http://dawnofwar2.com/

Well, Relic is at it again, proving that it is without a doubt the best RTS developer on the market today.

The original Dawn of War was released in 2004, and after 3 expansions, and an unprecedented 9 unique races, is still amazing today (I've been playing Soulstorm for a couple of weeks now).

And Company of Heroes released in 2006 still sets the standard for RTS graphics today.

So far only Space Marines and Orks have been revealed, but I'm sure there will be 4 races with the final game. If I had to guess I would say Eldar and Chaos, like the first DoW, but I'm hoping they put Tyranids in and give Chaos it's own expansion.

It uses an upgraded version of the Essence engine used in Company of Heroes, so units will make intelligent use of cover. Planned release sometime in 2009.

Here's the 3 screenshots released so far.





Screw Blizzard and your 8 year development cycles, Relic can own you with 3.

Now if they would just make Homeworld 3.

4/5/2008 11:43:40 AM

Holy shit, those screenshots look fucking incredible. I may have to get a new computer to play this.

4/5/2008 12:00:18 PM

Quote :

"EXACT SAME GAME"

Quote :

"GRAPHICS UPDATE PATCH"

4/5/2008 12:22:57 PM

not really no.

Changes copied from some dude's translation from a german magazine.

- Uses the Essence 2.0 engine with Havok physics, all optimised for DX10 and multicore support.
- Units also use CoH-like unit AI for awareness and pathfinding to find cover and such.
- While DoW 2 shares the same (upgraded probably) engine as CoH, it won't be "CoH in space", while soldiers in CoH will ask themselves if flanking the enemy is the right option, in DoW2 it will be more like Space Marines asking themselves if they should use their jetpacks to jump over an Ork squad to attack them in the back. Different settings, different kinds of warfare.
- More focus on making units and squads unique; every unit has got a name (at least in the campaign it seems), more details and more animations.
- Relic wants to give players rewards at the end of a mission like wargear (armor, weapons, rare objects); "Let's pimp out squads with cool stuff!", you will see these items in-game as well of course.
- You'll fight your way through the campaign with the same squads.
- You can't control more than six squads! I am not sure if this is campaign-only but the preview made it sound like it wasn't.
- The squads are going to be a lot more interesting than before though.
- A squad leader (one or several?) will need to survive if you want to complete a mission; you really have to look out for your squads and don't treat them like cannon fodder.
- There is a lot more interesting commentary from the units as well; if your SM commander is holding a Thunder Hammer f.e. then the opponent will specifically comment on that, Ork Warchief saying something like "Ooh, nice hammer, but mine is bigger!". The warchief will say something else if the commander doesn't have the hammer.
- The campaign lets Space Marines operate from a spaceship, you'll get a view of an underlying planet and you'll be able to choose from different missions (which are tagged with difficulty colours, green, blue and red).
- Certain reward items won't be useable at once in the campaign, so they'll be taken back to the SM spaceship for research.
- Dreadnought can now also trample Orkz.



Plus, I mean, it's a sequel, it's going to have similar things, if you define that as the same game I guess that's up to you.

4/5/2008 12:47:34 PM

hey look blizzard, this is what a next-gen RTS looks like. NOT SC2 which is basically SC1 with outdated graphics/gameplay engine

4/7/2008 7:02:55 AM

Starcraft 2 will still sell 50000x the amount this game will though

pretty though

4/7/2008 7:41:24 AM

true...but thats the sad thing...that a company like blizzard will get away with piss poor graphic developments...

4/7/2008 8:43:55 AM

I'd take gameplay over graphics any day.

Which is why I'd still rather play Starcraft than Dawn of War.

4/7/2008 9:11:03 AM

Blizzard doesn't "get away" with anything. They have never been on the cutting edge of technology with any of their games, but their games always look great because they have the most phenomenal artists in the industry.

