Dawn Of War II
- Thread starter ainwood
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Yeah, it was initially advertised that it was only if you had soulstorm, but I have never registered soulstorm on steam, and I was able to download it.
MrPopov
King
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Well I've played this a bit with some friends but I can't say I'm too impressed. I think I've grown out of RTS or something since I grow so tired of the click-fests they've become (and always were I guess). Though I do like Sins of a Solar Empire and even play some COH occasionally. I guess DOW just isn't my cup of tea.
GoodGame
Red, White, & Blue, baby!
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I tried this. Probably a little bit better without the base-building, but the squad customability took a slight hit, and it just doesn't have the raw emotion that Company of Heroes has. Biggest plus is it has Tyranids now.
Seems they took away the flexibility of the model painter though. Not as pretty.
Seems they took away the flexibility of the model painter though. Not as pretty.
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
Just tried the beta for a game, the easiest AI is rediculously easy, but I'm not complaining 
I like the lack of having to spam buildings all over the place.
I like the lack of having to spam buildings all over the place.
Got it as well(didn't even buy Soulstorm no clue how I got in) I do prefer the lack of base building, but once my turrets get taken out I need to stick a group on base defense. Do wish I could do more with my squads, and I still wish they had lazcannons for my squads.
But the addition of the Tyranids makes up for any and every little/major problem.
But the addition of the Tyranids makes up for any and every little/major problem.
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
It's an open beta now.
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Yeah - they outlined on the relicnews forums that the beta opened for soulstorm people on Jan 21st, and as an open beta on the 28th.
Apparently, you can set up a public game against AI-only if you don't want to dive straight-in to online multiplayer, but it still needs a windows live a/c.
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OK - so the release date was last thursday. Anyone got it? Any comments?
I don't see too many complaints about crashes etc in the DOW forums - which is a plus! Haven't purchased it here yet, but probably will in the next few weeks.
I don't see too many complaints about crashes etc in the DOW forums - which is a plus! Haven't purchased it here yet, but probably will in the next few weeks.
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I got the game, installed and played the first couple of maps. Here is a very rough review.
Installation
Not a great experience. I have the game on DVD. The DVD had a note that "Internet connection required for activation", but that is quite misleading.
On installing the game, it requires that you install / activate your steam account. As I am installing this on a new PC, that required me to first install and log-in to steam. Once I had done that, the game installed (via the steam client, but reading data from the DVD), then went to steam to download a day-0 patch.
This updating wasn't great. Took a while over my internet connection, then steam just quit. Restarting steam and trying to get DoWII to start gave me a message "This game is currently unavailable". Oh great. 30 minutes of frigging around restarting steam, trying to get the update working again, trying a few reboots... Finally it launches.
Initial game
Through an intro video, start to kick-off a campaign. But here's the next stop: to play the single player campaign apparently requires a Games For Windows Live profile. Oh joy. I don't want a GFWL profile. But I have no option. Click on "create profile", and IE8 launches to allow me to create a profile. Except my default browser is firefox, and it has helpfully reset this to IE. Thanks.
After creating my profile, I finally get to launch the game.
The initial mission is a pseudo-tutorial. You play through moving around and blowing-up orcs, with boxes appearing on the left side of the screen that give you text instructions on how to use features, with a voice-over.
The graphics are reasonably good - look a lot crisper than in DOW or soulstorm. Gameplay does feel different. Its not base-building - its moving units around. Didn't really feel like DoW to me.
You can't save during missions. This is a problem because I have experienced a couple of crashes - which means I have to restart the entire level.
The missions appear to be structured to be different days of an ongoing campaign, and as you progress you get better wargear, experience (which can be used to upgrade points towards melee, ranged combat, stamina and willpower), and it appears that different squad-members can all get different upgrades.
So far, its not all immersive. I'll carry on playing and see if it does get that way, and whether it does become addicitive (just... one.... more.... mission...) - each misison does appear to be fairly short.
