Command & Conquer 3 at WCG 2007
This morning I was greeted by a mail announcing the new games for the World Cyber Games 2007 tournament, asking me to express an opinion over the rules proposed for every game selected for this edition.
That’s very fine, I scrolled the list and… Command & Conquer 3 as an official WCG 2007 game? A game that has yet to be shipped? Who knows how C&C 3 plays or feel? Who knows if it will make it in time? Who knows that in April we won’t discover that the game, while pretty, is just a pile of mediocre gameplay and balance just like all the latest C&C games? After all, Westwood filed bankruptcy for the inadequate quality of previous C&C episodes…
Accepting a game in a competition before the community has a chance to test it and recognize its merits smells like a massive marketing stunt. Traditionally, C&C games were never very balanced or very appreciated for competitions, they told nice stories, but the gameplay where basically the same and very dated, no matter how seminal they were for the Real Time Strategy genre.
Even if WCG 2007 finals are in October, regional and national selections will be starting very soon. A game out only for a few months, especially when made by EA, with his slow to inexistent patching policy, may not be ready to be used on professional gaming competitions: the gameplay may have not sedimented enough, balance may be so oscillating between revisions to practically void any strategy and result made in the first batch of selection matches, not to mention that a game of this caliber may be easily shifting release date at will…
The early adoption risks to become a run for the most exploitable bug, instead of a run for the most efficient strategy. Remember C&C Generals (a radically unbalanced and never fixed mediocre RTS that promised a revolution in the genre but was only able to disappoint and flop) and pray that this time EA knows what is doing if you die to enlist in the 2007 WCG RTS category…
March 12th, 2007 at 11:55 pm
Its a way of promoting C&C3. This idea is actually pretty old. e.g. Paraworld was introduced into the Electronic Sports League during the beta/demos and _should_ take the strategy throne from Warcraft ;). Just by pushing it with money.
I played the demo of C&C3 and I think its not E-Sport-able. Especially the Mammoth tank (+Railgun-Upgrade) is able to take out everything. NOD seems to have more interesting units, but apparently its not playable in the demo. One cannot say definitely it will definitly suck online. Yet, I don’t know of any C&C which could establish in a league. (Generals was pretty close, though)
March 13th, 2007 at 12:54 am
I agree with you, aside the Generals stuff.
I found it pretty unbalanced for competitive multi-player but I didn’t remain in the scene long enough to notice if further patching made it better.
March 16th, 2007 at 10:32 am
From what I have read on a local Spanish magazine, they say C&C 3 is more of the same, which means same old gameplay, but it has indeed a new look and feel…
By the way, I don’t think I’ll have the bravery to play it after having tested C&C Generals in pretty harsh conditions for EA