Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Comments by Jim Rossignol

"Yes that's how centuries work."

If only Jim Rossignol knew that!

@Silvervein and Wolfman: Yeah, Chaos Gate was a fantastic game, I'd love to see a sequel to that. UFO + 40K = Win.

Warhammer 40K would take place in the 401st century.

That's a long time I think :)

I dont care about campains, for me its all about online and DoW 2 fails to deliver on every single level. There is no depth, no tactics and simply not fun. I can't believe that someone like Relic would remove all the brilliant elements from the original and churn out this shallow experience of a game.

I was so looking forward to this as I expected so much from it and once I started playing beta, my mind was made up. Cancel pre-order.

Shameful Relic.

Needs Steam + Windows live too play...
No sale,
I'll just borrow it from a sucker that pre-ordered it to try out the single player Camp.

Also The Computer AI was too easy too beat (even 3 experts vs 2normals + Me (Me being not that great), the matchmaking system doesn't let you filter out people that are on the other side of the globe, find a server with good ping less then 150ish and once in the server lobby you got 300~600 ping...

And how many maps are there?..... only what, 3 1v1 maps and 4 3v3 maps??? are you kidding?

I was looking forward to this game,
Oh well better luck next time.

Mandatory Games For Windows Live + Mandatory Steam = NO.

The game looks -I don't play the beta but wasreading a lot in forums like dowsanctuary.com- and plays very diffrent than DoW/WI/DC/SS. Units kills fster, but moves slower. Also, there is not squad reinforcement "on fly", so you must retreat to your base when your squads are hurted badly. The concept is very different to DoW. This is not neccesary bad, but DoW II fits worse in my tastes. Is like a low level deep of rts. The good part is that the action is fun.

But there is the Steam/GFWL thing. I don't install Steam nor play any Steam powered game. GFWL is even worse -last week was the funny thing with Gears PC version. I don't care, I do't install games in which Seam or GFWL is mandatory, so my big rts game this year will be SC II.

@Zuljin:

I don't feel silly at all, just confused. So you have steam (presumably at home) but not access to it at work. Fine. But then you go on to say you aren't getting it purely for single player. But if you have access to steam at home you can play it online at home, right?

I don't install Steam nor play any Steam powered game.

o_O

Uber Geek Moment: The latest canon history to be set in the universe is in the year 42002 (that's 002M42 in Imperial date format), so over 2000 years have passed in game since the happenings of the original Rogue Trader/1st Edition 40k. If the 40k universe was real, the Emperor would currently be kicking around guiding humanity from the shadows (although he probably wouldn't have been responsible for Bush), and would have been doing so for over 2 millenia already.

If you hadn't guessed I'll probably be buying this, because I'm a sucker for GW products.

What the fuck is going on with DoW2?

First off, it requires Steam to be installed (which is fine, already use it) but then it also requires Games for Windows Live before you can even begin to play the fucking single-player Campaign?!?

To which it gets worse, because when I try to actually fucking get the bastard thing to work and start the Campaign, it tells me it can't retrieve my GFWL Profile, even though im logged onto the fucker using the bastard GFWL client it forces onto my systems as part of the motherfucking game install.

Last time I *ever* put any money into THQs pockets. Fuck 'em.

This is my first GFWL game after the abortion that was Gears Of War on PC.

If it has even close to the amount of problems it had in the past it will be my last GFWL game ever.

No activation probs here whatsoever with Steam or GfWLive. It's stupid to have two (sometimes unreliable) services running but the game is worth it, in both mp and sp. Went back to CoH before playing DoW II retail and all I can say is that Relic better stay in WH40k universe now... :)

"I don't care, I do't install games in which Seam or GFWL is mandatory, so my big rts game this year will be SC II."

It's a bit naïve to think Blizzard won't do the same kind of things (online activation and/or hindered offline/LAN play) in their revamped Battle.net. It's been almost six years now since their last non-MMO got out (The Frozen Throne), I'd be really surprised if they just kept the dvd check + serial key protection method of those days.

"Went back to CoH before playing DoW II retail and all I can say is that Relic better stay in WH40k universe now..."

My feelings are quite the opposite, although my problem isn't with the setting but just the game itself. Every minute spent in DoW2 had me quietly wishing for things that CoH had or simply did better - supply lines, the tactical map, the ability to press space to jump to audio cues, tab-selection that actually works, a UI that isn't a big jumbled mess, a decent selection of maps (complete with distinct characteristics), some sense of scale and a suppression mechanic that actually feels right (complete with suitably identifiable sound effects).

It's all quite funny because when I first heard about CoH I thought "wow, I wish they'd do something like this with the 40k setting"... oh how wrong I was :/

I'm struck by the feeling that they've tried to take elements from various other games without really understanding what it was that made them good in the first place. For want of a better way of putting it, a lot of the design choices seem pretty boneheaded. It wouldn't surprise me if I were to learn that the decisions on what to include in the game were actually made by drawing bits of paper out of a hat.

On an unrelated note... it struggles to run on my computer, even though it is quite comfortably above the recommended requirements, even if I turn down all the detail (hint: you know you're in for a fun ride when the intro movies are jerky). I'm not terribly impressed by that, and it makes me wonder just how well it must run for people closer to the minimum specs.

