#NerdsUnite: Command & Conquer Goes Free to Play

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#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @violent_gamer

Strategy fans everywhere died a little inside earlier this week, when the long awaited Command & Conquer Generals 2 was cancelled and out of its wreckage came free to play Command & Conquer. What has happened to the once massive Command & Conquer franchise? Their last real game was pretty mediocre, you know, the one with space ships, and since then EA has just been throwing around the name merely for its popularity. Free to play doesn't necessarily make a game bad, but few games have done F2P in a way that doesn't frustrate and sever the community. There is hope for F2P RTSs with the upcoming End of Nations, but I can only imagine the horrors that await us with the next Command & Conquer. I don't want to be biased just because it is EA, but look at what they did with Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances.

Do strategy fans want Facebook in their strategy games?

No, no they do not.

This was just announced on Wednesday and it is following the announcement about Sim City turning into a social game, not so much a deep city building sim. (Check out their newest trailer for Sim City here here.)

They are taking both of these once beloved franchises and turning them into twisted creations that do not represent what made them popular in the first place.

Take a look at this announcement trailer for the new Command & Conquer.

Command & Conquer does have a great engine with destructible environments, The Frostbite 2 engine, which is what Battlefield 3 uses, and it looks visually impressive as a result, but they really need to show off some gameplay so we can see how they are going to handle that.

Are there going to be tanks or jets that are far superior that we have to buy with real money? Or will we have to share things with friends in order to receive energy that we use to build new units?

I hope neither and I hope it is great, but my hope is fleeting and I'm still glad there are games like Company of Heroes 2 in the world.

If you would like to check it out yourself or try to get into the beta for Command & Conquer head on over to their main website. I used to love this series, but EA is showing exactly why a great many gamers are coming to despise them.

#nerdsunite

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