Microsoft has officially revealed its upcoming Games With Gold offerings for March 2016. These are free games that will be available for Xbox Live Gold subscribers and thanks to Xbox 360 backwards compatibility, Xbox One players essentially have double the number to choose from.

These include Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments (available on March 1st to 31) and Lords of the Fallen (available from March 16th to April 15th) on the Xbox One. Both games have their share of fans and decent critical acclaim so they’re worth checking out for free.

Meanwhile, Xbox 360 gamers receive Supreme Commander 2 from March 1st to 15th and Borderlands from March 16th to 31st. Borderlands itself is one of the coolest first person shooters ever, even if it’s showing its age next to Borderlands 2 and The Pre-Sequel. Again though, for the small price of nothing, it’s worth a look.

What are your thoughts on next month’s Games With Gold? Let us know in the comments.

Square Enix announced today that downloadable content for SUPREME COMMANDER 2 is now available for PC and for the Xbox 360.

Developed by critically-acclaimed developer Gas Powered Games, the SUPREME COMMANDER 2 Infinite War Battle Pack will deliver new maps, units, experimentals, tech tree upgrades and boosts to the PC and a map pack DLC for Xbox 360.

PC & Xbox 360 maps include:

·        Way Station Zeta – This installation sits high above the surface of Gradius IV. Decommissioned after the Seraphim invasion, it served as a staging area for Cybran forces during the Infinite War.
4 player map on 360 and PC
·        Rigs – Many years ago, people harvested organic fuel from pockets beneath the seas of Pegasus II. Companies erected massive rigs that now sit on the surface of the water. It takes a cunning balance of sea and air to control the mass that remains on these ancient platforms.
4 player map on 360 and PC
·        EtchedDesert – As water on this desolate landscape receded due to decades of environmental exploitation on its surface, mass rich deposits were discovered among the remaining eroded mesas. With plenty of area to explore and hide, the battles here have raged for millennia.
4 player map on 360 and PC plus exclusive double-size 8 player version on PC.
·        Desolatia – This tiny island can be found in the most remote parts of the Hermetic Seas on Trexxa VI. Its average seasonal temperatures reach well below zero, making it uninhabitable by humans. Its mass deposits, however, give it unparalleled military value.
2 player map on 360 and PC
·        Seraphim Isles – The Isles were discovered by a second group of settlers who made contact with the alien Seraphim race. Legend has it that the two coexisted for many years; others claim the Seraphim eliminated them on sight. Nothing remains today of either race but the mountain in the center of the primary island holds a forgotten mystery for Coalition scientists.
4 player map on 360 and PC plus exclusive double-size 8 player version on PC.
·        Igneous – The islands called Igneous were named for their strange rock formations. They remain one of the more “alien” regions on Rigel II, and one of the less popular areas for colonizing even though they’re rich in mass deposits.
4 player map on 360 and 6 player map on PC
·        QAI Labs – Located high above the surface of Pollux IV, this is one of the many test environments used by noted technology company Quantum Visionworks, a division of QAI Industries.
2 player map on 360 and PC
·        Tourneydome – Among relics of a city that stretches to the horizons lies an arena where the Coalition’s best do battle. A system long abandoned by the Coalition, when commanders enter, only one leaves.
4 player map on 360 and 8 player map on PC.

PC Units include:
·        Cybran Monkeylord: Experimental Spider Bot: The beloved SUPREME COMMANDER experimental makes its return with a legged creature that features a powerful laser mounted on top of the body. If this unit makes it to your base, you’re already dead.
·         UEF Aegis: Experimental Shield Generator: A large bubble shield that covers an entire base. The shield has high health, but if knocked down it has to be manually recharged at a high energy cost.
·         UEF Super Triton: Experimental Dreadnought: This ultra-battleship is bristling with humongous cannons but is only able to fire a medium distance, unlike the regular Battleship which has a long range. These weapons do extreme damage, but having to get close enough to use them is its weakness.
·         UEF Jackhammer: Experimental Assault Artillery: This hulking, direct fire ‘cannon on wheels’ drives up to an enemy base and must unpack before firing. Once it unpacks it gains advanced defense (like hunker) reducing damage taken and allowing it to fire. The primary cannon has a slow rate of fire, with a long charge up, but does incredible damage (potentially knocking down multiple shields with a single shot)
·         UEF Field Engineer: Mobile Repair and Support Unit: The UEF Mobile Repair and Support unit is a mobile engineer that has a basic direct fire turret as well as a repair arm. It is unable to build new structures, reclaim or capture, so its strength lies in its ability to accompany and quickly repair nearby allied units.
·         UEF Research Converter: Research Conversion Facility: This structure provides the option to generate Research directly from accumulated mass. It is highly inefficient, but produces an instant boost to research.
·         Illuminate Sooprizer: Experimental Gunship: The Illuminate Mega-Gunship offers a devastating direct-fire alternative to the Darkenoid. It does not have any anti-air capabilities focusing on ground based damage and increased survivability against surface threats.
·         Illuminate Illuminator: Experimental Intel Gathering Station: The Overhorizon Radar provides flawless Vision and Radar in a huge radius. However, it has a tremendous energy cost to activate, and a long cooldown period.
·         Illuminate Buhbledow: Experimental Shield Destroyer: The Shield Smasher is a ballistic EMP missile designed to knock down all enemy shields in a wide area. It has a long enough range that it can cover most of the map. The blast does insignificant damage to structures and units.
·         Illuminate Shotja: Sniper Bot: The sniper unit is a medium ranged, mobile hover unit. It has a single, high damage shot with a long cooldown. Its weakness is its low rate of fire and slow movement speed.
·         Cybran Recycler: Mass Reclaimer: Similar to the Loyalty Gun, the Mass Reclaimer has a medium range and automatically reclaims nearby wreckage. It is unable to reclaim living units, however.
·         Cybran Cicada: Experimental Cloak Generator: The Cicada is a mobile mini-experimental that, when activated, hides all units nearby from both vision and radar. This makes the units completely invisible to an opponent. The Cicada has a high energy cost which lasts for less than a minute before recharging. The complex unit lacks only the ability to cloak itself while in operation.
·         Cybran Intellitron: Air Scout: Lightly armored and unarmed, but with advanced vision and radar. Allows for quickly scouting remote areas of the map. Very fast to outrun anti-air.
·         Cybran Boomerang: Nuclear Missile Defense: This structure is placed in a base to defend against nukes. When incoming nukes get in range, they are reprogrammed and sent back to their origin. It has a low rate of fire and can be overwhelmed. Redirected nukes spoof enemy Anti-Nukes, making this a deadly structure to overlook when scouting for Nuke targets.

