Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Armoured Hugs: Space Marine On PC

By Alec Meer on July 26th, 2010 at 5:19 pm.

only war, and pixel shaders

“The loyal PC audience is incredibly important to us here at Relic,” says a guy. Or, to put it in other, MORE EXCITING words: the Warhammer 40,000 third-person action game Space Marine is coming to PC, despite formerly being pitched as console only. Oh yay! Oh yay!

And the screenshots? The screenshots look great.

(Click for bigger, more grimly dark pictures, by the way).

Whether that was down to the petition we pointed at a while back, or simple common business sense (“a lot of people who play PC games also play or used to play Games Workshop stuff”) I dunno, but it’s good news. If only to experience Relic trying their hand at something way out of their comfort zone. They already gave it a go with The Outfit on 360, but we’ve not experienced it on PC, and most certainly not with the brand they’ve increasingly become synonymous with.

Here are words and pictures.

Combining intense melee and ranged combat, Space Marine puts players into the boots of one of humanity’s elite soldiers, genetically engineered and equipped with state of the art weapons and armor. Players are dropped right into the action as they battle to defend an Imperial Forge World, from an invasion by the savage and brutal Orks, using the most devastating weaponry mankind has at its disposal.

Jonathan Dowdeswell, General Manager of Relic Entertainment commented: “The loyal PC audience is incredibly important to us here at Relic so we are delighted to be able to announce the PC version of the game.”

Travis Plane, Vice President of Global Brand Management commented: “Delivering great content the fans want to play is the key goal in the core games division at THQ so we are pulling out all of the stops to make this the best possible game for PC and console audiences alike.”

Set in the rich Warhammer 40,000 universe created by Games Workshop, Space Marine will be released worldwide for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 system and PC in early 2011.

About Space Marine

You are a Space Marine, one of humanity’s elite warriors, the last line of defence between mankind and its enemies. Through extensive genetic modification, psycho-chemical conditioning and years of rigorous training that would kill a normal man a Space Marine becomes superhuman.

When one of the industrial ‘Forge World’ planets where humanity creates its greatest weapons, comes under attack and the thousands of imperial soldiers stationed there are overwhelmed the only thing standing between this planet and its total destruction is your Space Marine. For more information, please visit www.spacemarine.com.

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154 Comments »

  2. 26/07/2010 at 17:21 Miker says:

    Just saw this news on Eurogamer, fantastic news. Hopefully it doesn’t come with GFWL though :-/

    • 26/07/2010 at 19:13 Centy says:

      Yeah that’s my only problem with Relic hopefully they will see the light and go with Steam works it’s more reliable than GFWL and of course Relic online which I would still rather have over GFWL.

    • 27/07/2010 at 15:59 Jim Rossignol says:

      As we understand it, THQ have dropped GFWL and will be using Impulse Reactor. That should mean that this game does not have GFWL.

  3. 26/07/2010 at 17:21 TotalBiscuit says:

    One of their biggest commercial failures was a console only release. Just makes sense to bring it to a platform where they have consumer loyalty.

  4. 26/07/2010 at 17:22 Vinraith says:

    Cynical jackass response: Oh, how original, another third person action game where we play a space marine.

    Real response: Being as it’s 40K licensed and Relic developed I suspect it’ll be more fun than the concept has any right to be.

    • 26/07/2010 at 17:32 Azazel says:

      Agreed. It could be like Gears of War, but with all the burly manly men replaced with burly manly batshit religious crazyheads.

    • 26/07/2010 at 17:56 Antsy says:

      Spot on Vin. Its another nail applied to that 40k itch, so its guaranteed to satisfy on some level, even if it gouges a bit. I even enjoyed Fire Warrior (can I say that?)

      /hide

    • 26/07/2010 at 18:35 Grot Punter says:

      @Antsy

      Can you claim to have beaten Firewarrior, as I can?

      /abscond

    • 26/07/2010 at 18:35 Jacques says:

      Not just any Space Marine though, but Space Marine’s of the superhuman catholic space nazi kind.

    • 26/07/2010 at 18:39 Wulf says:

      At least the marines are brightly coloured this time around!

      Brightly coloured future-soldiers all most got me into Global Agenda, until I realised that joining a guild-like thing was vital in order to enjoy the PvE.

      Soooo… for that and a few other reasons, I’m mildly interested in this, at least.

    • 27/07/2010 at 02:22 jigahaganaga says:

      @antsy
      I to enjoyed fire warrior, though in saying that it was my 2nd fps after doom so I thought it was awesome that I could aim upwards at the time.

    • 27/07/2010 at 11:37 Azhrarn says:

      I rather enjoyed Firewarrior, if only for the insane roar of the Chaos Bolter (once you got your hooves on one) and the fights against space marines (who are thoroughly hard the first few times since your weapons do so little to them).

