Supreme Commander 2 Demo Arrives on Steam, Steamworks DRM Confirmed

Will there be a 360 demo?

J.T

Now all we need is a Rise of Nations remake.

Has anyone been able to cancel their pre-order on steam? I submitted a request for it, is there another way to go about it?

Incredibly disappointed.

Some things I liked about it, such as the tech tree and excellent performence. However, they cut way too many corners and when playing Sup Com 2 beta.

I felt like the experimentals were experimental in the sense of they were a prototype for something greater, but had yet to be scaled up to a true fear inducing, monolithic death machine. I miss the "old" experimentals, where they truly seemed cutting edge technology and monstrous works of art that having just one on the battlefield could completely change the tide of a battle. No more fear of knowing a mavor will be built, and having to focus all your forces on taking it down before it goes up, as it was a terribly effective game ender. A GC or monkeylord approaching your base, subcommanders to teleport into the backlines and tear apart the enemies economy...upgrading mass extractors, more units to choose from, much larger line of sight, a "fluid" economy, multiple engineers building a single structure, deficit spending without needing to have all the resources to build something at the same time, etc. It's ALL GONE! I can't say that I like the "Disney" colors either...I preferred the more gritty look of TA and Sup Com 1.

I'm canceling my preorder. At least I know that Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising is catered to PC gamers. I used to be a HUGE fan of Chris Taylor, but he's lost his edge, and I think that Square Enix may have had something to do with it as well, as we all know how much influence a publisher has on the devs. But regardless, CT used to be my "go to guy" if I wanted great RTS games that catered to my preferred gameplay style. Now his RTS games, or at least this one, is on par wtih, if not worse than his RPG games. I smell another Space Siege...lots of hype, utter disappointment. I'm really happy we got a demo to try it out first. Almost nobody does that anymore...

My demo review/rant/message to Chris Taylor and the SupCom2 Devs:

I'm 29 and I've been gaming since I can remember. I still remember the days when I played the original TA in 1997. That game, its expansion, and the original SupCom were fantastic games. I've played TA via the Spring engine a bunch as well, and playing the game with friends always resulted in epic memories and battles.

People complained about some of the changes in SupCom and the way the tech tiers progressed, but balance issues aside, the gameplay felt very similar to the original. This fact along with the recent videos made me pretty excited for SupCom2. I thought the new experimentals were interesting, and the research/tech/upgrades system sounded like a great way to add depth to an already awesomely complex and engaging series. I was completely ready to buy a new, upgraded version.

However, having played the demo, I just can't help but feel as though everything is too simple. The depth the series had is gone. What's left is just a shell. The feeling of accomplishment of building a gigantic unit is gone due to the low cost and low hitpoints of the experimentals, which are now basically flashy mass produced crap.

The economy that always made the series unique has been trashed in favor of the same old standard RTS resource model. Whatever happened to deficit spending? Queueing up giant forests of turrets/dragon's teeth/walls/etc is gone. Partially building stuff and having to stop and watch it decay because you need the materials for some other emergency is gone. Setting up a never ending queue or loop of units is gone.

WHAT THE HELL were you thinking when you stripped away everything that made the TA series unique and wonderful? Is nothing sacred in the world of multi-platform gaming? Gaming has gone from an art form to mass produced crap just like the rest of mainstream America. Do yourselves a favor and stay away from this thing.

Huge points for actually putting a demo out before the game's release, though. That does say you stand by your product and you're willing to let people try before they buy. Way too many game companies hype up sequels people end up regretting purchases of because there wasn't a demo. I'd be willing to say 50%+ of game piracy numbers are people wanting to try games or sequels to awesome games that don't have demos, confirming their disappointment in the new game and uninstalling it.

If this is the intended direction for the TA franchise and the devs are honestly behind the changes, then good for you guys and I wish you luck or something...I'm just extremely disappointed and I will not be along for the ride.

I hate posting TL;DR versions since it feels like I'm dumbing down my post for idiots, but if you're having an ADD moment, it's CRAP.

I'm happy with the steamworks integration... I think this game will live longer online thanks to this...

ugh, I just pre-ordered sup com2 since i loved TA and SupCom1.......... this demo feels meh, its like a step backwards from Supreme commander 1 in terms of graphics, controls...

what teh F chris, way to consoletard a good game..


