Gamescom 2011

Supreme Commander 2 Updated Hands-On

By Luke Anderson

We got a first look at the Xbox 360 version and the new mini-experimental units at GamesCom 2009.

After taking a break to work on Space Siege and Demigod, Gas Powered Games is bringing us another dose of the sci-fi real-time strategy game Supreme Commander, and what we saw at GamesCom 2009 certainly looks promising. Supreme Commander 2 is set 25 years after the original, and the team has made a number of major improvements to its gameplay, including a new pathfinding system, improved factions, and an overhauled economics system, all of which should result in a "much more playable game," according to CEO Chris Taylor. He was on hand at GamesCom to demo the game and focussed on the Xbox 360 user interface.

CAPTION

What's New: One of the biggest features of the Xbox 360 UI is the stretch cursor, which allows you to select the nearest unit or structure with the click of a button, rather than having to scroll over and click directly on top of it. Once it's selected, you can bring up the selected unit/structure's build menu, which is a round selector similar to the selector in Halo Wars. Taylor stressed that "everything has to be done quickly through these intuitive systems" and is confident that the system has been designed perfectly for control pads. Subtlety is everything when it comes to UI, according to Taylor, and while there were a few visual displays on the screen, they certainly didn't seem to distract from the gameplay.

What's Different: Taylor introduced us to the hunker mode, which allows your commander to crouch when in trouble. In the event that it blows up, you can eject the head and fly it back to base to rebuild your commander. We also checked out some new experimental units--massive war machines that can turn the tide of war--such as the King Cryptor, a mech that features several very powerful cannons to make light work of weaker units. In addition to the big guns, there are mini-experimentals--miniature versions that are cheaper and quicker to build. It seems that you have access only to minis early on, rather than "major" experimentals, but with 27 crazy experimental units in total, you shouldn't be strapped for choice.

Taylor also told us about the new half-baked projects. If you're in a hurry to deploy forces, you can choose to send particular units out before construction is complete. The trade-off is that the build progress reflects directly on how effective they are in battle. For example, if you deploy a unit that's at 50 percent completion, it will work only 50 percent of the time, and the rest of the time it will simply sit there smoking.

What's The Same: Zooming out accesses the same strategic view as the PC version, which turns your units into tiny isometric blocks to give you a good strategic overview of the entire battlefield. In theory, the Xbox 360 version of the game should be quite similar to the PC version, besides obvious control differences. One caveat, however, is that multiplayer matches are limited to four players, rather than the PC's eight-player matches. If you think playing real-time strategy games on a console is inferior to the PC, then you might be surprised to hear that Taylor revealed there are "some members at the office that prefer the Xbox 360 [version]."

What Impression The Game Made This Time: Supreme Commander 2 is looking like a whole heap of fun, and we like the idea behind the mini-experimental and half-baked units. The game is running at a smooth 60 frames per second, and the level we saw looked great and featured four bases spread out around a massive shaft with a spinning turbine at its bottom. Supreme Commander 2 will be released on the Xbox 360 and PC but has yet to receive a firm release date.

By Luke Anderson

41 Comments

  • nerivon

    Posted Feb 25, 2010 11:42 am GMT

    I prepurchased the game on steam. Five days later the demo came out and I downloaded it immediately to try it out last night. After about 20 minutes of tutorial, I shut it down. I went to SteamPowered.com and issued a Ticket to support to cancel my Pre-order.

    I'm sorry all of my fellow PC players. Supreme Commander is officially a dead franchise. Look to StarCraft and hope my friends, but we'll never see another game like SupComm again. It was the only one that let you really try stuff. After years of playing it my friends and I were still finding new strategies and ideas. So ends an era.

    A friend of mine, Dan, said it best; "Congradulations to GPG for making the same RTS that everyone else already made." Where to start;

    * Buildings don't link , so you can't link energy to factories to gain an advantage.
    * You cannot assign a builder to assist another builder in order speed up the assembly of buildings.
    * Formations appear to be gone.
    * The fog of war is not shown.
    * It appears impossible to display radar ranges, at least in the demo.
    * The maps seem optimized for small/short game play.
    * Units are more propotional to buildings, so of course this means building models are exceptionally huge for an RTS.
    * The modelling is cartoonific, the units look bright and shiney and pretty instead of solid and metalic and gritty as they used to.
    * The interface is clunky and iconic graphics are used to display the build queues instead of static renders of the actual item, so you have to learn to recognize the iconic symbol for the unit or building you wish to construct on the control panel, rather than simply having a picture of the unit or building like we used to before.

    I would provide more, but this list was enough to end it for me. I'm done. I'm angry. I'm dissapointed. All i want to do is strike out at GPG and Chris Taylor over this, but its their game. All i can do is never buy it, and work to make sure no one i know buys it too. Its abysmal.

  • entity_741

    Posted Jan 8, 2010 5:52 pm GMT

    Yeah Total Annihlation was really, good, i use to play that all the time. But if you've noticed quite alot from TA was actually put into SUPCOM. It would of been better if they had come up with other ideas. But it still good game.

