Eurogamer meets Gemma and Tim
Stars of Red Alert 3 speak out, with video.
Imagine being so rich you could pay Gemma Atkinson to wear outfits of your choosing and stand in Trafalgar Square on a rainy October night, shouting things you'd told her to shout. Well, that's what life is like for lucky old Electronic Arts. They hired the former Hollyoaks star to appear in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, and to promote the game at their recent Be the One event.
Naturally, Eurogamer went along to have a chat with Gemma about her role in Red Alert 3, her personal gaming preferences and, well, what it's like to know half the world's population would like to have sex with you. Watch the video below to check out what she had to say, and what she was wearing.
Don't worry ladies, there's a treat in store for you too! Red Alert 3 also features Tim Curry, star of cult musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show and object of my own personal affections since 1992. He lives in America so our interview had to be done over the phone, unfortunately for me but not for him. Read on after the Gemma video to find out whether he thinks games are art, why the baddies in Hollywood movies are always English and more.
(And do be sure to check out our Command & Conquer 3: Red Alert PC review, where it turns out manic dolphin-ramming cut-scene clutching chaos really works, especially if you make sure the entire campaign mode is playable with a friend. Look out for the Xbox 360 version on 14th November, and EA confirmed yesterday that a PS3 version is also in development, although you will have to wait until some time next year to get your thumbs on it. But we digress. In order to stop the text wrapping over the video.)
Eurogamer TV would like to thank guest cameraman and Ellie's best mate Jake Yapp for his assistance in the above monumental piece of video journalism. Now, settle down again and let's talk to Tim Curry.
Hahahahaha! How very nice. That's made my morning, thank you.
Yes, I guess we should.
He's called Premier Cherdenko and he's a big cheese in Soviet Russia, though not quite as big as he wants to be. There's a huge war going on and it looks like the Soviet Union is going to lose. He's been working on a time travel project which he puts into action, and he eliminates Albert Einstein so the allies will not have nuclear capability.
When he comes back to real time he discovers he's now the Premier, but a new enemy has arisen - the Empire of the Rising Sun. While there aren't any nuclear weapons technology has gone in a new direction, and these amazing sci-fi weapons have been created, like armoured bears and hyper-intelligent dolphins.
So the game is really the story of the power struggle between the Allies, the Soviets and the Empire of the Rising Sun. And I behave very badly.
I did all of that, yes. I dove with dolphins in the Caspian Sea... No, I showed up, put on the uniform and had a great time. It's so much fun to do this stuff. There was also this army of amazing geeks with computers doing extraordinary things while we were doing our stuff. So it was like a trip into the 21st century, it was very exciting.
Oh, I'm useless. I've only just got email together, I'm a Luddite of the first order. But now I've gotten into email and I can actually find websites, I'm hooked. It's taken a long time, though.