Relicnews: the definitive source for all things Relic

Ten years ago, on September 28th, 1999, Homeworld was making its way onto store shelves. The release of that game hinted that the future for Relic Entertainment would be bright. Since then, Relic’s developed six additional titles (with another six expansion packs spread amongst them), with more in development.

Relic’s work with THQ on Dawn of War piqued the publisher’s interest in the studio (who until working with Relic on Dawn of War had only released two titles and one expansion) resulting in Relic’s purchase by THQ. As a result, the vast majority of people who have played Relic’s games have been fans of games other than Homeworld. To correct this, on the tenth anniversary of Homeworld’s release, Relicnews.com is proud to announce the rerelease of the Homeworld Raider Retreat standalone demo of Homeworld.

If you’ve found your way to the Relic community after playing Impossible Creatures, one of the Dawn of War games or expansions, Company of Heroes, “The Outfit” or you are learning about Relic for the first time and never had the chance to play Homeworld, Raider Retreat is a great introduction. Raider Retreat is a version of Homeworld that has five single player missions (including one that was not in the original Homeworld). It also allowed unrestricted skirmish against the AI and full multiplayer over LAN.

We touched on this earlier, but now, thanks to GameRanger and Worthplaying, people who missed out on Homeworld and its slow burn multiplayer can now have the chance.

With the death of Homeworld’s built in multiplayer (WON.net), the small but enthusiastic fan base has moved to other venues, mostly using software that simulates a LAN to enable multiplayer. As Homeworld Raider Retreat has full LAN play, and GameRanger was one of the popular services that Homeworld players were using, we contacted Scott Kevill at GameRanger. As a result, GameRanger has added support for Homeworld Raider Retreat into GameRanger.

The Raider Retreat download is just under 200MB. To help us get this relatively large file distributed, we contacted Worthplaying.com. Rainier at Worthplaying’s usually been the first to contact Relicnews.com with patch mirrors when Relic releases a patch or demo and he stepped up to host this as well.

For more information on this release, download links and multiplayer tips, please see the “Homeworld Quickstart Kit” put together by long time community member molo (and others).

THQ and Korean publisher, Windysoft, announced yesterday that Company of Heroes Online will be heading to Korea. Windysoft will be handling all the content and support relating to COH:Online.

Company of Heroes Online is a MMORTS, co-developed by Relic and Chinese developer Shanda, originally made for the Chinese gaming market.

THQ Partners with Windysoft to Bring Company of Heroes(R) Online(TM) to South Korea

Relic announced yesterday that they will be at the Penny Arcade Expo (September 4th to 6th) to show off a new game mode that they cooked up for Dawn of War II. Here is a snippet from the post,

Relic developers Otto Ottosson, Chris Becker, and Blake Gilroy will be in the Raven Theatre presenting a new game mode and answering questions Sunday, September 6th from 11:30am to 12:30pm. You’ll also be able to play Dawn of War II during the PC Freeplay area from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm everyday of PAX.

Join Relic at Penny Arcade Expo 2009

Every Relic game titles on Steam are currently on sale at fifty percent off their listed price until the end of this weekend. Dawn of War II is now at a good price if you haven’t picked it up and the “There is Only War” update is now online.

Check it out

There’s a bit of Space Marine in THQ’s booth tour. Nothing ground breaking, but interesting none the less. Starts about 3:30 into the video. First part is Red Faction Guerrilla.

Hidden in the E3 Space Marine Interview is news that JD’s been promoted to General Manager at Relic.

The former studio head was Tarnie Williams.

Something lurks just around the corner.

Afternoon…

I know it’s not really Relic related, but as you are probably aware we’ve been following The Escapist’s March Mayhem “tournament”. Relic was knocked out of the final four round by Bioware.

If you want to take part in the final round, voting is here. I’ve voted Bioware as they’re a great developer (and Canadian like Relic!) whose games have provided me hours of entertainment.

Gamespot had this tidbit of news about THQ after reviewing their investor’s presentation.

Not quite as far into the future, THQ penciled in its fiscal 2011 (12 months ending March 31, 2011) for Volition’s “new direction” in its open-world crime series, Saints Row 3. 2011 also plays host to an unspecified action game from Relic (maker of Company of Heroes and the Warhammer 40,0000: Dawn of War games) and an unannounced racing game.

Thanks to pheonix for the heads up.

This is me being unsurprised. Can I place money on it being a new IP?

Here’s a screenshot of the slide. Note that it confirms Company of Heroes Online (I assume for North America) as well in FY 2010. The Warhammer 40K MMO is from another studio, not Relic.

Funny little video Thunder put up yesterday.

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor - How direct fire came to be