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Dawn of War Gold; Demo Out
An anonymous reader writes "It seems that Relic's Dawn of War has gone gold, and is due out on September 20th. Published by THQ, Dawn of War is a Real-time Strategy game based in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. It's gotten a few previews so far - but why trust them when you can grab the demo? Unfortunately, a quick jog through Google didn't turn up any torrents."
3dgamers has a torrent running, I used it.. yesterday after reading about this on penny-arcade. It's a pretty quick torrent, and I should probably start seeding again for the /. crowd.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
I agree - at first glance, this game is pretty well done. I don't know much about the Warhammer universe, but the ways resource gathering and troop building are implemented make a LOT more sense than other RTS games. Instead of having harvesters gather "ore" and "building" infantry, capturing and keeping strategic points gives the player an influx of "prestige", if you will, and troops are dropped down from orbit (for Space Marines, at least). One quibble I have is that the troops don't really exit from the building structures; they just sort of appear. But I also like the fact that individual Marine squads can be upgraded and reinforced.
Unfortunately, the demo does not even install under Cedega (The program formerly known as winex) - the installer hangs with 100% at the end :-(
I played the beta extensively from 1.3 to 1.4.
My opinion agrees with the general consensus that 1.3 was far better balanced than 1.4. The reinforcement times have been decreased since 1.3, causing a severe rushing problem-- in effect, you have factories pumping out units right inside the enemy base.
So, if the enemy tries to build tech, build listening posts for gathering resources, according to some people even building a power plant (!) he's going to be far behind when you get into his base with, say, three marine squads.
In effect, the reinforcement system amplifies the Law of Diminishing Firepower which states that in a firefight, a momentary advantage to one side increases on a geometric rather than linear progression. If you get behind by a squad, you are not only losing the firepower of that squad but you are losing the reinforcing ability of that squad, meaning that your enemy is not only whittling down your numbers faster, but he himself is increasing in numbers faster than you are.
Perhaps they will balance the problems by the time the gold comes out. I doubt it because there are many, many. I do think the problems are of a nature that will cause the game to get pale at mid- to high levels of play rather than making it not fun from the start; from what I saw of the game it's extremely cool anyway.
Especially if you loved the tabletop wargame. Those were the days...
Intolerance for ambiguity is the mark of the authoritarian personality.
I'd rather see WH40k developed into a turn-based tactical game, much as the tabletop game was. But barring that, real-time tactical would be better (a la Myth 1, 2, and 3), and would solve the issues with squad reinforcement being unbalancing (since you wouldn't reinforce your squads in combat). Strategic issues could be taken up in a meta-game of sorts, in between combats, and the results of those combats would affect the outcome of the strategic game.
:p
Too late now, I guess
I have found it to be a beautiful, and fun RTS game. That said, it is an RTS game, so those looking for something similar to the table top experience might be disappointed.
Some of the concepts like "cover" don't appear to be as fully fleshed out as they could have been. In general though the game plays well, and the units are diverse, interesting, and it takes time to recognize how to use each one well (things like "jump" abilities and grenades can make big difference if you use them right).
It is definately a game I will be picking up when it comes out.
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
i installed that gamespot downloader once a long time ago, i believe it is a virus
Winter 2010: With Glowing Hearts
Matt
Now this game comes out and I don't have to buy any more of those fucking things! W00t!
But in all seriousness, I DL the demo, and played for a couple hours. It was VERY immersive. The key that they discovered was to make the invidivual units have personalities within the squads. Like, if you upgrade the squad leader to a powerglove, he'll use it in combat.
Its also cool to zoom in and watch the leader do a fatality on the last guy of a squad.
I liked upgrading your units on the fly, and reinforcements. I wish I could play as Eldar....oh well. Wish they made a Fantasy version of this.
I'll definitely be buying this one when it comes out. Its like WC3 but with 40k.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
It's rule system is similar to 40k, but it's on a smaller scale - gangs are 8-12 mini's, and each unit 'develops'. That is they start out fairly weak, and gain XP for kills, survivng battles, etc, and in turn, gain HPs, skills, abilities, etc. They can also get impediments and advantages from being wounded in combat, but living through the battle overall. All-in-all it was really fun.
Anyways, I was thinkign that this could be the KILLER MMORPG, because it would break the mold that EQ set. You wouldn't control just a single player, but a gang of 8-12 thugs. You battle other players via a RTS engine for territory, or could form alliances, etc, with other players. I think that it has defianate potential, since it's not just another EQ clone. The PVP would keep the PVPers happy,a nd the fact that you have 8-12 characters all the time should help keep the non PVPers happy, as it's not like your lvl 94 Palandin with Armor of Wonderment gets PVPed and you have to start all over again.
I think that there is a fantasy version of Necromunda out there, too, which may work better in the current market where all MMORPGs seem to be fantasy stuff.
Oh well, long enough post, but just one last thought... since the non battle elements could be handled via (very nice graphical) menu's, and the battles would only encompass up to say 4-6 players, this seems like it is something that wouldn't require massive server bandwidth/storage/power, and could be a really interesting opensource project...
Anyone interested in discussing that idea should email me at mrgreen4242 (at) infojunkie.net...
And that is why I didn't download the file and since I have no idea what the game is like I'll never be enticed to go out and buy it.
Release on shit web sites like that and alienate your customers, sound business model to me.
GPLv2: I want my rights, I want my phone call! DRM: What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak?
...You don't have to colour in all those friggin models yourself and make the map first :))