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Community Summit Overview |
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This Page has been viewed 3488 times since March 2004!
See the entire Kane's Wrath preview here. Factions, Gameplay Walkthroughs, Commentary.
As I wrote quite a bit last year that I went to the summit, I'll keep the details shorter this time.
I left Wednesday morning and made it to the airport after a bus schedule misprint and delay with only 45 minutes before departure. You have to be on the flight 15 minutes before departure or they don't let you go. So I had to grab my ticket and get through security, and I made it with 2 minutes to spare. On the way there, I had an aisle seat. I flew in a 757-300 which cruised at 34,000 feet at 530mph. It would have been ok, except the person in front of me disregarded my 6'5" height (about four feet higher than Apoc) and leaned their chair back.
I got into LA the earliest of the people and arrived at the hotel at 2:00. I lost my friend's camera in the taxicab, so I really don't have any pictures that I took rather unfortunately. I got a bunch of pics from the nice people Zee Hypnotist (CNCNZ and Ghorkov (PlanetCNC). I checked into the Ritz-Carlton hotel and went swimming! I had 5 hours to burn, so I spent a bit of time in the pool and hot tub.  | | Apoc and Me |
After a while, I went back to my room and my roommate, Yifan from the chinese site MyCNC showed up. We watched what little tv there was and then headed down to the lobby. We met up with Zee Hypnotist from CNCNZ and Steve from CNCDen, and were later joined by DarkMorgulKing from CNCReplays and Ghorkov from PlanetCNC, Hogan from EpilepticGaming and Jeff from CNCVision among others. At 7:17, Apoc showed up (17 minutes late. He wasn't just short on time, height too). After various greetings and Apoc short jokes, we took taxis to Baja Cantina, a fancy Mexican restaurant.  | | Mark from Marketing, DMK from GR Sitting |
We had to wait a while for the rest of the folks to show up. There were a few people from EA there including Mark from Marketing. He's right under David Silverman, the guy you see on Battlecast Primetime (the not pretty one on the right). We interrogated him as much as we could, and talked to the other visitors and got to know eachother.  | | The Face of Evil. Jeff from Kane Myspace, Steve from CNCDen and Me |
There were people from all over the community, but not as many as last time T'chutch from CnCSaga was there, but there were also industry professionals including people from Destructiod, Tom's Hardware, Gamasutra, etc...
After a while, the dinner arrived, mine being about 10 minutes after everyone else's. Chicken Fajitas were excellent!  | | Me, Ghorkov, Yifan, Tchutch, Zee (L-R) acting like a C&C3 Squad |
Then I had some Flan for desert and it was all quite good. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel. Zee, Alistair (a freelance game researcher), Ghorkov and I hung out for a while showing off videos and such to eachother.
In the morning we took cabs to EALA and had some breakfast in their cafeteria. Made to order food, and it's pretty good! I had a breakfast burrito. After eating, we were told about the NDA which means that I can't tell you any of the stuff you were hoping to hear. Yet. Still not yet.
Then we went into a clothed off place with chairs and about 30 computers provided by Dell and with keyboards provided by Logitech. Two projector screens showed off the ----------------------
So next we ------------------ and after that ------------------ which was ---------------- and sometimes the ------------ were ----------------- quite quickly. Sorry guys, that's all I can say 
 | | C&C3 really does have shocking plot twists! |
|  | | Well, shocking to most people. |
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Then we had lunch, which was subway. I interviewed Jim Vessella and Sam Bass with Zee's video camera for about 10 minutes. Got some cool stuff to show off after the NDA is up. I was interviewed by Matthew Ott, the guy behind the camera for Battlecast Primetime. I don't know if I'll be on BCPT, but I certainly have a greater chance being on it since I was filmed.
After more ---------- and a tournament which I did not win because it was an "unfair tournament" as Apoc aptly described it, I was interviewed by Hogan from EpilepticGaming and talked about more ------------- and some of the other -------------- which really ---------------- and then described --------------.
The tournament was 1v1 the first round, which I had no problem with. The other rounds were 2v2 with the winners from the first round being teamed up with the losers. So, I was with a guy from germany, who was decent... We faced a winner from the first round and a good player, Jeff from CNCVision who had a bye. It was a very good game, which I can't tell you about now, but we won.
Next round was against a winner from the first round and the second best player there, DarkMorgulKing from CnCReplays. He had a bye for the first round as well, so we were playing against a good player and another good player. We did not win this one. I found out that the units which I used were in dire need of proper balancing. So I was defeated by a Scorpion/Bike rush while my expensive units failed to kill more than one of the Scorpions. That pretty much ended it.
That other team went on to win round 4 which was the last round. Then due to some other balancing issues, DarkMorgulKing was defeated by his partner in the top team against itself. Why I said he was the second best player is that I did manage to beat him in 1v1. I used those same units against him except this time, I figured out their proper use, and managed to run through his base and destroy it without any trouble at all. Oh well, I am prepared for another Kane's Wrath tournament now. | | Battlecast Primetime! |
After the interviews and such, I can tell you that I was playing single player building as many structures as I could and taking notes off of the units/structures/powers/upgrades. I had to run through them way too fast so I only could really play the game in the tournament. So it was too short I think but I did get quite a bit of info that nobody else has right now.
