Command & Conquer: Generals

German censorship

Command & Conquer: Generals was first temporarily (28 February 2003) and later definitely (6 March 2003) put on the German index. This means that it is forbidden to sell the game to minors or to advertise it in any form. The BPjM, Germany's banning office, said that C&C: Generals is too close to real-world events (i.e. the threat of an Iraq war) and too cynical - for example sending out suicide attackers, carpet bombing and raiding UN convoys.

Later it has been re-released in a heavily censored version:

• Many units and places were renamed. For example, the USA faction was called WA (Western Alliance) and China was AP (Asian Pact).
• All civilians were removed, and all soldiers were replaced by cyborgs, like in previous German C&C releases. Therefore, some quotes of the GLA Worker like "I'm hungry" or "My hammer is too heavy" were removed completely.
• Terrorist infantry units were replaced by small drones.

This censored version of the game had a separate update branch, but was compatible with all other releases in multiplayer. Additionally, the font used in pre-release builds' menus was restored for unknown reasons.

Online servers

The game's online servers (which were hosted on GameSpy) were intended to be closed on 30 June 2014, like for other Electronic Arts titles in the wake of GameSpy's total closure. However, they remained online as late as 16 July 2014, when the login function stopped working.

References

Two traffic signs exist in the game which point to Dutch cities of Breda and Geertruidenberg. No mission is set in The Netherlands, and the prop is used randomly, e.g. in missions set in Kazakhstan.

Awards

• GameStar (Germany)
  • February 13, 2004 - "Best PC Strategy Game in 2003" (Readers' Vote)
• PC Games (Germany)
  • Issue 02/2004– Best Strategy Game in 2003 (Readers' Vote)

Additional information contributed by RobbertC, Plok and tarion.