DoW2 Beta

[Ender]

link

January 8, 2009 — THQ Inc. today announced plans to release a multiplayer beta for Warhammer® 40,000™: Dawn of War® II, the award winning Real-time strategy (RTS) game from Relic Entertainment.

The beta will be hosted via Steam and offered exclusively to Warhammer® 40,000™: Dawn of War - Soulstorm owners on January 21, followed by a worldwide public release on January 28. The beta will feature all four playable races, five multiplayer maps, and Microsoft’s Games for Windows - LIVE TrueSkill Matchmaking.

Warhammer® 40,000™: Dawn of War® II, developed by THQ’s internal studio, Relic Entertainment, is a Real-time strategy (RTS) game set in the grim, war-ravaged world of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 science fiction universe. Featuring vicious front-line combat, destructible environments, a fully cooperative multiplayer mode, four unique playable races, and a non-linear single player campaign with branching storylines, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II delivers the ultimate sci-fi fantasy RTS experience. The game is scheduled for release on February 23, 2009 for Windows PC, and will be available through worldwide retail and online outlets. For more information on Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, please visit www.dawnofwar2.com.”

I have steam. I have Soulstorm. But I don't think my computer (with its Intel 945 chipset graphic card) can support it.

Yea, definitely can't support it

And god, if we get that many orks running around on screen...

[Shinova]

Relic claims the sys requirements won't be much heavier than CoH. Although I did read one set of reqs that said something like minimum 1 gig ram, and a dual core cpu recommended or something.

My six year old comp has somehow withstood much of time, so I can probably play it at medium settings. I wouldn't fret. Too much.

[Zablorg]

Given the obvious Zerg gameplay aspect of the Tyranids, I really hope they don't slip into the old hole of allowing GAUNT RUSH KEKEKEKEKE

[Anarchist Bunny]

What! 4 playable races? No IG? No Chaos? Filthy Eldar and Orks? God damn it I'll wait for the expanison(also my comp died and I'm on an old piece of shit that couldn't run DoW so I have to wait regardless, but I will say this offense is why)

[Zablorg]

What! 4 playable races? No IG? No Chaos? Filthy Eldar and Orks? God damn it I'll wait for the expanison(also my comp died and I'm on an old piece of shit that couldn't run DoW so I have to wait regardless, but I will say this offense is why)

Because we all know what wonders having 9 playable races did for the game.

[Temjin]

What! 4 playable races? No IG? No Chaos? Filthy Eldar and Orks? God damn it I'll wait for the expanison(also my comp died and I'm on an old piece of shit that couldn't run DoW so I have to wait regardless, but I will say this offense is why)

But of course there are only 4 playable races. This way they have something to put in the next half dozen expansions! It worked last time after all.

[Vendetta]

What! 4 playable races? No IG? No Chaos? Filthy Eldar and Orks? God damn it I'll wait for the expanison(also my comp died and I'm on an old piece of shit that couldn't run DoW so I have to wait regardless, but I will say this offense is why)

The original only launched with 4.

Anyway, better to have 4 races that work well together than loads that only sometimes match up well. (Though if Relic are still dirty Eldar fanboys expect them to have hilarious late game dominance again).

[White Haven]

I'm gonna miss my beloved Tau.

[Ender]

What! 4 playable races? No IG? No Chaos? Filthy Eldar and Orks? God damn it I'll wait for the expanison(also my comp died and I'm on an old piece of shit that couldn't run DoW so I have to wait regardless, but I will say this offense is why)

Word is the first expansion will contain Chaos, as 4 distinct armies for the separate gods.

Yeah, that's worth the wait in my mind.

[SirNitram]

The sick and evil part of me wants to drop this onto my Asus, just to hear it scream for mercy.

[Samuel]

The sick and evil part of me wants to drop this onto my Asus, just to hear it scream for mercy.

You will know you succeed when you smell burning plastic. This laptop still wrks afterward, so you might just be able to continue slavedriving.

[Stark]

Why do people with hell old computers even LOOK at new games?

I'm curious to see what they do with this one; I've heard various encouraging things about Relic actually not repeating themselves endlessly. If they steal the right features from other games and can actually fucking balance it this time, it'll be worth a look. The tyranid approach they're using sounds like modders will be making it far more interesting.

[Stargate Nerd]

I have the retail version of Soulstorm. So if I download Steam, will I have access to this?

[Tanasinn]

What! 4 playable races? No IG? No Chaos? Filthy Eldar and Orks? God damn it I'll wait for the expanison(also my comp died and I'm on an old piece of shit that couldn't run DoW so I have to wait regardless, but I will say this offense is why)

Word is the first expansion will contain Chaos, as 4 distinct armies for the separate gods.

Yeah, that's worth the wait in my mind.

Four distinct factions would be very nice, particularly if we get lost & damned worth a...damn.

[Zablorg]

Why do people with hell old computers even LOOK at new games?

