How EA killed Red Alert 3

      I reviewed the beta in the day it was released an I've seen how bad it was... but I thought that things will get fixed. They didn't.
Remember how the Apocalypse Tank looked initially ? I certainly do. Well, good thing that the community barked about it and it's been relatively fixed. A lot of things have of course been disregarded, including my list with suggestions for RA3 (demanded by community suggestions that is) that was send several times that was probably ignored. And if the initial ignores caused the C&C3 phuck-up that wasn't fixed even after 6 months, now things just repeat again instead of not happening.

      Now let's talk about single player a little. The single player is relatively ok; the co-op mode was a very good idea but with a not that good implementation.
It would of been superb to have LAN support for this mode. The 3 campaigns can be characterized as follows: the Soviet one is the most interesting and has a lot of nice situations you must face; the allied one is very boring if you use the full capabilities of the allied airforce as you can just punish anything on the map with a few bombers; the empire one is nice and will make full usage of your capabilities to use the transformer units at your disposal.

      The time line of the campaigns is also weird. Each side wins it's campaign but how actually is the winner is unknown. Things happen somehow almost in the same time, but not exactly at the same moment. I guess the campaigns can be interlinked 'trigather' if one tries really hard.

      Now we get to the true root of all evil: the multiplayer. The multiplayer is the true disaster.
The Allies are so God-like that if you didn't eradicate them in the first minute (and that you can't) of the game you can't possibly defeat a good player that's using them. The Allies have every single thing uber-elite compared to the Soviets or even the Empire. The peak of this are the super-support powers and the airforce. But let's take things one by one.

      Facts about Allied support powers:
Those are not support powers. You can't call them that since they're made to eradicate anything. The freeze beam practically renders any base defenses useless. I used an Allied shotgun trooper to clean up Tesla Coils from the enemy base. Imagine that: eradicating the enemy full base defense with the most basic Allied infantry unit. In addition to that, they (the Allies) have the spy planes. And they also have an airstrike, among other things. Now if that's bad... try to see what the chrono-bomb can do. This is practically a stolen idea from my RA2: Apocalypse mod. There, the Allies could build a Chrono A-Bomb, but it costs 10000 credits, takes bloody ages to build and could actually be stopped by at least one thing for all 3 sides. In RA3, you get the the Chrono Bomb for free, you don't need to rebuild it every time you use it and can't be stopped from detonating (except by the Allies !). You can actually force-attack and destroy it but it still blows and does big part of it's damage. The RA3 Chrono Time Bomb has a range bigger then most bases at level 3, so it will practically eradicate even your units stationed outseide the base. And no...you can't run... because the bomb can be transported in your base in the last second with the Chronosphere. Ok...now let's combine these. You practically get to be self-sufficient with these super support powers. You can scout, freeze stuff, airstrike it. So you just very efficiently cleaned-up any defenses or enemy units. If you want to complete the damage, just use the Chrono-Bomb and everything will be ashes & dust. So why do you need to build any units when playing Allies ? Well, you don't. Very interesting thing: the Ion Cannon superweapon does a very good amount of damage. The problem is that damage amount can be exceeded using support powers. How TF is this possible ? The third Allies tech tree is the one that allows you to de-phase units and/or bases. What that can do ? ... well ... it's the only thing that can totally protect your base from a primary super-weapon. It also can get massive armies stuck or shutdown an enemy base without any possibility of defense.

      Facts about Allied units:
Disregarding the fact that the Allied units are the most adaptable and can be used in any situations (unlike the Soviet ones), we'll talk about two very well known ones: the Mirage and the Prism Tank. In RA2, the Mirage Tank was very good against infantry and armored units, but it lacked the power against structures. In RA3, the Mirage Tank is ultra-good against all infantry, armored units and specially structures. If you do chronoshift a few of them in a base that base is bye-bye... even if it's well defended. Additionally, the Mirage Tank has reflexive shots, just like the RA2 Prism Tank. Ok ... WTF ? This is called God-like unit. In RA2, the Prism Tank was very good against infantry and structures, but not good against armored units. In RA3, the Prism Tank is ultra-good against all infantry, structures and specially armored units. I mean... it's one shot one kill against armor. WTF ? This is another uber-like unit. Additionally, the Prism Tank can auto-aquire moving targets and can retreat and shoot them by itself (with no micromanagement required from the player).

