A Game of Thrones – Genesis, based on the world from the series by George R.R. Martin and developed by Cyanide Studio, is being released both in retail outlets and digitally on September 29.

The RTS supposedly allows you to use both military and non-military approaches to tackle your enemies.

The single-player campaign, which takes you through the founding events and battles of Westeros, was written under supervision from Martin himself, but a multiplayer option is also available for up to 8 players.

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I have been an Age of Empires fan since the Age of Empires II days. It was my first RTS that I’ve ever played and it cemented my love of the genre. So you can imagine when I heard that there was going to be an Age of Empires Online game, I was intrigued. I figured it would have a lot more PvP aspects to it, and ones that would hopefully be easier to find others to play with than the random matchmaking that had frequent disconnects that I remember from previous titles.

Well I’ve spent approximately the last week playing Age of Empires Online and well, I liked it. Now there are some things that I didn’t really like or were a bit clunky, but overall I enjoyed myself and will for sure play it more. I think the one thing that makes me happiest is that it can be played offline without penalties if you so choose. Good to know I can go offline and my city won’t be sacked.

Like previous AoE games, anyone familiar with the game will be able to breeze through the starter quests with ease. These quests guide new players through the general mechanics in order to familiarize then with how to move around villagers, build army units and improve their culture’s knowledge and defenses. Each quest starts you off with armor and skill points in order to get you started. Once this is over however, you will have to work hard to get better armor and upgraded military. This of course all goes towards furthering yourself with the PvP aspect of the online game.

Unfortunately I didn’t do so well with my PvP games since it seemed that others had spent a lot more time with the game and really leveled up and skilled up much more than I did. Given time though I hope to prove to be a formidable force. The PvP runs better than I thought it would, and I enjoy the interface for it. Players can find 1v1, 2v2 and Ranked matches, while also seeing who the top ranked players are.

Right now only the Greek and Egyptian civilizations will be available at launch, which is fine by me as a fan of all things Egyptian. Civilizations are available as premium packs to purchase, and Gas Powered Games plans to release quite a few once the game is launched. The game is free to play, but only through about 40 hours into the Greeks or Egyptians. This is where a lot of the MMO feel came in for me. You can tell that they have their micro-transactions thought out well. The civilizations will all be priced around $19.99, which can seem a bit steep, but if you plan to just stick with one main civilization isn’t that bad of a price to pay. From then on they plan on releasing more standard cash shop items like special items and armor.

Well I think that’s enough on the good things, let’s delve into some not so good. The graphics are way too cartoonish for me. I know that they’re trying to get more of the kids playing, but the slightly more realistic graphics is why I liked previous AoE games. I can look past it, but it does kill a bit of the asthetic fun of the game for me. The other thing was loading times. Granted most of this can be explained away as a beta issue, which is why this isn’t a complete strike against the game for me, but it is something I’m going to keep an eye on after launch. I also will need to remember that since this is a Game for Windows title, my Xbox friends will actually know when I’m on, and try to invite me to play games and such with them when I’m really on my laptop. I do, however, enjoy that there are achievements.

All in all the good outweigh the bad, and since the game is free to play (for a time) I do highly recommend checking it out at least. As I said, I will continue to expand my Egyptian empire and improve on my city defenses to try and win back some pride in PvP.

“We are very excited to bring Mushroom Wars Online to North America,” said Vladimir Starzhevsky, co-founder and CEO of Creat Studios, Inc. “We have received tremendous response from players about the original title and we are proud to provide even more enjoyable gameplay with Mushroom Wars Online.”

“On YouTube alone, our fans have posted hundreds of videos of their Mushroom Wars matches.” Said Valeriy Pisarkov, Producer of Mushroom Wars Online. “We can’t wait to see the response when we bring it online in December.”

And make sure to check out the Creat Studios blog where you can learn more about the upcoming Mushroom Wars developer tournament where you can play against game developers on April 28th.

What is Valentine’s Day without a little bit of heart?

For the single ladies, it often seems as if we hide our hearts away, behind an inpenetrable shield, protecting ourselves from love and it’s pitfalls. And, for those “cast-iron” hearts, Paradox Interactive has the Valentine’s Day solution: Hearts of Iron – The Card Game.

