Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is a military science fiction

Military science fiction

Military science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction in which the principal characters are members of a military service and an armed conflict is taking place, normally in space, or on a planet other than Earth...

real-time strategy

Real-time strategy

Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....

video game developed and published by Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...

for the Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

, Mac OS X

Mac OS X

Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

and Xbox 360

Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

platforms, and released international

International

----International mostly means something that involves more than one country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries...

ly in March 2007. The direct sequel to the 1999 RTS title Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun is a real-time strategy video game developed by Westwood Studios and released in . The main storyline follows the second major war between the Global Defense Initiative of the United Nations, and the global terrorist organization known as the Brotherhood of Nod who...

by Westwood Studios

Westwood Studios

Westwood Studios was a computer and video game developer, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was founded by Brett Sperry and Louis Castle in as Westwood Associates, and renamed to Westwood Studios when it merged with Virgin Interactive in...

, a now defunct company that was taken over and liquidated by EA in 2003, Tiberium Wars returns the Command & Conquer series

Command & Conquer

Command & Conquer, abbreviated to C&C and also known as Tiberian Dawn, is a 1995 real-time strategy computer game developed by Westwood Studios for MS-DOS and published by Virgin Interactive. It was the first of twelve games to date to be released under the Command & Conquer label, including a...

to its roots in the Tiberium story arc

Command & Conquer: Tiberian series

The Command & Conquer: Tiberian series is a sub-series of real-time strategy video games belonging to the extensive Command & Conquer franchise by Westwood Studios and Electronic Arts...

of the franchise, once again featuring the factions of the Global Defense Initiative and the Brotherhood of Nod, and also introducing a new extraterrestrial

Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...

faction known as the Scrin. An expansion pack

Expansion pack

An expansion pack, expansion set, or supplement is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game or video game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, and/or an extended storyline to a complete and already released game...

to Tiberium Wars, titled Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath

Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath

Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath is an expansion pack for the 2007 real-time strategy video game Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. Developed by Electronic Arts Los Angeles and BreakAway Games studios, it was released on March 24, 2008 in the United States and on March 28, 2008 in Europe by...

, was released on March 24, 2008.

Tiberium Wars takes place in the year 2047, at the advent of and during the "Third Tiberium

Tiberium

Tiberium or Ichor is a fictional substance that is central to the plot of much of the Command & Conquer series of real-time strategy video games...

War" when the Brotherhood of Nod launches a worldwide offensive against the Global Defense Initiative, abruptly ending 17 years of silence and temporarily crippling GDI. With the odds tipped in the Brotherhood's favor this time, GDI field commanders rally their troops and begin to combat Nod's second re-emergence, trying to restore lost hope. In the middle of it all, a new playable faction appears: the alien Scrin.

Gameplay

Command & Conquer 3 gameplay typically requires the player to construct a base and acquire resources, in order to fund the ongoing production of various types of forces with which to assault and conquer the opponent's base. All available structures of the faction chosen by the player are constructed on-site at so-called "construction yard" or "drone platform" buildings - which typically begin as large-sized vehicles or aircraft capable of deploying themselves into the aforementioned construction yards or drone platforms - or alternatively at the supporting "crane" and "foundry" structures. When a construction yard, drone platform, crane or foundry has finished building a new structure, the player can select a spot near an existing structure to place it, whereupon building will then rapidly pop up into existence.

Tiberium is the sole resource and is usually gathered from fields of Tiberium crystals scattered around the map. The crystals are gathered by harvester vehicles which unload their cargo into refineries, supplying the player with credits which can be used to buy units and structures.

All three factions have structures and units with similar functions at their disposal. However, they are adjusted to fit each faction's theme and have somewhat varying properties. Units can be classified into infantry, vehicles and aircraft, each with their own subdivisions (against infantry, vehicles, aircraft, structures and combinations thereof). Unit effectiveness against opponents follows the rock-paper-scissors

Rock-paper-scissors

Rock-paper-scissors is a hand game played by two people. The game is also known as roshambo, or another ordering of the three items ....

principle found in most real-time strategy

Real-time strategy

Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....

games.

