VGA premiere: EA shows off Command and Conquer Generals 2

Electronic Arts showed off a trailer from its brand new game Command & Conquer Generals 2. The company showed off the game’s new trailer at the VGA awards show tonight on Spike TV.

That means EA is serious about reviving a franchise that hasn’t had a new installment for some time. C&C is a classic real-time strategy game and the Generals franchise debuted in 2003. So EA has kept this series on the backburner for a long time. The clip from the video showed a tank battle scene that resembled something out of Battlefield 3 or Battlefield Bad Company 2.

The last C&C Generals 2 game was set in a modern combat world, in contrast to the other C&C titles that were sci-fi games. It was a nice idea, but wasn’t executed so well. It was, for instance, an incredibly short game for a real-time strategy title. Each of the three different sides had just seven missions. Hopefully this title is going to have a lot more content, as EA really has to revive the reputation of this part of the franchise.

The storyline for Generals 2 involves a world left without political leaders. EA promises “destruction that will bring a new level of fidelity to strategy games.” The game is being developed by a new BioWare Studio, BioWare Victory, and will debut on the PC exclusively in 2013.

BioWare chief Ray Muzyka said that BioWare will take its vision for emotionally-engaging game play and great attention to quality to the C&C franchise. Jon Van Caneghem, executive producer of the game, said that C&C fans “have been begging for a return to the Generals universe” for the past eight years. the game will have cooperative and multiplayer modes as well as a single-player campaign. In the story, world leaders are seconds away from signing a peace treaty when a devastating terrorist attack rips through the conference, killing everyone in attendance. The world’s military leaders are left in control.

EA’s BioWare also showed off a new scene (pictured below) from Mass Effect 3. That’s the good thing about being a giant company like EA. You can always dust off an old franchise and the rabid fans will be excited about it. The Mass Effect 3 title, coming early next year, showed an epic battle between Commander Shepard and the Reapers, the evil giant machines taking over the galaxy.

The big snake-like thing in the video is a giant Thresher Maw, which squares off against a giant Reaper. Mass Effect 3 will be released in March.

 

 

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.