"Supremely Commanding your Complete Annihilation" by Troy H. Cheek on Jul 28, 2008
This weekend, I finally broke down and purchased the real time strategy game Supreme Commander by Chris Taylor. This is the same Chris Taylor who also created... Well, I'm not sure what all he's created, as apparently there are at least two or three Chris Taylors out there in the video game world. At least, any time I've tried to have a discussion about "Chris Taylor" with a room full of hardcore gamers, somebody will always tell me that the Chris I'm talking about makes games that suck, while the other Chris is a freakin' genius when it comes to gameplay.
I'm pretty sure that the Chris who made Supreme Commander is the one who made Total Annihilation, which I like. Actually, I don't know if I like Total Annihilation or not, as I've never played it. What I have played is Spring which is a game engine which can play several different games or "mods" or conversions, most of which are based in some shape, form, or fashion on Total Annihilation. I've spent a lot of time with XTA which is eXtreme TA or something. I don't know. It was the first mod I tried, so it shaped my opinions of all the ones which followed.
Naturally, when I loaded up Supreme Commander, I immediately compared it to XTA running under Spring, and found that the game mechanics were surprisingly similar. Supreme Commander is a lot heavier on the eye candy, and naturally a lot of the little details are different, but they are definitely cast from the same mold. I'm not sure how much of this is due to both obviously being based on Total Annihilation and how much is due to cross pollenization.
So far I've played about one and a half missions of Supreme Commander. My feelings so far are a big bleah. I mean, it's a lot prettier than Spring, and has actual missions instead of just skirmishes, but somehow I get the feeling that this game is intended for people who are a lot more into RTS games than I am. I feel somehow left out, like I'm clicking at the game instead of being immersed in the game. Or maybe I've just spent too much time playing XTA and haven't given SupCom a chance yet.
Besides, I just recently discovered Complete Annihilation which is like XTA but adds killer alien chickens. I just wish I could make up things like this.
I'm going to cut this article short so I can get back to playing. In the mean time, here's a copy of an article I'm writing for my Atari Stuff section. Some if it applies to Cheek.Org as a whole, so it might be worth reading even if you don't follow my Atari news.
Notes about Atari Stuff
This is actually Troy talking, instead of quoting somebody else's email or press release or blog or whatever. I've gotten a few questions about that. In the future, I'll try to make it more clear when I'm talking versus quoting someone else.
I've also gotten questions about why sometimes I quote a little of an article or press release, sometimes I quote the whole thing, sometimes I write a little note and a web address, sometimes I practically copy the whole site, why do I seem to ignore some websites altogether, etc.
There are many reasons. Some people send me Atari-related news or stories specifically with the requirement that I must reproduce the whole thing unaltered, so I do. Lots of press releases and news announcements are like that. Just to make things confusing, some people specifically don't want me reproducing the whole thing; they'd rather I give a teaser and direct readers to their sites for the rest. Sometimes, I'm forbidden to reproduce anything, or there's no easy quoting available, so I have to write my own blurbs.
People will often announce that version 1.234 of Super Happy Fun Time has been released, along with a list of improvements since 1.159, without ever mentioning what kind of software or hardware or whatever that Super Happy Fun Time actually is. I have to go to the link provided, guestimate the site's main or home page, and click around for a while before I know what Super Happy Fun Time does or why an Atari fan would be interested in it. I end up grabbing a lot of information from the site and quadrupling the size of the announcement.
Then there's the Cheek.Org Link o' Death (tm). Apparently, my superpower is causing websites to go offline the second I hear about them. No, Cheek.Org is not so popular that zillions of readers can clog the pipes of the internet and bring a site down. It's just that the time I discover something and link to it just happens to be the exact same time that the company runs out of money, the enthusiast stops being so enthusiastic, the site hosted on an Atari 2600 linked to a satellite dish burns out a transistor, or something like that. Sure enough, if I just tell people to check out a link, readers will hit 404 the very next day. And complain to me about it for weeks. I swear, there are companies out there who should be willing to pay me not to get excited about their products.
I ignore some sites altogether because the people running those sites have reacted badly. Any polite request not to quote or not to link or only quote opening paragraphs and only link to the main page, stuff like that, will be met with my best effort to comply. Any rude demands, letters from legal services, DCMA takedown notices (for a freakin' press release, people!), or the like will result in me privately referring to the sender as a random reproductive organ and never linking to that web site again. Assuming they actually bothered to tell me which article or website or author they were referring to in the first place.
Aside from that, well, anything listed on Atari Stuff is there because it was related to Atari or some other classic bit from my youth and I found it interesting. It is my hope that there are enough other people in the world with my same interests to make this worthwhile.
Enjoy! Troy H. Cheek Atari Stuff webmaster
