By Jim Rossignol on June 15th, 2010 at 6:47 pm.
At last we get to look at THQ and Vigil Games’ Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online. We don’t know much about it, other than it’s taking an “action” stance on the traditional MMORPG template, and it’s full of maximalist Warhammer sci-fi absurdity. I’m sure more details will emerge as E3 trundles onward, and THQ also confirm that “more details” will appear at GamesCom in August. This trailer seems to all be in-engine, with a few seconds of game UI displayed too. More importantly, I suspect, there are cocking great titans walking about. Go take a look.
CANNOT WAIT
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Doesn’t really reveal much about the combat system, other than there will be hotkeyed abilities. Please don’t be generic, run of the mill MMO combat :<
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I guess that’s exactly what it’s going to be. Which is sad, considering that I love WH40K. But I’m really not into the whole MMO grind.
On the other hand: Titans, woo!
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It’s going to be yet another reskinned WoW clone, which is actually really depressing. There was scope to make something original, like a game where your character is actually a squad whose size varies based on race (so you get a single marine, but five guardsmen).
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It’s was confirmed to be a WoW-like years ago, I’m afraid.
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[Citation Needed]
LIES! LIES AND SLANDER FROM HERETIC SCUM!
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yeah, if it’s idiotically out of line with the fluff it will just ruin the warhammer brand, i.e. ANY imperial guarsdman being able to best a chaos space marine in combat is just idiotic, even if he’s a a “level 67 imperial guard commando class” one. Equally the concept of levelling up is just stupid, as is, excluding the super elite such as space marines and inquisitors, being able to get hold of tons of unique and rare weaponry. Most races soldiers, unsurprisingly, carry standard weapons with a few variations.
The entire mmo fantasy template doesn’t logically fit with 40K, and they had an opportunity to do something different. They could have tried a genuine military experience, with people having the choice of being in charge of themselves, such as by becoming an inquisitor or a rogue trader, or if they wanted the privilege of playing a really powerful class such as a space marine accepting that they would have to follow orders and be shipped around to fight where they were told to. There would be the possibility of some kind of sandbox emergent warfare with the different factions fighting battles for control of individual planets. Not to prejudge, but they could have made an actually next generation mmo rather than yet another WOW clone, but obviously they didn’t have the stones for it.
Having lone space marines running around is simply idiotic. Military forces receive orders and fight in battles, they don’t swan around as they please, so it just comes across as idiotic. Imperial guard travel in massive transports, they can’t have their own epic mount spaceship etc etc.
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@ Andrew
so true- a common problem with MMO`s – same with the Star Wars one.
Also cloning WoW Ad Infinitum
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Who the fuck wants to be given orders?
I mean teamwork is fun, and super-structured can also be fun if you’re not with tards, but really most of the time i’ll do what i want to have fun and win.
Partly why i’ll be picking chaos.
So long as the fluff is there, and the OPPORTUNITY for large battles, i’ll be happy. I think allowing people to do their own shit is fine, so long as each race has ongoing campaigns against other races that you can choose to be shipped out to if you want.
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Ibram Gaunt managed to kill a (in face, more than one) Chaos Space Marine in ‘Traitor General’ which is amongst the most popular fluff around.
This isn’t going to be anything like a digital version of the tabletop game and frankly, thank God! I’d love to get to play as an Imperial Guard doing something like that as frankly how bad ass would that make you feel.
Just look at games like Dawn of War 2, they didn’t follow the traditional balance of tabletop WH40K either as it would be totally rubbish.
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Warhammer online was a terrible game because it half-heartedly copied WoW instead of trying something new (which would have left it as a stable niche rather than the crumbling trash that it is).
It’s depressing that no one is willing to take the genre to the next level and instead just settles with offering varying flavors of bland.
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@jsdn
That’s exactly how I feel about the last (and apparently forthcoming) few MMO projects. If people want WoW surely they will already be playing WoW. There is a huge market of people who either don’t like WoW or have seen what it has to offer and are looking for the next logical step.
