T w e n t y S i d e d
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Man, it’s really cool of EA to put The Escapist’s editor-in-chief Russ Pitts on the cover of Command & Conquer 4. Their rendition is pretty accurate as well. I have it on good authority that he’s always brooding and swiping the free Tiberium out of the dish in the Lobby.
More seriously: The resemblance is kinda uncanny.
Trusting the System
How do you know the rules of the game are what the game claims? More importantly, how do the DEVELOPERS know?
Bowlercoaster
Two minutes of fun at the expense of a badly-run theme park.
Grand Theft Auto Retrospective
This series began as a cheap little 2D overhead game and grew into the most profitable entertainment product ever made. I have a love / hate relationship with the series.
Crysis 2
Crysis 2 has basically the same plot as Half-Life 2. So why is one a classic and the other simply obnoxious and tiresome?
Spoiler Warning
A video Let's Play series I collaborated on from 2009 to 2017.
Shamus, you do realise that it means that your boss might be Kane?
So you are, in fact, in the employ of the Nod?
So you are, in fact, using your reach over the young and influenceable nerdy youth to slowly make their mind more open and maleable to the New Coming?
…
Sign me up!! :D
So Shamus has been employed by NOD all this time…
Of course! It makes perfect sense!
Wait a minute if I remember the words of Kane accurately…
“He who controls the present, controls the future. He who controls the past controls the present.” – Kane
“Control the media, control the mind.” – Kane
…could this mean?
Russ Pitts is a time traveling Kane! Using the Escapist as the first stepping stone is his plot to control the worlds media and prevent the formation of the Global Defense Initiative. While simultaneously destabilizing nations in the regions that will see the highest concentrations of Tiberium!
Peace through power!
Proving once more that Kane is in fact a Time Lord.
Ironically this is not far from the truth.*
This quote brought to you by the Martix.
Shamus is why Kane’s cyborg armies aren’t hindered by draconian DRM. You know so you don’t have to be connected to the net to fire the chaingun they replaced your arm with.
I actually know Joe (The actor who plays Kane) personally from when Westwood Studios was in my hometown (Las Vegas). He is, in real life, absolutely NOTHING like the character he portrays.
Now that EA gobbled up Westwood and closed the Vegas office, there are something like two to three of the original development crew still working on the C&C games.
I went for the shaved head & Van Dyke a few years ago, and while I do love the look (especially given my vanishing hairline), I do notice that I look nearly identical to every other guy out there who does the same thing.
Sometimes I worry just a little that the resemblance might land me on the wrong side of a police line-up someday.
Is it really that much of a stretch? OF COURSE Russ Pitts looks like a cartoony super-villain. “Game Dogz” is exactly the kind of thing Mole Man would unleash on an unsuspecting populace, out of spite for the world of us surface-dwellers. :D
(Hey, anyone who regards Halo 2 above Shadow of the Colossus and Portal deserves a little flak.)
And here I thought it was the guy from Basic Instructions.
I’m going to need my moment of rage over how completely EA has managed to screw a franchise I grew up with — how this is supposed to be the ‘epic’ ending to the series. Good lord, I played half an hour of this travesty — you know, can’t build bases, can’t harvest tiberium — and by god it just made me sad.
I realize it’s a huge cloud of nostalgia that’s causing this, but honestly this to me proves that even though there is talk at EA of them improving their business practices they are still doing what they know best; taking franchises with some name recognition and screwing them into the ground as fast as possible.
Heh, well at least now in comparison C&C3 looks like a mastepiece; I suppose that’s one way to improve the quality of your work, make the sequel so god awful people think fondly of the other crap.
Seriously, they took out the BASES?! Are you sure it wasn’t a Facility/commando mission you were playing? Cause, seriously, what the heck?!
I haven’t played it cause EA thought always on DRM was a good idea, but seriously, no bases, no Tiberium harvesters – it’s not C&C4 then, it’s C&C Force Commander.
Such a shame since C&C3 was such an improvement over C&C2
Yes they took out the bases. They said, “All your base are belong to us.”
I never played anything beyond the original red alert(well I did try out the demoes for other games,and hated them all).But I feel your pain.C&C shouldve died a long time ago.
It shouldn’t have died it just shouldn’t have had its soul ripped out by EA.
I actually think that C&C3 is an excellent game. Personally, I think it’s on par with Tiberium Sun for the best of the Tiberium series.
Though Red Alert 2 is obviously the best. :)
Forgive me for my heresy, but I think Tiberium Dawn and Red Alert 1 are vastly overrated. Sure, they were revolutionary for their time, and they still are quite good today, but they’re just too simple for my tastes now.
Now Red Alert 3, on the other hand…that was horrible. And I don’t even want to touch C&C4.
BURN THE WITCH.
Ah alright, you do have a point. It is the fog of nostalgia that makes me think that Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert (the first) were the best, I suppose it has a lot to do with what age I was at the time they came out, it was right at the time when I was really starting to enjoy strategy games so they burned a mark into my mind that just wouldn’t move.
