CNC Generals

The Generals series has always been very special to me, but not for some reasons which you may believe. I don't personally think it's the best game in the world, nor do I play it every day - in fact, I haven't played it for over 5 years! So why is this series so important to me? Well Generals was the first Real Time Strategy game that I ever played. Everyone's first video game has a special place in your heart, and being a 90's kid, Generals was mine. To be perfectly honest, I had no idea what the game was, or even how to play it (which still remains the same now!) All I remember about the game is suicide bombing trucks and rocket launcher trucks, which I believe are called SCUD Launchers. So all in all, good memories!

I remember that day well. I was staying over at my best friend, whom I will call Barry (even though that is not his real name), at the time's house, we had just returned from the short walk to the local corner shop with our favourite delicacy, the 30 pence bag of "Bobby's Barbecue Sauce Potato Snax", which for some reason appeared to be exclusively sold at that store, a double finger "Twix" bar and an assorted bag of one penny sweets. It was our daily banquet, and a mighty fine banquet it was...

But more on food another time.

Down to Business

We got down to the business of playing a bit of football in the garden, before retiring to play some pre-dinner computer games. Settling down a little, we began to scan through the wallet of numerous CD's, for anything that interested us. Taking it in turns, we first played our favourite game at the time: "Railway Tycoon II" for several hours. The problem with Railway Tycoon II is that it is very repetitive and soon gets boring, and we'd played it numerous times beforehand. It was starting to get old and we were looking for a suitable replacement.

I returned to look through the CD wallet, to reassure myself that I hadn't missed anything. Then I saw it. Glimmering in the beams of sunlight from the nearby window, tempting me to move in closer for a better look. I took the plunge and moved closer to this mysterious gleaming object. As I moved closer, I could see that that this was indeed a game also. It was Generals! Cautiously, I reached out and picked up the information carrying drive, which would soon provide hours upon hours of pure enjoyment for myself. I entered the drive into the computer. Nothing. I was greeted with a blank screen, consisting of the default wallpaper of a red flower that Barry had at the time.



"It must be broken" Barry said, in a slightly depressed tone. However I was determined not to give up on it! I persevered and on the second attempt at re-entering the CD into the computer, SUCCESS! The generals loading screen popped up onto the desktop, which initiated hours of enjoyment.

The Current Situation

Some of you will be asking if I've played Generals since that day. The answer is no. Generals holds a special spot in my heart, as my favourite Command and Conquer game of all time. I am afraid that if I go back to play the game again, I'll realise that it is not as good as I first imagined, ruining my thoughts about the game. It is and will always remain as a game that I played, enjoyed and won't go back to. So many people go back to play games they enjoyed as a child. They think it'll be amazing, but it ends up being a massive let down, as it's not as fantastic as you remember. I don't want to risk this happening.

So What About Generals 2?

As far as I'm concerned, Generals 2 is a totally different game, so is in a different ball park to the original Command and Conquer Generals games. So of course I'll play it, as long as it'll run on my computer. As any of you who have seen any of my Video Commentaries for Kane's Wrath will know, my computer is not the most powerful ever. So I'm hoping that this game won't be totally over-demanding on computers, which will allow me to enjoy what is probably the best series of games in possibly the best game genre ever.

So I haven't played Generals since that day as Barry's lost the Generals disc and has since un-installed the game from his vintage computer, but I couldn't be more excited for the release of Generals 2!

Let me know if you've enjoyed this blog, and as always, I'll see you on the battlefield, commander.