      As for the PC release of Space Marine. Oh yes, that will be lovely. Yes it’s the usual cliché of Power Armoured Space Marine vs Whatever happens to be in your crosshairs, but it’s the original set of Power Armoured Space Marines, so it’ll probably be awesome.

  5. 26/07/2010 at 17:24 Kirian says:

    The enemies of the Emperor fear many things.

    They fear discovery, defeat, despair and death.

    Yet there is one thing they fear above all others.

    Shoddy ports.

    • 26/07/2010 at 17:26 Kirian says:

      That makes no sense, does it?

      [It's not serious, either. DAMN IT, KIRIAN, PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER! YOU'LL NEVER WEAR THE BLACK CARAPACE AT THIS RATE!]

    • 26/07/2010 at 19:14 Sporknight says:

      I’m trackin’. I even read it to my roommate in my Space Marine Voice!

    • 27/07/2010 at 01:18 FRIENDLYUNIT says:

      Ok here’s your chance at redemption: complete the rest of the lines in this stanza/chant.

      “To be reviled, that is the fate of the shoddy console port…”

  6. 26/07/2010 at 17:24 Surgeon says:

    Can’t wait to get Astarted playing this.

  7. 26/07/2010 at 17:26 JohnnyMaverik says:

    YES!!!! Thank fk, I really didn’t want to play this on console ^_^

  8. 26/07/2010 at 17:29 Sam Crisp says:

    Is this the game with the Cinemactions?

  9. 26/07/2010 at 17:30 mandrill says:

    When yousaid Space Marine I thought you meant the tabletop Space Marine. The one with the huge armies and massive tanks and Titans and insanely large bore guns.

    Sigh, oh well thats another hope dashed.

  10. 26/07/2010 at 17:33 Daryl says:

    I was looking forward to this game even before this announcement, and I’m very glad it’s coming to the PC now. I hope it has some depth and isn’t just a run-of-the-mill, God of War type of button masher. Not that there’s anything wrong with those types of games every now and then, but I’m expecting a little more than that.

    I’m also hoping it’s not a console port. I am not a huge fan of Relic’s games but I do appreciate them for releasing PC-exclusive games in the past with very little DRM, but I don’t want to see them go the way of so many other developers.

  11. 26/07/2010 at 17:34 Coldwave says:

    I BOUGHT PS3 FOR THIS

    GODDAMN YOU RELIC

  12. 26/07/2010 at 17:36 pkt-zer0 says:

    Blatant Starcraft: Ghost ripoff.

    :P

  13. 26/07/2010 at 17:40 Dood says:

    Yay, Space Fascists on the PC. This is a joyous day.

  14. 26/07/2010 at 17:40 Chad Warden says:

    Oh boy! I love bald Space Marine, duck ‘n’ cover shooters! I take 20!

  15. 26/07/2010 at 17:41 DrugCrazed says:

    Looks like fun. Though I prepare to have my dreams shattered.

  16. 26/07/2010 at 17:43 Stompywitch says:

    At last, some real Space Marines, not those girly-boy roid-ragers.

    And 40K is well known for being quite colourful, too!

  17. 26/07/2010 at 17:47 Fox says:

    Nice, though I wish they’d show some love for the other races in the franchise, here and in DoW II campaigns. Playing an Eldar Farseer as a TPS would be pretty sweet.

    • 27/07/2010 at 00:21 malkav11 says:

      I agree with you for the most part, but hey, the last 40K action game did have you play as a Tau Fire Warrior. Pity it was one of the most dreadful shooters ever made.

  18. 26/07/2010 at 17:49 ChampionHyena says:

    ALL PCS FEAR THE EMPEROR’S WRATH

  19. 26/07/2010 at 17:50 wyrmsine says:

    That ork, with the rokkit? That’s what I want to play as, please.

  21. 26/07/2010 at 17:58 Freud says:

    I love the aesthetic of the 40k universe. I’m not a huge fan of third person shooters but when that third person is a space marine, I might be ok with it.

  22. 26/07/2010 at 18:05 Ryz says:

    Awesome news.

    Hush cynical people! PC releases are good things, even if you might not be interested in it, remember?

  23. 26/07/2010 at 18:07 Navagon says:

    Good to hear from a supporting the PC standpoint. But the early footage made the gameplay look very, very pants indeed. Even by console standards. Hopefully that’s something that has been improved dramatically during the development process.

  24. 26/07/2010 at 18:08 Bascule42 says:

    There is no such thing as a poor port, only degrees of guilt.

    or to put it another way…

    Burn the XBOX. Kill the PS3. Purge the Wii.

  25. 26/07/2010 at 18:10 Jonathan says:

    Orks! Orks is best! Orks for the Ork God! etc.

