This is where it all began. The Global Defense Initiative (GDI) is formed to fight the menace of the Brotherhood of Nod, led by Kane. Biblical references abound. One of the things that distinguished C&C's base building and resource model was Tiberium, a fantasy mineral crystal that infests pockets of ground and slowly spreads unless harvested by lone roving Harvesters.

Command & Conquer: Covert Ops (1996)
An expansion pack that added extra single player missions and multiplayer maps.

Considered by the C&C fans I've spoken to as a series highlight; it took everything that was good about Tiberium Dawn and expanded on it greatly. Albert Einstein is sent back in time to assassinate a youthful Adolf Hitler. He succeeds, but a side effect of this has the Soviets emerge as a mighty power, led by Josef Stalin, and create a conflict even bigger than the original World War II. Its a sort of World War II crossed with the Cold War, but without the nuclear nightmare. This was a much bigger and flashier package than the first game.

Red Alert: Counterstrike (1997)
The first expansion pack to Red Alert, adding more single player campaign and multiplayer maps.

Red Alert: Aftermath (1997)
The second expansion to Red Alert, adding even more missions, multiplayer maps, and some extra units.

The second round between the Global Defence Initiative and The Brotherhood of Nod sees a meteorite land on earth and unleash an Tiberium epidemic across the world: the toxic mineral starts to choke up all the habitable areas of the planet, pushing the human race to the brink of extinction. Remnants of the Brotherhood of Nod, all but destroyed in the first game, are brought together by the villainous Kane, to attack the GDI. But not before some of these splinter groups meddle with creating a race of super humans, using Tiberium. The experiments fail, and the mutated results skulk off to create the game's new, third force: The Forgotten. You can't actually play these guys, but you can ally with them in game.

This official sequeltook some time to arrive: nearly three years, which back in the 90's was unusual (and a sign of things to come!). Command & Conquer was well established now, and with the wait came a lot of expectations that had plenty of time to ferment. Westwood played it safe here, evolving the game a little but not really pushing any major boundaries.

Command & Conquer 2: Firestorm (2000)
Expansion to Tiberium Sun, introducing World Domination mode (basically, a metagame map to stage campaign battles, rather than a linear storyline) where Tiberium continues to throttle the earth, the last remaining habitable areas are being fought over, and more and more Tiberium induced mutations are starting to rear their ugly heads.

Basically, round two of the war between the Soviets and the Allies in the alternate Red Alert timeline. With Josef Stalin killed in the first red game, a General Romanov continues the fight in the sequel.

Yuri's Revenge (2001)
Red Alert 2's expansion begins with the Soviets defeated and Romanov imprisoned. But a minor character, Yuri, escapes his jail and fires up his handy mind controlling machine that turns the entire world's population into his slaves. The Allies use Einstein's time machine to try and thwart his plans by going into the past, while angry Soviets pursue our anti-hero for betraying them. Yuri's wild and woolly mad scientist technologies form the basis of a third force for players to control.

This is a first person shooter set in the Command & Conquer universe.

While not part of any previous storyline, this was the last in the series before Westwood ceased to exist. Of all the Command & Conquer games up to this point, Generals was probably the best and most strategically deep. It's a power struggle between three very topical sides: an expensive, high tech USA blowin' up shit (in a Shrub Jnr. fantasy world where the UN Security Council, spoilsport Europeans and world public opinion simply don't exist) the Chinese, despite IT upgrades and switch to a streamlined capitalist economy, still come across as a clunky, nuke-happy Communist power of old; and, of course, there's the convenient lumping together of the Palestinians, Al Qaeda and your old pal Saddam all in the one boat called the GLA - the Global Liberation Army. Generals is interesting now as a classic example of the tunnel visioned post 9-11 world view. All Muslins are Middle Eastern Terrorists controlled by a mad dictator. Similarly, China is portrayed as a rapidly expanding monolithic power of mindless drones That's Out To Get Us. It feels like a modern version of the Yellow Peril.

C&C Generals turned up barely a few months before the second Iraq war in 2003. For a game that would have been several years in the making, it seemed to have got eerily close to the second Iraqi war in a variety of ways. The topical nature of this game will almost certainly make it uncomfortable for some people though - and watching the game's US heavy forces massacre a GLA's Angry Mob was waay too close to the bone for this scrivener (writing this bit during the second Iraq War), especially when the very same thing for real was being played out in all its appalling bluntness on cable in the next room.

