There have only been a few games that I’ve been more excited about that Command & Conquer 4: Half-Life 2, Day of Defeat: Source, and Command & Conquer Red Alert 2. That’s it. C&C 4 should launch on March 16, 2010, but follow this quick guide ASAP and you’ll be able to see a bit of the game early through the beta program. But you better hurry. There is limit to the amount of keys they are giving out.

It seems like EA has teamed up with Gamespot for this program. Fine with me.

1. Head over to the Gamespot C&C4 page and either sign in or make a new account
2. There you’ll receive your key code and a link to C&C’s site
3. Follow the rabbit through the link and put in your key code.
4. It might make you sign up for a EA account. Do it. But you might have to go back to the Gamespot page and start again.
5. Agree to the terms and conditions to get the download link
6. Download the 1.4GB game and install.
7. Easy peasy

If you’ve been following the Command & Conquer 4 development, you probably know the final game in this series is going to be a bit different. Base development has taken a backseat to the action and the 5 minute video after the jump clearly shows that. Hopefully not all of the magic that made C&C special has been wiped out though. That would make me sad.

Forget Modern Warfare 2, the real action is coming out on March 16 when C&C 4 is released. Teasers and trailers have been slowly filtering out over the last few months but EA finally let released the launch date. I’m already making my construction paper chain to count down the days. Oh, and there’s good news if you’re going to pre-order the game.

Those that are willing to pay for the game before it’s released will be invited to the multiplayer beta, and given a bonus mission and the game’s official soundtrack. How cool is that? I mean, you’re going to buy the game anyway so you may as well score some extras. All the details are here.

The Command and Conquer saga is coming to a close with the forth installment – at least that’s what they say. My hopes are high for the game too. After all, I’ve been playing the series from the very beginning (I still have the original box thankyouverymuch) and so far all the screenshots and videos have been stellar. But this video that describes the development and capabilities of the GDI Offense Crawler unit does it for me. This game will be tits. Anyone see somewhere I can pre-order it yet?

Oh, and for good measure, check out Destructoid for a few more screenshots.

Command and Conquer has been around for ages, but the story is coming to an end with C&C4 according to everything the Internet is saying. You really should go back play last C&C 3 before the new one comes out, but this trailer really does a good job to set the C&C4 stage – or you could read Wikipedia. I can’t wait.

Have you been following the C&C4 news the last few days? Well, news that the title was under development “leaked” onto Twitter, which was followed up a few hours later by an official announcement from EA. But that stuff really isn’t news. Most could have guess that EA was working on another game in the never ending saga between the Global Defense Initiative and the Brotherhood of Nod. What is news is this first tantalizing screenshot. We can’t wait. [via Kotaku]