Command & Conquer Remastered Collection Announced (March 10, 2020)

Suffice to say, when we installed it on our school network, everyone played it, from the school IT teacher down to annoying fifth graders who kept overwriting other people's savegames. When you entered the computer room at lunchtime, you'd see Dune 2 on every screen around the room. I had friends who bought C&C specifically because it was supposed to be like a sequel to Dune 2. Now, this is just the example of one specific school at the far end of the world, so this Dune 2 frenzy I saw doesn't mean there was a similar frenzy everywhere - but I think it's at least evidence of just how intensely the game appealed to anyone who did encounter it.
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Dune 2 did well in Europe but was largely unknown in the United States. (I had exactly the same experience in school... because I brought a pirated copy home from living in France to a US high school full of people who were immediately hooked.) On the industry side, C&C was a huge hit that kicked off a thousand imitators... I don't think you'd have that trajectory with just Dune 2 (which I personally love more than C&C but also recognize wasn't the one that captured the public's attention.) I'd also say the multiplayer in C&C was a big part of the appeal and it was something Dune totally lacked. DooM prepped an audience for multiplayer LAN games and it slid in at exactly the right time.
 
I got Dune 2 just after the original release and by accident I also played the first Dune which was also a fun game at the time you fly through the desert to get to places, some kind of role playing interactive game but unique like a adventure strategy of some kind, it was in the Wolfenstein 3d days, think I might have had a 486 already.
 
ChrisReid said:
How many of those others also only exist because of Wolf 3D? It does seem like Dune 2 is to Wolf 3D as C&C is to Doom in this example.
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Meh, I don't think anybody really wants to go too deeply into this discussion. There is definitely a case to be made (and I think I started doing that above) that Wolf 3D really had very little impact at all on the genre, however successful it was. But let's leave it at that.

Vidmaster said:
While unfair, I believe the cultural impact is the only thing that counts. People like me might obsess over this and that thing and how brilliant, fresh, future-looking, innovative, new and the what-not it was but it the end, what usually counts is popularity.
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I think that would depend on what you mean by cultural impact. Certainly sales are not any reasonable measure. As strange as it may seem for those of us who grew up alongside these games, they're very quickly sliding into history. Give it another thirty years, and nobody will care about whether any particular game of the 90s was commercially successful - what will matter instead is its artistic merit and the influence it exerted on other creators. Many of the most successful films of the 1920s and 1930s are basically forgotten today, while films that weren't necessarily huge commercial successes are still watched and analysed by film historians.

Panther1.0 said:
I got Dune 2 just after the original release and by accident I also played the first Dune which was also a fun game at the time you fly through the desert to get to places, some kind of role playing interactive game but unique like a adventure strategy of some kind, it was in the Wolfenstein 3d days, think I might have had a 486 already.
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Hah, the first Dune game (which, apparently, was supposed to be the second Dune game, but was done faster... or something). That was a very unique game. Very flawed in many ways - too simple as a strategy game, because it was supposed to be liked by adventure gamers, yet also too simple as an adventure game because the strategy part of the game took up so much oxygen from the rest of the production. It was very extraordinary to play initially, though, its graphics, the day and night cycle, it was very impressive and atmospheric in that regard. It probably could have been a bigger success if it hadn't been based on a film that nobody liked, though :).
 
very true, the day / night cycle were something new with the type of game in my opinion very tasty and yes very extraordinary, it stood out in that sense given the tech available from the early 90's, gosh I believe VGA 256 color (320x200) were the 'highest' mode you could play the game with games only starting to come out in 640x480 at the time like Syndicate 1993 and then Wing Commander 3 to follow a year or so later.
 
Just found this live concert of the C&C soundtrack and that sounds awesome.

Frank Klepacki & The Tiberian Sons LIVE: OFFICIAL Multi-cam Full Show
 
Yes, my brother showed me The Tiberian Sons video too, very nice. Seems to be similar to Uematsu's Black Mages.

gevatter Lars said:
You mean better upscaleing for the videos? In some cases it looks strange dosn't it?
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I thought it was odd how Gradenko's hand blends into the mug in that FMV comparison shot.
 
Oh I haven't even noticed that one with the coffee mug. Well I will see how well it works out soonish.
I hope the work paid of in the end. I mean even with some errors I think it would still be better with the upscaleing then haveing the old videos on todays highres screens. I mean either it would be very small or each pixel streched.
 
ShadowArm said:
GUYS EA RELEASED THE SOURCE CODE FOR MODDING!
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Yup...
It puzzles me why more companies don't do this (and EA don't do it more). It means the game is always supported on modern hardware at zero cost and the fan mods keep the money flowing in years later. If you wanna test out raytracing or need a full fledged VR game; you'll want to buy a classic Quake / Doom title.
 
Pedro said:
Yup...
It puzzles me why more companies don't do this (and EA don't do it more). It means the game is always supported on modern hardware at zero cost and the fan mods keep the money flowing in years later. If you wanna test out raytracing or need a full fledged VR game; you'll want to buy a classic Quake / Doom title.
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well Wcnews still curates the WC source code, all we need now is to pester jimmy to pop up here and see what the community did for years.
And the WCTools

there is also the fact that EA is finally transfering all of their origin Library back to steam, along with EA access.
 
gevatter Lars said:
You mean better upscaleing for the videos? In some cases it looks strange dosn't it?
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I actually think instead of trying to upscale the original C&C FMV cutscenes, they should have replaced it completely with CGI.

It could have been done very faithfully - including all of the original voice recordings, and the end product would surely have looked better.
 
-danr- said:
I actually think instead of trying to upscale the original C&C FMV cutscenes, they should have replaced it completely with CGI.

It could have been done very faithfully - including all of the original voice recordings, and the end product would surely have looked better.
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Not on the same budget. Given the original video quality I've actually been quite happy with how its turned out so far. Early in the game though it's all just camera facing heads, maybe it gets worse.
 
Pedro said:
Not on the same budget. Given the original video quality I've actually been quite happy with how its turned out so far. Early in the game though it's all just camera facing heads, maybe it gets worse.
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The budget did cross my mind; but I was wondering that since all of the original gameplay assets and units had been re-done, how much extra work it would have been to do the cutscenes as well? You'd certainly know better than I would though, and I'll concede it doesn't look too bad all things considered. I haven't played yet, I recall in original C&C that aside from the FMV scenes, there are a few CGI clips between missions, usually battle action clips. Are they the originals too?
 
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Yeah, those are the same clips upscaled. I really don't think the enhanced in game models would help the cutscenes much (meaning they would be a whole separate project). It might not be an enormous effort to redo the video, but it would certain be some cost and effort, and there's a lot of nostalgia associated with just having sharper versions of all the original clips. For a $20 release, I'm very happy with the level of effort that went in.
 
Lead Producer Jim Vessella talks about how FMV performances couldn't be replaced (starts at 9:12, earlier part involves searching for the originals)
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Maybe they needed ODVS's help?
 
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