Virtually every type of structure in the game acts as a tech tree

Tech tree

In strategy computer games, the technology tree or tech tree is a hierarchical visual representation of the possible sequences of upgrades a player can take, by means of research. The diagram is tree-shaped in the sense that it branches at certain intervals, allowing the player to choose one...

node, and additional units, structures and faction-specific abilities will become available as new structures are built and placed. Access to advanced units and abilities may be temporarily blocked if the required structures are destroyed, or if they are not being provided with adequate power by the supporting "power plant" structures.

Base defense is provided by specialized defensive towers. Later on in the game, the player can begin to build lethal defensive structures such as the Global Defense Initiative's "Sonic Emitters", the Scrin's "Storm Columns" or the iconic "Obelisk of Light" of the Brotherhood of Nod.

Single player

The story driven single player

Single player

A Single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. "Single-player game" usually implies a game that can only be played by one person, while "single-player mode" usually refers to a game mode for a single player, where...

mode of Command & Conquer 3 consists of 38 missions, spread over three campaigns. Each campaign depicts the view of its respective faction on the globalized "Third Tiberium

Tiberium

Tiberium or Ichor is a fictional substance that is central to the plot of much of the Command & Conquer series of real-time strategy video games...

War", with the portrayed story being furthered by full motion video

Full motion video

Full motion video based games are video games that rely upon pre-recorded TV-quality movie or animation rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models to display action in the game. In the early 1990s a diverse set of games utilized this format...

cutscenes which play in between each of the individual campaign missions. Players can select to start with either the Global Defense Initiative or the Brotherhood of Nod campaign. However, both campaigns of the traditional two factions are required to be completed before the bonus 4 part campaign of the new third Scrin faction is unlocked and becomes playable.

Each campaign mission features main objectives, the completion of which will instantly end the mission successfully. Several optional bonus objectives are additionally present, which can, when completed, make it easier for the main objectives to be completed. All campaign missions can separately be given a difficulty rating on the "theater" screen before they are started; the available difficulty settings range from "Easy" to "Normal" to "Hard".

As the player progresses through one of the campaigns, new entries in the game's "Intelligence Database" become unlocked, providing the player with additional background information on the storyline, the factions, as well as their units and structures. Several of these database entries require the player to complete the bonus objectives of the various missions before they can be accessed. However, due to bug

Software bug

A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...

s in the game's code two entries cannot be collected without the use of a downloaded mod

Mod (computer gaming)

Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...

. All cutscenes which the player has unlocked by progressing through the campaigns are made available for viewing at any time within the game's "Transmission Log" menu.

The skirmish mode in Tiberium Wars features numerous AI

AI, A.I., Ai, or ai may refer to:- Computers :* Artificial intelligence, a branch of computer science* Ad impression, in online advertising* .ai, the ISO Internet 2-letter country code for Anguilla...

settings which each embody a type - or a combination of types - of classic RTS strategies, such as "turtle

Turtle (game term)

Turtling is a gameplay strategy that emphasizes heavy defense. Ostensibly, turtling minimizes risk to the turtling player while baiting opponents to take risks in trying to overcome the defenses. In practice, however, games are often designed to punish turtling through various game mechanics...

r", "rush

Rush (computer and video games)

In video games, rushing is analogous to the human wave attack in real-world ground warfare, in which speed and surprise are used to overwhelm and/or cripple an enemy before they achieve effective buildups of sizable defensive and/or expansionist capabilities....

er" and "steamroller". These behavioral settings can additionally be given a difficulty rating ranging from "Easy" to "Medium" to "Hard" to "Brutal", along with "handicap" settings that can be applied to either the AI, the player, or both. Whenever a skirmish mission is successfully completed, a star is placed next to the map in the skirmish menu, showing that the player has successfully won the skirmish on a certain difficulty level.