Then I got the opportunity of a lifetime! Well, I hope I'll have it again. Apoc pulled me out of an interview and we headed over to the main building and into the theater. Inside, EA has a monthly meeting of everybody in the company. I got to give a presentation to all of EALA! It was very awesome; I had to turn away from the screen for a bit before because they had some even over my head top secret info on there. So I talked for a bit and then showed off two videos, Operation Shortman: The Rescue of Apoc, and the world wide debut of Owned in 3. It was a great success and I thank Apoc for giving that opportunity to me. I think they loved the videos, and it was quite an honor to be there. | | The Hockey Game in a Suite |
Then we checked out Battlecast Primetime stage which was in the room where the computers were last summit. It was a nice set, and they aren't sitting on a bluescreen. They actually have the computer screens with the monitors displaying the logos on them. So we got to take pictures with Raj Joshi (the pretty one on the left) sitting at the BCPT desk. That was cool, and then we did a debriefing session in another room.
We basically told EA what they were doing wrong and what they were doing right and what they could do to improve some things. That's all I can say.
 | | Just a bit of free stuff from EA |
They handed out some cool stuff for us to keep. A copy of C&C Saga, a Kane bobblehead, and we got to keep the Logitech keyboard that we used during the tournament. Free stuff is always good!
Then we headed off to a Hockey game! Kings vs. the Buffalo Sabers. EA rented a suite for us which was catered and private and 103% cool. A lot of the EA Developers were there so we could bug them about the game. The score was 5-0 after the first period, so I called the final score to be 8-3. It actually turned out to be 8-2. Pretty close! What was also awesome was that a Kane's Wrath new trailer was debuted on the jumbotron screens at the game itself! They pointed the cameras at our suite and we went crazy! Imagine the whole stadium being lit up by huge Nod logos. Fun fun fun!
After the game was over we headed back and more importantly, we got Nod rings! Very nice to have the ring that Kane wears for yourself!
The next morning, I took a taxi with Anthony from Destructoid, DarkMorgulKing, and Zee to the airport. Zee and I had flights a few hours later, so we exchanged notes (read: me giving him all my info) and then I video interviewed him with his own video camera. It contained a bunch of Post-NDA material and even stuff that's so secret we'll have to edit it out of the video until after the game is out a few months.
 | | The 757-300 |
The plane left 45 minutes late, but I got home right on time thanks to some awesome tailwinds. It was another full 757-300 and we cruised at 35,000 feet this time. It was pretty cool to see the towns light up in the dark with white snowy ground beside them.
So what can I say that I am allowed to say? The game was awesome. Totally awesome. They're doing some things here that'll make it quite fun to play. With 9 varied sides to play, there aren't going to be cut and dried tactics that work or don't work. Some stuff will be good against other sides while other tactics would be completely ineffective. It will, to quote Zee, "make me completely bored playing C&C3 between now and March."
Special thanks
EALA - for providing everything there and back
Dell & Logitech - for providing the computers
Apoc - for giving me the awesome opportunity to show off my videos.
Zee Hypnotist - for the camera borrowment and plenty of great conversations
Ghorkov - for more pictures
Yifan - for being a good sport in the first round of the tournament
My film team - for working hard to get the video done by this time
Memorable Quotes:
"This (insert just about any word here) is horrible." - Ghorkov on his first visit to the USA.
"That's how it is in America" - Zee Hypnotist's reply to everything Ghorkov said.
"I knew you when you got up there, that something funny would happen. And you didn't disappoint!" - Greg Black after my presentation.
 | | The Group Photo |
|  | | The Kane Rings. |
|  | | Apoc + Me on my knees |
|  | | Much more comfortable temp here. |
|  | | LA Control Tower |
|  | | Back to the frozen north |
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Other Communtiy Summit Reports:
Dark Morgul King's: http://www.gamereplays.org/KanesWrath/task.php?nameid=community_summit
Tchutch's: http://www.cncsaga.com/dossiers/article-community-summit-cnc3-kaneswrath-2007.html
Jeff (CNCVision): http://cncvision.org/summit07.html
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| | | User Comments | | The following comments are owned by the user that posted them. Command & Conquer Files is not responsible for their content.
Total comments: 12 | Last comment: 12-22-2007 at 20:37
Superawsome! Im highly jealous, and happy for you at the same time. Thx for the write-up, cant wait for more! If only i had been there...
I can see what you mean with "bored" altough imho CnC3 is great. Now taking this into consideration, how ubercool has KW to be? Do you think single players will enjoy it as well? TS fans? And will it hold a candle to the great competitors? (SC2, UaW)
Well, you've got C&C3. Kane's Wrath is like C&C3 on steroids. More of everything, but the biggest thing is the increased diversity. You really won't see any games play the same way when it's balanced correctly. With 9 different sides, (the original 3 do get stuff that is different from their subfactions so they're still quite good to play as) there will be an insane amount of tactics and strategies that will all work.
To quote Dr. R.H. Mobius, "The possibilities of Kane's Wrath are limitless!"
Random comment: JohnWE was the only one who could get his Nod ring to work
Lol, it almost got stuck on my middle finger, but my pointer finger works fine.
"Look at my ring, its on the middle finger!" 
haha, I should get one
I don't think they're selling them :O
people learn when not to use flash when taking photos
Awesomeness JohnWE! 
How long are you John? And how short is APOC?
my face of evil LOL nicely put LOL
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