A different approach is needed

Nov 10, 2008 08:42 GMT  ·  By

Red Alert is one of the most popular franchises in the whole Command & Conquer universe of strategy games, joining the likes of the Tiberium and Generals series of games. Through its latest title, Red Alert 3, it emphasizes the co-op type of gameplay, a very innovative and pretty well built feature, which hasn't really seen a lot of implementation in other strategy games.

Electronic Arts, the company behind the title, has really pulled out all the stops in creating and promoting this game, bringing very popular actors like George Takei or J.K. Simmons to play the trademark FMV (Full Motion Video) cutscenes, which depict the story in a very realistic way. The game was recently launched for the PC and the Xbox 360 version is slated for release on November 14. As we reported earlier, a version for the PlayStation 3 is still under development and doesn't have a concrete release date yet.

David Silverman, one of the producers of the game, recently talked with Videogamer about the plans for an expansion of Red Alert 3. He went on to say that the team needed to look at these expansion plans separately, and not as a whole new experience. In his opinion, the focus was on satisfying the demands of gamers, in the areas where they thought the game needed expanding.

"I don't know if we're going to follow a pipeline of, here's a traditional expansion pack, maybe looking at something that allows us to be a little bit more nimble and address the fans' needs faster by offering portions of that. So instead of, here's your giant massive $40-50 expansion pack, maybe it's, 'oh you want more story?', well here's the campaign expansion, 'you want more multiplayer maps and what not?', here's the multiplayer expansion, 'you want to play co-op?', here's the co-op expansion. If we can start to think about it like that it allows us to be a little bit more nimble and help address the demand from the fans faster."

Some very interesting thoughts, especially considering the fact that a lot of game companies out there are just content with releasing expansions, although gamers didn't necessarily requested them. Red Alert 3 is a very well polished title, and, in terms of story, it leaves a lot of opportunities to be explored. Let's just hope the team at EA LA will deliver a worthy expansion to this very interesting title.