Command & Conquer 3

I have had an obsession with a very special genre of video games that I like to call the "blow shit up" sub-genre. These are games that involve a certain degree of, how can I put this? Yeah, blow shit up. While tank and jet simulators are awesome, you only get to control one unit at a time. Real Time Strategy games, on the other hand, give you a commander's view and allow you to control the whole battlefield.

The earliest I can remember was probably Harpoon, which is still to date one of the hardest games I have ever played and I am happy to learn that it is still being produced.

Another gem of the genre is a trilogy of called "V is for Victory", sadly their publishers went bankrupt over a decade ago. These games were simulations of the later allied campaigns during WWII in the European theater. They were rough in terms of graphics, but the game play was engrossing.

Except for these and Mech Assault for the original Xbox, all of my favorites are in the Command & Conquer / Red Alert series. By the way, the only real difference between these two series is that the Command & Conquer universe involves the Global Defense Initiative, called GDI, against a terrorist organization called the Brotherhood of NOD.

The Red Alert universe uses alternate history to visualize a world in which Albert Einstein travels back in time and murders Hitler while he was still young. The problem was that without Hitler, the Soviets were able to invade Europe in he 1950s.

There is a second difference between the series: in the Command & Conquer universe there is a mineral called Tiberium which more or less takes a center place in the plot. It is he main mineral that is mined for resources in the game.

Why do I like those games? Easy: because it is fun as hell. The game play has barely changed since these two series started. Every couple of years we get better graphics and crazier units, plus the weapons of mass destruction get even crazier.

Now, here's the big change: this is the first time I have played this kind of game in a console instead of a Windows or Mac PC. All this means is that the game is a little bit of a pain in the ass to get used to. Once you go over that learning curve issue, and the game is basically identical to previous editions, only prettier. They also tampered with the power balance, some of the small units are just too god damn powerful.

Overall it is a good game, but I am stuck in one of the single user campaign levels. It is not the end of the world, since I prefer to play skirmish mode.

If you like the genre, and you have the $40, then it is not a bad purchase. Otherwise you can keep playing Command & Conquer Generals, which is not that different (and you can build multiple ion cannons, instead of being limited to one).