Multiplayer

Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars supports multiplayer games over LAN

Län

Län and lääni refer to the administrative divisions used in Sweden and previously in Finland. The provinces of Finland were abolished on January 1, 2010....

, and online play over Gamespy

GameSpy

GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...

servers Players can participate in "1v1", "2v2", and clan

Clan (computer gaming)

In computer and video gaming, a clan or guild is an organised group of players that regularly play together in a particular multiplayer games. These games range from groups of a few friends to 1000-person organizations, with a broad range of structures, goals and members. The lifespan of a clan...

-based "1v1" and "2v2" ladders

Game ladder

A ladder tournament is a form of tournament for games and sports. It is an extended tournament, which can potentially go on indefinitely. In a ladder tournament, players are listed as if on the rungs of a ladder. The objective for a player is to reach the highest rung of the ladder...

- each using separate Elo rating system

Elo rating system

The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....

s - or they can elect to play unranked. In addition to the official ladders, a number of independent ladders have been set up, the most prominent of which currently is "clanwars.cc http://www.clanwars.cc".

Broadband

Broadband

The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...

-based multiplayer features VoIP support.

BattleCast

Electronic Arts

is making an attempt through Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars to market "RTS as a sport", through a project entitled "BattleCast". A service centred on the game's official website, "BattleCast" is designed to allow for players to schedule upcoming games with others, to spectate in games that are currently being played, and to serve as a centralised replay archive of previously played matches. "BattleCast" additionally allows for players to function as commentators in a game, providing a running description of the match as it unfolds. Commentators can talk to other observers of a game through "BattleCast", and use a Paint

Microsoft Paint

Paint is a simple graphics painting program that has been included with all versions of Microsoft Windows. It is often referred to as MS Paint or Microsoft Paint...

-style brush to draw onto the screen.

A free "BattleCast Viewer" is available for download from the official C&C website http://www.commandandconquer.com/intel/default.aspx?id=73#NewsMain. This viewer will allow for people who do not own the game to watch others playing. Player may also download maps for extra play

Plot

The storylines of the game's three factions are closely interwoven in the same fashion seen previously in the Firestorm expansion pack

Expansion pack

of Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun

. In any one faction's campaign, references are made to the events and missions that occur in the campaigns of the other two factions.

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars begins roughly sixteen to seventeen years after the events of Tiberian Sun: Firestorm. While the conflict between the Global Defense Initiative and the Brotherhood of Nod appears to have subsided substantially ever since, Tiberium

Tiberium

Tiberium or Ichor is a fictional substance that is central to the plot of much of the Command & Conquer series of real-time strategy video games...

infestation has begun to reach critical levels and continues to destroy the Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

's ecosystems at an alarming rate, prompting GDI to divide the world into three different geographical zones based on the levels of local infestation. 30% of the world's surface has been designated as "Red Zones", which have suffered the worst contamination and can no longer support human or otherwise carbon-based life. 50% of the regions in the world have been designated as "Yellow Zones", which are dangerously contaminated yet contain most of the world's population. Decades of war and civil unrest have left these regions in a state of social collapse and have continued to provide the Brotherhood of Nod with opportunity for concealment as well as large-scale recruitment over the years. The remaining 20% of the Earth's surface is unscarred by Tiberium outbreak and is relatively untouched by war. These "Blue Zones" are considered the last refuge and hope of the human civilized world and have been placed under the direct protection of the Global Defense Initiative.

In March 2047 the Brotherhood of Nod suddenly fires a nuclear missile at GDI's orbiting command station GDSS Philadelphia, destroying the fulcrum of GDI's senior command structure in a single major blow, after taking out GDI A-SAT System in Goddard Space Centre in a surprise raid. Since the end of the Second Tiberium War

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun

, Nod has silently built up its influence and its military potential into the status of a true superpower

Superpower

A superpower is a state with a dominant position in the international system which has the ability to influence events and its own interests and project power on a worldwide scale to protect those interests...

