Dead, alive, dead, alive…
Today we are looking at Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath for 360, another installment in the popular RTS series.
This one’s sure to spark off the age old debate about PC vs Console RTS, but make sure you take a look first, as Kane’s Wrath does bring some good things to the table, and the control system has to be one of the best console implementations around.
I was literally forced, by my audacious frustration, to return to this page and ask, Kane’s Wrath, why not support mice; cats like them and people do too; for all those arguments I have considered siding against this option, certainly there is a better counter for mouse support. So…
Why do they not do this Katharine; any new ideas? Or, are you happy either way? What is your take because for me, no mouse, no love; I even want you to take all their stars back until someone says sorry. I mean, it is like forgetting to add sound, developers!
(Frustration, really Joseph, are there not better things to concern you, hum…, the state of the world for instance?)
JCCIII
Well, this already exists for PC, so I guess the whole point of this release is to reimagine RTS for console, which includes the control system. Obviously it’s not going to be to everyone’s tastes, but if you want to use a mouse, play it on your PC! I think it’s a very positive step that console gamers who like RTS aren’t just being ignored, but that releases of this sort are coming out and are giving some thought to how to implement the joypad rather than just lazily mapping mouse and keyboard functions across. At least this way we can all choose which way we want to play the game. I might prefer to use a mouse and keyboard for RTS, but I love that I could choose to play on 360 with a not at all bad control system if Iwanted to, and for that reason, the stars remain!
nice review… although one thing I’d like to mention:
Why do people always bring up being hooked up to a TV as an advantage for the consoles? There’s literally nothing preventing you from hooking your PC up to a decent TV.
@Katherine:
Successfully mapping RTS controls to a joypad is quite an achievement, and I do see where you’re coming from with your answer to JCC, but I don’t know why adding mouse support for the console gamers that might have one would have been a bad thing. It definitely would have helped the playability and added yet another option to play the game 
Dear Katharine; hi,
Yes, maybe they were, possibly, being creative in putting lots of work out to map the pad, oh so optimistic; I like it! However, the real challenge may have been to painstakingly develop decent mouse drivers, and my thought is that it is not so easy to do for the PS3 or the 360, and maybe not even possible, currently.
Look at Unreal Tournament’s mouse implementation for the PS3; from what I hear, it was shoddy, and I think that team tried hard to develop them well; therefore, I would like to encourage other developers to do the same, to work with Microsoft and Sony with updates, and to not be lazy developers scamming on the market, which is what this implementation may be—a quick attempt to sell some more copies by testing a platform to see if it pays, because, “hey, we already developed the game, might as well.” Or, possibly, they tried the mouse thing too and could not get acceptable results. Wondering, I would like to know.
Getting my share of time on both systems, I cannot see either one’s controller making the grade for certain games. They make steering wheels for these consoles, flight sticks, and the like; therefore, these new console systems are ready for work and their owners for better choices.
Okay, tell me to play the game on my PC and have words of sympathy for the console people; maybe you know I have a PC from my other posts; you must. However, not to sound too serious, I am looking for coherence for, and with, the console person who is feeling ignored because he or she is not getting the same attention that is being given to the PC people, with mice!
I think it is grate that Electronic Arts may be wondering if their type of strategy game is important to console gaming; and I too love the options starting to come around. But I was wondering, if it is a breeze, lazily map the mouse, and do the work for the pad, or vice versa, giving people the choice.
I, for one, like the awkward feeling of a FPS on the PS3 controller; it is a real challenge; but, that is a novelty because I know there is a hand I could be using to get the job done and not a foot.
Obviously, I think you are great Katharine. Thank you for taking the time to respond.
Sincerely,
Joseph
Yep, on reflection you guys are right, in an ideal world you would have console RTS with both good joypad implementation and mouse and keyboard support. One day, my friends, one day, we will have our cake and eat it!
im really annoyed with myself, everyone bangs on about how good c&c games are. but i cant get into them at all. if there is two types of game i cant stand is war games and rts,
i don’t have the patients for them. and its annoying because i keep thinking that im missing out… hay i even tried advanced wars and FF tactics on the ds because i know that these are THE simplest form of an rts, and i still cant do them, 2 hours it took until i took advance wars back… battalion wars 2 is a more arcadey/ 3rd person full control kind of rts and i STILL got stressed in 20 mins.
is there a game you guys recommend for someone like me guys and girls ( dont say boogie either lol)
If you want to try to get into RTS then Civilization Revolution is quite a good introductory game (click the ‘more game videos’ link on the right to see my review). Or Spore (review up Monday) which has great RTS aspects but builds up to them more gently through the different phases. For turn based war games, I really enjoyed Warhammer 40k Squad Command (again there is a review in the archive) on DS and PSP, which is more of a skirmish game so you are only dealing with a handful of units, it’s also a bit simpler than Advance Wars or FF Tactics.
But hey, not everyone likes all genres, and if it’s not your thing then fair enough!
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I picked this one up on eBay, ($13.50 :), over the weekend, working about an Xbox project for my dad, and think, after your review…, the game must be fun!
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I remember playing red alert one the ps1, which (as i remember) just used a low res menu with the mouse bound to the d-pad lols. Nice to see a somewhat more innovative control idea