Command and Conquer 4. The game that killed the franchise.

Picture things after C&C3. Two factions, GDI (America, basically) and Nod (evil religious dudes) were busy fighting a bunch. The Scrin (aliens) show up and start blowing things up. It is discovered that the aliens are making special structures of unknown purpose. GDI gets to work with blowing them up, but Nod helps the aliens save one of the structures. It is rendered impervious to harm when the game ends.

Then, there’s the C&C3 expansion. The fancy alien device under GDI’s control is stolen back by Nod, on the orders of their leader, Kane.

Quite a setup for C&C4, right? There was a first person shooter sequel (called Tiberium) on the pipeline, but it was cancelled. Wait some more time, and C&C4 is announced and released.

What did we get?

• The base building system used for every installment is abandoned in favor of a mobile base system. You can zoom around in your mobile base and make units from that. Static structures are gone. Awful.
• The story is incredibly short. Only a few hours.
• One character (James) is a huge pile of shit, and fucks shit up at the end regardless of whether you side with GDI or Nod.
• Nothing on the alien plotline.
• The video at the end looks like it was shot with an extra just outside EA’s offices.

Ridiculous. I’m still upset about it to this day.