The venerable Command & Conquer series returns later this year. The new game, which is now just titled Command & Conquer (it was originally going to be called C&C Generals 2), will be an online, free-to-play title, taking advantage of its connectivity to offer a live, constantly updated and much more social playing experience.

The game will use the Frostbite 3 engine that is powering several new EA titles, and reinstates many features missing from the previous entry in the series, including base building and resource collection. You can pick from several different generals to play as. The game also features three unique factions: The European Union, the Asia-Pacific Alliance and the Global Liberation Army.

We sat down and had a brief play session with an early alpha version of the game. The most noticeable thing is that the game is focused entirely on multiplayer. While we had to deal with pathfinding and AI bugs, it was clear that the core Command & Conquer experience is here, as well as new twists such as throwing waves of enemies at you rather than a single AI opponent, and providing different objectives such as destroying specific targets and escort missions.

Command & Conquer is expected to be released for PC later this year.

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