Red Alert 3 Pre-View Review

On the 10th of October 2008 I was invited to a early preview of Red Alert 3, the new RTS (Real Time Strategy) from EA. 

This is part of the Command and Conquer series, started by Westwood Games. The first Red Alert was released to the Public in 1996, and had the Russians vs. the Allies, fighting for space and ore. Had an expansion pack, The Covert Operations, later in the year, that upped the level of difficulty. I played these games, and enjoyed them immensely, and became a fan then. 

They released Red Alert 2 in 2000 and an add on pack, Yuri's Revenge soon after. This was the game I played for hours on my own, me vs. 7 AI on the highest difficulty, and rarely lost. 

The other games in the series was Tiberian Dawn, 1995, Tiberian Sun, 1999 and add on Fire Storm, 2000. Based in a future setting, and had the fractions GDI and NOD fighting each other. We also have Generals, 2003 and Zero Hour, 2005, the expansion pack added to the C&C set of games, but looked at more modern warfare. 

These were PC based games, but did come to the PSP, the Sega Saturn, N64, Sony Play Station (2?) and the Apple Macintosh. 

For next generation we had Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, 2007 and Kane's Wrath, 2008, which came out for PC and the XBox 360.

Westwood games was joined up (bought up really) with EA in 2003 after starting business in 1985.

There was a spin off for a First Person Shooter called Renegade, where you played a commando called Havoc a GDI Commando, within the C&C universe. 

So that is the History of the Series, so now to today. 

Command and Conquer Red Alert 3, will be released in Singapore on the 27th of October 2008, one day before the rest of the World! On PC and the 14th of November 2008, at the time of this article, for XBox 360. 

The event was amazing, several hundred fans and press sitting in a Cinema at the Shaw Lido (Of Shaw Brothers fame), with an 11 meter screen showing us the goods. 

Since it is an EA event, we got a sneak peek at some coming games via video of clips like NFS: Undercover, Mirrors Edge, Dead Space, RAGE (which looked really good, I wonder on the game play, as it looked like a FPS and a Driving game!), FIFA Online 2 and a number of others that I mentioned on the GCA almost a Live Blog. 

We were then introduced to the event by Christopher Ng, General Manager for EA Asia. 

And this man was enthusiastic, and I had a pleasure of meeting him after the show, and he is as big a fan as me, but I'm there as press, so time to get reporting, will come back to me talking to him later. 

So he starts the show, he talks about Red Alert 3, and that it has been 7 years since we saw Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge and this is a special event, as Singapore will be getting special editions of the game, with the Red Alert 3 Commander Pack, which will be bundled with a Microsoft Sidewinder X6 Key board and a Red Alert DICOTA Note Book BacPac, there is also a Officers Pack, that will come with just the DICOTA Note Book BacPac. The Sidewinder X6 is going to be exclusive this year, as it will only be coming out with RA3, until next year! And a T-shirt, with the Red Alert 3 logo, over the heart. Ok, to the left side of the chest where a pocket will go, for those of you who know where the heart is in the real human body. Really people! 

Christopher then introduced us to a first glimpse of the game, starting with the first game play video introduction. Which was part of the Russian Campaign an opening intro to the game, for the first time. 

So this clip introduces us to the new characters to the series, and a come back to video story driven clips, yeah, they were so missing from Generals! These clips and the game are in HD, and it was great to see, and still have that B Movie, tongue and check feel. 

So we are in the Premiers Office in Russia, (could be Moscow though I think it is Leningrad, but you know it is Mother Russia) and it's nearing the end of a war where Russia is losing, and people are trying to destroy files and general panic abounds, we have Premier Cherdenko played by Tim Curry , and General Krukov played by Andrew Divoff . 

General Krukov has come into the office saying to Premier Cherdenko, that all is lost and they should leave the area, but Premier Cherdenko, says no, all has not been lost comrade, follow me, he then opens up a book shelf hiding a secret lift, which they climb into and drop to the depths, of Russia. 

Here at the bottom of the lift ride, they exit into a large cavern, where we see Dr. Gregor Zelinsky played by Peter Stormare and his female assistant (not sure who she was, sorry). 

There is a huge metal domed structure behind them and Premier Cherdenko says start up the secret project, the machine. Dr. Gregor Zelinsky says it is not ready and has not even been tested, Premier Cherdenko just ignores him and opens up the door to the machine, the metal dome, the Dr. and General join him, and seat themselves in the three seats available, within the steel cased room. Premier commands the machine to be activated, the Dr. pulling down protective goggles under protest, while the General rushes to fasten himself in. There is a lot of shaking of scenery and the chairs, and they disappear upwards in a electronic flash. 