    Just see how the second plays out. (Economy Not the most difficult too understand.)

  • masterdude192

    Posted Dec 2, 2009 2:20 pm GMT

    yaaaaa I'm so excited! Can't wait!

  • daboomster

    Posted Nov 17, 2009 12:25 pm GMT

    I liked Supreme Commander because of Total Annihilation, the farther they get from TA the less I like it. With this resource change it makes it one step closer to other RTS games and not what it was made from--a classic.

  • iron_zealot7531

    Posted Oct 3, 2009 9:47 am GMT

    Seriously WTF with the changing of the economy. Apparently people had trouble figuring the economy out, but why!? It's really not that friggin complicated. You just need to ensure that your income is sufficient to cover and your regular expenses with enough additional income to sustain a growing pool of resources.

    This isn't rocket science people. Way to sell out Chris Taylor, I used to be a fan.

  • galienthealien

    Posted Sep 13, 2009 2:30 pm GMT

    I will rent, and maybe buy the 360 because im too poor for a PC. loved the 1st one on PC tho. I dont have a PS3, but woudlnt developers want to use that nice processor to put RTS's on instead of 360? not matter tho

  • juberline

    Posted Sep 12, 2009 3:02 pm GMT

    Sequel to one of the best RTS' ever made! Hope they make this for the 360 as I loved the first one on the console. Yes the pc version was waaaaay better but the accessibility of just turning on my 360 meant I could play supreme commander in seconds. Just fix the bugs and improve Live and it's a done deal.

  • xMAGOGxKruelgor

    Posted Sep 8, 2009 7:43 am GMT

    Why does that video look like Demigod? I don't want no stupid platform battles. I want battles on the ground. That looks stupid.

  • hahahardware

    Posted Sep 6, 2009 12:52 pm GMT

    gonna be awesome !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • cc_ox

    Posted Sep 4, 2009 7:37 am GMT

    Supreme Commander 1 can be one of the great game in the year. however, it is not. One of the main reasons is that i just can not have a good camera view in the game. there is no way i can enjoy strategic overview of the entire battlefield, the detail of units, the detail of actual battle in the same time. i have to zoom out to see the overview of the entire battlefield all the time. so what is point that each unit have a very good design and nice graph. it is really a waste..what a pity...

  • d3bro76

    Posted Sep 2, 2009 7:38 pm GMT

    I agree with your statement. $$$ but seriously? I consider this selling out IMHO. Sell something that is going to suck, and waste resources cross porting it. They could be using that time and money to make it THAT much sweeter for the correct platform.

    But all that aside...

    What's with the dumbing down of resource management?!?! SupCom is like an elite club you join. You figure out the resources, you figure out micromanagement. Although, if you played TA then you would already have those key skills down pat.

  • zoladex

    Posted Sep 2, 2009 3:17 pm GMT

    HAHA, d3bro u miss the point. $$$. its a fact everyone knows strat games suck on console, you'll be an idiot to buy it. But you'd be an even bigger idiot not to market it.
    GPG is just looking after the penny lol

  • d3bro76

    Posted Sep 2, 2009 2:06 pm GMT

    FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL!
    Console kiddies don't deserve this glorious franchise!
    Chris Taylor: I know GPG may be hurting with the economy and all, but seriously? The only + I see to this is that I hope they make it a games for windows platform. I would love to go up against some controllers fanboys. Easy matches, with a good possibility for flawless victories.

    And yes, I am a PC fanboy, no sense trying to bash me for that. Oh no, I have a superior gaming platform, and it's built with less money than your spent on all your games and POS console.

    FAIL.

  • tat2pap

    Posted Sep 1, 2009 11:35 pm GMT

    nice to see that sc 2 comes out in 360

  • ShEsHy0

    Posted Sep 1, 2009 2:02 pm GMT

    I just hope they improved the scripting, because if a match with 1.5k+ units at max detail didn't kill your framerate on SC: FA, the scripting sure as hell slowed the game almost to a halt (4 hours+ real time for "1 hour" of in-game time is just crazy).

  • Septimus335

    Posted Aug 31, 2009 5:32 pm GMT

    These graphics are really good, how can you say there bad? But gameplay is still the major part of this game.

  • lolPawnt

    Posted Aug 31, 2009 12:42 pm GMT

    I really enjoyed the Cybran campaign but I guess that's just me.

  • lordreaven

    Posted Aug 30, 2009 5:48 pm GMT

    1r3ap3r, its about gameplay not graphics.

  • Nikola_Bathory

    Posted Aug 30, 2009 1:52 pm GMT

    hm, yet another RTS. Looks good, but I'm not sure if it's good enough, especially now that SC2 is on the horizon.

  • sub-raid

    Posted Aug 30, 2009 1:49 pm GMT

    This is awesome, there is a bunch of new stuff.