Rock, Paper, Shotgun

As if more proof were needed that Febrooairy and Marrtch were months made of strategy, we hear glad tidings of little army men achieving great commercial success. Across the world (including the US, UK and Oz) last week, Dawn of War II hit the top of the PC charts like a, er, Space Marine hitting a pile of Orks with a powerfist. Or something. God, it’s too early for tortorous similes.

However, come this week in the UK, DOWII’s down to number 3 in the PC charts, below the latest instalment of perennial UK man-magnet Football Manager. In the all-formats chart, it places a mere 29th. DOOM! PC GAMING, DEAD! DEAD LIKE MY ABILITY TO DEVISE FUNNY SIMILES! Except… we have a new champion. One that achieves even greater success.
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I tend to think it’s a hallmark of a game being a wee bit special if I carry on playing it after I’ve filed a review of it. Because what I think is so terribly important and always 100% right, you see. Such has been the case with Dawn of War II, which has successfully managed to keep me from away from other, more pressing work for the last couple of days. One big reason for this has been wading back in on the Primarch difficulty setting (that’s ‘Ultra-bastard-hard’ in proper English), where my concerns about how relatively tactic-free the Sergeant setting was have been given a gentle shoeing.
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Dawn of War II, sequel to Relic’s much-expanded Warhammer 40,000 RTS, was released to shelves and fat pipes just a few days ago. After a long weekend snuggling up to it, here’s wot I think of its explodey delights.

According to the Sacred Creed of games writers who genuinely care about games writing, it is not the done thing to dedicate several paragraphs of a review to a game’s graphics and sound. Books shall not be judged by covers, pop bands not by their singers’ facial hair and a man not by what socks he is wearing. When it comes to Dawn of War II however, it’s incredibly difficult not to dwell obsessively on its excellent aesthetics. Once in a while, it’s fine to be shallow.
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Whee! Dawn of War II has been released at last, and I’ve already reviewed it over here. Naturally we’ll be providing with an even more taut and cogent RPS opinion later in the week, but if you really must have a numeral attached to the game, then that’s your link. Still in a quandary? Then perhaps you should watch the Eldar action trailer, which we’ve conveniently embedded after the jump.

Are you going to purchase Dawn of War II?

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As I’m already atrophying my feeble soul by posting about viral marketing, I might as well show you this too. THQ decided to build a real-life Space Marine Rhino APC to promote the upcoming Dawn of War II (on which we hope to have a Wot I Think soon-ish). If a picture speaks a thousand words, then a short video of a science-fictional tank crushing a car should certainly make up for the brevity of this post’s word count:

So I’ve had a bit more time on the Dawn Of War 2 multiplayer beta, and some thoughts come to mind. I’ve written them up after the jump, and I’m fairly certain you’ll tell me whether or not you agree.
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Ooh, not long now until Dawn of War II. The shiny, RPGy Warhammer 40,000 real-time strategy argy-bargy hits on February 20, but turns out that just under a month before that we’ll get to play with the beta. Given disc mastering times and whatnot, I’d imagine by “beta” they actually mean “demo, but beta sounds so much edgier and exclusivier”. I still blame Google for this bally beta fad. Nonetheless, you’ll get to tinker with a multiplayer client including five maps and all four of DOW II’s races – that’s Orks, Eldar, The Chuckle Brothers and Tyranids – on January 28th. Better yet, if you own Dawn of War 1′s final expansion Soulstorm, you get to bite into that juicy beta burger on the 21st. Perhaps it’s an apology for Soulstorm being a bit flaccid?

In either case, the beta’s accessible only through Steam, which means login-hating loonymen are out of luck. More fun info-morsels about DOW 2 beneath the cut. (Man, ‘cut’ is getting old now. Anyone care to dream up an alternative?)
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Reader Sub Edii pointed out that we’d not linked to this most recent Dawn Of War II footage from THQ. It’s a bunch of clips of the multiplayer mode in action – the place where the base-building skirmish battles of the original game are still in evidence. Ever wanted to know what a tyranid building looks like as it coughs up phlegm-like troops? Here’s your chance. (And, hmm, this really is starting to look special…)
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Beyond the jump we have a cracking new character-introduction type trailer for Dawn of War II. It shows off the special abilities of the core units in the space marine chapter, The Blood Ravens. Lots of in-game footage, and some spectacular assault-marine jetpack air-stomps. Getting fairly excited about this game now.
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I’ve posted an oddly low-key GameTrailers game trailer after link: Dawn of War II‘s Space Marine campaign walkthrough. It’s narrated – in a manly way – by the game’s commanding lead designer chap, Jonny Ebbert. Ebbert is very tall, and he also knows a few things about making things explode in a manner which entertains the exploder. In this trailer he discusses DoWII’s unique squad abilities, the use of cover, and the role of the heroes units in the game world. It’s impressive stuff. But not as impressive as the orbital bombardment.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II will be out in Spring 2009.
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DOW2 was already looking like the RTS to get our collective knickers in a twist about, but the recent revelation of hot Tyranid action really sets our nerdish hearts a-flutter. Here they are in living technicolour, together with the game’s (slightly nervous, bless his socks) Lead Designer Jonny Ebbert talking about the thinking behind them, and how Relic kept the ‘nids’ inclusion a secret all this time. They’re “the most special race in the universe”, apparently. I know I wouldn’t call a Carnifex ‘special’ to his face. Oh, and their behaviour’s inspired by Jurassic Park, oddly.

Video beneath the cut, plus photos of a real-life Rhino transport.

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