By this headline, I really don't mean that Warhammer 40k is rubbish. But if you have no idea what it is apart from "thing Henry Cavill got made fun of for enjoying on the Graham Norton Show" or "reason I walk past a bunch of beardy lads taking a vape break outside a small shop with steamed up windows every time I go down Lower Glanmire Road", PowerWash Simulator's latest officially licensed IP tie-in DLC could act like a sort of gateway drug. A first step on the path to buying a bunch of miniatures. It's out now, for £6.50/$8/€8 on Steam, and it's very fun.
]]>My experience with Warhams isn't flat zero - I had some minifigs when I was a teenager and played a few of the Dawn Of War video games - but I haven't actively checked in on it for a while. I know enough to make "[x] for the [x] throne!" jokes, basically. My experience with cleaning-stuff-sim PowerWash Simulator is extensive, though, and I was excited when the crossover with Warhammer 40K was teased a while back. Last night we got a full trailer and release date of Frebruary 27th - next week! - and I'm now earnestly very excited. The trailer is both very funny and shows off massive things to clean. Win win, innit.
]]>The makers of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide have laid out their plans to improve the co-op shooter's shopping and crafting systems. The gear system changes, due to arrive in the next patch, do sound like improvements to the current state of things. These plans do not sound better than entirely ending the tedious grinds of random rolls and making numbers bigger. Why improve when it would be better to remove?
]]>Amazon are close to signing a deal with Games Workshop to bring Warhammer 40,000 and its grimdark futuristic universe to TV streaming. Hollywood Reporter say that Henry Cavill, recently-dropped Superman and former Geralt Of Rivia, is involved as an executive producer and potential series lead. The rights to Warhammer 40K are reportedly hotly contested among the rival streaming services, with Amazon spending months negotiating the possible deal with Games Workshop.
]]>I was astonished by the announcement of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 at last year's Game Awards, never expecting a sequel to actually happen, so I'm pleased to see a new trailer at this year's Geoffries. This "gameplay reveal trailer" only has a few wee snippets of the game being played, but they're solid. As our boy Spice Maureen stomps through vast Gothic industrial ruins and cuts through hordes of aliens, it's got that 'Dynasty Warriors meets God Of War' look again. But I do already miss the Orks.
]]>Warhammer 40,000: Darktide launched on November 30th following several weeks of pre-order beta, but some players are already rather ticked off that the full-price game includes microtransactions. In particular, Darktide players are miffed that the co-op action game offers bundles of its Aquila premium currency that fall just short of the cost of some items in the store, meaning you’d have to stump up for several bundles to afford those. Taking to Darktide’s Discord to ask why you can’t just buy a specific amount of Aquilas for the items you want, one player was told by a spokesperson for Fatshark that adding such a feature would be “immeasurably complex”.
]]>I knew the hulking Ogryn would be my class in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide as soon as I shot his starting gun: a shotgun which holds a single shell the size of a can of beans. Sounds excessive, but that's the kind of firepower you need when four outcasts face thousands of cultists, mutants, and demons. The follow-up to Vermintide is once again a Left 4 Dead-style cooperative first-person shooter with a fair whack of melee and, having played a lot of the beta and a little after launch, it's a joyously grubby brawl with a great cast of weirdos.
]]>While XCOM is about as serious as I get with turn-based tactics, I have been curious to try more, so I decided to give Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector a go after seeing it's leaving Game Pass soon. Brothers, it's decent. Familiarity with the rock-paper-chainsword setup of Warhammer 40K arsenals is easing me into the unfamiliar world of retreating attacks and armour calculations. If you're in a similar position and also on Game Pass, maybe have a look before it leaves Microsoft's subscription service at the end of the month.
]]>A new trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide fresh out of the Summer Game Fest gives another look at the heretic-smashing cooperative shooter from the makers of Warhammer: Vermintide and yup, it looks like Vermintide in 40K. And that's fine. I'm good with that. That's great, really. Vermintide is fun but I've no affinity for Warhammer Fantasy so yes, give me bolters and Inquisitors and Ogryns and sci-fi Gothic cathedrals. See for yourself below.
]]>The makers of cooperative Warhammer FPS Vermintide today finally announced a release date for the far-future follow-up, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. Its ragtag gang will start rooting out Chaos on the 13th of September, which, yes, does mean the game is delayed again. But this time they're committing to an actual date.
]]>The actual biggest surprise of The Game Awards was the announcement of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, a sequel coming a decade after Relic's chainsword-wielding action game. Spoice Mahreen was a lovely wee stompy hack-and-slash game, capturing the chunky feeling and ultraviolence of futurefascists in a way no other 40K game had. Ultramarine boy Captain Titus will return, this time cutting into the Tyranid hordes. Check out the announcement trailer.
]]>Warhammer 40k has a bunch of interesting gods, and I have to say my least favourite is Nurgle. He's a big plague monster that infects everything with grossness, and uh oh, he's the big bad in the upcoming turn-based tactical RPG Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters. Developers Complex Games have released a new dev diary talking about how his minions will bring plague across the land and, admittedly, it looks quite cool. But also: yuck!
