Command & Conquer: Generals 2 "will set a new bar for fidelity in the strategy genre"

Bioware confirmed that rumours of a new Command & Conquer game were true this weekend when they revealed C&C: Generals 2 .

. It's in development at new Bioware Victory studio, and will be using Battlefield 3's Frostbite 2 engine. We sent over a few questions to executive producer Jon Van Caneghem and Bioware co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka to find out more. Van Canegham says that Frostbite 2 is "going to put Generals 2 on the cutting edge of the industry," and "will set a new bar for fidelity in the strategy genre."

Referencing Battlefield 3, Van Canegham says that "there are certainly going to be a number of differences between a shooter and a strategy game, but the possibilities are certainly opened up more when you have a great new engine to build upon."

We'll have to wait and see if Battlefield 3's destructible terrain tech will make it into the new C&C, but we had a more pressing question. Of all the C&C franchises to bring back, why did Bioware choose Generals?

"It's the series the C&C community has been asking for," says Dr. Ray Muzyka. "It's also the bestselling game in the entire franchise, which is quite impressive when you consider the other games that have come out under the C&C banner."

"We also think the fiction has a lot of great possibilities. The tone of the series is a bit more serious and getting to work with massive armies and modern technology in a near future setting is really going to make for an intense, immersive experience."

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It looks as though Red Alert's increasingly mad direction won't influence Generals 2. "We are definitely not making a departure from the tone of the original Generals. We think there's a great opportunity to deliver over-the-top-action, but to keep the intensity high. Generals is grittier than the other series in the franchise and we are fully embracing that," says Van Canegham.

Van Canegham also mentioned that Bioware toyed with the idea of creating an entirely new C&C spinoff, but decided against it. "In the end we listened to what the community wanted and what a lot of us as C&C fans wanted – a return to Generals! It's been a long enough wait!"

It'll be interesting to see if Bioware really can raise the bar for visuals in the strategy genre. It'll be competing with the likes of Shogun 2 for the top spot. Find out more about Generals 2 on the official Command & Conquer: Generals 2 site.