, and by providing enforcement of stability, strategically placed medical aid and hate-mongering

Hate crime

In crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or...

against GDI and the Blue Zone populations from within the Yellow Zone territories, the Brotherhood is now supported by a significant percentage of the world's population. Unprepared to handle the coordinated offensives led by Black Hand shock troops across the entire globe, the remainder of the Global Defense Initiative's top military and political officials take charge and begin rallying all of their standing forces, determined to turn the tide and achieve a new victory over Nod.

As the conflict unfolds however, extraterrestrial

Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...

forces known only as the "Scrin" suddenly enter in the battle, and alter the nature of the Third Tiberium War entirely.

Campaigns

After driving the invading Brotherhood of Nod forces out of a number of the world's Blue Zones, GDI's General Granger, acting on intelligence gathered from Nod POWs, begins to fear that the Brotherhood may be preparing to use WMD

Weapons of mass destruction

A weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general...

's and orders a pre-emptive strike on a Nod chemical weapons facility near Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

, Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

. Once there, GDI discovers that Nod was not only preparing to deploy their full nuclear arsenal

Nuclear weapon

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...

on them, but that they are also in the process of manufacturing a liquid Tiberium

Tiberium

Tiberium or Ichor is a fictional substance that is central to the plot of much of the Command & Conquer series of real-time strategy video games...

bomb of unprecedented destructive power. The swiftness of GDI's response prevents a pending nuclear strike from Nod, but Kane

Kane (Command & Conquer)

Kane is a fictional character in the alternate history universe of Westwood Studios' and Electronic Arts' Command & Conquer real-time strategy video games in which he is a seemingly immortal mastermind behind the ancient and secretive Brotherhood of Nod society...

continues the construction of the liquid Tiberium device unabated within his newly erected "Temple Prime" in Sarajevo

Sarajevo

Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....

.

Temple Prime subsequently comes under siege by GDI forces. General Granger plans to lay siege to the site until Kane and his Inner Circle would surrender, but Director Redmond Boyle orders the use of the ion cannon

Ion cannon

In science fiction, an ion cannon is a beam weapon that fires beams of ions . Due to its power, it is usually classified as a superweapon. An ion cannon is a type of particle cannon; only the particles used are ionized...

upon Temple Prime to eliminate Kane's threat "once and for all". When the ion cannon is fired over Granger's strenuous objections, it detonates the liquid Tiberium bomb inside the temple, creating a cataclysmic explosion that reaches out into space and kills millions of people in Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

's Yellow Zones. Kane and his Inner Circle are believed to be among the casualties.

Shortly after these disastrous events, GDI's deep space

Deep Space

- Star Trek :* Battle of Deep Space Nine, the first major battle of the Dominion War* Deep Space Nine , space station in the fictional Star Trek universe* Deep Space Nine relaunch, number of novels released since 2000...

surveillance network suddenly begins to detect multiple large unidentified objects rapidly closing in on Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

. Director Boyle orders the ion cannon network to be turned against the vessels, but the craft are unfazed by the attack and alien

Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...

forces, known only as the Scrin, land on Earth and begin to swarm throughout the world's Red Zones, soon after launching massive assaults on all major cities across the globe. GDI realizes these attacks are meant to divert their attention away from the construction of massive tower structures in the world's Red Zones.

Kane, who somehow escaped alive, reveals to the player that he deliberately started the war with GDI to provoke the ion cannon attack on Temple Prime. It was the only thing that could detonate his liquid Tiberium bomb with sufficient power to lure the Scrin to Earth. Kane hopes to seize one of the Threshold towers the Scrin are building, which are interstellar teleportation devices they use to ship Tiberium offworld. The Scrin, for their part, realize they have been tricked, as only 5.3% of Earth's Tiberium is fully mature. Curiously, they recognize Kane from their databanks, and seek to learn more about him.

