I started preloading the game (roughly 3.8GB) with full download speed, though my poor friend using Starhub only managed to download at 2KB/s. Anyway, after waiting a while to decrypt the game content and updating the game I successfully launched the game. Main menu looks like this:

The main menu interface is quite different the other standard Source Engine games. But all-in-all the options are almost the same. One thing nice about it is that you can view your friends playing the game at the menu, so that you can join their games easily.

I tried hosting a game of three, including myself. However once the game starts one of my friends got disconnected and the game performance was terrible, with major shuttering. After many tries, my friend managed to host the game successfully and off we go.

Another annoying thing about joining games is that there is no option for you to choose which lobby you can join. Sometimes I get matchmade into a lobby where most players are actually on the other side of the world. Hopefully Valve could fix it before the full retail release.

The two missions in the demo were great, but short (that’s why it’s a demo). The game in overall was quite easy with the Normal difficulty. Perhaps I should try a new game with Expert difficulty in the future. Probably the most fun part is that whenever the instructor tells you not to do something (eg. disturb the Witch), someone will eventually end up doing it, which gets the group kinda in trouble with hordes of zombies coming to us.

I wished the full retail is out, two levels is too short.

Even though I heard that there was a terribly long queue in the morning, the booth was almost empty at about 1PM afternoon. There was a booth selling the pre-order cards for both editions ($119 and $219), and I ordered the cheaper one.

Installation was a breeze (there was no notification of the DRM in place). The trailer at the beginning was great, but not as impressive as Red Alert 2. I decided to play the tutorial in the beginning. As I played the beta a few months ago, I noticed some improvements in the game. One thing I never checked it out is the new superweapons for the game (no NUKES), which I will check it out later.

One thing I noticed as I proceeded the Soviet campaign was that there was an option to play as a co-op mission and as a single player mission. I’m gonna try out the campaign with my friend later.

More about the game later!

Then, I looked at the FAQ at the preorder page for Singapore and I saw this:

Will I be able purchase just the C&C Red Alert 3 Premier Edition?
As this is a limited run, there will be no standalone Premier Edition of C&C Red Alert 3 in Singapore. There will only be the standard edition of the game from 29 October onwards.

Oh great, screw you EA. You just lost another customer!

Now back to topic, I happened to see a Red Alert 3 promotion poster this afternoon and saw what EA Singapore has came up with the premium edition bundle of the game.

For those who don’t know, EA Singapore always releases a special bundle for every Command & Conquer game here since C&C3: Tiberian Wars. For that one, Kane Edition was bundled with a Razer Mantis Speed Mat and for Kane’s Wrath it was a Razer DeathAdder Mouse. Now both are priced at S$79.90 and S$89.90 respectively, that is reasonable (well to me).

So now here comes Red Alert 3 and they too have a bundle. This time it’s a Microsoft SideWinder X6 Gaming Keyboard. Wow, that’s great! The only problem? They decided to be even more generous and add a friggin’ bag, bring the total to S$219!!!

Now EA, maybe it’s only me, but forking out S$219 for a game bundle is simply ridiculous. So I guess I’ll pass. Yes they also have an officer’s edition which is S$119, but it comes with only the bag. Oh great…

That leaves me with only premier edition at S$79.90. Maybe I’ll just forget about Red Alert 3 and get Fallout 3 and play with it until Call of Duty: World at War and Left 4 Dead comes out.

Too bad EA!