Topic: DoW 2 Thread

[MysterD]

Que, yeah -- I prefer Expansion Packs over this whole DLC thing all these games seem to be doing.

All DLC really is are mini-sized expansion packs, usually the size of say an "Episodic" piece of gaming (HL2 Episodes).

Only real DLC that looks more like an expansion pack is GTA4: Lost and the Damned.

[Quemaqua]

Really spot-on video review from GameReactor.eu.  Clocks in at 12 minutes, shows off a lot of gameplay, and totally nails down all the finer points of the main campaign and the core gameplay.  It more or less just skims the multiplayer side of things.  It's nice, though, because one of the guys is a 40k nut, and the other guy isn't as much, but that other guy is the one doing the review, so he's talking about what the game does right in really showing off the universe and providing information, and how expressive it is, and how the scale works so much better; trying to show that a single Dreadnought is ridiculously powerful, rather than the way the first Dawn of War did it, where you'd end up building 10 of the things and marching them around, traditional RTS-style.

Anyway, really solid review with lots of info.  Check it out.

EDIT - Shacknews review, very descriptive.

[Xessive]

That review by GameReactor was very informative. I'm definitely getting DoW2, it's just a matter of time.

[sirean_syan]

Given that this turned out even the least bit good, I'm more than happy. The best part is just how well they managed to nail 40K. It almost makes the original game feel like some fan mod that just skins over some generic game. So much of it is just spot on that's its obvious that Relic wasn't just given the license for the game, but that many people over the have a deep love for the universe.

[MysterD]

DoW2 got patched (Again) last night.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Update Released
February 23, 2009, 7:08 pm - Valve - Product Update

Updates to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II

    * Improved memory heap management to reduce 'out-of-memory' crashes that were plaguing certain systems, including 32-Bit Vista on High and Ultra settings. Often reported as 'error 183 failed to create to create dump'

[Xessive]

Just got my hands on DoW2. Updating...

[PyroMenace]

DoW2 got patched (Again) last night.

Fuck... I have to torrent another goddamn update.

[Xessive]

Yeah, it's kind of a bitch when it decides "fack you, I'm updating now.. wait till I'm done, assface."

Honestly, I really prefer good old fashioned manual updates. The main reasons being that I can download by whichever means I prefer and I can install them when I want.

At least through Steam I always get the fastest download rate on my connection (anywhere from 170 KB/s to ~220 KB/s). I have a 2MB connection, which is currently the fastest available to consumers here and it costs me about $100 USD per month. It's rapage out here. To think that in Canada I was paying $40 CAD for a 5MB line!

[Xessive]

I just had a bit of coop fun in DoW2! It is frickin' awesome. Truly awesome.

It's undeniable that GFWL and Steam simultaneously is so retarded. I'd say it's downright asinine. I really hope Relic decides to drop one and go exclusive with the other. I don't care which one they cure it'll be a hell of an achievement with global appreciation. Kinda like Cancer & AIDS.

For multiplayer GFWL is embedded into the game UI. It's how you join games and invite players to your games. It's not so deeply entrenched that it's a core part of it but I'm pretty sure with clever reverse-engineering it could be patched out.

Steam has no influence on multiplayer, it's just the DRM and update utility. It could have just as easily been implemented as GFWL has been or completely severed.

So to play online you only need a GFWL gamertag, but you need a Steam account to access the game. See the redundancy? Your Steam friends won't be able to join you, just as in L4D, but they'll be able to see that you're currently playing DoW2.

Now, here's the only benefit I can see of having both services crammed into the game: you have the choice for which one you prefer to communicate with. By default the GFWL voice channel is open for all participants, alternatively you can voice chat more privately via Steam's overlay (which also seems to have better network performance overall).

So that's the icing on the turd.

I'm trying to not let it bug me but it's such a nasty scar on what is an otherwise beautiful production.

[beo]

wish my pc would run this!

any chance of some screenshots of the awesomeness?

[Xessive]

Right now I'm running on the auto-detect settings which are pretty much medium. I'm gonna test it on high and see how it performs.

My systems specs:
Intel Core2Duo E6750 2.67GHz
2GB DDR2 RAM @ 800MHz
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB

The graphics card is gradually becoming the bottleneck, but it can still handle most things really well.

Will post some screens as soon as I take some! I have to get into the habit of posting screenshots.

[MysterD]

Yeah, it's kind of a bitch when it decides "fack you, I'm updating now.. wait till I'm done, assface."

That's annoying as can be, yeah -- especially when everybody and their cousin is probably online trying to get the update at the same time and flooding the servers, fiending for it.

Honestly, I really prefer good old fashioned manual updates. The main reasons being that I can download by whichever means I prefer and I can install them when I want.

And whenever you want, too -- like, I can wait til the patch has been out a few days and the DL's have died down, then grab it. Especially if it's a hefty update.

At least through Steam I always get the fastest download rate on my connection (anywhere from 170 KB/s to ~220 KB/s). I have a 2MB connection, which is currently the fastest available to consumers here and it costs me about $100 USD per month. It's rapage out here. To think that in Canada I was paying $40 CAD for a 5MB line!

