Supreme-Commander
Latest
THQ auction results: Nordic Games takes Darksiders, Red Faction; 505 Games is Drawn to Life
The THQ back catalog auction results are in, with Nordic Games riding away with the intellectual property (IP) rights to Darksiders, Red Faction and MX vs. ATV for $4.9 million. The company picked up nearly all the assets in the auction, including Titan Quest, Supreme Commander, Frontlines, Stuntman, Juiced, Full Spectrum Warrior, Destroy All Humans and much more. "First and foremost we are very happy about this deal which also turns over a new leaf for the entire Nordic Games Group. In the long term, we either want to cooperate with the original creators or best possible developers in order to work on sequels or additional content for these titles," said Nordic Games CEO Lars Wingefors. "A very important point for us is not to dash into several self-financed multi-million dollar projects right away, but rather to continue our in-depth analysis of all titles and carefully selecting different financing models for developing new instalments of acquired IPs." The other reveal is 505 Games grabbed the rights to Drawn to Life and Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter for $300K. The news follows this afternoon's unexpected acquisition of the Homeworld franchise by Gearbox Software. We now know the price tag for Gearbox to re-release the original games on digital distribution networks and take a swing at its own spin on the real-time strategy franchise was $1.35 million. We've listed the winning bids in greater detail after the break.
Amazon selling Supreme Commander for a Lincoln
Amazon has Chris Taylor's legendary RTS title Supreme Commander as a Games for Windows edition for the low, low price of just $4.50. It's only available to US customers, and only as a download. Yes, for less than the price of a gallon of gas, you too can command vast armies of units of all shapes and sizes, zooming in and out of a gigantic map at will. It'll be the cheapest war ever fought.
Direct2Drive discounts Civilization IV, Supreme Commander this weekend
Perhaps in celebration of Civilization V's recent reveal, Direct2Drive is offering Civilization IV -- as well as the standalone Civilization IV: Colonization -- for 33% off. Other deals on the direct download service this weekend include Supreme Commander: Gold Edition, Majesty The Fantasy Kingdom Sim: Gold Edition, and more. If you're one of the few who doesn't "get" the Civilization addiction epidemic, which has swept the world over the last two decades leaving workplace productivity in shambles, consider yourself luckier than the folks in the video after the break. Yes, Civilization Revolution was solid, but CivIV has the uncanny ability to turn the sweetest old lady into a crazed destroyer of all mankind. Basically, It's fun for the whole family. Shortcut: See all weekend deals on Direct2Drive
Braid, other PC titles on sale this weekend on Impulse
This weekend the Impulse digital delivery store has a handful of games on sale including the critical and commercial darling Braid. Knocking 50% off each title, the sale also includes Sins of a Solar Empire from publisher Stardock -- also known as the guys and gals behind the Impulse service. Have a few extra dollars left over from the holiday season? Here's what you can get with that extra coin: Alganon -- $21.69 King's Bounty: Armored Princes -- $27.73 Sins of a Solar Empire -- $18.47 World War 2: Time of Wrath -- $22.82 Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim -- $16.30 King's Bounty: The Legend -- $16.30 Braid -- $5.42 Supreme Commander: Gold Edition -- $16.30
GameTap Thursday: Full Supreme Commander experience; Overlord for free
GameTap brings the goods this week with the addition of Supreme Commander and its expansion Forged Alliance. There's also an extra evil treat for the freeloaders out there. Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance (Windows) - The well received RTS by Gas Powered Games in one package. Die By The Sword (Windows) - Treyarch's sword fighting game from a decade ago. World Poker Championship 2 (Windows) - That title couldn't be any more descriptive. This week temporarily adds Overlord to GameTap's free-to-play titles for one week. Give it a spin, there's definitely a "love it or hate it" division about the title. The service also adds Penumbra Overture for the foreseeable future to the gratis list, which can be found after the break.
