Red Alert 3 expands
This might be a bit premature from my point of view, given that I haven’t actually completed Red Alert 3 yet, but the game is to receive an expansion set in March. Straight from the horse’s mouth a CommandAndConquer.com:
The third iteration of the Command & Conquer™ franchise’s beloved Red Alert™ series is returning with Command & Conquer™ Red Alert™ 3: Uprising exclusively for the PC. An epic single-player campaign expansion, the standalone title catapults players deeper into the Red Alert universe, giving them more of the action-packed gameplay they have been clamoring for, while offering a gauntlet of new and compelling challenges with the new Commander’s Challenge mode. Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising will be available for digital download this March.
“Uprising is a game that in many ways reflects the feedback we have gotten from the Command & Conquer community,” said Amer Ajami, Senior Producer at EA Los Angeles. “We’re giving gamers more of what they want - more of the fast, fluid and fun gameplay, more of the story we began to tell in Red Alert 3 and more cutscenes featuring top-notch Hollywood talent. At the same time, we’re excited we’re going to be able to bring new things to the mix, including new units and the Commander’s Challenge, which is a great way for players to hone their skills and get deeper into the combat.”
Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising takes players into the aftermath of the epic battles in Red Alert 3, with the Soviets still reeling from a crushing defeat, the Empire of the Rising Sun desperately trying to regain both honor and identity and the seemingly victorious Allies finding themselves in the midst of corruption and deceit within their own ranks. In addition to four mini-campaigns, one for each faction and one bonus campaign centered on the origins of the Empire of the Rising Sun’s commando Yuriko, Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising will also introduce the new Commander’s Challenge, enabling the players to test their skills against a set of nine commanders from different territories and difficulty levels in 50 unique challenges with their own special rules and unique conditions.
In true Command & Conquer fashion, top Hollywood talent will be delivering the gripping story in full HD live-action cinematics. Fan favorites Gemma Atkinson and Ivana Milicevic will make their stunning return to the high ranks of the Allied and Soviet leaderships and will be joined by an all new set of stars, who will be announced soon.
Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising is a standalone game and does not require Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 to play. This product has not yet been rated by the ESRB, PEGI or USK. For more information about Red Alert 3, please stay tuned right here at RedAlert3.com.
Unfortunately, as is confirmed here, this will be a single player update only - a disappointment given that the expansion to Command & Conquer 3, Kane’s Wrath, covered both the single and multiplayer sides of the coin. That’s not a deal-breaker for me, though: actually, provided we get plenty more cheese-laden FMV sequences in the single player mode, I’ll be pretty happy. What potentially is a deal-breaker that, so far, it has only been announced as a “digital download” - i.e., you can’t pick up a boxed copy. That, to me, seems pretty shoddy. I know we’re getting less and less for our money as it is (anyone remember when PC games came in big chunky boxes with nice thick manuals and, if you were really lucky, a notepad? Nowadays we’re lucky if we get a DVD case an a 10-page booklet printed on toner-saving mode), but getting nothing but a link to a downloadable file for your money seems pretty rubbish. Hey, the only thing to separate it from a pirate copy would be the fact that pirate copies are free (and illegal).
Ah, we’ll see. As it is, it just seems like another way of EA ripping off their customers… which, hot on the heels of the DRM fiasco, is exactly the kind of negative publicity they don’t need, or so I would have thought.
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