Electronic Arts' Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars for the PC has been raging hot since it launched and next month, it's set to receive a new patch to improve the Battlecast system as well as to balance the factions.

A message was posted on the EA Forums by the game's developers and it was announced that Patch 1.09 would be released on the first half of October. Currently, the said patch is under testing to ensure quality and safety for users everywhere.

The full fact sheet of the update will be available next week, but two major changes have been listed as early as today. These changes are:

• Significant change to the economy involving the Harvest payload
• Significant upgrade to infantry to make them much more worthwhile and usable
  

Also, it was stressed that the new patch will make the Battlecast a lot faster, smoother, and more user friendly than ever before. A slightly altered look was also said to be coming with patch 1.09. We'll update you next week on all the changes EA will list.

Real-time strategy fans on the PC and the Microsoft Xbox 360 will be in for another treat from Electronic Arts as the expansion to Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars has been announced for early 2008. The follow-up is going to be titled Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath and it packs many new features and plot twists.

In this video, you'll see Kane in one of his usual rants about rising to power and things of the sort. The plot of the expansion follows his campaign towards domination, but it won't be an easy road as new units and features need to be learned how to harness in order to be effective in combat.

Aside from new units for each of the three factions, a new interface that allows ease of control for the Xbox 360 version will be added. This will allow console users to control their bases from any point in the map, placing them at an equal field as PC users. Watch out for Kane's Wrath because it's bound to be a scorcher.


Buy: [Command & Conquer 3 (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Command & Conquer 3 (PC)]

 

It's been 12 years since the Command & Conquer series started, and it's always had a following amongst gamers. To celebrate 12 years of Command & Conquer goodness, Electronic Arts is offering the original game as a free download to gamers everywhere.

As they noted in a recent news article:

To kick the celebration off, today we have a special surprise which we are certain new and old Command & Conquer fans will enjoy. We are providing the original Command & Conquer Gold as a free download, compatible for Windows XP! This is the same version included with the collectors pack Command & Conquer: The First Decade, and is now available for you to download for free!

They do note that you'll have to burn the ISO image onto a disc and follow some additional instructions to get it running on your computer, but we've checked out the instructions and they're pretty straightforward. Just make sure you can burn the ISO image onto a CD and have an internet connection ready to download the patch, and you should be set.

To download the ISO images for the GDI and Nod sides of the game, as well as to pick up the additional instructions, feel free to visit our source link below. Enjoy!

If the seventh time didn't work for you, the eighth probably will, right? In an effort to sort out the various balancing issues related with Electronic Arts' Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (also available on Xbox 360), the developers released patch version 1.07. That huge fix was designed to iron out the kinks in the unit strength and speed match-ups, but it seems one of 1.07's fixes needed a little more polish.

If you did update to the latest patch before, you'd notice that the Scrin mothership now has a no-touch, eight-second period during deployment. That didn't count for the superweapon's firing delay, however, which was probably part of EA's plan to keep the mobile weapons platform in check against Nod and GDI forces.

So here comes patch 1.08 - a hotfix to apply an eight-second firing delay to the Scrin mothership after deployment. You really won't need the patch just yet if you're investing more time in the newly released MOD SDK. A lot of time to kill on that nifty content addition. Hop over to the official patch page through the Read link below.

Electronic Arts has finally made good on one of its promises as it announced that four EA titles are now available for Mac users to play and enjoy. EA's offering includes the following four titles:

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Need for Speed: Carbon
• Battlefield 2142
• Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

The four titles listed above are the first games ever published by the company for Mac OS X. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 and Madden NFL 08 are also being readied for release sometime in the next two months.

Here's hoping that this trend continues and that more and more developers and publishers give Mac gamers some much-needed love. All of these games are now available for purchase at the Apple Store.

 

Together with the official debut of "Command & Conquer Battlecast Primetime", Electronic Arts LA (EALA) has opened up avenues into new developments of the Command & Conquer lineage. Among many community featurettes, EALA has revealed three important things: a new expansion to Command & Conquer 3, an official modding SDK, and an experimental Battlecast Viewer.

Rumors of the C&C3 expansion began when a mysterious screenshot (see image to the right; do click on the thumbnail) was discovered by the community. But in the first episode of the Battlecast Primetime, it was revealed to be a capture of the expansion to Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (Xbox 360, Windows PC on DVD) officially announced as Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath.