I mean, look at the character models in those screen shots he posted. What the fuck are those supposed to be? Origami? Those are the ugliest and most generic looking "orks" and space marines I have ever seen. What's the point of a balls out graphics engine if the art is piss poor. Blizzard put more effort in their fucking April fools joke then Relic put into those models.

This game won't hold a candle to Starcraft II, in visuals, gameplay, or anything else. I have no problem with discussing the merits of a new game, but pretending it will compete with a Blizzard game of the same genre is just silly.

4/7/2008 9:22:10 AM

I was accepted in the beta

I'll post it for everyone to play soon.

4/7/2008 10:52:22 AM

^^ mind if i ask, what did they do for april fools this year? (pm or post in the WoW thread if you don't want it in here...)

4/7/2008 11:02:48 AM

Quote :

"EXACT SAME GAME"

so wow is a graphics update over a mudd now huh?

better yet all rts games are merely reskinnings and graphics updates of C&C right?

peon

Quote :

"but pretending it will compete with a Blizzard game of the same genre is just silly."

here's a tip, you make more sense with blizzards dick out of your mouth

[Edited on April 7, 2008 at 11:09 AM. Reason : s]

4/7/2008 11:05:59 AM

Quote :

"here's a tip, you make more sense with blizzards dick out of your mouth"

Honestly, there's not a chance in hell that Dawn of War 2 is going to be remotely as popular as Starcraft 2.

I may be a bit bias though, as I thought the gameplay of DoW was terrible and largely uninteresting.

[Edited on April 7, 2008 at 11:31 AM. Reason : .]

4/7/2008 11:31:04 AM

I won't deny that I would happily kneel before my Blizzard overlords, but if you're going to come in here and declare something as "owning Blizzard", bring something better than this weak shit. There are tons of screenshots, videos, and gameplay previews detailing Starcraft II's awesomeness, all you've got is 3 screenshots.

[Edited on April 7, 2008 at 11:34 AM. Reason : :]

4/7/2008 11:33:38 AM

wow, that looks awesome.

Ill prob need a new pc to play it though.

Warhammer are great RTS games, imo

4/7/2008 11:41:51 AM

Quote :

"Honestly, there's not a chance in hell that Dawn of War 2 is going to be remotely as popular as Starcraft 2."

true, the koreans alone will determine that...

4/7/2008 11:43:07 AM

By "owning" I was referring to making a better game, not necessarily a game that will sell 5 million copies because of the name on the box.

Quote :

"There are tons of screenshots, videos, and gameplay previews detailing Starcraft II's awesomeness"

If by "awesomeness" you mean "looking like hello kitty in space" then you are correct.

Quote :

"all you've got is 3 screenshots."

That's all they have released so far. The game was just announced a few days ago.

Quote :

"I mean, look at the character models in those screen shots he posted. What the fuck are those supposed to be? Origami? Those are the ugliest and most generic looking "orks" and space marines I have ever seen."

They look pretty much accurate.

The Orks need more randomization, but I'm sure they will get it.

[Edited on April 7, 2008 at 12:09 PM. Reason : ]

4/7/2008 12:04:52 PM

those shots are even more impressive then if this is the first shots

4/7/2008 12:09:01 PM

Quote :

"I'd take gameplay over graphics any day. Which is why I'd still rather play Starcraft than Dawn of War."

agreed. when it comes to RTS gameplay is really all that matters to me. those SSs were very nice looking, but there have been lots of boring, yet great looking games.

4/7/2008 12:36:10 PM

I'm not going to crap all over your thread anymore, and I really hope they do the Warhammer 40k license justice. Relic is an awesome developer and the original Homeworld is one of the greatest (and under appreciated) games of all time. All I'm saying is taking 3 screenshots and declaring that it will be better than the sequel to the greatest RTS of all-time, as well as the de-facto standard by which all RTSs are judged, is a wee bit premature.

I still say the character models aren't impressive, and the fact that they look similar to a bunch of plastic figurines doesn't change that

4/7/2008 1:08:55 PM

For what it's worth, the original Dawn of War was critically acclaimed. Not perfect, but I thought it was a solid and entertaining game. If they're building off of DoW, then I think Relic starting on a solid foothold.