  26. 26/07/2010 at 18:15 Jimbo says:

    I don’t know much about Warhammer, but I enjoyed the knowingly OTT tone in Dawn of War 2. This could be fun, as long as you don’t spend the whole time hiding behind cover.

  27. 26/07/2010 at 18:23 Eversor says:

    Well, this is good news. Glad to see petitions sometimes can get something done.

  28. 26/07/2010 at 18:28 Dominic White says:

    There was a trailer a while back that shows you taking on an Ork air-force at one point.

    Deff Skwadron need to make a cameo for that level. It’ll be pretty generally awesome to take on the orks in the sky, though – their aircraft are straight out of Catch the Pigeon, and completely at odds with any Grim Darkness the setting tries to sell.

    • 27/07/2010 at 00:28 EthZee says:

      Awww yeah. Deff Skwadron ruled.

      They need to make an ork-centric game. I still haven’t forgotten my disappointment when the Gorkamorka game they had planned for the Dreamcast went into development hell.

      They need to make it now. NOW.

  29. 26/07/2010 at 18:31 Isometric says:

    Bloody good news chaps.

  30. 26/07/2010 at 18:35 Tim Ward says:

    Good.

  31. 26/07/2010 at 18:36 Depressed says:

    Well rejoice all you want, this used to originally be a really awesome third person brawler with various, chainsaw-and-guts sporting finishing moves, and then was mutilated into a kind of diabloesque clone and moved to another studio.

    Pathetic, as I SO would have enjoyed stomping out Orcs and Chaos Marines first hand.
    But nneewwww, you PC gamers can’t have that. That would be feeeeeeeewn. And god forbid PC owners get that.
    Mewmewmew.

    Beh.

    • 26/07/2010 at 19:30 subedii says:

      What’s a ‘feeeeeeeewn’?

      Apparently I’m supposed to get one somewhere. Do they stock them at Tesco?

    • 26/07/2010 at 19:42 Lars Westergren says:

      Judging by the reactions, I think we will have fun with this game. Good to see you are happy for our sake. Thanks, mate!
      :)

    • 26/07/2010 at 19:44 TotalBiscuit says:

      Yes. It got moved to a better studio and made more original than some dumb tenth-rate God of War clone.

    • 26/07/2010 at 20:07 MWoody says:

      Did you SEE the original footage of the game? It was shit. Like from a butt.

    • 27/07/2010 at 11:15 Depressed says:

      Yes I have seen it, hence my being annoyed at the sudden turnaround.

      The footage can be found here
      http://games.tiscali.cz/news/news.asp?id=29130
      or here
      http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/54596

      I don’t know about anyone who may be missing a set of testies or what, but to me the idea of a WH40k game with main focus being “intimate brutality” rather than yet another DOW2 remake seemed thrilling and invigorating.

      I’m going to check the “new” version out regardless, but for once I would have liked to chainsawswordslay my enemies properly, up close and personal.

      (Btw – those videos were heavily compressed early alpha preview stuff..I wouldn’t make any GFX judgements, but the CONTENT was already looking highly promising. No idea why it had to be pulled..)

  32. 26/07/2010 at 18:57 Choca says:

    Dear Relic,

    I love you.

    Sincerely, Me.

  33. 26/07/2010 at 19:19 Hmm says:

    Dear Relic,
    PLEASE avoid Steamworks. Find a neutral solution that will allow you to reach the widesest possible audience, that it is, all digital distribution channels other than Steam.
    Thank you!

    • 26/07/2010 at 19:28 subedii says:

      Steamworks games can be and often are sold on other DD platforms.

      And personally, if it was between GFWL and Steamworks, I’d take Steamworks, no doubt. GFWL made playing Dawn of War 2 a freaking chore at times.

    • 26/07/2010 at 19:41 Hmm says:

      What DD platforms? All ONE of them – Direct2Drive? What about Impulse? What about the idiocy of bundling Steam store client with a boxed copy? What about Valve banning people for no reason – see MW2? Doesn’t that show you you can lose all your Steam games if Valve say so?
      Sorry you’ve had problems, but there are people who never had any troubles with GFWL, yet had plenty of problems with Steam.
      What about Impulse Reactor, due to launch this summer? I hope it works as advertised.

    • 26/07/2010 at 19:43 Hmm says:

      By the way, if other DD platforms distribute Steam games, you still have to install Steam, which kind of defeats the point of getting your game from other sources than Steam.

    • 26/07/2010 at 20:07 subedii says:

      So basically your issue isn’t actually with a game’s availability, but its usage of Steamworks. Which is separate.

      If you want to complain about Steamworks in itself then I can see that. But it doesn’t preclude the game being available elsewhere.

