Earlier this month, we asked you to vote for your favourite strategy games of all time to celebrate the launch (and glorious return) of several strategy classics this month, including Relic's WW2 RTS Company Of Heroes 3, Blue Byte's The Settlers: New Allies and Cyanide's fantasy Warhamball Blood Bowl 3. And cor, I've never seen such love for individual expansions and total conversion mods among mainline RTS games and 4Xs. As with all strategy games, however, there can only be one victor - and you can find out what that single strategy game to rule them all is right here. Here are your 50 favourite strategy games of all time, as voted for by you, the RPS readership.
]]>There will be no "major" expansion content for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III and the studio has turned to other projects, Relic confirmed to us today, despite intentions to the contrary discussed last year. The Games Workshop-themed strategy game was met with a divisive response due to its abandonment of real-time strategy mainstays in favour of more of a hero unit approach, in addition to an overly-formulaic singleplayer campaign.
DOW's active players have slumped in the ten months since release - to the point that there were, over the past 30 days, twice as many people playing the original, 2004 Dawn of War and its expansions as there were last Spring's Dawn of War III.
]]>Make War Not Love [official site] - Sega's cross-game point collection event which aims to stick it to Valentine's Day while also raising awareness of their games/rewarding fans - has returned for a fourth outing. This year it technically started on Valentine's Day but the real meat of the event kicks off yesterday and involves Company of Heroes 2, Endless Legend, Dawn of War 2 and Total War: Warhammer.
]]>I’ve never seen anything quite as Warhammer 40k as the fire that rains from the sky when Relic’s representative calls in orbital bombardment on an Eldar army. It’s like the finger of an extremely angry god, a column of flame that can be dragged around the planet surface, disintegrating any unit that it touches. Eldar become brittle silhouettes, elevated by the white heat for a moment as if undergoing a warped Ascension, and then they crumble to ash. This is Dawn of War III [official site] and it's hideous, awesome and garish.
]]>While talk of Dawn of War 3 remains but a murmur for now, the Necron will soon invade Dawn of War II - Retribution [official site]. A Necron Overlord will join Retribution's co-op survival mode, The Last Stand, in celebration of the Retribution's fifth birthday - the eighth playable character in its roster. As a present, you can get your hands on the new star free-of-charge between March 10 and March 15.
]]>There might be no sign of any Dawn of War III - come on come on come on come on - but new-ish Relic owners Sega seem determined not to let the beloved Warhammer 40,000 strategy series lie entirely fallow. Last month they put out a new map for the first Dawn of War and today, four years after its original release, Dawn of War II - Retribution [official site] just received new, paid DLC. It's loosely Hallowe'en themed, but it's Only War enough in its own right to be good all year round.
]]>By 2017, every human being on Earth will be developing a Warhammer 40,000 game. I suppose it's possible that at least one of those 7.125 billion titles will go on to be as beloved as Relic's Dawn of War series, but it does seem unlikely.
If you're one of the few people yet to play a Dawn of War - perhaps because you've been too busy making Warhammer 40,000: Tyranid Dating Sim* - then good news: the entire franchise, including every single expansion pack and piece of DLC, is free to play on Steam all weekend, and heavily discounted if you want to keep any or all of it. Also, the first DoW is getting a brand new map. Pretty good going for an 11-year-old game.
]]>At the very least, Relic are updating their Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War games to add Steam trading cards. That wouldn't be too exciting. It'd be nice that they - and new publisher Sega, who picked the series up after THQ sank - still care about the series enough to do that, but it's probably leading up to something, right? DoW 2 and all its gubbins are all on sale right now too.
Watchful eyes also noticed recently that Sega updated the long-held domain Dawnofwar3.com back in March. That isn't at all conclusive, and I wouldn't post either of these Dawn of War titbits by themselves, but together? Let's dare to dream.
]]>If we seem cynical and suspicious of the many Warhammer 40,000 games we've seen in recent years, it's because we judge them against the high-water mark of Relic Entertainment's 40k games. Dawn of War with its real-time strategising, Dawn of War II with its added action-RPG-ish flair, and Space Marine with its head-stomping are as good as we've had 40k in recent years. So huzzah! For the next week you can get the lot for just a few quid.
