Introduction

Entries in Round 2 are fantastic. I genuinely, honestly, sincerely am surprised and delighted at the quality of writing demonstrated by our authors overall. Some of the articles are downright unbelievable, and none are outright bad. The worst articles compare well with some of the best from the previous rounds. Ladies, gentlemen, you are doing yourselves a disservice if you do not check out some of these entries. Trust me on that.


The War Widens: Supreme Commander Dual Display by DaugWok
Click here for the article.

JCal: This is an excellent article that goes into detail on one of Supreme Commander's big features that sets it apart from other PC games. The feature is well written, makes great use of screenshots to illustrate its points and overall is an article that fits in well with FiringSquad's audience. The only real quibble I have is that it's a bit dry at time; a little humor or perhaps some references to the game's sci-fi setting might have make it a little more fun to read.

Jakub: A great article about the benefits and drawbacks of using two monitors with Supreme Commander – or of disabling the display in one monitor only to find out your game becomes minimized if you click on the blacked-out screen! Like all non-standard articles, I do hope you have the chops to handle truly critical commentary, but odds are good you can do that given what I’ve seen here.


Optimizing Supreme Commander by OrgeFade
Click here for the article.

JCal:Yet another Supreme Commander article, this time on trying to get more performance out of this admitted system hog. The article also does a great job of using the media blog to upload screenshots and performance graphics. Some of the conclusions he gives are pretty obvious (shut down third party programs, defrag your hard drive) but on the whole this article gives readers some ideas on how to get the most out of their PC to run Supreme Commander.


Your Hard Drive's Kung-fu Is Weak by CanadaDave
Click here for the article.

JCal: Here is a truly hardcore PC hardware article on how different hard drive configuations affect your PC's performance. Kudus to the author for contacting a pro game developer to get some additional input for his thesis. This is something that a writer working for FiringSquad would indeed perform if they were doing a story like this. I could definately see this being written for our site.

Jakub: An excellent hardware article with great research. You went to a lot of effort with the graphs, the testing, and contacting Stardock for their comments. Your subject is unique and you should a good understanding of what you’re talking about. The writing in the article is clear and concise, and you show a lot of work ethic by taking the time to do multiple tests.


Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar - NVIDIA 6800 Guide by BucNews
Click here for the article.

JCal: While I appreciate the author's idea of giving a guide for PC owners with older machines to run Turbine's game (my own PC is even older than his), the overall tone and writing of this feature fell short for me. The writing was too dry and while his tests were extensive it's a case of perhaps too much information given for a subject that might have a limited appeal for our readers. On the plus side, kudos for the author for including a video along with his article and screenshots.

Jakub: A good entry with solid research and details, excellent supporting screenshots and even a video demonstrating the difference between quality levels. Formatting is good on the article but falls short when it comes to the presentation of the data proper. The testing gets complex once you throw in advanced settings and this is where the article might lose people. You need to explain better what you’re doing, that you’re maximizing the advance settings. You do that to some extent but your presentation adds confusing with the Min/Max, despite the FPS label. Also, avoid using the LOTR acronym constantly, unless you begin with the full name of the game and use the full name occasionally in a long article like this. However, these criticisms are nitpicks of an otherwise excellent entry.