We see them appear, in a blue electric flash, back stage on the side lines of Einstein giving a speech in 1927, the Premier informs the General as he is disoriented, the Dr. also says touch nothing or you could change the time line. Einstein then finished his speech, and walks off stage straight into the trio, Premier congratulates Einstein then walks up to him to shake his hand, as that happens Einstein disappears in a blue flash. The Dr and the General are shocked, but the Premier is pleased. 

Cut to the trio walking out of the lift, talking about the time machine and what hell is going on, back into the Premiers office, it looks impressive, with lots of red bunting and gold around the office, not the room of disarray from before, and a battle is being shown on a monitor screen on the wall, Mother Russia is winning, and a underling comes into the room, to talk to the commander of the Russian army, the General answers, but the underling is talking to the Premier, which puffs him up and tells him they (the Russian army) are beating the Allies, that they a running with their tails between their legs. The Premier is pleased, the change in the time line has been good for Mother Russia. 

Since there is no Einstein there are no nuclear weapons! They are all congratulating themselves, the trip was a success, then the monitor losses communication with the front line and goes fuzzy and then black, the underling comes back into the room, and says they are attacking Russia's flank, the Premier asks who, but no-one is certain, then the monitor fires back into life and on screen is... 

Emperor Yoshiro, Emperor of the Empire of the Rising Sun, he tells the viewers you will all bow before us or you will cease to exist and is played by George Takei, he is dressed in a white and black Japanese Kimono, and has a back drop of a wooden floored room with paper walls and Empiric symbolism. Then we have a view of the Empire of the Sun's army coming across the sea, covering the horizon, with the sun rising behind them, that can then walk ashore, and even flies out of the sea, that was way cool, by the way. 

Now to be honest here, I may have the event's time line out of sync here, (see mess with time and you never know what could happen!) so I saw this now or at the near end of the show, but we have a video of the Empire of the Sun's War Machine, I assume a cut scene animation from the game play which starts off with a small robotic dragon fly, that was sitting on a Samurai Robots shoulder, that flies across a huge staging area, with all the vehicles and soldiers showing off the might of this army, it then flies to the side of the area, it takes a while mind, (maybe should have used the words Majestic Army of the Empire of the Sun!), where huge Samurai Robots seem to stand guard over the area and it then flies around one of the robots to see the sea covered in battleships, flying machines (sort of look like Cylon fighters from show, Battlestar Galactica) that dip in and out of the sea with ease and landing craft for the thousands of troops! And all through out we have a familiar anthem, Hell March, now Hell March 2 or could be 3, this is not very clear, but there is some new videos on the official site, titled Hell March 3, that is sort of familiar from the previous Red Alerts, you know the one with the soldiers calling out the cry for war with the sound of marching feet, but changed to give an oriental feel, that is just as powerful, when you hear it, it does get you fired up to play. 

The composers credited (when I did some research) but could have changed by final are Frank Klepacki, James Hannigan and Timothy Michael Wynn, but Frank Klepacki has been with the series, since he join Westwood games when he was 17, and even did the Dune series also made by Westwood games. He composed the Hell March and subsequently Hell March 2 or 3 (see above, I have to assume a Hell March for each iteration of the game?) for Red Alert 3. 

And that is the end of that clip. 

Christopher then shows a couple of video clips of the stars of the show and the ladies, with much enthusiasm, and so would I, some very beautiful women. 

Here is a list of the cast in army order: 

Allieds: 

Field Marshall Robert Bingham - Jonathan Price (Brazil and Pirates of the Caribbean).

President Howard T. Ackerman - J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man 1, 2, 3).

Special Agent Tanya – Jenny McCarthy (Scary Movie and Playmate).

Lt. Eva McKenna – Gemma Atkinson (Holly Oaks: In the City and Model).

Commander Warren Fuller – Randy Couture (UFC for many years and Big Stan).

Commander Lisette Hanley- Autumn Reeser (The Girl Next Door and Pushing Daisies S2). 

Empire of the Sun: 

Emperor Yoshiro – George Takei (Hero's and Star Trek).

Crown Prince Tatsu – Ron Yuan (Pushing Daisies S2, the Shrimp Boy, Prison Break and Blood and Bone, oh and Fast and Furious 2009?).

Suki Toyama – Kelly Hu (X-Men 2 as Lady Death Strike, CSI:NY).

Yuriko Omega – Lisa Tamashiro ( Up and coming, Robot Battle 2008, Days of Our Lives and an All Female cast of a Monty Python production called Monty Py-thong at the Next Stage Theatre in Hollywood). 

Soviet Union: 

Premier Cherdenko – Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show and Terry Pratchett's Colour of Magic).

Dr. Gregor Zelinsky – Peter Stormare (Prison Break S1, S2 and Constantine).

General Krukov – Andrew Divoff (Lost and Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull).

