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We were all excited about Command & Conquer 3 when it was announced, and on release it turned out to be one of the better RTS games of 2007. But that excitement pales in comparison to the level the VideoGamer.com office reached when Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 was announced yesterday. With more than half the team unable to speak, their eyes glued to the released screenshots, we got the GSI team to bring you the details hidden away in the released screenshots.
Turrets integrated into walls
EA announced a fair few details in its press release for Red Alert 3, but these turrets seem new to us. Although it’s only concept art, we assume these on-wall turrets, built into the fortress, will be an option in the game. Previous Red Alert games obviously included defence turrets, but they had to be built ahead or behind of the wall. Who knows what kind of advantage this new turret type will bring – it might be just to make building defences look neater.
Zeppelins
Do you remember how damn powerful these things were in Red Alert 2? Again, the ships aren’t featured in the released screen shots, but it’s safe to assume their prominent appearance in the artwork means they’re in the game. The big question is whether or not these flying behemoths have been tweaked at all for the new game. It was great to use them to cause mass devastation, but were they really balanced? We’re not sure which way we want EA to take them, but as long as they can still wipe some smiles off faces we’ll be happy.
Mirage Tanks- turn into trees
See those trees? See any Mirage tanks? We might be jumping to conclusions here, but all fans know that Mirage tanks can cloak, appearing like trees. Is that what we’re seeing here? With many of the other vehicles from previous Red Alert games making an appearance, maybe the Mirage tanks are too, we just can’t see them. Of course, we could just be looking at standard trees, but we’re hopeful that the next few seconds of the game taking place saw those trees go on a devastating assault against the enemy – or at least get knocked down by enemy fire.
Tesla boats
At first we thought these were new Tesla powered hover boats, but a closer look revealed reflections in the water and shadows on the sea bed someway beneath the vehicles. So, we’re guessing they’re some kind of new Tesla powered boats, which is still cool considering nothing like that has been seen in Red Alert before. With Red Alert 3’s new full naval warfare, we’re sure these new vehicles will play a major part in your attack strategy.
Allied Sub Pen
Allies have never had submarine units, however the naval yard screen suggests that the blue team who look to be allied forces have a submarine construction pen. This could mean a replacement for the allied destroyer ship, or more likely encouraging more Naval style battles over ocean territory. How do we know this is an Allied structure? Well, Red units are attacking with Tesla weaponry (Soviet technology) and there is no presence of mammoth tanks along the shoreline (Soviet unit) – Allies always had smaller tanks. The Power station looks the same as the one in the previous shot which is next to an allied construction yard. However, it’s not quite clear cut: there looks to be a Tesla coil in the corner of the base. We can’t explain this, unless allies have somehow got this technology.