I'm curious to see what they do with this one; I've heard various encouraging things about Relic actually not repeating themselves endlessly. If they steal the right features from other games and can actually fucking balance it this time, it'll be worth a look. The tyranid approach they're using sounds like modders will be making it far more interesting.

I've heard that in the single player campaign at least, you can't build any buildings or create any new units other than what you start with, but there will be re-enforcements depending on the mission. I'm inclined to think this is a good thing, because it would bring out the nearly non-existant "strategy", as you actually care whether your units live or die.

[MJ12 Commando]

I've heard that in the single player campaign at least, you can't build any buildings or create any new units other than what you start with, but there will be re-enforcements depending on the mission. I'm inclined to think this is a good thing, because it would bring out the nearly non-existant "strategy", as you actually care whether your units live or die.

I'm inclined to think that anything that makes the game more like Chaos Gate is probably not a bad thing unless it's really out-there and stupid. Because Chaos Gate was awesome, and I'm in the hankering for a modern squad-based strategy game. By the time DoW2 releases I'll probably have a laptop that doesn't suck too, so I'm looking forward to it!

[Stark]

I've heard that in the single player campaign at least, you can't build any buildings or create any new units other than what you start with, but there will be re-enforcements depending on the mission. I'm inclined to think this is a good thing, because it would bring out the nearly non-existant "strategy", as you actually care whether your units live or die.

Yeah, this is what I mean. If they can steal features from other, better games it'll be worth a look, but RA3 shows how a game can kinda-sorta adopt modern approaches but still be 100% a 1992 game that sucks. If it's WiC but 40k I'll be all over it; if it's the micro/rush fest DoW1 is I'll be asleep by the end of the tutorial. It looks good so far, though - although the squad stuff sounds similar to Endwar which is NOT a good precedent.

Aside from 'voice control let's you manage rear-area actions without moving your attention from the front line', that is. Which DoW2 doesn't have.

[Zablorg]

To clarify my stance on the races. I'm quite interested in this game because there's only four races. One of the original DoW series' most pressing failures later on was that the mess of races that they went on to include didn't play well together. This was ultimately, I think, because the original four were apparently designed with the purpose of balancing between themselves exclusively (whether or not they succeeded is debatable but the intention was obviously there). Adding five new races to the mix just confused the balance and everything went straight to hell.

If they release expansion packs they had best think them out very carefully and gradually to avoid their old mistakes.

[SylasGaunt]

In related news, Dawn of War 2 has officially gone gold as of today.

[General Zod]

I'm kind of curious to see how many people are actually going to be trying out the Beta given it launches in 2 days for Soulstorm owners. Maybe get an SDN group going or something?

For anyone curious, system requirements:

Minimum Requirements –

* Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista SP1
* P4 3.2 GHz (single core) or any Dual Core processor
* 1 GB RAM (XP), 1.5 GB RAM (Vista)
* A 128MB Video Card (Shader Model 3) - Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT / ATI X1600, or equivalent
* 5.5 GB of Hard Drive space


Recommended –

* Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista SP1
* AMD Athlon 64x2 4400+ or any Intel Core 2 Duo
* 2 GB RAM (XP and Vista)
* A 256MB Video Card (Shader Model 3) - Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT / ATI X1900, or equivalent
* 5.5 GB of Hard Drive space

[Anarchist Bunny]

To clarify my stance on the races. I'm quite interested in this game because there's only four races. One of the original DoW series' most pressing failures later on was that the mess of races that they went on to include didn't play well together. This was ultimately, I think, because the original four were apparently designed with the purpose of balancing between themselves exclusively (whether or not they succeeded is debatable but the intention was obviously there). Adding five new races to the mix just confused the balance and everything went straight to hell.

If they release expansion packs they had best think them out very carefully and gradually to avoid their old mistakes.

However I think it was perfect at 7, they were scraping the bottom of the barrel by Soulstorm, and 8 might be the magic number now that 'nids can come play, but Dark Crusade was really where the game hit gold.

[Serafina]

Well, Soulstorm was bad because the developers fucked it up, not because it had to many races.

[Vendetta]

Well, Soulstorm was bad because the developers fucked it up, not because it had to many races.

The balancing job was weak as well though, never mind all the "well we're all out of a job anyway so who gives a shit" corners that were cut during development.

Still, it's not like it was ever massively balanced before. Only the latest patch even tries to ameliorate webway spam, for instance. (And even then, Webway gates are still counted as production structures for victory conditions, meaning that a well hidden and cloaked one makes even a thoroghly defeated Eldar player take weeks of searching to hunt down, and if Eldar get into tier 4 you're pretty much fucked.)

However, Soulstorm also did manage to introduce RJB spam, which is just as bad (Dark Eldar going straight to Dark Foundry and cranking out Reaver Jetbikes and Hellions rather than building the Hall of Blood).

Made DE very powerful in the early game, like their less dark cousins were in the late game.

Bloody bunch of elf-lovers.

[SylasGaunt]

The beta is up for soulstorm owners. Just thought I'd let you know.

[Shinova]

People have posted some videos of their sessions on youtube.