I haven’t played RA3, seeing the overly cartoony silly units and hearing Jenny McCarthy was Tanya made me lose all interest.
Indeed. Just stay away from RA3. It’s a huge step backwards from RA2. EA put too much emphasis on “special abilities” and powers to focus on actually tuning the strategy elements of the game. Uprising’s new units were just ridiculous, giving game-breaking units to all but the Soviets. Really, EA, giving huge units to everyone but the SOVIETS? HERESY!
I dont overrate the originals.Like you say,they were revolutionary at the time,but are just too simple today.However,what made me hate the sequels was not the gameplay,but the setting.I loathed red alert 2 because it was so ludicrous.Original had a few sci-fi concepts,but was mostly about a parallel world war 2.The few sci-fi uber buildings that existed were expensive late to end game constructions,not your average fodder.Constructing a single tesla coil was a feat,not a matter of fact thing.There were no psi soldiers,mechs,uberzeppelins,or tesla tanks.I didnt even play it past the second mission,and Ive already hated it.It was also the first sequel that showed me how bad someone can screw the franchise I liked,so my hatred was even more fueled.Yes,the gameplay was improved,but the setting was ruined.
And on the other hand,we have warcraft 3.It too has improved gameplay over its preequel,but unlike c&c franchise,it doesnt ruin the setting.You dont get hippie orcs,or alliance of savages.You dont get mechs or gatling guns for dwarves.Yes,there were new units and factions introduced,but they were tailored to the setting,not the other way around.
HERESY! HERESY I SAY!
Alright, seriously. What’s wrong with the change in setting. I liked the cheesy over-the-top nature Red Alert 2 took. With so many serious RTS storylines there are out there, it’s good that C&C knows hammy acting and melodrama better than any other RTS franchise out there. Red Alert 2 made me fall in love with a setting which was quite frankly boring in Red Alert 1.
I dont know.It just didnt strike well with me.And Ive been all over the place with settings,from fantasy,to the scientific future,to steampunk alternate reality.It just rubbed me the wrong way with red alert 2.
Eh, I can’t exactly blame you. I guess silliness isn’t exactly everyone’s cup of tea with RTS and Alternate History. Personally, I dig having a strategy game that’s willing to poke fun at itself. Really, Blizzard taking its own work so seriously is what killed Warcraft and Starcraft in my eyes. They feel so mechanical and mathematical that all the soul and fun was rubbed out.
Now I want dwarves with mechs and gatling guns….
You mean “the resemblance is kinda unKaney.” right? Heh? Huh? 8D
Cue the studio audience groaning.
Didn’t Russ already prove himself as Kane? I am pretty sure he played Kane in the…(checks the video archive) 23rd episode of Doomsday Arcade.
“I hang around red light sources and…search for tiberium.”
In a way I’m a little sad that I have to play another C&C game now…I love them for the cutscenes and the intriguing tiberium storyline….but I could give a rat’s ass about the gameplay of C&C game since the original Red Alert.
Mostly that’s because I suck at RTS games.
Same here, but because I hate with all my soul the rush = win! and biggest horde = win! mechanic they use. What drived me to buy C&C3 (the last EA thing I bought) was that I like the character of Kane.
Well you can always just watch the game on you tube,or you can cheat your way through the game.This arent the stone age days where if you wanted to watch all the movies you had to hone your skill by tediously repeating every mission until youve reached perfection.
I haven’t played a single C&C game, beyond dabbling at a friend’s house, since EA ate Westwood Studios. That’s a shame, because C&C (and Dune 2) is a game I grew up with (and I relate to the poster further above, KremlinLaptop) and none of the sequels felt/looked right without Westwood at the helm.
I still listen to a little Mechanical Man to remember better days. :)
I’ve got the soundtracks done by Frank Klepacki for all the C&C games. They’re very enjoyable in their own way and Tiberian Dawn is among the first games I can remember really enjoying the soundtrack to as music.
Heck yeah. The music from C&C was among the first game soundtracks that struck me and has *stuck* with me.
This thread reminded me I need to pick up Klepacki’s music on Amazon. :)
As far as Westwood goes, I’m also a big fan of Lands of Lore and Kyrandia and their soundtracks. I still listen to the MIDIs! Not enough love goes into the music of today’s games.
Heck, I’m pretty much a Westwood baby. I remember playing Lands of Lore with my dad when I was just a kid (and it scaring the crap out of me).
While every element is important in the “good game” recipe, music is the ingredient that makes us remember the game for years after we’re done with it.
Aw, yeah. C&C music is the best. This is where I totally agree that EA messed up on. The music for the new games just aren’t up to snuff with the older games.
Maybe Russ’ profile image was trying to create such a resemblance to Kane? It is largely a gaming news site, and all…
Meh, Russ Pits is deliberately trying to look like a scheming villain in that avatar, and bald, middle-aged men with beards are all over.
and here I thought russ used kane as his avatar
My Favourite will always remain Red alert 2, one of the last games Westwood ever made before becomming Petroglyph.