Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II

We know how it is. You get up on Christmas morning, awaiting the game or games that you asked for and then your parents (or uncle or cousin or best friend) give you...a gift card or money instead. Their excuses are many; they couldn't find the game you wanted. They forgot what your game's name was. They got confused. So you are left with a generic way to get the games you really wanted.

But wait! Before you head out on the day after Christmas to start shopping you may want to consider another path. The truth is that there are a lot of major PC game releases that are due out in the first quarter of 2009. Publishers tend to release major titles during that time because their fiscal year ends on March 31 and they want their financial results for the year to end on a high note. The result is a glut of huge titles that you may want to save your holiday money to purchase.

Big Download has 10 examples of games currently due out during that time period that you may want to consider. Keep in mind that release date scheduled can and ususally do change so keep an eye out on our site for any delays in the titles that we will mention

Click on the image above to continue reading Big Download's 2008 Holiday Gift Card Guide For Future Games

It's been known for some time that the rights to the Homeworld space-based RTS series were purchased by THQ from Vivendi Games (before they merged with Activision to form Activision Blizzard). THQ owns the game's original creator and developer Relic and while they have lots of announced projects in the works a new Homeworld game could be under development as well.

Relic released the first Homeworld in 1999 with a sequel in 2003 before they were purchased by THQ. Eurogamer reports that Relic designer Jonny Ebbert stated, "We're really happy the IP has made its way home, and yeah, we're definitely looking at it. We'll see what happens in the future." Relic is pretty busy with three upcoming projects. Two are due out in the first quarter of 2009; Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II and Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor. They are also working on a free-to-play multiplayer game, Company of Heroes Online, that will be released exclusively for Asian game markets.

THQ's financial numbers were less than spectacular last week which is why the game publisher shut down a number of their internal development studios and canceled a number of unannounced titles (oh, and also laid off 17 percent of its workforce). With that painful decision out of the way, THQ's CEO Brian Farrell said the company will move on by publishing "fewer, higher-quality games."

Farrell made those remarks during the BMO Capital Markets Interactive Entertainment Conference, adding that instead of doing three or four core titles per year, "Our current strategy is one to two of those each year...and build them aggressively. ...When we focus, like we did with Saints Row 2 and Saints Row 1, we win." THQ has a number of games that some might consider "core" titles on the way including Red Faction Guerrilla and Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II.

As we reported earlier today, Microsoft has now updated the user interface for its Games For Windows Live service, making it more accessible for PC users to operate via a mouse rather than the console-centric interface that was put in place when Games For Windows Live first launched back in May 2007.

Big Download got to speak on the phone today with Michael Wolf, Senior Marketing Manager for Games For Windows Live, to find out more about the update, the upcoming stand alone client and how Microsoft feels about the Games For Windows brand going forward.

This narrated demonstration video takes viewers through a small portion of the Space Marines Campaign in Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II. It also walks players through a number of new features including Squad Commander special abilities and combining tactics. Dawn of War II is expected to release on the PC in early 2009.

Download HD Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II Space Marine Campaign Video (134 MB)

THQ has had the Warhammer 40,000 PC/Video game license from Games Workshop for several years now. They company has released a poorly received first person shooter (Fire Warrior)and a highly regarded RTS game series, (Dawn of War) based on the Warhammer 40K property with Dawn of War II and an upcoming MMO already announced.

However it looks like the publisher is planning to bring the franchise into yet another genre; the third person action shooter game. Leaked footage found its way to YouTube which displays about nine minutes of footage (taken from an Xbox 360 version) from what is titled Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. The footage show some early but what looks like highly playable scenes from the game as the Space Marine of the title deals a lot of damage to its foes with some impressive looking graphics. No developer was revealed for the game and there's no indication when it might be released.