Crazy...

[Quemaqua]

I thought I'd posted some in here at one point?  They weren't my own, just some linked ones.  I haven't really gotten around to taking any because the game is so intense.  Even when I intend to, I just forget.

EDIT - Interesting interview with the guy who did the music for the game.  I'm a pretty big fan of this soundtrack, so I might have to keep on eye on this guy in the future.

[angrykeebler]

fuck you que..you made me want this game so bad i went out and bought it even though i probably shouldnt have. ARGH. GOOD BYE MONEY

[Quemaqua]

I doubt you'll regret it.  It's high quality entertainment.

[Xessive]

Man. DoW2 is addictive!!

Coop is a lot of fun! I only wish they made it possible to have more than 2 players. Imagine 4 players, each one controlling a squad!

The guy playing the FC will be playing the game like Diablo

[Quemaqua]

I can see why they didn't.  Controlling 2 squads givesyou enough to do and still feel occupied, but only 1 would be boring as hell.  4 is almost perfect because it gives you lots to do and think about, but you aren't completely overwhelmed.  4 split between 2 players is also good because you can talk to each other about tactics and such as you go, forming and executing plans on the fly.  I can't see that working well with 4 people, though.  The roles would be pretty strict if you were to succeed, and it would get boring simply telling the assault troops to jump into melee over and over again.

[Xessive]

Big update!

Excerpt:

Updates to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

New Content

    * Two on Two game mode is now available for ranked play.
    * Two new four-player maps have been added to the game: (4p) Medean Cliff Mines and (4p) Ruins of Argus. These are available for ranked and custom games.
    * We have added a benchmarking performance test; you can find it in the Graphics options tab.
    * There are eight new sync kill animations in the game. Keep your eyes open for some new carnage!


New Options

    * We have added a "Push to Talk" option for in-game voice chat. When enabled in the Game Options screen, tilde (~) will control chat.
    * We have also added a "Advanced Sub-selection" game option. When enabled sub-selection behavior will be the same as Company of Heroes, where a sub-selected squad will be the only one to receive orders.


Stability

    * Fixed several crashes where invalid data was being written to logs.
    * Fixed a common multithreading crash.
    * Fixed some out-of-memory crashes on Vista 32.
    * Fixed a crash that could occur if Avitus was reinforcing when a game ended.

More info here.

I'm glad they activated the 2v2 and push-to-talk.

[MysterD]

Steam has the entire THQ Collector's Pack on sale for $74.99, which now includes DOW2.

WEEKEND DEAL - Save 25% on the THQ Collector Pack, which now includes Dawn of War II
August 27, 2009, 12:51 pm - Valve - General Announcement

The weekend starts early with 25% off the THQ Collector Pack.

With the addition of Dawn of War II, the pack also includes:
Company of Heroes
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
Frontlines: Fuel of War
Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Titan Quest
Titan Quest - Immortal Throne
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Gold Edition
Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War - Soulstorm
Full Spectrum Warrior* and
Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers*

(*Full Spectrum Warrior games not available in Germany - sorry but still a great deal, right?)

[MysterD]

DOW2 will get FREE DLC come October.
The name of this content -- The Last Stand DLC.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Free DLC Coming
August 28, 2009, 4:39 pm - Valve - General Announcement

Coming in October, THQ will be releasing free DLC for Warhammer® 40,000™: Dawn of War® II, wich will feature a new cooperative multiplayer game mode and maps. Check out the Last Stand announcement trailer for a tease at the upcoming game mode.

The Last Stand is a cooperative survival mode that gives gamers control of an individual hero unit and drops a small multiplayer team into a battle with impossible odds. Players can choose between a Space Marine Captain, Eldar Farseer or Ork Mekboy and will team up with two other squad-mates in an attempt to hold out as long as possible against wave after wave of relentless attackers. Hero units level up and are fully customizable as new armor and weapons become available from game to game. Working together to devise innovative strategies is the key to success in this brand-new battle mode.

The Last Stand update, which will be free, also contains two new multiplayer maps, balance updates and bug fixes for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II.

But why wait until October to get into Dawn of War 2? Buy it now as part of the THQ Collector pack, on sale for an additional 25% off the already awesome package price this weekend only.

[Xessive]

Awesome! It's gonna be a bit more RPG since you'll focus only controlling the one unit.

[MysterD]

Relic - Dev Diary on The Last Stand DLC
Video of Relic designers talking about and showing off some of The Last Stand stuff.

Patch 1.8 - Release Notes (AKA The Last Stand Patch)
Here's the long extensive list of additions, changes, balances, and other stuff for the upcoming Patch 1.8.

[Xessive]

Man, compared to DoW1 it's taking a while to expand on DoW2! DOn't get me wrong it's a great game but part of the attraction was Relic's drive to expand and improve upon their core games.

[sirean_syan]

I don't know about that. It took a good couple of years before Dark Crusade came out and really update the formula. It seems like things are actually moving faster with DoW2.

