Episode 8 – Command and Conquer
July 5, 2012Hey Blockers!
Time for episode 8, where I talk all about the long-lived Command and Conquer series. But, first things first, a bit of news:
GoG.com has begun selling Telltale games titles. Telltale has done some great work in continuing on some great older adventure franchises like Monkey Island and Sam & Max.
Also, I was able to get my new Roland MT-32 and give you my thoughts on it thus far.
Then on to the main topic, Westwood Studios’ 1995 game: Command and Conquer. I run down the usual suspects (genre, gameplay, plot, dev story) and also talk about a few followup games in the series.
Download the Command and Conquer for free (legally, I promise!)
Buy Command and Conquer: The First Decade on EA Origin or Amazon.
Stay tuned for the next show where we travel back to World War I in Red Baron.
Stream the show live:
Direct download:
http://umbcast.com/podcast/008-UMBCast-Command-and-Conquer.mp3
I’m really, really glad you mentioned Dune 2: the Battle for Arrakis. C&C never quite “clicked” with me, but I played the beejesus out of Dune 2 (which was an odd sequel to the 1992 adventure game Dune, I’ve never seen two games in a series that were more different, even though I love them both). I have no idea how Dune 2 sold, but for me, it’s the cornerstone in the genre, the game that started it all. I had played C&C at a friend’s house, but when I saw it, I thought “meh, I’d rather go mine spice, and recruit Fremen” (and YES, you should read the books, they’re absolutely spectacular, not just run-of-the-mill scifi, but books about religion, politics, economics, ecology, and free will; the third in the series, Children of Dune, is probably my favorite book of all time). That being said, I recognize that C&C was immensely popular, but Dune 2 supersedes it in my heart.
Anyhow, still loving the podcast, and of course I’m still listening, you help make my daily commute bearable!! 🙂
Thanks for all the great comments! Really glad you’re enjoying the show.
I remember it very clearly, I had played C&C via a demo disk from another game and was immediately hooked. I saw the box at my local egghead software and HAD TO HAVE IT. When I finally got it home, I sank hours into it (this was the first RTS game I had ever played, and I’ve been playing them ever since). Though the FMV was passable in the first couple of games, they later became serious productions with big name actors (the Billy Dee Willams, Michael Ironside, James Earl Jones, Tim Curry, etc). Though I later got into Warcraft, C&C is what started me out in the RTS genre.