That’s right – take out all of those feelings of hurt and regret with a good dose of real-time strategy.

Paradox Interactive is another company hopping onto the bandwagon of “online collectible card games”. And for anyone who has had a go at the online Magic: the Gathering collectible card game, you will understand the ideal that Paradox is striving for. Hearts of Iron takes that idea and gives it a “realistic” spin. Players will take on the role of Axis or Allies during the events of World War II, and choose their strategies as they challenge opponents online. The game is being developed internally by Paradox and is the company’s first online TCG.

The game is boasting some good features. The 120 collectible cards use authentic World War II artwork, with 20 more promotional cards added to the mix. There are multiple game modes for the player to engage in, as well as opportunities to build your own deck and trade with other players online through the Paradox Connect system.

Hearts of Iron is scheduled to enter open beta in the coming months and go live later this year. For more information, follow Paradox on Twitter, or check in for updates on their website.

“Medieval sieges were often just long periods of people doing nothing,” explains Simon Bradbury, Stronghold3’s designer. “The besiegers would sometimes catapult all manner of things over the walls, in the hope of causing disease and panic or possibly just to relieve the boredom! Traditionally we’ve had a deceased cow as alternative trebuchet ammo but in Stronghold 3 we’re taking massive development leaps by offering several dead animals to choose from! Once again, I must stress they’re already dead before being launched skywards. They’re no more. They have ceased to be. Bereft of life.”

From today, the Stronghold community can head over to http://www.facebook.com/stronghold3 and vote for one of four creatures to be launched from trebuchets, with the winner appearing in the finished product. The dead beasts will then cause a cloud of disease that seeps through castles, killing anyone in its path – depending upon the size of animal, the cloud will change in size or will split into multiple foul fogs. The options available include:

1. Senile donkey

2. Cage of rabid otters

3. Retired dancing bear

4. Sack of diseased badgers

Since first launching in 2001, the Stronghold series has become one of the most respected in its genre thanks to its mix of precision village building, fast-paced real-time gameplay and dramatic sieges with hundreds of enemies swarming over castles. Stronghold 3 promises to be the best yet, with a keep full of fantastic new features that ensure old and new fans alike experience a gritty slice of medieval life. Stronghold 3 will launch on PC in Q1 2011.

Here’s the list of New Allies added to the game:

Units
Gascon Knights
Ayyubid Bowmen
Ayyubid Infantry
Ayyubid Swordsmen
Archer Elite
Hungarian Light Cavalry

Heroes
Taqi al-Din Umar (Saracen hero)
Arthur of Brittany (Crusader hero)

Mythical Creatures & Units
The Ghost of Godfrey of Toulouse (non-historical Crusader hero)
Saracens from Outer Space (non-historical Saracen unit)
Joan d’Arc (non-historical Crusader hero)
Lancelot (non-historical Crusader hero)

You can read the full description for the New Allies DLC pack at the Lionheart site here, www.Lionhearthegame.com

Rating: T for Teen
Genre: Real-time Strategy
Number of Players: Single and Multiplayer
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Release Date: July 27, 2010

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StarCraft II has been years in the making, and the series itself has stayed strong since it’s initial release in 1998. Now the series makes it’s triumphant return and in three seperate parts which will focus on each of the three playable races: Terran, Protoss and Zerg. The first of these to be released is Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty which focuses on the Terran. Starting up after the events in Brood War, the single player campaign picks up with Jim Raynor who has been ostracised as a criminal by media campaigns by Arcturus Mengsk. the leader of the Dominion.

Raynor is on the far outlying planet Mar Sara where he is working on helping to free the people from the Dominion. He is soon approached by his old friend Tychus Findlay who proposes that Raynor joins up with him to collect Xel’Naga artifacts for the Moebius Foundation. After securing an artifact from a site on Mar Sara the Zerg, who had been silent, launch an attack. After escaping, Raynor finds out that the Zerg have lauched attacks upon Terran systems and that the Dominion have retreated to only defend core worlds.