I guess that since the games themselves take so long to create, investors aren’t willing to take the risk. So we find ourselves in this stagnant situation when each iteration costing £x million makes small tweaks here and there and expects to capture that market.
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ONLY WAR
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In the grim darkness of the far future there is only levelling up.
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In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future There is Only a Warcraft Clone…
(lets hope not eh? despite the fact that that’s where the money is)
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Well, it’s certainly pretty. Need more details – it looks to be a fairly heavy action-based game, and I’m not sure if that means they’re going for the Planetside implementation or the Global Agenda one – in other words, just how heavily instanced is it? Is it virtual worldly, or more FPS focused?
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If it’s instanced, people will complain they are too constrained.
If it’s free-roam, people will complain that Space Marines don’t run around on their own.
That’s a steep hill to climb.
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Let’s hope they’ve got the Imperial Guard as more than just NPC’s.
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I want to rumble around in a Leman Russ. Or preferably a Baneblade. Or a Warhound titan.
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I want this! Oh I sooo want it! I also want that Space Marine shooter that Relic is making. (I hope it comes out on PCs.)
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Looks depressingly like reskinned WoW
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UNINSPIRED HUD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!
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I had the same thought – I think it just goes to show how successful WoW have been at ripping off the Warhammer/WH40K look over the years. Although some of those landscapes could have been less “Barrens” in appearance…
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It is a testament to Cryptic, no doubt, that the game there looks very much like a zoomed in Dawn of War 2, animation and models wise.
Or am I the only one to think that?
It certainly seems that I am the only one to think that a Warhammer 40k mmo could be the actual table top wargame, rules and everything, put online with microtransactions buying new army units, with a large universe to conquer. But then, I guess Games Workshop would be annoyed if there were an alternative to paying £50 for a book.
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@Mr_Day
What the hell do Cryptic have to do with this (developed by Vigil) or DoW2 (developed by Relic)?
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You’re right. Why did I say Cryptic? I meant Relic.
I blame brain eating parasites.
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Nope your exactly right. It could incorporate all of their tabletop games too. Different modes being different games.
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I was betrayed by the progressive sameyness and unfinished state of WAR.
I’m going to pretend that carbon-copy WoW overlay isn’t there and just watch the violence.
please don’t suck please don’t suck please don’t suck
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Hmmm, the trailer mentions a “next generation MMO” and then shows footage of a clone of an MMO from 2004.
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That first person view with a reticle at about 40 seconds certainly looks promising.
But regardless as to all that, frickin’ Titans!
Looked like just a teeny ickle Warhound.
But still.
Woo, and indeed, yay!
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Look again, it’s third person. But the reticle is promising, nonetheless.
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Sorry, I wasn’t wearing my perspectivacles…
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In the future of MMOs, THERE IS ONLY WARCRAFT.
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YES!
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Today is amazing. By the time i finish reading an article on here, there is a new one up!
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Meh, this will be disappointing so I will pretend it doesn’t exist.
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wOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Yes. YES.
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Sigh. Another monthly?
SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR THE CASH GOD.
Looks a bit World of Warcraft, really, just with the action being animations, and not very fluid at all. It worried me how static it was. “I’m just standing here and shooting things, I’m not blocking, I’m not evading, I’m not doing anything that looks like this game offers anything more than World of Warcraft. I’m just standing here, pressing mah keys.”
Oh well, another subscription based WoW-clone. *categorises as probably unworthy, perhaps with interesting vehicle bits, and moves on.*
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It’d be neat if they priced subscriptions based on race/class. Cheap to play as the ones that are more prone to getting blasted to pieces on the front lines so that there would be a lot of them around and not so cheap to play as the ones that don’t get blasted to pieces straight away so that there would be less of them. Like it should be.
