| Liliana "A horrible person". That's what it says. "A horrible person." We weren't even testing for that. Level: NaN   Posts: 2331/-3841 EXP: NaN For next: 0 Since: 07-23-07 Since last post: 10.2 years Last activity: 10.1 years  |
|
||
|
There are some vids of C&C Generals floating around the net. It's pretty well-known that this game was released in a vastly unfinished state, so seeing what they had in mind is really nice. I dunno if the videos are available on YouTube or elsewhere, but I'm commenting them right here.
The first video was apparently some kind of presentation. You can hear some commentary in German in the background. It plays the first American mission (siege of Baghdad), the intro looks like it does in the final (though the explosion animations strike me as unfamiliar...). Then you gain control...  The interface looks totally different! At the top is what I presume to be the power bar (with very basic placeholder GFX) next to the money counter (moved above the power bar in the final). On the right side we have the experience bar (again with different graphics), at the bottom there are icons which I have no idea what they do. The upgrade images don't seem to be there in any form. The buttons in the middle all use the same placeholder graphic (still in the final game but unused as far as I'm aware). Apparently, they had only programmed the Battle Drone for the American vehicles yet (the Scout Drone is completely missing). At the left there's *supposed to* be the minimap (it's so blurry you can't make out anything). The command bar had a very nice animation. The file for that command bar can be found in the prototype alpha. It looks really nice, might have caused performance issues though. The player then moves on and we see the GLA base, with red housecolor (final is green). As the player progresses, there are no large differences to the final.  A good shot of those bridge towers which they sadly canned. In the video they're hit repeatedly but it does nothing. Either they had a lot of health, or they simply weren't programmed to take damage yet.  The player has selected the Chinook. The capacity slots still use this "triangle" graphic but don't have that fat blue border in the final. In the video you can see that the player left clicks on the building to combat drop into it, which I'm pretty sure you can't do in the final (would've interfered with quite a lot of things). The player then continues to invade the GLA base and eventually destroys the Scud Storm to win the mission. The Scud Storm explodes in a huge cloud of green toxins, this has been seriously toned down in the final version. The second video is a big surprise: it plays in a mission which does not appear in the final game at all! There has been speculation that this is the lost American mission that was planned to be in the game (the order in the game was 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 so the obvious gap sparked a lot of interest). This build appears to be much earlier than the one used in the first video.  Beta comanches (note gold skin) pass over the city, then you see a group of old Crusaders. The design is very simplistic compared to what we see leftover in the game files. Later on, a group of Rocket Buggies (again red, apparently the default color at that time) ambushes and destroys this group. It rushes off and is destroyed by another squadron with an awesome cinematic.  The Command Center, note the lack of radar (never happens in the final). The generals logic was still in there - by clicking on the Command Center you would choose your general after which the game resumed. The game is *not* frozen at this point, as is evident soon when a bunch of car bombs destroys the War Factory. It disappears without a trace (the debris graphics weren't in there yet, I guess). The generals' graphics aren't there yet, so all we see is placeholders. You can make out the strings "America Tank Command", "America Air Force" and "America Special Forces". At the right-hand side there's also "Selection Portrait Here". Why the other video does not have any text in the placeholders, we'll never know.  Hovering over the images gets you... the stoned developers seen in the prototype alpha! (You can hear a lot of laughing and giggling in the video as well at this point) It's almost a shame the prototype alpha didn't come with an executable, it would have been awesome to see this. The player selects the Tank Command, and the developer image moves to the bottom-right. In the Command Center, he gets the ability to paradrop and fuel-air bomb stuff, he can also upgrade to radar (which uses a placeholder image, all the others however have their pictures there) During the upgrade, a percentage is shown, instead of the transparent animation seen in the final. The player then builds a War Factory, and we see the Dozer moving all around the place. In the final it stays in one spot, the moving around probably looked too weird and made it difficult for enemies to hit the dozer. There's no percentage here yet.  The player moves to the city (another cutscene happens on the way) and reaches the outskirts of the GLA base. A good view of the gun-less Tunnel Network here. The player's tanks are destroyed, so he decides to try out the paradrop. Five rangers are air-dropped by B52 (in the final it's the cargo plane, it was probably not coded in yet at this point). The player invades the base using the backdoor and destroys the Stinger Sites with ease (either they were really weak, the stats were changed for this mission or there were barrels there).  The building at the bottom is the GLA windmill, removed from the final game (but still in the files). The player drops a fuel-air bomb to destroy all buildings and to end the mission. There does not seem to be a Supply Stash or Command Center in the base, so the mission would have been very easy were it in the game (with no source of money and no workers, the enemy can't build anything). ____________________ Most people who visit your Web pages are there in search of useful or entertaining information, not to admire your fancy graphics skills or HTML prowess. — Apple Web Design Guide, 1996 |
 Register - Login |
||
|
Main - Memberlist - Active users - Calendar - Wiki - IRC Chat - Online users Ranks - Rules/FAQ - Stats - Latest Posts - Color Chart - Smilies |
|