      So to conclude something about units:
Soviet units are one unit one purpose and cost a lot. You just can't use them at anything else except the single thing they were designed against and they usually even su*k at that. Empire units are one unit dual purpose and cost a lot. They can transform and cover at least a dual role. Allies units are one unit all purpose and cost less. They can cover anything that is required and they're very efficient against all that things (not just one).

      Facts about the Allied Uber Air Force:
This is the most annoying thing. I only need 4 bombers (or 6, maximum 8 against elite players) and very few cryoflyers to win any 1on1 against Soviets. I even won 1on3...but that's besides the point right now. There's no way the Soviets can stop an Allies air attack in RA3 because of several reasons.
1. They don't have a late tier AA unit. This suppose to be the Apocalypse Tank...but WTF...it was the only worthy Soviet unit so it had to be phucked-up. And it was.
2. In early-game, you can't efficiently use the Bullfrog because it's too expensive for an early AA unit. $900 for a unit that it's AA role is actually secondary and it lacks any armor ? WTF ?
Of course some say you could use Flak Troopers, but those are practically mass sitting ducks. Using the precision strike thing you can mass-eliminate. There are just way too much things that can eradicate them. 3. In late-game, you're totally phucked. You can't counter the Allied AF with anything...because you just don't have anything to do it with. The late tier bombers practically last almost 10 seconds against a Soviet Bullfrog AA. Having more of them makes you the default winner. To intercept a Vindi early bomber before it fires, you need at least two properly positioned AAs or flak implacements or 3 approximatively good positioned ones. The costs exceed by enough the $ I spend on the vindis. Imagine what you need for a late tier bomber. MiGs are no solution for a Soviet player as they have limited ammo and very thin armor. [Update] After some patching they even made them worse, by lowering their speed. Now the MiGs fail to intercept bombers even more.
As Soviet player you'll have to spend all your $ on building only AA units in all possible combinations only to be able to survive a cheap Allied air attack. This is totally unacceptable. As Allied, as I said, I only need 4 bombers and 4 cryos (and in very rare cases some fighters or other multi-role AA units) to win against any Soviet player. The rest of things are give to me by default (freeze, airstrike, map reveal, chrono-bomb). This is an outrage. When playing MP as Allied I play with a deal on not to build air units... because if I do, I'm the default winner hands down. Even so, it's very easy to win since the provided support powers are actually something more like super-weapons.

      Ok...it's time to talk about defenses.

      The Allies have the good old Prism Tower as late tier defense. Charging works just fine (like in RA2) and the tower is cheaper ($1200). Plus, it's improved with reflexive shots. The early defense is multi-functional and efficient one, that work very good against infantry and good against tanks and air. It can be upgraded to something very good against air/armor or infantry.
The Empire, has a basic turret that's almost the equivalent of the allied one, but it has two disadvantages compared to it: it can't be made better and it's use is exclusive - it either shoots at ground or air. The late tier one is fine; it does enough damage. The only advantage of the Empire turrets is that those can be deployed anywhere. Now the Soviets, have a Tesla Coil that has the same price as it had before ($1500), being more expensive than the Allied equivalent ($1200). The Tesla Coil no longer increases the range when overpowered, so overpowering it is near useless. The early defenses are worst of all sides. While the Allies have the best thing and the Empire can adapt the defense, the Soviets must construct two separate ones, that are under-efficient anyway. The AA defense is very ineffective compared to the old Flak Cannon, while the Sentry Gun has a very low HP compared to other early defenses.

      So lets' recap defenses.
Allied early defense turret: 7/10, upgradable to 10/10, Allied AA turret: 7/10 upgradable to 10/10, Allied late defense: 10/10. Very cost-efficient, having 2-n-1.
Empire early defense turret: 7/10. Empire AA turret: 8/10. Empire late defense: 9/10. Cost-efficient but micro needed for early turrets.
Soviet early defense turret: 7/10. Soviet AA turret: 5/10. Soviet late defense: 7/10. Cost-inefficient and nothing to upgrade.

