warhammer-40000-dawn-of-war-2 posts

When developer Relic released Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II back in 2009 it used Microsoft's Games For Windows Live clients for updates, achievements and other features, The first expansion pack Chaos Rising, released earlier this year, also used Games For Windows Live. Today, Relic announced that the next game in the sci-fi RTS series, Dawn of War II Retribution, will switch over and use Valve's Steamworks system.

Relic stated that the switch to Steamworks will allow them to do things for Retribution like "guest passes, free multiplayer weekends, pre-loading and the ability to provide fast turn-around on future patches and updates." Unfortunately Steamworks support won't be added to the original game or Chaos Rising nor will the content in Retribution be added to those to games when Retribution is released in the first quarter of 2011. The good news is that owners of the original game and Chaos Rising will be able to participate in a multiplayer beta of Retribution via Steam sometime in 2011.

This is the latest game franchise to dump Games For Windows Live for Steam. Bethesda Softworks announced earlier this year that Fallout: New Vegas would use Steamworks after using Games For Windows Live for Fallout 3 and Square Enix used Steamworks for Kane and Lynch 2 after using Games For Windows Live for the original game.

Download HD Dawn of War II: Retribution Announcement Trailer (165 MB)

The Warhammer 40,000 franchise is a huge one for publisher THQ. The company has released a number of games based on Games Workshop's table top war game title and more are in the works. In a new interview at Eurogamer, THQ VP Danny Bilson is already talking about plans to release Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War III.

THQ has already announced plans to release Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II Retribution, the second stand alone expansion for the RTS game from developer Relic. Bilson states, "Retribution's going to ship in February (2011), and then we start laying out Dawn of War III. You can probably expect it between 18 months and two years after that." That would put the game's release between late 2012 and early 2013.

Bilson also says that Dawn of War III could be released as a free-to-play title similar to what's happening with the upcoming Company of Heroes Online. Bilson states, "It all depends on how COHO does, and how it works and how people respond to it." The game itself, no matter its final format, will have "a much larger strategic component to it, more of a global battle going on with little tactical things, sort of MMO-like."

You have to wonder if Digital Illusions is wondering why they didn't port the original Battlefield Bad Company game to the PC. The sequel, Battlefield Bad Company 2, to the modern day-themed shooter continues to sell well on Steam as it stays on top of the PC game download service's top 10 list for the third week in a row.

Relic's RTS stand alone expansion pack Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War 2 Chaos Rising comes in at number two while the weekend sale bundle of Batman Arkham Asylum and the original Just Cause is number three on the list. The full list is as follows:

1. Battlefield Bad Company 2 - Digital Illusions/EA
2. Warhammer 40,0000 Dawn of War II Chaos Rising - Relic/THQ
3. Batman: Arkham Asylum -Just Cause Bundle -Square Enix
4. Modern Warfare 2 - Infinity Ward/Activision
5. Supreme Commander 2 - Gas Powered Games/ Square Enix
6. Assassin's Creed 2 - Ubisoft
7. Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve
8. Counter-Strike Source - Valve
9. Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising - Codemasters
10. Dragon Age Origins Awakening - BioWare/EA

As promised, developer Relic and publisher THQ have now released their newest and quite large content update to 2009's RTS game Warhammer 40,0000 Dawn of War 2. The update, which is automatically downloaded via Steam, also prepares the game for the release tomorrow (in the US) for Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War 2 Chaos Rising, the stand alone expansion pack.

As we have reported before this new update adds seven new multiplayer maps to Dawn of War 2 along with five new units to the game. It also adds a free-for-all multiplayer mode and allows Dawn of War 2 players to play online with those who have the Chaos Rising expansion pack.

While the stand alone expansion pack Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising is now set for release on March 11, people who own the original sci-fi RTS game are not being forgotten. Developer Relic has announced plans to add new multiplayer units that will be made available for free to owners of the original 2009 game.

There will be one unit each added for the Space Marines, Orks, and Eldar factions while the Tyranids playable side gets two new units for a total of five new free units that will be added to the game for free sometime in March. you can check out a GameTrailers.com video that shows off all the new units after the jump:

It would not be a President's Day without some kind of nice sale offer and today Steam gives us two ways to get a free game if you pre-order an upcoming title. First, folks who pre-order Relic's upcoming Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II Chaos Rising will get to download the PC port of Saints Row 2 for free.

Yet another pre-order offer launched today is for Necrovision: Lost Company, a sequel to 2009's first person shooter from developer The Farm 51 and publisher 1C Company. If you put down some money for the game now you can download the original Necrovision game for free. As always if you already own the free games or just don't want them you can give the Steam CD key to a pal.

Earlier this week the first details were revealed about The Last Stand, an upcoming downloadable content expansion for Relic's RTS game Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II. While the DLC will be all about three players fighting off waves of enemies in combat, that's apparently not everything the download will have.

According to the Steam web site, The Last Stand will add another two multiplayer maps to the game's already extensive collection along with other bug fixes and gameplay balance changes. The download is scheduled for release sometime in October and will be a free download. There's no word yet if a beta release for The Last Stand is planned.

Relic has been releasing new patches and content updates for Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II since its release earlier this year but in July the biggest update yet for the sci-fi RTS game is planned for released to the public The update, titled, There Is Only War, will go into open beta in early July.

The update will add a whopping eight new multiplayer maps to the game, nearly doubling the current number of maps available for gamers. We've added screenshots for all eight maps to our gallery. In addition the update will add a new Observer-Referee feature (shown above) which will allow a player to spectate on matches. Finally Relic plans to put in a number of unit and gameplay balance changes to the game.

As promised, developer Relic and publisher THQ have now released a major new patch for their recent RTS game Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II. The patch, which can only be downloaded via the Steam service, adds a new 2v2 multiplayer gameplay mode to the game along with two new maps that were made specifically for this new mode.

That would be plenty for any other updates but this new patch adds quite a bit of new features to the game. They include a new PC benchmarking test, eight new sync kill animations, a new 4x speed option and others. There's also an extensive list of improvements and bug fixes and you can check out the entire patch notes at the Steam web site.

A couple of weeks ago, THQ announced that owners of the RTS stand alone expansion game Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War - Soulstorm will get first crack at the multiplayer beta test for the full fledged sequel Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II. Available exclusively via Steam the beta is now available to download for Soulstorm owners, both for the retail and the digital download versions. The beta became available a few hours earlier than first announced (it was previous scheduled to be released tomorrow).

If you want to access the beta now Valve has made that prospect much easier. They have discounted the Steam version of Soulstorm down to just $7.50; that's a 75 percent decrease from its usual $29.99 price. That means that you won't have to pay a lot of money to get that Dawn of War II beta access. It's currently unknown how long the discount on Soulstorm will last.