Command & Conquer fanatics no doubt still remember the first time Nod and GDI clashed in epic battles the world over. Almost a decade later, both factions are back and ready to take each other - as well as a mysterious new faction - on in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars.

CVG recently had the chance to talk to Tiberium Wars Executive Producer Mike Verdu. Read on for a few choice excerpts from the interview.

Gameplay. Asked about what Tiberium Wars has to offer over other RTS games by retaining the classic rock-paper-scissors gameplay rather than going for the 200+ units on the screen deal, Verdu pointed towards "raw fun-factor and high-level, competitive RTS gameplay."

According to Verdu, "What we're trying to do is create a game that has really good fundamentals and appeals to people that want to play RTS games competitively, either in tournaments or against each other to get onto the leaderboards or the ladders.

"At the same time we're trying to make the counters really well understood, with a predictable ruleset where you win because of how good you are and the skill you bring to the table, and we've re-engineered our pipeline and the engine to get rid of any hitches and lags and anything that gets in the way of fine control over units and speed of gameplay. So what you get is a very fluid experience where the units react when you tell them to."

Single-player. For the single-player campaign, the Tiberium Wars team came up with something that they call theaters of war. These are essentially geographical zones. Within the theatre of war players get the ability to make a call about which strategic objective you're going to go after. Of course, your choices have consequences that ripple into other missions.

Verdu says that as you play the single-player campaign, "you're really peeling back the different layers of the onion and getting a new perspective on what's going on - each campaign should give you a unique and interesting reveal on the events you've played regardless of which order that you play them in - although it's worth saying that the third faction campaign gets unlocked by the first two."

Multiplayer. "One thing that is unique is that you can broadcast your games out so that thousands of people can watch games in progress, which is just cool. And then there's a whole infrastructure to support clans, tournaments and different stats that you track for yourself."

The AI for Tiberium Wars is also one of the areas that the team wants to punch up. The game will have a variety of AI opponents that embody different play styles. Verdu says that there are shades of Zero Hour in the new AI, "but that's pretty primitive compared to what we're doing now which is a full code-based AI that makes use of multiple tactics depending on the strategy that you're picking to."

For the full interview, click on the "read" link below.