Relicnews: the definitive source for all things Relic

Rainier from Worthplaying.com dropped me a line to let me know they had a couple of articles up that Relic’s fans might be interested in. The Tales of Valor article especially.

First up is a Dawn of War 2 article. Warning, it contains plot spoilers in the extreme.

For example, some of the larger maps we played on included special buildings: communication arrays, shrines and foundries. Going out of our way to capture one took extra time, but the benefits paid off in later missions. For example, capturing an array gives you additional intelligence information when operating later missions on the same planet. Capturing a shrine gives you the Rosarius item, which renders a given squad invulnerable for a limited amount of time, but it only works when a shrine is in range. Finally, the foundry gives you automated turrets. Like the shrine, they only work when the foundry is in range, but can be a powerful defensive weapon.

Following that, they’ve got an interview put together with Brian Wood, the lead designer on Tales of Valor.

More info below… Read the rest of this entry »

I just dropped by fileplanet to look for demos (I’m on Vacation and bored) and I noticed this.

FilePlanet is giving all new and current subscribers Company of Heroes FREE with qualifying subscription. Here’s how to join the fight:

• Step 1: Choose your subscription package
• Step 2: Grab your game key
• Step 3: Download Company of Heroes!

Anyone out there with a copy of Opposing Fronts without CoH, that’s a pretty sweet deal. I caved a year ago, got a file planet subscription and have been quite happy with it. This is basically icing on the cake and now I’ll have a spare CoH key now to go with my collection :-D

A user on the forums, cf_nz, let me know via PM about this story over at Eurogamer.

“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,” Dawn of War II lead designer Jonny Ebbert told us.

Apparently there’s some kind of video as well.

There’s a trailer up for Tales of Valor.

It’s simply a must watch, although they need to add the beginning of the custscene to it.

Thanks to Dei for posting. Pyros also pointed out there’s an article attached as well.

Meanwhile, each of your crewman have special abilities that they can unlock, not unlike the doctrine abilities seen in CoH. Litzke, the loader, can unlock high-explosive rounds, rapid fire, and improved rapid fire, letting him load the gun faster. Schraf, the driver, can unlock flank speed to drive faster as well as turret overdrive, which lets the turret move faster. Burndt, the commander, can unlock a machine gun atop the turret, as well as a smoke grenade launcher and the ability to call in an artillery barrage. Schultz, the gunner, can improve his marksmanship. All these skills are persistent, so if you unlock them in one mission they carry over to subsequent missions.

Colour me excited Relic, but fix that trailer, you had me at hello when you showed the full intro cutscene at the Open House.

Gamespot posted a new preview for Dawn of War II. The article focuses on the Space Marine single player campaign. There are also a couple of new screenshots.

A Gamespot interview with Lead Designer Jonny Ebbert can be found here. A few new gameplay clips within the video.

Lastly, a video of just the gameplay clips (with sounds and voices) can be found here.

In addition to Gamespot’s preview, Eurogamer had a chance to visit Relic and get a preview of the single player and multiplayer portions of the game. Eurogamer will also shortly post up a video from their adventures at Relic. In the meantime, go check out their preview.

The multiplayer sounds interesting, it has a hero system very similar to Warcraft 3’s MP

The armistice to end of The War to End All Wars came into effect on November 11th, 1918 at 11am local time. Ninety years ago today, the world saw an end to the most horrific warfare ever seen on this planet. It was obviously hoped at the time that mankind would never see war like that of The Great War ever again. Sadly, as we all know, war after war has followed in its wake.

The War to End All Wars is obviously was misnomer. After all, mankind cannot stop fighting. There is something at the core of our nature that compels us to compete. Even peace protestors, abortion activists and environmentalists, and organizations like PETA, Sea Sheppard, and Greenpeace all thrive on conflict and mankind’s nature to compete. Sports and Games follow that theme, allowing an outlet for and/or feeding our species’ aggressive nature. One might argue that we do not feel completely alive unless we’re competing. Think of the excitement of watching a sporting event or if you are fit and well trained enough, playing in and winning that same sporting event.

Maybe, one day, we will see an end to armed conflict and we will be left with sporting competition. Until the end of warfare… until mankind can harness its rage at itself, we will see members of humanity fighting each other and becoming casualties of our drive to compete. Until that time, we will see ourselves, our families, and our friends put into harm’s way. Until the end of warfare, it’s our duty to consider why and to remember those that sacrificed their lives and their health to protect humanity against itself.

Relic’s senior producer Tim Holman offers some of his views in two articles published by Edge Online.

The first article talks about the future of the Company of Heroes series. Described as a series of short stories, Tim talks about how Tales of Valor contrasts to the the original and Opposing Fronts as one big novel. He also goes on to talk a bit about the new Direct-fire feature in the game, new multiplayer maps, and units. Also the article suggest to Tim about the possibility of Company of Heroes 2 and talks a bit about COH Online.

Good Company

The last article is about how PC developers hurt their fan base by requiring high spec systems to run their games. Tim offers some of his views regarding this issue.

PC Devs “Shoot Themselves in the Foot”

Tim really offers some hints about COH Online coming to the west.

The press release has been sent! Here are the bulk of the details:

THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) today announced Company of Heroes(R): Tales of Valor(TM), the next standalone chapter in the widely acclaimed real-time strategy (RTS) franchise, is currently in development for Windows PC. Featuring three intense campaigns, brand-new multiplayer modes and an innovative "direct-fire" feature that allows even more tactical control during the heat of battle, Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor will immerse players in some of the most historic, tide-turning clashes of World War II. Internally developed by Relic Entertainment, the game is currently scheduled for release in spring 2009.

"Company of Heroes is one of the most critically acclaimed RTS series of all time," said Peter Matiss, vice president of global brand management, THQ. "With Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor, Relic Entertainment is delivering an all-new, standalone chapter in the franchise and continues to push the boundaries of innovation and quality in the genre."

"In Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor, we're offering players a ton of rich, new content including more strategic options in single-player and multiplayer," said Tarrnie Williams, general manager, Relic Entertainment. "With fresh new campaigns and multiplayer modes, brand-new units, additional maps and the introduction of the 'direct-fire' feature, we're once again committed to delivering the best in strategic gaming."

Press release here.

Relic has released a hotfix for Dawn of War: Soulstorm that addresses a couple of bugs which were introduced with the last patch. You can download the patch either by signing into the online portion of Soulstorm or by grabbing it from dowpatch.com.

Hello community.

We are releasing this hotfix patch in order to address a major balance issue that became apparent to us shortly after releasing patch 1.1.
We are sorry that the error slipped through, but thank you for your response and for your continued support.
We are currently working on a plan that may allow us to address some of the outstanding issues in the game, most importantly the Automatch problem.

Here is a complete list of changes in hotfix 1.2:

- Min_Damage_Value on tau photon grenade reduced to 45
- Sisters of Battle Blessed Armor research will no longer affect all Sisters of Battle units
- Restored Monolith can now properly garrison Flayed Ones squads

The patch can be discussed here.

On a personal note, holy crap that was fast. A lot of community members were getting impatient after patch 1.10 suffered multiple long delays, but the speedy release of this hotfix may reassure some members that Relic is still committed to supporting their fans.

Thunder announced the latest version of the beta balance patch.

If you’re still interested in checking out the upcoming changes, check that thread. In addition, if you have the beta installed and you have trouble downloading it, check that thread as there’s some links in it.