GDI succeeds in destroying all but one of the towers, which is protected by elite Nod forces, and the Scrin are able to finish the tower's construction just before GDI destroys their central control node in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. With the tower completed, it becomes invulnerable to all known forms of human weaponry and GDI is left with no option but to leave it standing under close observation, as it is completely inert following the destruction of the control node entity. Kane prepares to enter the tower using key codes stolen from the Scrin forces. At the end of the Nod campaign, Kane welcomes the player to his Inner Circle. The Scrin, meanwhile, plan to invade Earth with a larger force.

Novel

A novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

based on the game was written by Keith R.A. DeCandido, and released by Del Rey Books

Del Rey Books

Del Rey Books is a branch of Ballantine Books, which is owned by Random House and, in turn since 1998, by Bertelsmann AG. It is a separate imprint established in 1977 under the editorship of author Lester del Rey and his wife Judy-Lynn del Rey. It specializes in science fiction and fantasy...

in June 2007.

Casting

Electronic Arts

confirmed through an early trailer for the game - in which the character of Kane

Kane (Command & Conquer)

was featured - that Joseph D. Kucan

Joseph D. Kucan

Joseph David Kucan is a Video game developer, director, actor, screenwriter, and casting director for various gaming companies and movies. He is a resident of Las Vegas, Nevada. He is well known for his role as Kane from the Command & Conquer series.-Early life:Kucan was born in Las Vegas, Nevada....

would indeed return to reprise his role as the leader of the Brotherhood of Nod. The cutscenes of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars were directed by EA in-house cinematic director Richard Taylor

Richard Taylor

Richard Taylor may refer to:*Richard Taylor , father of U.S. president Zachary Taylor*Richard Taylor , British general*Richard Taylor , son of U.S...

.

A number of well known actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

s were cast in the full motion video

Full motion video

s of Tiberium Wars;

Josh Holloway
Josh Holloway
Joshua Lee "Josh" Holloway is an American actor and model from Free Home, Georgia. He is best known for his role as James "Sawyer" Ford on the American television show Lost.-Early life:...

(Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...

) appears as a Nod intelligence officer by the name of Ajay.
Tricia Helfer
Tricia Helfer
Tricia Janine Helfer is a Canadian actress and former model, best known for her roles as Number Six in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica miniseries and television series, "Carla" on Burn Notice, and FBI Special Agent Alex Rice on Dark Blue, as well as for hosting the first season of Canada's...

(Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)
Battlestar Galactica is an American military science fiction television series, and part of the Battlestar Galactica franchise. The show was developed by Ronald D. Moore as a re-imagining of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series created by Glen A. Larson...

) portrays the Nod General Kilian Qatar.
Michael Ironside
Michael Ironside
Michael Ironside is a Canadian-born actor. He has also worked as a voice actor, producer, film director, and screenwriter in movie and television series in various Canadian and American productions. He is best known for playing villains and "tough guy" heroes, though he has also portrayed...

(Top Gun
Top Gun
Top Gun may refer to:* Top Gun is a 1986 film starring Tom Cruise.**Top Gun , soundtrack to the movie**Top Gun , a number of games based on the movie...

, Starship Troopers
Starship Troopers (film)
Starship Troopers is a 1997 American military science fiction film, written by Edward Neumeier , directed by Paul Verhoeven, loosely adapted from Starship Troopers, a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It is the only theatrically released film in the Starship Troopers franchise...

, Tom Clancy
Tom Clancy
Thomas Leo "Tom" Clancy, Jr. is an American author, best known for his technically detailed espionage, military science, and techno thriller storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War, along with video games on which he did not work, but which bear his name for licensing and...

