regua
03-27-2008, 02:48 PM
by PacManPolarBear (http://sarcasticgamer.com/forums/../wp/index.php/author/pacmanpolarbear/)
http://sarcasticgamer.com/forums/../wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/shortbus-copy.jpg
Consoles are the kingpins of gaming right now, no question about it. They dominate in every genre except MMO and RTS titles. Does that stop developers from trying to bring the last two bastions of the PC market over to console? Hell no! RTS titles have been making shameful appearances here and there on the consoles lately, with less than stellar results. Case in point, the Xbox 360 version of Supreme Commander, which has to be one of the stupidest ideas ever. Even dumber than the new Knight Rider TV show. Yeah, I went there.
I’m gonna tell you all about this trainwreck and how it’s gimped for the 360, after the jump!
Supreme Commander, or SupCom, as I like to call it, is bar none, the most epic, large scale RTS title of its kind. With unit numbers reaching into the high hundreds, gigantic maps and a zoom setup that quite literally changed RTS tactics and control, Supreme Commander may not be the most popular RTS ever, but it’s most definitely a trend setter.
Back in November, news that Hellbent Games was developing an Xbox 360 version of the game published by Aspyr Media was announced, making every RTS gamer with even a lick of sense ask themselves “WTF?” Recently, word has come down that the release date for the 360 version of Supreme Commander has been pushed back to “later this spring or early summer.” When the game is tentatively scheduled to be released, the game will be almost a year and a half behind the PC version and will arrive on the console market where the RTS genre has yet to develop any sort of niche.
We already have another big name RTS on consoles, C&C3, which pulled in an 82 on MetaCritic. That is impressive, but anyone who played the PC version immediately recognizes that speed and tactics suffer on consoles. Even with the “all action, no strategy” focus of the new C&C games, there is only so much you can do with a gamepad. This is probably why nobody is crazy enough to even attempt to make RTS games cross-platform compatible. (Except Universe at War, good luck with that!)
Transferring a “relatively” simple game like C&C3 to console is one thing, converting one of the largest, most tactically detailed and deep RTS titles on the market, is a whole other can o’crazy. Something I have no doubt the crew over at Hellbent Games is painfully aware of.
“Yeah, yeah PMPB, you love SupCom, hate C&C3, cherish your PC and loathe consoles, we get it!”
If only it was that cut and dry. I do love SupCom and my PC, but anything that strengthens the SupCom franchise and spreads the love of RTS games to a huge segment of the market is definitely a good thing in my book. IF the differences between the two platforms are at least comparable. To date, they are not even close.
http://sarcasticgamer.com/forums/../wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/control-copy.jpg
Let’s talk for a minute about what your NOT going to get on the 360. Say goodbye to 8 player maps. Say goodbye to a 1000 unit limit, the 360 will only support 500. Those two changes alone literally hack the scale of the game in half. To be fair, there isn’t anything on console right now that can compare to 500 controllable units so I guess it’s still “kind of a big deal.”
Console gamers are also used to their little multi-player matches, so maybe playing with only 4 people at a time is not THAT big a deal. Unless of course you know that stuff WAS available on an almost 2 year old PC game.
How about control? Listen to this control scheme and just try and tell yourself that it sounds like a great way to play a complex RTS game. You scroll with the left stick, zoom with the right. Almost everything in the 360 version is done with command wheels which you access using the D-pad and then choose the appropriate command with the analog stick and pressing A. The queue system is probably the easiest to use of SupCom’s 360 controls. You simply select a factory, press right on the D pad to bring up the build wheel and select a unit to build. Pushing left on the D-pad will then bring you over to the queue window where you can add additional units. Holding down the right button while adding to the queue will add five at a time. The “infinite” build button, a must for SupCom, is also present, allowing you to continuously build whatever units you have in the queue.
In order to mitigate the pain of constructing intricate and large scale bases, the 360 version relies on templates. Gamers can save a group of buildings among a bunch of template arrangements and place them were ever you want. Templates are saved independently of your current game, so you can carry them over match to match.
What about grouping? Once again gamers will use a wheel that will allow you to select units by type and see how many of a given type are idle. You can select multiple units of the same type by pressing A twice. Or you can hold down A and create a “box” to encompass all the units you want to select.
Because of the 360 version’s “wheel-based” system, there are fewer heads-up display items on-screen. The interactive tutorial will help gamers learn the controls. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to configure the controls any way you like, but you CAN control “magnetism” (how fast the screen moves to a selected unit/location) and whether or not you can rotate the map when zoomed out! The “magnetism’ feature is a must, since trying to control the camera over large maps and hundreds of units will no doubt be a pain.
