Command and Conquer of Honor

Command and Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath
EA's Los Angeles division brough back the Command and Conquer RTS series to its roots for C&C 3 and now the developer is working on the inevitable expansion pack for the best selling game. Kane's Wrath's centers on the big bad guy of the C&C universe with a campaign that spans 20 years of the game's fictional timeline, from just after C&C 2: Tiberian Sun to C&C 3 to after the events of the third game. Joe Kucan will be back as Kane and the developers told us an all new celeb filled live action cast of actors is being prepped to film new FMV sequences for Kane's Wrath (no word yet on who will be in the cast besides Kucan).

While Kane's Wrath won't add an all new faction for C&C 3's trio of armies (GDI, NOD and the alien Scrin), it will add two new sub-factions for each of the three main ones that will help out which should expand on the types of armies that you can raise. All three main factions will also get some new units, from some new ground-to-air GDI tanks to NOD cyborg units to the weird alien looks of the new Scrin forces. We got to see a live demo of the PC version of the game that showed off some of its new units, including a GDI sonic tank that was pretty devastating when going up against fixed structure.

While the Xbox 360 version of Kane's Wrath was not shown we got to see a mockup of the console's new radial interface which should allow a player to use the controller to build units and structures more quickly than in earlier RTS games. Kane's Wrath will be a stand alone game for the Xbox 360 version when it is release in early 2008; the PC version will require the original C&C3 game to be installed.


Medal of Honor Heroes 2
While Medal of Honor Airborne is now out in stores, EA's next WWII shooter is aiming to be a bit less serious, thanks in part to the fact that it not only is being made for Nintendo's Wii console but it also supports the upcoming Wii Zapper enclosure for the Wiimote. We played through the game's arcade mode with the Wii Zapper and found it to be a terrific experience. Basically the arcade mode is a rail shooter similar to Time Crisis where you are guided to shoot a massive selection of Nazis. You can duck for cover but otherwise you are moved by the game to each of its objectives. The Wii Zapper not only helps with pointing and shooting it also helps in reloading your weapon (you move your Zapper up and down quickly to get a new clip). While the game will have a standard single player campaign as well the arcade mode should be popular with casual gamers.

While we didn't get to see multiplayer on the Wii version we were told that the game will have online support for (get ready) 32 players in Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag modes. That's a lot of online players for a console that has very few online multiplayer games currently on the market. We will have to see if the Medal of Honors Heroes 2 will be the Wii shooter we have been awaiting when it comes out later this fall (its also due out for the PSP).