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As promised, THQ has released an all-encompassing patch for Dawn of War and Winter Assault. The patch will bring any version of DoW or WA up to 1.41. You can download it on fileplanet.

We have set up a BitTorrent download via our community tracker here.

WildCard, author of the famous SLS intro movie, has created a moving tribute to Murph. The video (10MB mpeg) can be seen here and you can discuss it on this forum thread.

ceejayoz is auctioning some DoW goodies and sending the proceeds to Child’s Play in memory of Murph.

I imagine there’ll be more things like this done in the next few days; he was a wonderful guy who really made an impact on us all, and we’re going to miss him like hell.

Murph, A long time Relic fan and Homeworlder passed away on November 15th. He died after suffering an apparent heart attack at work (this is under investigation). He was 21. Details here.

I’ve known Murph a long time on IRC. Certainly not his best buddy or anything, but we had a good relationship. When I took an American Sign Language course, Murph gave me some pointers (he was deaf). When I worked at Relic doing a QA stint for Homeworld 2, I pushed on the Designers a bit to include captions in the cut scenes so Murph could “see” the story. The captions made it into the game.

Murph did say goodbye to us in a way. Here are his last comments in IRC before he headed off to work, and his death.

[14:13] < Murph > now I shall go to work
[14:13] < Murph > later dolts
[14:13] * Quits: Murph (Murph@D36978F2.E4776E58.264CA1B0.IP) (Quit: work sucks)

Later Dolts indeed.

The Dawn of War Ladder has been reset last night. This has become common practice after the release of a new patch to reflect the balance changes introduced by those patches. Andrew Chambers, lead designer for DoW at Relic, urges all players to “go crazy”.

Have at it, ladies and gents. Oh and if you would like to discuss this development, you may use this thread.

Korbah’s modification for Dawn of War, dubbed DoWPro, now has its own ladder at Gamedrome. You can sign up here, and you will need the DoWPro Mod as well as Dawn of War.

DoWPro is a user-made unofficial modification for Dawn of War that focusses on balance tweaks rather than sweeping gameplay changes. It offers an alternative to the official balancing and has a sizeable playerbase.

You can discuss this development here.

Patch 1.41 has been officially announced. You can check it out for yourself by visiting the forums. The patch will contain a number of balance tweaks.

Another bit of good news, the updated mod tools will apparently be released in one or two weeks as well.

The patch will be released “soon”, which usually means a week or two at the most. We will have a list of download locations up at this site.

(Someguy) edit: Patch is up now via auto-updates in Winter Assault. Mirrors will be provided as soon as possible.

(UberJumper) edit: Download the Patch from THQ Servers here.

You can also get it from 3dgamers.com and Worthplaying.com.

(moe) edit: Finally there’s a bittorrent link to be found here.

Patch requires 1.40 to be installed.

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The official Dawn of War homepage for the UK, dawnofwargame.uk, is hosting a competition:

Enter to win a FREE Winter Assault Strategy Guide from Brady Games signed by the developers at Relic!

View the details on My THQ. Instructions:

1. Sign up for My THQ
2. Register your Dawn of War: Winter Assault game
3. View the Strategy Guide details as a My THQ user

After registering you are supposed to email THQ “the name of the race you’d most like to see added to the next Dawn of War game”.

This is a rather strong indication for another DoW game. Obviously at this point it’s all speculation whether this is going to happen at all, and if so, whether it will be an expansion or a new game, but this is another clue which seems to indicate more DoW goodness coming our way.

Thanks to Hybris for finding this.

We often play games that could be considered making light of war, that cheapen the memories of those that fought, were wounded and died for their respective nations. If the closest you or your loved ones get to war is a video game, consider yourself lucky. Maybe one day, instead of slaughtering each other on the battlefield, the worst thing that will happen is our soldier’s avatar is out of action until the next respawn.

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

I will never forget.

While exploring the world that is IGN, I stumbled upon these tasty treats. Lots of good new images, especially with the German version of “The Outfit” and tons of concept arts! Of course the germans look kinda goofy with american weapons, but I’m sure Relic will change that in time.