      You say “what about Impulse” without irony. So basically you have no issue with Impulse being bundled with Stardock games and being required to play? It’s the same deal, different developer.

      The reason that developers choose to go with Steamworks, or with GFWL, or with Impulse, is because they feel the suite of tools offered grants them a cost effective means of implementing features that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to offer. Or at least, not to the extent provided by the other services mentioned.

    • 26/07/2010 at 20:25 DrGonzo says:

      @subedi

      I agree with you. But, Impulse is nowhere near as intrusive as Steam. It isn’t required to be running for you to play the game.

      By the way I love Steam.

    • 26/07/2010 at 20:37 subedii says:

      And that’s fine if you feel Steam’s intrusive. I can see that.

      It’s just not every company is Blizzard and can afford to spend 10 years making their own completely functional back end multiplayer network and community system from scratch. And at that stage, you either drop those features, or you go with a 3rd party. Steamworks is one of those, and it offers a lot.

      Other companies have had just as much opportunity to choose to make use of Impulse. Most of them so far have decided the featuresets offered by Steamworks and GFWL are more wide reaching and more preferable, and I can see why. And of the two, I’d say it’s not even a question of preference, about the only thing that GFWL offers over Steamworks is TS matchmaking, the rest, Steamworks does with better implementation.

      As for Impulse Reactor, we can only see about that when it gets here.

    • 26/07/2010 at 21:24 Hmm says:

      @subedii
      Have you ever used Impulse? It doesn’t work like Steam.

      First of all, Impulse is not, I repeat, NOT required to play Stardock games, nor does Stardock bundle it with their games. It is only required for patching the game and you can totally uninstall it afterwards, your game will run fine. Try that with Steam.
      Impulse Reactor is meant to totally work without any client and make it possible for games using it to be sold on Steam as well btw, we’ll see how it does when it launches soon.
      When I asked “what about Impulse?” , I meant that Steamworks games cannot be bought from there, because the client is bundled with games.

    • 26/07/2010 at 22:44 subedii says:

      That Stardock doesn’t want to take on Steamworks games is not the same as Valve preventing them from stocking steamworks games, as it doesn’t prevent D2D or Gamersgate from doing so. Unlike other DD services, Stardock doesn’t want to stock steamworks games as they have their own competing system in Impulse. That’s fine, but it’s their choice to make. And at that point it’s the prerogative of the developer as to whether they want to make use of it or not.

      To put that another way, Gas Powered Games originally worked together with Stardock on Demigod, and made use of Impulse for the multiplayer architecture. When it came to Supreme Commander 2, they went with Steamworks instead because they felt it offered them a better multiplayer architecture and featureset, and they’ve actually made really good use of it to date.

      Defence Grid is on Impulse. Defence Grid makes use of Steamworks on its Steam (and store based) releases, but it’s not present on the Impulse version (or even the Greenhouse version, which makes use of different systems). It’s not an either-or situation, it’s up to the developers to implement how they see fit.

      And saying that you can uninstall Impulse each time you patch but you need it to patch every time doesn’t really strike me as a real improvement. I can’t imagine that you uninstalled Impulse every time you patched Sins of a Solar Empire or Gal Civ 2, I know I didn’t, that would be pointless. In real terms, you still need Impulse if you’re going to play the games. If I’m installing a title, I still need to verify it with Stardock. If I’m re-installing from a backup, same deal. If I’m playing online, my version is checked with Stardock’s back-end. As a feature it’s there I suppose, but on its own, it doesn’t mean much.

      If it were the case that once I’d bought the game from Impulse I never had to check in with Stardock ever again, then that would be a feature I’d appreciate. As it stands, the winner there isn’t Steam, it’s not even Impulse, it’s GOG.

  34. 26/07/2010 at 19:34 BobbleHat says:

    Great news. Given that the Warhammer 40k Space Marines are the best kind of space marines, I’ll forgive them for making another third person game about space marines. My only complaint is that I collect Eldar, and would have rather seen a game about them.

  35. 26/07/2010 at 19:42 Lambchops says:

    I will only buy this game if it features MANFAT HARDFACE. ~This is all I have to say on the matter.

    http://www.gamingdaily.co.uk/2010/space-marine-marine-in-space/

  36. 26/07/2010 at 19:53 BigJonno says:

    These “Oh noes, not more space marine shooty games” comments just go to show how completely unaware of the 40K setting most people are, even after playing DoW. They are nothing like typical shooter space marines and hopefully Relic will get that across in this game.

    The bit about it being set on a Forge World is interesting. It seems like a good excuse to have weapons and upgrades to collect, because they’re pretty much the only place in the Imperium where the Marines wouldn’t already be carrying the best gear in the whole system.

