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Amazon has Absolutely Great Square Enix sale, $165 of games for $10
The Absolutely Great Square Pack from Amazon offers seven games and one piece of DLC in digital form, all of which would normally cost $165, for just $10: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Augmented Edition and "The Missing Link" DLC, Hitman: Blood Money, Just Cause 2, Just Cause, Quantum Conundrum, Supreme Commander 2, and The Last Remnant.That's a savings of 94 percent, in case it wasn't clear how absolutely great this sale is. Buying the pack also grants $5 toward a pre-order of Hitman: Absolution. These deals run through October 20 at 11:59 p.m. PST. Don't be a square and miss out on this sale.[Thanks, Ignatius]
Video: The beefed up AI of Supreme Commander 2 DLC
We're not scientists, but when Gas Powered Games says it's improving Supreme Commander 2 AI in upcoming DLC, we believe them. Why? Because the team claims that units use learning neural nets. You know who else uses a neural net? Data, and ain't no one going to beat Data at Supreme Commander 2.
Final Fantasy 13, Just Cause 2, Supreme Commander 2 cheap on Amazon today
Last Thursday, Amazon discounted a random trio of Square Enix games for its Deal of the Day. Today, three more Squeenix games receive a temporary discount -- and this time, none of them are Nier. If you have yet to decide whether the time-release fun of Final Fantasy 13 is for you, the decision is slightly easier today: it's available for $29.99 on both Xbox 360 and PS3. It's joined by revolutionary mayhem simulator Just Cause 2, which is down to $36.99 on the same two platforms, and $26.99 on PC. Finally, Supreme Commander 2 is supremely cheap at $26.99 on Xbox or $19.99 on PC. Given Amazon's recent Deal of the Day history, if you were planning to buy any other recent Square Enix releases, perhaps you should sit on that purchase for a week, just in case.
Supreme Commander 2 demo now available for Xbox Live Goldies
Whether you're curious about the sweeping changes made since the franchise's initial installment, or you're completely new to the series and want to know exactly how "supreme" it actually is, you can now get a free sneak peek of Gas Powered Games' strategy title Supreme Commander 2. The demo's available today for Xbox Live Gold subscribers, and will be made accessible to lowly Silver peons on April 14. The demo offers two tutorial levels and two quests from the United Earth Federation campaign, one of the title's three factions and single-player storylines. We were holding out hope for a sample of the Juggalo Nation campaign, but we suppose beggars can't be choosers. Additionally, the 2010 FIFA World Cup demo is also available today. Xbox.com: Add Supreme Commander 2 demo to your Xbox 360 download queue Xbox.com: Add 2010 FIFA World Cup demo to your Xbox 360 download queue
Supreme Commander 2 demo now available on Steam
As if you didn't have enough to play this week, RTS fans, with Starcraft II in beta and Command and Conquer 4 about to drop, here comes the Supreme Commander 2 demo, now available for download over on Steam. The demo features 4GB (!) of complex Gas Powered Games RTS goodness, in which you'll be able to try two levels of the tutorial, as well as play through two missions as the United Earth Federation faction. You'll also get to see some of those new units at work, and, we presume, do some supreme commanding. No peerless or incomparable commanders here -- supreme only! One of those new units you can try out is a sea-based experimental submarine for the Cybran faction that's modeled and named after a legendary sea monster. So what are you waiting for? Go download the demo and get kraken!
