Dawn of War 1

[VGI]

If I remember correctly the game asks for CD key input to unlock the races from the previous version to unlock the other races. As for Soul Storm Didn't get it due to bad reviews, Even THQ tried to sweep it under the rug in DoW2. When one of the characters ask of what happened during the campaign one character responds with something like something very bad and lets never speak of it again :P

 

Say what?

 

Yeah, I remember that it only asks for the previous installments' CD-Keys. That I can provide, or rather, have provided already.

 

So now the question is: do these games actually look for the actual installation of the previous DOW games, or just their CD-Keys?

[Gracinfields]

No they don't actually look for the previous install, just the CD key is needed to unlock the previous races and units.

[Vindekarr]

God dammit STEAM gimme the game already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111oneoneone /fanrage

 

I got my copy of Retribution but because there is no STEAM server anywhere near Australia, it's going to take 5 hours to download.

 

Generaly speaking I have no trouble with big dowloads, getting XBLA (XboxLiveArcade) games for example is quick, troublefree, and puts the newly bought game in my harddrive within minutes. I mean, I got my Halo Reach demo in a mmatter of minutes. But STEAM? smaller filesize, and it's not minutes, its hours.

 

Normaly I can download at about 600-900-1100 KB/s with STEAM I can download at 129 KB/S, where is their server anyway? Pluto?

[Dark0ne]

RE: the books I'm currently on book 13 or 14 of the Horus Heresy series, Thousand Sons. The series is just amazing and a must read for any Warhammer 40k fan. Yesterday my copy of the Collected Visions came in the mail. 416 pages of sheer awesomeness; amazing artwork and short stories that basically refine and detail all the Horus Heresy books in to a more easy and quick to read format. If you don't want to read 20 books to get the full Horus Heresy story then spend the £15 and get this book...it's absolutely amazing value for money. They originally released the book in 4 volumes and each volume cost something like £45...so £15 for all 4 volumes in a hard back is great.

[Vindekarr]

Road tested Retribution today, here's my analysis:

 

New race, Imperial Guard: A must have for online, they're fun to play-not just good, but fun, firstly, and secondly, they're a very powerful army if you use them well. Their units are very fragile-like Eldar units are, but like the Eldar they do fantastic DPS. As a supporting force, perhaps paired with Space Marines, they're excellent for online. They also bring in undeniably the best armoured vehicles in the game, and a huge diversity of vehicles, from the compact, cheap, but vehicle pulverising Sentinal and infantry squishing Chimeara, to the Leman Russ, the game's new alpha tank, and the simply awe inspiring BaneBlade.

 

Balance too is excellent, there is a heavy emphasis on cover use and clever tactics, with your Guardsmen being the backbone of your army. The Guardsmen maybe be laughably frail, but their DPS is incredible for such a cheap unit, and they reinforce two troops at once. This, with a healthy squad size and the ability to deploy not one but three ehavy weapons per squad, makes them fantastic infantry. Even better, they can create roadblocks(for free) that stop enemy infantry, slow vehicles, and provide an excellent firing position when no cover is present, and also lay down Multilas turrets for stationary defence.

 

Catachan Devils and Stormtroopers are also fantastic, with the Catachans ressembling a Space Marine ScoutSquad, but in double numbers. Rugged, dependable, and with fabulous DPS from their brutal shotguns, grenade launchers, and IEDs. Kasrkin Stormtroopers, though Space-Marine expensive, are the IG's best infantry, still on the fragile side, but as is a recurring theme in the new IG, the DPS is absolutely incredible. their Hellguns evicerate any enemy infantry stupid enough to come close, or you can give them Meltas and turn them into an antivehicle/heavy infantry powerhouse. Best yet, they can also infiltrate, which I've already used to cause a few players massive headaches-nothing causes constenation worse than seeing your tank rush decimated by an IG ambush of Catachans, BurrowMines, and Kasrkin.

 

And now onto the armour, and that's where the IG traditionaly shines. The Leman Russ, when working in pairs, are undeniably the game's best tank. They're exceptionaly resilient, being able to be fitted with an Extra Armour package that works like an energy shield(gives a major HP bonus, simply re-buy to refresh this bonus HP, and you can thus heal your tanks in combat after a thirty second delay) but their standard issue Conqueror Battlecannon blows the snot out of infantry and tanks alike with reckless abandon too, making them the best DPS tank. Upgrade them with the cheap but valuable Vanquisher tank-hunter package to add a hull mounted but full power Lascannon, aswell as the games best tank killer, the Vanquisher battlecannon, to the Cupola. The only weakness is the high price, they're really rather expensive, but that's fair, becuase you're getting two tanks worth of use.