Expansion facts were highlighted as follows:

• Domination meta-game: a RISK-style mode "on steroids," where units can be moved strategically on a global scale; encounters move to the classic C&C tactical mode for skirmishes
• A story dating back to the Second Tiberium War, extending past the Third Tiberium War
• New characters to accompany Joe Kucan (Kane)
• Additional units and content
• New selection interface (featured in mystery screenshot) for Xbox 360 gamers
• Expansion to release simultaneously on Xbox 360 and PC
  

Patch 1.07 should be coming soon in August, which, aside from solving more balance issues with game units, will also break down walls in modding restrictions. An exclusive modding software development kit (SDK) will provide modders with the ability to create their own units, customize them, and integrate them to the core game easily.

And lastly, the Battlecast Viewer was also announced to be in the works. Even without a copy of the game, fans will be able to watch recorded battles from anywhere in the world. Platform details are sketchy, but the Viewer will be available for download on the official Command & Conquer website once its ready.

Keep your eyes glued to this space: more developments in the C&C scene as they come rampaging by.

Buy: [Command & Conquer 3 (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Command & Conquer 3 (PC)]

Although this development may have been anti-climactic for the majority of the Command & Conquer community, Electronic Arts still figured that the fandom for the C&C universe is still strong and created a home for loyalists around the world. Compared to sports and cooking shows, Battlecast Primetime was the so-called 'Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars Revolution' announced back in late July.

The show will tackle everything Command & Conquer related, including sneak peeks into developer insights and plans for the series. Celebrities starring in the game will also feature as special guests in the show. The primetime broadcast is expected to take flight on August 14, 2007, most likely on the official Command & Conquer website's video section.

 

While folks around the Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars are still sour with the tightrope balancing act Electronic Arts pulled off for the multiplayer, EA seems to have something more in store for the real-time strategy title. A banner advertisement at the official Command & Conquer website says that Command & Conquer 3 will be revolutionized soon.

And by soon, they meant by August 7, 2007. Speculations range from a mod to a final solution to the multiplayer issues, but we'll pile the greenbacks on the off-chance that this is another expansion to the C&C universe, just as its later titles have had at least one in the past.

 

Along with the new C&C development is Electronic Arts' full confirmation of the Crysis and Command & Conquer fusion, which they've dubbed Command & Crysis: The Dead Six. Unlike what was speculated in the past, the title isn't exactly a stand alone game - it's being designed as a mod to EA's upcoming Crysis.

But in the tradition of Command & Conquer: Renegade, Command & Crysis will offer players to participate in combat from the "battlefield perspective," experiencing whole generations of C&C history since Command & Conquer: Red Alert up to the present, and even "change the fate" of the universe.

Updates to the story will be addressed through episodes, although freedom will be given to aspiring modders to create their own stories or games through the The Dead Six core.

Features of the mod to come your way at the Full Article after the jump!

If you've been wondering why your structures were more or less invincible when attacked by mammoth tanks with rail guns, then you should know it's a bug. Like all computer bugs, they eventually get squashed, which is why Electronic Arts recently released patch 1.06 for Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars.

The patch offers some fixes with regard to disconnect problems, as well as provides a fix to the pesky bug we mentioned above. Here's the full list of changes that'll come with patch 1.06:

Tracking Disconnects

• Changed the way that disconnects are reported. Now, whenever the game detects that a disconnect has occurred in a 1v1 match, both players are awarded a disconnect stat - neither player is given a win or loss stat.

Exploits

• Fixed an exploit that caused any unit or structure to become invincible if force-fired upon by a Mammoth Tank that had been upgraded with Rail Guns.

Other Bugs

• Fixed a bug that caused the Nod Cloaking Field power to deduct up to 6,000 credits from the Operations Center. The power now correctly deducts 3,000 credits.
• Fixed a bug that allowed players in the online lobbies to /tell and /invite users that had marked them to be ignored.
• Players can no longer send /tell messages to other players as observers during a multiplayer match.
• Fixed a hang that occurred when users typed /friend or /invite without a corresponding name.

If you want to download it, just head on over to the source link below, and pick the patch that fits your region and language. Enjoy!

 

Electronic Arts has another patch brewing for the Command & Conquer community and it appears that along with it will come another plethora of balance changes. And one could bet a fortune that EA is dousing cheaters' fires after the advent of the Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars controversy back in late May.

From the C&C community, Electronic Arts developer GregK in fact confirmed the existence of the new patch, saying:

The patch wouldn't be out as soon as next week, nor would it come as late as August. I can't promise a specific date, assure you we will continue to do everything we can to push for an early-July release as opposed to a mid- or late-July release.

 
Even after the many balance changes that patch v1.05 introduced, it also brought a good share of crippling features that levelled the playing field for all sides, at the expense of a few good strategists here and there. Although the new patch announced will address the new issues introduced since v1.05, there's no telling what other changes might be made that could force players to alter their strategies yet again.