Quinn Duffy, Game Director for CoH2, is making the rounds to the various community sits.

He popped by our forums as well.

Read what he had to say.

Relic’s studio head, Alex Peters, has left Relic for Activision.  Details on “Develop”.

Also, Sega appears to be in lead position to purchase Relic from THQ.

Rumours currently suggest that Sega is in pole position to land Relic Entertainment, although this has not yet been confirmed.

 
Looks like this site has details of the purchase of Relic for 26 million by Sega.

Update: It’s official, THQ is dead. Relic is now a Sega studio (by the looks of it). No update on the individual IPs.

Update 2: Court filing. Looks like Sega might only have Company of Heroes!

Update 3: From the same court filing, Someguy spotted that Smoking Gun interactive is doing work related to Company of Heroes. “Mapping Company of Heroes to Steam”. Does this mean CoH will get a patch to move it off Quazal to Steam?

Update 4: Spotted by RadiantMonolith was this indigogo project launched today to try and recover the HW IP (so we now know at least one bidder for the IP). That project lead, Robert Santos, indicates that the HW IP was NOT auctioned off today and will be auctioned later in the month. Discuss here.

As part of THQ’s ongoing bankruptcy filings (see chapter 20 on the linked document), it was revealed that “Relic is currently developing Company of Heroes 2 for a calendar year 2013 release and a new game with the working title “Atlas” for a release in calendar year 2014″.

Later in the document, Atlas appears to have a projected “net sales” of 31.6 million, which compares to CoH2′s net sales of 55.9 million, but no projected unit sales.  It makes me wonder if this is a Free to Play title.

Could be part of an existing IP, OR a new IP.

Thanks to Joystiq for the heads up.

R E L I C N E W S . C O M

MULTIPLAYER HANDS ON

Welcome to the Relicnews Company of Heroes Multiplayer preview. I recently traveled to London to be shown a multiplayer-enabled build of Company of Heroes 2 (http://www.companyofheroes.com/) and contained below are my impressions of the game as stands. Much like the single-player hands on previously published (which can be read here) it’s worth stressing that these impressions are based on a non-final build of the game and are particularly susceptible to change before launch, not to mention the barrage of balance patches that will undoubtedly drop post-launch.

This article is split into two parts, one addressing the major changes to the Company of Heroes 2 pre-game sequence and the other addressing the changes/improvements over the original Company of Heroes as well as and the previous versions of Company of Heroes 2 that we’ve covered before.

Continue reading by clicking here!

Sweet-dancing-Santa-Claus, just in time for Christmas out pops the most insanely alluring Humble Bundle ever to grace the internet. Darksiders. Metro 2033. Red Faction - Armageddon. Company of Heroes (base game + Opposing AND Tales of Valor). And then if you pay over the average (currently almost $6) you’ll get Saints Row The Third too!

Those of you who frequent the forum will probably have heard enough recommendations of Relic’s Company of Heroes series (which is soon to have a sequel, see the post before this one for more info), but Relic aren’t the only awesome studio published by THQ.

So here’s a brief description of the games for those of you who’ve been living under a rock for the past 2-3 years.

Darksiders from Vigil Games has carved out a healthy fanbase in the violent niche of action-adventure games or rather ‘brawlers’. Facing off against the mighty God of War series Darksiders opts to not make you a pawn of the gods, but the primal force of War anthropomorphised. It’s basically an over-the-top, gory bloodbath of fun.

Metro 2033 came out of nowhere from 4A Games and was very well received by critics and fans. It’s a pretty standard shooter set in a standard post-apocalyptic world. However it’s set firmly apart from its competitors by just how richly detailed the setting was made. If you’re looking for something to fill the hole left by Fallout or similar games and don’t just want a half-hearted carbon copy then Metro 2033 is well worth a look. It’s also got a sequel headed for release next year.

Red Faction - Armageddon from Volition studios is part of the oldest series in the bundle, and may well be the last incarnation of the political-resistance themed games. The main selling point of any of the games in the series is the ingenuity of the weapon sets on offer and the havoc you can wreak on them. I still remember the Railgun from Red Faction 2 with its X-ray scope and ability to shoot through walls, and Armageddon doesn’t disappoint its ancestors either with destructible terrain and deliciously destructive weapons.

Company of Heroes is Relic Entertainment’s entry into the pack and is the most highly rated RTS to have ever been made to date. There’s really no reason why you shouldn’t already own this game or one of its standalone expansions. But if you haven’t got it or at least one of the expansions then the bundle can complete your collection. Company of Heroes 2 is about to hit alpha testing and you can read Obtuse’s mammoth playtest review right here.

Finally if you muster up enough spare change to pay over the average, or if you are just generally a generous soul, you can unlock the extra bundle game: Saints Row The Third by Volition (again). An action-adventure game that might remind of the GTA series, Saints Row sets itself apart with its mad-cap humour and ridiculous scenarios. From Manapault vans, to dildo swords to 8-bit-homage tanks and more there’s so much insanity packed into Saints Row that you should really just check it out for yourself in this great video of 42 ways to die in the game.

