One fully positive story coming out of Electronic Arts these days is the Command & Conquer remaster. The publisher has brought in a good chunk of the original team (now known as Petroglyph), and they’re hard at work producing a truly modern edition of a PC gaming classic. This includes remastering the original audio files, but only when they’re available. One set that has been lost to time is the audio callouts from AI EVA, who alerted you when your base was under attack.
I had a lot of fun in the studio with @FrankKlepacki and @JimVessella Thanks to @petroglyphgames and EA for making this happen! https://t.co/ZgNOVlMUfD
— Kia Huntzinger (@KiaHuntzinger) December 10, 2019
ALSO: From Skate 4 to Star Wars, how EA lost its way this generation
In a post updating fans on the remastering process, producer Jim Vessella talked about the process of rehiring original EVA voice actor Kia Huntzinger to rerecord her lines. He also talked about how the decision came about:
Unfortunately, the original tapes of Kia’s performance were not found – but that being said, there is definitely inherent noise, and noticeable rumble throughout the original games files, which would have needed a lot of clean up. So we did the next best thing – we hired her to reprise her role, this time in a professional recording room! And fortunately for us, she still sounds very close to the way she did years ago.
EA has also posted a comparison video with a preview of what Kia’s newly recorded lines will sound like in the final game:
We don’t know when Command & Conquer‘s rebirth will hit, but Jim promises that there will be more content to share in the new year.