Supreme Commander 2 screens and units ready for duty
click to see the whole battlefield Big-time RTS Supreme Commander 2 is rolling ever closer to release next month, and to whet your appetite for (unit) production, we've got some new screens and descriptions of three of the units you'll be Supreme Commanding around the battlefield. First up is the Bomb Bouncer, a shielded unit that gains power as it's fired upon and can then throw all of that stored-up damage right back in the faces of any units around it. The Pulinsmash is a unit that creates a vortex to "pull and smash" surrounding units into it, damaging and disrupting them like popcorn in a popper. Finally, the Kraken, as you can see on the right in the picture above, is a sea creature-shaped Cybran experimental submarine that can take down other subs, aircraft and even battlebots on land. Sure, these machines are awesome to go to war with, and we get the whole "commanding the troops" thing, but don't forget that every one of these rank-and-file units has a family. What about the supreme children, Commander? %Gallery-84795%
Supreme Commander 2's European deployment date in line with America
Supreme Commander 2 is set to storm European retail on March 5 and 19, 2010, on PC and Xbox 360, respectively. The release dates fall within the same week as the North American launch. As we noted before, Gas Powered Games' real-time strategy sequel will drop right in the middle of a retail war for consumer currency, the likes of which we've never seen. The game's redeeming quality is that as an RTS -- available for consoles, as well -- it may just survive the 2.8 second life expectancy of a game without massive, effective promotion.
Supreme Commander 2 declares war in March, 2010
Supreme Commander 2 has registered a deployment date of March 2 and 16, 2010, for PC and Xbox 360, respectively. Gas Powered Games' real-time strategy sequel, which is set 25 years after the first game's "Infinite War," will enter retail right in the middle of what we are slowly thinking of calling "the endless Q4." Then again, it is an RTS -- and a console title as well -- so the field isn't as crowded. The original Supreme Commander was well received back in 2007, and Gas Powered's Creative Director Chris Taylor states that the team has "continually exceeded all of [his] expectations throughout [the] development." Check out the video above and see if you agree with how the game is coming along.
Square Enix and Eidos announce joint lineup for Gamescom 2009
Though it's been quite some time since Square Enix and Eidos shacked up, the first time the two share booth space will be at the upcoming European trade show, Gamescom 2009. Aside from bringing the first publicly playable Supreme Commander 2, some highlights include Dissidia Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and ... Nier. Alright, maybe not Nier. The event announcement says that both Final Fantasy XIII (as a franchise unto itself, not just the eponymous iteration) and Final Fantasy XIV will be at the show, though it doesn't detail if hands-on time with either will be available, or how much new info to expect, unfortunately. Finally, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Mini Ninjas will be descending from Eidos' camp. Gamescom 2009 kicks off on August 19 - 23 in Cologne, Germany. (Also, Pony Friends 2 ... finally!)
E3 2009 highlights: The Xbox roundup
E3 was brütal! If you blinked, for a split/second, you missed something. Even if you were trine to keep up, it was a blur -- staying a.wake like that, you only pushed yourself to the brink of your own dark void. That's where Joystiq comes in; to crackdown on the madness; to reach out ... with conviction -- phew! Crysis averted. We've scoured the dark corners and survived the inferno to piece together this roundup of all things Xbox at E3. Why? Just 'cause we love you. So, draw nier and shift your eyes past the break.
Interview: Chris Taylor on Supreme Commander 2, publisher Square Enix and RTS on consoles
Note: This interview was published earlier today, but featured a broken link to the second half. It has now been corrected. We're sorry for the goof-up -- enjoy the conclusion to our interview!Showcasing his team's upcoming RTS, Gas Powered Games CEO Chris Taylor sat down with us at E3 2009 to discuss Supreme Commander 2, console RTS releases and the concepts that didn't work in the original title. Prior to our lengthy chat, Taylor demoed the planned 2010 RTS on hardware we were told was a two year old PC with a new video card.In our short demo we had the opportunity to see advancements made to the game's engine, including new shader and texture technology that Gas Powered Games created in-house. According to Taylor, a major goal for the team at Gas Powered was to create a high performance game, that will "run on 2, 3, 4 maybe 5 year old hardware." While Taylor admits the original title asked for a lot of processing power -- especially in later areas of the game -- the sequel will look better while actually using less polygons than units in the first Supreme Commander.Even in its Alpha build state, Supreme Commander 2 was an impressive title to watch. But how has the series evolved and how will Gas Powered Games improve the franchise? Check after the break for our complete interview Gas Powered CEO, Chris Taylor.