From there the plot gets pretty good. I enjoyed the fact that there were some missions where I had to make a choice on what to do which then affected the plot for the rest of the game. I also liked the missions with Zeratul as it gave a break from the strict Terran play. Some of the missions did feel a bit repetitive, but then something came along that broke up some of the gathering monotony. I’d say more about the plot, but I’d rather keep it spoiler free. I will say that I did enjoy the ending and can’t wait to see what happens next.

Graphics are highly improved, and the fully rendered cut scenes are amazing, but I was a bit unimpressed with the game rendered scenes. I honestly was disappointed that not all of the scenes were fully rendered. Not that the graphics looked bad, but it just didn’t feel the same. Maybe I’m just spoiled with other games I guess.

Now multiplayer, this was an aspect I was both looking forward to and dreading at the same time. Even back when I was playing the original game, I wasn’t amazing at multiplayer, but after years of not playing the game at all, I’m back to n00b status. Thankfully I can just choose to play with my friends against computers and not feel too ashamed while practicing and trying to get better. There are also some great challenge modes which were designed to help you improve your decision making and skill at the game. It is sad that you can’t do traditional LAN parties with SC2, but in the end I do enjoy the Battle.net functionality. And connecting that with Facebook was fun as I found out which of my friends play (there were a couple of surprises).

As for the overall review of the collector’s edition, I have to say that if you did snag one it was a good decision. The art book is fantastic and I’ve flipped through it several times for myself and to show others. The behind the scenes DVD has some fun features to it, and it’s great to have all of the fully rendered cut scenes in one place to watch whenever I want. And I imported the soundtrack day one since I fell in love with the music from the get go. Plus if I had a full size replica of Raynor’s gun I’d have his dog tag hanging off of it in my office (next to my Lancer and cog tags).

Now I know that there are more hardcore fans than I who were disappointed with the game. I’ve read and listened to what they’ve had to say, and I can understand their feelings. However I still say that if you’ve enjoyed the original StarCraft games, you will enjoy SC2: Wings of Liberty. Not to mention, this is just part one of three for SC2. Something tells me that the other two with different storyline views will expand upon what we have in Wings of Liberty. So I say go out and buy SC2! I’ll be anxiously awaiting to play Heart of the Swarm while working on my PvP skills.

Review copy provided by Blizzard and does not affect the outcome of this review

“Stronghold 3 is an extremely impressive addition to our continually growing portfolio. We believe that Stronghold 3 will be an important growth driver for SouthPeak and that the Stronghold brand will benefit from our proven distribution, sales and marketing expertise. FireFly Studios are creating a true masterpiece, pushing the boundaries of what can be expected in this type of game. Millions of existing fans are sure to be excited by this incredible leap forward and new fans will be introduced to a game of superior quality and exceptionally broad appeal.” ~Melanie Mroz, CEO of SouthPeak Games

Here’s some of what we have to look forward to with Stronghold 3:

• Improved building system allowing unprecedented levels of realism and intricacy in castle and village design
• Realistic physics and cutting-edge graphics bring siege warfare to life in stunning detail
• Story-driven gameplay engages players across two campaigns: combat or economic
• Dramatic nighttime sieges add a new dimension to the Stronghold franchise
• Besiege other players’ castles or defend your own in a range of action-packed online multiplayer modes
• Play through accurately re-created sieges from the pages of history. Will you succeed where others failed?
• Night sieges – where players will have to hunt enemy soldiers cloaked in darkness
• A new graphics engine and a refined physics engine with procedural destruction

For more details you can visit http://www.stronghold3.com/

It’s a good time for strategy game sequels. Starcraft 2, Napoleon: Total War, Command and Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, Supreme Commander 2 and Civilization 5 are all on the radar, and they’re kind of a big deal. Unfortunately RTS (real-time strategy) and TBS (turn-based strategy) games have had a hard time from people that assume strategy games equal building a massive army and throwing your huge mass against the nearest group of things with a different coloured shirt on to yourself. I’m here to hopefully prove you wrong!

Whether you’re the type of person who doesn’t think clicking strategically sounds like their idea of a thrilling time but wants to give them a chance, or whether, like me, you’re a big RTS fan that didn’t get an invite to the Starcraft 2 beta who doesn’t want to idly wallow in self-pity, there’s a must-play classic strategy game out there for you to strengthen your mind-to-click capability!

