Relicnews: the definitive source for all things Relic

Gametap will be adding a few THQ games to their lineup, which includes Company of Heroes and Dawn of War. Can’t go wrong with other places to get the game.

THQ strikes a deal with Gametap

Gamereplays has a screenshot analysis thread up. Looks like the start of a series for them.

Welcome to what will be the first of probably many Dawn of War 2 screenshot analyses. In this particular feature series, we'll be taking a handful of pre-release in-game screenshots, reducing them to their base components, and seeing exactly what useful information we can extract from them. For today's analysis, we'll be looking at one of the recent Eldar-based images.

Update: The second installment is up as well.

As we all know, Dawn of War 2 will be using Microsoft’s Live as the back-end for multiplayer matchmaking and etc. In contrast to other games that use the Live service, Dawn of War 2 will feature free “gold” membership service for its users.

It looks like IGN read about this on the Dawn of War 2 Community Site and got to talk to the senior global director, for Games for Windows, Kevin Unangst. The question that IGN asked was “Why make this service free for Dawn of War 2?”. This is what Kevin said,

“It was important when we talked to Relic that they be able to bring that full, unapologetic multiplayer experience to their gamers. They wanted to announce the game coming to Games for Windows - Live at E3, so we have a relationship with them and that’s what we worked out. You’ll continue to see movement from us on this front relative to what else we may be doing with Games for Windows - Live sooner than later.”

Sounds like Relic didn’t want to charge players for the multiplayer experience.

IGN: E3 2008: Microsoft Talks Games for Windows

I tuned into the very short interview with Johnny Ebert about Dawn of War 2. He pretty much repeated what he said about the game. There were some few new snips of information

- Minimum Requirement is the “Awesome Requirement”. Johnny explains that a three year old computer should be able to run this game smoothy while still looking pretty good.
- Multiplayer information will probably be revealed in the next four to five weeks.

As Per Someguy’s earlier update to the GFW Live post, it looks like Dawn of War 2 might be confirmed for the Xbox 360!

We’ll check with Relic and get back to you.

Update: the page has been taken down of the Xbox site. Maybe we’ll hear more official word soon. There’s another game conference next month in Germany.

Relic.com has this small tidbit about the Soulstorm patch process.

Dear community,

The current Soulstorm patch is undergoing testing with Gamespy and although slightly delayed, is progressing well. The patch will include fixes for the critical issues (SOB infinite resource, Harlequin bug, DE Observer bug, Necron infinite Monolith bug).

Thank you for your patience, we’ll update you with a more specific release date as the patch gets closer to shipping.

- Relic Team

Soon it would seem!

Hidden amongst the awesome is this tidbit on the Dawn of War 2 site.

It’s a (brief) Q&A about DoW2 using the GFW Live service. There’s a couple of great gems in there, including the small hint of a possible 360 port. Now Games for Windows Live is a WINDOWS gaming service, but that the two systems (GFW and 360 Live), I think there’s a small possibility that the game could make it to consoles. Especially with less units to wrangle.

Sumgai Edit: Look at what I saw this morning.

Weavern linked me a CGI trailer for Dawn of War 2.

Space Marines vs Eldar trailer
Big Angry Robot, plus I think this could be the opening movie for DoW2

Update: Plastic Wax did this wonderful movie. Their works include the CGI from Bioshock and Stalker.

More information can be found here.

It’s the Eldar!

Check out Game Trailers for the exclusive video. I just caught it on Spike TV!

Was hoping for the Tyranids myself. Hopefully that’s still coming?

IGN posted up a pre-E3 preview of Dawn of War 2. IGN touched on the non-linear single player campaign along with gameplay details and changes from the first Dawn of War. Lots of juicy detail in the article.

Here is a snip talking about a major change on how the units in the single player game will be handled.

In a departure from most RTSes out there, this game won’t feature any base building in its single-player campaign, or at least from what we’ve seen so far. Before starting out on a mission, you pick which squads you’d like to bring with you, and that’s it. The squad leaders hit the field of battle with two lesser units in their group, and that’s basically what you’ve got to work with.

Also a few new images which does feature a few new units including the orks’ Killa Kanz and Wartrukks.

IGN Pre-E3 Dawn of War 2 Preview
Discuss the IGN preview