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Well it looks actiony at least, not going to complain much about the UI or WoWiness. Very shiny, looks good graphics wise. I expect it will be somewhere between WoW and GA
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Wooo, looks good. The graphical style looks like it’s going for a sensible quality to be MMO friendly. Looks just like the figures (as GW tends to paint them at least) come to digital life too.
Colour me highly enthused.
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Looks from 0:40 that you’ll actually have to aim at least
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So how is this one being abbreviated? W40KDMO, or just 40KO?
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Cripes, I was scared for a moment there when Crytic was mentioned!
Trailer looks great, certainly more exciting ingame footage than the recent Star Wars trailer. Exciting stuff, I will be very interested to see how it turns out.
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If Cryptic had done it you’d have a really fun game, with nifty, fluid combat where you can block, and move around, and actually feel like you have some input as to whether you win or lose. It’d have bugs and some content issues, but it’d still be fun.
Cryptic not having done it, it’s a spacey WoW clone, albeit a polished one, in space, and nothing more.
Frankly, I would’ve been elated if Cryptic were mentioned. Well, New Cryptic, anyway. Atari has apparently had a very positive influence on them, or they’re actually getting some decent amounts of money now and putting it to good use.
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I’m sorry, ok? Really.
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I am ready to say that this IS the FIRST W40K videogame ever. all other games with the title 40K were just puny attemps (with the possible exception of Space Hulk that was somewhat 40k in the hearth).
The awesomeness of W40K + vehicles is ….*head explode*
I hope is anything like I envision it, but probably is not :-(
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What you have to ask yourself is this: How much of that vehicle stuff is in cutscenes? It looked very cutscene-ish compared to the actual game footage, which was incredibly static.
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Ouch..
Now that I look at the Other W40K game… It looks that we have the lame one :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFHKIFDjk9I
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And how, exactly, was the Dawn of War series unworthy to bear the 40k name? I have a feeling it’s a lot truer to the fluff than this will be.
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Anyone else notice the hotkeys and character tab never change between 0:40-0:44? Or that the majority of the video consists of characters in their idle animation?
The release date on Wikipedia is 2012. I hope that’s true.
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I’ve been duboius about how the 40K lore would work with an MMO, being based as it is around strategic and tactical tabletop games and not your traditional lone hero or party based RPG.
For example: Will high level space marine charcters have the option to become Dreadnoughts? Similarly, will high level chaos characters have the option to become Greater Daemons?
I’m interested to see how they cannibalise the fluff in order to make the world work, because cannibalise it they will, just as was done with WAR. But then GW was never shy of sacrificing continuity in order to make a buck.
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There’s lots of single character/small party based stuff, it’s just not so mainstream – Inquisitor, Necromunda, Space Hulk… Could be done well. Squad based would be fun though.
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Funny how quickly the RPS community (not that’s a specificity, it’s a f***ing trend) tend to jump to the WoW-Godwin-point.
They all gonna be very sad pandas when they realize WoW has been a major landmark in the mmorpg department and that it will influence, for the better or the worst, all the future online rpgs to come. Simple fact.
Paranoid asumptions have never met for good pronostics, therefore considering this trailer says nothing about the game itself just color me interested, THQ have my trust on this one.
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Mmm. I’m forever impressed by the capacity of people to witness a few seconds of UI and stamp “WoW clone” all over something, as if being remotely similiar to it in any aspect whatsoever is some dishonourable shame.
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They’re not saying it doesn’t make sense to make new MMOs “WoW-like”. It’s obvious business practice to copy the most successful product in a given field.
The problem is when games just aren’t interesting because they copy the formula of a game you’ve already played to death and beyond.
You may be frothing at the mouth at the thought of WoW with a new skin, but don’t act like it doesn’t make sense to be bored to tears by more of the same.
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Perhaps, but it’s still far too early to determine whether “more of the same” will particularly apply in this case. I’m doing no frothing or pretending, I’m just not immediately assuming that every game with a mini-map on the right and an ability bar on the bottom is going to be identical to play.