's Splinter Cell
Splinter Cell
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a series of stealth video games, the first of which was released in 2002, and their tie-in novels. The protagonist, Sam Fisher, is presented as a highly-trained agent of a fictional black-ops sub-division within the NSA, dubbed "Third Echelon"...

video game series, SeaQuest DSV
SeaQuest DSV
seaQuest DSV is an American science fiction television series created by Rockne S. O'Bannon. It originally aired on NBC between 1993 and 1996. In its final season, it was renamed seaQuest 2032. Set in "the near future", seaQuest mixes high drama with realistic scientific fiction...

) appears as the Global Defense Initiative's General Jack Granger.
Billy Dee Williams
Billy Dee Williams
William December "Billy Dee" Williams, Jr. is an American actor, artist, singer, and writer.-Early life:Williams was born in New York City, New York, the son of Loretta...

(Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is a 1980 American epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner. The screenplay, based on a story by George Lucas, was written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan...

, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...

, Batman
Batman (1989 film)
Batman is a 1989 superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name, directed by Tim Burton. The film stars Michael Keaton in the title role, as well as Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl and Jack Palance...

) plays GDI Director
Director-general
The term director-general is a title given the highest executive officer within a governmental, statutory, NGO, third sector or not-for-profit institution.-European Union:...

Redmond Boyle.
Grace Park
Grace Park (actress)
Grace Park is an American-born Canadian actress. She gained recognition as Sharon Valerii on Battlestar Galactica, as well as Shannon Ng in the Canadian television series teen soap Edgemont...

(Battlestar Galactica) as GDI Lt. Sandra Telfair.
Jennifer Morrison
Jennifer Morrison
Jennifer Marie Morrison is an American actress, model and film producer. She is best known for her role as Dr. Allison Cameron in House, whom she played for five-and-a-half years, and also as Zoey Pierson in the sixth season of How I Met Your Mother...

(House, M.D.
House (TV series)
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...

) portrays GDI Lt. Kirce James.

Electronic Arts Los Angeles also employed the talents of several real-world newscasters to deliver TV-style reports of the Tiberium Wars within the game's cutscenes;

Freelance CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

news reporter Shanon Cook
Shanon Cook
Shanon Cook is a contributing reporter for various CNN networks primarily covering entertainment.- Career :Cook mainly profiles musicians and artists for CNN.com and CNN.com Live, the network’s online broadband service. She hosts a segment called "Music & Conversation with Shanon Cook" which also...

(Robin & Company) plays the character of Cassandra Blair.
Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

Fox News anchor John Huck appears as William Frank.
Shauntay Hinton
Shauntay Hinton
Shauntay Hinton is an actress and former beauty queen from Starkville, Mississippi who won the Miss USA title in 2002.-Education:Hinton graduated from Starkville High School in 1997. She later studied broadcast communications at Howard University....

(Miss USA
Miss USA
The Miss USA beauty contest has been held annually since 1952 to select the United States entrant in the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss Universe Organization operates both pageants, as well as Miss Teen USA...

2002) was cast as the reporter Brittany Murphy.

History

A sequel to Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun

had been expected since the game's release in 1999. Work on such a sequel was believed to have been started at Westwood Studios

Westwood Studios

in 2001, however Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts

decided to shift the focus of the would-be successor to Tiberian Sun from a science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

theme to a modern theme based on contemporary real-world conflicts, the result being the title of Command & Conquer: Generals

Command & Conquer: Generals

Command & Conquer: Generals is a real-time strategy game in the Command & Conquer series. Generals utilizes SAGE...

and other SAGE engine

SAGE engine

SAGE is a game engine used by Westwood Studios and Electronic Arts for real-time strategy games.The first version of the engine was known as W3D was highly modified version of SurRender 3D engine, developed by Hybrid Graphics Ltd.Westwood used W3D for Emperor: Battle for Dune and updated for...

based games. Developers still retained the Command & Conquer 3 idea (tentatively named 'Incursion'), intending it to be an update of the original C&C game in terms of gameplay and setting. Just prior to the release of Generals however, EA announced that Westwood Studios

Westwood Studios

(Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

) would be closing and would be consolidated into EA Los Angeles

EA Los Angeles

EA Los Angeles is a video game developer founded originally in 1995 as DreamWorks Interactive LLC, a subsidiary of DreamWorks SKG....

