DoW: Soul Storm demo released

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2008-01-12 07:11am

Internode (New Version)

I might give it a go later

Also, for those who want to see the new intro: YouTube - which does contain Spoilers for the result of Dark Crusade, by the by.

andrewgpaul · Post by **andrewgpaul** » 2008-01-12 09:39am

Heh. I like the low-level shot at 1:20; look at the skinny arm holding that massive boltgun

I really should play some more DoW; I finished the first game, played the first mission and a half of Winter Assault as the IG, then gave up. I bought Dark Crusade, but never got round to installing it.

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2008-01-12 11:30am

That movie's kinda short. And lame.

Hopefully the demo is better.

defanatic · Post by **defanatic** » 2008-01-12 11:32am

Hawkwings wrote:That movie's kinda short. And lame.

Hopefully the demo is better.

Agreed. Why can't they outsource the intro movie like they did with the original?

Feil · Post by **Feil** » 2008-01-12 12:06pm

Dear god. If I'd had any intention left of buying Soulstorm, that intro movie would have cured me of it.

white_rabbit · Post by **white_rabbit** » 2008-01-12 12:58pm

That was fucking horrendous

Agreed. Why can't they outsource the intro movie like they did with the original?

Because its cheaper to knock up a minute long game engine movie, and the add-ons are all about milking the cash cow, hence the gradual reduction in quality.

The original intro movie was rushed as hell apparently, it almost wasn't ready on time, and a lot got cut.

Add to that a completely different company...

Fingolfin_Noldor · Post by **Fingolfin_Noldor** » 2008-01-12 01:51pm

So how did the Imperial Guard managed to run themselves into a stupid situation with none of their tanks......

As much as they wanted dramatic flair, that was horrendously badly done.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2008-01-12 01:57pm

Eh. I'll still buy Soulstorm, but only for the mods; all the mod projects will switch over to it as soon as it comes out and it'd suck to be left behind, because there's some really great ones out there.

And holy shit, that demo is a huge file.

As for the spoilers in the movie: I was already fairly sure that Lukas Alexander didn't survive the Dark Crusade; if he does he calls down the Inquisition on the Blood Ravens, and ending the Blood Ravens chapter would kind of suck for Dawn of War.

Lord Revan · Post by **Lord Revan** » 2008-01-12 02:51pm

Rogue 9 wrote:Eh. I'll still buy Soulstorm, but only for the mods; all the mod projects will switch over to it as soon as it comes out and it'd suck to be left behind, because there's some really great ones out there.

And holy shit, that demo is a huge file.

As for the spoilers in the movie: I was already fairly sure that Lukas Alexander didn't survive the Dark Crusade; if he does he calls down the Inquisition on the Blood Ravens, and ending the Blood Ravens chapter would kind of suck for Dawn of War.

the way I saw it, it actually says nothing about the ending on Dark Crusade as that place didn't look like Victory Bay or Tashen (Tau stronghold), so it's more likely that they did go with any of the endings.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2008-01-12 08:12pm

Well, this doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Employing air units causes the demo to crash.

Laughing Mechanicus · Post by **Laughing Mechanicus** » 2008-01-12 08:39pm

I've just played it - be warned you only get to play as the Dark Eldar, so if you have absolutely no interest in them (and who does?) you can safely skip the demo. That said, I was pretty cynical about this whole expansion but, to be honest, they have done a better job (at least with the Dark Eldar) than I was expecting. The race is actually pretty unique and all the new units and very well realised, both graphically and gameplay wise.

I didn't experience any crashes with air units, but I only tried 'battle 1' which is a skirmish. Unfortunately though, air units are of the 'stationary hovering' varienty ala WarCraft 3. I really hope that's not true of the Imperial Guards Marauders, but I have a feeling it will be. They should have used Valkyries instead... at least they are supposed to move like a helicopter rather than a plane.

I'm off to see if I can't trick the demo into letting me play as the Sisters of Battle.

Lord Revan · Post by **Lord Revan** » 2008-01-12 09:53pm

Rogue 9 wrote:Well, this doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Employing air units causes the demo to crash.

I had no problems and I played all 3 modes, though you seem to be able to play Dark Eldar only

starfury · Post by **starfury** » 2008-01-12 11:13pm

I didn't experience any crashes with air units, but I only tried 'battle 1' which is a skirmish. Unfortunately though, air units are of the 'stationary hovering' varienty ala WarCraft 3. I really hope that's not true of the Imperial Guards Marauders, but I have a feeling it will be. They should have used Valkyries instead... at least they are supposed to move like a helicopter rather than a plane.