    • 26/07/2010 at 20:12 Zwebbie says:

      “They are nothing like typical shooter space marines”

      Yeah! Other Space Marines shoot space nazis or space aliens, these Space Marines shoot Orks or other Space Marines! It’s a completely different cliché!

    • 26/07/2010 at 20:39 BigJonno says:

      Thanks for proving my point.

    • 26/07/2010 at 20:47 Zwebbie says:

      You’re welcome.

      Now, I think you’d be surprised at how much I actually do know about 40k fluff, but I still don’t quite get what the major difference is that you’re implying. Is it that they shout about the Emperor all the time? I’d love to hear some arguments :) .

    • 26/07/2010 at 20:59 subedii says:

      Yeah, if the game went out of its way to portray the Space Marines as anti-heroes or even outright villains, then I could see something there. But for the most part I expect it’s going to be more heroic slaughter as the good guys face the enemies of man.

      I think this is something DoW1 actually did a little better. A big part of the plot was that Gabriel effectively enacted an exterminatus of his entire homeworld, and by the end he was proudly unrepentant of this. But the way it was presented was just enough that you understood that this was his zealotry coming through, rather than that we should actually view the extermination of a whole planet as the “good guy” thing to do. Basically the game didn’t shirk away from portraying the Space Marines as so obsessive and zealous that they would wipe whole planets of life in “service to the Emperor”.

      Then come DoW2, and I was disappointed that they are just portrayed as heroic heroes.

    • 26/07/2010 at 22:16 BigJonno says:

      For starters, they’re physically enhanced beyond the typical FPS grunt. They’re about eight feet tall, they have extra hearts and lungs, they can spit poison and absorb the memories of the dead by eating their brains. They can seal themselves against vacuum by sweating out this waxy stuff that hardens into a protective coating.

      Adolescent boys are implanted with the seeds of these enhancements so that they grow throughout puberty. The source of the modifications are special organs that develop in full-grown Marines. As a result, holding on to the bodies of the dead is a big deal for them. The original source of the enhancements is the Primarchs, twenty genetically-engineered “sons” of the Emperor. The Primarchs were snatched and scattered by Chaos while they were still infants and their DNA was tampered with. As a result, all Space Marines are flawed and more or less insane. The range of flaws goes from the Imperial Fist’s obsession with scrimshawing and pain (in one of the novels, a Fist sticks his hand into a vat of acid until the flesh is dissolved away, then covers his entire hand with tiny carvings of the names of his two fallen comrades, before heading to the med-bay to get his flesh replaced,) to the Blood Angels, who grow fangs and eventually turn into raving psychopaths after being haunted by visions of the death of their Primarch. The one guy who survived this, on account of being trapped under a collapsed building, turned into a vampire.

      Add the general religious fanaticism and the fact that they’ll quite happily wipe entire planets clean to complete their mission and I’d say they stand apart from Marcus Fenix and chums.

    • 26/07/2010 at 23:04 Zwebbie says:

      BigJonno: Nothing I didn’t know there, but I fail to see how any of those are an improvement. Vampire Space Marines? That’s different, all right, but not something I’d boast about.
      The whole premise of 40k – you’ve got to dump some morality if you want to survive in the ruthlessness of the universe – isn’t too bad, actually. DoW’s story, which subedii mentions, focuses on that and it’s not bad at all. But once you get into its details, it’s full of crap like Viking Space Marines, eating brains to transfer memories, kilometer high robots, robot mummies, space Jesus, and what-not. Let’s not even start about the amount of quotes stolen and maimed.

      “It’s a Space Marine, but with twice as many organs and he’s a vampire” sounds like the kind of thing a twelve year old would come up with, to be honest =/ .

    • 27/07/2010 at 00:27 malkav11 says:

      My complaint isn’t that they’re like standard shooter space marines. it’s that 40K games almost always have them front and center. There are other factions that could use some time in the limelight. To date I can only think of two 40K games that for certain focus on something other than the Space Marines: Rites of War, the Panzer General clone where you play Eldar, and Fire Warrior, the godawful Halo knockoff where you play a Tau.

      And multiplayer doesn’t count as far as I’m concerned. I never play it. So I’m -still- waiting to get some time with a non-Space Marine race in Dawn of War II.

    • 27/07/2010 at 05:15 DJ Phantoon says:

      Well basically, they’re better at it than everyone else.

      What with the being able to crush a man’s head with one hand business going on.

    • 27/07/2010 at 17:29 BigJonno says:

      So all the stuff that does make 40k Space Marines different from, Gears of War or Halo or Doom or Quake space marines doesn’t count because you think it’s silly? That’s a great argument there.

      I’ll agree that, for the purposes of these here ‘puter and vidja games, they’re still guys in armour who shoot stuff, but I would have thought that was oversimplifying things a little. Personally, I think that being genetically-enhanced, psychopathic religious fanatics sets them apart from the typical “soldiers….in space” cliches that get trotted out every five minutes and I hope that this comes across in the game.

