First of all, the engine was improved. That being a good thing, it wasn?t done properly - the max resolution is still a mere 800x600, at which your graphics quality doesn?t necessarily increase - it just makes everything much smaller. Since that didn?t require too much work on the part of their graphics crew, I believe Westwood should?ve included higher-res options, for those with powerful PCs that can handle it. Moreover, units still seem to have about four frames of animation each, which results in somewhat jerky motion. The terrain, however, does look good, since voxel technology is used. Voxels also help in producing explosions, terrain deformations and weather effects, such as ion storms and meteor showers.

One thing that somewhat impressed me was the AI. While it doesn?t do a good job of properly swarming you, it does act its part out quite well - for example, if you have a base surrounded by turrets with a single gap somewhere for whatever reason, the PC will try to attack that side as much as possible. What I found unrealistic, though, is that it knew exactly where that side was, and attacked accordingly (then again, maybe that was realistic - after all, it does know what my base is like). Pathfinding was nearly flawless, as well - in fact, I don?t recall the last time I sent a hundred units somewhere and actually found them where I wanted, with few or no strays stuck in rocks somewhere. Mad props to Westwood for that, for sure, they deserve it. On the other hand, strange things happened to me during missions: for example, in GDI mission 4 where your objective is to rescue a mutant tribe leader (yes, after the ever-so-popular commando missions in C&C they?re back - and there are way more of them), the leader sort of disappeared after I escorted him. I put him into an attack buggy, delivered him (or what I thought was him) to the transport, and absolutely nothing happened. In theory, I would assume that he couldn?t have died, since the mission would have ended otherwise; yet, neither was he the right person to put in the transport, since the mission would have ended at that point, as well (or at least given me indication that one of the main objectives was completed). Similar things happened on other missions, like the one where you have to protect the alien crash site - I finished everyone off, timer ended, and absolutely nothing happened.

The audio score in the game isn?t anything to rave about, in my opinion. The music is nothing like the original - in fact, I didn?t like it at all, since somehow, it didn?t feel like music at all - just like a beat of some sort. The unit sounds are just what you would expect them to be - screams, acknowledgements, squishing sounds, et cetera. Been there, heard that.

The gameplay is nothing extravagant, just what you?d expect from a C&C game. A few new units, though mostly reused old ones with a new look (strangely enough, in the German version, they seem to have used the proper units - like Heavy Tank instead of Titan, judging by the screenshots that I?ve seen, and Rocket Infantry instead of Discthrower). Whatever the case may be, the only people they might fool are those for whom TS will be the first C&C experience. Anyone who played RA or the original will immediately draw parallels between the heavy tank and the Titan, the Hum-vee and the Wolverine, and, best of all, the Rocket Infantry and the Discthrowers. I?ve yet to figure out what kind of logic lies behind that; what exactly is a disc thrower? Is that an advanced case of a defective CD burner? Or is that a Walmart, EB, or any other big store clerk that had enough of bargain-bin titles? Anyway, those ?Discthrowers? are nothing but rocket infantry. And, what?s up with raising prices? If I?m not mistaken, infantry used to cost $120 to train in C&C, but it?s up to $150 - inflation? But even if the inflation were 3% per year, which is quite a lot, it still shouldn?t have risen to such a high value in a measly four years. Anyway, enough of that. it still shouldn?t have risen to such a high value in a measly four years. Anyway, enough of that.

Multiplayer is one area where TS shines. But it doesn?t shine because of any specific inventions - rather, it?s because it?s the sort of game you play multiplayer, similar to Quake, much more than you play single-player. In our tests, we?ve experienced no lag (using a cable modem/DSL, and playing against adversaries on Westwood Online, whose connection speed was unknown), and in general, it was fast-paced, fun and enjoyable.

So what makes me sound so skeptical about TS? Mainly the fact that, considering all the hype, the waiting time, the development time and so forth, this should?ve been a much better game than it turned out to be. This doesn?t mean there won?t be a huge following of fans - but, as an example, look at Starcraft. It was in development for 3-some years, and what was the result? One of the best RTSs I?ve played in a very long time. As well, I realise a number of people didn?t like it, and I respect that - but you mustn?t forget, that this is but one person?s opinion. Starcraft?s races felt so different, looked so different, played so differently that one had to try really hard to duplicate it. Note the FMV sequences - they were far and few in between, but rendered with impeccable accuracy and were entertaining to watch. In TS, however, every mission is preceded and followed by an FMV; some pre-rendered, and some with live actors. As many people mentioned, however, the acting is incredibly cheesy, and only Kane plays his role well - but he?s the evil overlord, so he?s expected to. Other than that, the acting is bad. Really bad. It?s not as bad as in Crusader: No Remorse and No Regret, though, but those were such incredible games in all other respects that comparisons just can?t be drawn.

In all respects, TS is not a bad game. I?ve seen much worse games, but I?ve seen much better games, as well. This is a reiteration of a classic, and, similar as to how photocopies always come out inferior to the original, so does TS as compared to C&C. Was it worth the wait, you might ask? Not in my view, it wasn?t.

