Command & Conquer: Generals

Command & Conquer: Generals
Developer: Electronic Arts Publisher: Electronic Arts Platform: Windows Released in JP: 2003 Released in US: February 10, 2003 Released in EU: February 14, 2003 This game has unused areas. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused abilities. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has anti-piracy features. This game has a development article This game has a notes page

Command & Conquer: Generals is a real-time strategy game released in 2003 by EA. Generals was the first in the Command & Conquer series that not only strayed away from the original GDI vs. NOD war, but also the Soviet vs. Allies storyline of the Red Alert universe. The games's three factions are the USA, China, and the Global Liberation Army (GLA).

The game is banned in China, presumably due to various parts of the Chinese campaign that didn't sit right with the government. In Europe, due to similarities between the game's storyline and the unraveling war in Iraq, a localized version of the game was released in Germany.

Sub-Pages

Development Info

Notes

Debug Tools Various advanced commands for the debugger.

Unused Content in the Original USA, China, GLA. And some unused assets.

Unused Content in the Expansion Much unused stuff is hiding in there.

Unused Stuff in the Map Editor

Mesh Mold

While Mesh Mold still exists as an option in the Worldbuilder, it is by default completely unfunctional. However, by copying the "Editor" folder from the prototype game into the final game's Data folder, you can get it to work as intended. Mesh Mold allows you to create pre-defined forms, like slopes etc. in the map by just placing them with the mouse.

Unused Scripts

The game contains a wealth of conditions and actions for its script engine. There are also some conditions and actions found in a folder called, appropriately, "UNUSED". While some of them work, others don't and are in most cases relics from older versions of the game.

• "Play a movie in the radar." and "Play a movie in fullscreen mode." are very old relics from a time where the game was actually going to have introduction FMV sequences and transmission videos throughout the mission, just like the classic Command & Conquer games. The prototype game did have these, and while the FMVs made a return appearance in the expansion pack, the transmission videos did not return.
• "Fire waypoint-weapon following waypoint path." is most likely related to the Tomahawk Remote Control upgrade, which allowed you to make the missile fly along a flight path specified by the player.
• "Set Cave connectivity index." was related to the Tech Caves which were removed from the final game. It allowed you, instead of all caves connecting to each other, to have specific pairs of caves units can go through. This script, alongside the caves themselves are fully functional in the Sneak Peak.
• "Player has attempted the mission a number of times." - Apparently the game was going to keep track of how often you won or lost a mission (maybe to make it easier after you've failed an amount of times), but it no longer does that in the final version.
• "Player has discovered another player." Although unused in Generals, a similar mechanics can be encountered in later games, for example, Red Alert 3, where in Skirmish game mode short movie plays after encountering enemy forces the first time.

On top of that, there was supposed to be a help system for the scripts. It still exists in the code, however all help messages are set to be "No help."

Anti-Piracy

This game has a built-in check to see if the game executable has been altered. If it has, the game will start up correctly at first and you will be able to start a battle, but after about one minute all your units detonate and you will automatically lose the game.

Regional Differences

To do: Document the German version's censors more.

This game was originally released in Germany uncensored under the original title Command & Conquer: Generals, but immediately pulled from stores due to the similarity with the Iraq War, only weeks before a law change disallowed banning games already rated by the USK (the German ESRB). Afterwards, EA decided to release a censored version under the title Command & Conquer: Generäle. As of note, there is no uncensored version of the expansion pack Zero Hour (released in Germany as Die Stunde Null), and installing the expansion pack will censor an uncensored version of the original game.

• The intro was completely removed due to having a few not-so-subtle references to real-life politics/politicians.
• The three playable sides had their names changed to no longer reference real-life countries.
• The campaign was renamed to "mission". The world map on the loading screen was removed and any references to real places or countries are altered. Interestingly, the spoken briefings were not altered.
• As expected, the human soldiers are altered to be cyborgs. This includes changing the portraits of all units and having robotic voices.
• Anthrax was changed to acid and the text and voiceovers were changed to compensate.
• The terrorist was removed from the game and instead replaced with a driving bomb. Other than the visuals, however, the functionality is exactly the same.
• Human civilians are removed from missions.
• On the first Chinese mission, the Tiananmen gate had its Chinese writing (which is accurate to the actual Tiananmen gate in real life) removed.
• The second GLA mission was removed completely. It involves hijacking a UN convoy and stealing their supplies, as well as killing any civilians (or destroying their houses) who try to take the UN supplies for their own benefit.
• Completing the last mission for any of the campaigns does not play a video.

(Source: Schnittberichte)

• The expansion pack's intro is present, but the portraits of the generals which appear at various points in the intro were covered up by lazily edited in copies of the portraits from Generals Challenge.
• The portraits of the generals were censored as usual, other than that though they kept their human names, with one exception: Dr. Thrax was renamed to Dr. Trax to remove the pun on anthrax. Strangely, the Skirmish Mode portraits were replaced with the win/lose portraits from Generals Challenge.
• The credits of Zero Hour showed a US Ranger in the background, this was removed, leaving German players with nothing but blackness.

(Source: Schnittberichte)