Cross-platform gaming: from simple ports to the Gates of Oblivion
Command & Conquer 3 - PC and Xbox 360With a twelve year history that rivals many household names in the console gaming world, Command & Conquer is emblematic to PC gaming. The original C&C was the unofficial sequel to Dune 2, a pioneer of the real-time strategy game type. C&C3 is actually the sixth Command & Conquer -titled game, so we're talking about a real heavyweight. Command & Conquer 3 for the Xbox 360 is the franchise's first foray into the console world. How does it compare to the PC version? If you're previously unfamiliar with C&C3, you can find all necessary information about gameplay, graphics, plot and so on in our YouGamers review. The Xbox 360 version's game mechanics are different, but only as far as the user interface goes. GUI items like the minimap have been relocated and redesigned (since you no longer click anywhere on them), text is bigger, and unit and building information - contained in a separately accessible database on the PC version - is now available as tool tip-type popup boxes in-game.
The actual gameplay content hasn't been touched: every mission and every cutscene is there, equal to the PC version. The video clips and game engine cutscenes that instruct you through the various missions are identical to the PC version, but seem tailor made for the Xbox 360 as well. The console hardly breaks a sweat while playing back the full screen, high-definition video cutscenes between missions, which brought minimum spec PC systems on their knees after the game's release. A well-thought out "boot camp" tutorial, created especially to familiarize the player with the user interface, makes you feel in control and comfortable with the gamepad as your handle on the game world. When the action begins, however, things are not nearly as rosy.
The Xbox 360 port suffers most from the console's lack of an accurate pointing device. As a real-time strategy game, C&C3's gameplay is all about quickly and efficiently accessing different items and objects on the screen. The dual analog sticks are, unfortunately, not the right tools for the job. The player moves the camera with one stick and zooms/rotates it with the other; the cursor for selecting units and buildings and giving them orders is fixed at the center of the screen. The change from typical mouse-driven RTS gameplay is drastic. My hat's off to the interface design team, as they tried everything to make the game more manageable: some controller buttons are dedicated to selecting particular unit types, so you won't have to hunt your engineer or commando from inside a crowd of friendly units, and there's even a well-implemented group selection mechanism. When you move the cursor near a unit, it gravitates and sticks to it, tracking it until you move the cursor away again. Having to pan the camera continuously just to select units narrows and restricts your vision of the map; controlling units in the Xbox 360 version feels like you're the messenger running around relaying orders, as opposed to the PC's version's feel of a commander overseeing his forces on a tactical map.
Constant camera movement has a nasty side effect that undermines the game's graphics quality. Shadows and textures are rather low-quality on the Xbox 360 version, presumably due to a lack of video memory, and they flicker wildly when you move the camera. Chain-link fences are perhaps worst afflicted by this effect, which is an Xbox 360 exclusive - even on a low-spec PC you won't be nearly as badly bothered by the flickering, because the camera is not in constant, small movement. If you have a high-end graphics card, turning up anti-aliasing, texture filtering and shadow quality solves this problem almost completely. cont..
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