Research Boosts/Upgrades (PC)
Research is focused on diversifying the factions while maintaining each faction’s identity.

UEF

• Upgrade: Naval Transportation
  • This naval tree upgrade allows experimental transports to carry naval units.
• Upgrade: Speed overdrive
  • This short duration ability gives select land units a burst of speed for an energy cost.
• Boost: ACU Veterancy Rate Increase
• Boost: Structure Build cost for ACU: decreases cost of structures for ACU.
• Boost: Structure Regeneration

Illuminate

• Upgrade – Tank Torpedo weapon
  • Adds a torpedo weapon to the Illuminate tank, allowing it to hit submarines or other naval units from a distance while on water.
• Upgrade: Structure Sacrifice
  • Adds an ability to all structures, allowing it to be sacrificed. When sacrificed, all units nearby are instantly healed.
• Upgrade: Amphibious Structures
  • Nearly all ground structures can now be built on water.
• Upgrade: Air Teleport
  • Adds an ability for air units to teleport short distances.
• Boost: Air Health II

Cybran

• Upgrade – Naval Jump Jets
  • The Cybran navy gets even more amazing with the Naval Jump Jet upgrade. At the end of the tree and incredibly costly, this upgrade allows Cybran Naval units to traverse any terrain with ease.
• Upgrade – Vision persistence on Long Range Artillery
  • This upgrade adds a vision radius to long range artillery shells. When a shell impacts the ground or a shield, it leaves behind a small vision ring, allowing you to see into the enemy base.
• Boost – ACU Increased Build Rate
• Boost – Air Build Time reduction

WHEN/WHERE: The SUPREME COMMANDER 2 Infinite War Battle Pack is now available in Pal regions for €9.99 / £6.99 via STEAM and for 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox LIVE.

Once again, the single-player mode is split into three campaigns: one for each race – the United Earth Federation (UEF), Cybran and Illuminate (dropping the Aeon prefix from the prequel).  The ultimate aim of each campaign is to acquire a planet-killer super weapon for your faction. The tutorial is split into two stages: one covering basic moves and unit production; and the other more advanced tactics. The plot is advanced by pre-rendered cut scenes between missions and by conversations between the player character and NPC’s.

Epic battles are common in the Supreme Commander Universe.

These are accomplished by a communication window which appears in the top-right corner of the screen. As in the previous instalments, the player character is the titular “Supreme Commander”, ensconced within an Armoured Command Unit or ACU. The ACU is a combination über-unit and construction worker – able to wade into combat against otherwise impossible odds and be equally at home building base structures. As in the first game the objective in skirmish/multiplayer is to destroy the enemy ACU(s), but if yours is destroyed, it’s game over.

Units are built from 1 of 4 factories: Land, Sea, Air or Experimental. Experimental units are massively effective against targets, but have a very high resource cost attached. Factories can be upgraded with such additions as Shield Generators (protects against everything but nukes), Missile Batteries, Intel Centres (increasing line of sight), and more. Building units or structures requires resources, in the form of Mass and Energy. Mass Gatherers can only be built on certain sites, but Energy Generators can be built anywhere. Research points are granted over time, and by fulfilling objectives during missions.

The Experimental Units cost a fortune in research points and resources, but are worth the cost.

The controls are fairly intuitive and on-screen tooltips are helpful without being intrusive. The emphasis on you being in command of your forces lends itself to the rotary interface. The camera can be instantly zoomed out to enter “Tactical Mode” – a satellite view of the entire map and force disposition. Units can be distinguished, selected and directed from this view. Units can also be set to a variety of stances, including Patrol, Attack, Guard and Capture, and this broadens the options open to the player during games.

Graphically, the game is a treat during missions. Textures are crisp and are rarely jagged. Colours are rendered with great clarity and the distinct palettes of each race make it easy to tell your units from the enemy when zoomed in. Sadly, some of the graphics used on the NPC’s during cut-scenes leave a lot to be desired: hair is flat and two-dimensional, faces seem wonky. The plot is paper-thin, and the voice acting doesn’t stand out. The musical score is suitably martial and rousing at turns, but in particular the voice of the instructor grates on the ear.

The end-game superweapons are awesome.

Supreme Commander 2 takes the core experience of its predecessor and not much else. A newcomer to Real-time Strategy will find it an excellent introduction before more meaty fare, but Total War this is not. If you are familiar with RTS or were a fan of the original, perhaps consider renting it before parting with your cash.

This game was reviewed on the PC.