I've never understood the moaning about Steam - what is the problem with it? Low footprint on the PC, means I can play my games on any pc etc - to me it just seems a moot point. Guess I'm missing something somewhere.

So I've been playing the campaign for hours on end now and then I thought to myself why not play a little skirmish match. That's when I discovered that the game only offers 7, count 'em 7!!!, multiplayer maps. I thought the low amount of maps in the beta was to not reveal everything to the public before the release, but I'd never thought there would be such a small amount of maps in the final version. In this day and age that's just ridiculous.

Bunch of crybabies is all, byron_hinson. No legitimate reasons exist for the everyday gamer. I had reservations with steam before I used it (orange box), afterwards I hardly even know it's there. Same with GFWL (GeOW, FO:UC). No problems with either.

@Keivz

"Bunch of crybabies is all, byron_hinson. No legitimate reasons exist for the everyday gamer. I had reservations with steam before I used it (orange box), afterwards I hardly even know it's there. Same with GFWL (GeOW, FO:UC). No problems with either"

Bollocks.

I'm no crybaby on this kind of stuff and have been using Steam since HL2. The problem now though, with DoW2, is that you have multiple points where game launch failure can go wrong.

If Steam is down you can't even start the game up. Given the up-time for Steam and all the games I have on it, I don't have issue with this. What I do have issue with, though, is that once the game is running you then are required to login to GFWL before you can begin to play both Campaign and/or Multiplayer. Which I am unable to do, currently. Given the size of the threads on the GFWL forums on this very subject, it seems that i'm not alone.

Also, given the kinds of 'advice' that GFWL mods are giving out, I have zero intention of turning off my software firewall and bypassing my router. Bunch of fucking cretins.

So are chaos in the game ? just that the pic you have on the front page is a thousand sons marine , if not shame would have liked to have used iron warriors

AFAIK, only Orks, Eldar, Tyranids and Space Marines are in DoW2.

BTW this game is buggy as fuck. It crashes all the time (and no, I don't have high settings on) and now I've got a little way in my tactical squad has vanished. They are no-where to be seen at all, and they've also taken three pieces of wargear with them that I can never get back. (Tarantulas, Artillery and Invulnerability).

I've got a Windows live log in anyway - it's free with your hotmail account, don't see the problem there. I also have Steam, so that's OK.

I haven't experienced any bugs yet, maybe I'm lucky! And base building et al can be a bit boring too, I'm enjoying the combat style immensely. It's like Ground Control with great graphics.

I think 8/10 is realistic, but I'm not yet at the point where it appears to become repetitive.

i actualy like games for windows live :\

@BobsUncle

The Tactical Squad is removed because theyre investigating why the storehouse on the mission you just did contains Chapter Relics.

/storyFTW

Also won't play on single processor AMD chips, no matter their speed, that's my LAN gaming gone but saying that I probably wouldn't have been able to get this to work anyway.

The single player is dull as mince after 5mins, you can have all the great GW story you want but its all for nothing here coz afer you engage the enemy twice you've seen all the gameplay has to offer. So disappointed in this.

And the bloody thing wants to update for 18mins on Steam evertime i want to play! I cant offline play coz i HAVE to be signed into GfWL to play single player... assuming they are up and running. 2 extra points of failure, totally outwith my control, to just play single player. This is all wrong. All of it.

@gmjapan

"The single player is dull as mince after 5mins, you can have all the great GW story you want but its all for nothing here coz afer you engage the enemy twice you've seen all the gameplay has to offer. So disappointed in this.

And the bloody thing wants to update for 18mins on Steam evertime i want to play! I cant offline play coz i HAVE to be signed into GfWL to play single player... assuming they are up and running. 2 extra points of failure, totally outwith my control, to just play single player. This is all wrong. All of it."

Fuck me, what a retard.

Two missions and you think you've seen all there is to see? You'll barely have any weapons, armour, accessories and command gear, which in of itself alters the way you play the game, let alone have any of the XP-based traits gained from the four different trees, for each unit. And thats not even touching on you only having, what, two units to make your squad up?

You've also not experienced any Tyranid infestation management and associated missions which come with defending key outposts, which means you've never played a defend mission.

And the fact that your spastic net connection means Steam needs 18 mins really says all that needs to be said about that particular 'problem'. Considering my Steam has only taken time to update the game when patches have been put out. Plus, when it did it took less than 1 minute each time to download/apply the patch.

I totally agree with the GFWL requirement but when the game is as good as DoW2 is, i'm prepared to forgive.

Two things:

1) Spend more than 2 minutes playing a game before thinking you've seen everything it has to offer (it makes you look a tad thick) and

2) Get a better net connection, you roper.

It was 5mins ;) i'd seen the tyranids and defend missions by the point i posted, extra gear, new squads, some level up skills, chosing which fights and squads etc but the 'hook' still seemed to be on gearing up. Getting ASMs cheered me up but in the end I find singleplayer dull and samey. I certainly hadnt only played 2 missions.

I might have seen more but there was another 20min patch last night as well... my connection to Steam said "@96K" I envy your 1min updates Oo

What we really need is an Epic scale W40K game :)