Topic: Supreme Commander DEMO = RELEASED; 1.1 GB download.

[MysterD]

Supreme Commander demo due out tomorrow, Tues 2/6/2007

Supreme Commander demo due Tuesday a.m.
Playable demo for Gas Powered Games' and THQ's massive strategy game set for release this week. Exclusive details inside.
By Staff, GameSpot
Posted Feb 5, 2007 4:48 pm PT

Publisher THQ has confirmed that it will release the playable demo for Supreme Commander, the highly anticipated PC strategy game from developer Gas Powered Games, tomorrow (Tuesday) morning at 9:30 a.m. PST. The demo will include an early portion of the single-player campaign for the Cybran Nation, one of the game's three playable factions. It will also include a skirmish map named "Finn's Revenge," which can be played on easy, medium, and hard difficulty levels.

According to the in-game fiction, the Cybran Nation consists of a race of cybernetically enhanced humans known as "symbionts" that seek their freedom from the oppressive human regime of future Earth, which is controlled by the aggressive United Earth Federation, a faction that has enslaved the symbionts for fear of rebellion. Meanwhile, the UEF and Cybran Nation will need to contend with the game's third faction, the Aeon Illuminate, a mysterious group heavily influenced by alien philosophy and technology that claims pacifism, but backs its claims with military might.

While Supreme Commander is an original intellectual property created at Gas Powered Games, the game is ostensibly a successor to the 1997 real-time strategy classic Total Annihilation, which was designed by GPG's frontman, industry veteran Chris Taylor. The game is scheduled for release on February 20. For more information on the game, consult GameSpot's preview coverage.

[angrykeebler]

The beta ran like crap on my system =\

[MysterD]

The beta ran like crap on my system =\

That's not good.....

....What's your system....?

[angrykeebler]

3 ghz P4, 2 gigs of RAM, 128 MB Geforce 6800

[MysterD]

3 ghz P4, 2 gigs of RAM, 128 MB Geforce 6800

Holy crap....Game must have REALLY stiff requirements then....

[MysterD]

Demo's out; it's all over the Net!

1.1 GB download

   
Supreme Commander Demo [February 06, 2007, 12:32 pm ET] - Viewing Comments
As promised, the Supreme Commander demo is now available, offering the chance to sample the upcoming real-time strategy game from Chris Taylor and Gas Powered  Games. The demo offers a portion of the single-player campaign as well as a skirmish map. The 1097 MB download is available on 3D Downloads, 3D Gamers, ComputerGames.ro, FileFront, FilePlanet (registration required), FileShack, Gameguru Mania, Gamer's Hell, GameSpot (registration required), Internode Games Network, and Strategy Informer.

[iPPi]

I hear this is actually very good.  I'm going to give it a shot I think.

[PyroMenace]

Ive been keeping an eye on this game ever since I saw the first major trailer. Im having high hopes for it.

[Quemaqua]

It looks like it could be completely awesome, but... I dunno'.  Time will tell.

[Pugnate]

I think everyone is glad Chris Taylor went back to his first love.

[MysterD]

I think everyone is glad Chris Taylor went back to his first love.

I do want to play Supreme Commander -- even though I ain't much of a strategy gamer.

Though, I *really* could go for a Dungeon Siege III, though -- and it better be as dark as the Dungeon Siege II: Broken World expansion was, have a save system more like say DS1, and more control over huge parties like DS1.

[sirean_syan]

Screw Dungeon Siege. Three seconds of Total Annihilation completely blows everything DS had to offer away.

On topic, I downloaded the game last night with the intention of playing tonight. I just hope it runs alright since my computer is basically what Keebs has.

[iPPi]

I ran it on my laptop without much of a problem.  Although, I did have to lower the fidelity to 'low' to get it at a playable framerate.

Regardless, I've played this game a bit now and it's alright.  It's hard to say, as I'm not exactly the biggest fan of RTS games.  Seems to be your standard RTS... nothing spectacular.

[Quemaqua]

Screw Dungeon Siege. Three seconds of Total Annihilation completely blows everything DS had to offer away.

Absolutely.

[MysterD]

I bet Total Annihilation is hard to find at retail outlets, these days and age....

