Electronic Arts. We all know this big time company that currently has a monopoly on the gaming industry and while their name might have been correct when they first started the company, it sure as hell isn't anymore. Because let's see what the dictionary has to say about a piece of 'art'.

The quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.

Now, if we take some of EA's latest games such as Battlefield 2, Battlefield 1242 and Command & Conquer 3 do they really fit that term?
The games are... graphically okay but nothing what I would call 'beautiful'. Don't get me wrong, C&C 3 looks great for a video game, so does BF2 and 2142, but looking great is something different then artistic beauty. The concept art for these games, now that is something that can be qualified as a pieces of beauty.
Appealing? Not in the very least are any games EA has brought out lately appealing. Unless you get off on your game crashing every 2 minutes, hot-fixes being released before the game even hits the stores and an online mode that expects YOU to sort your internet connection fit the game instead of the other way around, then no. No-one with half a brain would call any EA game appealing for usability.
And last, are EA games more significant then let's say, Sierra, Valve, Maxis, Westwood, Oddworld or any other publisher? Hell no. In fact in 90% of the cases all these companies do a much better job at making games then EA ever could. At least they TEST their games before they release them and actually listen to what the community has to say about it.
Conclusion; the term 'Arts' in the company name is a disgrace for all artists out there. It tortures the meaning of the word 'art' since their games are FAR from being a piece of art. EA has to be the worst games publisher/developer the world has ever come to know. There are very few other companies that would use a consumer's desires and then smack them in the face with it while they take your money right out of your wallet, because that's the only thing EA is good at. They always had a reputation for being money hungry bastards but their latest accomplishment has to be the best one yet.

They are actually having the nerve to create a game where the user is not allowed to pick a language. The only language available is the language of the country the game is distributed in. In my case that would be The Netherlands. But thats not the stupid part, the nerve wrecking but also hilarious part is that if you want the English version (and a lot of gamers prefer a game to be in plain English, especially a native English game like C&C) you have to pay an additional 20 bux. So to sum up, you already pay a good 60 quid to buy a game which is not only unstable from the start, is loaded with bugs and won't even install if you're halfway unlucky, but they also have the GUTS to charge an additional 20 dollars for a language pack the game was originally designed for?! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!!! Of all the stunts EA has ever pulled, this one has to be the biggest and most retarded I have ever seen! To everyone reading this I suggest: If you're not a 100% certain if a game from EA is going to entertain you for more then 60 hours then don't buy it, download it instead. Games and their cracks (believe it or not) are usually posted on sites like Isohunt mere hours after the release anyway. Help the cause against the Evil Alliance and download/spread their games illegally. Your efforts are appreciated!

THE PAIN!!!
Other then my rant about EA, it's worth mentioning that I woke up today with a HUGE pain in my back which is currently preventing me to move in a normal fashion. I have no clue as to what caused it but it's not pleasant I can tell you that. Funny thing is that it happened in my sleep. Only I can strain a muscle in my sleep, I'm telling you. Anyway, when this entry is done I'm hitting the sack anyway so let's hope I'm going to be doing a lot better tomorrow.

Tiger

Soooo... I was lying in my bed this morning, as I usually do when I'm still sleeping at 10 in the morning. Suddenly my phone rings and since it's usually Neo who calls me out of bed around this time I dragged my half dead body out from under the warm covers and picked up the phone.
'Hello, this is blabla store, we have your pre-ordered game Command & Conquer 3 ready for you."
Uh okay... After I hung up I had a short moment of 'How fucking long was I asleep for?'.
You see this game was not meant to be released in Europe until March 29. As far as I knew it was the 27th so you can see I was a bit surprised. But hey, who am I to complain? I went to pick it up and installed it as soon as I got home. With any C&C game I always start with the 'Good' side so I started playing GDI and I think I'm near done with the campaign.
The game is just fucking awsome! Missions are cool, maps are designed brilliantly and the cut scenes are done very nicely, especially the 3D scenes are rendered extremely nice. Absolutely not sorry I bought this game!

Story Stuff
I've managed to get the first few paragraphs on paper and I think it's a good start. Now that I'm over that 'First Sentence' wall, I can finally start the real work. Not much else to talk about for now so... Bye.

Tiger

I once, a long time ago (read: About 4 years ago), started writing a novel. It was a children's novel about a young boy going to a summer camp and finding a tiger there which he hangs out with. I was young myself at the time so it seemed to be a good story. I also thought I had amazing writing skills when I first started. But generaly, until you read your work back a few years later, you won't realize you were just craptastic when you first started.
The same happened to me, only I realized it after I got my first novel done. I had sent it to a publisher who in turn sent it back to me with a note that it wasn't good enough to be published. I then re-read what I had made and came to the conclusion... I wouldn't pay money to read this either. Non the less, I kept writing and I wrote a sequel the original story which ended up being equally long but written much better. Later I even grabbed the original story and started a total revision, keeping the characters but totally changing the story. Now it featured bad guys, guns, evil cooperations and a lot more tigers. The revision is still idly sitting on my hard drive, waiting for some final changes to be made before it can be called complete. It is currently counting about 180 pages with over 15 chapters, but it's not done yet and if I ever choose to complete it then it will be turned into a trilogy for sure. But that was then and this is now. That story was based on a children's novel while I slowly matured and got different interests. And right now I'm not gonna work on a relatively childish story compared to the ideas for much better stories I have right now.

