Company of Heroes

Four cool games are free to play on Steam this weekend.

Sega's World War 2 strategy sequel, Company of Heroes 2, is receiving a couple of free maps, the Southern Fronts paid DLC, and Steam Workshop integration for its user-created maps made from World Builder today.

Sega sent a press release overnight about its Relic acquisition, and seemed to suggest it had acquired the Warhammer 40,000 IP as well.

Update: It sounds like proceedings may be delayed. The auction is still going and the hearing could start this evening at 8pm UK time rather than at 5pm. That information comes from an investor (@DDInvesting) who seems reliable.

Vinnie Jones - Wimbledon Football Club's biggest star since John Fashanu - returns to the big screen in the new Company of Heroes movie.

Filming started earlier this year in Bulgaria and now UFO Productions is ready to share a trailer.

It's not that bad; it's a rousing tale of a troop of soldiers caught behind enemy lines after World War 2's Battle of the Bulge - Hitler's last punch. Cue heroics and camaraderie.

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THQ president Jason Rubin has given $1000 of his own money to the Humble THQ Bundle.

A sequel to THQ's acclaimed 2006 PC RTS Company of Heroes is in development and due out in 2013, according to a leaked magazine reveal.

Company of Heroes: Campaign Edition, a single player-only version of THQ's popular PC WWII RTS, arrives on Mac from 1st March, publisher Aspyr Media has announced.

It will include the single player campaign from the original Company of Heroes as well as the additional solo missions from the Opposing Fronts and Tales of Valor expansions.

The set will set you back your local equivalent of $49.99, though it's currently discounted to $44.99 on Aspyr's site.

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Undermined publisher THQ has publicly recommitted to developing a host of core games - some of them years away.

To developer Relic, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine represented a good first attempt at third-person action on console.

THQ has announced that Company of Heroes Online is heading to the US. Evidently the publisher found success in South Korean and Chinese markets.

Remember Company of Heroes, the 2007 World War II strategy game from THQ? Well, you might like to know it's currently going cheap on Steam.

Steam has clumped THQ and Relic games together into great money-saving packs.

A second expansion pack is in the works for Company of Heroes, the PC real-time strategy title from THQ.

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor [sic] will include three campaigns along with new units, maps and multiplayer modes. There's also something called a "direct-fire" feature that's said to allow more tactical control during battles.

Tales of Valor is being developed by Relic, the same studio behind the original title in the series. Which scored an impressive 10 out of 10, come to think of it - read Kieron's review to find out why.

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THQ and Relic have enlisted a new demo for Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts to the ranks of the Internet.

We've allied with THQ this morning to give away 300 beta keys for upcoming Company of Heroes expansion, Opposing Fronts.

It means those of you first out of the trenches will get a chance to see the improvements Relic has been working on these past months, like better computer-brained enemies, more realistic physics, and a dynamic new weather system.

All you have to do claim your key is tactically charge over to our Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts giveaway page and hope you get there before they've all run out. But you will have to be a member of our Eurogamers community first, so pop over and register quickly if you haven't already.

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One of those THQ types has stealthily infiltrated our forum to tell you that Company of Heroes now has DirectX 10 support.

Relic are working on a follow-up to the excellent World War II strategy game Company of Heroes, according to Games for Windows editor Jeff Green, who says the May edition of his magazine contains exclusive information about it.

"It's one of those 'exclusive' stories; this time about the follow-up to Relic's awesome Company of Heroes," Green confessed in his 1UP blog. "Guess what? We get to kill more Nazis again!! Yay! Them shitz never gets old, knowhumsayin?"

"I wish I could be hiding in the bushes by every one of your homes at the moment you see the issue sitting there, just so I could see that look of excitement and anticipation on your faces!"

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Relic's field medic has made a dashing fix to what was last year's finest World War II game and last year's finest RTS, Company of Heroes, with a 1.5 patch that soothes a number of ills.

So yes, the changelog boasts of two new maps and a significant number of balance changes, with early reports suggesting that it'll take a bit of getting used to, but hopefully to the right sort of end.

At the moment the patch has yet to turn up on the game's official website, but it's available through the usual mirrors, with a 1.4-to-1.5 update weighing in at just under 50MB. If you feel like getting into a debate about the changes, you can do that on a specially prepared Relic forum thread.

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The initial reference point has to be to Knights of the Old Republic.

Before Bioware's role-playing game arrived, anybody who didn't sleep in Yoda pajamas was thoroughly sick with all things Star Wars. Between a string of uninspiring-at-best games and a couple of dreadful films, the galaxy that was a long, long way away wasn't long enough away for most. Then KOTOR appeared with a lot of style and even more vision and made everyone like all this lightsabre nonsense again, unreservedly. The universe had its romance renewed.

For the last half-decade, World War 2 has been similarly run into the ground. The grand conflict between the allied and axis powers is, in videogame terms, the biggest single licence that isn't actually a real licence. Make a WW2 game, and you've got an inbuilt audience, background, world-class character designs, interesting situations and probably the best villains the world has ever seen. But because anyone can make a game set in WW2... everybody did. It's got to the point where we feel as if we've done it all before. How many times have we crawled up the shingles of Omaha beach? If you added up all my virtual deaths in those bloody shallows, it's entirely possible that I've lost more lives than were lost in the real assault. Turn to the comments thread in any World War 2 game preview, and you'll see a string of people shrugging. Bored now! Bored now! Seen this before! What's next?

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THQ has released a massive Company of Heroes demo to replace the beta version some enterprising Internet people grabbed off an American coverdisk last month.

A single player beta demo of Relic's upcoming WWII real-time strategy title is currently doing the rounds on the internet.

"Everyone involved in the D-Day landings sh*t their pants. And anyone who says they didn't is a liar."

Speaking to our sister site, GamesIndustry.biz, Relic Entertainment boss Ron Moravek has revealed that forthcoming PC RTS Company of Heroes could make it onto next-gen consoles - along with previous hit Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War.

Despite the heavy focus on the next-gen consoles at this year's E3, the less-attention seeking PC more than held its own as far as quality of software was concerned.

US publishing giant THQ's stand bore testament to this with a strong range of PC product, including Relic's highly promising RTS Company of Heroes - which picked up the coveted Game Critics' award for Best Strategy Game, no less.

The WWII-themed title is due this autumn, and Eurogamer TV is now showing a brand new trailer, highlighting the various elements of the Allied infantry, from riflemen and engineers, to snipers and heavy machine gun teams.

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There are two things you're inevitably going to run into during any given five minutes on the E3 show floor this year. The first is an overweight, bearded, pasty white programmer with male pattern baldness using words like "fronting", "representing", "tricked out" and "pimping", and sometimes even making rapper hand motions, in an attempt to seem as "street" as possible while presenting his company's latest and greatest GTA clone. This is, as Pat would say, all a bit wrong. The second is the ear-shattering, eyeball-endangering spectacle of World War II being brought to life in more stunning reality than ever before - except, er, when it was actually happening. Obviously.

Relic Entertainment, creator of the Homeworld series, has announced that it is currently working on a new real-time strategy PC title due for release next year.

Company of Heroes is set during World War II and starts off with you joining the brave chaps of Able Company as they battle it out in Normandy. As the single-player game progresses you get to deck Nazis all over Europe on what's billed as "the most dynamic battlefield ever seen in a game".

THQ will publish the game, which is built on Relic's next-gen Essence Engine and also uses Havok Physics for detailed visuals and realistic effects.

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