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C&C: Alarmstufe Rot 3

Jahr:	2008
Entwickler:	Electronic Arts Los Angeles
Publisher:	Electronic Arts
Originaltitel:	C&C: Red Alert 3
Kürzel:	RA3
Executive Producer:	Chris Corry
Komponisten:	James Hannigan, Frank Klepacki, Timothy Michael Wynn, Mikael Sandgren
Wertung PCG:	79% (12/2008)
Neuste Version:	1.012
Add-on:	Der Aufstand

Geschichte:

After the Allies drove the Soviets back to Moscow, and their defeat is nigh, they decide to send back several hitmen in time to kill Einstein, the single person they see responsible for the Allied superiority. Although the act is successful, and Europe seems is in peace (With the second war never happening) in this altered timeline, a third party comes into play with the Empire of the Rising Sun (Japan), which gives birth to plans of world domination they, given their technological advancements, are set to realize and achieve, throwing you into this manage a¡ trois.

Interessantes:

RA3 wurde mit DRM und SecuROM als Kopierschutz ausgeliefert. Damit wurden nun auch ehrliche C&C Spieler bestraft und ihrer Rechte enteignet. Immerhin: Mit Patch 1.05 kam das Deautorisierungstool.
Am 12.02.2008 sickerte langsam durch, dass am 14.02. RA3 offiziell (wieder) angekündigt wird. Erschienen ist es am 30.10.2008.
Zum Einsatz kommt wieder die SAGE Engine 2.0 (RNA Engine) und echte Schauspieler (u.a. George Takei) in den FMVs. Es gibt drei Parteien, die bekannten Fraktionen Soviets und Alliierte, sowie ganz neu Japan als Empire of the Rising Sun. Ebenfalls dabei ist wieder Tanja, Teslatechnologie, Erz als Rohstoff, Kirovs und die Wachhunde.
An Stelle von Erzfeldern gibt es nur Erzknoten. Dadurch entfällt typisches Management von Sammlern pro Feld und (absichtlich?) Wegfindungsprobleme dieser.
Diamanten als Ressource gibt es nicht – dies erinnert an EAs Versuche, schon bei TW auf blaues Tiberium als zweiten, wertvolleren, Rohstoff zu verzichten.
Wasser spielt eine so wichtige Rolle wie noch in keinem RA-Titel: Sämtliche Einheiten sind amphibisch und man kann sogar ganze Basen auf dem Wasser inkl. Verteidigungsanlagen bauen.
Initial war nicht Japan sondern die Schweiz mit leichten und schnellen Einheiten als dritte Fraktion geplant, twitterte Greg Black am 18.01.2019:
Stumbled across this super early Red Alert 3 design doc, back when the Empire of the Rising sun faction was a literal Swiss Army faction.
Erstmalig seit der Zerstörung Westwoods ist Frank Klepacki wieder am Soundtrack beteiligt! Mit "Hell March 3", "Grinder 2" und "Nuclear Death" hat er drei Tracks dazu beigesteuert. Da er anfangs nicht wusste dass es nur einige wenige Tracks werden würden, endete er mit einem Überfluss an Ideen und hat diese auf seinem fünften Soloalbum "Infiltrator" verarbeitet:
So once the hand full of themes for the game were done, I was left with this overflow of some cool ideas for songs that could fit into that world, as if it could have stylistically picked right up from RA2. So I decided to finish them and release them for the album Infiltrator, knowing that it would be more of a nostalgic return for the fans of C&C Red Alert 1 & 2.
Ed Del Castillo kritisierte das Spiel als Zirkus, was die Marke fundamental beschädigt hat, in einem Podcast vom 10.03.2014:
It was always supposed to be you know this alternative history of what happens if Einstein were to go back in time and and kill Hitler. And... and you know by by Red Alert 3 was this markery of dancing bears and you know and and just crazy like "let's just have fun and do this crazy stuff". And it's like I think when you do this you you fundamentally discredit your own brand.
HM3 würde "normalweise" anders klingen, erzählte Frank Klepacki in einem Interview am 05.09.2010:
The only major difference was, they wanted to stick close to the feel of HM2 rather than go in a different new feel, which is what I would've done otherwise. So I had to provide what the client wanted rather than have the creative freedoms I was used to. Which is fine.
Rückblickend kritisierte Greg Black am 23.06.2010 in einem Interview die Geschäftspolitik von EA und prangert viele Missstände an:
Unfortunately although we had a very talented team of passionate gamers, EA simply would not give us the time we felt we needed to make a truly great C&C game. In the case of C&C:3 our development cycle was something like 11 months. Compare that to Blizzard or Relic who was spending 3-6 years on their RTS titles. Our longest development cycle was 18 months on RA3, but at that time the team was split in half and added another platform (PS3), so the extra dev time was kind of a wash. EA simply needed us to keep cranking out games to keep the LA studio afloat while many its other teams floundered. So to answer your question I was not happy with how C&C3 or RA3 turned out, our games were always rushed, our engine technology aged and degraded over the years, our path finding was horrible, our online implimentations were embarassing, and ultimately our games did not, in my view, live up to the orginal C&C, or RA2, or Generals (which I also worked on but in a very lowly capacity).
Das Spiel wurde also gerusht, die Engine stets veraltet, die Wegfindung grauenhaft, die Online-Technik peinlich umgesetzt und es wurde den Vorgängern einfach nicht gerecht. Nicht viel besser sah es mit dem Balancing und Design aus:
Unfortunatly our schedules usually meant we couldn't do any real iteration on the design. We were essentially shipping out "first pass" work as final across all areas of the project, balance and design included. Additionally the schedules precluded us from having meaningful multiplayer betas. This was always a huge source of frustration and disappointment for me. I can not blame everything on time pressure though, Dustin Browder was under similar time pressure with Generals and that game had great multiplayer.