The latest Humble Weekly Bundle focuses on Relic, with a load of Dawn of War, Space Marine, and Company of Heroes games depending on how much you fancy paying. CoH is good too.
]]>Burn the heretic! Oh, they already have. The latest game to throw off the absurd and malfunctioning shackles of the multiplayer infrastructure/DRM that was (and how good it feels to use the past tense) Games For Windows Live is Relic's stout RTS/ARPG mash-up Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2. The sting in this redemption song is the loss of LAN and direct connect support.
]]>In the future of Warhammer 40,000, humanity cling desperately to faltering technology they no longer understands, knowing once crucial systems break they can't repair them and everyone will be doomed. Learning a lesson from all this, Relic is stripping out wonky old multiplayer tech from its WH40K: Dawn of War games, replacing GameSpy and Games for Windows - Live with warming Steam. And now I'm suffering frightful visions of a steampunk 40K spin-off. Brr. Chilling.
]]>Hopefully there'll be a third expansion for Relic's largely (but not solely) fantastigood Dawn of War II, and the usual clutch of new factions and units, but in the meantime a lone Tau unit has snuck into the current version of the game. Specifically, into the Last Stand survival co-op mode, wherein you pick a suitably 40Kian hero and attempt to survive as long as you can.
Controlling the suitably battlesuited Tau Commander in Last Stand will require a small payment of additional money - someone should totally invent a word to describe that - but is available in both the full version of DOW2: Retribution (but not just the base game, as far as I can ascertain) and the cheapy Last Standalone spin-off. Due out at the end of October, and in-action in moving pixel-based form below.
]]>This is a bit "some men have paid some money to some other men", but given the general tendency towards 40K gonkery around these parts it's worth a nod. THQ have just announced that they've arranged to hang onto the rights to Warhammer 40,000 for a few more years yet. This means we'll see more Only War-based games from THQ (including social and mobile ones; let's hope the former doesn't mean TyranidVille) after the upcoming Space Marine and the MMO Dark Millennium have been and gone. Licences for the licence god!
]]>Oddly, I have never once thought to question what faces really provide the voices for the Dawn of War games' assortment of space bastards. Did I think there was really an ork behind a microphone somewhere? Did I truly believe there was a man who naturally spoke like Patrick Stewart x1000? Of course not, but a testament to good voice acting is when you don't think "oh, that's just a guy pretending to be an Eldar." In the below video, Relic show just who's providing the snarls, hisses and achingly earnest exposition in DOW2: Retribution. While some performances are better than others (that sure is a lot of North Americans doing British accents), for the most part it's enormously impressive. Particularly, you can't fault either the gusto or the very visible effects upon the faces of those who make the noise of war. For instance, the lady above - take a guess who she plays?
]]>Last week Alec gifted us with his opinionations on Dawn of War II: Retribution, the latest standalone expansion for Relic's Dawn of War II. When the game was released on Friday Kieron and Quinns, as ever, found themselves in the mood for some bombastic hyper-war. And lo, this very lunchtime the three men gathered and holstered their guns for the official RPS Verdict.
]]>Yep, the hive-dwelling bio-weaponised ones join Orks and Eldar as the next playable faction - playable in the single-player campaign, that is - for the big Dawn Of War 2 expansion, Retribution, as revealed in PC Gamer's scoop. There's also a trailer of the handsome aliens in action, which I've posted below. Go team 'Nids!
]]>We've been sitting about for weeks, listlessly bouncing a squig against the wall, waiting for the other playable race to be revealed, and now there's a breakthrough: it seems that Dawn Of War II's expansion, Retribution, will feature Eldar. This is the second race with which you can play through the events of the single player campaign. There's a trailer below, with some good footage of the new chaos stuff, too. Eldar make for a fairly predictable second team, I suppose, but it will be fun to get your Bloody Handed God out. Missus.
