Gaming

Blog 869: Command & Conquer

I picked up a copy of the Command & Conquer compilation The First Decade mainly because I wanted access to all the good stuff outside of EA’s Origin launcher, where I’d sampled them previously. We only ever had vanilla Tiberian Sun and Red Alert II back in the day, you see, and last time was before I discovered that eBay exists and is actually a fairly reliable place to find games of a… certain age… that are still factory-sealed. The First Decade stops at Generals but, eh, C&C3 and beyond are where things got wobbly anyway.

When I went through the Tiberium franchise last time, I didn’t actually play the original original game, because I figured it would be “too old” even for me! But these days I’m a slightly more adventurous rube, so I decided to go for it.

(Spoiler: it feels very old.)

Continue reading “Blog 869: Command & Conquer”
Gaming

Blog 721: Tiberian Fun

Real-world associate Chris McPhail and I might have been going through Star Wars in our Close, But No Biscuit podcast of late, but there’s another piece of cultural media that deeply affected my robot designs — Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun. The goody-goody Global Defence Initiatve forces had several grungy, industrial, brutalist, utilitarian hulks that evoked power and strength and resilience so much that I took my first faltering steps into 3D modelling trying desperately to ape them. If Star Wars set the robot wheels in motion for me, then Tiberian Sun gave them life.

Look at it this way — if I’d known the Final Sun level editor existed at the time, I’d have cut my modding teeth on Tiberian Sun over Age of Empires II. Oh yes.

Continue reading “Blog 721: Tiberian Fun”

Gaming

Blog 678: The Way of the Warrior

Nox is possibly one of my favourite games of all time. Needless to say, it’s a lost gem — an action-RPG accused of being “just another Diablo clone” at the time, it was made by Westwood Studios and vastly overshadowed by their more successful Command & Conquer franchise. Nox still brought its own unique flair to the table though, and the world is a worse place for having let this game slip through its fingers.

Why do I think and say this? Well…

Continue reading “Blog 678: The Way of the Warrior”