Smarty pant comments aside, Generals played well and for once there was a C&C game out there that didn't want me to throw the monitor out the window in frustration. In good RTS style, you can barrack for any three sides and show those pesky enemies of liberty / freedom / fraternity (pick one) a thing or two. Each side has a very unique and different feel to it and simply blowing each other off the map is actually good strategic fun. The 3D works really well - C&C's first fully rotatable 3D game - and I can recommend this as a solid netgame.

You can hide guys inside buildings Sudden Strike style, use the cover afforded to great effect; once you can shield infantry from harm, they suddenly become extremely devastating, taking out even super units with ease. The USA wields snow white wonder weapons including an Akira style space laser but needs a massive economy to go with it; the Chinese make money by hacking the Internet and have an assortment of heavy set weapons like super tanks that can carry buildings and nuclear artillery; the GLA has access to endless infantry, complemented with "special" units like Angry Mobs and Suicide Bombers. They have no aerial units of its own, but can bounce back from almost complete annihilation on very little. Not to mention an veritable ocean of biological and chemical weapons on tap and access to huge underground Scud silos that would be envy of NORAD.

Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour.
Sequel to C&C Generals. C&C by this time had become a purely EA game franchise.

Never mind that jokers like Saddam were completely secular, and mortal enemies of fundamentalist jihadists; and the angry liberation movement in Palestine has little to do with either, although there's no doubt every man and his dog in the region tries to cash in politically on their struggles. Angry mobs are as much angry citizens and civilians venting their anger and are usually in opposition to established powers. Let me try to explain that a second way by reversing the roles here in a little hypothetical: the GLA would be a bit like an Arabic developer making a game called Crusade & Colonialism: Jihad, and having a side called the USA (United Subversive Army), so they lump the NAACP together with the KKK and the Bush Administration, smugly tarring them all with the one brush.

EA bundled every single Command & Conquer and Red Alert title and expansion published to date into this one big, bumper package. Its a good a start as any for any budding C&C fan!

Despite the pioneering nature of the series at the beginning, the C&C franchise now seems to be a game pickled in formaldehyde. Kept preserved as it once was "to stay true to its roots" with only a few concessions to trying anything new to keep the interest going. Around it, its contemporaries where the likes of Dawn of War, World In Conflict, Company of Heroes, and Supreme Commander, all pushing real time strategy gaming forward into new and interesting directions. C&C by comparison now feels archaic and unformed, a sensation only heightened by all the layers of HD video and high end graphics pumped into the latest releases. Some old fans loved it, but most of the people I didn't seem to know or care it even existed - myself included.

Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath (2008)
Expansion for C&C3: Tiberium Wars. This was produced by Breakaway Games, under contract to EA. Amongst the usual extras, it offered a Global Conquest meta game (similar to Emperor: Battle for Dune and C&C Firestorm) for organising missions, and six Sub-Factions, two for each of the three sides, that were playable.

You get an AI Co-Commander sidekick, which is essentially an AI ally that can be given simple directives. Its not too shabby, but needs constant feeding lest it trails behind and you find yourself doing all the work. The vibrant maps and the inventiveness of the units are certainly draw cards, but you've seen all those map trigger events many times before. The conventions of Command & Conquer are pretty much untouched, and there's nothing at all adventurous to find here.

It all felt like critic proofing an attempt to dress old mutton as lamb. The actors are pretty good - but, well, unfortunately, that leaves RA3 in a bit of a bind. Its hard enough trying to buy a good movie DVD for $AU20-30, let alone coughing up $AU90 just for an hour long video of lazy, D grade kitsch and some plunging necklines - and only if I can somehow force myself through the campaign.

Peel away all the layers of nonsense, and you should be unsurprised to find a rather mundane Red Alert game inside, with an eye to expoting RTS tothe console market. Its graphics engine challenges most PC technical specs, even though its little more than an old dashioned isometric RTS view, albeit in 3D and with every shader, colour and lurid effect pushed all the way to 12. You'll be turning most of the effects off just to be able to see what you're doing before your retinas burn out.

Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising (2009)
An expansion pack to Red Alert 3, adding four new single player campaigns. EA is going down the episodic route on this one, releasing lots of short campaigns over a period of time, rather than re-releasing the same old big title endlessly year after year. If so, then that could almost make this very worthwhile for any committed C&C fan.