Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 - E3 Screenshots

THQ has released a bucket of ultra high-res screenshots for upcoming RTS; Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2. Check them out below:

Note that these screens are extremely large (5120×2880 pixels) and weight over 6MB each.

Microsoft Lists 16 New “Games for Windows” Titles

Microsoft has released details about 16 new titles that will come with “Games for Windows” certification. The library will include:

• Battlestations: Midway (Eidos)
• Battlestations: Pacific (Eidos)
• Borderlands (2K Games)
• Call of Duty: World at War (Activision)
• Crysis Warhead (Crytek/EA Partners)
• Dawn of War 2 (THQ)
• Devil May Cry 4 (Capcom)
• Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Sierra Entertainment)
• Quantum of Solace (Activision)
• LEGO Batman: The Videogame (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Video Game (Activision)
• Mafia II (2K Games)
• Project Origin (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Red Faction: Guerilla (THQ)
• Saints Row 2 (THQ)
• Zoo Tycoon 2: Ultimate Collection (Microsoft Game Studios)

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 - First 3 Screens

We’ve first 3 screens of Dawn of War 2. The upcoming RTS from RTS gurus Relic Entertainment! Check them out below:

Wahammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 Image Gallery:

Dawn of War 2 Official

As we reported, THQ was developing Dawn of War 2 since september 2006 with a scheduled release in 2009. Now, it’s official. THQ has officially announced Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2. Check out the press release below:

THQ Inc. today announced that Warhammer(R) 40,000(TM): Dawn of War(R) II, the highly anticipated sequel from one of the industry’s premiere Real-Time Strategy (RTS) developers, Relic Entertainment, is scheduled to bring the 41st Millennium’s savage warfare to life like never before in spring 2009. Powered by an enhanced version of Relic’s proprietary Essence Engine 2.0(TM), Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II will take players to the brutal frontlines of war where they’ll experience intense action and visceral combat through a non-linear single player experience and a fully co-operative multiplayer campaign. Set in Games Workshop’s (LSE: GAW) highly popular Warhammer 40,000 science fiction universe, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II is being developed exclusively for Windows PC. Read more

Top 10 Best Selling PC Games in US - March 15-March 22

The NPD Group has released the latest list of the top 10 best selling PC games in the US, this time for the week ending March 22th. Read more

Warhammer: Dawn of War 2 Coming 2009

A belgian magazine,PCGameplay has details of Relic’s upcoming RTS, Dawn of War 2! Dawn of War 2 has been in development since September 2006 and is scheduled for a 2009 release. Here’s a snip from the magazine:

- Uses the Essence 2.0 engine with Havok physics, all optimised for DX10 and multicore support.
- It looks great, think of the DoW intro but with a bit less polygons here and there (in terms of lighting and all that it looks almost exactly the same).
- Units also use CoH-like unit AI for awareness and pathfinding to find cover and such.
- [b]While DoW 2 shares the same (upgraded probably) engine as CoH[ it won't be "CoH in space",/B] while soldiers in CoH will ask themselves if flanking the enemy is the right option, in DoW2 it will be more like Space Marines asking themselves if they should use their jetpacks to jump over an Ork squad to attack them in the back. Different settings, different kinds of warfare.
- Preview only showed a destroyed city landscape, akin to DoW (but more detailed), other tilesets will offer deserts, jungles, mountains and other cities.
- Only the Orkz and Space Marines were revealed, more races on the way obviously and to be to revealed later this year (though how many isn’t known).
- Co-op campaign for both the Orkz and Space Marines, apparently not for the other to-be-revealed races.
- More focus on making units and squads unique; every unit has got a name (at least in the campaign it seems), more details and more animations.
- Relic wants to give players rewards at the end of a mission like wargear (armor, weapons, rare objects); “Let’s pimp out squads with cool stuff!”, you will see these items in-game as well of course.
- You’ll fight your way through the campaign with the same squads.
- You can’t control more than six squads! I am not sure if this is campaign-only but the preview made it sound like it wasn’t.
- The squads are going to be a lot more interesting than before though.
- A squad leader (one or several?) will need to survive if you want to complete a mission; you really have to look out for your squads and don’t treat them like cannon fodder.
- There is a lot more interesting commentary from the units as well; if your SM commander is holding a Thunder Hammer f.e. then the opponent will specifically comment on that, Ork Warchief saying something like “Ooh, nice hammer, but mine is bigger!”. The warchief will say something else if the commander doesn’t have the hammer.
- The campaign lets Space Marines operate from a spaceship, you’ll get a view of an underlying planet and you’ll be able to choose from different missions (which are tagged with difficulty colours, green, blue and red).
- Certain reward items won’t be useable at once in the campaign, so they’ll be taken back to the SM spaceship for research.
- Dreadnought can now also trample Orkz.
- No sea or air units (though jetpacks are still in of course).
- Development team of 55 people has been working on it since September 2006.
- Release in early 2009 or later.

2 pieces of exclusive artwork after the break! Read more

PC Reviews RoundUp

The Club Review@bit-tech.net - 7/10
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm Review@CVG - 8.1/10
Frontlines: Fuel of War Review@3DNews(Russian) - 7/10

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm Now Available on Steam

THQ’s latest Warhammer RTS has arrived on Steam (shortly after it’s retail release) Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm is the third and final expansion to the genre-defining and critically-acclaimed RTS, Dawn of War. In Soulstorm, two new armies are introduced, raising the total number of playable armies in Dawn of War to an unprecedented count of nine while also adding additional units to all existing factions. The revolutionary meta-game that was introduced in Dark Crusade is further expanded to an interplanetary scale, allowing players to battle across a star system. Combined with its sister products, Soulstorm makes Dawn of War the largest and most detailed RTS ever released. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm is available for $39.95 Read more

THQ Ships Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm

THQ Inc. today announced that Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War – Soulstorm, the next hybrid standalone expansion in Relic Entertainment’s critically acclaimed Dawn of War Real-Time Strategy (RTS) franchise, has shipped exclusively for Windows PC to retail outlets worldwide. Featuring an intense interplanetary campaign along with the debut of air units, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Soulstorm delivers an immersive strategic experience with two new armies for an unprecedented total of nine playable factions. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Soulstorm is now available for a suggested retail price of $39.99.

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