COMMAND & CONQUER REMASTERED arrives on PC in June

Electronic Arts have confirmed that their remastered collection of the venerable Command & Conquer video games will arrive on 5 June this year.

The collection consists of:

• Command and Conquer: Tiberian Dawn (1995)
• Command and Conquer: Tiberian Dawn - The Covert Operations (1996)
• Command and Conquer: Red Alert (1996)
• Command and Conquer: Red Alert - Counterstrike (1997)
• Command and Conquer: Red Alert - The Aftermath (1997)

The collection also features the bonus content from the PlayStation edition, Command and Conquer: Red Alert - Retaliation, including exclusive FMV sequences which have never before been integrated into the PC version of the game.

The collection also marks the formal renaming of Command and Conquer as Tiberian Dawn (its long-standing, unofficial subtitle) and features a total overhaul of the soundtrack by the original composer, along with exclusive new music and restored tracks cut from the original release and bonus tracks brought in from the first-person shooter spin-off, Command and Conquer: Renegade.

The remaster is a re-vamping of the original games in higher resolution but otherwise untouched, so they are still 2D, sprite-based games. It will be possible to switch between the original, low-res sprites and the revamped graphics at will (in single-player mode). The iconic, cheesy FMV sequences have also been upscaled using the original recordings where possible or with AI algorithms where not.

If successful, the initial remaster collection could be followed by additional ones for the later games in the series: Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun (1999), Red Alert 2 (2001), Command and Conquer: Generals (2002), Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (2007), Red Alert 3 (2008) and Command and Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight (2010), and their assorted expansions.

Those hoping for a remastered collection of the same studio's Dune series of strategy games may be disappointed, as the Dune licence now lies with another studio, Funcom, making a re-release unlikely in the near future.

First teaser released for COMMAND & CONQUER REMASTERED

Electronic Arts and Petroglyph have released the first trailer for Command & Conquer Remastered, their remake of the first game in the Command & Conquer series.

The teaser confirms that this is going to be a deal like StarCraft Remastered, remaking the original game with somewhat higher-fidelity graphics and higher-quality audio but not touching the controls or user interface.

The current plans are to remake and release Command & Conquer and Command & Conquer: Red Alert, with their respective expansions included in the remastered releases. If those are successful, presumably the team will consider moving onto Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (1999) and the 3D era of the franchise, which began with Command & Conquer: Generals (2002).

No release date has been set for the project, but it should be noted that September 2020 would mark the franchise's 25th anniversary and would be a logical time to release the game.