 

They also have the only artillery vehicle in the game, the missile tank, I havent really gotten much out of that yet, but Im sure that'll change, with the Commisar's Artillery Strike, the Airstrike global ability, and the ability to have multiple MLRS means you can adopt a solely artillery bombardment based stratergy if you can get your oponent penned in his base.

 

Then you get to the Baneblade, it's been beautifuly balanced this time round-it's got a Dead Zone around it that it's guns cant reach, making it very vulnerable to melee infantry, but it's vast armament make it the ultimate vehicle smasher. The Battlecannon, which is fired via an ability rather than automaticaly, is a one-shot kill even against a Nurgle upgraded Chaos Predator, and it's coaxial, also ability-fired Demolisher gun will blow apart an entire infantry squad in a single blast. Both guns take about 25 seconds to reload, which is a while, but a BaneBlade with Leman Russ escorts and StormTroopers seems to be one of the most punishing rush forces available.

 

Overall I'm totaly imressed by Retribution-the campaign COULD be better, of that I'm sure, but the multiplayer aditions are well worth a weaker campaign, the new superheavies really balance eachother out, and the re-addition of the Imperial Guard, LandRaider, and BattleWagon bring back fond memories of the original DOW.

Edited March 2, 2011 by Vindekarr

[VGI]

God dammit STEAM gimme the game already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111oneoneone /fanrage

 

I got my copy of Retribution but because there is no STEAM server anywhere near Australia, it's going to take 5 hours to download.

 

Generaly speaking I have no trouble with big dowloads, getting XBLA (XboxLiveArcade) games for example is quick, troublefree, and puts the newly bought game in my harddrive within minutes. I mean, I got my Halo Reach demo in a mmatter of minutes. But STEAM? smaller filesize, and it's not minutes, its hours.

 

Normaly I can download at about 600-900-1100 KB/s with STEAM I can download at 129 KB/S, where is their server anyway? Pluto?

 

Dude, patience is a virtue.

 

You think that's bad. I download my Steam games for DAYS. DAAAAAYS. O______O

 

And since I have to go down to the office and lock my room, I refuse to leave my PC plugged. So, I pause download and resume after hours. I get about 60-82kbps. Sometimes, I do get three-digit kbps, but only for awhile and not all the time.

 

You suppose Retribution is the final DOW2 installment?

[VGI]

No they don't actually look for the previous install, just the CD key is needed to unlock the previous races and units.

 

Sooooo....I could uninstall all DOW 1 games except for Soul Storm, and still be able to play all races in Soul Storm?

[VGI]

RE: the books I'm currently on book 13 or 14 of the Horus Heresy series, Thousand Sons. The series is just amazing and a must read for any Warhammer 40k fan. Yesterday my copy of the Collected Visions came in the mail. 416 pages of sheer awesomeness; amazing artwork and short stories that basically refine and detail all the Horus Heresy books in to a more easy and quick to read format. If you don't want to read 20 books to get the full Horus Heresy story then spend the £15 and get this book...it's absolutely amazing value for money. They originally released the book in 4 volumes and each volume cost something like £45...so £15 for all 4 volumes in a hard back is great.

 

I'd love to get that.

[VGI]

Road tested Retribution today, here's my analysis:

 

New race, Imperial Guard: A must have for online, they're fun to play-not just good, but fun, firstly, and secondly, they're a very powerful army if you use them well. Their units are very fragile-like Eldar units are, but like the Eldar they do fantastic DPS. As a supporting force, perhaps paired with Space Marines, they're excellent for online. They also bring in undeniably the best armoured vehicles in the game, and a huge diversity of vehicles, from the compact, cheap, but vehicle pulverising Sentinal and infantry squishing Chimeara, to the Leman Russ, the game's new alpha tank, and the simply awe inspiring BaneBlade.

 

Balance too is excellent, there is a heavy emphasis on cover use and clever tactics, with your Guardsmen being the backbone of your army. The Guardsmen maybe be laughably frail, but their DPS is incredible for such a cheap unit, and they reinforce two troops at once. This, with a healthy squad size and the ability to deploy not one but three ehavy weapons per squad, makes them fantastic infantry. Even better, they can create roadblocks(for free) that stop enemy infantry, slow vehicles, and provide an excellent firing position when no cover is present, and also lay down Multilas turrets for stationary defence.