  37. 26/07/2010 at 20:10 taikonaut says:

    ´twas “orchestrating the ballet of death”. My gawd.

  38. 26/07/2010 at 20:20 mrpier says:

    Great news!

  39. 26/07/2010 at 20:35 Rick says:

    Kill the heretic. Burn the mutant. Destroy the consoles. Serve the Emperor!

  40. 26/07/2010 at 20:40 Durns says:

    I think you just proved his point….

  41. 26/07/2010 at 20:59 Barman1942 says:

    Now the question is; will it be a sloppy port with mouse smoothing you can’t turn off, limited video options and no mod tools, or will it be a quality port?

  42. 26/07/2010 at 21:11 Vodkarn says:

    “@Antsy

    Can you claim to have beaten Firewarrior, as I can?

    /abscond”

    I got TO the last level, but it crashed every time early on.

    And frankly, why would you do that to yourself? That’s self-loathing.

  43. 26/07/2010 at 21:15 jonfitt says:

    Wheee!

    Any word if you can repaint your player character or are you forced to play as an Ultrabland?

  44. 26/07/2010 at 21:25 zakkmiester says:

    FOR THE EMPEROOOOOOOR
    Sadly, I bought an xbox for this (and catching up on games I had missed in the past couple years)
    It was on sale though, so no real loss.

  45. 26/07/2010 at 21:41 ZhouYu says:

    I’m not exactly sold on THQ’s record on fps PC releases/ports (Red Faction Geurilla anyone? Frontlines fuel of war perhaps?) But if I can finally melt face and play as an actual space marine… yeah I’m going to pick this up.

    This is not just a console port. This is a W40k console port.

    • 26/07/2010 at 21:58 TotalBiscuit says:

      It’s also made by Relic, who had pedigree when it comes to PC releases. Pedigree matters.

    • 26/07/2010 at 21:58 blargh says:

      Ha! Of all crap ports you could have mentioned, you mention Red Faction Guerrilla? Really? And not Saints’ Row 2? REALLY?

      RFG was one of the MUCH better console ports in recent memory from THQ and Volition. I really really enjoyed that game on PC, looked great and ran great most of the time with very little issues! It’s not as good as Capcom’s in-house ports obviously, but compared to Volition’s previous game on PC, it was like night and day!

      Pretty much sold me on Red Faction Armageddon.

  46. 26/07/2010 at 21:53 blargh says:

    YES! <3 Relic!

  47. 26/07/2010 at 22:13 terry says:

    I never got those colours in my paint set >:(

  48. 26/07/2010 at 22:14 Kakrafoon says:

    Thank the Emperor! Our prayers and petitions to the Ecclesiarchy have been heard! Oh, and thank Relic too. I cried tears of joy.

  49. 26/07/2010 at 22:16 Max says:

    Finally we get to experience the squad-based combat and morally gray zealotry of the space marines first-hand!

    Oh wait, no. They’re reskinning Gears of War as a Warhammer game so that they can push more units. How exciting.

    Personally, I like Warhammer enough that I want a game that does more than just look like the right thing.

  50. 26/07/2010 at 22:20 Hmm-Hmm. says:

    I can’t say this was unexpected. Relic is known to release a lot of their games for the PC and including rather popular warhammer 40k-related ones. I am more surprised by the fact that they didn’t announce it earlier.

  51. 26/07/2010 at 22:25 Gorgeras says:

    Just to be picky; but Space Marines do not wield ‘state of the art’ weapons and equipment in the 41st millennium. It’s ancient and only still functions because it was so well made when it was state of the art back in the 31st millennium.

    Unfortunately whilst most of us learn that Santa isn’t real eventually, no one dares tell the Adeptus Mechanicus that the Machine God isn’t real, machines are not alive and you really should open-source and encourage progress.

    Now some predictions:

    Your called in to deal with Orks(confirmed).

    The Orks are being manipulated by some unseen force.

    The Eldar know something, but they won’t tell you. They reckons they can handle it on their lonesome.

    The Eldar will totally not reconsider the competence of their Farseers, who have failed to accurately map the future in about four games now mainly because of you.

    You’ll be betrayed.

    The Imperial Guard will be disparaged unfairly before thousands of them sacrifice their lives to buy you time to do a simple task you’re taking your time with.

  52. 26/07/2010 at 22:34 Ratatosk says:

    I tyranid to not respond, but now I’m afraid I’ll just keep on responding necron and on…

  53. 26/07/2010 at 22:35 wyrmsine says:

    While I’m looking forward to this, I do have to wonder why every WH40k game absolutely has to focus on the Space Marines – I mean, they’ve got to be the most narratively boring aspect of the entire universe. A game where you run an Ork warband, now that would be fun….