As of writing the bundle is up to almost 2.4 million dollars raised, being split up between THQ, various charities and of course the guys who run the Humble Bundle awesomeness. The games can be all be added to Steam incredibly easily after purchase, so go now and do a good deed, and get some good games.

THQ’s unbelievably awesome Humble Bundle

R E L I C N E W S . C O M

SINGLE-PLAYER HANDS ON

Welcome to the Relicnews Company of Heroes Alpha (early) build preview. Recently I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Eurogamer Expo along with other community members from various sites to speak to Relic and THQ about the upcoming strategy title Company of Heroes 2 (http://www.companyofheroes.com/).

We were able to play the demo single-player mission available to all attendees that was the same as seen at other shows, but we were also allowed access to a skirmish (vs computer) map later on in the show, giving us a much better idea of what the game is like overall and giving us some very strong hints as to what multiplayer might be like. Though we didn’t get to play against each other, we expect to be able to get some multiplayer impressions down the line and really dig out more finalised details. Speaking of which, there were some pains given to impress on us that the builds we were playing were a long way from finalised in any way, so please keep in mind that practically everything written about in this article is subject to change.
 

Read more by following this link!

Gorb, Lleman, Julian, PacPormanacki, Hirmetrium and below: Poctio (Unpictured: Winterdyne, Picturing: Sword_Monkey)

It was that time of the year again, those of us on the forum who had a penchant for ogling at petite models had gathered in a bustling British city, and no I’m not talking about London Fashion week. A day prior most of us convened at a respectable watering hole in the fine city of Birmingham. Alcohol was imbibed, Cthulu Munchkin was played, and the finer emotional and political motivations of a fictional brotherhood of superhumans was discussed at length for hours in far too much detail than should be allowed. But with the imminent release of one of Warhammer 40,000′s most entrenched backstories as a tabletop and book series there was a reason for previous day’s excessive theory-crafting and excitement.

For Gork and Mork

Attending the day, and representing the fora were (in no particular order); Julian! PacPomarnacki! Hirmetrium! Sword_Monkey! Pocktio! Bowkers! Lleman! Gorb! Winterdyne! (If I’ve missed anoyone, apologies it’s probably simply because I didn’t speak to you on the day, or spot you in the crowds)

You can read PacPomarnacki’s detailed write-up (so many photos!) right here.

Highlights of the day were of course the release of the Horus Heresy tabletop models, rulebook and latest series of books detailing the most important battles and figures that make up the rich backdrop of the Imperium and its struggle against the forces of Chaos.

Winterdyne, a talented modeller and painter, submitted an epic diorama to the Golden Demon competition coming away with a Silver Golden Demon, only being beaten by the overall winner of the day’s Slayer Sword Prize.

Check out what went into the creation of Winterdyne’s ‘Hunting Bigger Game’ diorama in his thread here.

This year no THQ or Relic Entertainment presence was seen, barring the awesome, fully operational, Ultramarine Rhino commissioned by THQ and now donated to Games Workshop. But there were other affiliated companies present with a host of offerings. Most notably Fantasy Flight games were present with board and card games, not just set in the 40K universe but also their very famous ‘Talisman’ game and expansions. Fantasy Flight were there promoting their 40K version of Talisman, dubbed ‘Relic’, which is to be released this coming November. Runic Games (members of which were responsible for the video game ‘Kill Team’) were also present in support, showing off a single-player version of Talisman for the PC, dubbed ‘Talisman: Prologue’. We got chatting to the devs and they have every intention of making a multiplayer version, but to do so they need your support, so head over to Steam Greenlight right now and show your interest for the game.

Talisman: Prologue on Steam Greenlight

And that’s about it for another year of Games Day. However if you’re a fan of Warhammer 40,000 and are as excited as us about the Horus Heresy then get yourself signed up to the forums, if you aren’t already, and head over to the Tabletop Discussion, and Backstory and Fluff sections. You could even try our IRC server, but at your own peril, it is a silly place.

After the dust has settled from the intial launch of the game Relicnews takes a look at Vigil Games and THQ’s Darksiders II.

Will the post-launch patches be enough to uncover a hidden gem or will all the newly-cleared bugs be merely be the tip of a hornet’s nest?

Only you can find out by reading the review right here!

If you’d like to talk about the game on the Relicnews forums the discussion thread can be found here, talking about the game from pre to post launch.

Relic’s Jager has posted a thread listing items they are auctioning off to raise funds for their entry into the “Road Hockey to Conquer Cancer” event.

Super cool stuff listed, all of it signed, including a signed copy of Homeworld 2!

Fulltimegeek.de has a couple of great preview/hands on articles about Company of Heroes 2 up.

Article 1 (Rzhev Meatgrinder) covers the demo single player mission.

Article 2 (Battle of Moscow) covers a multiplayer 2v2 map including a bit of the tech tree.

It’s all very early alpha type stuff, but still great to read!