Ooh, not long now until Dawn of War II. The shiny, RPGy Warhammer 40,000 real-time strategy argy-bargy hits on February 20, but turns out that just under a month before that we’ll get to play with the beta. Given disc mastering times and whatnot, I’d imagine by “beta” they actually mean “demo, but beta sounds so much edgier and exclusivier”. I still blame Google for this bally beta fad. Nonetheless, you’ll get to tinker with a multiplayer client including five maps and all four of DOW II’s races – that’s Orks, Eldar, The Chuckle Brothers and Tyranids – on January 28th. Better yet, if you own Dawn of War 1’s final expansion Soulstorm, you get to bite into that juicy beta burger on the 21st. Perhaps it’s an apology for Soulstorm being a bit flaccid?
In either case, the beta’s accessible only through Steam, which means login-hating loonymen are out of luck. More fun info-morsels about DOW 2 beneath the cut. (Man, ‘cut’ is getting old now. Anyone care to dream up an alternative?)
Minimum Requirements –
* Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista SP1
* P4 3.2 GHz (single core) or any Dual Core processor
* 1 GB RAM (XP), 1.5 GB RAM (Vista)
* A 128MB Video Card (Shader Model 3) – Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT / ATI X1600, or equivalent
* 5.5 GB of Hard Drive spaceRecommended –
* Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista SP1
* AMD Athlon 64×2 4400+ or any Intel Core 2 Duo
* 2 GB RAM (XP and Vista)
* A 256MB Video Card (Shader Model 3) – Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT / ATI X1900, or equivalent
* 5.5 GB of Hard Drive space
Now, I swear Relic/THQ were on about making DOW as accessible as possible, due to DOW1 and its expansions continuing to sell well thanks to their low-spec friendliness. A shader model 3 card being mandatory doesn’t exactly fit that bill… Dead surprised about that one: SM 3.0 for the minimum spec is something you usually only see with 360 ports, which this most certainly isn’t.
Also, here’s a video that came out just before Festivus, showing off some of the boss battles. Yep, boss battles – I’ve experienced them first hand, and they’re likely to be one of the more divisive elements of a game that’s already a major departure from its forerunner. Think Diablo dungeon bosses and you’re on the right tack.
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Nooooo! Curse those Steam logins!
Am awaiting this one with anticipation most mighty.
Yeah, i still don’t know why no one makes a proper strategy game based in W40K. It would be something like the battles in Total War.
More info after the SHAZAM!
I’m serious.
Beneath the colon:
This is looking good, but I can’t remember the last time I played an RTS online. I’m scared of those Starcraft kids and their “micro”.
Gash.
Who isn’t? I had heaps of fun online back when DoW was in beta though. No one have had time to get good at it yet, so everyone stands a chance, and can get some fun matches going. So I’m looking forward to DoW2 beta for much the same reason.
After that, I’ve just been playing it with my friends though.
And there are two obvious reasons why no one have made a proper port of the tabletop game.
1: GW doesn’t want it. (how would they make money on their overpriced miniatures then?)
2: Back when DoW came out, Relic said quite specifically that they’d been told to make a good strategy game *in the 40k universe*. That is, not based on the tabletop game, but using what gameplay worked best, as long as it was based in the 40k setting. I think that’s a fair point too. Why should only one type of game be possible in a universe as detailed as this? I’m happy to see several different takes on it, rather than just endlessly trying to port the tabletop game to PC’s. Sure, I’d love to see something closer to the tabletop game get ported to PC as well (perhaps something Total War’ey), but DoW definitely has its justification too. It’s one of the best RTS’es ever, and it’s heaps of fun to play multiplayer. It’s the setting, not the gameplay, which has been licensed to Relic.
I think you should replace “beneath the cut” with something that sounds potentially smutty. How about “down there”, for example?
Below the belt?
…accessible when clicking on the Read More option? Kinda catchy.
Also, I just read the review of this in this month’s PCGUK. Must say I was semi-surprised by the not-completely-hyperbolic-score, though Richard Stanton’s review of Space Giraffe did more than enough to compensate. Grumble, moan, etc.
How about ‘I’m just twittering down here?’.
Sorry. Trying to improve the depression caused by reading ‘minimum specs’ for a game my PC is never going to even consider playing.
I’d upgrade, but I’m pretty much convinced that even getting a swish new motherboard, processor pack and graphics card I’d still be left with the same PC only a little bit better at doing what it already does.
The Click Slit.
More details after the bamf!
“More ish below..”
“Don’t click here!”
…
Wait a sec, how about “adult content here”? :P That would increase the amount of viewers for sure.
” Ketchosaurus says:
More info after the SHAZAM!”
I second this.
A lot.
Just put variations of the word “link” followed by the actual link to the story. Ex. linky, linkeroo, linktastic, linko, linkgasm, linkeroid, etc. The possiblilites are endless!
… inside the magic 8-ball
I always liked ‘jump’, personally.
‘After the drop’?
I rather like bamf actually…
Interview at strategy informer, comment after the
cutlink:link
About the items:
@ sartoies & xercies
There was one, Rites of War. Still have a copy somewhere around the house, was based on the Panzer General 2 engine I believe.
RichPowers, thanks for the thought but I finally got a chance to check out BattleForge and ‘the word on the street’ is wrong. It’s PVP cards RTS – MtG meets Warcraft III – and random booster packs are their whole business model. Ech.
Man… That minimum spec is devastating. I’m a huge DoW nerd, been playing that game and its expansions since it first hit. But i’m not going to buy a new PC just to play that game. I already own 3, and the one of them i use for gaming is going to have to do for me. What happened to PC games that scale down? I know i’m probably not in the majority here, but i will HAPPILY play a DoW2 scaled down to look like bland textureless particle-less garbage as long as the gameplay stays intact. At least that should be an option for me. I would’ve hoped. Sigh.
Sunjammer: you are not alone, man, you are not alone
On the other hand, Worldshift looks amazing – an MMO raid RTS with random-generated maps and single or small-coop play, this is a game I’ve been hoping for someone to make since the launch of WoW. It’s also visually stunning, which is less surprising when you learn that it’s from a Crytek satellite studio I’d forgotten about. Thanks for the heads-up, Tei and retroactively RPS, that’s going high on my budget next month. (It’s out in English, the official site just doesn’t care I guess.)
http://www.worldshift-game.com/index.php?option=com_zoom&Itemid=63&catid=1
…lies a secret, wrapped in an enigma.
It sounds like the beginning of a over dramatised story.