Read on for the rest of the scoop on one of my favorite RTS games that is coming to the 360.
The campaign will be the same as the original, minus the Forged Alliance expansion, but will apparently borrow from some of the expansions AI improvements. Online multi-player will be limited to four players but will include two new “so freaking basic it hurts” game modes; King of the Hill and Command Point.
Rather than emphasize tactics and focused control over your vast (500 units? lame.) armies, King of the Hill will reward you for spamming. The goal is to send as many units as possible to a certain point on the map. You get points for each unit that makes it there, with higher tech level units earning you more points. Command Point requires you to capture and hold several points on a map. Get those templates ready because once you super speed to those points you gotta defend them. When did SupCom become WarHammer 40,000?
Now, all those control mechanics will surely make the game playable, but by no stretch of the imagination, will it be even close to the speed and precision of the PC version. It also isn’t going to look as good, as the game will have significantly lower resolution textures. Want to select a strike force, select multiple singular targets to destroy, select another strike force and do the same thing, meanwhile controlling two other battles, your many build queues, have your aircraft cover your approach and micro-manage the movements of your experimental units? Are you nuts? You can do all those things, but by the time your done scrolling through wheels and playing with your D-pad, a PC gamer has already won his match, celebrated with a cold beer, posted of his victory in the forums and gone to bed.
Basically both the scope and the tactics are being reduced, IMO, to your standard sloppy spam tactics. Just the idea of trying to precisely select numerous individual units (not everything is done by groups) and commanding them to do specific things while in the heat of a battle sounds like a freaking nightmare; a gamepad is just not that accurate. Even the ability to quickly scroll through idle units and issue specific orders can’t change that.
Goodbye tactics, hello clashing pools of armies. Yay?
This past year has seen my desire to purchase a console of my very own grow. Titles like GTA IV have definitely sparked my interest. My heart, however, will always belong to the PC and RTS titles. If C&C3 and SupCom’s 360 take on RTS games are any indication, that will never change. If you hate deep tactical control and precision, than the 360 version of SupCom will most likely rock your world. If you actually like strategy however, your better off staying on the PC, where RTS still stands for something.
Source: IGN (http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/846/846324p2.html) & GameSpot (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6188366.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;4) & GameSpot (http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/strategy/supremecommander/news.html?page=1&sid=6184859)
http://sarcasticgamer.com/forums/../wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/shortbus-copy.jpg
Consoles are the kingpins of gaming right now, no question about it. They dominate in every genre except MMO and RTS titles. Does that stop developers from trying to bring the last two bastions of the PC market over to console? Hell no! RTS titles have been making shameful appearances here and there on the consoles lately, with less than stellar results. Case in point, the Xbox 360 version of Supreme Commander, which has to be one of the stupidest ideas ever. Even dumber than the new Knight Rider TV show. Yeah, I went there.
I’m gonna tell you all about this trainwreck and how it’s gimped for the 360, after the jump!
Supreme Commander, or SupCom, as I like to call it, is bar none, the most epic, large scale RTS title of its kind. With unit numbers reaching into the high hundreds, gigantic maps and a zoom setup that quite literally changed RTS tactics and control, Supreme Commander may not be the most popular RTS ever, but it’s most definitely a trend setter.
Back in November, news that Hellbent Games was developing an Xbox 360 version of the game published by Aspyr Media was announced, making every RTS gamer with even a lick of sense ask themselves “WTF?” Recently, word has come down that the release date for the 360 version of Supreme Commander has been pushed back to “later this spring or early summer.” When the game is tentatively scheduled to be released, the game will be almost a year and a half behind the PC version and will arrive on the console market where the RTS genre has yet to develop any sort of niche.
We already have another big name RTS on consoles, C&C3, which pulled in an 82 on MetaCritic. That is impressive, but anyone who played the PC version immediately recognizes that speed and tactics suffer on consoles. Even with the “all action, no strategy” focus of the new C&C games, there is only so much you can do with a gamepad. This is probably why nobody is crazy enough to even attempt to make RTS games cross-platform compatible. (Except Universe at War, good luck with that!)
Transferring a “relatively” simple game like C&C3 to console is one thing, converting one of the largest, most tactically detailed and deep RTS titles on the market, is a whole other can o’crazy. Something I have no doubt the crew over at Hellbent Games is painfully aware of.
“Yeah, yeah PMPB, you love SupCom, hate C&C3, cherish your PC and loathe consoles, we get it!”
