Oct 12, 2011

Company of Heroes - Legacy Edition

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

Eurogamer's Space Marine review awarded 6/10.

"Was it our best work?" mulled producer Andy Lang when quizzed by Eurogamer. "It was our best console work."

"I'm pretty humble; I don't look at [criticism] and get all upset. I thought most of the reviews were fairly on the mark with what they had to say; the character design does get a bit repetitive and certain parts of it, just how the game plays - we didn't have time to really polish that stuff to where we wanted to get to. There wasn't anything that was oh-my-god shocking in the game.

"We're not super surprised by [the scores]," he added. "Of course we'd always like to have higher scores, but with our feature-set and coming out late in the console cycle - it's really hard to have that feature-rich game. We did our best to deliver that blockbuster experience. And the scores landed where they landed."

Andy Land revealed how Relic - renowned for PC RTS games - would persistently ask itself, "Are we crazy trying to bring this game to consoles this late in the cycle?" What's so special about this late in the cycle? "Because it's so competitive," said Lang, implying other high-profile games on second, third iterations.

"It was a new experience for many of us on the team," he recalled, "but we did bring in a lot of new talent that have worked on these games before to flesh it out. And Relic's pedigree of pushing for quality that we've done in RTS titles - we really tried to bring that level of polish to a third-person game.

"With regards to the strategy genre, we're on our fifth, sixth iterations; with this genre we're just starting out."

Andy Lang, producer, Space Marine

"With regards to the strategy genre, we're on our fifth, sixth iterations; with this genre we're just starting out."

Lang thinks it would have been "really cool" to have co-op at Space Marine launch, a month ago. That feature will soon be added via the Exterminatus DLC, due 25th October.

"If I look at when I play a Space Marine," he added, "I look at adding more puzzles, more variety to the gameplay experience, so the player has to think a little harder when they're entering an encounter when they're entering a space.

"Challenge the player a little more," he said. "Just more refinement - more polish in that area is something that I would really have loved to gotten in."

Space Marine entered the UK all-formats chart in second place, and now lingers in 11th. US sales for Space Marine are expected on Thursday.

"We had realistic goals for the title, of course, being the first title in a franchise," the Relic/THQ PR interjected, refusing sales numbers, explaining that they were still being processed.

Direct enquiries about a sequel were denied. But referrals to Space Marine as (above) "the first title in a franchise" and (above even further) "with this genre we're just starting out", were two examples (of a few) hints at the future.

In July, Relic said discussions about Space Marine 2 were "literally, just starting". Marketing manager James McDermott teased "some of the more popular fiction within the 40K universe" as a likely source base. Space Hulk? Horus Heresy?

Andy Lang told us that Relic, as a whole, housed around 170 staff across three teams. All enquiries about projects other than Space Marine 1 were blocked, but to assume a Company of Heroes 2/Dawn of War 3/Space Marine 2 split doesn't require too great a leap of faith.

Dawn of War 3 hasn't been formerly announced but clearly is happening. Company of Heroes 2 is also heavily rumoured to be in development.

Either one of those games, or both, were expected to be announced at Gamescom. THQ had promised a "big" announcement at the German games show but it didn't happen; THQ was barely present at all.

THQ has never revealed why. Perhaps it was because, days before, THQ announced 200 lay-offs.

The Relic/THQ PR, however, told Eurogamer it was because some projects weren't ready to show yet.

"That one was just a case of sometimes with development cycles what you think you'll have ready to show isn't, and plans change, so we just changed our plans on that one and we look forward to making announcements in the future," he said.

"But at this moment in time there's no time-frame we can put on it."

Video:

Oct 11, 2011

THQ Week - Day 2

Announcement - Valve

It's THQ Week! Save big from now until October 17th on games from THQ, and be sure to check back every day for more great deals!

Today only, save 75% on Titan Quest titles! Offer ends on Wednesday at 10am PST.

Or, pick up the THQ Hit Collection, a pack with your favorite THQ titles.

Additionally, Steam Cloud integration has been added to many of your favorite THQ titles, allowing your game saves to travel with you wherever you play. Just launch your Steam copy of games like Metro 2033 and your game saves will be copied to the cloud.

Plus, all week long save 33% on THQ titles! Offer excludes Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine and Saints Row: The Third.

Oct 10, 2011

Metro 2033, many more go ultra-cheap in Steam’s THQ week

Metro 2033

Have you played Metro 2033? Have you been meaning to, only to be derailed by something of vastly lesser importance - like poverty? Well then, today's your chance to fix that. Steam's currently catapulting it off virtual shelves at $4.99. Yes, that decimal's in the right place.

The rest of this week will see special daily deals, including 33 percent off THQ's entire Steam catalog (minus Saints Row: The Third and Space Marine, for some reason), and newly added cloud support for many older titles.

Mostly, though, Metro's the best game about Russian train zombies you'll ever play. So you know what to do.

Oct 10, 2011

THQ Week - Day 1

Metro 2033 - Valve

THQ Week begins today! All week long save big on different games from THQ, now until October 17th, so be sure to check back each day for new daily deals.