]]>Yesterday, the developers of Space Hulk: Deathwing released their new first-person shooter set in the world of Warhammer 40k. Necromunda: Hired Gun has you running around as a mercenary in the grim dystopia of Necromunda, killing outlaws and mutants with lotsa guns. The most important bit to note, however, is that there's wallrunning, a grappling hook, and a cyber-dog - three things that should be in every game, if you ask me.
]]>Streum On Studio have announced a return to the world of Warhammer 40,000, going from vast derelict spaceships in Space Hulk: Deathwing to a vast derelict undercity in Necromunda: Hired Gun. Due in June, the first-person shooter stars a mercenary cutting and swinging through the dregs of a WH40K hive city with the help of a cybernetic dog and a grappling hook. Check out the trailer below.
]]>After turning cyclical war into a video game with Battlestar Galactica Deadlock, Black Lab Games are now ready for a licensed adaptation of epic war, endless war, only war. Publishers Slitherine today anjnounced Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector, a new turn-based strategy take on Games Workshop's tabletop world of spacefascists. It will pit the Space Marines of the Blood Angels against the Tyranid hive mind, doubtless shouting catchy battle cries like "For the Emperor!" and "Hssskkkklllrrppppblbgrgle!"
]]>Turn-based gang warfare game Necromunda: Underhive Wars launched its grimy take on Warhammer 40,000 earlier this week. You'd expect to need some grit in a strategy game set in a polluted, gun-totin' dystopia but players seem to be fighting the game itself about as much as rival gangs. The makers say they've been watching player feedback and have set out a plan to fix crashes, corrupted saves, and other technical issues.
]]>Next week we'll be invited to visit a particularly dirty corner of the Warhammer 40,000 universe in Necromunda: Underhive Wars, a turn-based tactical squad game from the studio behind Mordheim: City Of The Damned. Based vaguely on the Games Workshop tabletop wargame Necromunda, Underhive Wars is set in the bowels of a vast city on an industrial planet, where wacky gangs brawl over the dregs of the dregs. It's a far cry from the usual world-saving heroism of Space Marines (though crotchskulls are still worn). A new 10-minute narrated trailer shows and explains a whole lot of how the game works, so come see.
]]>They've gone and done it, team. Warhammer: Vermintide 2 developers Fatshark went and put their rat-smasher in space, announcing Warhammer 40,000: Darktide at today's Xbox Games Showcase. Frankly, it's about damn time someone made a rock-solid FPS in the 41st Millenium - and who better than the folks who turned a stodgy old fantasy wargame into a stellar Left 4 Dead successor?
]]>Attention, strategy fans, there's a new Humble Bundle afoot that's packed to the brim with classic Warhammer games, including all three Dawn Of Wars, the excellent Battlefleet Gothic: Armada and Vermintide: End Times. Running from now until July 28th, there are 11 Warhammer games here up for grabs for very agreeable sum of just £10.50 / $13, which for us in the UK is less than a pound per game. A very strategic deal, if I do say so myself. Here's how it works.
]]>In the grim darkness of the near future, there is only De_dust2. But look further ahead and- oh! There it is! Only war. Now look back to the present and find the two have come together in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, with new Warhammer 40,000 stickers now sold to slap on your virtual guns. CS's stickers have always been a bit 'teenager bunkbed' so frankly I can't think of a better match. It's only weird that AK-47's haven't had "WAAAGH!" stickers all along.
]]>In the grim darkness of the near past, there was only war. So maybe it's not wholly weird that World Of Warships has announced a Warhammer 40,000 crossover. The free-to-play multiplayer shipshooter will get WH40K-themed ships, commanders, camouflages, patches, flags, and such as part of an update coming in June. It is wild to see this and remember that Games Workshop ever seemed protective of licensing 40K to games.
]]>Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II, a slightly flabby spaceship smashing strategy than I nonetheless had a great time with, gets a big dose of daemonic evil today in the form of a new campaign featuring everyone's favourite spiky chaps. No, not hedgehogs you silly goose! Chaos! Them with the skin peeling and possession and giant psychic tears in space time and that. A fine bunch. Avert your heretical eyes from whatever blas you're currently pheming, and take a look at the trailer below:
]]>The turn-based tactical ratbashing of Warhammer Quest 2: The End Times has arrived on PC, following its 2017 debut on pocket telephones. The first one was pretty deece and this time all the DLC sold for the mobile version is included as standard on PC. If you fancy some light tactical monstermashing within a fantasy universe that makes middle-aged British people feel all roasty-toasty inside, voila!
]]>In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war. This is a lie, of course. There’s also fancy hats, for example. I know this because I’ve seen the admirals of Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 wearing them while they command their giant space cathedrals to do a murder at other giant space cathedrals, in a sequel that veers fairly close to the original, but with some vastly updated visuals, and some surprisingly gripping storytelling.