. This merger split the original Westwood team, with some of its members not being willing to relocate and quitting to form the company Petroglyph Games, with the remainder moving to Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

to work at the newly consolidated studio. With this, the development of Command & Conquer 3 was effectively put on hold.

In 2004, old concept art from Westwood Studios was made public under the name "Command & Conquer 3". The artwork showed a "mech" unit, a full 3D

3D computer graphics

3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...

RTS

Real-time strategy

Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....

gameplay environment similar to that used in the title Generals, and the original interface system from both the original Command & Conquer game and its sequel of Tiberian Sun. The unveiling of this artwork fueled speculation that Electronic Arts had begun work on a Command & Conquer game. In December 2004, after the EALA team settled down, then executive producer and Command & Conquer lead Mark Skaggs announced in a mass e-mail that this next Command & Conquer game would be Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, and not the awaited sequel to Tiberian Sun. Shortly thereafter however, Mark Skaggs left EA for unspecified reasons and ideas for the Red Alert 3 title were mothballed. Mike Verdu later became the new lead on the Command & Conquer series. On April 18, 2006, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars was prematurely announced. On April 20, the official press release was made, and Electronic Arts Los Angeles would begin to host several fan summits for previews, feedback and discussions on the new title.

C&C 3 was released in three separate editions; the pre-order edition, the standard edition (box art featured at the article header) and the limited Kane Edition, which constitutes a special collector's edition with various extras and a bonus DVD featuring exclusive content. Tiberium Wars was given a suggested retail price of US$49.99, while the C&C 3: Kane Edition is available at "select retailers" with a suggested retail price of US$59.99. Availability of this edition has been restricted to 100,000 copies worldwide. It is also sold in the Command and Conquer: Saga bundle pack, along with Command & Conquer: The First Decade

Command & Conquer: The First Decade

Command & Conquer: The First Decade is a compilation of the Command & Conquer series' games published from 1995 to 2003, all bundled into one DVD and updated to run optimally on Windows XP. It was released on February 7, 2006 and sold for the price of one retail game...

.

The game was additionally released for the Xbox 360

Xbox 360

in May 2007, with Louis Castle

Louis Castle

-Career:Castle co-founded Westwood Studios with Brett Sperry in 1985. Castle remained with Westwood when it was bought by Electronic Arts in 1998 and he was a vice president and General Manager of EA's Blueprint Studio...

previously having stated:
Support for the Xbox Live Vision Camera

Xbox Live Vision Camera

-Compatible games:In-game video support*American Idol Encore*American Idol Encore 2*Band of Bugs*Bankshot Billiards 2*Battlezone*Bomberman Live*Burnout Paradise - Photo taken after takedown occurs...

is included.

The official map editor for Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars was released on April 20, 2007.

Engine

A heavily modified version of the SAGE engine

SAGE engine

is used to run Command & Conquer 3s graphics. SAGE technology previously was used in the RTS series Generals

Command & Conquer: Generals

Command & Conquer: Generals is a real-time strategy game in the Command & Conquer series. Generals utilizes SAGE...

and The Battle For Middle-Earth

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth is a PC real-time strategy game developed by EA Los Angeles. It is based on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, in turn based on J. R. R. Tolkien's original novel. The game uses short video clips from the movies and a number of the...

games, and the engine's features subsequently are present in C&C 3.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for C&C 3 was composed by Steve Jablonsky

Steve Jablonsky

Steven Jablonsky is an American music composer for film, television and video games. He has been the music director for all the Michael Bay movies produced and directed since The Island...

and Trevor Morris

Trevor Morris (musician)

Trevor Morris is a Canadian orchestral composer, music producer, and creator of electronic music. He is probably best known for the creating the soundtracks for the television shows The Tudors, The Pillars of the Earth and The Borgias...