Yeah, I just finished the Demo too, the Stationary hovering variety of air units was a dissppointment, and seeing how tough the dark eldar units are at time, the regular Eldar as of dark crusade now seems to quite a bit weaker by comparsion. Fully upgraded dark eldar Wychs far surpass most melee units short of nercon Pariahs in the demo.

Zablorg · Post by **Zablorg** » 2008-01-12 11:32pm

Fuck. Why do most of my favourite game series go the the pits?

starfury · Post by **starfury** » 2008-01-13 01:20am

Forgot to add, Hopefully the overpowered strength of the Dark eldar in the demo was on the easy setting, that would explain how surprising tough they are in the demo.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2008-01-13 02:35am

Well, it crashed again. It seems to just happen a set time into the game; I wish the game timer was on so I could figure out when that is.

As a side note, the Dark Eldar are deeply, deeply disturbing.

Genii Lodus · Post by **Genii Lodus** » 2008-01-13 06:34am

Didn't the DC demo have overpowered Tau? They might just be trying to make the new race seem all cool and impressive by boosting their stats in the demo. Not that I'd be that surprised when this comes out with horribly broken balance. DC got only the one balance patch after all which isn't indicative of a lot of care and love from the developer. I can't think of another RTS which has anything like nine unique armies and I suspect the balance when this is released will be quite crap.

Lord Revan · Post by **Lord Revan** » 2008-01-13 07:36am

Rogue 9 wrote:As a side note, the Dark Eldar are deeply, deeply disturbing.

the voice acting makes the Chaos seem sane(r) then the dark eldar

Laughing Mechanicus · Post by **Laughing Mechanicus** » 2008-01-13 08:08am

Standard operating procedure for demos is to make them very easy; people are unlikely to try a demo twice, and if they don't enjoy the demo the developers may well have lost a sale.

Rogue 9 wrote:Well, it crashed again. It seems to just happen a set time into the game; I wish the game timer was on so I could figure out when that is.

You're download might have been corrupted, have you tried downloading it again? There is a decent torrent of it now floating around, so it shouldn't take too long to get.

Zalborg wrote:Fuck. Why do most of my favourite game series go the the pits?

What exactly is it about Soulstorm that has sent the Dawn of War series "to the pits"? That the demo is easy? That the intro movie is a bit lame?

Lord Revan · Post by **Lord Revan** » 2008-01-13 08:45am

yeah DoW is incredebly difficult to casual player (like me) in anything else then easy, sure I can do it but if the default difficulty level of a demo of a game was that I'd not that game.

and Yeah the opening cut scene wasn't exactly the best possible.

starfury · Post by **starfury** » 2008-01-13 11:02am

I liked the Chaos lord of dark crusade, Eliphas the Inheritor, He was such a improvement over both Lord Crull and Lord Bale the previous chaos lords, now the IG, Space Marines and Chaos all may be stuck with boring leaders. the IG/Space Marines having the best lords in the original game/winter assault.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2008-01-13 11:34am

Actually, someone extracted the models for the Chaos Lord, Guard captain, and Blood Ravens force commander over on Relic News. The relevant thread is here.

white_rabbit · Post by **white_rabbit** » 2008-01-13 12:12pm

Rogue 9 wrote:Actually, someone extracted the models for the Chaos Lord, Guard captain, and Blood Ravens force commander over on Relic News. The relevant thread is here.

I love the new Chaos lord model, IG guy looks okay, Space Marine looks and sounds "meh".

Demo isn't bad IMO, the DE look and sound very nice, the various mechanics and unique stuff works fine, although they have an absolute shedload of upgrades to get done!

Dais of destruction as a superunit was pretty cool as well.

Marine and DE "air units" or rather, slightly higher hovering units, aren't anything special, it should be interesting to see what the Marauder is like though.

Laughing Mechanicus · Post by **Laughing Mechanicus** » 2008-01-13 02:47pm

The Imperial Guard General looks way better than the Dark Crusade one (although it's the Dark Crusade one in the new intro?). The Space Marine Force Commander doesn't have the little cybernetic implants above his eye, which I thought all Marines were supposed to have.

white_rabbit · Post by **white_rabbit** » 2008-01-13 03:16pm

Aaron Ash wrote:The Imperial Guard General looks way better than the Dark Crusade one (although it's the Dark Crusade one in the new intro?). The Space Marine Force Commander doesn't have the little cybernetic implants above his eye, which I thought all Marines were supposed to have.

You mean the long service studs ?