PC Gamer - UK (2022-07)

chance to get their revenge on a
formerly great sports team. Supreme
Commander creaks out of my Steam
library with none of the expected
orthodoxies of the last 15 years. The
resolution sputtered to fit the aspect
ratio of a widescreen monitor, any
stray alt-tabbing was guaranteed to
lead to a lock-up, and I actually
needed to slow down my mouse
cursor speed to molasses levels in
order to cut down on the 120fps
whiplash. At last, after the
humiliation of my Xboxified youth,
revenge was finally mine. But at
what cost?

BLOWING OFF THE DUST

Gamers have rarely asked for much

from a graphical standout beyond

their aesthetics. Simply watching

Supreme Commander run was half

the appeal in its heyday, so I was not

surprised that the campaign offered

me a few paragraphs of sparse

flavour text before dumping me into

the barren grasslands crucial to the

RTS experience. The missiles are

supposed to do the heavy lifting,

right? So, a few power generators and

mass extractors later, the war

machine was up and running, and I

was ready to make good on a derelict

promise I made with my teenage self.

But reader, just look at what time

hath wrought. The starchy textures

of the earth stretched out in every

direction, featureless and bland,

almost Cruelty Squad-like in its

disorienting uniformity. The

tank-shaped blobs that steadily

pumped out of my munitions factory

looked better, but not by much. They

encircled the rival base and peppered

it with raw, pixelated smoke and fire.

It would’ve been right at home on the

App Store, advertised in the bleakest

corners of the web.

How can that decay happen so

quickly? Supreme Commander hasn’t

even celebrated its 20th anniversary,

and yet its prime attribute has been

absolutely obliterated by the PC

power curve. A chill ran up my spine

as I realised that this fate has

probably befallen all of its peers; after

all, it’s been a while since I’ve seen

Crysis up close, too.

Maybe this is a fitting fate. I have

a faint memory of RTS diehards

THE BEST GAMES YOU CAN’T RUN

A brief timeline of all the games we upgraded our PCs for

DOOM 1993

Ye s , Doom was a

beast long before we

were running it on

iPhones.

DAIKATANA

2000

If only the specs

matched up with the

gameplay.

CRYSIS 2007

Some say even the

beefiest machines

still shudder at the

sight of that jungle.

RISE OF THE

TOMB RAIDER

2015

Were the ponytail

physics worth it?

THE RESOLUTION SPUTTERED

TO FIT THE ASPECT RATIO OF A

WIDESCREEN MONITOR

EXTRA LIFE

NOW PLAYING I UPDATE I MOD SPOTLIGHT I HOW TO I DIARY I WHY I LOVE I REINSTALL (^) I M U S T P L A Y
Caption about the
iymage goes in
here
I miss good RTS
campaigns.