Gaming Dawn of War 2 Beta Preview

I've been playing this for the last week and I'm not impressed. it feels like a 40k mod for CoH, that's had half of the game play removed. It's almost as if this had been designed for a console, in fact I could imagine it working quite well on the 360/PS3.

The other problem is it's slow, requisition takes ages to collect and the units move at a snails pace. It's a good thing that the 6 player maps are tiny as otherwise it would take a week for units to get across it. I'm rellay hoping the campaign is a shiny beacon of awesomeness, because nothing else will convince me to pick it up.

 

Thanks to relicnews.com I learned that you could activate your retail copy of Soulstorm on steam... (also came across other retail games you can activate like Prey! It's like getting records with digital download coupons).

Since then I have been playing the hell out of this beta. I quickly got up to speed on how to play the game and have moved my way to rank 7 over the weekend in the random ranked match making. Playing public games is the only way to play annihilation mode though, the matchmaking/rank is all victory point. I am a little confused about what gaining rank does though, the equipment you unlock I haven't seen in game. I enjoy the new play style because it is more like what the Lore entails. The last time I really appreciated a specific Space Marine unit was the game Chaos Gate.

GFWL is snappy, and works like you expect live to on the Xbox 360. But terribly unnecessary; at least it works. I guess the plus is that you get your live profile and will gain some achievements Microsoft live style. I have not touched the Tyranids, Eldar, or Orks. Nor will I ever. I fight for humanity. To battle brooothers!

 

Walk softley and carry a big gun!

 

Waaagh!*

DoW2 is fun. Aside from a few bugs keeping friends from joining games (through GFWL) I am loving almost every part of this game.

 

Yeah I just received a couple of losses last night due to the game breaking apart and server crashing... Maybe I should try DoW, you never know before you try, huh?

 

Ill wait for this one =) I really like the 40k universe, although I miss the Tau on this one =(

 

clocked up nearly 30h in the beta so far, is fun
loving Space Marines tbh
although tactical squads are not that useful imo
build a couple scout squads at the beginning and a heavy bolter devastator
equip your scouts with shotguns asap as shotgun scouts are extremely powerful tbh
shotguns give knockdown which means you can often even kill commanders, especially if you're invisible
assault marines are also awesome, they're extremely powerful and a match for most squads
usually i use shotgun scouts, then get an assault marine squad until i can afford to get my commander into terminator armour
which makes him a match for any unit in the game, nothing like punching your way through dreadnaughts and tanks with your terminator powerfist

terminators have been done really well in this imo, they're insanely powerful and much closer to the 40k backstory etc than before
but they're very hard to get and very expensive

 

Pfff, real men play nids.

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM

 

I played the first DoW liekd it, but I'm notoriously bad at RTS I was decent at CnC generals and Homeworld 2. I'll see if the no resource/base building lets me concentrate on not sucking

 

absolutely - nothing like fleshhooking a retreating commander into a waiting horde of infantry - BWHAHAHAHA!

 

Downloading this at the moment, hopefully it'll run on my system otherwise I'm going to have to try and get a new graphics card soon.

 

nothing like ambushing that horde of nids with invisible shotgun scouts and assault marines
never seen gaunt squads disappear so fast

 

ah, stupid DaW, worst implementation ever!

if it's already got Steam, then why put Windows Live in it? and one has to setup Live account just for a game?? my orders has been cancelled.

 

Well, i'm getting annoyed at this download. I know it's a beta and shouldn't expect great things but...

I had to install Steam, I had to create a Steam login, I had to download the game (did overnight so not too bad). Then I had to install Games for Windows.
I then get told it failed to find a supported hardware render device. I've got an ATI X800 256 MB, which I i'm sure meets the basic system requirements. I'm now installing the latest Direct X and the latest ATI Drivers, which i hope will work....

This is the thing that winds me up about PC gaming and why i think people think it's failing, piracy may play apart, but when trying to install a game and you've got to download/install/use Steam, Windows Live, Direct X and driver updates. On top of your hardware not meeting the thing.

And.... it's failed even after Driver and DirectX updates.... Looks like my GFX card has finally met it's match oh well, time to cancel my preorder.

[edit] Looking at the system specs... it suggests: "A 128MB Video Card (Shader Model 3) - Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT / ATI X1600, or equivalent" which i though a X800GT was?

 

It's a bit unfair to bash a game because your system doesn't reach the minimum spec - requiring a shader model 3 card has been pretty much the norm for a while now.

 

I'm not bashing it because it doesn't meet minimum specs (although it did from reading them...). I'm not even bashing it, i'm just moaning that i can see why console gaming takes off so much as you don't need to install new drivers b4 every game, you don't need to install and create logins for bespoke applications just to use 1 game.

Well looking at other games coming out soon that i'll want (Aion, SC2), i'll have to think about upgrading my GFX card.

Now i just hope my laptop will play it for the time being, back to installing all the crap i'll need to try...

 

I have yet to be in an actual game. The match making takes forever and when I finally do get into a game either everyone drops or I get a sync error. Anyone else having any trouble?

 

I think most people are having that problem, the GFWL matchmaking is just plain broken, I'm just playing against the AI instead.

 

played a few games with my housemate, the GFWL sucks big time. if only they used Steam for friend invites.

it's good, but some how, it reminds me heavily of Sins of Solar Empire, where player have to decide whether to fight multiple fronts or run around with a single large group.

 

I'm kinda not liking the lack of base building, only because it seems like the game has very little D, and each squad has to be upgraded instead of teching up.

I suck even more than I do in DW1 have yet to win a team game or normal game