By Kieron Gillen on April 4th, 2008 at 11:17 pm.
We return from a Friday night consultation with the Imperial Tarot (aka Booze) to discover that the Dawn of War 2 site has gone live. You’ll find the first three screenshots here. Stare at them, then contemplate our prior analysis of what Dawn of War 2 may offer here. Oh, and you can watch the trailer on the main page here. And then you should do something else, like call your mum or think about how transitory life is.
04/04/2008 at 23:19 dartt says:
dunk!
Also, there is a delightful little teaser trailer on the site’s front page.
04/04/2008 at 23:30 Larington says:
Lookout! Crates!
Ahh game development never ceases to amuse me.
04/04/2008 at 23:44 Will Tomas says:
“Modernity signifies the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art of which the other half is the eternal and the immutable.” – Charles Baudelaire
Transitory in German is vorbeigehend. Which sounds much more impressive.
Transitory in Latin is temporalis. Which sounds much more like a videogame.
/something else
04/04/2008 at 23:46 Larington says:
You know theres a simplicity to that teaser video that makes it instantly awesome.
No needless sound effects or over the top music/audio. CHECK
Orc getting his face pounded in. CHECK
Awesome close quarters weapon with lightning deliciousness. Someone pass the sauce please CHECK
I want it, I want it goood.
Oh and RPS, if you meet the devs anytime soon, ask them to swap out those crates for, I dunno, something more like walls or sandbags, I mean, surely the Administratum (Looking at that wiki earlier sure helped this ninja edit) isn’t so bad that it manages to leave random storage crates lying around?
04/04/2008 at 23:51 Drakkheim says:
Third screenshot, right hand side… are those stairs leadin underground? Please o please let there be wrecked subway tunnels and zerg filled underground nests (destructable terrain, literally?) I want to get my WH40k and SpaceHulk fix simultaneously.
04/04/2008 at 23:57 Larington says:
Hmm, the stairs are fenced off which potentially raises doubts (Though what imperial guard yet alone space marine couldn’t get passed that silly little obstacle, yet such obstacles stopped your troops in the original dawn of war) but if you are right then DoW2 would get my vote for bottled awesomeness for err, whenever the game is due to be released.
05/04/2008 at 00:03 Bob Dole says:
It looks like the Crysis of RTSes, and I KNOW the gameplay will rock. Looking at the last screen, it looks just as good as the UE3. With some things at lower res, obviously.
05/04/2008 at 00:03 MisterBritish says:
So very pretty. Really looking forward to a smaller scale, tactical DoW. The closer we get to squad-based strategy the better.
05/04/2008 at 00:15 Ging says:
It looks so shiny and nice!
re: the stairs – they do look a bit locked off, but then there are plentiful ork corpses scattered around them. I do, somewhat sadly, doubt that they’ll actually go anywhere though.
05/04/2008 at 00:16 Bob Dole says:
I think it was fine the first time. Before Soulstorm, anyway, I haven’t played that beyond the demo.
Edit: Not that I would mind the change, if they did it right.
05/04/2008 at 00:24 Seniath says:
Sweet raptor jesus!
05/04/2008 at 00:47 Andrew Armstrong says:
Neat screenshots and teaser, and finally, it’s properly widescreen! (whew).
Shame the models so far don’t seem to be very varied, which is odd considering the original added randomness in the first expansion.
05/04/2008 at 01:47 CthulhuRlyeh says:
“Ancient races will clash across the planets that dot this section of space, battling for the greatest of stakes – not only the claim to the land and its bounty – but the fate of each race.”
Necrons are in.
So are Eldar.
05/04/2008 at 02:15 wcaypahwat says:
Regarding the trailer……. Are space marines supposed to be so…..agile?
05/04/2008 at 02:23 Kieron Gillen says:
CthuluhuRlyeh: Of course, the thought comes to mind – maybe the structure of the game is so different that they change the scale, limiting the number of people you have in play. In which case, the resources which could have made 4 normal factions could make 8 half-sized factions.
(And then the expansion packs rather than adding new races, add new pieces to each race)
Random theorising, of course. There’s always lots of ways a Dev could play it.
KG
05/04/2008 at 02:44 MPK says:
Assault marines in Mk 6 armour….oh the geek in me rejoices.
Also: I smell physics in them there battlegrounds.
05/04/2008 at 02:46 Frosty840 says:
Y’know, looking at these screenies, I might go so far as to guess that what’s there is basically the old underlying DoW code running on a beefed-up graphical engine.
I do hope not…
05/04/2008 at 03:20 icegreentea says:
@frosty840
DOW2 is using an updated Essence Engine (that’s the entire game engine, not just graphics). It’s the same engine that Company of Heroes ran on. DOW runs on the same engine that Impossible Creatures (released in 2002) ran on.
That should in theory allow them to ‘do justice’ for the Nids, as all they have been saying this whole time regarding Nids is that they can’t pull it off properly in the previous game engine.
I am far more worried about DOW2 getting a Vista Exclusive release. I really hope THQ/Relic doesn’t go that path.
On that note, I really have high expectations for this game. I hope the beautiful graphics are matched up by sweet gameplay. Would love for doctrines/sub-fractions.
05/04/2008 at 04:21 Anthony Damiani says:
Who the hell would release a vista exclusive? Has anybody done this yet? Vista adoption rates have been sloooooow.
Though I would buy Vista for DoW2…
Also, did anyone notice that line about “a fully co-operative multiplayer campaign”? Someone got any theories on what that means?
05/04/2008 at 04:44 NewName says:
So DoW2 already has a time to crates of negative one year?
05/04/2008 at 06:26 much2much says:
That second and third screenshot are HOT AS HELL!
