By Alec Meer on March 11th, 2010 at 12:04 am.
In preparation for the impending Chaos Rising expandaspansionlone due later this week, there’s just been a hunka hunka burning patch for the original Dawn of War II. While the price of Chaos Rising might seem a little unfair, given it’s primarily an expansion hiding in self-contained form, Relic are going to extreme lengths to not split the player base. The update that’s just hit allows DoW2-plain players to battle against Chaos Rising players (and Dow2+Chaos Rising players), essentially patching the entire Chaos Faction into the original game. You can’t play as ‘em if you don’t own Chaos Rising, but you can play against them. Better still, the shiny new units for the four existing DoW2 races are now yours to play with, for free – including Genestealers. Genestealers! Dance-dance-happy-dance. Also thrown in are a clutch of new maps – the net result being that, whichever configuration of DoW2 you own, you’re not locked out of playing with anyone else. It’s an incredibly generous update, and I’ve a sneaking feeling it’ll shift a lot of copies of the expansion as a result. Full patch notes are hiding below – but you’ll get the whole lot if you update your copy of DoW2 on Steam now.
New Map: 2p Judgment of Carrion
New Map: 2p Ice Station Obelis
New Map: 4p Desert Showdown
New Map: 4p Judgment of Carrion
New Map: 4p Selenon Fissure
New Map: 6p Argent Shelf
New Map: 6p Judgment of Carrion
New Map: 6p Calderis Refinery (Free-For-All)
New Map: 6p Judgment of Carrion (Free-For-All)
Added Librarian Unit to tier two of Space Marines
Added Weirdboy Unit to tier two of Orks
Added Tyrant Guard Unit to tier two of Tyranids
Added Gene Stealers Squad to tier two of Tyranids
Added Wraithguard Squad to tier two of Eldar
Added the ability to play against owners of Chaos Rising who are playing as the Chaos Race
Added Free for All and Team Free for All Victory Point game modes to Custom Games
New target priority system implemented so that idle units prefer attacking enemies they specialize against
Vehicle wrecks now remain on the map and provide coverThe Last Stand
Added the ability to play with owners of Chaos Rising who are playing as Chaos Sorcerer or Hive TyrantCampaign
Added the ability to transfer save games of completed Aurelian Campaigns to Chaos Rising
Added the ability save during mid-missions (Chaos Rising Campaign Only)
Wargear tooltips in both campaigns now contain significantly more information such as attack speed, accuracy, etc
New ‘Invite a Friend’ button added to the bridge to easily invite friends to a co-op game
This is at the top of my “buy when on sale together as a package” list.
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£17.99 on amazon, people
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£16.95 from zavvi
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Zavvi has suspiciously low prices! Not even a full pound for shipping to me here in Sweden… Now if only they’d email the cd-keys so I can download it without waiting for the postman that would be awesome squared.
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Zavvi are pretty unreliable by the way.
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@Nihilille:
Zavvi’s prices are low but their delivery times aren’t very good compared to other internet stores like Shopto or GAME who do free next day delivery and deliver preorders before release day.
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Dawn of war Gold edition £24.95 @ thehut.com
Both games for 25 notes, bargain
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Update, actually its £24.73 with free UK delivery. Just had my dispatch email. Delicious.
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I ordered the new Alien vs Predator game from Zavvi.com. It was very cheap (compared to steam) but it took them 16 days to deliver (I live in Norway).
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If I’m reading this right, it means that only Chaos Rising people get access to the ‘nid hero in Last Stand, which is a bit rubbish since the ‘nids are a vanilla DoW2 race.
Oh, well. The rest is all good.
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Confession time: I didn’t pay much attention to Dawn of War. Too busy with other games at the time, but always had some curiosity. I probably missed a nice slice of gaming so I’m left wondering if, with all the RTSes coming our way – N:TW, C&C4, StarC2, SupCom2 – if it would still be a good idea to go back and buy the first one? Only thing stopping me is that the Complete Collection (main game w/all XPs) is hella’ expensive.
On the other hand, I just know that buying DoW2 right now would bleed me of money and it’s obvious there are XPs coming for it too :(
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DoW 1 and expansions have been on sale several times in the past, so you might be lucky if you wait a little longer and follow the bargain bin.
I installed the games again recently, and I still like them very much. It’s a very different game from DoW2 or Starcraft, but nevertheless a great RTS.
I guess online play is pretty much dead by now, but if you like playing skirmish, search for “dawn of skirmish ai”, which is a very good AI mod.