A New Idea
So, with that thought I'm starting something new. I have written a lot more as time progressed and have gotten significantly better at writing and coming up with good stories. Now, I want to start a project just as big as when I first started. No more online fan fictions, but a downright action thriller lengthy enough to be called a novel any day.
So what is this new idea about you ask? What does it entail? Why would it interest you enough to read it? Answer: It involves the military and thats always a good start. But it's not just another war story. The nifty thing about this story is that the world the story is set in is composed of anthropomorphic characters. Having a story about anthro animals instead of humans is an angle any writer could work with, it opens up a lot of opportunity's which would not be available with normal human characters. Of course not many writers use anthro characters since they are quickly linked to cartoons and kid stories. With my new story I'm hoping to prove otherwise.

The first sentence...
...is always the hardest. Thinking up a story and a setting isn't the hardest part. Starting it all up on paper is the tough part. Tonight I will make a start with the first chapter in what I hope to be a long lasting series of chapters. Any progress on it will be posted here first and I might just post a few snippets from the story before I post the full thing.

Anyway, I have dinner date for now and it's kinda rude to be late so I'm gonna head off now. Lasagne... Hmmm....

Tiger

Yes yes yes, the demo has been released and damn was I looking forward to it . This game has been on the top of my gonna get list from late August and now it's here! Well, the demo anyway. Previews all looked very promising. But can the real experience of a C&C game really survive 8 years of technological updating and not be 'to modern' for it's kind?

I had a chance to play it and I have to say that it's pretty cool once again. Like every new game it has that certain element of 'Damn I need to get used to this' to it, but that will pass with time. The graphics are pretty cool, sounds are cool (a lot of them also taken from the original C&C, dunno if thats cool or cheap to be quite honest) but the music could have been better IMO. Don't really have the feeling it's part of a C&C game.


WARNING! GAMEPLAY SPOILERS AHEAD!!!


The game starts out with the latest trailer that has been released to the public and is meant as general advertisement to the public. The demo contains 1 tutorial mission, 1 campaign mission and 1 skirmish map.
The tutorial is pretty straightforward, move the camera, move units, build base, yadayada. Nothing wrong with it would it not be for the huge gaps of time you lose while the game tries to figure out whether or not you did your objective and then takes 5 minutes to provide you with the next one.
After the tutorial you start the single player campaign. Thumbs up for EA on this one because it looks to me like they made not only a mission for the demo, but also an entire cut scene. We'll see about that in the final version of the game though. You are briefed by a 3 star general about what Nod is up to after which you are sent into the field. This mission is still mainly tutorial on a larger scale. This also introduces the new principle of a log in which you can find information on units, structures and faction backgrounds. This feature was already kind off available in C&C Renegade and apparently they decided to keep it.
The remainder of the mission is rather easy. You get some Orca's and after bombing the crap out a few buildings with the biggest ease ever, your commander is afraid you won't be able to handle it (seriously, you'll laugh when you hear her) and give you control over the Ion Cannon, the GDI weapon we have all come to love. Before I used it I thought it would be a nice addition to my Orca's to whipe out all the base structures one by one, just like in all previous C&C games, including Generals. However, to my extreme surprise they either overpowered the Ion Cannon completely or just did so for the purpose of that mission but when I used it it caused such destruction and hell that it wiped out the entire Nod base from the face of the map in a single strike. And this was no small base, this thing took in at least 1/4 of the map and had at least 16 structures in it. I hope the Ion Cannon in the real game is not this powerfull because that would just be... lame... .

After the refreshing experience of kicking some Nod butt, we see what is likely the true intro of the game. Nod has overrun Norrad and ASAT, rendering America's anti missile deployments completely useless. Leaving the GDI space station The Philidelphia vulnarable to missle attack from Nod. The station is destroyed, killing most of the world's leaders in one big blow and starting the third tiberium war.


SPOILERS END HERE


From time to time two real life reporters (one from CNN and one from a Las Vegas news station) take care of the news reports involving the war. While the cutscenes I have seen could have been better in certain areas, music and acting wise, it sets a great mood for the game.

So far Command & Conquer 3 is nearly everything I had hoped it to be. EA managed to stay true to the original C&C concept while also putting in a lot of new features and ideas. It could very well be the first game EA bought over but didn't f*ck up. However, time will tell, since it is only a demo after all.


Downloads:
The demo can - for now - only be downloaded from EA Link, the download program for EA Games. However in the course of this week it will become available in more and more places, including Gamespy and Filefront.

Tiger