If only it was that cut and dry. I do love SupCom and my PC, but anything that strengthens the SupCom franchise and spreads the love of RTS games to a huge segment of the market is definitely a good thing in my book. IF the differences between the two platforms are at least comparable. To date, they are not even close.
http://sarcasticgamer.com/forums/../wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/control-copy.jpg
Let’s talk for a minute about what your NOT going to get on the 360. Say goodbye to 8 player maps. Say goodbye to a 1000 unit limit, the 360 will only support 500. Those two changes alone literally hack the scale of the game in half. To be fair, there isn’t anything on console right now that can compare to 500 controllable units so I guess it’s still “kind of a big deal.”
Console gamers are also used to their little multi-player matches, so maybe playing with only 4 people at a time is not THAT big a deal. Unless of course you know that stuff WAS available on an almost 2 year old PC game.
How about control? Listen to this control scheme and just try and tell yourself that it sounds like a great way to play a complex RTS game. You scroll with the left stick, zoom with the right. Almost everything in the 360 version is done with command wheels which you access using the D-pad and then choose the appropriate command with the analog stick and pressing A. The queue system is probably the easiest to use of SupCom’s 360 controls. You simply select a factory, press right on the D pad to bring up the build wheel and select a unit to build. Pushing left on the D-pad will then bring you over to the queue window where you can add additional units. Holding down the right button while adding to the queue will add five at a time. The “infinite” build button, a must for SupCom, is also present, allowing you to continuously build whatever units you have in the queue.
In order to mitigate the pain of constructing intricate and large scale bases, the 360 version relies on templates. Gamers can save a group of buildings among a bunch of template arrangements and place them were ever you want. Templates are saved independently of your current game, so you can carry them over match to match.
What about grouping? Once again gamers will use a wheel that will allow you to select units by type and see how many of a given type are idle. You can select multiple units of the same type by pressing A twice. Or you can hold down A and create a “box” to encompass all the units you want to select.
Because of the 360 version’s “wheel-based” system, there are fewer heads-up display items on-screen. The interactive tutorial will help gamers learn the controls. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to configure the controls any way you like, but you CAN control “magnetism” (how fast the screen moves to a selected unit/location) and whether or not you can rotate the map when zoomed out! The “magnetism’ feature is a must, since trying to control the camera over large maps and hundreds of units will no doubt be a pain.
Read on for the rest of the scoop on one of my favorite RTS games that is coming to the 360.
The campaign will be the same as the original, minus the Forged Alliance expansion, but will apparently borrow from some of the expansions AI improvements. Online multi-player will be limited to four players but will include two new “so freaking basic it hurts” game modes; King of the Hill and Command Point.
Rather than emphasize tactics and focused control over your vast (500 units? lame.) armies, King of the Hill will reward you for spamming. The goal is to send as many units as possible to a certain point on the map. You get points for each unit that makes it there, with higher tech level units earning you more points. Command Point requires you to capture and hold several points on a map. Get those templates ready because once you super speed to those points you gotta defend them. When did SupCom become WarHammer 40,000?
Now, all those control mechanics will surely make the game playable, but by no stretch of the imagination, will it be even close to the speed and precision of the PC version. It also isn’t going to look as good, as the game will have significantly lower resolution textures. Want to select a strike force, select multiple singular targets to destroy, select another strike force and do the same thing, meanwhile controlling two other battles, your many build queues, have your aircraft cover your approach and micro-manage the movements of your experimental units? Are you nuts? You can do all those things, but by the time your done scrolling through wheels and playing with your D-pad, a PC gamer has already won his match, celebrated with a cold beer, posted of his victory in the forums and gone to bed.
Basically both the scope and the tactics are being reduced, IMO, to your standard sloppy spam tactics. Just the idea of trying to precisely select numerous individual units (not everything is done by groups) and commanding them to do specific things while in the heat of a battle sounds like a freaking nightmare; a gamepad is just not that accurate. Even the ability to quickly scroll through idle units and issue specific orders can’t change that.
Goodbye tactics, hello clashing pools of armies. Yay?
This past year has seen my desire to purchase a console of my very own grow. Titles like GTA IV have definitely sparked my interest. My heart, however, will always belong to the PC and RTS titles. If C&C3 and SupCom’s 360 take on RTS games are any indication, that will never change. If you hate deep tactical control and precision, than the 360 version of SupCom will most likely rock your world. If you actually like strategy however, your better off staying on the PC, where RTS still stands for something.
Source: IGN (http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/846/846324p2.html) & GameSpot (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6188366.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;4) & GameSpot (http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/strategy/supremecommander/news.html?page=1&sid=6184859)