ExpertLayman
Member
For it's time, Generals was a graphical breakthough. In the space of a year it moved RTS games from 2D grids with low res textures to 3D free form with medium textures. Quite an important game in that respect. Fun to play for hours on end on top of that
Total Annihilation was the first game that brought a level of 3D to RTS in the late 90s. It had 3D units, different leveled terrains, though 2D behaved as 3D, physics on projectiles blah blah blah. I even think it had wind factor that affected your wind farms. It was well ahead of its time and to this date the control system has not been matched.
I would say C&C original was better the Generals simply because it brought RTS to the masses. Before that, I can only name Dune 2 from top of my head and few people played that and fewer still know that C&C was based on it.