Supreme Commander

Plot:
Well this lacks much of a plot, the campaign structures, slowly open up the huge tech structure. It is far more enjoyable in my view to play the skirmish maps where all tech is open.
3 Campaigns - 6 missions each.
All 3 sides have minor differences. This can be a good thing in the view of keeping the game balanced. However, each side has 3 experimental units which tower over the battle field.

Game play:
Every attack can be countered. This game differs from most RTS games as it allows for defence against WMDs, in this game it is nukes. The missile counter system is excellent, enough nukes can breach the defence but highly unlikely, as they take so long to produce and require large amounts of resources. This is great considering other RTS games rarely give any defence against the ultimate weapon.
That said everything can be countered. Aircraft by AA turrets, AA tank, interceptors and including ships armed with AA guns. Now base defence is a mix of turrets and shield generators. This game requires intelligence of your enemy's base, movements and current projects. This is gained through the use of spy planes, scouts, sonar and radar. Everything can be countered and with unit mixes can allow for interesting tactics to be used.
This game does require a lot of time. I have played skirmish games that have lasted 5 hours. I recommend playing the campaign to get to grips with the game structure, and then move onto skirmishes. The game is much more entertaining when you have access to all units. It's very enjoyable watching experimental units in battle. While very strong they do have weaknesses to certain attacks.

Issues:
Well I have experienced slow down when a few thousand units on the battlefield. The game requires a powerful CPU due to the taxing AI.
Installing was not a problem for me, quick and easy to get into your first campaign level.
Graphics are good, not amazing but not really important, as the game experience is great.
I had issues with multiplayer, never got it to work. May try to get it to work again, but the skirmish is extremely fun and even all the hours I have put into the game I still know that there is lots of enjoyment left in the game.

Overview:
* Extremely fun.
* Challenging with a steep learning curve
* Different from other RTS games, mainly due to the games depth.
* Minor tech issues that have not stopped my enjoyment of the game.
* Great individual fraction differences in the experimental units.

Superb game, it takes a while to get to know all the commands but it's worth the effort .
This is not a game to start playing if the other half is likely to give you a hard time for spending hours or even days glued to the monitor, because you will.
Make sure your computer and graphics card are powerful enough because there's so much going on at the same time your machine can easily start to slow down.
For anyone that played Total Annihilation and liked it this is a must, it's basically the same game (which is not a bad thing) but much improved and modernised.
I can't recommend this game enough, especially if you're single or don't talk to your partner much.

Jay

If there was ever an example of an over-hyped game, SUPREME COMMANDER takes the cake (with BIOSHOCK a close second).

I get suspicious when a game receives so many "raving" reviews from gaming magazines and IT sites, yet people who bought it cannot get rid of it quick enough: one has only to check how many misinformed and disillusioned customers are selling their used copies for a pittance.

SupCom sports huge maps - of...undifferentiated landscape. Low mountains, hills and plains are just colored patches as in no way do they affect the movements of the units! So what is the use of a big map in a "Strategy" game if the landscape characteristics means diddlysquat to the gameplay?

I had a fairly good PC system when I played this (3.2MHz P4, 2GB RAM, 256MB 7600GT GX-Card on an ASUS P800 MB) and as long as the number of units were below a couple of hundred I experienced no syncopated sound, stuttering or freezing. As the game progressed though, and the number of units increased, all of the above made their gradual appearance. And the quality of the graphics in NO way can it justify such system drainage!

This was a game much advertised for its strategic zoom capabilities. But this was an empty treat: sure, one can zoom in almost as much as with C&C3, and they did pay attention in the detailed design of the units and explosions. However, with such huge maps, no actual maneuvering is possible unless one zooms OUT enough to have an overview of the battlefield - and this only happens when, instead of units, the only thing visible are their info-tags. This is what we are left moving around: rectangular, pixelated info-tags...

Balanced? Are you kidding? Just try playing UEF! Pokemon is more balanced than SupCom - hell, good old Rock-Paper-Scissors is more balanced than SupCom. And more fun too...

Frustrating? Try ordering a group of tanks to attack an enemy unit about to destroy a structure of yours: they 'll take their sweet time about it! I guess they are in a union and no one can do anything about it...

I cannot even begin to imagine what they packaged into the 9GB(!!!) it takes up on the HD. The three campaigns differ in name only. Replayability? Only by someone else. If bored to death. And then, only for less than an hour.

My advice: Pass.
Instead, replay the original TOTAL ANNIHILATION or even EMPEROR: BATTLE FOR DUNE. They are much better games.