Supreme Surrender Episode 2
The second episode of Rooster Teeth's Supreme Surrender -- based on Supreme Commander, see what they did there? -- is now online. We think it's safe to say that this mini-series isn't as inspired as, say, Red vs Blue, but it's still worth a chuckle. This episode continues the saga of the first episode, as the incredibly large alien force continues to "surrender" to the much smaller force (much to their delighted surprise). The only problem is that surrendering appears to be worse than all out war. Enjoy.
Shipping this week: OMG Megaton edition
No, it's not a news related OMG Megaton. It's more like a "holy effing crap, look at all these games" kind of megaton. There are ten, ten games hitting the Xbox 360 this week. What's more, a lot of them look decent and, dare we say it, some of them even look good. Just look at all of 'em. Battlefield: Bad Company Top Spin 3 Supreme Commander Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath Alone in the Dark Hellboy: Science of Evil Hail to the Chimp Wall-E Operation Darkness Gears of War Refresh (2-Disc Edition) It's enough to give someone googly eyes. Alone in the Dark has our interest piqued (and has thus far fared decently in Europe). Here's hoping it -- and everything else here -- is up to snuff.[Via Joystiq]
New machinima miniseries: Supreme Surrender
In honor of the impending release of the RTS Supreme Commander for Xbox 360 (it comes out next week, available now on PC), Rooster Teeth -- the folks behind Red vs Blue, among other things -- has created a new miniseries called Supreme Surrender. As you may have guessed, the miniseries is filmed entirely within the Supreme Commander game engine. The first episode begins as two emissaries from warring factions await the arrival of a third emissary who wishes to surrender. Give it a watch and tell us what you think.
Another RTS hits June 23: Supreme Commander
While it isn't the best represented genre on the 360 by a long shot, RTS's have still managed to stake their claim on the platform, and between the coming C&C3 expansion and the newly gone gold Supreme Commander this month looks to see them expanding their territory. Having released over a year ago we're not sure exactly how much territory will be gained by Supreme Commander, but the game was well received when it was released and is likely to still be as good when it comes to console. Besides, the real question will be whether or not the game will hold console RTS fans over until they get what they really seem to want: Halo Wars.
Demigod could one day rule consoles
Gas Powered Games founder, Chris Taylor, recently spoke to Joystiq about his upcoming game Demigod (full interview, which includes publisher Stardock's Brad Wardell, coming later today). With GPG's latest game, Supreme Commander, jumping from PC to consoles, we wanted to know if Demigod could do the same thing. Taylor says it's a discussion the studio is having, "but no final decisions have been made just yet."Even if the game isn't coming to consoles, we wanted to know if the company is thinking ahead and designing the PC version of Demigod for use with a gamepad. Taylor explains that GPG is focusing on the PC version and if it made another version for consoles, the company would overhaul the interface, as there are currently no plans to support gamepads (like the Xbox 360 controller) at this time. He says GPG re-did Supreme Commander's controls when translating it to the Xbox 360, and also alludes to Supreme Commander coming to PS3 as well. We'll have the full interview up soon.Update: Interview is up now.%Gallery-19979%
Supreme Commander for Xbox 360 delayed
We'll admit that we had almost forgotten that a console port of Chris Taylor and Gas Powered Games' Supreme Commander was in the works for the Xbox 360, which is probably just as well as it keeps us from being disappointed that the futuristic RTS won't be making its April release date. According to Shacknews, the port, which is being handled by Hellbent Games, has been pushed out by publisher Aspyr until "later this spring or early summer." No reason was given, through Aspyr marketing man Eric Duncan spun up the delay, stating that "the additional time put into development will result in better gameplay and more fun for gamers." Supreme Commander is certainly one of the most complex RTS releases to come along in a good while, and will be a good test to see just how far the genre can be pushed on a game pad, as long as they don't push it over the cliff.
