C&C Memories...

In March 1997, I came home extremely tired from a super long day at work. I had the type of job where you can't sit down. All I could think of at the time was to get my shoes off, sit down and relax.

My brother was playing an "army looking" game on my computer. He told me he was playing against some guy by the name of SPARTANS on Mplayer. He asked me if I wanted to play the game for a bit, to which I replied, "I am not interested in a game right now,  I am way too tired from work".

He ended up bothering me over and over again. Telling me that it was such a fun game to play and he knew I would like it. Finally, after the 5th or 7th time of him asking me, I just wanted to get him to stop bothering me about it so I sat down in the seat and asked him what to do. He showed me a little bit and then said ok! Now go play SPARTANS! I said, "what?? I don't even know what I am doing here."

I get into the game on Mplayer and my hands were shaking. I didn't know what this guy was going to do, let alone what to lay down at my base to defend it. SPARTANS always had a hard attitude to the guys but he was always very sweet to me. Even if he beat me up in the first 2 minutes in the game, he asked for another game and told me he would teach me. He was the first guy I ever met on Mplayer and has been my good buddy for many years now.

The Command & Conquer Mplayer lobby that year was booming with C&C players. Everyone knew me as my nick name California Girl. All I had to do is say in the C&C Lobby, "Who wants to play a C&C game" and I would end up with just about 7-15 people saying they would. There were so many people in the lobby waiting for a game that at times, it would take a while just to scroll down to see people's names. I always tried to get people with nick names I was familiar with so I made a website with friends I had on Mplayer. It was to help me remember who I played and who was my buddy to play Command & Conquer online with.

One guy I recall who used to be a real fright in the lobby, DkKnight. We had a really bad dispute the first time we met because he paged me with some comments about a game I played him weeks ago and I told him I wasn't the same person he had talked to or played C&C with originally. We sorted out the problem and have been good friends with many fun C&C memories.

It was hard to learn at first to play the game, but with the help of Spartans, Lovemaker, Davskee, Dkknight and Toshi I really became a much better C&C player. Lovemaker took the most of his time out to teach me and he wouldn't stop teaching me the same technique until I got it right. Davskee is the one that polished my skills in GDI with more techniques. But Spartans was the one that taught me to have NO MERCY and to play NO HT, NO MEGA BUCKS or Cali won't play the games.

After about a month of playing the game, I realized how every time before I went to work I was playing Command and Conquer. Every time I got home from work I played Command and Conquer. I noticed that I really was actually addicted to the game. I spent nights after nights just staying up until 2am-5am just playing it... At times I would only get 2-4 hours of sleep because I just wouldn't stop. People at work started telling me I looked extremely tired that they actually thought I was partying.

I learned how to play S.C.A.R.A.B.  in between C&C games and then eventually left C&C to learn how to play Quake on Mplayer.

But, I still missed playing C&C with my other friends so I would occasionally return to C&C to play a few games with some of my friends that were still playing C&C along with the friends that would return from playing Quake.

About Westwood Studios...

Westwood Studios was formed by Brett W. Sperry and Louis Castle in 1985. The company released games such as Mars Saga, Battletech, Dragon Strike and Eyes of the Beholder.

In 1992, Westwood released two legendary titles, The Legend of Kyrandia Book I and Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty. Soon after came Command & Conquer and C&C: Red Alert.

C&C: Red Alert was a game I could never really enjoy. The units were so much smaller than the original C&C. I also didn't like the way GDI (Global Defense Initiative) and NOD (Brotherhood of Nod) were taken out of the game. It just felt like it had to many units to deal with as well. So when I played it at times, I missed so many things that were in the original Command & Conquer.

C&C: Tiberian Sun At E3...

One of the reasons I was really excited to go to the E3 was because C&C: Tiberian Sun was to be displayed there. I made an appointment with Aaron Cohen of Westwood.

Aaron introduced me to Theodore (Ted) Morris who was showcasing Westwood's real time strategy sequel, C&C2: Tiberian Sun. A lot of things looked improved in the game. Things like the graphics and the gameplay were noticed right off.

Ted mentioned that they developed it where it is much harder to tank rush and air strike rush which can make it where the gamer can build and defend their base. I really don't know how it will have an affect on the really good players though. As long as a person is strong willed and loves to play the game a lot, I have a feeling that other similar strategies will be developed.

C&C: Tiberian Sun will be changing from the traditional 2D-display to a fully 3D-rendered world. Units will move more realistic, the terrain can be deformed by weapons fire, making it harder to build on. Fortification of your base is said to be larger where building walls around your base will be needed. Tiberium harvesters will harvest two types of tiberium: green and blue. The Blue Tiberium is more powerful, but more dangerous.

Another thing that was very interesting was the map editor. Ted showed me how much easier it is now to create a map. He showed me how easy it was to add  terrain, tiberium and the water on the maps. Rather than the piece by piece work that used to be in the original C&C. So, I definitely won't be spending so many hours on one map. Which is a really good thing because I don't have that much time to spare on editing.

Overall, I am really glad to see that GDI and Nod will be available in the game this time. It feels like I have been waiting for this game for a very long time but I know that Westwood has delayed releasing it to improve the game. The full retail version of Tiberian Sun is said to be released sometime in June.

-CaliGirl