The Beginner
Viva Piñata – Trouble in Paradise
Platform: Xbox 360
Developer: Rare Ltd
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Release: September 2008

This game is an RTS with a friendly face, but don’t let that put you off if its cuteness doesn’t penetrate your fortress of a heart. You own a garden in which you can grow plants and place structures, the aim of the game is to make your garden a crowd-pleaser to the native Piñatas so that they’ll stay and breed. This family-friendly game might not conjure up the usual thoughts when you think of an RTS, but it has a lot of the traits of the genre, you have a base (your garden), resources to look after (seeds and plants), and units (the Piñatas). It’s an inoffensive, gentle paced game which shouldn’t scare too many people away.

It’s also a game where you can whack creatures in the face with a spade, which is an added bonus. What?

The FPS Freak
Company of Heroes
Platform: PC
Developer: Relic Entertainment
Publisher: THQ
Release: September 2006

So what if it’s set in the flogged dead horse of World War 2, it’s still one of the best RTS games out there. If you like your games full of tanks, the gritty greyness of war, and loud gunshots, this might be the RTS to ease you into the genre. Unlike with some of the other games on this list, the game is less focused on amassing an effective army over time, and more about focusing on tactics in order to capture points on a map. These points provide the resources, which are fuel, manpower, and munitions, there’s no chopping of trees or collecting weird alien crystals to build your units, a refreshing change. For once, the infantry units aren’t just decoys or meatshields. Each man counts, infantry within a squad will be picked off one by one, but you can order one man to go back to base and reinforce if he’s not turning out to be Chuck Norris, which is just the way it should be. There might not be any epic headshots here, but this is a fast-paced, satisfying game. Start off in easy mode though, or you might find your keyboard suddenly broken on the other side of the room.

The Chess Geek
Starcraft
Platform: PC/Mac
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment/Sierra Entertainment
Release: March 1998 (PC)

Obviously if you’re looking forward to Starcraft 2, this is the one to play. Starcraft is widely regarded to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, RTS of all time. There’s not many games that have become a national sport, as Starcraft has in South Korea, let alone one that still remains its hype after ten years.

There’s a space war going on between three mean looking races, the human Terrans, humans that have been exiled from Earth who mainly rely on machinery and explosions, the insectoid Zerg who basically want to infest the planet and genetically alter anything that stands in their path to their likeness, and the Protoss, a cultured race who really just want to keep their advanced technology intact. They all play really differently, so it is inevitable that there will be one race that you grow more attached to than another, but it won’t be because one is overpowered in any way. I like Protoss because they’re pretty. The three races are very different to play, and yet the game remains as balanced as a game of chess. It’s definitely a case of easy to pick up, difficult to master. No superstar Starcraft player in South Korea plays the same way, there are creative players, aggressive players, cautious players, which is testament to how well-balanced it is. So what if the graphics are outdated, Starcraft is all about gameplay, and it delivers this in spades in both the campaigns and the multiplayer. No one complains about the graphics in Tetris.

The RPG Fan
Dawn of War 2
Platform: PC
Developer: Relic Entertainment
Publisher: THQ
Release: February 2009

If you’re not a big fan of the usual RTS formula, Dawn of War 2 is a game that mixes it up a bit. You play as the Space Marines, a force of surgically and mentally enhanced humans covered in heaving armour that pour liquid steroids over their cereal in the morning.

It’s not a feminine game, you play big beefed up space soldiers, but the well written dialogue between the squads in between the campaign can be surprisingly touching at times. There are no bases or units to dither with, and you don’t have to juggle mining resources as there aren’t any. You are given a choice of small squads, each containing a few men, and you can only take a maximum of four into each mission including your Force Commander, which acts a little bit like a hero unit. The combat performs very much like the average RTS, but you are given an inventory to kit out your guys.