Whatever happened to Zoats? That's what I want to know. Poor old Zoats.
]]>Yes yes, oh yes. THQ's announced that the unlovely Games For Windows Live will be dropped from the next installment of Dawn of War II (that'll be Retribution, which includes Orks in singleplayer and a mystery new race) and from Space Marine. Which is great news; not purely because GFWL sucks like a sucky thing born on the first of suck ninety-suckity-suck, but also because DOWII requiring both a GFWL login and a Steam login was a right old pain in the wobbly bits.
]]>In preparation for the impending Chaos Rising expandaspansionlone due later this week, there's just been a hunka hunka burning patch for the original Dawn of War II. While the price of Chaos Rising might seem a little unfair, given it's primarily an expansion hiding in self-contained form, Relic are going to extreme lengths to not split the player base. The update that's just hit allows DoW2-plain players to battle against Chaos Rising players (and Dow2+Chaos Rising players), essentially patching the entire Chaos Faction into the original game. You can't play as 'em if you don't own Chaos Rising, but you can play against them. Better still, the shiny new units for the four existing DoW2 races are now yours to play with, for free - including Genestealers. Genestealers! Dance-dance-happy-dance. Also thrown in are a clutch of new maps - the net result being that, whichever configuration of DoW2 you own, you're not locked out of playing with anyone else. It's an incredibly generous update, and I've a sneaking feeling it'll shift a lot of copies of the expansion as a result. Full patch notes are hiding below - but you'll get the whole lot if you update your copy of DoW2 on Steam now.
]]>Developers do listen, you know. If you thought Relic were consciously ignoring the common complaint that Dawn of War 2 was too lightweight, its maps and challenges too relentlessly similar, you’re wrong. Of course, they might get Chaos Rising, the first expansion (albeit standalone), wrong in new and interesting ways, but by all accounts they’re very conscious that, largely speaking, DOW2 didn’t net the same sky-high review scores most of their previous oeuvre has. Chaos Rising is a bigger, broader game, leaving the tactically-rewarding but rinse and repeat skirmish mentality of the parent game’s missions in favour of 15 heavily story-led, handcrafted levels. (There are plenty of non-mandatory, bonus-laden sidemissions, in case your reactive to the number 15 was to start writing something sweary and in capital letters). Each of the main missions is scripted up the wazoo, doling out new challenges and objectives at the point where, in DOW2-plain, the mission would have ended. The Blood Ravens are going on an adventure...
]]>A gory torrent of footage and commentary on the upcoming Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising expansion pack awaits below. Seems as though this one's building upon the admittedly limited scope of DOW2 in a whole bunch of ways, not least in terms of environments. There's even a little Space Hulkiness in there...
]]>It's been out for a while, but I've only just gotten around to trying out the free Last Stand update for Dawn Of War 2. Chatting to one of the game's producers a while back, he posited it as almost a third game - alongside the already dramatically different single and multiplayer aspects of it. The plan for it is to create a way for more casual/hithero singleplayer-focused chaps to play online, to enjoy the social aspects of multiplayer gaming, without being put off by the fear of a near-instant spanking by someone who knows the game intimately. Does it work?
]]>Dawn Of War 2's 1.8 update is out [Later today, Jim - RPS], and that includes the new game mode Last Stand. You can check out a video of that mode below, but essentially it's one hero against many waves of enemies. I believe it can be played co-operatively too, so it could be you and chum versus many waves of enemies. The update also includes loads of tweaks, two new multiplayer maps and new wargear. The full patch notes can be found here.
]]>There's been rumours around, but it's finally been confirmed in our old comrades at the PC Gamer* podcast. Talking about their forthcoming issue where they reveal that the first Dawn of War 2 add-on pack will feature chaos. And it's called Chaos Rising. It's welcome, but not exactly an enormous surprise - I thought Chaos would be one of the most-likely factions to be in the original game. There's little more in the podcast - expect more to come when the subs copies arrive with their readers shortly.