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@Kurt:
Perfect illustration of my above comment. You seem to imply that because people aren’t on the “oh it looks like WoW let’s all jump on the waaaambulance” train, without even knowing where their gaming allegeance go, they must be “frothing at the mouth” for a WoW clone.
That’s just plain stupid. As much maybe as crying “wow clone” at the sight of this trailer.
What you and the other late bloomers doesn’t seems to realize is that some players have been puking on WoW since it first came out, have grown tired of it and have moved on. The horse has been beaten to death and back, it’s too late, now is the time to just see how much it’ll impact the future, once again for the better or the worst.
And don’t come around trying to state the obvious, please, as if the paranoia toward anything that rings the WoW bell is something completely rational. You don’t see people running around sounding the alarm when they see a fps looking like Doom 2, or a RTS looking like Age of Empires.
Just cut the developers some slack and try to see previews with a fresh look. There is nothing in this trailer that could possibly show it’s gonna be a WoW clone or a bad mmo whatsoever. There will be plenty of time to go on a nerdrage when we have more infos if the game proves to be a piece of crap.
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“There is nothing in this trailer that could possibly show it’s gonna be a WoW clone”
Apart from the fact that it looks more like WoW than any other MMO ever. Almost like their design goal was “Make it look as similar to WoW as possible”.
I’m not saying it will definitely be like WoW gameplaywise, but basic common sense and even a vague knowledge of the current industry tells us it’s extremely likely it will, and it’s therefore sensible to not get excited about it (unless you get a kick out increasing your chances of being disappointed).
My comment was more about the average gamer’s propensity to get excited about the “next big MMO” only to find out it was all hype and no substance.
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“Apart from the fact that it looks more like WoW than any other MMO ever. ”
Strange. I remember no third person shooting in WoW, which is basically all this trailer shows. And y’know, I’d rather be excited for a while, then possibly become disappointed later than constantly dismiss everything I see at the first available opportunity.
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We need a Hitler MMO, that’d screw up the comment threads..
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How would that work? With hundreds of varients on Adolf, like Edmund McMillen’s No Quarter game?
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SS Agents vs. French Resistance Fighters? No doubt would be morally whitewashed anyway.
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No no, no no no, no, no.
Time travelling good Hitler VS original flavor evil Hitler.
Bonus for preordering: Black Hitler for the good Hitlers, Robo Hitler for the evils.
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Still waiting for my Obsidian-developed Inquisitor single-player RPG.
GAMES WORKSHOP YOU KNOW IT MAKES SENSE
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All those who complain about $15/month subscription fees, should learn a skill and get a job.
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@Alaric
To be fair thats like saying “Anyone who complains when a new release game is sold for £60, when others are £30 should learn a skill and get a job”.
People arent always complaining about having to pay, its sometimes the amount they have to pay or how often they have to pay for what extra content they receive. Its more about the games WORTH than not being able to afford the cost.
And I play WoW, so I’m not biased.
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The fast cut-aways in that trailer always seem to happen at the moment just before you’d see a knockback, knockdown or death animation in an action game. Cynicism and gut feeling tells me that’s because combat just continues, and the combatants lose X hp each, repeat until done.
I hope I’m wrong though. I really do. A fun Warhammer 40k MMO would be lovely, but it really would require a style of gameplay hugely different from what we take from granted in the genre.
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Blessed is the mind too small for doubt.
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FOR TEH EMPORER!
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If they can make the melee combat feel as visceral as Dawn of War than it should be fun.
Especially if its a Squad vs. Squad mmo rather than balanced around single players.
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This game better have either Inquisitor or Imperial guard as a playable class for the Imperium.
Space Marines are wussies in power armour.
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Wow meets DoW? SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
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I wanna play as a Noise Marine.
But seriously those Warhound class titans look great! I wonder how they’ll incorporate them in the game? As bosses or war machines that require co-op to pilot? (I’d prefer the latter). And BIKES! Did you see the BIKES? I just hope they scrap the subs.