Why an inventory? Because you get loot! Greens, blues, purples, they’re all here, and they can skew the game to how you like to play, depending on whether you equip a squad with healing items, a bubble shield, or just a plain big fat rocket launcher. Anything you loot that you don’t need can be converted into experience points to supplement the experience you get elsewhere, and as you gain experience the squads you’re using gain levels. These levels give you points to spend in a skill tree system that is pretty much identical to that of the original Mass Effect’s. The social element is covered by a cooperative campaign mode, and if you’re a fan of achievements, these are given out fairly liberally throughout the campaign through Games for Windows Live.

The Fantasy Nerd
Warcraft III
Platform: PC/Mac
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment/Sierra Entertainment/Capcom
Release: July 2002

I was considering pitching Warcraft III to World of Warcraft fans, but this game is just too good to be limited to them. Obviously, WoW players past and present will get a lot out of this game, as the lore in Warcraft III directly relates to it. Many familiar faces and places are present, and seeing them in a different game is fascinating if you’re familiar with them.

If you’re a Warcraft noob though, you don’t need to worry. Although perhaps a little cliched (although what fantasy story isn’t?), the single player campaigns are an engaging experience. The lore is enthralling from mission to mission, and the cut-scenes are so gorgeous I often found myself looking forward to them. Although the graphics aren’t anywhere near cutting-edge, Blizzard know how to animate, everything has such charm. As for the sound, I guarantee you’ll find yourself clicking units over again, just to squeeze a “zug zug!” out of an orc grunt or a “I never say ni” out of a knight.

Warcraft III is a genuinely entertaining and funny single player game, but you’ll need that sense of good humour for the multiplayer. It’s brilliantly balanced as you’d expect from Blizzard, but there’s a lot of people who have been playing it far too often, never play a Blizzard RTS multiplayer online with strangers if you’re a bad loser. If you’re feeling very brave, DotA (defense of the ancients) game modes are pure genius, many decent full games like Demigod and League of Legends have been unashamedly based on them.

The Megalomaniac
Civilization 4
Platform: PC/Mac
Developer: Firaxis Games
Publisher: 2K Games/Aspyr
Release: October 2005

Ever wanted to take over the world? This one might be your game, as the focus is world domination .This turn-based strategy game plays a lot like a padded-out, electronic version of Risk. In Civilisation 4 you are put in charge of the nation of your choice, and it is your job as Caesar, Gengis Khan, Queen Elizabeth I, or whoever you want to be, to guide your people from being an ancient civilisation to being able to colonise in space. Yes, world leaders are immortal. Conspiracy! How quickly you progress on your journey from spears to space rockets depends on how far ahead of the competition your nation is in terms of economic status, cultural status, diplomacy, your technology research, or simply, how quickly you kill off your competition.

This variety of ways to win means that this is a game with so much replayability it’s unreal. The AI seems surprisingly intelligent and adapts well to whatever route you’re going whatever difficulty you’re playing in, and multiplayer gets mysteriously addictive when you begin to feel the urge to get revenge on someone that’s messing up your favourite city. Also, Leonard Nimoy does the narration, which is a geeky bonus.

By the way, don’t let Ghandi fool you, he’s really a massive jerk.

The Natural Leader
Rome: Total War
Platform: PC/Mac
Developer: The Creative Assembly
Publisher: Activision/Sega
Release: September 2004

There’s not really any word to describe this game other than “epic”. If you fancy leading a truly massive legion of soldiers and catapults, this game will send you on the power trip you’ve been waiting for. Rome: Total War is a TBS, but with massive real time battles. The fact that you can zoom in to see your large mass of perfectly regimented soldiers, but can zoom out to see an overview of the lands you occupy, gives a grand sense of scale. It’s quite frankly awe-inspiring at times. Especially when you zoom in on your fleeing elephant units turning all human matter in front of them into a big squishy mess on the grass. They make me so proud.
The use of animals in this game is inspired. Where else can you play a game in which you cover a pig with tar, set it alight, and then send it squealing into the opposition, just like the Romans did? Mmm. Bacon. The dogs are fierce, the elephants are sturdy, the horses are skittish, the pigs are on fire, and they all react how you’d expect them to.

There’s a game mode for everyone, there’s short battles, which you can set up yourself. It’s inevitable that you’ll try to make a dogs versus peasants battle. There’s also more authentic battles in the form of actual historical battles. As for the campaign, there’s short campaigns which will please casual gamers, and more involved campaigns which can take a very long time.

