Supreme Commander demo out now

Publisher THQ has released the playable demo for Supreme Commander, the highly anticipated PC strategy game from developer Gas Powered Games. The demo, now available for download from GameSpot, includes an early portion of the single-player campaign for the Cybran Nation, one of the game's three playable factions. It also includes a skirmish map named "Finn's Revenge," which can be played on easy, medium, and hard difficulty levels.

According to the in-game fiction, the Cybran Nation consists of a race of cybernetically enhanced humans known as "symbionts" that seek their freedom from the oppressive human regime of future Earth, which is controlled by the aggressive United Earth Federation, a faction that has enslaved the symbionts for fear of rebellion. Meanwhile, the UEF and Cybran Nation will need to contend with the game's third faction, the Aeon Illuminate, a mysterious group heavily influenced by alien philosophy and technology that claims pacifism, but backs its claims with military might.

While Supreme Commander is an original intellectual property created at Gas Powered Games, the game is ostensibly a successor to the 1997 real-time strategy classic Total Annihilation, which was designed by GPG's frontman, industry veteran Chris Taylor. The game is scheduled for release on February 20. For more information on the game, consult GameSpot's preview coverage.