemingly typical unattractive 30fps of this gen, I was a bit unimpressed with this since playing the C&C 3 Demo on 360 was going at a nice 60fps, screw you EA!
Music: The in-game music is pretty good, and also changes dynamically based on situations (like the first time the enemy base attacks you), which is pretty cool.
Gameplay: Even with the new controls, it's a bit cumbersome as I feared with using a controller. On the PC versions I love to be able to set my air support in a select group, vehicles in another selection group, and send my attacks in a wave to the base while I slip in an APC full of engineers and take out the Construction Yard and Vehicle Factory first so they lose their power to create more structures (I take out the Vehicle Factory so they can't make another MCV). This is MUCH MUCH harder to do on the console, I wish they'd brought in keyboard/mouse support.
Cutscene Acting: Cheeeeeeeese... I wish they'd taken this game a little more seriously with the acting (at least like the first Red Alert game), they seem to be more focused on taking the comedic approach and also showing off "eye candy" (which I am in no way complaining about ).
Overall: I'm still going to get this game because I'm a fan of the series. It probably won't appeal to everyone but I expect it will be a decent RTS game in the full release, and hopefully will have launching from Home. It's maybe not quite as fun as Dune 2000 on the PC (a fav of mine), but still entertaining.
Walkthrough (Allies):
This was the way I did it. Build up your base first, get 2 Power Plants up, then get 2 Ore Refineries out to the nearest sites ASAP. Money runs out pretty quickly in this game so you need to be thinking of where to get it next. Set up some turrets around the perimeter. Don't go throwing your forces out in front to defend, they may get infected by the spider tanks which sucks. Get up a vehicle yard and an airstrip. Actually get 3 airstrips up and running once you're comfortable money-wise. With 12 airplanes you can take out the smaller underprotected structures without a fight. Take out the 2 Soviet Ore Refineries to the north (or get your forces over there and take them over with engineers, then build 2 Prospectors). Now you've got 4 Ore Refineries. I actually built up 6 Airstrips and a total of 24 airplanes by the end of the mission. You can take out ANY (non-"iron curtained") structure on the map without a fight after that. Be sure and save Tanya first and get her off to the side. Take out the Iron Curtain, then the rest of the map, it should be all yours after that. Easy...
Anyways... nostalgia aside, on with the review:
Graphics: The graphics are up to par with the Red Alert series of games, really not much new there but you can at least expect the same good quality.
Framerate: Cheese, it's locked at the seemingly typical unattractive 30fps of this gen, I was a bit unimpressed with this since playing the C&C 3 Demo on 360 was going at a nice 60fps, screw you EA!
Music: The in-game music is pretty good, and also changes dynamically based on situations (like the first time the enemy base attacks you), which is pretty cool.
Gameplay: Even with the new controls, it's a bit cumbersome as I feared with using a controller. On the PC versions I love to be able to set my air support in a select group, vehicles in another selection group, and send my attacks in a wave to the base while I slip in an APC full of engineers and take out the Construction Yard and Vehicle Factory first so they lose their power to create more structures (I take out the Vehicle Factory so they can't make another MCV). This is MUCH MUCH harder to do on the console, I wish they'd brought in keyboard/mouse support.
Cutscene Acting: Cheeeeeeeese... I wish they'd taken this game a little more seriously with the acting (at least like the first Red Alert game), they seem to be more focused on taking the comedic approach and also showing off "eye candy" (which I am in no way complaining about ).
Overall: I'm still going to get this game because I'm a fan of the series. It probably won't appeal to everyone but I expect it will be a decent RTS game in the full release, and hopefully will have launching from Home. It's maybe not quite as fun as Dune 2000 on the PC (a fav of mine), but still entertaining.
Walkthrough (Allies):
This was the way I did it. Build up your base first, get 2 Power Plants up, then get 2 Ore Refineries out to the nearest sites ASAP. Money runs out pretty quickly in this game so you need to be thinking of where to get it next. Set up some turrets around the perimeter. Don't go throwing your forces out in front to defend, they may get infected by the spider tanks which sucks. Get up a vehicle yard and an airstrip. Actually get 3 airstrips up and running once you're comfortable money-wise. With 12 airplanes you can take out the smaller underprotected structures without a fight. Take out the 2 Soviet Ore Refineries to the north (or get your forces over there and take them over with engineers, then build 2 Prospectors). Now you've got 4 Ore Refineries. I actually built up 6 Airstrips and a total of 24 airplanes by the end of the mission. You can take out ANY (non-"iron curtained") structure on the map without a fight after that. Be sure and save Tanya first and get her off to the side. Take out the Iron Curtain, then the rest of the map, it should be all yours after that. Easy...