The teaser is hilarious. 50% of it is the Dawn of War II logo or nothing.
05/04/2008 at 07:45 Ging says:
Anthony: Probably means just what it says on the tin, you can play the/a campaign with a buddy. I’d guess because they’re focusing on smaller scale combat (just a handful of squads rather than the load from DoW) it’s easier to make that happen – though it’ll be interesting to see if it’s possible for the second player to select a race or if it’s forced upon them (which would be more usual in this sort of scenario).
05/04/2008 at 07:50 No Messages says:
Anthony: Sadly, Alan Wake is Vista only. Who knows, it might change (probably not though).
DoW2 so far looks delicious, however. We shall see…
05/04/2008 at 08:02 malkav11 says:
So, Space Marines (raptor squads!) and Orkz. I assume the things being shot at in the other two screenshots are also orkz, although it’s nearly impossible to make out. Pretty easy guess.
Though there’s still plenty of possibility of other factions.
05/04/2008 at 08:03 Kalain says:
DoW2 looks lovely. Can’t wait for this to be released. Soulstorm was ok, but I thought the two new armies were a bit, lacklustre.
But, I’m sure, with the old devs at relic behind this, it will be fantastic again.
05/04/2008 at 08:37 roBurky says:
I am pleased by the drop pod in the second picture. It seems the Space Marines have remembered how to use them properly, and no longer have to build themselves a landing structure.
05/04/2008 at 09:59 Okami says:
Looks like that Space Marine went to the Kratos School Of Slaying Large Monsters. Maybe DoW2 will be the first RTS to feature QTEs..
05/04/2008 at 10:22 Wolfman says:
I want!
All we need now is a Space Hulk official remake follwed by some kind of 40K RPG, and a Combat Mission style 40K Epic strategy game and my life will be complete.
Bugger its never going to happen is it? :(
-wolfman
05/04/2008 at 13:04 Jonathan says:
“Relic Entertainment, is scheduled to bring the 41st Millennium’s savage warfare to life like never before in spring 2009″ thats pretty soon. Any ideas how long they’ve been working on it? I trust Relic enough not to have rushed it but to keep this quiet required near Blizzard levels of secrecy.
05/04/2008 at 15:48 SwiftRanger says:
Since September 2006, according to the PCGameplay article (the Belgian mag).
05/04/2008 at 17:19 SuperNashwan says:
Blood Angels… *yawn*
05/04/2008 at 17:35 Larington says:
Would be nice to see the Blood Angels not be the main chapter this time around, even if only in the story (assuming there is one) elements. Variety = goodness, usually.
05/04/2008 at 19:18 Jonathan says:
Reply to Swiftranger
See, that’s what I mean about secrecy.
Also I was hoping for “This is nothing compared to …” internet has let me down again.
05/04/2008 at 20:08 Chemix says:
It looks good, but I do hope that there is more than just one ork model per squad, or it’s going to look really weird, and not in a good way.
My hopes for this game is that the races will be much more varied and that it won’t actually be limited to handfuls of sparse armies. Bring on the “titans” or atleast the wolfhound titans, the small scout versions that stand as tall as a 5 story building and obliterate anything and everything in their path.
05/04/2008 at 21:35 Mr. Softpants says:
Seeing those Assault Marines descend from the heavens make me grin from ear to ear.
Don’t care about Starcarft 2. I want Dawn of War 2.
06/04/2008 at 10:50 Anthony Damiani says:
Johnathan–
The secrecy is almost certainly linked to whatever contractual arrangements they made when they outsourced Soulstorm. Now that the latter title has shipped, they’re free to talk.
06/04/2008 at 11:28 Jochen Scheisse says:
It’s really crap that I have to get a new PC to play this, really. I know the optics will be awesome, but I will install a zoom mod anyways, like I did in all DoW games, and 90% of the reflecting gun barrel type innovation will be totally lost on me.
I know I’m a trend whore, but what I’d really have preferred is the old DoW with a real physics engine, TF2 style graphics and just lots and lots more animations, sync kills and such.
06/04/2008 at 11:47 Optimaximal says:
It isn’t the Blood Angels, rather it’s the Blood Ravens, a chapter that Relic designed just for the series then GW adopted it as an official chapter. They’re essentially a combination of the Blood Angels and Raven Guard, although fiction dictates that they may be descendents of the Thousand Sons or Word Bearers Chaos legions because of their close bonds with Chaos and their quest for knowledge.
Although yes, it’s a bit annoying that they’re concentrating solely on their own creation (ala. make up back story as they go) rather than delving into the TRUE astartes chapters.
06/04/2008 at 20:56 Anthony Sharpe says:
*DROOOOOOOOOL*
Wants NOW!
And I’d imagine that the campaign will be Space Marines VS Orcs for the first few missions, as GW are releasing the fifth ed of 40K in summer and will bring out new marines & have new orks out atm.
But, yes WANTS SHINY PRETTY GAME NOW DAMMIT!
07/04/2008 at 08:53 matt says:
Yeah it does look pretty, i wouldn’t say shiny though, as the environement really does have a kind of wrecked, dark and destroyed feel to it, that seems right on spot.. and crates ! Thank godness, crates to hide behind, how’s that !?
Seriously, i’m rather excited at the screenshots so far, though i’d wish they’d have a bit more up already. Can’t wait to see what the included races will be, apart from the obvious Marines and Orkz.
I’d like to get a sense of how they’ll handle the camera this time around…
07/04/2008 at 13:13 Optimaximal says:
Does the shear hype this is generating with just a handful of screenshots mean that StarCraft 2 might be…
NCTDoW2!!!!!!