[Xessive]

Dark Crusade was the second expansion. Winter Assault came out just a year after DoW was released. Even before Winter Assault there were several patches, each packaged with some content (mainly multiplayer maps). For DoW2 we've only seen two updates that added some content (one of which was a major update that added 2v2 online gameplay). In all fairness it hasn't been a full year since release yet, that'll be around Feb 2010, which is likely when the Chaos Rising expansion is due.

Eitehr way I'm really looking forward to The Last Stand. Should be oodles of fun!

[MysterD]

Saw this in Best Buy's flyer. They're getting these new DOW2 games this Thursday (according to the flyer), which they have on sale for this week.

DOW2: Gold Edition (DOW2 + Chaos Rising expansion) = $39.99.

DOW2: Chaos Rising (Expansion) = $29.99.
500 RZ Gamer Points if you buy DOW2: CR.
(which is equal to a $10 Reward Zone Certificate for future purchase).

[sirean_syan]

I noticed earlier today that DoW updated to include the new units for the expansion. That is, all owners of the game will get the new units for the existing races and will be able to play against people with the expansion, they just won't get to use the Chaos. Cool stuff. I'm off to see how the Tyranids fared.

Edit: Awesome. You can even play against Chaos in single player skirmishes now. That's sweet.

[Xessive]

Ah! This is what I've been waiting for! Relic always do great stuff to expand the base games.

Since I can't seem to find the Chaos Rising expansion individually in any retail stores, I'm actually considering buying the full Dow2 + Chaos Rising pack and then gifting the extra DoW2 to someone who hasn't played it yet.

[MysterD]

DOW 2 - Gold Edition = $19.99 on Steam this weekend.
DOW 2 Gold = DOW2 + Chaos Rising expansion.

[MysterD]

Dawn of War 2 - Retribution (Expansion Pack) announced.

The SP campaign will have multiple races to select from, if you want to do their particular campaign.
We know The Orks will have a SP campaign that you can play as.

There will be new MP units and new MP maps.

There will be new races for the game (SP and MP), too.

More details to come.

[Xessive]

Excellent. I still love Relic

[MysterD]

Shacknews -> Dawn Of War 2: Retribution = more info revealed on it.

DOW2: Retribution will be a stand-alone product.

There is no additional G4WL involved here in Retribution at all.
Retribution only uses Steamworks.

[idolminds]

Thats not surprising since DoW2 was Steam only anyway.

[MysterD]

Thats not surprising since DoW2 was Steam only anyway.

Wait...I thought DOW2 + Chaos Rising - MP portion used both Steam and G4WL?

[idolminds]

It did. I meant it required Steam anyway. Though I guess I was thinking of a different definition of "Steam only" when you meant as opposed to "Steam and something else".

[Xessive]

At first I thought D meant it's only available on Steam (not just that it requires it). Then his second sentence clarified that it will have no G4WL, which I can appreciate. Although I was hoping Relic would eventually patch G4WL out of the original game since it had no reason to be there.

For some really wishful thinking, I keep hoping Microsoft will eventually abandon G4WL after realizing how redundant it really is and then patch it out of all currently released titles. I know I'm dreaming but they seriously need to make it useful or get rid of it altogether.

[MysterD]

Okay, I've re-written my sentence from that post. Should be much clearer now.

About G4WL - what I like about it is I can contact G4WL players AND XBL players. You can also look at their achievements. Other than that, it sucks big time. I wish Microsoft would overhaul the hell out of it. It's way behind Steam - in terms of its tools, utilities, community, and whatnot.

One thing I'd wish Steam and G4WL just do - give the player and option to enable or disable the damn program. It should be an option, not a requirement - especially on SP-based components.

[idolminds]

The horrors of preorders and DLC.

THQ has announced that the stand-alone expansion, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Retribution, is now available for pre-order on Steam and THQ.com, in the form of a collector's edition, as well as six individual "race packs."

Each of the six "race packs" (which also include the game itself) provide additional goodies for one of the game's six factions, are digital download-only offerings, and will only be available until the game releases exclusively on Windows PC on March 1, 2011.

Each race pack retails for $29.99, and provides players with four unique abilities and "bonus Wargear items" for the race associated with the pack, and can be used during the single-player campaign. That said, THQ notes that the bonus content included in each pack will be made available for purchase separately on Steam after the game's release "for a nominal fee."

The collectors edition is $39.99 and contains all the race packs, but can only be purchased through the THQ online store.

[sirean_syan]

Huh. Messy, but actually don't entirely dislike it... it sort of reminds me from ordering things from LucasArts years ago. I don't really have a problem with ordering from THQ for the collectors edition. As for the race packs, they're just extra gear that don't really affect the complete game. For a $30 expansion pack, that's kinda cool you can pick your side and get some extra goodies. At first glance it seemed like this was going to be about how each race was $30, that would be terrible.

[MysterD]

So yeah - when's the DOW2: Ultimate Edition w/ everything coming to Steam?
And when's the crazy Steam sale for it?