It's been quite some time since I wrote about game design infromation regarding Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. In the first segment, I wrote about the graphics, and story in general, while on the 2nd installment, I wrote about the concept of having fun and variety in the game that made it fun. Now, I'll be describing the music, the sound of GTA:SA.

 

GTA:SA, being set in the early 90's has its share of music from the 70's, the 80's and the 90's music, but with the size of the playing area, each with their own genre in the form of radio stations that can be tuned while on any vehicle other than the jumpjet or a bicycle (and the jetpack if you have one). Each station in the game has its own style, from just giving boring talkshows, to Rock music stations, to early 90's hip-hop/rap music, and there's Country music, that fits well with the countryside atmosphere while riding through dirt roads in a beaten old pick-up truck. And depending on the type of vehicle or its original owner (assuming you took it away from the owner).

 

With the advent of Grand Theft Auto IV this year, I would wonder what the guys in Rockstar are doing for us who are waiting for its release.

This weekend I'll be migrating my OS to Windows Vista Ultimate heheeh  My package from the US came along with Vista, a new set of Keyboard and mouse, plus Microsoft Flight Simulator X Deluxe edition . I'll be a bit busy backing up my saves, then I'll repartition my PC as the entire C: Drive, since by next month, I'll be getting a new hard disk and RAM for my PC too.

 

Well hang tight!

I was looking for new material to demonstrate for upcoming Windows Vista games prior to my talk for the Windows Vista Community Launch last Saturday (April 14), and of course I included the very hyped up Crysis, a video collection of all the current Games for Windows games, and one new game coming out: World in Conflict.

 

Well right now, at this period, I'm still playing through Tiberium Wars, and I actually haven't looked at any new games (Besides Company of Heroes and Supreme Commander both of which I'm thinking of getting, but my PC's RAM is cryng for help right now.) Well moving on to World in Conflict, it's premise is like the old 80's movie called Red Dawn, which starred: Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey, and Powers Boothe, where the Soviets decided to launch their attack on the US.

 

It sure did wow the audience of this sudden preview.

It's almost a week since I purchased Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars and I'm very, very addicted to the game. I did enjoy playing Command and Conquer Generals once, but it kind of lacked the story as well as the balance found in that game compared to this (more on this in the succeeding section). And it's been five years since the last iteration of the game's story (Tiberium Wars).
 
The game continues from the last game where the world is covered with 30% of Tiberium (Red Zone), 50% Tiberium/earth (Yellow Zone) and 20% Pristine Earth (Blue Zone), and decades of peace is present, with little or no reaction from the Brotherhood of NOD. The GDI government has stood down and talks have begun to reclaim the earth of Tiberium, a crystalline mineral/lifeform of alien origin that assimilates the land it encroaches upon. However, as the talks began, a nuclear missile hit the space station Philadelphia where the talks were held, and a world wide assault on all the Blue Zones have been commenced by NOD...
 
Being the battle commander of the North Eastern side of the Atlantic, we are tasked to take back the Blue Zone and destroy the NOD.... but there's some surprise on our way from space...
 
Graphics:
Graphics wise, C&C3 uses the SAGE graphics engine used on Command and Conquer: Generals and in Battle for Middle Earth, both from EA. This game utilizes some of the features found in the latest video cards such as SM 2.0 ~ 3.0, it uses HDR and more effects (which basically pushed DirectX 9.0c to the limit). Aside from the effects, it is also visible that the textures of the environment and units have gone up dramatically since Generals. So having a a really powerful card will bring out the best in the game, all the bells and whistles. Score: 5.0

 

Sound:

True to the series, the music retains its techno rock soundtrack, and for those who've followed the series closely, the voices of the units sounds familiar (for me the units sounded like the same VAs from Generals). Though, the sound effects for explosions are very much welcomed by me for its clarity (and I'm using an old Sound Blaster card from the year 2000). Score: 4.0

 

Control:

This will be short and sweet. To fans of the previous Command and Conquer, the one very, very disctinct change is the command key for ordering the units about. Previously it's mapped to the Left Mouse Button, but now it is remapped to the Right Mouse Button (hooray for StarCraft Players who've been used to this for almost a decade). Another change is the customizable hotkeys for our keyboards to suit our own taste. Score: 4.5

 

 Gameplay:

The game has addressed issues about balancing from Generals, greatly. GDI, NOD and the Scrin have each their own unique capabilities now that balances each side. For GDI, they have the heavy firepower in the form of their Mammoth Tanks, Aircraft and Zone Troopers. For NOD, they have the power of Stealth, vast array of unconventional weapons like lasers, Flame Tanks, and Vertigo Stealth Bombers. Whereas for the Scrin they have excellent Aircraft/Spacecraft in the form of their carriers, destroyers, and the base levelling, moving superweapon, the Mothership, plus they have Tiberium based weapons which are known to deal great damage to any unit. The AI in single player mode and in skirmish mode, varies its tactics (and also depending on what tactic we set in skirmish) giving us a tougher battle even in easy mode. Some points to ponder, the Commando from GDI reminds me of a green armored, helmetted hero from another game... Score: 5.0

So there is such a thing as an HP gaming summit? (That's new to me)

 Anyways, the Endgadget Article here has a photo gallery of stuff HP has shown off during their summit

 

 

Finally, after a long break (give that 5 years) the original Command and Conquer series was released to the world late last month, in this side of the world, that was March 28. I waited until I got my paycheck to buy myself one. So during the weekend sale at the country's biggest mall, I dropped by my favorite store, Datablitz to buy one. I was looking between two editions at that time, the Php 2100.00 ($42.00) and the Php 1745.00 ($34.99) edition. And looking as to how nice the packaging was on the Kane Edition (and it's 1/100000) I got one. I honestly haven't visited the Datablitz site since last February, so I didn't know what was in store for me. When I told the sales lady I was going to buy one, she placed the game onto the counter and left, only to return with a goody bag with some items like a shirt, a plastic coffee mug, and a cap.

 

Right now I've just installed the game, and I'm trying out the tactics found in the companion DVD.

 

Some quick system Requirements:

OS: Windows XP, Windows Vista (32-bit)

CPU: 2.0GHz or faster (2.2 GHz for Vista)

RAM: 512MB (1.0 GB for Vista) or more

Disc Drive: 8x or faster DVD drive

Hard Drive: 6.0 GB or more free space

Video: DirectX 9.0c compatible, Video Card with 64 MB or more of memory and chipsets required: ATI Radeon 8500 (9500 for Vista) or greater, NVIDIA GeForce4 (6100 for Vista) or greater

Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible

Input: Keyboard and Mouse