Or, as Verdu puts it, just before we sit down to play: "It's very accessible. Two things are immediately obvious when you start to play Tiberium Wars. Could this third playable race possibly be related to the alien race that created the crashed 'Scrin ship' in Tiberian Sun? Verdu wouldn't say, but he would allow us a hands-on session with one of the game's multiplayer modes - another of the game's strengths, after the atmospheric emphasis on story, thanks to a hefty emphasis on community support in the shape of spectator modes, player commentary, content editor and so on. What the tantalising teaser trailer showed was the all-star cast (including Lando Calrissian and some women from Battlestar Galactica), a wide variety of terrain (from spick and span cities to sun-scorched wastelands), and, most interestingly, the arrival of alien visitors. EA expects multiplayer games to take up to 15 or 20 minutes, depending on the skill levels of participants. The story kicks off with a nuclear fireball marking the start of the Third Tiberium War, and the return of Kane, who, once again, is leading the Brotherhood of Nod against the forces of the Global Defense Initiative. The world has become divided between Blue Zones (civilised areas), Yellow Zones (partially habitable areas) and Red Zones (uninhabitable areas, swept by Ion Storms). What is known for sure is that the game will be set in 2047, some 16 years after the events depicted in Tiberian Sun's Firestorm expansion. Not that Verdu was prepared to give anything away about the story when he met Eurogamer, apart from showing a tantalising teaser trailer. One of the ways EA will be going back to the Tiberium universe is by creating a richly plotted narrative and telling it through live-action cut-scenes. You don't want the game that you're making to feel like a retread, but you don't want to depart from what is classic and timeless about C&C to the point where it's something entirely new - especially because we're going back to the Tiberium universe which is where C&C began." "And that's hard, because you don't want to just do the same thing over again.
"We want to create something that's very fresh, but at the same time familiar," he says as he introduces our hands-on session. It's a problem that the game's executive producer, Mike Verdu, is well aware of.
Tiberium wars update#
How do you update such a seminal game, bringing it forward ten years into the future, without upsetting the delicate formula that made it so successful a decade ago?
And that, really, is the main challenge that EA's Los Angeles studio has had to overcome (or conquer, if you like).
Tiberium wars series#
It marks a return to the Tiberian Series that predates both Red Alert and Generals, and is more fondly remembered than both. Tiberium Wars represents a return to the roots laid down in 1995 by the very first Command & Conquer. Seven years since the release of Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, the series that started it all is finally going to get the sequel that the fans have been waiting for.
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