Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II out Spring 2009

[pauldarkside]

Yesh!

IT’S OFFICIAL – WARHAMMER 40,000: DAWN OF WAR II IS ON ITS WAY
Welcome to a new dawn…

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, the highly anticipated sequel from one of the industry’s premiere Real-Time Strategy developers, Relic Entertainment, is set to bring the 41st Millennium’s savage warfare to life like never before in spring 2009. Powered by an enhanced version of Relic’s proprietary Essence Engine 2.0, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II will take players to the brutal frontlines of war where they’ll experience intense action and visceral combat through a non-linear single player experience and a fully co-operative multiplayer campaign.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II is set in the grim, war-ravaged world of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 universe – a dark, futuristic, science-fiction setting where armies of technologically advanced warriors, fighting machines and hordes of implacable aliens wage constant war. Dawn of War II ushers in a new chapter in the acclaimed RTS series, as ancient races – including the dauntless Space Marines and savage Orks - clash with ferocious melee and ranged combat across fully destructible environments in what will be the most visually-stunning Warhammer 40,000 setting ever created.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II is being developed exclusively for Windows PC, and THQ is pleased to announce that owners of the recently released Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Soulstorm will be able to participate in an invitation-only multiplayer beta program for Dawn of War II, set to take place at a future date.

Source.





The site is up too

[Salazaar]

Woo! Now can they please make it on the same sort of scale as Supreme Commander and include Titans!

[Flibster]

Woo! Now can they please make it on the same sort of scale and Supreme Commander and include Titans!

Oh yeah. A PC version of WH40K Epic would be great.
Add in a bit of Battlefleet Gothic as well for space battles and I'd be a very happy person indeed.

[pauldarkside]

I'm quite looking forward to seeing what the new engine (2.0) can do - the version (1.0 I guess) used in Company of Heroes/Opposing Fronts is still pretty darn impressive and scales well too.

I hope DoW2 will utilise dual-monitor support much in the same way Supreme Commander and World in Conflict does; have a dedicated screen for a map overview/global control certainly adds to the experience.

No douct we'll see a plethora of expansion packs (again) but maybe this time they'll add tyranids too.

[poozle]

I'm quite looking forward to seeing what the new engine (2.0) can do - the version (1.0 I guess) used in Company of Heroes/Opposing Fronts is still pretty darn impressive and scales well too.

I just hope I can still run it, wasn't really planning on buying a new computer any time soon, my XPS from almost 3 years ago is just about coping at the moment but there are some great sounding PC games coming out in the near future...

[pauldarkside]

I just hope I can still run it, wasn't really planning on buying a new computer any time soon, my XPS from almost 3 years ago is just about coping at the moment but there are some great sounding PC games coming out in the near future...

How well does Company of Heroes run on that? DoW2 will use an updated version of that engine so at least you'd have a rough idea - you'd likely have to drop the settings a fair bit might it'd should still be playable if EE1 is anything to go by.

[kalniel]

Oooh. Shiny.

[Geist]

If those screens are in game then it'll be even smaller in scale! Running around with one squad of marines

I'm now hoping the new gfx cards come out and drop in price a fair whack...

[Shooty*]

Yay! Cool beans! I love the first one.

Not sure about the supreme commander scale though. Doesn't that just mean that you have to wait 30 minutes while your troops trek off across the entire world to try and find the other side? I find that an 8 player map, with 2 players, is plenty big enuff.

I've not got into Supreme commander yet. It is really the dogs bollox?

[Salazaar]

Yay! Cool beans! I love the first one.

Not sure about the supreme commander scale though. Doesn't that just mean that you have to wait 30 minutes while your troops trek off across the entire world to try and find the other side? I find that an 8 player map, with 2 players, is plenty big enuff.

I've not got into Supreme commander yet. It is really the dogs bollox?

It doesn't have to be like that. I just want to play 40K on a full battlefield scale like SupCom or the Total War series rather than the skirmish scale that's it's at now.

With so much good IP to use, it'd be nice to see full tank squadrons rolling across the open ground, artillery on far off hillside and titans battling each other!

[pauldarkside]

Yay! Cool beans! I love the first one.

Not sure about the supreme commander scale though. Doesn't that just mean that you have to wait 30 minutes while your troops trek off across the entire world to try and find the other side? I find that an 8 player map, with 2 players, is plenty big enuff.

I've not got into Supreme commander yet. It is really the dogs bollox?

I doubt it'd be anywhere near the scale of SC. I've always thought of W40k as a tactical RTS where you're trying to get the best combination of forces to defeat your enemy - it's all close quarters combat with limited numbers.

SC is indeed the db for shear size and unit count; 8 players on an 81x81km map with up to 8,000 units providing you've got a system to cope (that's where a 64-bit OS rules - the 2GB address barrier on a 32-bit OS isn't enough). You can play much smaller battles (smaller map and less units) but I've yet to come across anything quite so immense.

Oh, and no, you don't have to wait 30 minutes to for your unit movement - that's where the transport units come in to ferry your troups about quickly.

[dangel]

Just let me zoom out a fair old way - that'd be enough. C&C3 and DOW both suffer from the lack of zoom-out-o-stuff IMHO.

[Salazaar]

Yeah, to be honest that would do it. I usually play SupCom from quite a high level, usually just bordering the height at which your units switch from models to icons.

[pauldarkside]

Just let me zoom out a fair old way - that'd be enough. C&C3 and DOW both suffer from the lack of zoom-out-o-stuff IMHO.

Agreed. I was playing a few skirmish games in Soulstorm yesterday only to remember how annoying it is to be so close to the ground. You're practically positioned just above the air units making their selection more of a pain than it needs to be. Allow us to zoom out further to get a better overview of the battlefield - it's one example where SC and WiC excel.

If I remember, running at a 4:3 resolution allowed us to zoom out a little further and DoW's 16:9 implementation brought us in too far?

[MadduckUK]

you can get a mini mod that lets you zoom MUCH further out makes a lot of difference

[pauldarkside]

you can get a mini mod that lets you zoom MUCH further out makes a lot of difference

Linky? Please

Edit: Found it after a 2 second google. Hope it works with Soulstorm although I see now reason why it shouldn't.
Edit 2: That zoom mod works a treat - it's so much nicer. Thanks