]]>With September dropping out of warp in only a few hours, the publishers of Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 today announced that ah, no, the spaceship-battling RTS will not launch in September after all. It's delayed into January 2019 to allow extra time to polish and improve it (hot tip: paint the game red, it'll run faster), as is the usual delay way. But! The developers plan to use this time to expand the planned cooperative support into its three story campaigns, so that's nice. You can use this time to practise your Tyranid gurglegrowling for top Skype fun with your pal.
]]>In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only Warhammer. We're still a few millennia off a Warhammer 40,000 dating game (try not to blush as you polish your crush's crotchskull!) but Games Workship's grimdark universe did today expand into the realms of turn-based 4X strategy with the launch of Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War. Don't expect to score a cultural or diplomatic victory in this one, but it has the usual exploration, expansion, exploitation, and goodness me so very much extermination. Those spacefascists do love their extermination.
]]>Update Night is a fortnightly column in which Rich McCormick revisits games to find out whether they've been changed for better or worse.
Bolters are the standard-issue weapons of Warhammer 40,000’s Space Marines, and they fire bolts. But they’re not just bolts — not really. As befitting the grim darkness of 40K’s far future, the bullets that Space Marines fire are individual rocket-propelled grenades, each backloaded with enough fuel to force them through ceramite armor, and frontloaded with enough explosive to shred the soft meat hidden inside that armour.
]]>Premature Evaluation is the weekly column in which we explore the wilds of early access. This week, Fraser has reluctantly returned to the grimdark confines of the 41st millennium. Yes, it's more Warhammer 40K. Our latest helping of gothic sci-fi comes courtesy of Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus. It looks like Warhammer 40K meets BattleTech. Sadly it is not Warhammer 40K meets BattleTech.
Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus might follow the Warhammer 40K tradition of monumentally horrible titles, but at least it eschews the tired conflict between Space Marines and Orks. Inspired by the Titan Legions tabletop spin-off, the turn-based battles are heavy metal shootouts between towering mechanical behemoths, not puny humans or xenos. These war machines are as excessive as Warhammer gets, but Adeptus Titanicus is otherwise quite conservative.
]]>There's an inherent sense of All This Has Happened Before And All This Will Happen Again when you've spent as many years as I have writing about videogames, but I got proper head-spinning deju vu when I read about Adeptus Mechanicus: Dominus today. Didn't I only just post about an XCOMish Warhammer 40,000 turn-based strategy game with a cod-Latin name? Turns out that was Mechanicus, not Titanticus. Obv. Though these icuses share a genre, Titanicus is ploughing more of a BattleTech furrow. Which is to say, giant bloody robo-tanks knocking seven bells out of each other.
I lost my heart to a 40K Titan when I was 13, and I never got it back - so maybe, just maybe, this can overcome my Games Workshop adaptation fatigue.
]]>Polish your crotchskull and prepare to demonstrate renewed devotion to the Emperor, as Space Hulk: Deathwing will officially become the Enhanced Edition on May 22nd. This is the last in a series of free updates intended to expand and improve the squad-based FPS, which had the looks of Warhammer 40K but didn't have the touch. It was too janky and just too thin, which is a shame because it has such lovely Gothic spaceships and such big crotchskulls. Fingers crossed this update can find that magic. Not that I believe in magic; that would be heresy. Ah yes, I love the Emperor, I surely do.
]]>In the grim darkness of the...
[HIDDEN MOVEMENT]
...far future, there is only...
[HIDDEN MOVEMENT]
...war.
Given the number of Warhammer 40K videogames clogging up Steam's arteries these days, it's surprising how few of 'em take an XCOMmy, turn-based squad tactics approach. There's 1998's Chaos Gate, and 2015's slightly too straightforward and more RPGy Deathwatch, and that's about it. Perhaps the newly-announced Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus will fill that hole, seeing as it's also doing the whole out-of-mission squad management thing and well as having what looks suspiciously like a Geoscape.
]]>Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the Cadian Sector, here comes Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 bursting forth with more Warhammer 40,000 real-time-strategy spaceship combat. Publishers Focus Home today announced a sequel to Tindalos Interactive's 2016 game, saying it will launch some time later this year. Armada 2 boasts many more playable factions, I'm told, with "the Imperial Navy, Space Marines, Adeptus Mechanicus, Necrons, Chaos, Aeldari Corsairs, Aeldari Craftworld, Drukhari, the T'au Merchant and Protector Fleets, Orks, and finally, the Tyranids." Here, meet some of those in the cinematic announcement trailer:
]]>A dramatic new trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 3 [official site] is here, which means lots of Space Marines and Eldar wanking on about prophecies, some wandering world, the Spear of Khaine, lords, betrayal, and other gubbins until Orks roll up looking for "da pointy stikk." Bless your murderous hearts, Orks. This cinematic-o-gameclip video introduces the broad story in Relic's RTS and yes, it does basically boil down to finding a pointy stick. But what better item to fight over? If you can win a fight without a pointy stick, just imagine how powerful you'll be once you get one!
