Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Brand New Dawn (of War)?

By Kieron Gillen on March 12th, 2008 at 9:46 am.

Scans of the next month page of the new issue of PC Gamer (UK!) have been circling the the electric-internet gossip-tree. It looks like this:
Terminator armour or standard Mark VIII? It's so hard to tell with these modern hair-cuts.
(Click to make it full size)

Other than that, we’re pretty much left with speculation until April 10th. What are the races? Will one finally be the Tyranids? Will it share more in common with Company of Heroes than trad Dawn of War? How will it compare to Starcraft 2? All will, clearly, be revealed but until then: Speculation Comment Thread Engine go!

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39 Comments »

  1. Jae Armstrong says:

    If it is a proper sequel to DOW, then it bloody well better have the Nids. I think Relic have had enough hints at this point, and the “engine cannae take it, cap’n” excuse isn’t going to wash anymore.

    On the downside, I guess this kind takes any hope of a new Homeworld outside and shoots it the back of the head, at least for the time being. Unless THQ are going to sit the license on another team.

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  2. I figure Relic are big enough now to do two games at once, if they wanted.

    KG

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  3. c-Row says:

    Are we absolutely positive that this is DoW? I mean, there are the obvious clues, but that might just be because we all *want* a new Dawn Of War… well, I do for sure.

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  4. Mungrul says:

    I’d still like to see a more traditional WH40K war game, more along the lines of the Total War/Myth series.
    Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the RTS games, I just think it would be more accurate in that style.

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  5. moromete says:

    I want Warhammer with all the bells attached. And I mean both planet side wars and tactical engagements in space. Let’s put the whole mithology to use. Let’s have Nyds. Let’s get some more Space Chapters in the fray at the same time. More regiments. Some diplomatic options. Intrigue. Espionage. Assasination. More immersion.

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  6. roBurky says:

    What’s the silhouette meant to be?

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  7. It’s a Space Marine.

    KG

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  8. Roman Levin says:

    …heathen.

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  9. dartt says:

    A WH40k RTS with Dawn of War’s Melee, Company of Heroes cover system, Tyranids and the return of the Imperial Guard would check all of my boxes.

    I just spotted this image over in the relicnews forums. It seems to match up pretty well with the silhouette. ;)

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  10. Stew says:

    @Mungrul : Dawn of War meets Civ? I’m sold.

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  11. Rich Tysoe says:

    Yesterday I found a little shareware game called “firefight”, which is very redolent of the old MS Close Combat series and it struck me that a 40k-based game of that sort would be nifty.

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  12. Mungrul says:

    @Stew: Dear god that would consume my life. I think I would have to finally realise my patent for the “Gamer’s Colostomy Bag”.
    Someone tell the Creative Assembly that they’re missing out on a massive opportunity.

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  13. Must be annoying for you guys knowing what this really is (DoW2 of course :P) and not being able to confirm it :(

    Just have to wait for my next subs copy then :D

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  14. Masterdog says:

    That’s not Dawn of War. That, clearly, is a poison headcrab zombie from HL2.

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  15. matt says:

    I would so wish that DoW 2 would be more like Company Of Heroes, and so wish that it would feature Tyrannids at last…
    What i don’t quite get, tough, is why would there be a new extension for DoW, and then a DoW 2. Feels a little redundant, doesn’t it ?

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  16. K says:

    I was having the exact same thoughts. Total War(hammer). Yes!

    A Masters of Orion meets Total War meets Warhammer 40k. A Dark Crusade-esque campaign per planet to conquer it. Control multiple armies so many campaigns can be played at once. Purge your border worlds of the genestealer uprising, or something. Oh, oh, maybe being able to board massive space hulks to battle the enemy and take over them and such too… I’m going to be disappointed aren’t I?

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  17. Steve says:

    Yeah, Dawn of War with the Essence Engine, I’d buy it. I got my copy of DoW free with CoH, but I’ve never been able to play it because it felt so sparse and clunky compared to CoH.

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  18. MeestaNob! says:

    I’m not a warhammer player (nor any table top game), but I think I’d rather this game was terrible, because I’ve avoided these games for years now and I’m afraid if this one is any good I’ll play it.

    Forever.

    And inevitably lose my job, rendering me unable to power my PC so I can keep playing.

    It’s certainly a pickle I’m in.

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  19. It could be, but “new dawn” certainly makes it sound as if it’s gonna be the RTS.

    Which I am sooooo for.

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  20. Andy K says:

    Oh god don’t make it like Total War for chrissakes.. that would be bloody boring! I’ve loved DoW ever since the original was released. I’ve played a lot of RTS but this is the only one that keeps me coming back again and again and again..

    If I had one wish it would be to be able to mix in a few “Epic Scale” missions complete with Titans. Not likely I know, but I can dream..

    Anyway, DoW 2!! woot! stitch that Blizzard..

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  21. MPK says:

    I always played tabletop Epic rather than straight 40K because I loved the thought of campaigning rather than skirmishing. Rather than Total Warhammer, how about a mix of DoW and SupCom? Screen straddling Titans that actually straddle the screen? I still have my old Imperator model somewhere….