]]>Friday nights are for playing Champions Online for far too long with Messrs Gillen and Cameron while waiting in vain for grumbly John Walker to join us, instead of getting my posts for RPS done and packing for a camping trip in the wilds of Sussex. Sigh. At least I am cheered by news of an impending update for Dawn of War II, which adds a promising-sounding new mode to the game. It even gets its own chest-pounding WAR IS NOBLE AND MANLY CGI video...
]]>The latest update for Dawn Of War 2, There Is Only War, is now up on Steam. Instructions for how to activate it are here. The update comes with the "world builder" level editing tools, and there's a PDF instruction document for that here. We're totally expecting an RPS community map. The full list of other changes included in the patch is here, and boy, that is a lot of changes. The beta runs to 14th July, when it will go live for the retail game.
]]>Balance issues have been making DoW II players frown and cuss, and Relic have been busying themselves making a super-patch to fix it all. It's almost ready, and the guys have released a battle report (below), narrated by designer Jonny Ebbert and balancer Clint Tasker, to demonstrate some of the fundamental changes. You can keep an eye on further developments over on the DoWII devblog. Even more interesting, perhaps, is this in-depth report by Game Replays, who went out to visit Relic to check out and report on the 1.4 update. Yep, they're taking it that seriously.
Thanks to RPS regular Sub Edii for the tip off.
]]>The shootiest RTS of all time, Dawn Of War II, has just had a monster update, and should patch automatically when you start the game up. The update includes the 2v2 game mode we were all clamouring for when the game originally came out, as well as a bunch of other surface stuff such as new death animations. There's also two new four-player maps, a benchmarking app, and push to talk for voice chat. There's also some serious bug fixing and an overhaul of the AI. Full details of patch below. We'll probably have a poke around on those new maps later today, but let us know below if you have any thoughts on this update, or the current state of DoWII.
]]>Well, this is terribly gracious. The complete score for Relic's divisive RTS sequel can now be had for no pennies. I can't say it struck me as either wonderful or terrible whilst I played the game, but the track names are certainly spectacular - f'rinstance "There Is Only War", "They Come In Waves And We Push Them Back" and - oh yes - "Show Me What Passes For Music Among Your Misbegotten Kind". The world would be a better place if all songs were called that, frankly.
]]>I mean you can download it from other sources, but you'd still need Steam to play it. So you might as well download it on Steam. Of course that only really matters if you haven't already bought and played DoWII anyway, which I know a few of you haven't, because at least one of you has been asking me whether the single player is really worth full-price game money. You'd have hoped our extensive judgments on the game might have counted for something, but this demo now means you can decide for yourself with 333mb of Marines vs Orks.
]]>As if more proof were needed that Febrooairy and Marrtch were months made of strategy, we hear glad tidings of little army men achieving great commercial success. Across the world (including the US, UK and Oz) last week, Dawn of War II hit the top of the PC charts like a, er, Space Marine hitting a pile of Orks with a powerfist. Or something. God, it's too early for tortorous similes.
However, come this week in the UK, DOWII's down to number 3 in the PC charts, below the latest instalment of perennial UK man-magnet Football Manager. In the all-formats chart, it places a mere 29th. DOOM! PC GAMING, DEAD! DEAD LIKE MY ABILITY TO DEVISE FUNNY SIMILES! Except... we have a new champion. One that achieves even greater success.
]]>I tend to think it's a hallmark of a game being a wee bit special if I carry on playing it after I've filed a review of it. Because what I think is so terribly important and always 100% right, you see. Such has been the case with Dawn of War II, which has successfully managed to keep me from away from other, more pressing work for the last couple of days. One big reason for this has been wading back in on the Primarch difficulty setting (that's 'Ultra-bastard-hard' in proper English), where my concerns about how relatively tactic-free the Sergeant setting was have been given a gentle shoeing.
]]>Dawn of War II, sequel to Relic's much-expanded Warhammer 40,000 RTS, was released to shelves and fat pipes just a few days ago. After a long weekend snuggling up to it, here's wot I think of its explodey delights.