]]>Dawn of War 3 may be 2017's big exciting Warhammer 40,000 real-time strategy game but I'd forgotten that more ponderous 40k is coming too. Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach [official site] arrives before Dawn of War, later this month, and its strategerisating is turn-based. Sanctus Reach will see the Space Marine space viking Space Wolves scrapping with those lovable Ork space hooligans. Yes, yes I know we've got bland 40k games up the wazoo but Sanctus Reach publishers Slitherine do at least know a thing or two about turn-based stratagerating. Here, check out the new trailer which reminded me of this game's existence:
]]>SPACE HULK SPACE HU.. no, sorry, best not do that again, eh? This latest pixel-flashing rendition of the revered Games Workshop tabletop game is no boardgame adaptation, but rather a squad-based swarm-shooter in the vein of Left 4 Dead.
I played Space Hulk: Deathwing [official site] alone and had a lousy time. Then I played it with others and ALL GLORY TO THE EMPEROR OF MANKIND! Oops, I did it again.
]]>Along with the rest of the Ork faction, Dawn of War III [official site] is rolling out the red carpet – well, the battle-worn, looted and bloodspattered carpet – for a familiar face: Gorgutz 'Ead 'Unter. The warlord took a break from the franchise for the second game but is returning with a mighty power klaw and a striking yellow makeover for Relic's third game in the series. The devs are keeping schtum about most of the narrative side of things for now, but were more than happy to chat about the new look for the remodelled collector of skulls (and other shiny gimcrackery).
Art director, Matt Kuzminski, was on hand to discuss gigantic bionic arms, spiked punching fists and swaggering cubes…
]]>Space Hulk: Deathwing [official site], the new squad-based FPS adaptation of Games Workshop's tabletop Warhammer 40,000 spin-off, is now out. Our Alec is currently busy polishing his crotchskull but, once he's done with that and made himself decent, he'll load Deathwing and play so he can tell us all Wot He Thinks. For now, he sends initial word that "the environments look like concept art and it has the requisite thumpy metal sound effects, but do brace yourself for a whole lot of stomping down long, twisty corridors." Sounds like Space Hulk all right.
]]>SPACE WOLF. SPACE WOLF! SPACE Wait what is this again? Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf [official site], to remind you, is a card-driven, turn-based tactical combat game about space vikings scrapping with space demons. We've not mentioned Space Wolf since it was announced in 2013 but now, after a stretch on pocket telephones, it's on its way to PC. Developers HeroCraft have announced that they'll launch Space Wolf into early access in February.
]]>The Tau are coming to Battlefleet Gothic: Armada [official site], the real-time adaptation of Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K spaceship battle boardgame, serving the Greater Good. Those blue fellas will be paid DLC but, in the sharing spirit, from tomorrow they'll be free for Battlefleet players to try in beta for a bit. Maybe you'll like how they think. Maybe you'll want to sign up. Maybe you'll want to launch military campaigns to help everyone else realise the Tau way is best.
]]>New community-created Warhammer Fantasy robes and wizard hats have arrived in Dota 2 [official site] to give thirteen heroes sillygrim makeovers, and I am displeased. No, I do think Disruptor riding a Squig looks awesome. Yeah, Pudge's Nurgle outfit with teeth in his guts is gnarly. No, I don't even massively object (any more than usual) to Dota's random crate way of selling 'em. What's riled me is Valve overlooking one amazing set I desperately want. I long for the submitted set turning cute faerie dragon Puck into a Tzeentchian horror bristling with tendrils, teeth, and tongues - the way my Puck must have seemed to cheery RPS fanzine PC Gamer as he devoured them.
]]>In the grim darkness of the far future, there is no word for 'please'. And don't even get me started on the state of their property law! Epitomising the worst of all this rudeness is Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade [official site], a third-person shooter MMO about those rude futuremen duffing each other up for control of a planet in an endless war. A visit to the Land Registry would clear these boundaries right up, you guys - no need to murder each other for territory. Oh, spaceboys will be spaceboys! And Eternal Crusade is now due to launch on September 23rd, after eight months in Early Access.
]]>Listen up, youse grots! Fings are gonna get orky round 'ere and if you fink dat- 'scuse me. HRRRK. HNNGGRRK. Ahem. Sorry. Little bit snotty in the throat. What I was trying to say is that Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon - Da Orks [official site] is now out. It's a standalone follow-up to 40k: Armageddon, a seriously hexy turn-based strategy game recreating a great war from our grimdark future. While that focused on Spoice Murines and their steadfast defence of the planet Armageddon, Da Orks shows the other side - a load of orks larking about and having a nice big WAAAGH!
]]>Time was I'd jump for joy at any Warhammer-related game announcement, but these days a fast-track to madness would be trying to name every 40K title that was released over the last couple of years. F'rinstance, this is my first time hearing of Eisenhorn: XENOS, a "fully 3D adventure game" based on the novel series of the same name by fondly-regarded ubiqui-scribe Dan Abnett. You play As Gregor Eisenhorn, one of the Empire of Man's feared Inquisitors (Secret Judge Dredd but more so, basically) who has "agility, psychic powers and a selection of the Imperium’s most iconic weaponry" on hand and is voiced by Kermodian chum Mark Strong.
