Today I started playing the Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 Beta, mainly because Warhammer was down in preparation for the next Beta testing phase (it’s getting closer! yay!). Speaking of Warhammer, I can’t wait until the Closed Beta is over and the NDA is lifted because I have so much stuff to share with you guys! Now back to Red Alert 3! The newest chapter of the Red Alert series is such a good game so far, as I have only played about 25 games, but it has been great so far.

So far the beta has been fairly limited.

We are restricted to playing the three races, Allies, Soviets, and Japan, on just two maps and there are no games versus computers where you can get acclimated with the different races. You just have to jump in there and hope for the best.

The two maps in this first beta are extremly tiny, one is a 1v1 map and the other is a 2v2 map.

The map size is probably my only real gripe with the beta so far, because the games are so fast that you never really need more than 5 or so units to win.

The navies in Red Alert 3 add some great dimension to this game, so far they are all pretty balanced except for the submarines. There really isn’t any way to counter them right now and when they are submerged they are pretty much invincible. The Russian Akula subs can devistate the seas with their special torpedoes.

Since the Russians seem to rule the seas, the Allies appear to rule the skies. Their basic A2G bomber is a great plane and it can pretty much dominate ground units. Their A2A fighter is the number one ace of the skies. A squadron of four of these bad boys can take out pretty much anything in the skies. The Gaurdian Bomber, their advanced A2G bomber is their secret weapon though. The thing cluster bombs the ground and then on its way home you can drop off the infantry that you loaded up inside it, a super suprise!

The allies are so air oriented even their advanced naval ship is an Aircraft Carrier! I would have to say that the allies are probably the most well rounded race, as always.

The Japenese are well, japenese. They have robot warriors and samuaris. They have units that are like transformers. Their Anti-infantry vehicle can transform into a fighter jet to handle airborne threats and to become more mobile, then it can transform again to ground mode to take out the infantry.

The Japenese seem to be the most versitle, kind of like a jack of all trades but master of none. Don’t get me wrong though, I have still yet to lose a game with them. The mix of battle techniques they bring to the battlefield allows for some unrpedictable gameplay.

The only major problem with the beta right now isn’t really a problem with the beta, it is a problem with Gamespy. Why EA still uses Gamespy for their lobby management purposes, I will never know. Gamespy is buggy, glitchy, and sometimes laggy. They really should have developed a new deployment system, like Blizzard is revamping Battle.net when Starcraft II and Diablo III come out.

I will post more on the beta when I have played it a little bit more. If you would like to join the beta and you bought CNC3 Kane’s Wrath or you are a File Planet Subscriber, then you are in luck as those are the only two ways to get into the beta for now, I think.

Here are some images of CNC: Red Alert 3.