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The original Dawn Of War is a fantastic game, very similar to Company of Heroes but not so streamlined, if that means anything to you (CoH was basically a refined re-skin of Dawn of War).
Highly, highly, highly recommended.
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The original is very worth it. In my opinion it took the basic RTS formula and made it as deep and fun to play as possible. Loads of mods, too. You can get the Platinum edition for $30 USD, retail, which is vanilla plus the first two expansions. Soulstorm is an additional $30 and not worth anyone’s money, as all it adds are boring air units, a crappy campaign that’s just a long string of skirmish maps, and Cocaine Elves and Space Nuns, who no one liked anyway. The only thing you’ll be missing if you skip Soulstorm is Indrick Boreale’s spectacularly hamtastic SPESS MEHREENS speech. Which is probably a good thing.
The main game and first two expansions are all excellent, though.
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Well the complete collection is expensive but the anthology (which is DOW and its first two expansion) is only around £11 or £12. The third expansion isn’t as good as the first two but if you want you can get the third expansion on its own for another £5. What I will say is that the Sisters (faction from the third pack) are a fun faction to play with and are probably one of the best realised in the game.
All told DOW was a great game though Company of Heroes surpassed it shortly after. Personally I don’t much care for DOW 2 it lacks the scale of the original and just isn’t as good as CoH. My personal gripe is that It lacks the clarity of CoH where you could tell in a glance who would win a fight and where cover was sturdy enough to actually be useful. But then what do I know?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dawn-War-Anthology-PC-DVD/dp/B000JQL99G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1268306833&sr=8-2
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@Diogo
The original DoW and its expansions are some of the best RTS games of the past decade, IMO. The skirmish AI mod plus the non-linear map based campaigns in Dark Crusade and, to a lesser extent, Soulstorm make for some of the best single player real time strategy since Rise of Nations. Nothing’s come along to match it since (including CoH, if you ask me), and considering the direction Relic’s taken DoW 2 in it seems unlikely that anything’s going to match the original DoW for quite some time.
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Excellent! I probably won’t be getting Chaos Rising, as DoW II just didn’t grab me in the same way the first game did, but I am nonethless pleased to see such support for it. Maybe I’ll have another blast of it at the weekend.
Props to Relic (and THQ).
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I applaud Relic for this. This is exactly what a community of mp players need. HURRA!
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I’m confused. I pre-ordered Chaos Rising via steam. and it appeared in my games list (uninstalled of course) but after this DoW2 update it has dissappeared. Does this mean that it has been bundled in with my current DoW2 install or is there a bug?
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I played the suck it and see game and was rewarded with, well not alot really. The only difference is that the patch notes for the update say that its Chaos Rising 2.1 (and presumably the version number that is displayed on the menu screen) no other indication is given as to whether is been Chaosified. The intro movie is still the same and everything. So I’m still confused.
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I had the same issue Mandrill. I’m waiting for it to launch to see if it’ll fix.
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It has been merged with DOW2.
I was confused as well before I saw it explained on the steam forums
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I’m mystified by the price comment. Chaos Rising is $30. Expansions have been traditionally priced at $30 for years and years. And if you preorder, they’re nice enough to throw in a giftable (if you own it already) copy of the terrible PC port of Saints Row 2.
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That would be £30 in the UK, about $45.
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Back in the old days, expansions used to cost £15, maybe £20 for a really high profile one. Then again, full AAA PC games were £25-£30, which only applies to a few releases now (unless you’re buying on Amazon/Play.
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£17.99 on Play.com. got mine there, register key with steam on arrival. Bingo. Sorted. EXCITED.
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@malkav11
Wasn’t $20-25 standard price point for expansions?
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I seem to recall that the Warcraft II expansion was $30 back in 1996.
(warning: pointless story ahead) I remember this because my uncle told me that he knew somebody who worked at a game company and could get one of their games for free for me for my birthday. Of course, I was obsessed with Warcraft II at the time and had no interest in that other company’s games. I demanded the Warcraft expansion and so my uncle went to the store and bought it for me. In my family aunts and uncles generally gave very small, inexpensive gifts to nieces and nephews if anything, and my parents were sort of embarrassed that my uncle spent $30 on me, which probably was similar in price to the gift my parents got me. Anyway, that was long winded and I’m sure no one cares, but that’s why I remember the price of that expansion so vividly.
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Maybe a really long time ago. It’s been $30 as long as I can remember.
Which is why I’m miffed about Dragon Age: Awakenings being $40.
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Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne was $20 on release, which was nice. And it added about as much to the game as CR does to DoWII. I haven’t actually seen many full expansions to games, lately, with every developer jumping on the DLC bandwagon.
