EA recently announced that Command & Conquer: Generals 2 is going to be free to play under the umbrella of an online series known simply as “Command & Conquer.” Bioware Victory general manager John Van Caneghem told me last week that Generals 2 will ship without a single player mode. Instead, “co-operative and competitive” skirmishes will serve as the core, with more modes to be added later based on community feedback. A story mode could be added later, but “it is something we haven’t announced yet how we’re going to do it.”Van Caneghem said that the studio “really want to get back to the roots of what made Command & Conquer great.” Generals 2 will let us harvest and throw up bases in order to “build a zillion units” and “go out and kill all the bad guys.” Despite the familiar RTS trappings, Generals 2 will be a dedicated online experience at launch.“As a live service I think the exciting part is you can try things,” said Van Caneghem. “You can see what the community wants, you can give it a shot, you can put it up for a weekend and see how it goes, develop towards what the fans like.”Generals 2 will the first in a series of online, high fidelity C&C games that will span all iterations of the series’ long history. “We decided to choose Generals as the first set of games we build under the universe, but we’ll be expanding after that, like Tiberium and Red Alert as well as some others as well. But Generals 2 was the first one, and it was one of the biggest sellers, as well as the fanbase has been asking for it for some time.”
Generals 2 will be tied to an online account that can be levelled up with new matches. Regular DLC, both free and paid-for, will add new maps and modes as time goes on. Will the Red Alert and Tiberium entries in the series share that same account?“We’re obviously open to the concept,” said Van Caneghem. “I know another person asked me the other day if they’d be able to fight games between factions. I guess that’s something we can look at at some point.”As well as multiplayer deathmatch and co-operative modes, Van Caneghem mentioned that the team are integrating e-sports features. “We’re really going to run the gambit of what people enjoy in a multiplayer environment,” he said.“I don’t think we’re making a list of the features yet, but I think you can basically make a list of the assumed ones that you’d need to be an e-sports game, and it’s definitely part of the plan.”So, a spectator mode with a free camera mode, shoutcast support, tournament support? We’ll have to wait and see.An online RTS powered by Frostbite 2 does sound tempting, and the Gamescom trailer below contains shows some bombastic tank-death potential, but it’s sure to be a tough sell to dedicated C&C players. Will you play Generals 2?
C&C: Generals 2 (Whats your take on this)
C&C: Generals 2 to have e-sports features, no single player campaign on launch. Yes its still early but what do you guys think?
Posted by pandemic--hour on
wish it would have a offline mode,not everyone has good internet all the time.had alot of problems when i tried to play c&c4 due to getting disconnected all the time.
Same here, i gotta dell which can run anything but wifi won't connect to the damn thing
RIP Generals 2 :(
get the defibrillator
IMO, if the game is going to be free, then the SP campaign add-on gotta be free too.
Yay! free to play, no campaign, e-sport focused, no offline.
**** you EA. I hate you, *****.
I have access to two free 2 play games of EA. Both have eerie similarities.
* Alpha to beta level code.
* No fast fixes unless it breaks access for (paying!) players.
* Much faster release of buyable stuff then free items (while free2play gamers give the opponent base for the paying player)
* Rediculous pricing for essential game attributes (like U$20 for a winning car in nfsworld)
* Slow reaction on cheating (requires good anticheat which has to be updated often)
* Cheaters are protected by the TOS even when obvious cheating can be proven (a number of cheaters are PAYING players)
Conclusion: having fun in free2play games of EA can be challenging
Modding is what makes the ZeroHour line and other C&C lines fun. NOT possible here
”Van Caneghem said that the studio “really want to get back to the roots of what made Command & Conquer great.”
The Campaigns and the awesome story's of them what made the Command & Conquer's so great! Damn you EA how can call it a Command & Conquer when you ripped it's heart out in the first place?
He's right without singeplayer support the game is going to be a big disappointment among die-hard fans and more experienced players they really have taken out the soul of the game plus with only online mode available and campaign with no singleplayer support tell me EA where's the fun at that
There should be no fun in that... EA takes out the soul of their games to gain money...
R.I.P. C&C
**** EA again, I HATE YOU EA!!!! YOU KILLED COMMAND AND CONQUER FOREVER! RIP C&C and Generals 2.
Knowing EA games I'm sure this will happen.
Free play: Leveling up, grinding, limited levels and game modes. General Abilities and units have to be unlocked at certain levels.
Paid players: No leveling up, early access to game mods, abilities and units.
I guess paying players will have a field day with free players. Making it way more frustrating to players who want to play but don't want to dish out money on it.
Of course the chances of having a decent single player are dim but I'm betting even with the initial free to play the game won't be as well received as the older Generals were.
The only thing that would make this better is if there was a real money Auction House X.X (RIP Diablo and CNC lol)
Damn
STINKS. but at least i wont have to upgrade me complete system now.
mind you, still rev-ed up over syndicate....
I think EA has failed again and needs to commit corporate suicide.
I'm pretty sure that this article is them committing corporate suicide. No matter how they try and spin it here, this game looks horrible. One of the greatest things about every other CNC game was the mods, and now there will be none since it is entirely online... I have a hard time believing someone could play these games for a long period of time without mods but maybe i'm wrong. Even then there is a lot more wrong with the game then just that it appears...
free to play eh? free like NFSW?....OR free like battlefield heros?
the kind of free that charges you for anything but the most basic advancement or upgrade or access??
the kind of free that you have to pay for?
