What does this collection contain?

[DragonLover]

I saw that all the old games got put into a big collection, so I'm curious what this Remastered collection contains? And if it would be worth buying that other collection instead if this doesn't have the good ones?

I'm not very familiar with the Command & Conquer series, so please excuse any mistakes I make.

I know this contains the original Command & Conquer along with Red Alert, but I was more curious about the addons and such?

[Nyerguds]

One look through the trailer can tell you that...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3401095092
The pack contains:

• Command & Conquer (also known as "Tiberian Dawn")
  
• Command & Conquer's expansion pack "The Covert Operations"
  
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert
  
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert's expansion pack "Counterstrike"
  
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert's expansion pack "The Aftermath"

The expansion packs in both games are more or less just loose missions; they don't really add to the storyline. Though the Playstation version of Red Alert's expansions, a stand-alone pack called "Retaliation", bundled the missions as a sort-of loose storyline with added briefing videos, and they decided to port those and offer the missions in that format in the Remaster too. Still, essentially they're just loose missions, which can be played in any order. They will play in succession by default, but you don't need to play the earlier ones to unlock the later ones; they're all unlocked by default.

Additionally, both Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert have a hidden mini-campaign; in Tiberian Dawn there's a five-mission campaign involving dinosaurs (an homage to Jurassic Park), and in Red Alert, there's a four-mission campaign involving giant mutated ants (an homage to cheesy 1950s nuclear scare horror movies, specifically "Them!").

These minicampaigns are hidden though. But EA released a video containing a sneaky secret URL that gives some hints on how to access them:
https://x.ea.com/63046
(For Tiberian Dawn that's really all the hints you need, but for Red Alert, there's an extra step involved, as indicated by this Morse code sheet that was included in the original Counterstrike expansion box back in 1997.[nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com])

In Tiberian Dawn, they also included originally console-exclusive missions. These are in the game as "Special Ops '97" and "Special Ops '99", which (while avoiding explicit mention of other companies' products) refer to missions taken from respectively the Playstation and the Nintendo 64 port of C&C1.

For an even more complete overview, check out the official Features page:
https://www.ea.com/games/command-and-conquer/command-and-conquer-remastered/features

Originally posted by DragonLover:

I saw that all the old games got put into a big collection, so I'm curious what this Remastered collection contains? And if it would be worth buying that other collection instead if this doesn't have the good ones?

If you want to check that out, be aware that the oldest three games in that pack are in fact freeware, so the originals of what's in the remaster don't require you to buy anything.
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Other-Command-Conquer-Games/Is-red-alert-1-and-tiberian-sun-now-freeware/td-p/5420723

Though if you're interested in checking out the entire series, or even just the convenience of having it all on Steam, it's definitely a good way to get them.

[Punished]

This collection is a proper remaster (improved engine, soundtrack, compatibility, balance, bugfixes, some workshop support, etc) of the first two games in the CnC series (the original and red alert). The Ultimate Collection which came out on Steam a few days ago is just a rerelease of the entire series as is, meaning you'll have to do a lot of the compatibility tomfoolery yourself (mileage varies depending on the game).

[Nyerguds]

Originally posted by /aceg/ Punished:

The Ultimate Collection which came out on Steam a few days ago is just a rerelease of the entire series as is, meaning you'll have to do a lot of the compatibility tomfoolery yourself (mileage varies depending on the game).

Not exactly. They seem to be putting some serious effort into the patching/compatibility side this time, and so far, it's looking a lot more polished than the old version of the collection.

[Punished]

Originally posted by Nyerguds:

Originally posted by /aceg/ Punished:

The Ultimate Collection which came out on Steam a few days ago is just a rerelease of the entire series as is, meaning you'll have to do a lot of the compatibility tomfoolery yourself (mileage varies depending on the game).

Not exactly. They seem to be putting some serious effort into the patching/compatibility side this time, and so far, it's looking a lot more polished than the old version of the collection.

Really? I haven't noticed, do you have a link to a devlog or something? I'm interested

[DragonLover]

Originally posted by Nyerguds:

One look through the trailer can tell you that...

I bought this collection a while ago, I sort of forgot I had it to be honest, but I've been wanting to play it again. Sorry for the stupid question.

Originally posted by Nyerguds:

Originally posted by /aceg/ Punished:

The Ultimate Collection which came out on Steam a few days ago is just a rerelease of the entire series as is, meaning you'll have to do a lot of the compatibility tomfoolery yourself (mileage varies depending on the game).

Not exactly. They seem to be putting some serious effort into the patching/compatibility side this time, and so far, it's looking a lot more polished than the old version of the collection.

That's rather interesting too, I might have to check out that collection if I like this one, which I am so far, but I don't have a lot of time with it yet.

[Nyerguds]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/36135791/view/4119176366786018866

The feedback and collaboration has once again been invaluable. With improvements like better compatibility for modern operating systems and additional supported languages for both the Steam and EA App versions, we believe this is the best release of the Ultimate Collection to date.

This part isn't just fluff. The whole collection was basically remade, and they are still actively patching out bugs. And the games are indeed in there in absolutely all languages; in fact, the C&C1 in that pack contains Japanese, which wasn't even included in the Remaster.

CCHyper, a community member from the C&C fan patching community who also helped on the C&C Remastered Collection, has been contracted to help work on this collection. (He made those awesome HD versions of the installer sequences, and helped with the AI upscaling process for the videos.)

He is currently collecting bug reports and looking into them, and is working together with the C&C fan patching community so he can suggest the most appropriate solutions to the devs who work on the pack. This is mostly happening on the main Command & Conquer Discord; that's the one organised and moderated by the people of the r/commandandconquer subreddit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/commandandconquer/
You can find the link to the Discord in the "Community bookmarks" in the sidebar there.