Dasha Fedorovich – Ivana Miličević (House S4 and Casino Royal).

Natasha Volkova – Gina Carano (Elite XC Fighter and Blood and Bone, sometime 2008).

Sergei – Stelio Savante (A Beautiful Mind) Shown in a trailer, may not be in release?

As yet unnamed character – Vanessa Branch (Wench of Captain Jack's in Pirates of the Caribbean). 

These actors have covered more than I have written but I tried to show something that was big for them from their pasts and something from today, and many have done gaming work in their resumes. 

They have some serious actors and some up and coming actors with this game. Also with the use of two of the best, standing, Martial Artists of this day, which does give some gravitas to this battle game. 

There also may be others, that I have not heard about as yet? 

We then get a history video, which does show the change of computer graphics of the series and what it is now today! But so well done that want to you go back and try them again. 

We then get a briefing from Ian Tan and Sean Liew, who talk about the Microsoft Sidewinder X6 and the DICOTA BacPac, respectively. DICOTA is an abbreviated from words Die Computer Tasche in German, and means The Computer Bag. 

They are both impressive products, and the key board has a break away numeric pad, that Ian tests before us by just hitting it away from the board to fall to the ground, he has done that a hundred times and it still works, the numeric pad can be put on either side of the board, it is also back lit in red and blue and with the bundle deal, will come with Red Alert 3 decals to put on the board! There is also on the fly programmable Macros (sort of short cut hot keys for the board), up to 90, so game play and so many other things with this board, are time saved. They can be programmed manually, with key stroke timers! And even a Cruise Control feature for those that want to make a, drink of their choice, and let their WOW character walk on their own, as you do that! Nice touch. 

Some great products to come with the pre-orders of the game, and for some, a great freebie to test, no, I'm not sore, really I'm not, ;)! If it was Burnout related, I would have expected goodies, fought for them even, maybe, lol. But I did get a great poster and my press pack, what more can a 'free' lance journalist ask for? 

So Christopher, you know, I think he prefers Chris going by the documentation, comes back and talks about the game, which has a strong Co-op feature, if you are on your own or the net is down, you have A.I. Commanders to chose from, not sure how many or if you can use only the ones associated with your chosen side? But they are pretty much on the ball, doing their best to help you, win. With the A.I. you have a Commander Menu that you use to tell them where you want them, they normally do as you tell them but not always, sort of like a real Co-op player, with a Live player you don't get that Menu. 

There is a built in type of messenger and Red Alert 3 does have VoIP for communication, to tell them what you really think of them when you lose, or to blame because they did not listen to your commands, lol. 

But with this Co-op mode you can build your army and set up defensive weapons, within each others bases, which is a great feature, there was something similar in RA2, but it is way easier to do now. 

The Menu system within the game, has not change from the older games, but there are differences, smaller and more easy to use once you get used to it, and secondary functions, that work well with so many things. It was good to see Generals had some influence in this game, with Power Plant upgrades, actually most of the building have upgrades, and levels of building. 

I did not see if veterancy was still earned in the game, as I never got to play it for long enough, to have my troops and vehicles, to battle over time and earn some for it to happen. But I am sure it is in the game? 

There are a lot of vehicles within this game, that transform, I can't really list them all but they do: 

Land to Sea,

Sea to Air,

Land to Air. 

We have new unique structures, that can be built on land and the sea, like the MCV, Mobile Command Vehicle, the War Factory, Airfield, though not sure about the Naval Yard, I should have asked? But we did see an example of this with a MCV un-deployed from land and driven over and into the sea, and deployed just behind the original land base. 

We also have Tech-trees, that are individual for each faction, though spies can infiltrate to gain extra technology for your army, similar to Red Alert 2. 

Chris then gets a demo running on that cinema screen, and it is the Fight for Leningrad, it has been started from a saved game, so the bases have been established, and we see some 'choppers in the air that then pick up a vehicle called the Bull-Frog, that has some Battle Bears in them and an Engineer, it was just as simple as a point and click! The 'choppers then carry them across the map, to place them on land, in quick time, way faster if they had to float or drive across it. The Bull-Frogs are a very interesting as they have a catapult built in them, sort of like a Man Cannon, and we were shown how they work. 

The Bull-Frogs were taken out to sea, and brought near a land mass, and selected as a group, another click and we have Flying Battle Bears and an Engineer, that arc across the sky, get to the end of that arc and parachutes are deployed, for them to float to the ground, was funny to see, but what a great way to deploy troops to the field of battle! 

The troops were then selected and clicked to go out to sea and the Battle Bears swim and the engineer has his own little dingy. So everything in the game either swims or floats in this game, or flies. 

Russia still has Kirov Airships, but they can now boost (I knew I could find a link to Burnout somewhere in this game) across the map instead of their steady trundle, but they do lose a good chunk of their health, if they do so, this speeds up a battle no end. 