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Noise Marines are just too fucking cool for mainstream video games. I wish that wasn’t the case, ‘cos then we could have Rock Band: Noise Marines and pull off head-exploding combos.
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I want Planetside, but in the 40K universe.
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Yeah, me too.
Or at least something to look forward to on the MMOFPS horizon.
There were some rumours flying about that PlanetSide Next would have something at E3, but it doesn’t like there will be.
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Let me play an Imp Guard, and I’ll be satisfied. I’ll kill all of the Traitor Marines wit mah agnry flashlight gun! Also, am I the only one who thinks he saw a Techpriest with the SM in the section with the demon?
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Edit: Yes, that is a techpriest i done seed fighting wit a mehren.
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Meanwhile, on the consoles…
Obviously the SPESS MEHRENS aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I am tempted to get this, rather than the MMO. Let’s see how they both turn out, though.
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“Side with the forces of Order, or the vile hosts of Destruction, in a war that will unlock ancient secrets, reveal dark purposes, and determine the fate of the Sargos Sector. For in this dark millennium, there is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter.”
Straight from THQ’s site itself…..I don’t know how to react to more Order vs Destruction Warhammer…………
http://thq.com/us/game/detail/5991
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Wait… whut. Order vs. Destruction? Okay, on one side we have the Imperium, and on the other, we have… everything else. (And even then, the Imperium aren’t the sanest of orders, and *blam*)
But who’s Destruction? The Orks? Chaos? The Tau? (You’re not going to have Tau and the Imperium on the same side, not for very long) Nids? Necrons?
(Actually, do we have a race list for this one?)
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‘Order’ against ‘Destruction’? Hrmph. http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/03/05/ springs to mind.
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Didn’t take them very long to disappoint.
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Not so much disappointment, more slightly disquieting. It was always fairly likely they’d either be forced to awkwardly pair up factions that really have no business being together or just strip it down to one playable faction on either side, and the ‘Order’/'Destruction’ designation points at the former. Not completely unexpected, and if that’s the case it’s presumably preferable to the strip-down option.
Still. Hrmm.
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Well the thing is that pairing up factions just doesn’t work in the 40K setting.
It was already a big stretch in Warhammer Online and the whole “team up against assured oblivion” excuse which barely worked in Mythic’s game can’t be applied in the Warhammer 40K universe where people won’t even consider an alliance when they are faced with universal annihilation (something that happen every other day in 40K).
It just doesn’t sound right.
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Yeh, I know. Hence why I described team-ups as awkward. Everybody hates everybody, and is convinced of their own superiority. Hell, the Imperium doesn’t even get along with itself all that well.
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titans…
I saw… … … … ..Titans
TITANS!
Don’t ruin my mental nerdgasm with your talk of lousy gameplay and mmo grind, no, damn it, it’s over. Grind, WHY CURSE YOU, WHY DO YOU GRIND?!
Yes I know why MMOs actually grind, but I don’t like the answer, and thus demand a different one.
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Doesn’t that titan look a good bit like the Battletech Dire Wolf/Daishi mech? The little cowl is dead-on.
Unless this is another case of Games Workshop getting ripped off and me not knowing about it. Which is always possible.
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Same thought I have after every GW game announcement – where’s my Necromunda game, eh?
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I think this will still be a hell of a lot of fun.
That said, I’ll be hesitant if there isn’t an Imperial Guard race/class.
It could be really very cool as a class, you’d have a squad of guys with you.
That said, the amount of variation in 40K leads to a huge array of potential races/classes and general customisation.
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Wasn’t that guy at the start in Star Wars?
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I had the narrator pegged as Zaeed from Mass Effect 2, but he was apparently in KotoR?
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He also played Admiral Saul Karath, the one Carth spent the entire game whinging about. So yes, he was in KotOR too.
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Now is when I admit that while I own KotoR through a Steam sale, I haven’t actually played it yet. /shame
I actually recognized the actor primarily through Buffy (as Ethan Rayne), so that’s where I’m coming from.
