PC fans, hold your tongue. RTS games can and have worked and worked well on consoles to this point. Supreme Commander sets to raise the bar even higher by offering more units, deeper gameplay and much smoother gameplay for those without keyboards. When we got a look at Supreme Commander recently, it looked really well, even with more development time.

In its current state, Supreme Commander for Xbox 360 is playable but still has its issues.  From a technical standpoint, the game still needs some time and the controls are not as precise as they need to be for the RTS genre to be represented well on the 360.  Despite these slight missteps, the game has a lot going for it.  The original Supreme Commander on PC was well received and garnered good reviews.  The story and features it possessed on PC will show up for its 360 debut. 

In the game itself, you play as one of three sci-fi inspired factions during the Infinite War, a war that has been going on for 1,000 years.  The D-pad allows you to build units and structures, assign groups, set up build queues, and issue orders.  Using the left stick, the player may move freely around the battlefield while using the right stick to zoom in or out and rotate the camera.  Your face buttons allow you to select and unselect items on screen.  Finally, the right bumper allows you to chain commands together to be executed in that order.

Meta- tools have also made the jump to Xbox 360 is great shape.  These tools allow players to easily manipulate the battlefield by doing simple tasks such as factory aid in which one factory aids another of the same type by taking over part of the first’s build queue.  Another meta-tool allows players to move units quickly across a battlefield.  These meta-tools make it a breeze for a console controller to control a massive war zone and they improve the game’s overall playability.

The precision or lack there of, comes into play when you try to select enemies only to find that you have missed them.  With the controller in hand, it is easy enough to move about the map and select your troops.  It is the finer points of the game that suffer in the heat of battle.  The game can become frustrating when selecting and attacking enemies just doesn’t seem to work.  Thankfully, due to the recent delay, developer Hellbent Games should have plenty of time to iron out the controls.   

As far as new content goes, there is some being offered up. Three new units, one for each of the three factions, and two new multiplayer maps will be included with the new release.  The new multiplayer modes should be familiar to most players including King of the Hill and Command Point.  King of the Hill centers around a single control point and awards players points for occupying it.  In Command Point, there are multiple bases which must be captured and defended.  Just as in King of the Hill, players will earn points for controlling these bases. 

With some extra time, Supreme Commander could offer up the premier real time strategy experience for console lovers everywhere.  As Supreme Commander gets closer to launch, we continue to keep you in the know on this Sci-Fi title.

New Units include:
United Earth Federation
Tech 2 Bombers
Tech 2 Gatling Bots
Tech 3 Anti-Artillery Shield*
Cybran
Tech 2 Rocket Bot
Tech 2 Bomber
Tech 1 Stealth Submarine*

Aeon
Tech 2 Suicide Bomber
Tech 3 shield Disruptor
Tech 1 Stationary Artillery*
Items marked * are brand new to the Xbox 360. All others are from the PC expansion pack “Forged Alliance”