All of which, you may note, reveals very little about what kind of game this actually is, so I gunned it up to try and find out.
]]>Warhammer strategy games are thick on the ground, and my current favourites cover both the Fantasy and 40k settings. In Fantasyland we have Total Warhammer and in the grimdark future, there's Armageddon, the hexy wargame from publishers Slitherine. Dawn of War III brings RTS to the 41st millennium again soon, but Slitherine have just announced that they'll be returning to the eternal war as well. Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach [Steam page], running on the company's new 3d Archon engine, looks like it might be the closest thing to a digital version of the tabletop game we've seen yet.
]]>There was a time when people who played board games weren't obsessed with things like “balance”. Back in the day, you'd sit and play a board game and no-one would say anything about the “mechanics”. Nobody ever talked about design. There was a time when a board game was a game inside a cardboard box, and if you were lucky it gave you a measure of fun that you wanted to experience again and again and again.
Lost Patrol is exactly that kind of game. It is a game of inevitable death in the jungle. A game you can't win unless you get really lucky. A game that if you do win, you'll be talking about it for months. It's to Games Workshop's credit that they brought back this old-school game with its ridiculous hostility intact. This is a 2-player game without balance. One player is probably going to lose, and the other is going to win. The only question is how soon the enemy player will win, and how hard the good guys will get smashed.
]]>Space Hulk: Deathwing [official site] is due to launch this year, last we heard, and I'm pretty keen to see more of the Warhammer 40,000 spin-off FPS. Wandering around the ridiculous gothic architecture of mutated Imperium spaceships is very much My Bag as a video game tourist, of course, but I'm fascinated to see what developers Streum On Studio will do after their wonky but pleasing unconventional FPS-RPG E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy. So ooh, come on, gather round, crack open a box of Soylens Viridians, and let's watch this first gameplay trailer.
]]>Rab has plenty of praise for the cardboard version of Talisman, a board game of exploring a world and powering up across quests and battles. The game's gone digital too, thanks to developers Nomad Games, and now they've made Talisman so very, very PC gaming by boshing in Warhammer 40,0000.
Freshly released this morning is Talisman: The Horus Hersey [official site]. It's a spin-off using the Talisman rules as a base for a galaxy-trotting retelling of that time in 40k lore when an angry warteen and his mates duffed up their wardad.
]]>It might not openly be about spaceships which listen to The Sisters of Mercy, but I think the spirit's there. I wrote only yesterday that the darkly cute Dawn of War aesthetic seems to be the de facto look for Warhammer 40,000 games, and now here's Battlefleet Gothic proving me wrong, and trying to look like the sort of ornate and broody artwork (think 'powersuited murder-Catholicism") we see on the front of Games Workshop sourcebooks. This is the game in which Warhammer 40,000's eternal battle goes galactic, as the 40K universe's biggest hitters send a few thousand tonnes of extremely spiky flying steel to blow holes in each other. We've known about Armada [official site], Tindalos Interactive's PC adaptation of the tabletop game, for a year now, and the thing's out in March.
]]>I have spent a full half of my adult life waiting to play a Warhammer 40,000 MMO. In 2007, in the full flush of a WoW obsession, it was pretty much the best thing I could imagine. By 2009, and fatigued of MMOs, it seemed like the most profound disservice imaginable to Games Workshops' maximalist, tongue-forever-in-cheek sci-fi setting. Experience points and hotbars? No sir, that is not how a Space Marine space marines. Give me death without mandate, killing without restriction, sacrifice without regret.
It is 2016 now, and Dark Millenium, THQ's long-planned 40K MMO appears to have died with its publisher. But we are in a new age, one where Warhammer 40,000 games appear to be anyone's for the taking. I can be a Space Marine in two dozen different ways. The concept of Space Marining on a monitor is less exciting now. But still no MMO; no persistent Space Marine having indefinitely ongoing Space Marine adventures. So here's Eternal Crusade [official site], a whole new project from a different team entirely, but the closest thing yet to the 40K MMO. And I think that, once again, I do want a 40K MMO: even though I barely know what "MMO" really means anymore.
]]>Dead games cast long shadows. Any Warhammer 40,000 MMO is competing with how I imagined Vigil's doomed Dark Millenium would be before it was gutted then scrapped in publisher THQ's collapse. So yeah, Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade [official site] does look a bit bum compared to my beautiful dead gamewife, but it actually exists and is a game you could play this very day. After a stretch selling alpha access directly themselves, developers Behaviour Interactive (them lot behind Naughty Bear and Wet, yep) have launched the MMO shooter on Steam Early Access.
]]>Each week Marsh Davies dons his power armour and plunges into the grimdarkness which is Early Access, coming back with any stories he can find and/or succumbing to the nightmarish seductions of the Warp. This week he’s been conscripted into F2P gladiatorial combat in Warhammer 40,000: Dark Nexus Arena, an action-oriented pseudo-MOBA moshpit.