THQ chooses GamersGate for PC digital distribution
In the world of video game digital distribution, it's easy to think that all roads lead to Steam, but that's not necessarily the case as THQ has reminded us of an alternative in GamersGate, noting that it has inked a deal with the service to offer a selection of its PC titles for online purchase and download. The games will be available worldwide, save for those poor souls in Australia and New Zealand, who have been turned away like orphans to a soup kitchen. According to GamersGate, the company will initially offer Company of Heroes and Supreme Commander, as well as their recent expansions. While neither title has popped up on the GamersGate website yet, a quick check did reveal S.T.A.L.K.E.R. available for the bargain basement price of $19.99. Other THQ offerings planned to be added eventually include Full Spectrum Warrior and Juiced 2, as well as next month's Frontlines: Fuels of War. It's encouraging to see competition in the digital space, and assuming this and similar deals feature exclusivity clauses, it will be curious to see if we are on the verge of a hard fought digital distribution battle royal. 40 Quatloos on the newcomer!
Supreme Commander confirmed for Xbox 360
The announcement of Supreme Commander marching to the Xbox 360 comes as little surprise following the comments made last month by Gas Powered Games founder, Chris Taylor. Though he didn't specify an exact destination at the time, Taylor did reveal that the Xbox 360 was "the platform of choice" when shifting titles from PC to console. Supreme Commander will join a growing number of real-time strategy titles on the system, not to mention the always pleasing group of games featuring impossibly huge robots. Other fascinating bullet-points sure to riddle the back of the Xbox 360 packaging are "new units," "new multiplayer modes," "updated maps" and lest we forget, "the most epic hostilities ever seen in an RTS game." The port will be completed with the aid of Hellbent Games and then published by Aspyr in early 2008.
Supreme Commander to conquer consoles
Gas Powered Games founder, Chris Taylor, has admitted to Pro-G that console owners can safely expect to partake in the strategic giant robot action of his studio's well-received Supreme Commander. That is to say, the action is strategic and involves robots -- the actual giant robots aren't all that strategic. Featuring in a real-time strategy game, they're not too bright and usually require you to tell them what things to step on. Though Taylor didn't specify which platforms the game would ultimately be headed to, his comments on potential console versions of the upcoming Space Siege point to the Xbox 360 being the first recipient. "If you look at pure development economics, it's the platform of choice for moving stuff from the PC," he said. "You can get stuff over there economically, very quickly." That includes a mouse-driven interface, which Taylor hopes Supreme Commander will further ingrain on consoles. We'll see what Halo Wars has to say about that.
Gas Powered Games CEO: reward, don't punish gamers
CEO and founder of Gas Powered Games Chris Taylor (Supreme Commander, Dungeon Siege) wants to retire the old-school game design philosophies of punishing gamers. In an essay on GameDaily BIZ, Taylor notes an observed trend towards games that now reward players. It started with casual games, says Taylor, when The Sims and Railroad Tycoon were selling millions and bringing women gamers on board. He compares the old punishment system to Carnival games -- you get three lives, a few options for more, but if you die then you start all the way over. Taylor uses Grand Theft Auto as an example where, if you screw up, you simply walk out of jail or the hospital. "The punishment is quite small, and perfectly integrated into the gameplay. Hats off to Rockstar," he said. Much of his essay is muddled, however, in defining the line between making a game universally accessible and dumbing it down in difficulty. "Games shouldn't punish the player, but rather reward them. Oh, and it should be a whole lot easier to win," he said, followed by "Duh! Can I say duh?" You can, but a game like Ninja Gaiden serves as an opposing example to that argument, where toning down the difficulty would likely result in a less satisfying and indeed, less rewarding experience.
No DirectX 10 update for Supreme Commander
Those of you just itching to put that DirectX 10 hardware to good use will be disappointed to learn that Supreme Commander -- the Games for Windows-branded RTS from Gas Powered Games -- will not be getting that DirectX 10 patch they've been promising. Turns out it's a matter of timing: Vista release coupled with DirectX 10 hardware coupled with driver support ... you get the idea. They write, "The bottom line: DirectX 10 support will not be patched into Supreme Commander or its expansion packs." There is light at the end of this tunnel, however. They intend to integrate "this exciting technology into future projects." In the meantime, if you've just got to test out the capabilities of that $600 video card, download the Lost Planet PC demo here and have your butler let us know how it is. [Via Next-Gen]