    • 26/07/2010 at 22:47 SuperNashwan says:

      It’d be ok if it was actually a game about being a Space Marine. They live for centuries and you could throw some really diverse things together, from pre-implant hiveworld scum to venerated Dreadnought machine of death, via space hulks, purges and waaaghs. And if that wasn’t enough content have several campaigns covering different chapters, Blood Angels are pretty different to Space Wolves. It wouldn’t have mass market appeal, but it’d pretty awesome.

    • 26/07/2010 at 23:17 Stompywitch says:

      It’s something like half of all GW’s revenue comes from Space Marine models. They get in all the games because they sell stupid crazy bucketloads of figures, which is GW’s main reason to exist – everything else is just a sideline.

      But that ages-of-Marine game sounds incredible. I loved how stompy Thule was in DoW2, and a chunk of game about a Dreadnought – storyline probably following some childhood rival you’re always competing with, who’s turned to chaos while you were both Marines, with a final, epic Dreadnought vs Daemon Prince battle. If you’ve got good writers, let the player pick before the game their path; if your writers are even better, let the player pick through their actions whether they’re the hero or the villain.

      Pass your trial. Do your time as a scout. Work through the specialisations, and include some kick-ass driving sections (Space Marine motorbikes being the size of small cars, and MADE OF ENGINES). Reach the First Company. Fight on board a Space Hulk, because you really have to have that. Die. Go Dreadnought, go stompy. It could be amazing.

    • 27/07/2010 at 00:18 Gorgeras says:

      It would be ambitious, but very possible and very beautiful.

      But, Relic have likely gone with the formula I detailed above. The story of a Space Marine from life to death would have been too impressive and it’s a bit late in development. If they tried making a change like that now in a Borderlands-esque late-development swap it would be rubbish.

      Here’s hoping for Space Marine 2 in 5 years. Like Fable, only with a Space Fascist. My character was a fascist in Fable, but not a Space Fascist.

  54. 26/07/2010 at 23:13 Bhazor says:

    Yay!

    Relic do the look perfectly and hopefully this narrow focus will let them wallow in a bit of lore and dark silliness. Really just a slasher with Dynasty Warriors scale but decent AI (another of Relics strong suits) would be good enough for me. At any rate it’s got to be better than that original Warhammer: Space Marine trailer that I can’t seem to find anywhere.

  55. 27/07/2010 at 00:50 dave says:

    Space marine is not a 3rd person shooter! its an iteration of epic or Adeptus Titanicus etc. I almost sex wee’d until i saw what this was… epic battles with pre bought armies in a RTS/total war engine please! Warlord titans punching Heirophants(sp?) to death with thunderhawk gunships full of terminators screaming overhead towards a victory location not one guy ahooting all alien scum…. sigh maybe i should just LRN2MAKECOMPUTERGAMES

  56. 27/07/2010 at 00:55 Lemon scented apocalypse says:

    Splendid and Tremendous

  57. 27/07/2010 at 00:56 Thiefsie says:

    FPS? 3PS? TBS? RTS? Adventure Game? Point n click? Waggle stick wii game?

    There is no real information about this game anywhere in this post.

    Let me guess it is a 3rd Person Cover shooter but that would just be asinine… can someone confirm for me?

  58. 27/07/2010 at 01:03 Lemon scented apocalypse says:

    Also WTF? : http://ultramarinesthemovie.com/

    • 27/07/2010 at 20:33 Fumarole says:

      Coming out this year apparently. Script by Dan Abnett with John Hurt and Terrence Stamp contributing voices. Nice find, consider me following this one.

  59. 27/07/2010 at 02:10 Bart Stewart says:

    PC SKU enabled. Phase 1 is complete.

    Commence Phase 2 operations: confirmation of support for full keyboard and mouse remapping, Hor+ 16:10 aspect ratio, PC-localized menus and help text, and player-friendly quicksave/quickload rather than lazy-developer checkpointing.

    And then there’ll be fireworks.

  60. 27/07/2010 at 03:03 Spacewalk says:

    This will do but I’d still prefer a game with Inquisitors instead of Space Marines.

    • 27/07/2010 at 04:26 RadioactiveMan says:

      What Spacewalk said!

      I’m excited for the Space Marine game, but what I really want is a party-based Necromunda-style RPG where you battle your way through the underhive, discover some kind of intrigue related to corrupt bureaucrats from the upper spire (possibly chaos-influenced?), are enlisted to work for the inquisition, and have some glorious endgame that involves a chaos uprising and hive-wide rebellion and the imperial guard enacting martial law. And then you save the day. And, the whole game would have NO SPACE MARINES AT ALL.

      please!

    • 27/07/2010 at 20:37 Fumarole says:

      I’d buy that RPG.