The textures are horrible, what a dissapointment... I wonder if I can cancel my preorder off steam, seriously, the graphics are worst than Sup COm 1.. .wow

You can play the demo, or you can preorder and save five bucks.

No one will be doing both.

Another Steam-infected game. No buy from me.

I am looking for my new RTS fix, and nothing is here except for a race to release dumbed down games ala CNC4 and SupCom2 for this dumbed down Generation of Apple iTards. Sad time to be alive to play videogames, in all honesty, I will just have to give in and play Starcraft2 (shudders)

I can't tell whether the 'out-dated box form' comment in the story is a sarcastic remark, a lift from the press release, or a way of trying to influence the reader towards Steam.

Also, does the game just require Steam to be installed, or does it also require a Steam account? In which case, why is it that I have to sign into a third party 's database to play a single player game?

My demo impressions in short - Get Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. It's superior in every way. Gameplay and Graphically. This is a huge step backwards for the franchise.

How big is the demo? I long for the day when a 20 minute demo is a 6 gig download. I am hoping this is the one.

I actually enjoyed it. In a "what Red Alert 3 should have been" kind of way.

Though from the first video I was expected a dirty mashup of SC1 and Demigod.

I feel bad watching all those corny ad videos for the game and listening to Chris Taylor talk like this is the best game ever.. I thought something was up when I saw some generic units ....stationary, shooting at some spinning piece of junk (the pullnsmash) that did nothing except make a unit explode.

Cheesy crap...... This game is geared toward 10 year olds judging from the crap dialogue in the demo and dumbed down economy/techtrees.

I suspect this game will be bargain bin steam fodder for PC in a couple months like Demigod is on Impulse.

I'm no longer looking forward to anything from GPG.

I just don't understand the Steam hate.. I have a place to get my games without having to go to a big-box retailer . I always have my games available when i want them. They tend to be well supported and updated in a timely fashion. Some developers have already separated their products from the mandatory login process.

really who has contributed more to PC gaming than Steam has at this point? I would hedge bets that they are one of the driving forces that has kept my preferred gaming platform relevant and innovative.

Now onto the demo, well let's just say that this feels like another situation of catering to the console crowd rather than sticking to it's roots.

//slashies rule

i've played the demo for five hours. the gameplay is a step backwards. i am tired of my steam username and laboring with the steam client to play games.

Can't really blame Taylor after what happened with Demigod.

So I loaded up the game again, I can't believe how much they neutered this game so they wouldn't have to do much to port it to the PC and xbox360. The animations are horrible, texture quality is way down, the shaders are horrible.

I give this demo a 3.0/10 , 1 point for the demo loading, 2 for breaking my heart.

Only played for a couple of minutes, but I noticed a couple of things -

1: The game still has that wonky two-screen thing where the mouse is not locked to the game if you have two monitors. So if you leave your second monitor on and play the game on one monitor, your mouse will float back to your desktop if you scroll out of the game field. Awesome work.

2: Grouping together engineers no longer lets you build items that they can all build. Looks like you have to select one engineer, start the construction, then select all the other nearby engineers to assist him. Kind of stupid.

Not impressed. I love Supreme Commander 1 but this game is blatantly not polished.

By the way, WTH is going on with SC2 preorder bonuses? Different online stores list EXCLUSIVE online maps! Like Game.co.uk has 2 exclusive maps and Play.com has some DIFFERENT exclusive maps. How is that going to work? Huh?

Tried the demo, just didn't do it for me. Seems like we are back to the old spam one or two units thing. Story has fallen flat too, Nathan Drake is not going to save it. Who knows though? Maybe it gets better, but I think I'm going to wait on this one.

Wtf? March 2 release? Just last week they were talking about experimental units, and now a release?? Oh wow.

Very interested in this, hope its good.

Sweet! Downloading now. Really excited about this game. Mobile radar bots? Vast fields of power generators and mass fabricators? Is that 2d or 3d terrain? The only thing that could top this is a System Shock 3 announcement.

So anyone ever play Star Wolves 2?