We'll admit that we had almost forgotten that a console port of Chris Taylor and Gas Powered Games' Supreme Commander was in the works for the Xbox 360, which is probably just as well as it keeps us from being disappointed that the futuristic RTS won't be making its April release date. According to Shacknews, the port, which is being handled by Hellbent Games, has been pushed out by publisher Aspyr until "later this spring or early summer."

No reason was given, through Aspyr marketing man Eric Duncan spun up the delay, stating that "the additional time put into development will result in better gameplay and more fun for gamers." Supreme Commander is certainly one of the most complex RTS releases to come along in a good while, and will be a good test to see just how far the genre can be pushed on a game pad, as long as they don't push it over the cliff.

In the world of video game digital distribution, it's easy to think that all roads lead to Steam, but that's not necessarily the case as THQ has reminded us of an alternative in GamersGate, noting that it has inked a deal with the service to offer a selection of its PC titles for online purchase and download. The games will be available worldwide, save for those poor souls in Australia and New Zealand, who have been turned away like orphans to a soup kitchen.

According to GamersGate, the company will initially offer Company of Heroes and Supreme Commander, as well as their recent expansions. While neither title has popped up on the GamersGate website yet, a quick check did reveal S.T.A.L.K.E.R. available for the bargain basement price of $19.99. Other THQ offerings planned to be added eventually include Full Spectrum Warrior and Juiced 2, as well as next month's Frontlines: Fuels of War. It's encouraging to see competition in the digital space, and assuming this and similar deals feature exclusivity clauses, it will be curious to see if we are on the verge of a hard fought digital distribution battle royal. 40 Quatloos on the newcomer!

The announcement of Supreme Commander marching to the Xbox 360 comes as little surprise following the comments made last month by Gas Powered Games founder, Chris Taylor. Though he didn't specify an exact destination at the time, Taylor did reveal that the Xbox 360 was "the platform of choice" when shifting titles from PC to console. Supreme Commander will join a growing number of real-time strategy titles on the system, not to mention the always pleasing group of games featuring impossibly huge robots.

Other fascinating bullet-points sure to riddle the back of the Xbox 360 packaging are "new units," "new multiplayer modes," "updated maps" and lest we forget, "the most epic hostilities ever seen in an RTS game." The port will be completed with the aid of Hellbent Games and then published by Aspyr in early 2008.

Gas Powered Games founder, Chris Taylor, has admitted to Pro-G that console owners can safely expect to partake in the strategic giant robot action of his studio's well-received Supreme Commander. That is to say, the action is strategic and involves robots -- the actual giant robots aren't all that strategic. Featuring in a real-time strategy game, they're not too bright and usually require you to tell them what things to step on.

Though Taylor didn't specify which platforms the game would ultimately be headed to, his comments on potential console versions of the upcoming Space Siege point to the Xbox 360 being the first recipient. "If you look at pure development economics, it's the platform of choice for moving stuff from the PC," he said. "You can get stuff over there economically, very quickly." That includes a mouse-driven interface, which Taylor hopes Supreme Commander will further ingrain on consoles. We'll see what Halo Wars has to say about that.

CEO and founder of Gas Powered Games Chris Taylor (Supreme Commander, Dungeon Siege) wants to retire the old-school game design philosophies of punishing gamers. In an essay on GameDaily BIZ, Taylor notes an observed trend towards games that now reward players.

It started with casual games, says Taylor, when The Sims and Railroad Tycoon were selling millions and bringing women gamers on board. He compares the old punishment system to Carnival games -- you get three lives, a few options for more, but if you die then you start all the way over. Taylor uses Grand Theft Auto as an example where, if you screw up, you simply walk out of jail or the hospital. "The punishment is quite small, and perfectly integrated into the gameplay. Hats off to Rockstar," he said.

Much of his essay is muddled, however, in defining the line between making a game universally accessible and dumbing it down in difficulty. "Games shouldn't punish the player, but rather reward them. Oh, and it should be a whole lot easier to win," he said, followed by "Duh! Can I say duh?" You can, but a game like Ninja Gaiden serves as an opposing example to that argument, where toning down the difficulty would likely result in a less satisfying and indeed, less rewarding experience.

Those of you just itching to put that DirectX 10 hardware to good use will be disappointed to learn that Supreme Commander -- the Games for Windows-branded RTS from Gas Powered Games -- will not be getting that DirectX 10 patch they've been promising. Turns out it's a matter of timing: Vista release coupled with DirectX 10 hardware coupled with driver support ... you get the idea. They write, "The bottom line: DirectX 10 support will not be patched into Supreme Commander or its expansion packs."

There is light at the end of this tunnel, however. They intend to integrate "this exciting technology into future projects." In the meantime, if you've just got to test out the capabilities of that $600 video card, download the Lost Planet PC demo here and have your butler let us know how it is.

[Via Next-Gen]

Here at Joystiq we don't always pay proper attention to PC gaming. Luckily FiringSquad has picked up the slack. The site has issued its 'Most Anticipated' games of the year list, featuring twenty upcoming titles. Here's a look at the top five:

• Supreme Commander (Gas Powered Games/THQ) - spiritual successor to Total Annihilation; sci-fi RTS with dual-monitor support
• Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (Splash Damage/id Software/Activision) - prequel to Quake 2; two playable sides (Human and Strogg) are said to offer vastly different gameplay experiences
  
• World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade (Blizzard) - the expansion to end all expansions ('cha-ching')
  
• Spore (Maxis/EA) - from single-celled to universe conqueror; the video game to end all video games
• Crysis (Crytek/EA) - it has the looks, can it live up to the hype?

Which games are you planning to upgrade your rig for?