With every game I've worked on ultimately all I can see are it's flaws. Its hard to not look at something every day and just see the problems. Pathfinding and UI responsiveness were the two things that always drove me nuts with the sage engine.
Von allen Aspekten musste die erste lauffähige Version genommen werden und die Auswirkung der Multiplayer Beta war daher bedeutungslos. Zusätzlich regte sich Greg Black noch am meisten über Wegfindung und Reaktionszeit der Engine auf.
Das Logo:
Am 27.02.2010 wurde per Interview bekannt, dass Mark Skaggs damals aus Protest EA verlassen hatte: Jenes RA3 sollte in nur neun Monaten fertig gerusht werden.
mark skaggs said:
the real reason i left ea in 2005 is because i was tired of continually being given deadlines that were too short to make c&c games
me said:
ha i knew it
mark skaggs said:
we were ready to start red alert 3 and then they told me it had to be done in 9 months
rather than make a big fuss about it, i decided that it was time to do something different
there was a big meeting to try to convince me to stay, but i decided to take some time off and that turned into an exit.
Aus ganz ähnlichen Gründen hatten Greg Black und andere EA auch verlassen. In einem Interview vom 23.06.2010 berichtet er über seinen Abgang:
It was not an easy decision for me to leave, EA is where my career in game development got started, but ultimately I needed to do something new. By the time I left EA ma y of my good friends from the RTS team had gone. EA had broken many promises to us and was continuing to make bad decisions at the expense of the C&C franchise and over the protests of the development teams. I just needed a break from the EA insanity.
Er hat eine Pause von dem EA-Wahnsinn (!) gebraucht. Viele gebrochene Versprechen und anhaltende falsche Entscheidungen über das Entwicklerteam hinweg haben dazu geführt.
Am 06.12.2004 machte Mark Skaggs per E-Mail diese Ankündigung:
Hi everyone,
I hope everyone is enjoying one of the best years ever for PC gaming.

On the eve of one of our own major releases, The Lord of the Rings™, The Battle for Middle-earth™, the one thing we've grown to understand is how important the community - our most loyal supporters - is for industry. This started back in our days at Westwood where the community for our games has always been a big priority. We understand that you are the most important and influential group for us and we are constantly amazed at the amount of talent used to create quality assets and mods.

Having said that, we have a MAJOR announcement to make and we are making it exclusively to our long time C&C fans. This announcement is not going out to the press and it won't appear on the EA website or anywhere else online. We are very proud to announce that the team that brought you Command & Conquer™ Red Alert 2™, Command & Conquer™ Yuri's Revenge™, and Command & Conquer™ Generals has officially started work on our next project set in the Red Alert universe!

As I mentioned, we're very proud to ship what we feel is one of the best RTS games ever released. Most of you have probably heard of The Lord of the Rings™, The Battle for Middle-earth™ which hits stores this week. We've introduced some really innovative features and gameplay mechanics, which you should definitely check out when you get a chance. You will also see a major enhancement to the Sage graphics engine we originally created for Command & Conquer Generals. Expect us to leverage and continue to evolve this powerful engine as we start work on our new Command & Conquer game.

Thanks again for all your support over the years. This entire team is incredibly excited to work on the next Command & Conquer chapter. Look for an official announcement soon and have a wonderful holiday.

Mark Skaggs
VP and Executive Producer
Electronic Arts
Zum Glück wurde er 2005 rechtzeitig gefeuert, bevor er noch mehr Schaden mit C&C verursachen konnte. Vielleicht zu spät, denn die Trennung von Tiberium und Alarmstufe Rot in verschiedene Universen verfolgt EA noch heute und war einem Generals 2 auch nicht abgeneigt. Jedenfalls wurde RA3 für weitere Jahre auf Eis gelegt und sollte erst nach TW wieder Beachtung finden.

Alarmstufe Rot 3 von Westwood?

Auch zu Zeiten von Westwood hat man sich bereits mit RA3 beschäftigt. Lange Zeit waren diese URLs die einzigen Indizien dafür:
Bei jeder Adresse landete man auf der Startseite von Westwood. Ein weiterer möglicher und sehr interessanter Link zu RA3 war dieser:
- http://www.dawn-of-war.com/
Bereits am 03.09.1998 registriert und auf Deutsch: "Dämmerung des Krieges" – Damit könnte der Anfang des ersten Tiberiumkrieges gemeint sein (Tiberian Dawn – Dawn of War) und auch ein möglicher Untertitel für RA3.
Louis Castle am 15.02.2002 über zwei neue C&C RTS Titel, zu denen auch RA3 gehören könnte:
We're working on Earth & Beyond, the space-based RPG, and we're also working on another Command & Conquer real-time strategy title in addition to the one that's coming out [the recently revealed, next-gen C&C RTS], so we're actually working on two of those right now.
Das wohl letzte Lebenszeichen eines RA3 von Westwood gab es am 10.03.2002, als auf der offiziellen Seite diese Umfrage erstellt wurde:
Which game would you like Westwood Studios to work on next?
Als Auswahlmöglichkeiten gab es Red Alert 3 und Tiberian Twilight.
Vielleicht hätte es ja auch eine Mission am Fluss Tiber gegeben...