4/7/2008 1:32:43 PM

I'm not going to argue that Starcraft isn't the greatest selling RTS of all time, but IMO Dawn of War is easily superior to it.

4/7/2008 1:46:21 PM

yeah, DoW was pretty fucking awesome

i never played any of the expansions, though.

4/7/2008 1:55:31 PM

Seeing as how DoW came out a decade after StarCraft, one would hope so.

4/7/2008 3:19:29 PM

6 years.

But when you consider that Starcraft 2 doesn't appear to have made any major changes to its gameplay, I would still have to put DoW 2 ahead, considering nobody has played either so far.

4/7/2008 5:37:45 PM

Quote :

"- There is a lot more interesting commentary from the units as well; if your SM commander is holding a Thunder Hammer f.e. then the opponent will specifically comment on that, Ork Warchief saying something like "Ooh, nice hammer, but mine is bigger!". The warchief will say something else if the commander doesn't have the hammer. "

oh boy, major gameplay change right here

4/7/2008 5:39:37 PM

Quote :

"But when you consider that Starcraft 2 doesn't appear to have made any major changes to its gameplay that has made it widely regarded as the best RTS of all time, I would still have to put Starcraft 2 far ahead, considering nobody has played either so far. "

4/7/2008 6:02:15 PM

I'm just saying...they have already near perfected the gameplay of SC. They've had a decade to perfect the graphics for SC2 and enhance gameplay. May as well call this an expansion pack.

4/7/2008 6:28:02 PM

^^I mean if you think SC is still the best RTS (not even of all time, I mean still the best today) then no changes is fine.

But for those of us who expect progress, and for games to take advantage of the development of the genre over the past decade, then we can hope for a little more.

Besides, that post was directed at SadSanta, who acknowledged that DoW was better than SC.

Starcraft is considered by some to be the best of all time because at the time most people thought it was well ahead of the competition (I don't agree, I think TA was just as good). If it was released today most people would label it bland and same old, same old.

Sure, this is probably because other games themselves copied starcraft, but the beauty of that is this forces other games to advance and improve in order to succeed.

^^^ meh, It was copied and pasted.

4/7/2008 10:42:43 PM

I just don't see how you could look at Blizzard's track record of RTS games and say to yourself "Yeah, that upcoming one is really going to be lacking" and they're going to get "owned", when you know for a fact that Starcraft 2 is going to wind up crushing DoW2 in sales at the very least.

Plus, if it's anything like the original DoW when it first came out, zooming in on battles like the ones in the screenshots will be so embarassing watch that it's not even worth doing.

[Edited on April 8, 2008 at 12:08 AM. Reason : .]

4/8/2008 12:08:07 AM

i'm not reading all this shit.


I KNOW THE IMPLICATIONS WOULD MAKE IT OVERPOWERED AFTER A CERTAIN POINT BUT,

is there still an overall cap on how many units / squads you can have or is it significantly increased?
I got really really tired of getting to the point where it was virtually impossible for me to lose, but i couldn't increase my army to the size that i could just finish out the map and it was too risky to kill off certain units to build more that were siege / pillagers.

4/8/2008 12:13:34 AM

Actually I think they are reducing the cap, at least they are for the single player space marine campaign. They are going to make the space marines more like the supersoldiers they are supposed to be.

The squad cap may be increased with Orks, who knows.

4/8/2008 12:29:39 AM

Quote :

"I just don't see how you could look at Blizzard's track record of RTS games and say to yourself "Yeah, that upcoming one is really going to be lacking" and they're going to get "owned", when you know for a fact that Starcraft 2 is going to wind up crushing DoW2 in sales at the very least."

well thats because the definition of 'fanboy/fanboi' comes from 'a blizzard follower'. And they'll eat up anything and everything that says blizzard on it.