[sirean_syan]

So, I enjoyed the demo and I love how big a fight can get in such a small bit of time, but, alas, my computer begin's to show it's age. Things are playable, but I have to go lower than I'd like for a decent frame rate. That's not so bad, but it hurts the feeling of scale and I believe that's a huge part of the game.

Kinda sucks. Odds are it's going to be a good long while before I can and am willing to do much about my computer. Looks like my PC gaming is really going to take a hit sooner than later.

[scottws]

Yeah, I too realized that with Rainbow Six Vegas.  I'm no where close to its minimum requirements.  But that's mostly because the devs were lazy and didn't give the game as much scalability as we're used to in PC games.

I have the money to build a new computer, but there are so many other things I could and should use the money for.

[Pugnate]

I am running Vegas at beautiful frames but just about. I don't think it is the PCs at fault, but the developers. Something like Crysis looks helluva lot better than Vegas and is able to run on lower systems already. So screw the developers.

Piracy isn't killing gaming, it is the developers.

[scottws]

Well, it's the engine too.  Vegas and Gears of War run on the Unreal 3 engine.  I think Gears of War makes much better use of it.  Rainbow Six Vegas looks like a 3-5 year old game to me.

Crytek does their damnedest to get an engine that looks great and runs on a wide variety of systems.  And the results are amazing.

[Pugnate]

Yes I forget how breathtaking Far Cry was when it was released, and how well it ran.

I think the Unreal 3 engine is probably still quite unrefined considering the latest Unreal Tourney hasn't been released yet.

Anyway I am running Vegas at 1280x1024 with HDR and FSAA with everything at max except for shadows. The shadows at med. I am getting an average of 60FPS while in combat it goes to 45 FPS. This is quite acceptable, but when I push shadows up to full the frames drop from 45 to 30, which is totally unacceptable considering how little the shadows improve and the fact that I am using a 8800GTX.

Then again the game was a direct port of the 360 which uses an ATi card. For the next four years it is the Nvidia PC gamers who will suffer like the ATi PC gamers did with the Xbox 180 ports when it was using an Nvidia GPU. Back then ports like KOTOR, NFS, Halo etc ran like crap on the ATi cards while they ran a lot better on the Nvidia ones. Just my luck that Nvidia has having one of its biggest driver crisis in the history of the company.

Back to the subject of Vegas, I was a bit more impressed with the looks of the game than you Scottws, at least on first impressions. The HDR lighting and the dusky look makes for an excellent first impression. However the textures aren't as impressive on closer inspection.

On the subject of Unreal engines, I thought the first Unreal engine was simply fantastic. Unreal Tournament ran wonderfully well on most systems and looked gorgeous.

[iPPi]

Yea Ubisoft dropped the ball with the two last Tom Clancy games, Vegas and Double Agent.  They run pretty poorly on the PC.  I got Vegas for the 360 and it's gorgeous and runs perfectly.  I have Double Agent for the PC, and had a slew of problems that I needed to get around to get working and when I did get it working, the game doesn't look like anything spectacular and stuff.

[Pugnate]

Yea while Vegas has issues, it wasn't nearly as bad as Double Agent. PC Gamer --that have always given every Splinter Cell an editor's choice-- gave Double Agent a score in the low 60s! Purely because of the bugs.

[MysterD]

Yea Ubisoft dropped the ball with the two last Tom Clancy games, Vegas and Double Agent.  They run pretty poorly on the PC.

Bleh @ that.

I should add that GRAW PC didn't run so well, either.
Though, the game is quite good.....if only it ran much better than it does....

I got Vegas for the 360 and it's gorgeous and runs perfectly.  I have Double Agent for the PC, and had a slew of problems that I needed to get around to get working and when I did get it working, the game doesn't look like anything spectacular and stuff.

BTW, despite the technical issues, how were the actual games themselves (Vegas and DA)?

[iPPi]

Vegas is an awesome game.  Absolutely love it.  I wish the single player was a bit more lengthy.  I don't have Live Gold anymore so I can't play it online, but I'm gonna get Gold again pretty soon to play it online since it's really fun.

Double Agent is 'meh'.  I've never tried the MP, but the single player story is a hit and a miss this time around.  The 'trust' system is interesting, but it's also too forgiving and stuff.  The undercover missions are fun, but some of the primary missions are in broad daylight!  There's something about being an espionage agent in broad daylight that just doesn't work.  The new method of determining your visibility sucks as well since it's just like an LED on your shoulder. 

