Since last October EA has been slowly trickling information about a new Command and Conquer, later saying it will be Generals 2. Back in May EA unveiled Command & Conquer™ Tiberium Alliances, which is a Free-to-play, browser-based MMO and this announcement is not to be confused with that. Now, at Gamescom, its been formally announced that the next instalment of the popular RTS franchise will be a free to play game, running off the Frostbite 2 engine.
The plainly titled, Command and Conquer is set to launch in early 2013 and those excited by the prospect of paying to win can sign up now for the beta. Aside from the gameplay video below there wasn’t any more information on the game, such as what factions will be available or what super weapons can be expected.
The biggest news out of the announcement was that this free to play title will be running the often hyped Frostbite 2 engine, which is responsible for games such as Battlefield 3 and Need for Speed: The Run. Though those games do look impressive and it is evident that the engine is capable of drawing many objects on the screen, without being terribly resource intensive, real-time strategy games are one of the most action heavy games. With hundreds of units all being rendered at the same time as massive explosions destructible buildings and environmental effects I would hope that there won’t be a need for everyone to heavily upgrade their PCs just to play a free, online RTS.
Until the beta is released and more details are announced we won’t know for sure what sort of requirements this game will need or if its even a server based set up, like On-Live. Love or hate free-to-play, it is not showing any signs of slowing and if you are looking forward to some new Command and Conquer action it seems this is your only option.
