RA3 Community Summit Update - Back in New Zealand

[Sonic 296]

I have arrived back in the common surroundings of New Zealand, well more specifically my home town. All the official events of the Red Alert 3 Community Summit have come to end. They actually came to an end over 24 hours ago, but I still had 3 hours at LAX and then a 12 hour flight home to get through. Add in the fact that I've skipped Sunday the 15th of June as well. But as mentioned I'm back home now safe and sound after a whirl wind trip to sunny Los Angeles. Did I say sunny? It was cloudy and relatively cool there the whole time. But I'm used to that because its winter here New Zealand.

 

I must make this clear right now. Due to the wonderful legalities imposed on me by our friends at EALA, I'm bound to an NDA, so I can't discuss anything about Red Alert 3 right now, the good news is all the news can be revealed very soon. And the game is in good hands. There is lots to look forward to, trust me! But right now I can't give you the juicy details just yet.

 

There were lots of different people there but I have some special shout outs to the some of the guys from other C&C fan sites I met while I was there.

• HeXetic (Planet CNC): We had some cool discussions, even though HeXetic as been on these trips over a thousand times he was as enthusiastic as ever. He may have created a record for the most photos taken.
  
• Chickendippers (CNC World): I've know Chickendippers for a while now and it was great to discuss key subjects with him in person.
  
• JohnWE (C&C Files): His passion for C&C has no limits, he really is the biggest C&C fan in our community. He proved it!
  

And an extra special thanks goes to our C&C Community Manager, Aaron "APOC" Kaufman. It was great to finally to met him in person for a change. APOC was responsible for getting us over to Los Angeles and making sure we were all taken care of during our stay. And he was hardly ever late for once because its officially been dubbed as "APOC time". So APOC if your reading this, thanks for finally getting me over there, I had an excellent time.

 

I'll end this update simply by saying.... "RED KNIGHT"!

[rEdaSbLood 1]

sonic, WHY THE CLIFFHANGER? :lol: oh, the curiosity...

[Luk3us 63]

Juicy details!

[TheBlackOut 7]

I'll pretend to not care...

 

.......

 

Not... caring.....

[Gben 20]

me not caring either.

 

Do you believe us?

[rEdaSbLood 1]

so can you tell us now?........................................

 

 

 

how about now? :lol:

 

red knight...hm...plot goodie?

 

any hints?

[Duke 0]

Hmm, a japaneese ninja? Welcome home sir, "I bid you welcome, I bid you welcome"

[Luk3us 63]

I see Dippers got a bit of free stuff too. Did you get the same stuff?

[BioBen 3]

I want photos!

[Banshee 28]

Red knight won the battle in the medieval times?

[Saracen 16]

Red Knight Sucks - I think I speak for everyone who went to the BfME2 summit by saying BLUE KNIGHT!!

 

Good to see you back safe and sound though.

[Sonic 296]

I see Dippers got a bit of free stuff too. Did you get the same stuff?

Yeah APOC gave us a bag of gifts. More precisely it was TWOPoc (APOC's intern) who gave them to us. As you saw in Chickendippers photo it features a shiny new Geforce 9600 GT. My own photo.....

 

 

I want photos!

I have some, not many though. Personally there weren't many "photo ops". When we toured upstairs in the dev team area no cameras were allowed. I'll sort through what I have and upload them soon. HeXetic from Planet CNC took lots of photos so you will get to see me (I'm in the grey Xbox 360 cap). Including when APOC "randomly" selected me to play JohnWE in an impromptu MP game, I don't know how to play these damn games anymore so I was cleaned up in handful of minutes.

 

Thanks APOC

 

Any photos showing the game won't reveal much, direct photos of the screens during the testing time were not allowed.

 

Oh yeah, the whole Red Knight stuff is nothing to with RA3. As Banshee mentioned, its to do with Medieval Times, Google it to understand what it is

And no.... the Red Knight didn't win. The White Knight did. APOC said the Medieval Times show has changed a bit since from the time Saracen was there.

 

One thing I've finally confirmed on this trip is my passion as an RTS gamer is all but gone, and not just C&C but all RTS'. I'm just not into them as much as I used to be. I want and an RTS with strong SP and single player content. Nothing about RA3 SP/campaign/storyline was covered at the summit.

[hagren 0]

Perhaps there will be a second summit covering SP Or is that out of the question?

 

I'm sorry to hear that RTS lost the sparkle for you. I still have fun with 'em and cannot wait for SC2, RA3 and DoW2.

 

From your personal experience, is RA3 as thought out and special as it sounded, thus giving SC2 the edge a possibility?

Or is it the same rushing fest as ever?

[Luk3us 63]

I trust though Sonic, you aren't going to do anything rash in regards to CNCNZ though?