This isn’t just one of the best strategy games of all time, it’s one of the best games of all time. You should give it a try before it looks completely dated.

The Joker
Red Alert 2
Platform: PC
Developer: Westwood Pacific
Publisher: EA Games
Release: October 2000

Red Alert 2 is basically an RTS set in a Cold War that’s set in a dream of someone that’s eaten a lot of cheese before bedtime. This is a light-hearted, fast-paced game, which doesn’t really leave any moment to get bored. It’s Soviets vs Allies as you might expect, and each has it’s own campaign to work through. Even the cut scenes, where you might usually zone out a little bit, are a blast as they consist of live action cut-scenes, acted out by real actors. They’re bad. Really bad. However, the game is fully aware that they’re cheesy, and therefore a lot of it comes across very much tongue-in-cheek which makes them lovable and laughable. Actually, it’s quite a bit funnier when the actors do take themselves seriously.

There aren’t really any ground-breaking ideas within the gameplay which makes this game vividly unique, but what it does, it does well. All of the units are balanced, and there’s very much a feeling of rock-paper-scissors, it’s easy to pick up which units will beat and be beaten by others. Apart from the nuke. That’ll beat everything.

If you’re the kind of person that rolls their eyes at Adam Sandler films, or if you cringe when heavy metal music is used to emphasise masculinity, this might not be the game for you. If you’re the kind of person that can forgive a game for not being edgy, and just switch your brain off for a while, then this is a thoroughly enjoyable, hilarious game. I hate using this word, but it’s wacky.

The Misanthrope
Defense Grid: The Awakening
Platform: PC/XBLA
Developer: Hidden Path Entertainment
Publisher: Aspyr Media
Release: December 08/September 09

Humans are dead, hooray! In this game, it’s just you and a friendly AI that sounds as comforting as a favourite grandad, and you’re fighting aliens together.

If you know what a tower defense game is, then you’ll know exactly the type of gameplay that is offered here. You have a range of towers that are available to you as the game progresses, and they all do different things. The aim of the game is to place these towers strategically in a way that means that the enemies cannot make it from one side of the map to the other.

In each level, there can be anything from 5 to 30 waves of aliens, or even 99 if you choose to do the grinder modes. This may sound like a large amount for a level, but the game has incorporated an ingenious fast forward mode and a checkpoint rewind function. This means the game can take whatever pace you like, and that you can rewind to a sensible spot if you really weren’t prepared for what was about to come.

The levels really force you to think, it’s not rare to have to sit and think for a good few minutes at the beginning of one.

There’s a very well written story, and the AI character really evolves as you progress through the game. This non-creepy, robotic Santa-Claus sounding, friend of yours becomes one of the real hooks of the game, it’s nice to have an added endearing side to a game that could potentially become very repetitive. He’s even lovable when he won’t stop talking about raspberries.

The One Who Thinks Outside The Box
Homeworld
Platform: PC/Mac
Developer: Relic Entertainment
Publisher: Sierra Entertainment
Release: September 1999

I’m not going to lie, this game has not kept its youthful looks, but its heart is still beautiful.

You play as the Kharakid, and your race is not feeling like it’s at home on its homeworld. You’re different to all of the native species on Kharak, and you’re constantly fleeing the sun as the desert is spreading. Eventually, everything begins to make sense, as a strange ship is discovered, and it turns out that the Kharakid really aren’t native to their planet. This ship contains a lot of unknown technology, which provides your race an escape route to get off Kharak, and back to their true homeworld. However, it turns out that your race are a bit naive as to what’s out there in space.

In Homeworld, you control your fleet of ships, you build them upgrade them, move them. This being space, you can move anywhere you want, it’s not confined to a 2d plane. This can be confusing at first, but when you get the hang of the controls, it’s totally liberating. This is not an easy game, but there’s always a reason in the story for the parts that get a bit difficult, so it never really ends up being needlessly frustrating.
The story is amazing. If you’re the type of person that’ll shed a tear in a movie, I can guarantee you’ll be moved by certain parts of the brilliantly written story. The storyline is reinforced by some of the best sound found in an RTS, it really is phenomenal. The voice acting is touching and superbly executed, and the music, well. Let’s just say the third mission has one of the best uses for Adagio for Strings ever. You’ll need to dab your eyes. The cutscenes are animated, and could be released on their own. If you’re a sucker for a good, arty animation, they don’t get much better than these. The in-game graphics are honestly a bit rubbish now as they’re very dated, but if you have a good imagination, this game is pure art. You will be gripped, and you will be moved.