The Tag Line, is Command the Seas, Conquer the World! And is so apt for this game, and since most units seem to have secondary functions, as well as operate, on land, sea and air, there is a lot to learn about and discover, way more than any C&C games that have come before. 

As they tried to load up that level, they did accidently load another before hand and it was huge, way bigger than something like the Bay of Pigs, which was not the biggest map, but one that I played a lot of, from RA2, that could occupy a good couple of hours of my time, longer if I was going to take over each base in turn. So some battles could go on for a very long time, but the early levels were smaller, and the first one was a tutorial, so you get used to how each component of how your army works. 

We then got to see the video of the first campaign of the Empire of the Sun, but not the game play, but in the video was Emperor Yoshiro, Crown Prince Tatsu and some underlings about to plan and destroy their enemies, and talking to the player, since you play the commander of each campaign, for all sides. And that is when we got to see the Empire of the Sun's Battle Machine, see I knew it was somewhere. 

We got to see some stills of the stars, (I have put some in the Burnoutaholics flickr account, actually all of them, from my press pack), and a great poster of the Battle Girls, I want one of those on my wall! But not in the press pack, boo! 

We also saw a clip of Battle Cast Prime Time, selling the Red Alert 3 battles like a sports show, they also cover Tiberium battle talk as well, have had interviews with Kane (from afore mentioned game) and talk tactics about the various parts of the functioning game. 

These are hosted by David Silverman, producer of RA3 and Raj Joshi the Anchorman of the show (I'm sure he is part of the game development team, but did a internet search and sorry found nothing, sorry dude you need to Wikipedia yourself!) and is on the official C&C Red Alert 3 web site.

Official Link: http://www.ea.com/redalert/ for those of you that want to check it out.

I had a great time at the event, met some great people, Chris Ng, who was telling me about so many great features about the game, since he has been playing it for the past week, though he was not allowed to tell me anything, beyond level 5 of the Russian Campaign. And at the demo stand, of sadly only two pc's (we needed more EA), we were not allowed to play anything but Russia. But that's cool saves the fun for the day of release, right? 

Though he was enjoying the rest of the game and thought I would, as a fan, be pleasantly surprised with the story and the other factions in the game. He did say the Tesla Coils and even Prism Towers (yes towers, not tanks any more, but until I see 'em I curb my excitement) can over-charge when linked, to hit over longer distances with a bigger bang for the buck effect. 

I know the Tesla Coil Towers in Yuri's Revenge, with Tesla Troopers linked to them were great fun as a defensive set up, with Prism Tanks, just behind them, and Yuri's Gatling Gun Tanks next to both, I must stop giving away my tactics, lol. 

I met two fans of the series, before the show, Alfred and Alex, both Singaporeans, and asked them what they thought of the Event and the game, Red Alert 3? Both thought they were fantastic, and I could see them after I talked to them, being very animated with their conversations, as they waited to pre-order their Special Editions of the Game! 

I also met Aaron, he was sitting next to me in the cinema so I had to say hello, and comes from Melbourne, Australia and was a stand-in for a friend, who would normally write for a large Gadgetry Magazine, he did say what it was, but I really spelt it wrong in my notes, and have been searching since, I bad :(. And he was the one that got them freebie sort test products, but then again, the way they were treating him, he seemed god like, so this must be a very important publication! 

But he was cool to talk to about the game, and the event and about me looking for work, lol. Networking people it's important, but he was a great guy, and good luck with that speech dude! 

And on the other side of me was Marcus Soh, whom I exchanged cards with, who writes for Games Xtreame League, here in Singapore, sadly I did not get to ask him after the show to comment, sorry dude. I hope you did like it, he was a serious gamer though. 

I'm sure I have missed something up there with this write up, but I would like to Thank EA Asia, EA, Microsoft, DICOTA, Christopher Ng, Diana Tan, Daphne Chua, Ian Tan and Sean Liew, Shaw Lido, Red Dawn Communications (for getting me the gig), Florence Ang, Chiew Joon Yong, Ian Purnomo and the fans I did talk to, as well as, Alfred and Alex. 

Thank you, to you all! It was a really great event, as well as the venue, and a pleasure to meet some of you new to me. I remember when it was not a multiplex! (Got to be nice, great people and maybe I'll get freebie's too, next time, lol.) Though I did get some discount vouchers and two tickets to the cinema! Which I will be using, it has been a while since I saw a film, in Singapore. 

Red Alert 3 will be out for the world on the 28th of October 2008, go buy it and with the 360 version out on the 14th of November 2008. I will hopefully testing that version at X08, here in Singapore, near the end of this month. 

Patience is something I taught myself, I never know when It's going to run out! But I played Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge to just chill!