Interview by: Troy Goodfellow

"It was a big deal for me," says Design Lead Samuel Bass. "I didn’t feel like we should just do another Command & Conquer game, since it's only been a few years since the last one. We've worked hard to make the story-telling less campy. We end the story on a very powerful note."

Command & Conquer 4: Tiberium Sun is the final chapter of the Kane story that Westwood started telling in 1995. In a campaign that Bass describes as longer than a Red Alert 3 campaign but shorter than a C&C 3 one, he promises an ending that will satisfy the hard core audience and entertain gamers merely familiar with the series.

"By the end, you'll have a sense who Kane is and what he really wants. It's important that what we were building toward made sense."

How seriously Bass takes this series is shown in the decision to not cast a bunch of recognizable B-list actors in roles where they can ham it up. "While I've enjoyed working with these famous actors, it takes you out of the story. ’Look it's Jenny McCarthy!' By getting good actors who you may not necessarily know, you can appreciate the story more."

It is unlikely, however, that you will see this story on a console near you. "RTS games are incredibly complicated – hardcore players use the entire keyboard. When a player can't micro, how do you play an RTS?" EALA learned a lot about accessibility and the importance of keeping mechanics up front. But C&C 4 has too much content and the 360, Bass notes, just doesn’t have enough RAM. "We wanted to make the best possible PC game, so we didn't think about how we could cut it for the console. But we did learn a lot from the console experience about how to present information."