Command & Conquer: Generals

Command & Conquer Generals operates in a similar manner to that of other titles in the series - players construct bases and train units from these, acquiring resources on one of the game's maps to fund this, and then defeat their opponents by eliminating their bases and armies. Various units types are available for training, ranging from infantry to ground vehicles and aircraft, each focuses on specific roles (e.g. anti-vehicle), while base structures are divided between unit production, support facilities, and defensive counter-measures. Success in the game relies upon making the most out of mixing units, utilizing their advantages while countering their disadvantages with other units, in order to win against opponents - for example, rifle infantry are useful for countering anti-vehicle infantry, but need to rely on tanks to counter anti-infantry vehicles. Units that survive and manage to kill other units gain "veterancy" points, earning chevrons when they level up, effectively improve their abilities and making them more powerful; at the highest level, it also grants the ability to repair any damage when out of combat.

Training can be queued at production structures and units sent to rally points designated by the player, with the ability to research upgrades to improve certain units. In addition, players can also deploy superweapons which can decimate an opponent's forces, though must wait for a cooldown period to end before they can use it again. Factions in the game function similar in how they operate, but maintain differences in units and strategies:

Generals takes place in a near future (c. early 2020s) where the United States and China cooperate to fight against the Global Liberation Army (GLA), a terrorist organization based in Central Asia. In chronological order, the campaign is played through the Chinese, GLA and then the United States perspectives respectively.

==== China (PLA) ====

Preliminary development of the game began in late 2000, shortly after the release of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2. By July 2001, a working internal engine prototype had been developed. Development was announced to the public in early 2002, with a tentative release date of late 2002, though this was delayed in November 2002 to early 2003. According to Mark Skaggs, the project lead, the team experimented with three game engines, the Quake engine, the Unreal engine, and LithTech, before finally settling on the W3D engine used previously by Command & Conquer: Renegade as the basis for what would later become the SAGE engine.

By March 2001, the team was still unsure of what game they were going to create, although they had already decided it was going be named Generals. Different concepts for the game were thought of, including a fantasy game and a Lord of the Rings title. A Lord of the Rings video game running on the SAGE engine was later released in 2004.

After its release, Generals received mostly positive reviews. Based on 34 reviews, Metacritic gives it a score of 84/100, which includes a score of 9.3/10 from IGN. Generals has received the E3 2002 Game Critics Awards Best Strategy Game award. GameSpot named Generals the best computer game of February 2003. During the 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences awarded Generals with "Computer Strategy Game of the Year"; it also received nominations for "Computer Game of the Year" and "Game of the Year".

In the United Kingdom, it sold over 100,000 units during the first half of 2003. This made it the United Kingdom's second-best-selling computer game for the period, or seventh across all platforms. At the time, Kristan Reed of GamesIndustry.biz wrote that its performance proved "you can still have big hits on PC". Generals received a "Silver" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom. The game's Deluxe release received another "Silver" award from ELSPA.