Relicnews: the definitive source for all things Relic

Buggo just posted up next video with Jonny Ebbert, the Lead Designer of Dark Crusade. You can check out the video here.

Thanks to AndyB of PCOH for pointing out that Company of Heroes is the #1 selling game in the US. Awesome!

The official press has been release following the prior announcement about Dark Crusade going gold from Buggo’s podcast. October 9th is the official release date that THQ has given. Here is a quick quote,

AGOURA HILLS, Calif., Sept. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — THQ Inc. (Nasdaq: THQI - News) today announced that Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade™ has reached the gold master stage of development and is now entering manufacturing. Developed by THQ’s critically acclaimed studio Relic Entertainment, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade is a hybrid expansion to the award winning Real-Time Strategy (RTS) hit Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, and will be playable as a stand alone game. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade is scheduled to begin shipping to retailers worldwide on October 9, 2006

Go check out the press release.

Buggo, the Relic community manager, posted up a 20 minute podcast along with a video interview with COH Lead Designer, Josh Mosqueira.

Highlights from the podcast included the announcment that Dark Crusade has gone gold and the conclusion of Relic’s Dawn of War Tournament.

You can check out thread to the podcast here. The video interview can be found here. Links to download those media can be found at those links.

Gamespot posted their hands on impression of Dark Crusade. They explain the main campaign in detail, the honor guard feature, and commander customization. Here is a quick snip from the article,

There’s a lot more to the campaign than just worrying about strongholds, though, as there are plenty of strategic implications on the map that may affect your war. Territories are rated by military strength, so it’s wise to avoid heavily defended territories until you can build up your military forces and your strength. Meanwhile, some territories convey strategic advantages to whichever faction owns them. Possessing the Eres Badlands, for instance, gives you control of the chaos god’s relic, which lets you launch two attacks per turn, where before you were limited to only one. Or, gaining Pavonis gives you control of the planet’s space port, letting you use transports to leapfrog and attack any territory, even those that aren’t adjacent to your borders, though you can’t use it to attack strongholds. These bonuses can make non-stronghold territories a tempting target.

You can head over here to read up on the article.

Bridger over at Team Sports Network is kicking off his Internet radio show this Sunday.

Pop on over and check it out!

With the release of the game looming about, reviews from IGN and Gamespot has been posted. IGN gave COH a 9.4 while Gamespot gave it a 8.9.

Correction on the Gamespot review, the people reviewing it was encountering the SLI bug, which decreases performance when SLI is enabled. They rescored their review and gave it a 9.0. A fix for the SLI bug should be coming out soon.

Good going Relic!!!

In addition, AndyB from Planet Company of Heroes gave the game a 9.5 out of 10.

For people who havn’t read PC Gamer, they gave it a 96%.

With the game’s release next week, Erin Daly, the Senior Designer of COH, posted up his thoughts about how the missions and the AI for the axis were designed for the single player game. Here is a quick snip,

From the start, we wanted the single-player campaign in Company of Heroes to be something very special. We were bored with single-player real-time strategy games that played like minor variations on the skirmish game mode, with repetitive environments and the same enemy artificial intelligence from the skirmish game. Our goal was to deliver a highly engaging experience that was like playing an episode of Band of Brothers or one of the major battles in Saving Private Ryan.

You guys can go check out the article here. Thanks for the heads up soul.

The Company of Heroes optimized demo is now out. Check the thread for details, including a few mirrors. We’ll try and have it up on the bittorrent tracker soon.

update: here’s the .torrent

Word finally came in via THQ press release (it’s been on the grapevine for a while). Ron Moravek has left Relic and Tarrnie Williams is assuming command. It’s not mentioned in the Press Release, but I hear Ron was offered a job where the salary was too good to turn down (lot of that going around!).

THQ Inc. (Nasdaq: THQI) today announced that industry veteran Tarrnie Williams has been named general manager of Relic Entertainment. In this role, Williams will oversee Relic’s day-to-day operations and all product development activities at the studio. Relic is a recognized innovator in the development of real-time strategy (RTS) and action games for Windows PC and next-generation consoles.

Williams has more than 16 years of production, design, and management experience in the interactive entertainment industry. For the last year, he has been executive producer on all Relic’s titles, including the highly anticipated RTS Company of Heroes(TM) and the award-winning Warhammer(R) 40,000: Dawn of War(TM) franchise. Prior to joining Relic, Williams held several positions at Electronic Arts, most recently as senior producer of many key titles, including the Medal of Honor franchise.

Williams will report directly to Jack Sorenson, THQ’s executive vice president of worldwide studios, and is assuming his new role effective immediately.

“Relic consistently raises the bar in RTS development, pushing the genre forward with groundbreaking game-play innovation,” said Sorenson. “Tarrnie’s industry experience and extensive knowledge of Relic’s key franchises is an invaluable asset, and will help ensure the studio’s continued growth and excellence.”

I have not yet met Tarrnie, but everyone I have spoken too has been very positive about him. Mr. Williams is not one of the original management team from pre-THQ buy out days, so this really marks the start of something new for Relic!