I signed up for the Red Alert 3 beta, but it's not at all what I expected. The ability to build on the water is nice on the surface (no pun intended), but in truth it means a player can outrun defeat for a prolonged period until the other player(s) build naval or aerial units, and controlling land also becomes far less crucial because so much more of the map is accessible. I preferred how the previous games had only the main building able to transform. Being able to move several buildings of a base in a few clicks just seems too easy somehow.
The game also feels overwhelmingly console-focussed; the interface is oversized and simplified and the controls are limited. A lot of function panels retract from view, even commonly used things like attack/defend commands. It also lacks a full-map zoom, which I really enjoyed in games like Supreme Commander and Sins of a Solar Empire; you can't zoom out very far and all--even at the furthest zoom level the buildings are still very big, and I can see so little at once that I feel like I'm playing at 640x480.
I also hate the theme they have chosen. Alternate histories are all well and good, but countless design decisions they've made are simply not how things would actually evolve under those circumstances--for instance, there are Zeppelins in the game. Now everybody loves Zeppelins (especially when decorated with shark faces), which is probably why they're included, but the technology would be quickly abandoned when faced with flying robots armed with lasers. They've also conveniently ignored many obvious technological combinations in order to maintain troop balance--in a world where sizeable buildings can transform into vehicles and hovercraft/VTOL technology is not only feasible but effective, why are the factions building both ships and aircraft with their future tech instead of focussing on hybrids that can take on the enemy in any environment and change their design and propulsion system on the fly to suit the conditions?
And don't even get me started on the laser-toting dolphins (yes, you read that correctly).