Forget Heavy Rain, this game was way before its time in challenging film as a medium.

I had a chance to sit in a demo of Supreme Commander 2 developed by Gas Powered Games.  Supreme Commander 2 is set 25 years after the original game, beginning with the assassination of the newly elected president of the Colonial Defense Coalition (CDC).  The members of the CDC including the United Earth Federation (UEF), the Order of the Illuminate, and the Cybran Nation all deny any involvement and point the fingers at each other which results in a massive galactic war.

This sequel is published by Square Enix and with this partnership they hope to take the RTS genre to the next level by integrating more story elements and characters to the game.  A comparison of the History Channel vs Saving Private Ryan was named as an example – by going more into their lives but still keeping the focus on the strategy and the military.

I have to admit, I’ve not played a lot of strategy games…ok…I’ve not played any, unless Civilization Revolution counts and from what most people say, it doesn’t.  As the demo moved on, I understood why.  First off, even though the game is not polished and is in its earlier stages of development, the game looks magnificent.  They’ve introduced a brand new rendering engine for the game with massive verticality.  Typical RTS games have a rather awkward boundary where you can’t really get a feel for the world around you and here, you have access to all of it. You can zoom into battle right away – as you could in the original game.

They really focused intensely on performance. The demo was run on a computer that was over 2 years old and it looked and performed great.  One of the reasons why I don’t PC game was that I could never keep up with the never ending costs of upgrading my PC which is why I stick to the console.  With Supreme Commander 2, they wanted you to be able to play the game on a 3, 4 or even a 5 year old computer with out too many issues – we all know that there is always something!

We were shown one of the new units in the game – the NOAH Unit Cannon.  You can build units in it and fire them clear across the map.  Another unit was the UEF Armored Command Unit – which is like a giant robot that can be upgraded with jump jets, torpedos, anti-aircraft guns, shoulder artillery, and more.  You can upgrade the head to detach and become an escape pod to fly back to the base to rebuild your Commander.  You can also add Core Dump so that your commander doesn’t become a nuclear bomb in your own base.

There are now three diverse factions – the UEF, the Cybran Nation, and the Illuminate.  They have all been redesigned since the original game.  New designs and enhanced looks along with new tricks that can be unlocked by doing research.  Research is one of the new features in the game to learn more and discover new technology and will offer more playability to the game as well.

The game will be available on the Xbox 360 and the PC and the content between the two will be the same with the exception of the User Interface and they are focusing on making sure that the game will fit for optimal performance.

Seeing that RTS games can go for hours, I was curious if there was a quick play mode and they are working to get games to play on a smaller scale like 30-60 minutes instead of 2 or more hours.  The campaign is run linearly so you play one battle after another.  There is one story and one timeline so that at the end of the third leg of the campaign, you have finished the whole story and have one outcome for the galaxy.

The economy system has been improved so that you will have to have Mass and Energy on hand in order to purchase a unit.  In the previous game, you could purchase units regardless and then there would be a stall in the economy if you didn’t have enough mass and energy.  Now if you purchase something, it is done.

With the improvements to the economy system as well as the readability of the units, the campaign should introduce the player to all the elements of the RTS genre.  The game also features a detailed tutorial for beginners.

They use neural net AI and run hundreds of thousands of simulations in the game and before the game ships , they will do it one last time to educate the neural net with the latest data for balancing and tuning.  The game will have the ability to change strategies on the fly using the neural net versus scripting, as it has been done in the past.

No DLC is planned at this time, although it will be supported, so we will have to keep an out out for new maps possibly.

Multiplayer will follow what was done in the first Supreme Commander.

Supreme Commander 2 will be available in 2010 for the Xbox 360 and PC.