UPDATE, September 17: The promotion is officially back on, now that EA’s servers have recovered. You can head here to pick up your copy of Red Alert 2.
Original story: After nearly six months of stinkers (Ultima 8 and Zuma’s Revenge), EA’s On-the-House program is back in peak form. Starting right now as soon as EA’s servers stop dying, you can pick up a copy of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 for free through Origin, along with the expansion Yuri’s Revenge.
The question of “What’s the best Command & Conquer?” is about as controversial as “Nvidia or AMD?” or “Do you let the toilet paper hang over or under?” (Over—Ed.) so don’t expect to get a straight answer. Still, a vast amount of people would name Red Alert 2’s alt-history Soviet/USA conflict as their favorite of the long-running RTS series—and lead designer Dustin Browder went on to lead StarCraft II.
Also, you can make dolphins part of your navy. It’s a pretty great game.
Unfortunately it’s so great that people are actually taking advantage of the On-the-House program for once. EA just posted this message:
“Wow, you guys are loving Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 and Yuri’s Revenge On the House! The demand is so high that we need some time to cool down our servers. Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 and Yuri’s Revenge will return to on the house very shortly. Thanks for being patient!”
Once someone at EA finds a fire extinguisher, you’ll be able to go here and pick up Red Alert 2. The last two On-the-House deals have lasted for seventy days each, so you have plenty of time. As always, the one catch is that you’ll need an Origin account to take advantage.