The Generals Series

Generals series

Command & Conquer: Generals, released on February 10, 2003, had a plotline which was completely unrelated to the other games of the Command & Conquer series. Generals is set in the near future and features the United States, China and the fictional terrorist organization, the Global Liberation Army. Generals uses an engine dubbed "SAGE" (or Strategy Action Game Engine) and is the first fully three-dimensional Command & Conquer real-time strategy game. After its release, Generals received mostly positive reviews. Based on 34 reviews, Metacritic gives it a score of 84/100 which includes a score of 9.3/10 from IGN. Generals has also received the E3 2002 Game Critics Awards Best Strategy Game award. One review noted that Generals was the first ever Command & Conquer real-time strategy game that did not include full-motion video cutscenes to tell the story and that it departed from the unique interface and base-building mechanics that had characterized all of the previous C&C RTS titles.

An expansion for Generals, Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour, was released on September 22, 2003 to further the Generals storyline. Unlike Generals, Zero Hour featured the return of full motion videos to the series. Zero Hour obtained much the same reception as Generals with an aggregate score of 85% and 84% from Game Rankings and Metacritic respectively.

Command & Conquer: Generals is a real-time strategy game in the Command & Conquer series. Generals utilizes SAGE (Strategy Action Game Engine). This proprietary engine is an extended version of the Command & Conquer: Renegade 3D engine. Generals was released onto theMicrosoft Windows platform in 2003, and a Mac OS version was released in 2004, marking the return of the Command & Conquer series to that platform. An expansion pack, entitled Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour, was additionally released for PC in 2003, and for Mac OS in 2005. A sequel, Command & Conquer: Generals 2, is due to be released in 2013

gameplay

Command and Conquer Generals operates like most other real-time strategy games, in that the player must construct a base, acquire resources, build various combat and support units, and defeat opponents. Various unit types can be constructed, ranging from infantry to vehicles and air units. The player may control the United States of America, the People's Republic of China, or the Global Liberation Army, and each side has its unique characteristics and abilities. All sides share some similarities, such as training infantry at a barracks, building armored vehicles at a factory, possessing "high tech" buildings needed for more advanced units, possessing a means to acquire additional resources and possessing a unique superweapon.

The game's interface is similar to that of real-time strategy games such as Age of Empires or StarCraft. The player selects buildings to bring up build orders and purchase upgrades, and can select individual units to activate their special abilities. Structures are built by selecting dedicated builder units and placing the structure anywhere on the map.

As with other real-time strategy games, the various units have advantages and disadvantages against other units, and the player is encouraged to mix unit types in order to succeed and fight tactically with various unit abilities in order to win.

For example, rifle infantry are capable of quickly killing other infantry types, but are vulnerable to light vehicles and dedicated anti-infantry/anti-air units such as tankettes and APCs, which in turn are vulnerable to main battle tanks, which themselves are vulnerable to missile-equipped infantry and aircraft.

As the game progresses and the player defeats enemy units in battle, the player will gain "experience" points, which are used to purchase "Generals Abilities," unique abilities that range from enhancing units and unlocking new unit types to powerful air strikes, one-shot enhancements to units, or targetable "spawn points" to drop or create groups of units anywhere on the map.

As individual units attack and defeat enemy units or capture buildings, they gain "veterancy" and become more powerful, much like the General commanding them. Higher-ranking units attack faster, have more health, and heal or repair themselves.

Zero Hour also contains 3 new campaigns of five missions each, one for each side, with their chronological order being USA first, GLA second, and China last. Unlike the previous campaigns, which were noted by Command and Conquer fans for not having full motion video cinematic sequences during mission briefing, the Zero Hour campaigns return to that Command and Conquer tradition, each showing a live-action video of a news reporter of the respective side giving details about the situation behind the current mission. The plot behind the Zero Hour campaigns picks up where it left off at the end of the previous campaigns.

At the beginning of the USA campaign, the Global Liberation Army (GLA) launches a biological weapon using a refitted Soyuz launch station from the captured Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at a U.S. naval base located in Northern Europe. The United States military retaliates quickly, destroying the launch platform, before the GLA can fire another missile. Later, while providing humanitarian aid to Mogadishu, Somalia backed by an aircraft carrier battle group, documents detailing a hidden GLA bio-lab are discovered. Black Lotus and Colonel Burton head to the area to destroy the bio-lab. While Black Lotus captures a GLA outpost, Colonel Burton leads a team of army rangers and destroys the bio-lab. Some time later, the United States learns that a GLA general codenamed "Dr. Thrax" has been developing a more lethal variety of anthrax known as "Anthrax Gamma". The USA manages to cut off Thrax's funds, which were coming from oil fields in Iran. When the USA locates his base of operations, they discover that he is planning on launching several missiles loaded with this toxin at major population centers within the USA itself. A swift strike by the USA, with the help of GLA defectors, succeeds in preventing the launch, and stops "Dr. Thrax."

