Be Excellent To Each Other

Anyone else had a go at this?

Putting aside the awful DRM that EA have seen fit to bolt onto it (I protested by waiting until the ultimate metal boxed premium edition was under £20 in GAME before buying it), what an absolutely cracking romp it is!

I'm only half way through the allied campaign (have completed the Soviet campaign, still got the Rising Sun campaign to do), have played a fair bit of skirmish against the AI, and then against a couple of chums online, and then a few 2v2 matches with a chum (we got owned, badly) - so still a fair bit to go.

It's as over the top as Red Alert always was, but ramped up to the nth degree, and cheerfully takes the piss out of itself at every turn, whilst still maintaining a decent, solid, RTS game underneath it all. (Every lass in the FMV feels the need to bend over the table at some point (boobs!), and Tim Curry, hamming it up like only he can, cheerfully inspects one of their arses as she walks out of shot, and comically raises an eyebrow at the camera.)

The piss-taking extends into the game itself, with loads of funny voice samples and amusing textual unit descriptions, but at the same time throwing up plenty of classic textbook RTS levels. That said, base defence is less of an option that it used to be, and more of an offensive play style is rewarded. (Not good for a natural turtler like me.)

It's not perfect by a long shot, I've probably seen over half of the game as a whole now, and there's nothing revolutionary in there - but then again, if you like old-school RTS (I still think Starcraft is as good as it's ever got, I just want Starcraft 2 to be Starcraft again with nicer graphics), then this is absolutely the ticket. Moreover, the graphics are positively gorgeous, married to a 3D engine that seems far too good to be 'simply' powering an RTS game - a final base rush with a combined air and ground assault, and a couple of super weapons, has never looked or felt so awe-inspiring.

Extra points are awarded for a suitably bombastic soundtrack, with some very familiar Red Alert riffs.

As I said, under £20 for the uber-metal box edition in GAME (complete with CD soundtrack and sub-porno poster) - bargainous fun if you still want RTS games to play like they did ten years ago! (I'm quite comfortable with that.)

Oh yes, the Northern lass who guides you through the Allied missions is fucking gorgeous.

C&C3 had Jennifer Morrison though. Can it beat that?

Yes played this and completed it twice (once as single player, once with friend over the internet) - friend lent it to me knowing how huge a fan of C&C I am and how I wasnt going to buy it with the DRM on it.

I can de-authorise it when its time to uninstall and leave him with 4 installs remaining.

Anyway back to the game, 9 levels but this time 3 sides. Very tough, rather interesting - FMV excellent and skirmish is rock hard.

Russian Campaign - fairly easy (level 6 gave me a bit of a headache)
Allied Campaign - middling (last level - timed !!! extremely hard to do in the tiny amount of time given)
Japanese Campaign - fairly hard (last level was tough, but not timed thank god - lots of micromanagement with building structures then guiding them to where you want them)

Overall 6.5 - 7 /10

I much prefer C&C3 over it though.

Gemma Atkinson the ex hollyoaks babe is the lady in question I think.

Yes, great game. I particularly enjoyed the skirmishes. The AI is a real challenge on brutal and I had a great sense of achievement when I finally beat it.

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Merry Christmas!

(Not entirely worksafe in prude offices)