    • 30/07/2010 at 15:53 Hmm-Hmm. says:

      Fumarole: You can get it right here: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=50

      Oh, you mean a computer game?

  61. 27/07/2010 at 05:03 DerangedStoat says:

    Yay we will be able to play it on our… Metal Boxes!

    • 27/07/2010 at 05:19 DJ Phantoon says:

      Wow. Well done. Even the worst of the puns weren’t that bad.

      And I get a nerd point for getting the reference. Gee, thanks.

  62. 27/07/2010 at 05:53 TheSombreroKid says:

    Glad to see they’re listening to reason, console gaming is dead!

  63. 27/07/2010 at 07:38 Dajaki says:

    To enhance later responses, perhaps I should check the Librarium.

  64. 27/07/2010 at 07:39 rollermint says:

    I remain UNDIVIDED on this issue, it may just be a lazy console port… :|

  65. 27/07/2010 at 09:00 Dodoman says:

    In the grim dark future there is only… Relic

  66. 27/07/2010 at 09:31 schimmer says:

    Just to be picky, you’re wrong.

    The weapons and armour have developed since the 30th millenium and Space Marines whilst still using the same TYPE of weapons use a different pattern. The Mark 5 “Heresy” armour is quite different to the current Mark 8 “Errant” armour, likewise all weapons have various “mk” versions too and the heresy era ones are relics.

    • 27/07/2010 at 16:13 Gorgeras says:

      I’m guessing this is a reply to me. Whilst not a long-time WH40K fan and not a buff on the details, it is true isn’t it that technological advances in the Imperium have stagnated and receded haven’t they? Much of their most advanced technology is ancient and they no longer know how to build more of it because of self-enforced ignorance and superstition.

    • 27/07/2010 at 21:46 schimmer says:

      It was, im not sure why it didn’t reply within your own post :s

      The Imperium has started to stagnate, it is no longer expanding but the technology hasnt started to receded as such, they lost it all prior to the Horus Heresy during the Age of Strife although due to the Mechanicus’ secretive nature it wouldn’t surprise me if certain things were being lost when a Magos dies or a Forgeworld is lost.

      During the Dark Age of Technology, humanity was at its technological height but then came the Age of Strife with the birth of Slaanesh due to the Eldar, massive warp storms caused psykers to manifest within humanity which led to rampant demonic possession, massive witch hunt purges, basically civil war, and cut all planets off from each other since warp travel was impossible so most of the advances made during the DAoT were lost to the thousands of years of isolation.

      Once the Age of Strife ended and the warp calmed the Emperor was ruler of Terra and the Age of the Imperium began, as did the Great Crusade and with it the reuniting of humanities lost colonies. On these worlds STC fragments were found from the Dark Age, basically schematics for various technologies and its one of the Mechanicus’ primary goals, to find and rebuild all the technology that humanity used to have from these STCs.

      There have been many technological leaps since the 31st Millenium and the technology that Space Marines use can still be considered state of the art as power armour etc isn’t really available for just anybody. New arms and armour are being produced, but one of the things that IS mostly passed down rather than made is Terminator armour, new chapters are gifted Terminator armour from their parent chapters and suits are relics that have been around for thousands of years.

  67. 27/07/2010 at 10:16 ErikM says:

    I remain khorne in this issue. But who knows, maybe it’ll be good.

  68. 27/07/2010 at 11:17 buzko says:

    Was I the only one looking forward to Dynasty Warriors 40K?

    Oh well. Hopefully relic will retain what looked like FWOOSH-BOOM stompy fun in adding the PC goodness.

  69. 27/07/2010 at 14:02 siliciferous says:

    The one in which you dole out “intimate brutality”?

  70. 27/07/2010 at 14:46 Mr_Bacco says:

    A 40k game set in the enclosed environment of a Planetary Hive maybe? Options to play as a normal human, a mutant, an arbiter, an ork, a chaos cultist, an PDF guardsman, a genestealer, a genestealer cultist, an example of whatever other misc aliens are around (hrud?) perhaps even an inquisitor or temple priest. All of these nicely wrapped up in a good WRPG framework would make one hell of a game if done right.

  71. 27/07/2010 at 16:10 The Pink Ninja says:

    Do The Emperor’s Space marine jog backwards while firing as a standard tactic?

  72. 27/07/2010 at 16:10 Sidrovich says:

    I’d just settle for Relic flipping this on it’s head – Play as an Ork Boss leadin’ a WARRRGH against the humies.

  73. 27/07/2010 at 18:21 Theblazeuk says:

    I share your excitement and I also want to share my respect for a good handle, Rogue Leader.

  74. 29/08/2010 at 09:34 Invictus says:

    Tycho I watched your vids on youtube theyre awesome

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