News

[icycalm]

http://www.supremecommander.com/

They won't be making it, naturally.

[Nybble]

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/105/1058207p1.html

Steam will be integrated into it. (Big thumbs up from me.)

However, SquareEnix promises much more story than the first:

Taylor was happy to admit that SupCom 1, while grand in gameplay terms, was lackluster when it came to story, which Square Enix has been happy to flesh out for this sequel. The single player campaign has therefore been expanded with this improvement in mind, and an involved story that features fractured relationships between a core cast of characters will be told, chiefly through brief in-engine cutscenes at the beginning of missions and, refreshingly, during the gameplay itself, with plot and character development coming over the radios as the plot-specific units chat to each other.

[icycalm]

I noticed that in the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQMEOBM9fBQ

Funny thing is, there is a Chris Taylor interview floating around where he says that story has no place in strategy games. In fact I quote this in an upcoming article. Hypocrite, lol.

[icycalm]

Interview with Taylor including extended game footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFIBkG-VkJA

Lots of stuff to analyze here, as long as you ignore his story fagotry. Love the chatter about "neural networks".

[icycalm]

There's a bit of nerfing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wecT6nJl5w&NR=1

He says that the way the tech tree works now, when you research a new tech, all currently deployed units that could benefit from it are automatically upgraded. I will blame this, and all other nerfing, on Squeenix.

[karagh]

They are JRPGing a real time strategy game? That's new.

[icycalm]

Nah, I am mostly joking. Taylor knows his audience -- a game like this cannot really be nerfed too much without losing 70% of the player base. All they are gonna do is make the single-player campaign have longer cutscenes. And there's nothing wrong with that if it's done well: just look at Red Alert.

Haing said that, from the IGN article linked above:

This effort to revamp and streamline the game experience extends to the core mechanics. The economy has been made more like the industry standard for these sorts of games: building up resources in your bank before plonking down buildings and upgrades wholesale. Taylor was adamant that this change was implemented to ease players into the fold, admitting that SupCom 1 really was just too complicated for many players out there to even bother learning the mechanics. Streamlined economy equals an easier learning curve and, he hopes, more fans.

Supreme Commander 1 for ever. Except if they balance the dumbing down in this area by complexifying other areas -- but that's very doubtful...

Another bad sign is that they are mentioning the 360 right away. In the first game, the 360 port was a very very late afterthought, a looong time after the PC version came out. And Demigod did not get ported at all. But now the 360 logo is prominent everywhere. The game could well be nerfed further because of this.

Things don't look good at all -- as far as getting something BETTER than Supreme Commander. But it could well turn out to be a decent game to play for a couple of weeks or so.