According to the Sacred Creed of games writers who genuinely care about games writing, it is not the done thing to dedicate several paragraphs of a review to a game’s graphics and sound. Books shall not be judged by covers, pop bands not by their singers’ facial hair and a man not by what socks he is wearing. When it comes to Dawn of War II however, it’s incredibly difficult not to dwell obsessively on its excellent aesthetics. Once in a while, it's fine to be shallow.
]]>Whee! Dawn of War II has been released at last, and I've already reviewed it over here. Naturally we'll be providing with an even more taut and cogent RPS opinion later in the week, but if you really must have a numeral attached to the game, then that's your link. Still in a quandary? Then perhaps you should watch the Eldar action trailer, which we've conveniently embedded after the jump.
Are you going to purchase Dawn of War II?
]]>As I'm already atrophying my feeble soul by posting about viral marketing, I might as well show you this too. THQ decided to build a real-life Space Marine Rhino APC to promote the upcoming Dawn of War II (on which we hope to have a Wot I Think soon-ish). If a picture speaks a thousand words, then a short video of a science-fictional tank crushing a car should certainly make up for the brevity of this post's word count:
]]>Oh, cheeky. The The Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II multiplayer beta is now open to all, not just those who bought Soulstorm.
]]>So I've had a bit more time on the Dawn Of War 2 multiplayer beta, and some thoughts come to mind. I've written them up after the jump, and I'm fairly certain you'll tell me whether or not you agree.
]]>To tie in with the early access to the Dawn of War beta kicking off, I wrote up some impressions over at Eurogamer. I had to resist just making Tyranid impressions for my entire word-count, because I'm weak like that. The beta turns open on January 28th, but until then anyone with a Dawn of War: Soulstorm key can play. It's now available at 75% off on steam - so about four quid - which sounds a highly acceptable price for a game we weren't totally enamoured with. (Actually, if you've never played DoW at all, I think for four quid, Soulstorm is where I'd suggest you start, even without the early access stuff). Alternatively, Eurogamer are giving away 3000 (count 'em!) keys at the weekend.
Press release beneath the cut? Sounds about right.
]]>Ooh, not long now until Dawn of War II. The shiny, RPGy Warhammer 40,000 real-time strategy argy-bargy hits on February 20, but turns out that just under a month before that we'll get to play with the beta. Given disc mastering times and whatnot, I'd imagine by "beta" they actually mean "demo, but beta sounds so much edgier and exclusivier". I still blame Google for this bally beta fad. Nonetheless, you'll get to tinker with a multiplayer client including five maps and all four of DOW II's races - that's Orks, Eldar, The Chuckle Brothers and Tyranids - on January 28th. Better yet, if you own Dawn of War 1's final expansion Soulstorm, you get to bite into that juicy beta burger on the 21st. Perhaps it's an apology for Soulstorm being a bit flaccid?
In either case, the beta's accessible only through Steam, which means login-hating loonymen are out of luck. More fun info-morsels about DOW 2 beneath the cut. (Man, 'cut' is getting old now. Anyone care to dream up an alternative?)
]]>Reader Sub Edii pointed out that we'd not linked to this most recent Dawn Of War II footage from THQ. It's a bunch of clips of the multiplayer mode in action - the place where the base-building skirmish battles of the original game are still in evidence. Ever wanted to know what a tyranid building looks like as it coughs up phlegm-like troops? Here's your chance. (And, hmm, this really is starting to look special...)
]]>Beyond the jump we have a cracking new character-introduction type trailer for Dawn of War II. It shows off the special abilities of the core units in the space marine chapter, The Blood Ravens. Lots of in-game footage, and some spectacular assault-marine jetpack air-stomps. Getting fairly excited about this game now.
]]>Relic still don't seem to have really sold what Dawn Of War 2 is all about in their game footage and associated marketing jabber. Here's what I wrote after I saw it in Vancouver almost a year ago: "What was great about the original game, such as its vicious melee combat and feeling of solidity, is going to provide cues for the new direction that this game moves in. DoW2 is a game that focuses on the actions of small team of personalised soldiers. Relic keep reiterating: this is a game where you are going to be focusing on the violent destruction of your enemies. It's about "five or six squads of elite warriors" whose actions are going to define the course of galactic events in the Warhammer universe. It's closer, and more intimate than the original game, discarding base-building and that anonymous production-line feel of the previous Dawn Of War games." So think Diablo with squads of heavily armed space marines. Something like that.
