Gameology 2.0

Review Of

Westwood Studios. Command and Conquer: The First Decade. Los Angeles, CA: Electronic Arts, 2005.

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As readers of my past reviews (or viewers of my past video reviews) might know, I enjoy a lot of the retro compilations that have been released lately. One of the most recent is EA’s Command & Conquer: The First Decade for the PC.

In many ways, this is one of the best produced compilations I’ve seen. The majority of the Command & Conquer games (with the exception of Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor) are here in their original format, retooled to work on Windows XP PCs. A generous bonus DVD features with a decent documentary on the history of the franchise. Being able to play this games off of 1 disc instead of 12 is a real treat.

For fans of RTS games, or for those interested in one franchise's take on the genre, this compilation is well worth it. The narrative aspect via Full Motion Video mission briefings and CG sequences are, for the most part, well done. While most missions boil down to "set up a base, build units, and destroy the enemy base," mission design does improve as the games go on.

My favorite game in the compilation is probably Red Alert 2, which takes a campy alternate-reality take on World War 2-- what if WW2 was the US VS. Russia? Such a scenario could clearly be taken seriously, but by combining an uber-campy script with a bunch of B level actors (including German heavy Udo Kier) in video footage with decent non-interlaced compression, it makes one see a possible basis for the biggest oxymoron of all-- a decent video game film.

However, there is a bit of a problem here in regards to being able to play these games online against friends. According to several online reports, Command & Conquer and Red Alert can’t be played online, despite EA’s claims to the contrary. If one tries to run Command & Conquer’s Internet Play feature, the user receives a message to install Westwood Chat, a program which hasn’t been in use for over half a decade!

Later today I’m going to contact EA to follow up on this story to see if they have an official line on this. The rest of the games work fine online, apparently– I haven’t had a chance to test them out, but the forums aren’t roaming with complaints.

Still, this compilation is well worth it for C&C fans and for those interested in Westwood’s take on the RTS genre over the years.

I gave EA’s tech support a call and informed them of the Internet online play problem. This is basically how the conversation went:

Me: Hey, I’ve having a problem with your recent compilation, C&C: The First Decade. In the original C&C game included in the compilation, when I click on “Internet Play,” an error message pops up saying I need the “Westwood Chat” software. The main problem with this is that Westwood Chat was a program that was only supported online around 8 years or so ago by Westwood before it was bought out by LA. How can I play this game online against people?

EA: Ah, yes… You are correct. It turns out that some of the older games are not supported for online play by EA. However, you can go to Xwis, a website outside of the EA network, to learn how to get some of the older games running online.

To be fair, EA Tech Support did supply an answer. Technically, they had a right to respond to my problem as they did– the back of the box features the following disclaimer in tiny print: “Online Play for Games in this Compilation May be Discontinued and is Not Guaranteed.”

Still, if a company is going to go to the problem of releasing a retro compilation, they should fine an easy way to make the game to be able to be run online. I’m no n00b or anything, but at least having part of the documentation detailing the process on how to get Red Alert 2 and Yuri’s Revenge online via Xwis would be a nice thing. A big part of C&C’s appeal is the multiplayer and simply pretending that this function does not exist is no way for EA-LA to treat their loyal fans.

More disturbing is some of the bugs with the compilation that C&C fans have been discovering. The most noticeable of these is lack of FMV briefings in the Russian Campaign of Red Alert. There is a hack around it, but this really makes me think that EA should have spent more time beta testing this damn compilation.

Overall, if you enjoy the single player C&C franchise experience, or haven't yet experienced it and want to see the evolution of an RTS franchise through mission design, this is a good deal. If you want to play your old-school favs online, you're pretty much out of luck.