In the GLA campaign, the GLA, though disappointed by the failure of Dr. Thrax, receives a boost in morale with the successful appointment of their new leader, General Mohmar "Deathstrike". The GLA first attempts to reunite its splintered factions under Deathstrike's leadership, which it succeeds in doing after eliminating the reganade Prince Kassad's forces in Egypt as well as stealing Kassad's stealth technologies, and then begins a fervent mission to drive the Americans from Europe. Despite their seemingly obsolete technology, the GLA succeeds in inflicting tremendous harm against the USA, by capturing an American particle uplink cannon which they then use to destroy the USS Ronald Reagan(splitting her in half from starboard to port, as shown in the game's cover) and infiltrating the US West Coast to steal toxins from a chemical storage facility. This reaches its climax when the GLA overruns the USA’s European central command base in Stuttgart-Vaihingen, partially with the use of captured Chinese weaponry. The GLA's primary objective accomplished, they now begin to invade a vulnerable Europe and create a newrepressive state.

In the Chinese campaign, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) is sent to Europe to relieve the USA and gain revenge against the Global Liberation Army for their humiliating use of Chinese technology in the capture of the U.S. European Command base in Germany. In order to prevent the GLA from making use of advanced USA weaponry, China launches a nuclear missile at the military base, destroying it, and then sends its forces into Germany, where the GLA invaders are concentrated. China tightens its homeland defenses to prevent an infiltration so they don't suffer any more attacks in their homeland. This pays off when a nuclear power plant is attacked by the GLA. Chinese forces hold their position until reinforcements arrive, and they launch a counterattack, destroying the GLA in the hills. China is also asked by the Defense Council to use restraint in their military program, to which China agrees. They later liberate a major European city oppressed by the GLA, causing China's international opinion to skyrocket. The GLA attempt to retreat, but their forces are intercepted by China and destroyed. Finally, the nearly defeated GLA takes control of an abandoned U.S. military base and uses its weaponry against the Chinese army. China succeeds in destroying the GLA, and eliminating the GLA for good, rooting out their influence in Europe. Establishing the Eurasian Unity League with the newly liberated Europe, China takes its new role as a major superpower on the world stage.

Command & Conquer: Generals 2 is an upcoming 2013 real-time strategy video game in the Command & Conquer series, developed byBioWare Victory and published by Electronic Arts exclusively for the Microsoft Windows platform. The game will be a sequel to 2003'sCommand & Conquer: Generals and will utilize the Frostbite 2 engine. The game will also introduce downloadable content to the series, with new maps, units, factions and campaign missions. It is the first game in the series to be developed by BioWare Victory, making them the series' third developer after Westwood Studios and EA Los Angeles. The game will be available exclusively on Electronic Arts'Origin distribution service.

The story is set to take place after the events of the original Generals game, and will take place in the near future of the fictional universe. As the world leaders are at a summit to sign a treaty to end war globally, a devastating terrorist attack kills all the leaders at the summit. This leaves the world without its politicians, diplomats and activists with only the Generals of each country remaining to end the terrorism plaguing the world. The overall tone of the game will also be more modern and serious than its Tiberian and Red Alert counterparts, with a more "gritty and intense" story and still delivering "over-the-top action

The game is set to return to the Command & Conquer series, after massive tweaks to the series' gameplay formula in the series' previous game Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight such as the removal of base building and the inclusion of population caps. The game will again feature the series' staples of base building, resource collection and construction of large armies. The game will also feature 3 "unique" factions, the European Union, the GLA, and one yet to be revealed faction

The game is the first game in the Command & Conquer series since the release of the critically panned Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, a game which greatly deviated from the series' traditional RTS formula. After the release of Tiberian Twilight, much of the Command & Conquer team, within EA Los Angeles, was laid off in 2010 causing the future of the series to be cast in doubt. In October 2010, a senior vice-president from Electronic Arts had told the media that the Command & Conquer series would live on as a brand from Dead Space developers, Visceral Games, with a title from the series to be released by that developer being "far-off" and whether or not he was referring to this game is not clear.

The first official announcement of a new Command & Conquer game in development, came in February 2011 when Electronic Arts announced the formation of a new studio known as Victory Games. In the studios' first Q&A session with the official Command & Conquer blog, openly announced that they were developing a new title in the Command & Conquer series with the studios' general focus being on the future of the series. The new studio consisted of members from the previous EA Los Angeles development team as well as some new staff members.

The game's formal announcement was then teased as a game from the "next big BioWare franchise" and was due for a reveal at the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards. The game was then speculated to be either a new game from defunct studio, Pandemic's Mercenaries series, or a new game from the Command & Conquer series, which turned out to be an accurate analysis.Subsequently, more rumors began to indicate that the game was indeed a Command & Conquer game called, Command & Conquer: Alliances due to a series of domain registrations by EA for a game of that name, though this turned out to be a side project by Phenomic, called Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances.

The game was finally formally unveiled on December 10, 2011 at the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards as a title developed by what would become BioWare Victory. It was later revealed that the newly formed Command & Conquer studio, Victory Games, had been integrated by Electronic Arts into the recently formed BioWare label. This shift caused the studio to be renamed as BioWare Victory, not to be confused with the Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series developers, BioWare