A couple of minutes of footage beyond the cut show that. Shame it's not something really meaty like the assault marines escaping from a collapsing bridge, or the fight with the ork warboss. Eurogamer have a more recent hands-on just here.
]]>I've posted an oddly low-key GameTrailers game trailer after link: Dawn of War II's Space Marine campaign walkthrough. It's narrated - in a manly way - by the game's commanding lead designer chap, Jonny Ebbert. Ebbert is very tall, and he also knows a few things about making things explode in a manner which entertains the exploder. In this trailer he discusses DoWII's unique squad abilities, the use of cover, and the role of the heroes units in the game world. It's impressive stuff. But not as impressive as the orbital bombardment.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II will be out in Spring 2009.
]]>DOW2 was already looking like the RTS to get our collective knickers in a twist about, but the recent revelation of hot Tyranid action really sets our nerdish hearts a-flutter. Here they are in living technicolour, together with the game's (slightly nervous, bless his socks) Lead Designer Jonny Ebbert talking about the thinking behind them, and how Relic kept the 'nids' inclusion a secret all this time. They're "the most special race in the universe", apparently. I know I wouldn't call a Carnifex 'special' to his face. Oh, and their behaviour's inspired by Jurassic Park, oddly.
Video beneath the cut, plus photos of a real-life Rhino transport.
]]>You knew it, we knew it, but God it's nice to really know it. Dawn of War II will definitely, definitely feature Tyranids, as evidenced by Relic's making an already splendid CGI trailer even more splendid:
Drooling chitinous spacebeasts have never been so hot. Edit - in-game footage here.
]]>Which may be enough to send a shiver down even a Necron's spine, but this isn't the traditional you-must-pay-for-full-stuff service. Basically, for Dawn of War II you'll have full functionality for free. This includes their TrueSkill matching, voice, achievements and the cross-PC/360 friends list and all that. Which is an interesting move, and you have to wonder about how exactly the deal came about. It's also interesting in that they've admitted they're going to be using its marketplace ability to sell additional content. Blimey.
]]>Normally I have no time for cinematic trailers. Show me the game. This one, though, is oodles of bloody fun. Especially the Dreadnaut flambé scene. And what's that sky-swarm thingy at the end? Could it be? Could it really be... Tyranids? Let there be much rejoicing. (It may just be video blur, but I'm feeling wishful. And 'oh, it's Chaos again' just wouldn't seem to suit that sort of dramatic cliffhanger. Also, see beneath the cut for further, and very strong corroboration that 'They' are indeed our much-desired Big Uglies).
Read on for more 'nid hints...
]]>With real game footage! Cor, imagine a trailer that actually showed you what the game engine looked like as someone played it. I know, it's a radical idea, but Relic have gone and done it. It also reveals one of the other races that will come with the game, and let's just say that they're not exactly shattering the mould with this one.
]]>Relic's 40K blood-frenzy strategy sequel remains largely a mystery, so it's good to clock some in-game footage and get a sense of what the thing'll be like. Find the video, and some blow-by-blow... well, 'analysis' is hardly an appropriate word. Blow-by-blow something after the cut, plus some more, and rather awesome, screenshots.
]]>A lengthy preview written by that Jim Rossignol guy.
]]>We return from a Friday night consultation with the Imperial Tarot (aka Booze) to discover that the Dawn of War 2 site has gone live. You'll find the first three screenshots here. Stare at them, then contemplate our prior analysis of what Dawn of War 2 may offer here. Oh, and you can watch the trailer on the main page here. And then you should do something else, like call your mum or think about how transitory life is.
]]>Scans of the next month page of the new issue of PC Gamer (UK!) have been circling the the electric-internet gossip-tree. It looks like this: (Click to make it full size)
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