Relicnews: the definitive source for all things Relic

Gamereplays continues their use of Blue and Yellow Numbers in Screen Shot Analysis 3 and SSA 4. They *may* have spotted a downed chaplain in SSA4.

I like it when they list what the numbers are at the end of the article, don't you? SSA3 doesn't do that this time :-(

Ok, this is awesome.

It’s basically shots of Tim Holman, Taylor Fales and Tim Page (the guys in the first picture) at the China Joy exposition.

The site’s in Chinese, but the pictures are pure comedy gold.

If anyone can translate, that’d be MORE awesome.

Update: Looks like it’s been taken down :-( If anyone can find an updated link you get to be the hero.

Update 2: Thanks to CQD, I’ve updated the link to a new version of the article. Thanks CQD!

Gametap will be adding a few THQ games to their lineup, which includes Company of Heroes and Dawn of War. Can’t go wrong with other places to get the game.

THQ strikes a deal with Gametap

Gamereplays has a screenshot analysis thread up. Looks like the start of a series for them.

Welcome to what will be the first of probably many Dawn of War 2 screenshot analyses. In this particular feature series, we'll be taking a handful of pre-release in-game screenshots, reducing them to their base components, and seeing exactly what useful information we can extract from them. For today's analysis, we'll be looking at one of the recent Eldar-based images.

Update: The second installment is up as well.

As we all know, Dawn of War 2 will be using Microsoft’s Live as the back-end for multiplayer matchmaking and etc. In contrast to other games that use the Live service, Dawn of War 2 will feature free “gold” membership service for its users.

It looks like IGN read about this on the Dawn of War 2 Community Site and got to talk to the senior global director, for Games for Windows, Kevin Unangst. The question that IGN asked was “Why make this service free for Dawn of War 2?”. This is what Kevin said,

“It was important when we talked to Relic that they be able to bring that full, unapologetic multiplayer experience to their gamers. They wanted to announce the game coming to Games for Windows - Live at E3, so we have a relationship with them and that’s what we worked out. You’ll continue to see movement from us on this front relative to what else we may be doing with Games for Windows - Live sooner than later.”

Sounds like Relic didn’t want to charge players for the multiplayer experience.

IGN: E3 2008: Microsoft Talks Games for Windows

While of course E3 is ongoing, Chinajoy (a Chinese gaming event) is taking place in Shanghai. At the show are reps from Relic and they’re showing off Company of Heroes Online (a collaboration with Chinese company Shanda Interactive).

To start, the core of the game is the same Company of Heroes experience that most (if not all) of us know and love, sans the Opposing Fronts expansion content. (Editor�s Note: But, when asked about OF expansion content, Williams noted that all good online games have a roadmap for future development.) While new multiplayer maps and a few other ground-breaking surprises will be added to the game, players will also get persistent online game characteristics such as a selectable avatars with 50 levels of development and hero characters that gain experience from battle to battle and have consumable �charges� for their abilities, and a newly revamped Commander Tree with 48 different abilities. On top of that, microtransaction purchases will go beyond simple cosmetic options

For more info, review this article. There’s more to it than just CoH. They touch on the future of gaming and speak more on combating piracy.

Thanks to Planet Company of Heroes for the heads up.

I tuned into the very short interview with Johnny Ebert about Dawn of War 2. He pretty much repeated what he said about the game. There were some few new snips of information

- Minimum Requirement is the “Awesome Requirement”. Johnny explains that a three year old computer should be able to run this game smoothy while still looking pretty good.
- Multiplayer information will probably be revealed in the next four to five weeks.

So with the playtest for Company of Heroes going on, hq-coh.com found a new campaign option has appeared out of a playtest patch. It looks like either a new mission or expansion pack for Company of Heroes will have a “Tiger Ace” campaign.

Tiger Ace campaign

Also included is an option for allowing “reward units” in the multiplayer games.

Reward Units

HQ-COH post
Relicnews Forum COH content thread

UPDATE: The new units are IN the 2.500 Beta Patch! Seriously, check it out.

As Per Someguy’s earlier update to the GFW Live post, it looks like Dawn of War 2 might be confirmed for the Xbox 360!

We’ll check with Relic and get back to you.

Update: the page has been taken down of the Xbox site. Maybe we’ll hear more official word soon. There’s another game conference next month in Germany.

Relic.com has this small tidbit about the Soulstorm patch process.

Dear community,

The current Soulstorm patch is undergoing testing with Gamespy and although slightly delayed, is progressing well. The patch will include fixes for the critical issues (SOB infinite resource, Harlequin bug, DE Observer bug, Necron infinite Monolith bug).

Thank you for your patience, we’ll update you with a more specific release date as the patch gets closer to shipping.

- Relic Team

Soon it would seem!