[Via Shacknews]

One of the biggest problems for real-time strategy (RTS) games has been the detached and disinterested attitude many players exhibit when faced with playing them. More often than not, a lot of people who consistently play RTS games are doing so out of their love for the strategy element. That's all well and good, but there's a caveat: The problem continues. Why? It does so because the cache of players who're highly dedicated to RTS games don't count for much of the PC gaming contingent.

I've considered Relic Entertainment a top-drawer developer ever since I casually sat down to play Homeworld 2, only to discover a game that would absorb several tens of hours of my life. So when initial previews revealed that Dawn of War 2 (DoW2) wouldn't focus on player-built structures, I was intrigued. I continued to read up on the game and subsequently found even more provocative information. Players will only control five or so squads in any one battle? These squads are to stay with you over the course of the game? This was a glaringly unprecedented change, and I loved it.

Click the image above to continue reading "Alt-Tab: Can RPG + RTS = cute baby?"

It's a highly requested and popular race in the Warhammer 40,000 universe but developer Relic and publisher THQ didn't put the Tyranids in the original Dawn of War RTS game nor in any of the expansion packs. Now the Dawn of War II community site has announced (and released a screenshot) showing that the Tyranids are indeed making an appearance in the sequel, due out in 2009.

According to the post, Relic felt that the graphics engine for the original game wouldn't due the Tyranids justice but the new game engine they are using for Dawn of War II (the in-house Essence 2.0 Engine) was the way to bring the race into the game. The deadly species uses sward tactics to defeat their foes (each unit is just a simple cell in a massive Hive Mind) and it will be interesting to see how Dawn of War II uses them.

A trio of Dawn of War II trailers graces your Big Download news page today, demonstrating cinematics and gameplay from Relic's upcoming RTS sequel. Though we embedded the cinematic trailer for you last week (courtesy of GameTrailers), Big download now hosts high definition versions of each, so feast your eyes on some Dawn of War II goodness.

Download the HD Dawn of War II cinematic trailer from Big Download

Download the HD Dawn of War II gameplay trailer from Big Download

Download the HD Dawn of War II "Watch for Ambush" trailer from Big Download

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming over the weekend including the lastest of our E3 hands-on impressions.

	BigCast 004 -- English Is Hard! Listen as Xav stumbles about trying to pronounce simple words! This week we cover some of the biggest PC news from the world of E3, talk classic gaming habits and throw around the idea that maybe games are meant to be played instead of examined. Crazy thoughts and more in the epic episode with guest hosts Kyle Horner, Samuel Axon and first-timer James Murff. It's time to go big, right here at the BigCast!
	E3 08: Hands-on with Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 If the original Command and Conquer timeline is a fairly standard sci-fi affair and C&C Generals is a more realistic near future storyline, then Electronic Arts' Red Alert franchise is all about comic book goofiness and fun. The alternate history where the Communist Soviet Union is still large and in charge and wild weapons are plentiful will get a revamp this fall with the release of C&C: Red Alert 3
	E3 08: Dragon Age Origins impressions Our very last E3 2008 appointment was, ironically, not at the Los Angeles Convention Center but at a nearby hotel. Deep underneath the hotel's meeting room was host to BioWare's long awaited next fantasy RPG Dragon Age Origins. The game was first announced and shown in a very early form over four years ago at E3 2004 (when it was called simply Dragon Age) so we were expecting to be wowed by this new version.
	E3 08: Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II impressions So you think you know what Relic Entertainment is going to do with the full sequel to their acclaimed sci-fi RTS title Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War (based as always on the Games Workshop war game). Better graphics; more units, more visble units in massive battles, right? Isn't that the way sequels usually do things?

So you think you know what Relic Entertainment is going to do with the full sequel to their acclaimed sci-fi RTS title Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War (based as always on the Games Workshop war game). Better graphics; more units, more visble units in massive battles, right? Isn't that the way sequels usually do things?

Well, yes. That is the standard for sequels to any game: "More of what you liked before, but better." In the case of Dawn of War II, however, Relic and publisher THQ are actually doing things to the game that on the surface look like they are toning things down. We got a chance to observe an live demo of the highly anticipated title at E3 2008 this week.

