Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun

Tiberian Sun sees players taking on opponents by building bases, gathering resources, creating armies, and then defeating their opposition by wiping out their units and either capturing or destroying their bases. Gameplay functions similar to the 1995 game, though both playable factions in the games received significant changes to balance out units but retaining notable differences with new structures and units for each - GDI rely on heavy strategic attacks, with new technologies including special defensive walls and units that can traverse bodies of water; Nod rely on unconventional, fanatical methods of attacks, with new technologies including deployable units for defensive purposes and units that can burrow under the ground and emerge behind enemy defences.

The game operates on a new isometric game engine featuring varying level terrain to give the impression of a true 3D environment, and dynamic lighting that simulates day/night cycles and special effects such as ion storms. Some buildings and armored units are rendered with voxels, although infantry is still rendered as sprites. Tiberium, the game's sole resource required to fund construction of structures and units, now consists of two types - the standard green tiberium, and a more valuable blue tiberium - while bridges in the game that are destroyed can be repaired by using a faction's engineer unit on a special hut building connected to the bridge. Crates can be found that convey bonuses such as extra credits, or healing a set number of damaged units.

Tiberian Sun involves two factions - the Global Defense Initiative (GDI), and the Brotherhood of Nod - and an alien substance called "Tiberium", and occurs after the events of Command & Conquer. Tiberium has become a serious problem for the world since its arrival in the 1990s, not only in causing a conflict between GDI and Nod over control of the valuable crystals it creates from leeching precious metals from the soil - leading to the First Tiberium War - but also allowing the substance to slowly spread and terraform the planet's ecology and landscape, including causing mutations in humans, the formation of new alien lifeforms, and the development of new weather patterns called Ion Storms. By the 21st century, GDI is focused on researching the means to combat Tiberium's spread, making use of an orbital space station called the Philadelphia to command its forces, while Nod has splintered following the presumed death of its leader Kane, with both factions working to develop new technology to provide each with equal strength in their armies, including armoured walkers, cyborgs, advanced defensive measures, and armoured infantry.

The campaigns of Tiberian Sun focus on a new global conflict erupting in 2030, when Kane returns and re-energises Nod, forcing GDI to combat their efforts, and resulting in the Second Tiberium War. GDI's campaign focuses on the efforts of a commander who must combat the sudden surge of attacks, working alongside a faction of mutants known as "The Forgotten", in order to thwart Kane's latest plans with Tiberium. Nod's campaign focuses on the efforts of an officer who escapes execution by a de facto leader, controlled by GDI, and works to reunite Nod in order to complete Kane's plans.

Tiberian Sun was announced after the release of the original Command & Conquer, with a trailer featured on its discs. After Virgin Interactive Entertainment was facing financial difficulties and was selling some of its assets, Electronic Arts acquired Westwood Studios in 1998 and published Tiberian Sun, and had no direct part in its development. Tiberian Sun's development was troubled before and after the acquisition, and was delayed numerous times - first for November 1998, then for spring 1999, then ultimately summer 1999. This resulted in a number of engine and gameplay features being omitted from the game, some of which were later included in the Firestorm expansion pack, as well as numerous bugs which have not been fixed even after the patching period.

Several images and references in the Tiberian Sun "rules" file indicate that more features were planned for the release. A former Westwood employee, Adam Isgreen, who was working for Petroglyph Games at the time, elaborated upon them in March and May 2007. Drop-pods were intended to be customizable for GDI before deployment. Lighting was intended to make a huge difference for day/night play, as units spotted by light posts/towers would be susceptible to enemy fire at greater ranges, and in turn would suffer a reduction in their own range ability.

Tiberian Sun was highly anticipated since the beginning of its development. 5 million copies within a month. In the German gaming magazine PC Player issue 01/2000, Tiberian Sun received a special award as "Most Hyped Game in 1999" (the year the game was released). The earlier Command & Conquer games had been commercial successes in Germany, with sales between 500,000 and 700,000 units in the region.

Within eight days of release, it received a "Platinum" award from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD), indicating sales of at least 200,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This performance set records in Germany, according to the VUD. The committee raised it to "Double-Platinum" status (400,000 sales) by the end of June 2000, which made it the third computer game ever to receive the designation. 5 million for its launch.