Pipe Dreams – Command & Conquer 5

I miss the days when Starcraft II wasn’t the biggest AAA real time strategy game. I love Starcraft II, it’s a superb game which steals many of my hours in both play time and Youtube videos weekly, but I am still in love with the Command & Conquer franchise and wish more for it. My very first blog post here on Ready Up (3 years ago!) even glazed upon the subject. However, with the recent announcement that Command & Conquer: Generals 2 is getting the axe in place of a free-to-play browser-based game, I feel it’s time for Pipe Dreams to step in and hopefully influence the future of the franchise now before it’s too late. Give us Command & Conquer 5.

I enjoyed the ending of Command & Conquer 4. It completed the story arc, for the most part, and wrapped the series up. However, to be generous, the gameplay itself was a humongous pile of awful. I’ve also covered that previously, so I won’t go too deeply into why that game sucked a fat one in the gameplay department. I will however say this about Command & Conquer 4: it did give me hope. I hoped that after the atrocious reception of the gameplay it got from a large portion of the fanbase, but still maintaining the potential for the Universe it was set in, that it would inject a burst of encouragement to make another one. A game which rectified all the anger thrown C&C4’s way and make C&C5 a better game for it. Alas, it was not to be.

Command & Conquer: Generals 2 was cancelled, let’s call a duck a duck and admit it was flat out cancelled and it wasn’t “transformed” into the new totally unrelated browser game, and now we are left without a pure bred, retail, AAA Command & Conquer experience to strive for. People pre-ordered Generals 2, we were excited, the forums have been buzzing for months and the demand is there. While I do, reluctantly, see there is a market for a free-to-play C&C game online, I see there being far more current demand for the traditional Command & Conquer experience we all love. I thought Red Alert 3 was superb, even if it still had its naysayers, and Command & Conquer 4, despite its flaws, still topped the PC charts on release. Why not keep this success train moving? Starcraft II, Planetary Annihilation, and others have clearly demonstrated the demand is still there for RTS games. Possibly now more so than ever before.

I won’t spoil the end of Command & Conquer 4, because terrible gameplay or not if you’re a fan you still may play it, but I will hint that the ending could be turned into a sequel. Perhaps even used to totally reinvigorate the series with a whole new faction involved. I don’t want this franchise to die out, or reduce itself to the lowest common denominator in a misguided venture to find a new audience, like so many of my most beloved franchises. I don’t even mind if they demand C&C5 be an Origin exclusive, and you have no idea how much it pains me to say that, because for Command & Conquer’s continued survival I’d make that sacrifice. Come on, EA. Let me give you all my money to have another fully fledged, fully loaded, action packed, traditional style, single and multiplayer included, big budget, AAA retail Command & Conquer to buy again. Preferably with a giant ant mode.

That’s it for this episode of Pipe Dreams, my name’s Duncan Aird and I approve these dreams.

===

Do you have a suggestion for future Pipe Dream posts? I want to hear it! I think it would be awesome, and make my job a lot easier, so please do leave it as a comment down below. However, if you would prefer to use that social networking addiction we all have constructively then you can also Tweet your thoughts to @ReadyUp with the hashtag #RUPipeDreams, or just put a post over on our Facebook Page. The options are endless! Except those three are pretty much all of the options… I look forward to each and every one of your opinions! Especially if you think another browser based Command & Conquer is a stupid f-ing idea.