]]>I didn't realise how much I wanted a Warhammer 40k themed Talisman game until I read the press release announcing Talisman: The Horus Heresy [official site] a few minutes ago (edit: I had entirely forgotten about Relic!). Set during the titular conflict, which pitted Space Marines against one another in a galactic civil war, the digital boardgame supports 1-4 players and looks like it might be more than a thematic makeover. Nomad Games reckon the "combative team play" will make the game somewhat different to the Talisman ruleset on which it is based. One thing seems certain - Rab is going to be over the (red) moon.
]]>I'd forgotten that a Warhammer 40k MOBA was in the works, but of course one was. Games Workshop are going hog-wild with licensing nowadays, after all. We haven't paid much attention to Warhammer 40,000: Dark Nexus Arena [official site], but soon you'll be able to do all those MOBA things yourself (clicking on various types of wizards until they explode, primarily) as it's coming to Steam Early Access on December 9th.
]]>Say, remember the olden days before the Warhammer video game drought? GOG, that virtuous virtual vendor of vintage video games, have dug up an artifact from those times, today digitally re-releasing Warhammer 40,000: Rites of War. Harking from 1999, it's turn-based strategy game built on the Panzer General 2 engine.
Say, notice how the Warhammer game drought ended a few years back and we're now flooded with them? Games Workshop have spoken a little about how and why they've changed their plans about licensing Warhammer (and their other creations) to people making video game adaptations. They have a few ideas of their own too.
]]>In the world of Warhammer 40,000, the Deathwatch are some of the roughest, toughest, God Emperor-loving-est Space Marines around, a special arm brought together from all Chapters with the sole mission of murdering the heck out of a whole load of aliens. They don't play nicely with others, those Spoice Murines.
In the world of video games, Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch [official site] is a turn-based tactics 'em up about building, equipping, and leading a Kill-team on missions to wipe out those dang xenos. Made by Warhammer Quest folks Rodeo, it's out today.
]]>The Warhammer 40,000 game I'd really like is still Dawn of War 3, but in the meantime I shall need to investigate other opportunities to wear a big ole skull on my crotch.
Rodeo Games, the folks behind Warhammer Quest, have announced that they're bringing another mobile doodad over to PC a little fancied up, and this one has all the crotchskulls I demand - Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch [official site]. It's a turn-based tactical affair about hunting down and squishing those naughty Tyranids, from cities to the guts of bio-ships, while expanding, levelling up, and equipping your Deathwatch Kill Team.
]]>I know they don't really want it to be called '40K Chess' because it's a whole lot more murdery than that, but I'd be so much more excited about Warhammer 40,000: Regicide [official site] if it fully embraced its clear inspirations. WarChess. DeathChess. Only WarChess. WaaaaaghChess. UltramaChess. GrimDark Chess. Chess Hulk. Rogue Chesser. Chess For The Chess God. But 'Regicide'? Boooooooooooooo.
ANYWAY Warhammer 40,000: Chessdeathchessdeathchessdeathchessdeath has just left Early Access, bringing two new chapters of its campaign with it, plus new Space Marine chapters, making this a very confusing sentence. It even has a traditional chess mode for, uh, purists? Trailer and details of what's new below.
]]>It seems everyone and their servo-skull is gabbing about Warhammer 40,000 games lately, between Dawn of War's updates, GOG's new finds, and Inquistor's announcement. Not wanting to be left out, Behaviour Interactive have piped up with news about their MMO, Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade [official site].
They've now switched to Unreal Engine 4, which they say should speed up development. It's not massive news, but we haven't peered or poked at the game in a while so let's have a gander at a new "in-engine" video:
]]>In the grim, dark future, there is only war, but in the grim, sunny present we... well, Warhammer 40k games haven't taken over everything just yet. Games Workshop are preparing to launch an assault on another genre, though, announcing an action-RPG with the lengthy title of mouthy title of Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr [official site].
NeocoreGames, them lot behind the Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing action-RPG trilogy, are will let us purge heretics as a member of the Inquisition - the fiery secret religious police of the Imperium. The game's due to launch in 2016, but I couldn't tell you much more beyond that.
]]>Warhammer 40K Armageddon [official site] is a solid wargame - Panzer Corps with Orks and stonking great Titans - and the new ten-mission campaign will make for a pleasant evening of hex-bothering. The Salamanders Chapter of Space Marines are the focus. They're the ones who use volcanoes as jacuzzis and gulp down magma as if it were fizzy pop. They consider fire such a central part of their faith and philosophy that many members of the Salamanders' Promethean Cult don't consider themselves ready to face the day until they've taken a blowtorch to their stubble, and then splashed their face with Nocturne-brand Napalm. Invigorating.
]]>You know how the world needs more MOBAs as well as more Warhammer games? Here's the teaser trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Dark Nexus Arena.
]]>I am hopeful that Warhammer 40K FPS-RPG Space Hulk: Deathwing [official site] will be, at the very least, a weird game. Developers Streum On Studio were behind E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy, another FPS-RPG about an order of warrior monks stomping around a dystopian future in ornate power armour. It was hugely ambitious, baffling and wonky yet fascinating and endearing, which I'll take over mediocre any day. So a new trailer choosing a soundtrack with mariachi-tinged rap from a Swiss pop band, well, that's certainly unconventional for a 40K game. I'm quietly hopeful.