One of the biggest PC game exclusives at E3 this week will be Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II, the upcoming full sequel to the best selling sci-fi RTS game from developer Relic and publisher THQ. This weekend a new official community web site has launched for the game with some more info on the development of the title.

The community site comes with some new screenshots from Dawn of War II (including the above shot of a huge War Boss unit) which show off some more bloodly graphical goodness from the advanced engine that was used to power Relic's last major game Company of Heroes. Look for lots more info on the game this week; Dawn of War II is due for release in 2009.

It was a dark and stormy night as the wait continued for E3 2008. The annual gathering of publishers to show of their upcoming games to the press has lost some of its importance but it's still one of the most important week in the gaming industry. Here at Big Download we have been counting down our picks for our most anticipated games that we are most looking forward to seeing (maybe) at the event. After revealing our picked for 25-21 on Monday, 20-16 on Tuesday and 15-11 on Wednesday, we are now finally entering the top 10. Today we are revealing our picks for the 10-6 positions on our list.

As we mentioned in our previous articles, these are just our predictions on what games will be shown at the event; many of these titles have not been officially confirmed to be at E3 as of this writing. Also, there's no Activision Blizzard titles on this list due to the new massive publisher bypassing E3 but a press conference by Activision Blizzard on Tuesday during E3 is highly expected to show some upcoming titles from that newly merged publisher. With that out of the way let's look at our picks for the next five games on our list.

Microsoft has been pushing its Games For Windows branding for PC games for over a year now and today the company is holding a press event in San Fransisco to let the media know about their continued commitment to PC gaming while showing off eight third party PC games to the press. Big Download will be there to report on the event. Two of the games, Kung Fu Panda and WALL-E, have already shipped to stores. The other six are Capcom's PC ports of Devil May Cry 4 (due out in early July) and Bionic Commando, 2K Games' Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization, Activision's Call of Duty: World at War, Vivendi Games's Ghostbusters title, and the long awaited Gas Powered-Sega title Space Siege.

Microsoft also plans to show off new PC s with graphics cards from AMD/ATI and Nvidia chips at the event. In addition, Microsoft has announced that 16 PC games will now have the Games for Windows brand on their packaging and marketing:

• Battlestations: Midway (Eidos)
• Battlestations: Pacific (Eidos)
• Borderlands (2K Games)
• Call of Duty: World at War (Activision)
• Crysis Warhead (Crytek/EA Partners)
• Dawn of War 2 (THQ)
• Devil May Cry 4 (Capcom)
• Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Sierra Entertainment)
• Quantum of Solace (Activision)
• LEGO Batman: The Videogame (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Video Game (Activision)
• Mafia II (2K Games)
• Project Origin (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Red Faction: Guerilla (THQ)
• Saints Row 2 (THQ)
• Zoo Tycoon 2: Ultimate Collection (Microsoft Game Studios)

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming over the weekend.

	Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II trailer The first trailer for developer Relic's Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II has arrived, available for viewing on publisher THQ's site. Depicting crumbling bridges, exploding pylons, massive mechs, and wanton orc abuse, the anticipated RTS sequel's release date has yet to be announced.
	New Frontlines Conquest multiplayer mode coming Hot on the heels of the just released 1.1.0 patch, developer Kaos Studios has announced plans to introduce a new multiplayer mode for its near-future shooter Frontlines: Fuel of War. According to a statement on the developer's web site, the new mode may sound familiar to some; Conquest. where players will be able to take over objects in any order on any map.
	New Steam client update released, TF2 Pyro details revealed Valve spilled its guts regarding the next major Team Fortress 2 upgrade via notes in a Steam client update released yesterday. Valve claimed that they are almost completely wrapped up the next big release for TF2, which will focus on the Pyro class, along with the Meet the Sniper movie."