C&C 3 and Supreme Commander

Both these games look pretty good. I downloaded and played the demos on the laptop. I'm impressed with the graphics and they incorporated most of the good features in RTS games from the past. Both games are capable of running at 1920x1200 (my laptop’s highest resolution setting).

For an all out RTS, I think Supreme Commander is THE GAME. It has so many different units to choose from and so many combinations of forces for different tasks. It truly is Total Annihilation II in that regard. It also has a build queue repeat feature that allows you to set up a build queue and then repeat it until you stop it or run out of resources. The zoom in/out feature is nice, but returns to default zoom whenever a cut scene is shown (which gets annoying because I like a slightly larger viewpoint than default so I can see a bigger picture). The graphics are high-end. On my laptop with a GeForce 6800 the game wasn’t playable at default settings – very chunky. I had to take the graphics settings down a little. That means the latest graphics card will probably make this game look absolutely phenomenal, but also means you miss out if you can’t afford the latest and greatest.

For the next game I want to purchase though, I think I’ll go with Command & Conquer 3. It is more playable on my current system and not quite as complex as SupCom (fewer unit types means less confusion). The graphics on C&C are quite good, though not as advanced as SupCom. The cut scenes are part of what give the C&C franchise its uniqueness and they are done well and at high resolution. C&C has always had a good single-player aspect and with dial-up at home that is one of the deciding factors in my choice. I also don’t see us getting a high-end system any time soon, so C&C is a better fit overall.

Of course with the announcement of StarCraft II, maybe I should hold off. Yeah, it is about time Blizzard!