Although I suppose the price varies. World of Warcraft, for example, can be got for $20. The Burning Crusade is $30, and last I checked, Wrath of the Lich King was $40. Blizzard’s really milking WoW for all it’s worth.
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I believe it would be worthwhile to get DOW2 now even with so many other RTS games close to release as it offers something not many others do – a great emphasis on tactics and diverse (relatively large choice of activatable abilities per unit) combat. The removal of base building and amass and smash gameplay is what got me to finally really care about RTS after playing practically every other and not really feeling involved beyond unit choice.
The only other game I can think of with similar mechanics is Relic’s own CoH series and the setting there feels stale after so many real world war scenario’s.
Edit: Hm, that was supposed to be a reply to Diogo Ribeiro.
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It’s certainly worth checking out, they’ve done some pretty interesting stuff here and there. Most of the DOW1 xp’s were also standalone, plus they’re dirt cheap these days, so you might want to start there if you can find one; Dark Crusade and Soulstorm are both good. Otherwise you’re probably better off just grabbing DOW2 vanilla; by the time you’ve gotten to grips with the different armies and Last Stand the xp will probably have dropped a price point.
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Oh Christ, me too; Diogo, this one’s also for you.
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They bundle DOWII and CR together at a decent price I am SO on it. I loved the demo of DOWII but it was a little pricey for my liking given I knew the expansions were coming.
I own DOW and all the expansions (even the rather crap Soulstorm) but DOW II just seemed more exciting to me from the demo.
Of course the BIG problem is Games for Windows Live.
Have a feeling they won’t be bundling DOWII and CR together at a price decent enough to make tolerating GFWL worthwhile any time soon sadly.
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Steam just put up DoW2 Gold, Game+Chaos Rising for $39.99 USD
Jump on it!
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Zavvi have the gold pack for £23.95
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Its bundled in, I just finished playing the first few single player missions of chaos rising.
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Welp, that was supposed to be a reply to a steam comment above. If you preordered Chaos Rising, it was included in the DoW2 patch and it unlocked a few hours ago.
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Where?
I mean, mine says “You need DOW2 to play Chaos Rising” (and what the hell do you think I’m playing then???), but I chalked it to not being unlocked yet in Europe (23 GMT of today, right?)
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Relic is one of the very few AAA developers on the planet, along with Blizzard. I <3 them and especially their Dawn of War games with all my heart. The only great travesty that exists is the pathetic 85 score that DoW2 received when it is clearly an RTS title done by one of the worlds two leading RTS studios at the top of their game. I was a huge fan of the first DoW series but anyone who doesn't give DoW2 a chance, particularly the absolutely superb AAA multiplayer is really missing out on the best RTS game of the last few years.
I've been playing video games on the pc since my XT and I firmly believe that all the reviewers who gave gta IV the scores that got that fundamentally boring and virtually non-interactive sequel a 98 on metacritic should be horsewhipped in the public square. GTA IV was a complete regression in terms of a game compared to it's predecessors (vice city being my fave), while DoW2 took bold strides into unexplored RTS space and achieved (after a bit of a rough start with their multiplayer matching system) a multiplayer game of sheer enduring quality and fun, as well as an innovative and mostly good single player campaign.
TLDR: DOW2 BURNS THE WORLD WITH ITS AWESOMENESS.
Hell, Saints Row 2 which was vastly more entertaining and interactive than GTA IV got thrashed in reviews landing in at 72-81 depending on platform. The problem with majority PC gaming reviews is that it fails as criticism because it is not only biased towards the largest budgets and biggest hype in the room, but much of it's reviewing will not stand the test of time
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I judge review sites by their “MartinScore” now. It’s easy to calculate: it’s their Saints Row 2 console score minus their GTAIV console score (the PC versions had their own, unique problems). The higher the value, the more that venue can be trusted to rate a game based on fun and playability, not marketing hype.
Eurogamer does relatively well at a mere -1. I’d prefer a positive value, of course, but that’s pretty good for a major venue.
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Saints Row 2 let you run around causing chaos dressed as a hot dog.
I approve of games that don’t take themselves too seriously.
Game reviewers are twats mostly. If you look on Metacritic you’ll often see some twat has given a game 100%.
Sorry, NOTHING is perfect, and that reviewer is a whore or a moron. Possibly both.
GTA IV is fun. But nowhere near as much fun as Saints Row 2.
DOW is great. Not got DOW II yet. $40 for the bundle and being forced to have GFWL is a little too much. $30… Definitely.