 

Catachan Devils and Stormtroopers are also fantastic, with the Catachans ressembling a Space Marine ScoutSquad, but in double numbers. Rugged, dependable, and with fabulous DPS from their brutal shotguns, grenade launchers, and IEDs. Kasrkin Stormtroopers, though Space-Marine expensive, are the IG's best infantry, still on the fragile side, but as is a recurring theme in the new IG, the DPS is absolutely incredible. their Hellguns evicerate any enemy infantry stupid enough to come close, or you can give them Meltas and turn them into an antivehicle/heavy infantry powerhouse. Best yet, they can also infiltrate, which I've already used to cause a few players massive headaches-nothing causes constenation worse than seeing your tank rush decimated by an IG ambush of Catachans, BurrowMines, and Kasrkin.

 

And now onto the armour, and that's where the IG traditionaly shines. The Leman Russ, when working in pairs, are undeniably the game's best tank. They're exceptionaly resilient, being able to be fitted with an Extra Armour package that works like an energy shield(gives a major HP bonus, simply re-buy to refresh this bonus HP, and you can thus heal your tanks in combat after a thirty second delay) but their standard issue Conqueror Battlecannon blows the snot out of infantry and tanks alike with reckless abandon too, making them the best DPS tank. Upgrade them with the cheap but valuable Vanquisher tank-hunter package to add a hull mounted but full power Lascannon, aswell as the games best tank killer, the Vanquisher battlecannon, to the Cupola. The only weakness is the high price, they're really rather expensive, but that's fair, becuase you're getting two tanks worth of use.

 

They also have the only artillery vehicle in the game, the missile tank, I havent really gotten much out of that yet, but Im sure that'll change, with the Commisar's Artillery Strike, the Airstrike global ability, and the ability to have multiple MLRS means you can adopt a solely artillery bombardment based stratergy if you can get your oponent penned in his base.

 

Then you get to the Baneblade, it's been beautifuly balanced this time round-it's got a Dead Zone around it that it's guns cant reach, making it very vulnerable to melee infantry, but it's vast armament make it the ultimate vehicle smasher. The Battlecannon, which is fired via an ability rather than automaticaly, is a one-shot kill even against a Nurgle upgraded Chaos Predator, and it's coaxial, also ability-fired Demolisher gun will blow apart an entire infantry squad in a single blast. Both guns take about 25 seconds to reload, which is a while, but a BaneBlade with Leman Russ escorts and StormTroopers seems to be one of the most punishing rush forces available.

 

Overall I'm totaly imressed by Retribution-the campaign COULD be better, of that I'm sure, but the multiplayer aditions are well worth a weaker campaign, the new superheavies really balance eachother out, and the re-addition of the Imperial Guard, LandRaider, and BattleWagon bring back fond memories of the original DOW.

 

When they come out with the collector's edition of DOW2 (Complete DOW2 package, just like what they did with DOW1), I'll probably get it then.

[Vindekarr]

It's unlikely they'll end the series just yet.

 

DOW-II has been a runaway marketing success, DOW I sold about 2.5 million copies of the original game, DOW-II sold an aweful lot more, and was criticaly praised for it's multiplayer, which drew in many a non-WarHammer nut.

 

Personaly I think Relic's only getting started with DOW-II, it's about as big as Winter Assault at the moment, it's got most of the races, but we're still short the Sisters Of Battle(Hurry up Relic, we had to wait way to long for them last time), Necrons, Tau(yuck) and Dark Eldar.

 

Now, Im not sure if they're even going to bother with with Dark Eldar or Necrons, since they're the least successful DOW races in popularity, but I think the Sisters Of Battle can be assured as a later adition. They're a very popular race, but they're also the favoured race of Drew Capozi, who is one of the folks calling the shots at Relic.

 

In my opinion DOW-II is a must-play, and Retribution-which adds much improved PostProcessing in addition to the IG race and much more legible health WarCraft-III style health bars is the better of the two expansions. Chaos Rising is probably only worth it if you play the Space Marines a lot, as they're the main benefactors of the X-pac, gaining a new campaign. However the thing about DOW-II is the expansions unlock the campaign and race the XPACK adds, you get the technological improvements for free, and can play against the new race to sample it before you buy.