[Sonic 296]

Perhaps there will be a second summit covering SP Or is that out of the question?

 

From your personal experience, is RA3 as thought out and special as it sounded, thus giving SC2 the edge a possibility?

Or is it the same rushing fest as ever?

They other guys at the summit speculated as much. EA did 2 of them for C&C 3.

 

As for your questions Hagren, sorry I can't go into specifics. I guess its safe to say that from all devs we talked to they are keen on making RA3 something special. So rule out this whole stupid idea of a rushed game. Despite what people may think these guys care, EA maybe a large company but the the C&C teams at EALA are a great bunch of people, they are all human just like you and me. They are dedicate to making great C&C games. They know mistakes were made with C&C 3 and now with RA3 they are listening to you guys. If you all act mature and continue to post your feedback as news is released they will hear it. RA3 is in good hands. In fact when news starts to get released you will see that EALA are listening to you all.

 

I trust though Sonic, you aren't going to do anything rash in regards to CNCNZ though?

My incentive for RTS games may have disappeared, but I still enjoy the community concept. CNCNZ.com is a part of me and will continue for as long as possible. If games like Generals/Zero Hour/C&C 3/Kane's Wrath had stronger SP content (as in the Westwood era) I would enjoy them more. I still fire up C&C 3/Kane's Wrath from time to time and play the odd skirmish and that's about it. I guess as you get older things change.

 

The good thing each game has been better than the one that preceded it so perhaps RA3's SP content will be the best of the bunch. Maybe it will be that elusive epic SP game I'm waiting for, and maybe it will spark interest to master everything about the game and play some MP like I used to do in the old days. But as it stands now when I try to play SP in something C&C 3 it just irritates how boring it is and the incentive to play it soon fades.

[Guest Rabbit]

I always preferred the GREEN KNIGHT!

 

Including when APOC "randomly" selected me to play JohnWE in an impromptu MP game

He did the sticky note thing, didn't he.

[TheBlackOut 7]

This sounds like a cult

[Sonic 296]

I always preferred the GREEN KNIGHT!

 

He did the sticky note thing, didn't he.

What sticky note thing? You've lost me

[hagren 0]

Sonic: Oh, it's not about me, I was very content with TW. But all the other people plus their uncles prefer MP, and I want to see them satisfied, too. In the long run, that's what would render it successfull. I want strong SP content as well, though as you put it, it got better with every game. Personally, I quite liked the campaign, there were some missions really sticking out, and the FMVs are still nicer as in-game cutscenes or textboards. Co-op is a good idea, and there's much that they can do with it, hopefully they'll explore it. On a side note, I know that EALA is quite capable, they make good RTS. That they're not given enough time to polish the titles is not their fault. And I know that they're listening to us, believe you me

[Koen 2]

Good to see that you went

I'm thinking RA3 will be something to look forward to.

[Guest Rabbit]

What sticky note thing? You've lost me

Haha, when he "randomly" selected me and assassin back in the day to be the first individuals to play C&C 3, he put sticky notes on the back of our chairs in the presentation room, and said "Whoever has sticky notes on their chairs gets to play first," and we were the 'newbies' of the day, from what I remember.

 

In some ways, I just feel happy about myself that aside from the dev team, Assassin and I were the first to play C&C 3 in the world.

 

Looks like you got your turn for RA3.

[rEdaSbLood 1]

well, i'm on a similar page as Sonic. the difference is that im not turned off by RTS' now, but i'd just rather play a FPS - namely COD4.

 

RA3 will probably kick much ass, and im sure the SP will be great. i am definitely looking forward to it.

[Sonic 296]

Haha, when he "randomly" selected me and assassin back in the day to be the first individuals to play C&C 3, he put sticky notes on the back of our chairs in the presentation room, and said "Whoever has sticky notes on their chairs gets to play first," and we were the 'newbies' of the day, from what I remember.

Ahh now I understand, there were no sticky notes this time around. As soon APOC said we are going to have a quick MP game with two people selected at random I knew APOC was going to pick me and sure enough he did . I suspected it was his plan all along. But that's cool, JohnWE cleaned me up quickly and since there was extra time Greg Black jumped into the big chair and played a game.

 

I call it the big chair because I used the computer that was displaying everything on the big screen. So everyone in the room watched me get beaten. It was all in the name fun though.

[Shocker 0]

Sonic: Congrats on scoring the 9600GT, that's a great gift

 

I'm looking forward to your write-up...especially your opinions regarding the naval combat/bases.

[Sonic 296]

My report will mostly focus on the trip it self with only a small paragraph or two about the game, since I can't remember much of the stuff that I looked at in the game anyway, its all basically a blur now. I never jotted down notes or anything. Some of the other guys did though.