Taylor: Changing design philosophies because of Square Enix partnership would be 'missing the point'
Although we weren't surprised when Gas Powered Games revealed it had been working on a sequel to Supreme Commander, we did scratch our heads at the partnership that would see Japanese publisher Square Enix distribute the title. In a one-on-one interview with Gas Powered CEO Chris Taylor at E3 2009, we wondered if changes to the core design philosophies of Supreme Commander 2 were made due to the new partnership.According to Taylor, Gas Powered Games had similar questions for Square Enix, but were told to maintain the same core philosophies -- philosophies that attracted Square Enix to the Western developer to begin with. "If we changed... we would be missing the point," Taylor told us. Taylor also mentioned a cue they took from Square Enix was they way they "embrace character and story," which is a focus for Gas Powered in Supreme Commander 2. Stay tuned for the complete interview with Chris Taylor, tomorrow.
Taylor: Bringing Supreme Commander to Xbox 360 was a 'hair on fire mission,' sequel developed in-house
In a one-on-one interview with Gas Powered Games CEO Chris Taylor during E3 2009, we questioned why the developer was attempting to bring the series back to the console -- considering the first Supreme Commander port ended with less than stellar results. "I felt bad, the developer who did the Xbox 360 version just did not have the time or the resources," Taylor told us, referring to the team at Hellbent Games -- the developer tapped to bring the THQ published RTS to console in 2008. "It was a hair on fire mission." Hoping to correct errors encountered by bringing the first title to the Xbox 360, Taylor says development of the console version for the Square Enix published sequel is being done by the team at Gas Powered Games. "We're doing it in-house and giving it a lot more time and a lot more resources," Taylor said, admittedly "bullish" the sequel will fare better for console players. "I would be very surprised if it didn't do as well as the PC version." Stay tuned for our full interview with Chris Taylor, tomorrow.
Roundup: GTTV's E3 trailers
Did your late night Canasta tournament keep you away from your television last night, preventing you from catching all of GameTrailers' exclusive ... trailers for a number of highly anticipated titles that will be appearing at E3? Fear not -- we've got them posted conveniently after the break. What games are present and accounted for, you ask? Well, let's see (deep breath): Mass Effect 2, Brutal Legend, Lost Planet 2, Split/Second, Brink, DJ Hero, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Just Cause 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Supreme Commander 2, Dante's Inferno, Madden 10, NHL 10, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, Need for Speed Shift, Alpha Protocol and Heroes of Telara. Check 'em out!
Square Enix announces Front Mission Evolved, NIER
Square Enix's E3 lineup features two surprises, in addition to the expected Final Fantasy stuff: Front Mission Evolved and NIER. While we may have suspected that some kind of Front Mission game was coming, we wouldn't have guessed that it would be a third-person shooter instead of a strategy game, nor that it would be developed by a Western company (Silent Hill: Homecoming's Double Helix Games, specifically). The E3 lineup press release highlights SE's efforts to become a more "global" company, and it hardly gets more "global" than handing one of its existing IPs over to a Western developer to be made into a PS3/Xbox/PC shooter. NIER is a new PS3/360 action game developed by Bullet Witch/Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles maker cavia. Players control NIER, who fights in a "crumbling world" to find a cure for his daughter, who is infected with the "Black Scrawl virus." The announcement also provided a firm release date for DISSIDIA Final Fantasy and its PSP bundle: August 25. The first episode of the WiiWare Final Fantasy IV: The After Years was also dated -- for this Monday! See the whole announced lineup in our gallery. %Gallery-64503%
Gas Powered Games working on Supreme Commander 2
Square Enix Europe announced this morning that it has entered into a "strategic partnership" with Gas Powered Games to release Supreme Commander 2. Squeenix states that its affiliation with the House of Chris Taylor is part of the publisher's "goal of increasing western development efforts aimed for the global markets."The original Supreme Commander was published by THQ, so we're a little confused as to how Square Enix got a hold of the license, unless GPG owned the rights all along. We've contacted THQ, GPG and Squeenix for clarification. No word on when Supreme Commander 2 will mech march to retail.Update: Doing a bit more research, it appears GPG owns the rights to the Supreme Commander franchise.