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  22. Tak says:

    Yes please. And take the time to DO IT RIGHT! (mumbles something about Soulstorm)

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  23. Nallen says:

    There was a 40k mod in the works for SupCom, don’t know if it got anywhere?

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  24. Jonathan says:

    Relic are one of the few full price developers I have trust in. The others being Valve, Blizzard and Irrational. As such I feel I can get a bit of enthusiasm for this. Also, the nids weren’t in DoW because they wouldn’t balance with the others. They’d essentially be a zerg rush. If the nids are in all the other groups will need to be remade.

    The one aspect of Total War I’d want is to seperate construction, recruitment and battles. But that’s more the fact that I seem to suck at a managing a base but always win when it comes to the actual fighting. But I guess that’s because I can’t memorise fifty short-cut keys.

    Also, is it just me or has DoW completely lost it’s cover mechanic at some point? Give us it back Relic.

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  25. mujadaddy says:

    *fanboiz*

    (That’s a verb.)

    *hopes they don’t fuckup*

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  26. Beefeater says:

    Are those furs? Space Wolves?

    Can someone with more industry knowledge fill in the connection between Iron Lore making Soulstorm, Iron Lore going broke, and a new DoW – who will be doing the heavy lifting to build this new thing?

    In any case, releasing info when Soulstorm’s just come out is good practice – use that buzz! Day 1 purchase here, of course.

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  27. tom says:

    Um Lightning Claws? The greatest weapons ever and still un represented (unless i missed something). Maybe the new one will be called ‘Dawn of War: Lightning Claws’ and i’ll spend the rest of my life in my room giggling like a child as my terminators ‘rip shit up’.

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  28. I suspect if it’s DoW2, it’ll be Relic’s baby. Them working on DoW2 while Iron Lore worked on the last stand-alone add-on would be what I was expecting what was going on.

    In terms of the Image, someone on Qt3 says that this 40K image is the silhouette.

    KG

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  29. Jives says:

    I hope that its less about building bases this time. Something like the WiC system could work well for dawn of war.

    Also it needs ragdoll physics dismemberment physics and really fucking big explosions, all the time.

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  30. IvanHoeHo says:

    All I really want form the sequel has canonical scale (i.e. 1 space marine v. 30(?) imperial guardsmen = fair fight), since the technology now allows for it.

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  31. mrkstphnsn says:

    DoW2 would be very nice if they allowed us to actually digitally paint all our troops properly (meaning not hat half arsed attempt in DoW)

    I used to spend hours making skins for Quake models. I’d love to do a proper skinning job on a DoW army.

    Aside from that I’d like CoH’s facing fire feature please and something that makes me get as excited as DoW did when it was released but stops short of being such a horrendous dissappointment as was the case when Soulstorm was released.

    It’s not that it was rubbish it’s just that it was meh.

    In fact Soulstorm could almost become a dictionary definition of “Meh!”

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  32. Noc says:

    I’d actually like to see a more basic port of tabletop WH40k to the digital realm. With things like being able to build your army ahead of time, custom paint it, custom equip soldiers with weaponry, maybe even be able to swap out parts from other models for greater customization in the classic model-maker fashion.

    One of the big draws to tabletop is being able to look down and say “Dude, this is MY army.” If Relic can capture that, then I think the game’ll do well.

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  33. Homunculus says:

    I suspect if it’s DoW2(…)

    Man, is this you being a big ol’ flirtatious tease; I thought you and Alec got to visit Relic HQ in quasi-recent memory?

    Anyway. Imperial Guard acting like the Company of Heroes infantry and tanks would be marvellous. As would Tyranids swarming around and up and launching themselves off ruined Imperial architecture, combined with Dawn of War’s signature brutal melee synchronised kills. It was the original that got me to stop mucking about with my spare time and using it productively to teach myself proper 3d modelling and animation; so it would be somewhat of an understatement to say that the prospect of a sequel gets me a little excited in a manner that games rarely do nowadays.

    In fact, it could be said that I dis-disrelish Dawn of War 2.

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  34. Sucram says:

    @Noc

    Warhammer Online was originally going to be about building armies and in a way recreating the tabletop experience, but for some reason (*money) GW wants people to keep buying their lead white gold.

    Anyway, who’s doing the preview so we at least know who to harass?

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  35. Tak says:

    Pretty sure they use pewter. (so called because it’s what makes lasers pew-pew, obviously)

    I think they’d get more than a few hippy groups (and, well…everyone else, too) up in arms if they used pure lead for their figurines.

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  36. much2much says:

    I love the Warhammer 40k universe but find DoW boring. CoH on the other hand I love in spite of finding wwii pretty boring.

    Great ideas in here.
    WiC style troops as opposed to base building. Yes please.
    CoH directional facing for heavy bolters, etc. great idea.
    CoH cover system. Yeah its good but could actually work properly.
    CoH would be moddable for 40k as the way the infantry and vehicles interact is very similar to the way 40k is supposed to work, just the lack of melee combat is a problem.

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  37. King Pod says:

    Do print magazines still get EXCLUSIVE!s then? I thought the internet had beaten them on this ground a few years ago?

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  38. Yeah, actually. PCG got the Sims 3 one in the current issue.

    They generally get them, and then all the information is repurposed and lobbed online.

    KG

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