PC Gamer - UK (2022-07)

dismissing Supreme Commander
while it was still at the peak of its
influence, complaining that the
game was more sizzle than steak
compared to its deeper, but
considerably uglier peers. (After all,
Company of Heroes came out a year
before.) I would never claim to be an
expert of the genre, but after
surviving the temporal horror of the
boot-up, where it becomes
excruciatingly clear that we’re all
deteriorating right alongside the
video games we used to play, I can
say for certain that Gas Powered
Games got a bad rap. The studio was
clearly in love with their tech, and

gave the player ample opportunity to

fill the screen with as many troops

as possible. It’s a philosophy that

produced a gaucheness that likely

turned off some of the traditionalists.

My favourite quirk? Anyone can

send an engineer into a blazing

firefight where it can happily plop

down a fresh manufacturing

operation totally divorced from any

adjacent resources or supply lines.

Are you being victimised by

bombing raids? No problem, just

encircle yourself with a battalion of

flak cannons anywhere on the map.

These are the sort of firefights

dreamt up by the most perverted

Warhammer sickos; an endless tide

of shocktroopers born into battle

and living five-second lives.

STEP ON THE GAS

So yes, Supreme Commander is a little

bit silly, but only as a way to summon

up the primal joys of real-time

strategy. If Mortal Kombat is a

grotesque celebration of 100-hit

combos and old-school arcade

depravity, then this studio wished to

celebrate the full-scale pyrotechnic

throwdowns that define our favourite

tactical successes. I never really loved

managing an economy in the first

place, and slamming up against the

CUTTING EDGE To think that these games once represented the apex of graphical fidelity

VIRTUA FIGHTER

Four, maybe even five polygons of action!

ADVENTURE

Say what you will, but that castle texture is still great.

FEAR

Never tell anyone under 20 that this used to scare you.

OLD GAMES, NEW PERSPECTIVES

REINSTALL

I’m listening, top

left corner man.

ABOVE: (^) The game was
a spiritual successor
to Total Annihilation.