The story isn?t overly complicated. The Global Defense Initiative (GDI) is trying to uphold peace and order in the world, while the Brotherhood of NOD (NOD) is attempting to take control of the world to launch a new age: the Tiberian age. Of course there is more to it than that, which the single player campaigns will show you, but its nothing special.

The graphics in CnC2 are a rather touchy subject. Many people are of the opinion that after spending so much time in development, the graphics should be 3D polygonal units with 3DFX support and other zif bang flair effects. After first seeing the voxel terrain and units, some people recoil in horror, shocked at the simplicity of the graphics engine. I assure you that the graphics engine is perfectly fit to handle the situation, but some must get past the initial disappointment and discover its finer points. The main feature of the graphics engine is that it utilizes voxels. This makes explosions of vehicles very detailed, with wheels and little odd bits of debris flying about the place, planes going into a wild spins crashing into buildings causing even greater explosions and neat Ion Storm and Meteor Shower effects. The game also boasts it has alterable terrain, which is true in that the ice cracks and sometimes gives way a bit, but apart from that its really quite useless. For the uninititaed, voxels cannot be accelarated with the current slew of 3D graphics cards. Voxels require only CPU brawn to keep them going, though there shoulnd?t be many speed problems, with the only real exception being the slow loading times on older machines, and slow scrolling when things heat up a bit.

The sounds in CnC2 are done very professionally, sporting a multitude of different sounds, which sometimes confuses you as to what the heck is going on as a new wave of different sounds emits from the speakers in the midst of a battle. The disappointing elements here for me though were the music tracks. The original CnC had a real out and going music track with thumpy techno music to keep your adrenaline going, but CnC2 had opted for a more calmer approach with music blending into the background more, i.e. most are rather bland and boring. This is really rather sad, as the originals sound track was one of *the* best things about the game. The standard is lowered here in a bad trend. Games should have better quality music that?s not just there to ?blend in? and dissipate, but something you would stick on your stereo, rip up the sound, and wait for the neighbors to complain. There is only one good track, ?Nod Crush? which you can only hear when playing as NOD, and is not on the Tiberian Sun soundtrack (which you get with the Platinum edition).

After loading up the game and choosing your side, you are initiated into your side of choice (GDI or NOD). Both of them start from scratch, building up to a grand finale after about 18 missions. At some points in time, you get multiple choices about which ?path? to follow; For example, taking out the NOD supply base (which is a mission) will make it easier to complete the main mission, which is destroying a huge NOD headquarters. There are only a few of these choices in both campaigns but skipping some can shorten the amount of missions needed to complete the game. Its actually a really refreshing change to find out that only a few missions actually require you to simply build a base and destroy all opposition. The few missions that do require you do so are made easier by the handy speed slide and the puzzling lack of any AI harassment attempts on your base. In fact, the whole game seems to have gotten a lot easier. Completing the GDI and NOD campaigns was a matter of 48 hours for me personally, although it should keep some occupied for weeks. The whole of the campaigns are littered with movies. I must point out to Westwood they?re on another bad trend here since half of the movies focus on ?plot development?, involving a 'Wing Commander Prophecy'-esque method of people talking a bit, looking like complete fools all the while. This is mainly so for the GDI side, with some rather poor and unconvincing acting. Luckily Westwood is saved by the inclusion of little battle movies of Orcas and tanks and stuff blowing each other up. Albeit these are less numerous than in the original, they are still just as good from a quality standpoint. The NOD movies are quite a bit better, with Frank Zagarino showing how it should really be done and the sidekick women also giving a pretty good performance.

The sides in CnC2 are very distinctive, with there being no real counterparts for most of the units on both sides except the basic ones. NOD has Artillery, Subterranean units, missile structures and stealth generators while GDI has mechs, Orca bombers and Firestorm defense. There are plenty more distinctive units of course, and the slew of normal basic type grunts, but a noticeable lack of any basic ?tank? type units. This is purposely done so as to remove all chances for players to ?rush? with any single type of unit. All units need some kind of support from other types, or risk being completely annihilated by their archenemies, sort of like Stone, Paper and Scissors. Any type of infantry can get completely mowed down by bombers, whilst SAMs kick bombers, Titans cane the enemy vehicles, while being useless against infantry, and so on.

These distinctive sides really help with the multiplayer aspect of the game, creating different strategies that only work for one side. The Westwood online tool, which is included with CnC2 and is free to play online is a wonderful creation. An automatic tournament ladder is included with rankings and starting games is just exceptionally easy. Never have I experienced a crash on here, and playing games online is as easy as clicking a few labeled buttons. The only problem right now is the server getting a bit bogged down with the slew of people going online, but Westwood is upgrading their servers as I speak to deal with the situation. Hopefully they will also find measures to counter the multiplayer cheating tool created, although I must point out that after playing about 20 odd multiplayer games, I have not noticed a single player using it, which is a good sign.