. Frank Klepacki

Frank Klepacki

Frank Klepacki is an American musician, video game music composer and sound director best known for his work on the Command & Conquer series. Having learned to play drums as a child, he joined Westwood Studios as a composer when he was only 17 years old...

- the composer of all the previous C&C

Command & Conquer series

Command & Conquer is a video game franchise, mostly of the real-time strategy style as well as a first-person shooter game based on the former...

installments with the exception of Command & Conquer: Generals

Command & Conquer: Generals

Command & Conquer: Generals is a real-time strategy game in the Command & Conquer series. Generals utilizes SAGE...

- was contacted by Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts

to compose the soundtrack for Tiberium Wars, but turned the offer down to focus on his career at Petroglyph Games. The titles of some songs show references to Command and Conquer: Renegade.

Expansion pack

On August 14, 2007, the Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts

team for Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars launched an online television-style broadcast under the title of "BattleCast Primetime", which is meant to periodically provide C&C fans with information and news on future Tiberium Wars-related developments, expansion pack

Expansion pack

s and patches

Patch (computing)

A patch is a piece of software designed to fix problems with, or update a computer program or its supporting data. This includes fixing security vulnerabilities and other bugs, and improving the usability or performance...

. During "BattleCast Primetime"'s pilot

Television pilot

A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...

episode, the first expansion pack to Tiberium Wars, entitled Kane's Wrath, was officially announced http://www.commandandconquer.com/swf/CCTV.html.

Reviews

PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...

US gave the game its "Editor's Choice" rating at 90%, stating that "One of the greatest RTS franchises of all time returns to glory", the Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...

gave it 81%, while PC Gamer UK gave it a more reserved rating of 82%, stating that it was "A welcome, but limited, return".
Gamespot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...

gave the game a 9.0 out of 10 and the "Editor's Choice", referring to Tiberium Wars as "one of the finest real-time strategy games in years."
1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....

/Games for Windows: The Official Magazine
Games for Windows: The Official Magazine
Games for Windows: The Official Magazine was a monthly computer game magazine published by Ziff Davis Media, licensing the Games for Windows brand from Microsoft Corporation. It was the successor to Computer Gaming World. The first issue was released in November 2006...

rated the game as an A.
IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...

labelled the game as "great", rating it at 8.5/10.
GamePro
GamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...

gave Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars its "Editor's Choice" rating at 4.5 out of 5, designating it as "Game of the Month" in its June 2007 issue.
UK magazine PCFormat gave the game an 81% rating and praised the "greased eel-slick presentation and explosive, ripping action" which makes Command and Conquer the "distillation of what RTS is all about", however it also criticised the lack of innovation present.
Pelit
Pelit
Pelit is a Finnish video games magazine published 11 times a year by Sanoma Magazines, a division of the Sanoma Group. Being by far the largest of its kind in Finland and covering both PCs and consoles, it has for a long time lacked serious competition and is thought by many to be the magazine of...

and MikroBitti
MikroBitti
MikroBitti is a Finnish computer magazine, founded in May 1984 and published by Sanoma Magazines, a division of the Sanoma Group. MikroBitti is aimed mainly for beginner to mid-level computer users...

gave it 89/100 and 4/5, respectively. MikroBitti applauded the game's appearance and sounds, but criticised it for excessive loyalty to the early Command & Conquer game mechanics.
UK Magazine Edge
Edge (magazine)
Edge is a multi-format computer and video game magazine published by Future Publishing in the United Kingdom. It is known for its industry contacts, editorial stance, distinctive anonymous third-person writing style, yearly awards and longevity....

gave the game a rating of 7. Due to the intentionally faithful recreation of the original Command and Conquer experience, the magazine felt that the game's strategic formula was too dated in comparison to more strategic titles currently available in the RTS market.

Awards

External links

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars Official Website
Command and Conquer Wiki

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