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I feel kind of old for wanting a Warhammer 40k single player turn based game. And sad when I realize it will never happen.
I even liked the old game Incubation because if you squinted, it almost was like Warhammer 40k.
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Ever tried Final Liberation? Old, but a pretty competent port of the Epic rule set.
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I like to think I don’t really get swayed by trailers and such, but there was a Titan in this. A Titan! And a Warhound at that, best class eva. Can’t wait to find out more. Needs more Guard tanks though – where’s my Exterminator Leman Russ (gotta have a runaround for the weekends when the Titan’s parked up)?
Anyway, until I see any reason not to be I’m gonna come over all fannishly excited about this. Finally, a game with Titan’s in it – praise the Omnissiah!
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Uh, this is the dumbest thing I’ve read all day.
Hop on over to http://www.fantasyflightgames.com
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Reply fail, that was re: mandrill
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I wonder how they’re going to stop 90% of the player base rolling Blood Angels. Still, Titans!
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“Oh good PLAYERNAME you’ve arrived. Now bring me 10 Severed Heretic Heads.”
Quest reward: 50 Thrones.
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Judging by Sigil Game’s previous title, Darksiders, and this trailer, we can at least rest assured that they will at least get the scale and proportions as well as the feel of the WH40K universe right.
Of course we are yet to see how they would translate that all into gameplay.
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And the winner for “Most Unrealized Potential in a Fictional Universe” once again goes to…
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If this ends up another WoW clone, Imma be so pissed. It would be really sad if Dawn of War pulled off better, more visceral combat. The whole idea of an MMORPG just doesn’t fit with the 40k universe. I’d really prefer an MMOFPS of some sort–I’m really hoping that’s the angle they’re taking.
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first MMO i will try
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I like 40k and especially Titans, but hate everything about MMOs. From the ridiculous “everyone in the world doing the same last-hope-for-humanity quests”, to the grinding the same content, and the monthly fees.
Bah!
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That said, from what I hear, Eve only fails the last litmus test.
Somehow I doubt it will be like Eve.
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APB has potential to pass all those. Sadly it’s not even a half-finished game & needs about a year or 2 more of development before it’s worth looking at.
EVE really is very good though & I suggest everyone tries it at least once (much like Dwarf Fortress).
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Inevitable really – The 40k IP has been buggered to death and given a shiny matel gloss by the likes of relic (Yes DOW was a great game – but it pissed on still greater fluff) The glorydays of john blanches ultra-grim 49k day are never to return, it would seem
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0 even.
Also why was this not the new planetside-alike? why? WHY??
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Blood Ravens . Relic’s very own bastard chapter that they’ve invented that are very dark and mysterious but totally boring. Even with the plot thread’s being tied together in DoWII.
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Sigh. Failed reply to someone who said Blood Angels earlier.
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I like how a few minutes of what amounts to a bunch of cutscenes and very little actual gameplay makes everyone an expert on why it’s already failed. Like any rational human being, I’ll wait until they actually release it before making my judgement call.
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I don’t care if it is like WoW style play, I’ll switch in a heart beat, I’ve wanted this to come out since I saw WoW come out….
40K and ShadowRun with MMORPG style would be way cool…
Hopefully this turns out not to be a flop…
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What are you people TALKING about!?
What I saw wasn’t a WoW clone. I saw an ACTION MMO with vehicles and guns and crazy crap like that.
To be honest, I hope it’s like Planetside, but better.
And might I remind you, Planetside HAD hotkeyed abilities.
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That it did! Wow, I forgot that, and I remember how that didn’t deter me what so ever from simply shooting gits in the face with my lazer minigun attached to the arm of my purple-psuedo-samus aran armor. I take back any fears of Hotkeys and UIs in this game!
Also, like many people, TITANS!! WOO!! I hope I can be a mek boy if orks are playable, and if there are customizable vehicles or what not, will the red ones truly go faster? That, my fellow readers, is the REAL question.
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