A peer nodded in agreement. "Hardware performance is also leaping forward. The price of Pentium processors has gradually dropped to a range that ordinary families can afford, and memory is transitioning from 4MB to 8MB or even 16MB. There is so much that PC games can do now."
Amidst the casual chatter, the ten-minute break came to an end.
On the giant screen in the center of the main stage, the E3 logo dissipated, replaced by a "W" icon with a black background, yellow lettering, and sharp edges.
Westwood Studios.
A low commotion immediately stirred in the audience, and the sound of keyboard typing intensified once again.
In the PC gaming world of 1996, the name Westwood was synonymous with extremely high technical standards and impeccable commercial success.
A burly man with short hair strode onto the stage.
He was the co-founder and game director of Westwood Studios, Brett Sperry.
No flashy lighting effects, no fancy opening remarks.
Brett stood in the center of the stage, microphone in hand.
"Nintendo just showed us the infinite possibilities of the 3D world," Brett's voice boomed through the speakers, filling the venue.
"It was stunning. But in front of PC screens, we have a group of players who prefer to be in complete control. They don't need to jump themselves; they only need to issue commands."
He turned to the side as the big screen began playing a montage.
Desert terrain, green Tiberium fields, GDI Mammoth Tanks locked in fierce combat with Nod Stealth Tanks.
An Ion Cannon struck from space, vaporizing an Obelisk of Light in an instant.
"Last year, 'Command & Conquer' was released," Brett said, looking at the screen. "At the time, there was a sentiment in the industry that complex resource gathering, base building, and multi-line command would alienate the vast majority of casual players. The argument was that PC games should move in a simpler direction."
He turned back to face the audience.
"But we have sold over a million copies. The expansion pack 'Secret Missions', released last month, also broke records in its first week of sales. It has been proven that there is no shortage of players who enjoy thinking, enjoy strategy, and love watching their armies crush the enemy like a war machine. The real-time strategy genre has firmly established its foothold."
In the audience, the editor-in-chief of *NetGeneration* was taking notes rapidly.
Westwood had every right to be proud; they had used *Dune II* to establish the basic framework of RTS, and *Command & Conquer* to propel it into the mass market.
"So, what comes after the Tiberium War?" Brett posed the question. "Players are asking us in letters and on forums: 'Where to next? To outer space? To the future?'"
He paused for two seconds.
"You'll see."
On the big screen, the image emerged from pure darkness, revealing a ring-shaped particle accelerator suspended in the void.
Countless blue arcs of electricity danced across the massive metal track, the hum of energy piercing the silence.
In the control room, a white-haired Chief Scientist stared at the pulsating formulas on the holographic screen.
This was not a war, but a chess match against the laws of time.
As an energy orb collapsed in the center of the accelerator, space rippled like the surface of water.
White light engulfed everything.
When vision returned, the scientist was shocked to see the timeline of the experimental record shaking violently—
The scene cut, and a montage flashed rapidly: massive gears turning under a dark red sky, unmanned mechanical armored troops marching in formation across a wasteland, and sleek, disc-shaped aircraft blotting out the setting sun.
Low, oppressive industrial electronic music played in the background.
The camera pushed toward a brilliantly lit modern coastal city.
Air raid sirens sounded without warning. People looked up to see a massive formation of black airships, adorned with shark motifs, piercing the clouds as they descended.
Countless paratroopers fell like black snowflakes, accompanied by the "chronospatial transmission"—armored vehicles from a fictional faction using blue lightning, crashing directly out of spatial halos in the streets.
The scene shifted to the sea.
This was a brand-new dimension not seen in the previous installment.
A cruiser cruised along the coast, its massive naval guns roaring, shells spanning half the screen to reduce the radar station on the shore to ruins.
Submarines crept closer underwater, firing torpedoes.
"All-out warfare across sea, land, and air," the reporter from GamePro circled heavily in his notebook.
At the end of the demo, the camera locked onto a female unit wielding dual pistols.
She wore no bulky body armor and moved with extreme agility.
Surrounded by a group of conscripts, she fired her pistols in rapid succession; the crisp sound of gunfire rang out as the infantry fell in droves.
Then, she ran up to a war factory and performed an action to plant explosives.
Three seconds later, the war factory collapsed in a massive explosion.
"Tanya," Brett's voice chimed in at the perfect moment. "An Allied special commando. She can't deal with tanks, but as long as she gets close to a building, it's devastating. Of course, there are ways to deal with her."
The image slowly zoomed in on the holographic screen in the laboratory.
On the screen was a modified time file, the original coordinates covered layer by layer by red pixel blocks, eventually coalescing into an abstract triangular emblem composed of gears and a sword.
A line of warning text flashed at the bottom of the screen: "Causality Violation—Worldline has entered an unknown divergence."
Finally, the game's logo struck the screen like steel—*Command & Conquer: Red Alert*.
"Release date, late October 1996," Brett announced. "We will be releasing both an MS-DOS version and a version with native support for Windows 95. Thanks to Win95's network protocols, the maximum number of players for LAN matches will be increased to eight."
He raised his hand to acknowledge the audience.
"Get ready for a new world war."
Thunderous applause immediately erupted from the audience.
As the press conference concluded, Brett walked off the stage, and the giant screen cut back to the E3 logo, with a countdown for the next presentation displayed below it.
But no one in the media section got up to leave; everyone was scrambling to organize their thoughts and exchange views with one another.
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