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-0.9 Worth Playing 94 85
-1 Eurogamer 100 90
-1 Gamespy 100 90
-1.8 IGN 100 82
-1.9 Play UK 98 79
-2 Official Playstation Magazine 100 80
-2 Games Radar 100 80
-2 Gamespot 100 80
-2.5 1up 100 75
-2.5 EGM 100 75
-4 G4TV 100 60
-5 Edge 100 50
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The price is only unfair if you buy it on Steam. I haven’t seen it for more than £20 anywhere else.
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I have a question about the DoW2 storyline, I have the original DoW, but never bothered with the expansions, are the stories in these tied in any way to the plot of the second game? Or do I need no previos knowledge to jump right in DoW2
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There are mentions about the previous games, but the storyline stands on it’s own. Most of the characters are also new, although there are a couple that carry on from the older games. So no previous knowledge required, if not for 40K fluff that is.
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@scardb and Tabris: Thank you :)
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If only SEGA were as sensible as this they would not be releasing 4 MP maps for AVP for a fiver. Way to split up your (already dwindling) players.
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Yeah, I can’t agree on the price – going for about 17 quid on most sites. That is incredibly generous for a standalone expansion and on par with the generosity of the original’s expansions.
It would be sheer madness to buy it on steam (see also: Napoleon Total War and Dragon Age Awakening)
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Great support by Relic! I’m sad that they still don’t have base building after the patch or the expansion, but I guess I can just give up on that and wait for SC2…
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It’s a wonderfully generous patch, and Relic are awesome because of it. I’ve just played as marines, so far, and the Librarian is pretty great. A little lacking health-wise though. I keep noticing little changes and rebalances, too–for example, the Devastators’ range has greatly increased, Focus Fire is now a cooldown ability, since they no longer have an energy bar, tactical marines have heavy infantry-destroying rounds, etc.
Although! Since nothing is perfect, I’ve noticed a few bugs. The marines will often scream TARGET THOSE GREENSKINS when faced by cultists, who are neither Ork nor Nurglite. The Assault Termies were shouting about how they had assault cannons after I gave them lightning claws, and the Force commander referred to a group of Tyranid Warriors as enemy officers(?) Additionally, that 1v1 Space Hulk map looks really unfinished. There are a couple small places that lack textures and look invisible, the skybox is incredibly blocky and poorly positioned, and scrolling to the edge of the map, it’s actually possible to see some sort of placeholder entity that just says BLOCKBLOCKBLOCKBLOCK. What the hell, Relic. Forget to playtest this map or something?
I’m not worried though–I’m sure these’ll all be noticed and fixed soon, and in the meantime I get to blow away some Bloodthirsters with lightning, so I’m happy.
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Blown away by the generosity here and while one should never look a gift horse in the mouth, I too have been experiencing some weird bugs since yesterday evening.
When ever I pick up an item in the campaign (be it support item or loot) it acts like a move order for the squad I’ve got currently selected and draws the face direction arrow etc. I also get some weird audio reverb kicking in after about 10 minutes in any particular mission.
Still, more expansions should be handled like this. Kudos to Relic.
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Lots and lots of new stuff! Hooray!
Mods disabled! Booo!
(Hopefully it’s a temporary measure to prevent modders from swapping one of the vanilla races for chaos, thus unlocking them without Chaos Rising.)
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Correction: mod support isn’t disabled, just a bit broken.
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They handeld the expansion for COH in the same way. Nice they still use that form of bringing updates -addons out.
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Relic are lovely.
Please find a better solution to the mod thingum.
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You are complaining about not having an extra character added for free, to the extra mode that was added for free, long after the game came out? Your sense of entitlement is astounding.
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The new Eldar unit are fucking beasts!
Also like the Orc dood :D
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Isn’t the set-up of this expansion basically the same deal as Opposing Fronts and vanilla CoH?
Regardless, going to pick this up. At this point, I think way higher of Relic than Blizzard and trust them to make truly groundbreaking RTSes rather than just reskin their old games.
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“A Hunka hunka burning love! Awahhhhhhh!”
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Ugh Steamworks. No, just no.
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great stuff, too many new graphics/sound bugs though. Seriously wtf.
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So I just bought and downloaded the game after trying out the single player demo but why was i not warned that this game uses Windows LIVE?
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Just ask Valve for a refund.
Haha, just kidding.
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GoGamer deal for us yanks:
DoW 2 Gold (Orig + Chaos Expansion): 29.90
Expansion Only: 22.90
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