Relicnews: the definitive source for all things Relic

Buggo’s updated her patch status thread to indicate that CoH 1.6 will be out soon (It’s passed QA testing which means it could be any time this week).

Update: 1.6 Release Notes here. WOO TIGER ACE MODEL BUG FIXED. :-P

Update2: Patch released!

Update3 - Mirrors:
DoWPatch Mirror
Fan Gaming Mirror
Worth Playing Mirror
Official English Patch Download

Fldash wanted to give a heads up on a persistant campaign mod they’re working on for Company of Heroes. Europe in Ruins gets rid of base/unit building and allows the players to design their own army company.

Europe In Ruins Alpha Launched

Less than two weeks ago, the team from Europe In Ruins announced a public alpha test of their attempt at a persistent war modification for Company of Heroes. Since then, they’ve made stride to make it even easier to get involved and their player base has topped 240 players.

Using the EIR Launcher, a simple exe downloaded and placed in your Company of Heroes folder, the modification is automatically installed and kept up to date for you. In addition, the battle files from the site, which are required to play, are easily downloaded and put into place making even the most novice of computer users capable of playing.

A ‘Complete Guide’ has also been created which walks the user through registering on the site, creating a company, purchasing units/upgrade, and getting setup for a battle.

Development is progressing rapidly and soon the battle results will be sent back to the website and persistency will be attached to each company. Following that, with implementation of the war map, the war will truly start and you’ll be able to battle over Europe.

You can go to the Europe In Ruins homepage for the lowdown.

Good luck with the Alpha test!

Allie’s posted news that the DoW Mod Tools have been repackaged to work with DC 1.2.

See her thread for more info.

Well if you are, best go check out this thread, looks like you might have some money or Relic swag coming your way!

I forgot to mention that Buggo posted up her latest podcast. Shane Neville, the Producer for Opposing Fronts, and Josh Mosqueira, the Lead Designer, are featured in the interview along with some information about the Panzer Elite and the British Commonwealth Army. Sound bites are also included in the podcast for your amusement for each side. She also includes some screenshots in her post as well.

The podcast can be downloaded here. Her post can be found here.

In addition, Vitensby(of Tales of Heroes) created a shoutcast about the information he gathered from the latest issue of Games for Windows. The link to the shoutcast can be found here.

Buggo told us that the official THQ press release has gone up. Here is a quick snip from the release,

Standalone Title Scheduled to Ship with Upgraded Essence Engine in Fall 2007
AGOURA HILLS, Calif., Apr 05, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) — THQ Inc. (NASDAQ:THQI) today announced Company of Heroes™: Opposing Fronts™, the next chapter in the groundbreaking real-time strategy (RTS) franchise, from internal studio Relic Entertainment, is scheduled to launch in fall 2007 for Windows PC. Powered by the proprietary Essence Engine and Microsoft DirectX® 10, Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts allows players to fight as the tenacious British 2nd Army during the heroic World War II liberation of Caen, France, and command the German Panzer Elite as they struggle to repel the largest airborne invasion in history. Players can battle online in exciting new multiplayer modes with these two all-new armies and utilize full compatibility with the original Company of Heroes™ for a total of four playable armies. “Company of Heroes smashed preconceptions of what an RTS game could and should be, earning dozens of industry awards and the highest review score average of any RTS title in the last decade,” said Bob Aniello, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, THQ. “Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts is an epic new chapter in this series, and we are excited to bring this top-tier cinematic RTS to consumers worldwide.”

Can’t wait for this! Fall 2007 is the current release date for the game. The full press release can be found here.

1Up.com has posted the first Preview of CoH:Opposing Fronts.

Here’s what we know so far: The game is under development internally at Relic, will run on an upgraded version of the Essence Engine, will support DirectX 10, and will present two new campaigns — the British 2nd Army attempting to free Caen, France, and the German Panzer Elite fending off an air attack in Operation Market Garden.

I assume that 1up means “fending off an Airborne attack” rather than air attack. There are two screenshots included that shows a Stuart Light tank operating with a british tommy and some brit commandos attacking.

Thanks to bluestuff for the heads up.

Also, thanks to KamikazeZero for the heads up about upcoming info to be released here.

Thanks to Skwerl for the heads up. He sent me a link to this image. Looks like it’ll be Company of Heroes:Opposing Fronts. He spotted it on Planet Company of Heroes’ news page (which was submitted to them by their reader ThatGuy).

If you can’t get to the image, it’s a magazine cover for Games for Windows Magazine. World Exclusive: Company of Heroes, with “Opposing Fronts” underneath it.

Opposting Fronts imply anything to you? It’s got a US paratrooper on it, so either we’re back in Normandy on D-day, or we’ve moved onto Operation Market Garden.

Edit: Looking a bit closer, that looks like a British Para! OMG BRITISH UNITS? Skwerl points out the para harness is US not British. The jump smock on the para certainly looks british though. Anyone got a bigger picture of that cover?

Edit2: Skwerl and I are now discussing if it’s a german para. The helmet looks german, they wore camoflage jump smocks (IIRC) and Skwerl thinks there’s a possibility that the harness could be german as well. Skwerl “meh, I’ll wait for a bigger photo” :-D

Edit3: KamikazeZero confirms it! British and Panzer Elite are being added in the next chapter!

Edit4: KamikazeZero’s updated us with a list of the command trees and abilities including some info on new units! Royal Canadian Artillery! SAS Gliderborne commandos! Fallschimjagers! Jagdpanther! King Tiger! WOOO!