sproif.com

I love it.

How's that for a review?

I've always enjoyed the Command & Conquer series.  I played the crap out of Red Alert 2 almost as much as I played Blizzard's Starcraft (and believe me, that's saying something...)  While Red Alert 3 has been great so far, there are a few things I hope they can clean up in upcoming updates.

My #1 Complaint - The Atrocious Online System

I actually bought this game more for the online play than the actual story mode.  My friends and I enjoy teaming up in an online skirmish, but if we didn't have cell phones or IM, we'd never link up.  The online system lacks almost every semblance of usability that battle.net had for Diablo and Starcraft.  When a friend on your friend list is online, you can't get a hold of them unless they're staring at their message board.  I would think that it would be simple to allow in-game notifications, I know I'd gladly leave a campaign to play online if a friend came on, but nothing short of a cellphone call can get my attention.  That, along with the horrid /whisper <username>line, makes it almost impossible to talk directly to a friend.

#2 - Lack of Multiplayer Maps

Thankfully, this will be fixed soon because Electronic Arts just released the WorldBuilder.  One can only hope that the implementation to find/download/use maps is made easier than their atrocious online system (see item #1).

#3 - Empire of the Rising Sun

I don't know what other people think, but seeming as I'm lacking the omnipotent AI of a computer, the EotRS are completely unwieldy on the field.  Their method of building by deploying vehicles from the Construction Yard to then be sent somewhere to unfurl, becomes overbearing as you forget about building's you've created.  My other EotRS gripe lands with the Mega Tengu and Striker-VX.  These are vehicles that can transform from ground to air vehicles.  As the game progresses, and you get more and more of these, you'll have a platoon of them but some will be in land mode, while others are in air mode, there's no way to make them all ground, or all air, as they'll continue to switch back and forth.  The only way to combat this is to make sure you keep groups in different ctrl-# groups to easily switch from ground to air, or leave one air, and one ground.

#4 - Attack Formations

Bullfrogs On The Move

I'm pretty sure there's a way to do this, but I haven't found it yet.  I usually play soviets, and I would like to have a group of Bullfrogs follow my Kirov Airships, but there's no way, that I know of, to take group A and make them follow group B.  You can select everyone, but the Bullfrogs go 3x faster than the Kirovs, so you lack the anti-air support you need under your sluggish blimpys.

Sum them up and you still have a rather small, and quite acceptable list of complaints for a game that has only been out a few short weeks, and has already had a few decent updates sent out.  I'll obviously continue to play, and I would highly recommend anyone pick the game up.