Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising (0)

Overview

Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising follows right after the original game , as all three factions--The Allies, The Soviets, and The Empire of the Rising Sun--are somehow having trouble with the Futuretech cooperation. EA decided in early 2009 that Uprising would only be available via digital download.

The game includes new units, new maps, new campaigns, a large new mode, and new characters played by new actors in the live-action cinematics. In exchange, it strips out all multiplayer, including Red Alert 3's signature campaign . The official explanation for the removal of multiplayer is that the development team wanted the new units to be so powerful that they would have trashed Red Alert 3's original competitive multiplayer balance.

Campaigns

The campaigns of Red Alert 3: Uprising pick up where the original game left off. Each faction has a new campaign and the new campaign following the story of the Empire's commando Yuriko Omega.

The Soviet campaign focuses on the remaining Soviet forces trying to stop FutureTech, the Allied defense contractor, who is building a superweapon called the "Sigma Harmonizer", which is capable of stopping time. The Allied campaign focuses on the defeat of several renegade Empire warlords resisting the Allied occupation. The Empire campaign covers the defense of the Empire's lands from attacking Soviet forces. Yuriko's campaign follows her origins and backstory, explaining her birth, captivity by the Allies, and her quest to rescue her sister. This campaign uses different controls and camera, playing more like an action-RPG than an RTS.

New Features

• Several new units for each faction, which, on average, are more powerful than existing units.
• Commander's Challenge mode, which features 50 unique, successively tougher scenarios. Each scenario pits the the player against one of the commander personas in the game, played by actors in FMV cutscenes. At the outset of this mode, the player only has very basic units and structures available for each faction, and as each scenario is completed, a new unit or structure is unlocked for use in all subsequent scenarios. Each scenario also has a target time, for the most dedicated players to strive for.
• A new "mini-campaign" (comprised of about 4 missions) for each faction.
• A hero-focused action-RPG campaign covering Yuriko Omega's past.
• 30 new multiplayer maps--although because there is no multiplayer component to the game, these maps are only available in Skirmish and Commander's Challenge modes.

New Units

Allies

• Harbinger Gunship - A heavy assault aircraft. This flying fortress boasts two proton collider cannons for heavy ground bombardment, along with a nose mounted Eliminator chain gun for dealing with mobile lightly armored targets.

• Cryo Legionnaire - An amphibious upper tech infantry unit. Utilizes a Cryo-Cannon to freeze any ground target. He also has a "boost-kick" as a special ability that damages, or shatters frozen units on landing.

• Pacifier FAV - A hovering tank with a close range mini gun for small targets, it can also deploy into an artillery platform for long range bombardment.

• Future Tank X-1 - A high tech tank that has two side mounted weapons. One form of the attack shoots lasers and the other charged bombs.

Soviets

• Grinder - A modified road roller, retrofitted with toothed cylinders and powerful engines, the grinder can chew through any ground target.

• Reaper - A scrapped prototype of the Sickle. With its three grenade launchers and AA rocket battery, the Reaper can tackle any ground or airborne enemy. Like the Sickle, it can also "Flea Jump", but due to a design flaw, its legs break on impact rendering it into a stationary articulating turret.

• Desolator - A heavily armored infantry unit, the Desolator sprays highly corrosive toxic waste, equally deadly to infantry and armor.

• Mortar Cycle - A specially designed motorcycle, manned with mortar and Molotov cocktail lugging infantry.

Empire of the Rising Sun

• Giga Fortress - A completely autonomous star-shaped floating fortress armed with multiple long range cannons and missile batteries. It is so big that it is built as a nanocore from the MCV. It can transform into an airborne form, resembling a giant flying samurai head, that fires a devastating death ray from its "mouth" at ground targets.

• Steel Ronin - A bipedal "DevilCoat" assault suit, piloted by condemned veterans from the Imperial army. The Steel Ronin wields a massive wave-force glaive capable of slicing through infantry or armor alike.

• Archer Maiden - A light infantry unit using a high tech great bow. The "arrows" the maidens shoot are more akin to rocktes and can be used for concentrated fire against single targets. They can use special bolts into the air that explode into a hail or searing spikes on everything below.

Cast

EA announced the cast members of Command & Conquer™ Red Alert™ 3: Uprising on : Jamie Chung, (Dragonball Evolution), Ric Flair (16-time world heavyweight wrestling champion), Malcolm McDowell (Heroes, Clockwork Orange, Wing Commander), Jodi Lyn O’Keefe (Prison Break), Holly Valance (Neighbours) along with returning fan-favorites and Ivana Milicevic.

System Requirements

• Supported OS: Microsoft Windows® XP SP2, Windows Vista (32-bit)
• Processor: Any Intel Core Duo machine; XP: Intel Pentium 4 2.2 GHz or better, AMD Athlon XP 2100 or better; Vista: Intel Pentium 4 2.6 GHz or better, AMD Athlon XP 2800 or better
• Memory: 1 GB RAM
• Graphics: DirectX® 9.0c compatible video card, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or better, ATI Radeon X800 or better
• Hard Drive: At lease 10 GB of free space
• Sound: DirectX® 9.0c compatible sound card (Yamaha Xwave-512 is not supported)