      As for Soviet support powers...well...those are intentionally made bad.
The Soviet Mag-sat-beam can be used vs. ground units. But wait ... the Allies use airforce. Try intercepting waypathed bombers using a mag-beam. You have like 1% chance. And to move this, you actually have to target the center and point somewhere alse. A lot of players have asked on the forums how exactly this works. It takes a lot of practice, but eventually you'll get used to it. Nut wait... what's the logic of not selecting that cursor by default wen you fire it ? It's like activating the Cronosphere should require it's re-selection and then destination targeting. The only thing that actually does some damage is the Orbital Drop. The only combo that was actually good vs. units was the Mag-Singularity + Mag-Beam combo, but this is being 'terminated' in the patch, since only Allies are allowed to have super-support powers.

      So let's talk what's what overall.
The Soviets and Empire have good naval fleets. The Soviets also have good armor. But they totally su*k at support powers, attack power, defenses and poor construction system and the AA capabilities are practically null. They have the advantage of building two structures in the same time. The Empire has the expansion system advantage. You can deploy anywhere. Everything else is somewhere between above average and very good, so they're actually fine overall. Now the Allies have the best air force, the best defenses, the best attack, the best infantry the best support powers and the best superweapons. That, added to very good AA, good armor and very good costs for all units and defenses.

      Now let's see who at what prevails:

Best Build System: Empire (Deploy anywhere. This is a good practical advantage.)
Best Superweapons: Allies (Highest range for Ion Cannon; Chronosphere the best secondary SW.)
Best Support Powers: Allies (Highest damage, highest efficiency, highest usefullnes, combos possible.)
Best Armor: Empire (King Oni damages Apocalypse Tank 50% in one ram.)
Best Infantry: Allies (Shotgunner too good against structures + Rocket burst from Rocket Trooper)
Best Fleet: Empire (Good fleet, that compared to the Soviet one actually has AA support.)
Best Air Force: Allies (No comment...just God-like.)
Best AA: Allies (Cost-efficient Multi-upgradeable turret.)
Best Attack Power: Allies (Cam efficiently attack anything with almost any type of unit.)
Best Defense: Allies (Low-Cost, multi-functional uber-efficient defenses.)

Allies: +7, Empire +3, Soviets 0

Worst Build System: Arguable. Soviet one is dual, but tactically counterable, the enemy knows what & where before it happens. Allied one is slow but in the same time can get to final tier immediately.
Worst Superweapons: Noone
Worst Support Powers: Soviets (Crystal clear...only one good-for-something support power.)
Worst Armor: Soviets (One purpose units that won't get out of your own base alive.)
Worst Infantry: Soviets (Tesla Troopers totally useless [Update: fixed in the patch], Conscripts do next to 0 damage [Update: still useless])
Worst Fleet: Allies (Finally something that Allies don't have God-Like.)
Worst Air Force: Soviets (Just su*ks...because everyone else has planty of AA)
Worst AA: Soviets (There's no Soviet AA...just emulators.)
Worst Attack Power: Soviets (You need a billion units to actually get to an enemy base alive.)
Worst Defense: Soviets (High cost, low efficiency, near useless due to freeze and shoot tactic.)

Allies -1, Empire 0, Soviets -7

Overall balance: Allies +6, Empire +3, Soviets -7

      Now questions for EA : since Einstein was removed, the Allies suppose to have inferior tech.
Now how come they have a lot better tech (Prism tanks can destroy tanks in one shot, Mirages can eradicate structures like they're paper and have reflexive shots) ? How ? How the phx killing Einstein resulted in a by far better tech ? You answer that, EA. Or maybe I'll anwser that. Maybe the consiprators are right (as usual) and Einstein was one of the greatest deceptions of all times. And one more critical thing: how stupid must you be to make a super-air faction and make the enemy faction with no advanced anti-air ? How the phuck is that logical ?