******* burn, EA
The Gamer in me thinks: TBH did anyone really play the campaign in Generals or Zero Hour? Maybe once, but compared to Red Alert and the Tiberium universes the Generals Universe was kinda bland with the story. I almost always played Skirmish, the only time i didn't was to play the Generals challenge. So i don't care that there isn't a campaign, but still i think it should :S It just seems lazy not to... Also it's online all the time? Great now i know i for sure will NOT be playing this... Not that my internet is bad (it's very good) but i hate these types of things. Same reason why Diablo 3 sucks as well (and some of the newer Ubisoft games).
Overall this looks very bad and i will not be purchasing it at all.
The modder in me says: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. Generals and Zero Hour were some of the easiest games to mod, not to mention they had really great mods for them (Contra etc.) There will be no mods in this game since it is entirely online. WTF EA? For those of you who plan on buying this: How long until this becomes the most boring game ever? Without mods i'll give it a month or two of dedicated playing...
so true,without modding or at least custom mapping tools of any kind normally make games die out really fast,but remember it does cost them to keep servers up all the time,so to save as much money as they can, they just want you to buy it and forget about it in as short of time possible. what is more disappointing is that once there is to few players online and they decide to shut everything down all who payed for all of those upgrades/units just wasted their money since all files are stored on the on the servers.
Complete ********! They didnt learn a damn thing! I just wanted a normal strategy game with cool units maps missions and upgrades and be able to play it anytime anywhere without battling a second war of finding a stable internet connection! Hopefully This Dev. Team will share the same fate as the fools who made RA3 AND CNC4! They can SMD!
damn true...especially the part about stable internet connection. Not everyone has the fastest internet and when family members share your wifi it is just impossible to play making this game useless to me and not worth spending real money on it except you can buy a offline singeplayer mode for like ...10-20 bucks. Then it is okay.
Just a thought, Did they instead of making Generals 2, Make an Official version of CnC All Stars?
Well.. I know Orgin DOES have an offline mode.. I imagine when/if the game gets SP support you'll be able play SP fine in offline mode. I don't think the game will be 100% online after it gets (that is if it gets) SP support. (all C&C games have had Skirmish -please don't mention SS or Renegade for the sake of my sanity-, C&C4 was a special case as it required you to 'level' up in all gameplay modes) Generals 2 will not be like that from the info I've gathered so far.
Mod support?... Maybe if EA releases a SDK for the Frostbite 2. Though there's a higher chance of the pine trees in my back yard becoming irreplaceable artifacts overnight.
Well done EA, you've managed to ruin Generals, my favorite RTS of all RTSs. If it wasn't for the last two Battlefields being on Origin I'd avoid it as though it were the plague, as well as everything else you so much as dream of putting your greedy little demonic fingers on, EA.
I believe that everything that needs to be said, has been said by my fellow comrades here.
I'm sure curiosity would have most of you at least trying out this game, though I would like to hope that most of you would avoid paying for its premium content in protest (as I am).
The most painful thing about this game is that they let my hopes go up, and actually made me excited for a Command and Conquer title since a very long time ago. The thought that V-games would work on it, and the beautiful promo, left me wanting it.
But they have struck me down with 3 hits.
1- Scrapping the singleplayer, and thereby the continuation. (I actually played and enjoyed the Gen/ZH campaign.)
2- Making it internet dependent.
3- Turning the game into a MMO, an F2P mmo even. Last I've noticed, F2PMMO games have horrible pockets of whiny players; Unfair or privileged equipment; constant re balances, and game changes to accommodate new marketing gimmicks; Outbreaks of hacking, and Hacker paranoia!
The reason why I think they are trying to get into the f2p mmo market so hard (going as far as turning lead titles into it), is to combat piracy.
It might come as a shock to EA, but the reason why piracy is big with their games is not because they are so good, but because EA managed to **** off large amounts of people en masse.
I was hoping to leave my "fanboyism" to rest, thinking that they couldn't hurt my childhood title anymore now that they killed and buried it with CnC4. Turns out they dug it up and took a **** at it.
So for old times sake... **** you Electronic arts, **** your products, **** your staff, and **** your founders and leaders.
And another blast from the past.
"EA SUCKS, **** UP EVERYTHING."
Couldn't have said it any better there good sir!
Between Tiberian Twilight and now this it's obvious that Command & Conquer games are being made to cater for an audience other than Command & Conquer players. Great series is being completely destroyed. Very disappointing to see EA using a clearly useless marketing team.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO *falls from a crater*
lame i feel like its going to be a world of tanks account but with rts elements>.>'
Do you want to hear what the worst of all will be???? It's Free to Play, and do you all know what it means???? They will include the ******* FREE2PLAY POINTS!!!!1 Run for your lives!!!! And do you know what that means??? Every DLC will cost points for exampel if they decide to make a campaign, and singleplayer! UAAAAA! Or to unlock the 3rd faction that we don't know about yet! UAAAAA! EA are just retarded.