Rock, Paper, Shotgun

It’s been one of those days. And by that, I of course mean what everybody does when they say that: a day during which basically everything you read somehow relates to THQ’s slow, withering dismemberment at the vulture-like beaks of hungry publishers. But that goes without saying. Some things, however, aren’t quite as simple as months and months of studio and license sales, culminating in more questions than answers. For instance, what happens if a series gets tangled up in the crisscrossing webs of multiple owners? Sure, THQ’s now history, but that still leaves Relic, Sega, and Games Workshop to figure out the logistics of bringing Dawn of War back from the brink. And yet, while it won’t necessarily be the easiest thing in the world, Relic game director Quinn Duffy is confident that it can – and probably will – eventually happen.

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After slip-sliding into June like a typically graceful, majestic tank suffering from momentary tread lapse, Company of Heroes 2‘s march to completion is fully back on track. If you weren’t already aware, a closed beta’s actually been humming along in the background for a couple weeks, largely with pre-order folks (I’m sorry, I can’t use the word “pre-orderers”; there are too many rers) in mind. Now, however, there’s another guaranteed front-door entrance to the war room. Keeping with the desperate, blood-spit-and-iron spirit of the Eastern Front, it’s the most tangible symbol of the harshness of our times: Facebook. One simple “like,” and COH 2 beta access is all yours. Yes, it’s obnoxious, but the end actually justifies the means in this case.

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It’s a dark time to be a mulitplayer server. From the day you’re born, you’re living on borrowed time, and that goes double if any sort of sequel has your cushy spot on the rack in its sights. Which brings us to the original Company of Heroes. It’s coming up on its seventh birthday, Company of Heroes 2 is about to drop a fresh blanket of powder on the hot summer months, and a sudden publisher shift threw everything out of whack. It is, in other words, a prime candidate for the big server farm in the sky. But hark, against all odds, there is hope. Relic’s keeping its relics up and running by switching services. So long, apparent Aztec wind deity Quazal. Hello, Steamworks.

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One of the many unhappy aspects of the death (sort of – the name still exists and I wouldn’t be terribly surprised to see it return in some form later on) of THQ is that it had several projects really very close to completion when the axe fell. Foremost, perhaps, of those were Metro: Last Light and snow-bound WW2 strategy game Company of Heroes 2, but fortunately (we hope) both have found new homes. Metro’s with Koch, and Company of Heroes 2 is with SEGA, as is all of Relic – making the house of hedgehog, who also own the Creative Assembly, an unlikely bastion of real-time strategy.

COH2 has a new release date – later than planned but not very far away. It is… Read the rest of this entry..

Nah, only joshing. It’s in June this year.
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Company Of Heroes 2 is churning out the content at the moment. Alec recently got his hands on it, and Nathan had a chat with the developers to see where they may go next. And there’s a lot of emphasis being put into its multiplayer. You can see how it’s panning out in the brand new trailer, that’s absolutely packed with in-game footage, below.

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According to the surprisingly sobering (and unsurprisingly incessant) Christmas jingles currently spewing out of every speaker-endowed device on Earth, the weather outside is frightful. And while a veritable barrage of slight breezes has indeed caused me tremendous hardship during my trips between warm places to buy $6 cups of coffee, I think perspective’s important. For instance, soldiers on World War II’s Eastern Front braved inclement weather that was nearly comparable to my own. Forecasters, I imagine, declared it snowy with a chance of bullet blizzards and mortar hail. Then they got run over by tanks. Company of Heroes 2, meanwhile, is aiming to recreate that particular horror of war, and it’s looking like a pretty miserable time (at least, for your tiny popsicle army men) indeed. I bet their coffee was cheaper, though.

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Once, I thought there was at least some cold, profit-maximizing business precision that guided whatever awfulness-seeking missile explodes games into not-great movies, but now I’m not even sure of that anymore. I mean, don’t get me wrong: Company of Heroes is a work of absolute RTS brilliance, but it’s not exactly a household name. And yeah, much as I think my most brilliant tactical masterpieces – for instance, a nuanced little number I like to call TANKS EVERYWHERE – are worth their own movie adaptations, the game’s brand of top-down contemplaction doesn’t exactly make for the best big screen material. Then again, this one’s direct-to-DVD, so I guess that solves that. But obviously, making the leap to a new medium required Company of Heroes to take some liberties. For instance, when I say “making the leap,” I mean that literally. Across the top of a train. Like Indiana Jones. See for yourself after the break.

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From the Siberian news gulag at VG247 we received word that Company Of Heroes 2 got a gameplay trailer, complete with dakka boom and all those noises. Take a look.

Release is March 2013.
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