]]>"Left 4 Dead with ratmen" is how I'll crudely summarise what little I know about the newly announced Warhammer: The End Times - Vermintide [official site]. It's a co-op FPS pitting heroes against hordes of Skaven in shoot-o-melee action, coming in the second half of this year from War of the Vikings makers Fatshark.
Warhammer 40K is more my bag than Warhammer Fantasy, so all I really know about the Skaven comes from Kieron in pubs. They're hordes of ravenous little ratmen, I get, but also giant rat ogres and sometimes ride in rodent wheels bristling with knives and lightning guns. Cool-o!
]]>Total War: Warhammer is coming. Confirmation comes in the form of a single line in the upcoming Art of Total War book. Mike Simpson, the creative director of the series, is discussing the future of Total War and after writing about Total War: Arena's exploration of multiplayer, he lands the hammer blow.
"...taking the series to a fantasy setting with Total War: Warhammer."
It might not be called Total Warhammer but at least it has a name. The artbook is officially released on 23rd Jan but the quote was plucked out by StormOfRazors, a TWCenter poster who received an early copy. Thoughts below.
]]>This is the third Warhammer feature I've written in since revisiting Space Hulk a couple of weeks ago. If I'm not careful, I'm going to end up actually going into a Games Workshop and spending all of my Christmas shopping money on a pile of codices. I always liked the books more than the figures, truth be told, and as I was playing through the solidly hexy Warhammer 40K: Armageddon, I had almost as much fun taking trips down memory lane as I did strategically picking my way to victory.
]]>John is the man to ask about upcoming Warhammer 40K MMO, Eternal Crusade. Or at least he's the right man to ask the questions of the people in the know, as he demonstrated last year when he interviewed Behaviour about their project. He discovered that Eternal Crusade is likely to be more Planetside than World of Warcraft, which makes sense. Space Marines don't quest, they WAR. It will be a game of territorial control, against both player-controlled enemies and NPCs. The first footage is available below, along with a teaser trailer. It's pre-alpha. The real kind, with grayboxes, stuttering and explosion animations plucked from 1952.
]]>If I were riding into battle, I'd rather be atop something fearsome like a wolf or a lion than a pony. And I'd ideally be an eight-foot orc or undead skeleton too. It just seems like common sense. If you're also a sensible person, say, perhaps you'd fancy the newly-released Warsword Conquest mod, which fills Mount & Blade: Warband with races, places, and units from Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy setting. I understand the RPS Constitution means I'm obliged to say something excited about the Skaven* now but it's Friday and I know for a fact that the RPS Guard will have been in the pub for at least three hours now, so blow that.
]]>I can't keep up with you young people and your slogans. While you're all hipping on your slideboards, downing an alcoholic milkshake, and playing TV games on your Playboys, I'm sat here wondering what the bloody hell a "lane strategy game" is. For that is how Eutechnyx describes their freshly announced Warhammer game, Storm Of Vengeance.
]]>It seems like MOBAs have a rival for in the race to be the current wrong-headed obsession of the industry. Games Workshop have announced that, like everyone else, they're making a free-to-play collectible card game. It's called Warhammer 40k: Space Wolf, it's out next Spring, and there's a brief, underwhelming trailer below.
]]>Choo-choo! All aboard the possible disappointment train, it's another Warhammer 40,000 video game! Alright, so Space Hulk didn't go the way it should have despite having everything going for it. Let's pack it up in its own little space and it can gestate, get a patch or two. The new boy riding into town with shining pale blue armour is Space Wolf, a collectible card game focused on the feral Space Marine legion. Most interestingly, developers Herocraft are promising a "tactical combat and CCG fusion" where cards will be played and then visualised in "glorious, interactive 3D environments."
Hmmmmmmm. Desperate attempts not to set myself up for another wasted purchase after the jump.
]]>Yesterday we heard the news that there was to be a new Warhammer 40K MMO. Games Workshop announced that Eternal Crusade is to step into the gap left by the failed Dark Millennium Online, this time developed by MMO first-timers, Behaviour. It's not an immediately obvious choice - the studio is primarily known for ports, and their in-house games haven't been met with critical success. So we reached out to Behaviour, specifically studio online boss Miguel Caron and 40K's creative director David Ghozland (The Secret World, Far Cry), to find out how the deal came about, why they believe they're up to the mammoth task, and the direction the game is taking.
The big news here is that this isn't looking to be a WoW-style game, but rather aim for something more in the ballpark of PlanetSide or EVE. Essentially following the ethos that There Is Only War.
]]>First there was SPACE HULK SPACE HULK SPACE HULK SPACE HULK SPACE HULK and now there's, erm, a turn-based Warhammer 40K strategy game of indeterminate nature a turn-based Warhammer 40K strategy game of indeterminate nature a turn-based Warhammer 40K strategy game of indeterminate nature! A few days ago, Games Workshop announced that they had made a deal with the developer but I didn't expect news of a game to arrive so quickly.