I was seriously let down by Double Agent, as I loved the first three, Splinter Cell, Pandora Tomorrow, and Chaos Theory.  I hope the 5th in the series will do a better job.

[MysterD]

Vegas is an awesome game.  Absolutely love it.  I wish the single player was a bit more lengthy.  I don't have Live Gold anymore so I can't play it online, but I'm gonna get Gold again pretty soon to play it online since it's really fun.

Good to hear.

I been wanting to play this one on the PC.

Double Agent is 'meh'.  I've never tried the MP, but the single player story is a hit and a miss this time around.  The 'trust' system is interesting, but it's also too forgiving and stuff.  The undercover missions are fun, but some of the primary missions are in broad daylight!  There's something about being an espionage agent in broad daylight that just doesn't work.  The new method of determining your visibility sucks as well since it's just like an LED on your shoulder. 

I was seriously let down by Double Agent, as I loved the first three, Splinter Cell, Pandora Tomorrow, and Chaos Theory.  I hope the 5th in the series will do a better job.

I liked the original SC; was good.
I ain't even began Pandora nor Chaos Theory, which I do have both of, installed on my PC and all...

[MysterD]

And Chris Taylor sure has a hell of a lot to say here....

DICE: SupCom Dev - Love the Art

Chris Taylor, founder of Gas Powered Games (Supreme Commander, Dungeon Siege) delivered two inspiring messages to D.I.C.E. attendees: Great games can be made even if you put health and family before work, and always put the art before the money. This was one of the best D.I.C.E. speeches this year...

In an industry that is renowned for logging countless hours of overtime fueled by pizza and soda, Taylor’s message counteracted a hardcore, “work till you drop” work ethic that was established by the early years of game development.

The energetic Taylor forewent the podium when he took the stage, and described how when he and Gas Powered Games created the earlier Dungeon Siege games, overtime hours were in the thousands. “It was completely wrong [to work that much]," he said. "I don’t like to admit it, but I’m at an age now where I can admit that. We impaled ourselves on a sword…”

He said that he made a conscious decision to change that tradition with Supreme Commander, which is set to launch on February 20. “We built Supreme Commander without destroying our health or families,” said Taylor, who is now a father.

He elaborated, “…Creators don’t stop creating when they leave the office. … When I figured that out, our productivity went up. … When you’re twenty… your family is the guys you work with. … We were 20-year-old guys making games for 20-year-old guys. … Meanwhile the rest of the world is asking ‘When are you going to make games for us?'”

Taylor said that at first he questioned whether or not publishers, who are investing millions of dollars in a game, would appreciate how game creation at Gas Powered would come after health and family. “They were okay with it” because they have kids too, he said. “The industry is growing up.”

“We have so much more to lose than just sales," he added.

He elaborated on how he has come full circle with his motivations to create games. Taylor said that at first, he would make games for nothing, just because it was what he loved. He said that he then fell into a trap where he was becoming overly concerned about money—a pitfall for any creative type.

"I started off with a genuine desire to make great games," he said. "I didn’t care about what kind of money I got. … Do you know how many people I run into [in this industry] who only care about the money?” he asked.

“Let’s get back to the love of the art. Let’s love our customers, families, ourselves. … Take care of yourself," he implored.

It appears that Taylor puts his advice into practice at Gas Powered, as he stated how one person within the company went from 1,000 hours of overtime in a year at another company to 150 at Gas Powered.

While this culture shift may have lessened hours, the stress is still there, according to Taylor, who found himself crying in his office in December. “…This business is challenging and it can do that to you.” He’s no wimp though. “I’m level two-f***in’-hundred as far as I’m concerned.”

Taylor said that a key to staying balanced is yoga. “It absolutely changes people. … I could not do what I did without [yoga].”

He encouraged listeners to focus on the art of making games, rather than the commercialization, the contracts and the royalties. “I finally realized that I’m going to prove to myself that the love for the art is greater than anything else.”

[Pugnate]

In other news: Chris Taylor has announced he is launching an exploratory committee and wants to run for the president.

But yea that's a heart warming speech.

[MysterD]

In other news: Chris Taylor has announced he is launching an exploratory committee and wants to run for the president.

Would you vote for him??