Blizzard fanboy 1: OMG Starcraft 2 is coming out!
Blizzard fanboy 2: OMG whats different about it??
Blizzard fanboy 1: Its got a 2 on the box! Its going to be badass!

[Edited on April 8, 2008 at 3:15 PM. Reason : .]

4/8/2008 3:13:08 PM

Dawn of War fanboy 1: OMG Dawn of War 2 is coming out!
.
.
<crickets>
.
.
Dawn of War fanboy 1: Anyone? Anyone at all? Fuck it, I'm playing Starcraft II.


I kid, I kid But seriously, can we stop this stupid argument? As I said, Relic is a great developer and I'm sure they will do a great service to fans of the original with this sequel. But to argue that this game will "own" Starcraft II or even compete with it is sheer lunacy.

Just pray it gets released before Starcraft II so you'll actually have a few months to play it with other people. I'm not trying to troll, really, this is just the truth and you brought this on yourself by stupidly bashing Blizzard in the OP. Blizzard doesn't do "competition". Just look at WoW and how it has snuffed out practically every other MMORPG before they even had a chance to take off.

4/8/2008 4:28:13 PM

I've never played DoW i'm just saying those screenshots look badass! and at the same time SCII could have done a lot better with their graphics engine.

4/8/2008 4:32:41 PM

Nowhere in any of my arguments did I say that Dawn of War 2 would sell as much or be as popular as Starcraft 2. If you thought I meant "sell more" when I said "own" you were mistaken.

It probably won't get released before Starcraft 2, but that doesn't matter at all to me.

We won't get to play with the koreans or 12 year olds, but there's still a pretty dedicated community for DOW that I doubt would abandon the series.

4/8/2008 4:48:10 PM

Wait a minute, Dawn of War doesn't have Koreans? So I actually have a chance of wining? Holy shit, I might try this out after all

4/8/2008 4:58:31 PM

pretty much yeah, very few Koreans, unfortunately (they might have fixed this by now) there was only one viable multi player strategy, swarm with Assault Space Marines..... hopefully they have fixed this

[Edited on April 8, 2008 at 5:15 PM. Reason : speellin]

4/8/2008 5:11:04 PM

Quote :

"You can't control more than six squads! I am not sure if this is campaign-only but the preview made it sound like it wasn't."

Fuck that... mass combat FTW!

4/8/2008 5:54:56 PM

^^ as Space Marines, I don't usually use Assault marines against most races, except Tau and IG. Tactical Marines are better IMO.

4/8/2008 7:41:18 PM

As a gigantic COH fan I'm very excited about this game. It doesn't need to stand up to SC2 as I intend to buy both but if it's anything as fantastic as COH than I'm all over it.

4/8/2008 11:17:30 PM

Gameplay teaser

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/34903.html

And some more info

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/879/879620p1.html

Looks like they are doing away with base building completely and focusing on a more tactical game, at least for the single player campaign, not sure about MP

6/8/2008 11:42:40 PM

Game looks and sounds cool, might even buy it (I'm a lapsed Warhammer fan), but

Quote :

"This game won't hold a candle to Starcraft II, in visuals, gameplay, or anything else"

6/10/2008 7:46:44 AM

I still don't get how people can be anything close to impressed with Starcraft visuals.


The effects are pretty cool, I'll give them that, but for the most part the graphics are not that good.

6/10/2008 10:32:43 AM

thats one of blizzards other area's of greatness, their games will run on a larger range of pcs (i.e i dont have to upgrade my box to play SC 2, i would for DoW2).

6/10/2008 11:48:41 AM

^^ surely you're referring to SC1, not SC2, right?

6/10/2008 6:50:11 PM

vs

6/11/2008 8:08:01 AM

New info and screens, still looking great

Early 2009 release.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/888/888046p1.html

7/11/2008 11:42:28 AM

Since all the pics are dead:

7/11/2008 5:49:17 PM

Tyranids confirmed as 4th faction!

http://pc.ign.com/articles/900/900039p1.html

8/19/2008 6:08:05 PM