Westwood has tried to change things in their sequel, which perhaps they saw as improvements over the original. The music and videos have both taken a small step backwards because of it and is rather disappointing. They just haven?t got the perfect touch to their sequel to make it shine like the original. The problem Westwood have created for themselves is that they hyped their title up far to much, creating a lot of anticipation due to an agonizing delay in the release. The fact is that the game is not as good as the hype makes it out to be, which will certainly disappoint many people, expecting another smash hit title. Even with some of the features downgraded, its still a good solid Real Time Strategy title which should keep you going at multiplayer for weeks to come.

I don?t want to give away too much of the storyline as it is better to find out for yourself. Instead, I will give a short and sweet version of it: The story begins in 2030 and once again the Global Defence Initiative (GDI) and the Brotherhood of Nod are at war. General Solomon (played by James Earl Jones) is shocked to discover that Kane is still alive after he had thought to have been killed. Kane is plotting to once again take control, but the GDI have other plans for him.

There is nothing better than loading up a higly anticipated game for the first time. For Tiberian Sun, there were no disappointments. The interface was well constructed and contained all that I needed. As always, I like to have a decent options screen with enough configurability so that I could configure the game to my pc?s best ability. Once I had completed that, I eagerly loaded up my first game of Tiberian Sun. I figured that my Celeron 450, 65megs RAM, Matrox 2D Card would easily handle the game itself. Once in the game, I was pleased to experience a graphically beautiful game which ran very smoothly. There were no problems in the graphics department at all. In fact, I found the game to be incredibly detailed with attention paid to all aspects of the game. Graphics are one of the most important parts to the game nowadays and Tiberian Sun was a perfect example of 2D graphics at it?s best.

Almost all of us have, at least, played one of the original Command and Conquers before. Those who haven't were either hiding under a rock or not yet born. Command and Conquer (as we all know) is a real time strategy game that cannot be compared to any other game, as it seems to fall in a class of its own. You can select between to two factions, NOD and GDI. Both of them have their own specialized units and weapons with no opposing units being the same (with the harvester as an exception). The game itself has brought back the old style with brand new advanced units to build. I found that each unit was a work of art and the new range weapons and tactics were something that Westwood should be proud of. The game boasts realistic explosions and landscapes as well as fluent unit-movement. Although there was one thing in the game which I found may have needed improvement. The game sometimes (between battles mainly) became slightly boring, especially in a multiplayer game of skirmish. This can turn people off and act as a down-side to the game. Other than that, I found the game to be enjoyable in all levels and the single player missions are exciting and original. Every stage has a different aspect which kept me addicted.

When considering the sound of the game, I was very happy with Westwood?s efforts. All the sounds were crisp and clear. The in-game music was also enjoyable, but for me music sometimes gets on my nerves. I hate having to listen to the same tracks over and over, but that is something which we can?t change. The game does not support any 3D sound engines and although I was not surprised, I still feel that game developers should utilize this new feature as it would have enhanced the game.The only problem I had with the sound was that some of it was un-original and sometimes borrowed from the old Command and Conquer. This is unneccesary for a game of this high class and I feel that the game developers should have made a little more effort on that aspect. Nevertheless the sound was of good quality and increased the gaming experience.

The controls for Command and Conquer are very simple. Ninety percent of the actions are done using the mouse. This I had no problem with as it did not hinder the gameplay at all. The controls are responsive and easy to use. It is also fluent and enjoyable which makes for a good gaming experience. There's nothing worse than a game with terrible gameplay and little or no response from tireless work on my part. Tiberian Sun definitely gets a thumbs up in this department. Then again, should we have expected any less?

Tiberian Sun most certainly supports Multiplayer. The Multiplayer section contains an Internet option for those of you who want to challenge other C&C lovers from all corners of the map. There is also the regular Serial/Modem option and the Network option, but there is also one more option which Westwood have made famous - Skirmish. This option allows you to simulate any multiplayer game with your opponents being the computer. This section has been souped up quite nicely with a wide range of options to best suit your gaming style. I think that the multiplayer section is in perfect order with nothing to pick on.

Its quite hard to sum up Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun in just a few sentences. I took a good look at all aspects of the game and I made sure that everything was of a high standard. When it comes to a game which has been so highly anticipated by all, it must be almost perfect to satisfy the wait. For Tiberian Sun, the wait was long and the patience grew thin. I think , for some people, that no game could satisfy so much anticipation which had built up over many years. In this respect, I tried to turn my head away from that aspect and look upon the game with fresh eyes. What I saw was a very well sculpted game. There were no flaws or problems which I found turned me off. The game is exciting and enjoyable. I found myself permanantly addicted to it in the first couple of days. It is such a pleasure to play that old real-time strategy game, but with today's graphics and new features. I think some people will disagree with me (for the simple ?over-hype? factor) that Tiberian Sun is an excellent game. Westwood and Electronic Arts deserve all the credit for years of hard labor. All in all, I think Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun is well worth buying. For me, it stands out along-side the years ?greats?. I would certainly recommend this game to any person.

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