]]>Huh, I didn't expect this. The disintegration of THQ seems to have resulted in Games Workshop renting its Warhammer 40,000 license to all and sundry rather than keeping them locked up in one place. So we've got Space Hulk coming from Full Control, potentially, maybe, who knows Relic keeping hold of something Dawn of War-related when Sega snapped them up, and now strategy publisher/developer Slitherine announcing they've been granted a 40K license too.
]]>So EA made a bit of boo-boo. The publishing behemoth recently came under fire for seemingly commandeering and conquering tank designs from Warhammer 40K for use in bite-sized browser-based disaster C&C: Tiberium Alliances. The resemblance was pretty much unmistakable. Every turret, tread, and grindy, mashy thing was replicated almost 1:1. So, EA, it all looks pretty incriminating, and I've heard prison is a rough place for giant multi-national conglomerates like yourself. What say you in your own defense?
]]>If I were EA, it would be right about now I'd be issuing a memo to all my employees and contracted developers to say, "Hey guys, um, can we all stop doing overtly dumb things for a bit? Cheers, thanks, love EA." With an internet backlash against the company, part deserved, part self-entitled arsetits leaping on the latest channel for their boundless streams of hate, now was perhaps not the best time for it to be noticed that Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances has - allegedly - been copying its tanks from Warhammer 40K. (Usually slapping in an "allegedly" is a coward's way of making an accusation, but you might want to see just how similar they are in the pics below.)
]]>I’m ten. I’m sitting in the solvent-soaked school art room doodling, when my friends sneak in. They’ve got something amazing to show me. It’s a little dwarf made out of lead, and Fat Winnie has just bought it off Big-Nosed Will, who actually painted it. It’s like got an AXE! Will’d mainly used red paint on it (“For the blood” he says. He now works in advertising) but it’s soooo cool. This is the start.
]]>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!
]]>You may remember before Christmas, we mentioned a Medieval 2 Warhammer mod was coming out before Christmas. Now, after Christmas, it's out. And then it's slightly more out, as they released a V1.01. Instructions for downloading and installing the mod can be found here. Instructions for installing the English patch to un-Russian it are here. And Hot Daemonette on Bloodletter on Plaguebear action is below the cut. Also some elves, because you can't have everything.
]]>I must be getting some kind of geek sense. I woke up on Saturday morning and found myself thinking "I wonder if anyone's done a Warhammer mod for Medieval 2 yet". I start googling and discover that there's one which is just about to come out. Call of Warhammer is promising its first release out for Chrimble (or there about) and actually looks pretty nifty. Playable factions in the first release are High Elves, Dwarves, The Empire, Chaos, Greenskins, The Vampire Counts and - somewhat surprisingly - Kislev. Well, somewhat surprisingly until you realise the mod's primary language is Russia - the initial release won't be fully translated, it seems - and as such you can sort of understand why they may want to Kislev it up. Also, bear cavalry. Footage follows...
]]>Now this is a surprise. Everyone was expecting the forthcoming Vigil 40K MMO to focus on the ever-commercial Zoat vs Jokero battles. But it seems that, at least in some small way, the game will feature the obscure "Space Marine" characters, as shown in the new gallery at Kotaku. As you'll probably be unaware of, these are heavily-armoured genetically-modified space-fascists. It's certainly a surprise that they'll feature so prominently in an MMO - with the enormous development costs, you'd have suspected they'd have played it safer. Let's hope the risk pays off.
Some less sarcastic commentary follows...
]]>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.
]]>With Warhammer moving ever more into the world of videogames, this just about inches into our remit. Or, at least, an excuse for an amusingly geeky comments thread. On Wednesday, Games Workshop's Warhammer celebrated its 25 years of painting little guys at the weekend. The Miniature Wargames Union made a two-part documentary about the development of the game, which will make certain gamers sigh nostalgically about the Nippon and Norse Army lists in Ravening Hordes.
Second part beneath the cut.
]]>Oh dear, we have spent a lot of time talking about flashing pixel adaptations of Games Workshop stuff lately. It's almost as if this site is run by four middle-class Englishmen. This time though, we'll mostly defer to PC Gamer UK, who've dug up the first concrete factlets about the mysteeeeeerious Warhammer 40,000 MMO.
Notably, it's definitely something World of Warcraftian - i.e. an RPG, not some crazy MMO FPS or RTS. Despite my glass-half-empty nature, I'm going to remain cheery, especially because it's been proven that roleplaying in the 40K universe can fit right into whole Only War, giant army thing. Still, I can't quite stop the nightmare visions of solo Space Marines grinding cyber-pigs in cyber-forests for cyber-gold. I'm quite sure it'll be much braver than that, but lawks, I was so hoping for 40K-themed Planetside.
]]>I went and reviewed Soulstorm over on Eurogamer. This is one of those reviews that someone is going to fiercely disagree with, isn't it?
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