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I loved Command and Conquer. I remembered blasting mammoth tanks with obelisks when I was in 6th grade, then finally using GDI's ion cannon to blow up the white house as the finale to the NOD victory.

When I heard C&C 4 is going to change a lot of things, I was skeptical. What was wrong with C&C formula of blowing up stuff with tank rushes or superweapons? I know the online competitiveness is nothing much to talk about, but I wasn't looking for strategic depth when I played C&C series. I wanted Hollywood action military plot with a good mix of tech-toys of mayhem. The "No-DRM, just be online" feature was also a bad sign.

Too bad my friend didn't listen. He invited me over one night to try my hands on C&C 4.
Immediately the signs of failures are there:
A chat lobby, filled with strangers when loading up the single player campaign main menu.
An EXP system to level up tech trees to carry on in both SINGLE & MULTI PLAYER.

But the worst is probably the first mission briefing. They called me Commander. That's OK, I'm used to that. The nameless Commander who always finds a way to blow shit up when things look grim. But this time, there's this civilian lady popping in front of me.

"Dear, are you OK? They told me you'll be fine!" she looked at me with those eyes.

What-the-fuck. I have a wife? IN COMMAND & CONQUER UNIVERSE? If I had a mouthpiece in game I would've told her to fuck off. But I was mute and had to play along. I endured the painful tutorial and realization I had no base to build. All I could place was turrets and bunkers. With three possible option ROCK , SCISSOR, PAPER army, there was infinite resources. You basically need to play unit counter with the given maximum allocation. I wasn't enjoying any of it. To play a C&C game with unit cap and no base is horrible, but nothing prepared me for the plot revelation at the end of the first real mission, where I had to choose side.

I finished clearing the final civilian evac point when suddenly the transport, carrying my wife was taken down by a red rocket.  :uhrr:

I shit. You. Not.

"I'm sorry, Commander. There was nothing you could've done to save her." my superior comforted me.

 :heartbreak:

She was right. There is nothing I could've done to save Command & Conquer. She's dead.

Rating: Utter Crap. & Pray hard they didn't fuck up Red Alert.

Man, I'm with you.  I LOVED the original C&C.  Though I came from the perspective of the thrill of seeing Caine crushed by his collapsing bunker, as my stealth tanks (built from a captured construction depot I wisely took when I finally overran their first base) launched stealth strikes from behind his base that destroyed his Tiberium bunkers, allowing me to finally overrun his laser defenses.  NOD campaign seemed waaaay easier when I played it later :p.  GDI 4 life.  I also loved Red Alert 1 & 2.

But all command and conquer games other than those three have been pure crap.  Sad to hear this one didn't work out, though I had little hope.  Westwood was destroyed and absorbed by the collective, existing as only a brand logo, long ago.  Though, I haven't actually tried Red Alert 3.  Any good for somebody who was a big fan of Red Alert 2?  I figure a game that contains Grace Park, Gina Carano, AND George Takei can't possibly be completely bad!

P.S.  The original Command & Conquer had the most awesome game sound track ever made, especially when you take into account how old the fucking game is.  Blew away everything that came before it.  I still have MP3's from that on my play lists.

I'm sorry. Hell March blew it away.
And yes, RA 3 is worth the bargain bin price now. Samurai robots and briefing bewbies ftw.

Yeah have to agree with the above. i haven't even played it since my internet dropped on the second mission and i lost my progress

[Edit] Dune 2000 rocked too

I'm a mechanical
I'm a mechanical
I'm a mechanical man

Good times.

This.

Generals wasn't bad, but it wasn't really C&C. All others will never (no matter what technological advances they make) recapture the feel of that first game for me. The sheer size of the mammoth tank the first time you see it, the sounds of stealth tanks and obelisks. It just won't be right.

Also, fuck aliens. Shark jumping an whatnot.

That said, from the first time you saw Tiberium, you knew Aliens would appear at some point.

Not so much Shark Jumping as hearing the first Cello note.