The force-fed sign-up to windows live and steam does annoy me. I understand where THQ are coming from with steam - an anti-piracy measure (and most of you will know that I am anti-piracy), as well as forced patching (apparently the debacle of patching for Company Of Heroes drove them to this model). But GFWL sucks. Logging-out of it tells me that I will lose any unsaved progress. Not logging in means I can't play. I disconnected my wireless adapter and a failed log-in did let me continue, but I really, really don't like that model.
Installation
Not a great experience. I have the game on DVD. The DVD had a note that "Internet connection required for activation", but that is quite misleading.
On installing the game, it requires that you install / activate your steam account. As I am installing this on a new PC, that required me to first install and log-in to steam. Once I had done that, the game installed (via the steam client, but reading data from the DVD), then went to steam to download a day-0 patch.
This updating wasn't great. Took a while over my internet connection, then steam just quit. Restarting steam and trying to get DoWII to start gave me a message "This game is currently unavailable". Oh great. 30 minutes of frigging around restarting steam, trying to get the update working again, trying a few reboots... Finally it launches.
Initial game
Through an intro video, start to kick-off a campaign. But here's the next stop: to play the single player campaign apparently requires a Games For Windows Live profile. Oh joy. I don't want a GFWL profile. But I have no option. Click on "create profile", and IE8 launches to allow me to create a profile. Except my default browser is firefox, and it has helpfully reset this to IE. Thanks.
After creating my profile, I finally get to launch the game.
The initial mission is a pseudo-tutorial. You play through moving around and blowing-up orcs, with boxes appearing on the left side of the screen that give you text instructions on how to use features, with a voice-over.
The graphics are reasonably good - look a lot crisper than in DOW or soulstorm. Gameplay does feel different. Its not base-building - its moving units around. Didn't really feel like DoW to me.
You can't save during missions. This is a problem because I have experienced a couple of crashes - which means I have to restart the entire level.
The missions appear to be structured to be different days of an ongoing campaign, and as you progress you get better wargear, experience (which can be used to upgrade points towards melee, ranged combat, stamina and willpower), and it appears that different squad-members can all get different upgrades.
So far, its not all immersive. I'll carry on playing and see if it does get that way, and whether it does become addicitive (just... one.... more.... mission...) - each misison does appear to be fairly short.
The force-fed sign-up to windows live and steam does annoy me. I understand where THQ are coming from with steam - an anti-piracy measure (and most of you will know that I am anti-piracy), as well as forced patching (apparently the debacle of patching for Company Of Heroes drove them to this model). But GFWL sucks. Logging-out of it tells me that I will lose any unsaved progress. Not logging in means I can't play. I disconnected my wireless adapter and a failed log-in did let me continue, but I really, really don't like that model.
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
There was a beta.
And yes GFWL requires IE, it doesn't of coruse work in antoher browser.
And yes GFWL requires IE, it doesn't of coruse work in antoher browser.
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Yes, I posted about the beta here.
The beta was multiplayer-only (well, you could skirmish against AI), so it didn't surprise me that that required a windows live a/c. But why do I need one for single-player?
Kozmos
Jew Detective
GWFL is annoying but you did know you could just create an offline account?
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Yes, but its a matter of principle.
I find it annoying that I have to create not only one, but two accounts. Seems like an uneccessary hurdle to me.
Kozmos
Jew Detective
I agree, it's just chunks of unnecessary software on my already software bloated computer. Gamewise I am disappointed with DoW II. It seems like a weird mesh of some RPG and RTS instead of a real proper RTS.
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
Having played the demo, there was any hint of an RPG in it?
"real proper RTS' games suck anyways, I'd rather have a total war like 40k game than one of these dumb starcraft/aoe style rts games.
"real proper RTS' games suck anyways, I'd rather have a total war like 40k game than one of these dumb starcraft/aoe style rts games.
Kozmos
Jew Detective
IE simplified for simpletons.
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
What do you mean?
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