Today only, save 75% on Metro 2033! Offer ends on Tuesday at 10am PST.

Or, pick up the THQ Hit Collection, a pack with your favorite THQ titles.

Additionally, Steam Cloud integration has been added to many of your favorite THQ titles, allowing your game saves to travel with you wherever you play. Just launch your Steam copy of games like Metro 2033 and your game saves will be copied to the cloud.

Plus, all week long save 33% on THQ titles! Offer excludes Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine and Saints Row: The Third.

Oct 7, 2011

PC Gamer US December issue: Hands-on with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Anniversary Edition

Skyrim. The very name makes all other roleplaying games tremble in fear. But not PC Gamer—we charged into Bethesda's breathtaking new game world without regard for personal safety. We emerged hours later with a sacred tome containing the tales of our adventures therein, which we now present to you in the form of this month's cover story.

Once you've read and reread the Skyrim feature, be sure to check out the 50 things you need to know about the free-to-play MMO shooter Firefall. We've also got a preview on Gearbox's gorgeous-looking Borderlands 2, in-depth insight into PlanetSide 2, and the review of Relic's Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. Also, see which mouse tied the highest review score ever. This, fellow PC gamers, is sexy hardware at its best.

Oct 7, 2011

Space Marine DLC release date announced, Exterminatus arriving October 25

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Anniversary Edition

The Exterminatus mode for Space Marine will be available as a free download on October 25, Eurogamer report. Exterminatus will add two co-op arenas, Assault on Hab Center Andreas, and Escape from Kalkys Facility. In each of these up to four marines must fend off increasingly brutal waves of enemies made up of Ork and Chaos enemies.

Each member of the squad can choose to be Tactical Marine, a Devastator or an Assault Marine, and will be able to use perks unlocked in multiplayer to gain an advantage over the AI controlled hordes. Kills in Exterminatus will give you experience that will level up your characters in competitive multiplayer, too. Teams will be rated in each round based on their performance. Point multipliers and "dynamic challenges" aim to keep the survival maps fresh.

As for future DLC, Relic tell Eurogamer that "we're working on some other DLC" for Space Marine, and "there will be a free component to them as well as some paid components." Perhaps we'll see new maps and more wargear in future, similar to the DLC packs Relic and THQ released for Dawn of War: Retribution's superb Last Stand mode.

Space Marine has some of the most gristly, crunchy combat we've experience this year. The prospect of stomping on Orks with friends makes us sternly thump our desks in approval. Find out why we enjoyed Space Marine so much in our Space Marine review.

Sep 29, 2011

Do You Like Darksiders Enough to Spend $500 On This Statue?

Darksiders™

Remember that Darksiders statue that was first unveiled all the way back in July 2010? It's finally finished and ready to ship. In Q4 2011.

For fans of the game (rich fans, at least), it looks to be worth the wait, both War and his trusty steed Ruin looking great, especially with all those badass fire effects going on.

It's $500, though, so you've got to love Darksiders a lot to pick one up.

UPDATE - Seems that while Sideshow will be selling it for a princely sum, other retailers already have the piece available and for a lot less cash. Pays to shop around!

You can contact Luke Plunkett, the author of this post, at plunkett@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.

Do You Like Darksiders Enough to Spend $500 On This Statue?

Sep 27, 2011

PC Gamer UK Podcast 60 – Skyrim, Space Marine and Diablo 3

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Anniversary Edition

We've gathered together for an extra long PC Gamer podcast to celebrate our return after a bit of a hiatus. We discuss Tom's trip to play Skyrim, get excited about Firefall and Planetside 2, have a think about Space Marine co-op and chat about Diablo 3's spectacular runestones.

Download the MP3, subscribe, or find our older podcasts here.

Sep 23, 2011

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Update Released

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Anniversary Edition - Valve

Updates to Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

- Added mute all functionality and push to talk
- Fixed 'butterfly' exploit.
- Update matchmaking parameters to search for local matches longer.
- Fixed a crash when cancelling a search
- Fixed an issue where profile progress would not be saved properly if steam cloud was disabled.
- Fixed an exploit where the player can move at high speeds when switching weapons with the Weapons Versatility perk equipped during multiplayer.

Sep 23, 2011

Company of Heroes 80% off on Steam this weekend

Company of Heroes - Legacy Edition

One of the best real time strategy games ever made is ridiculously cheap on Steam this weekend. Company of Heroes and both expansions are available individually or as part of the complete pack at 80% off. The original game is just £1.39 / $1.99. The complete pack, which includes Opposing Fronts and Tales of Valour, costs just £5.39 / $9.99.

Company of Heroes has a superb single player campaign that features some of the best RTS missions in PC gaming. You start out with a single squad of men, fighting through enemy territory to secure reinforcements, and end up as a well drilled force builds bases, constructs tanks and takes entire towns. The asymmetrical Allied and Axis forces are almost perfectly balanced for competitive mutiplayer, and it's especially good in co-op against a force of hard AI.

Both expansions have lacklustre single player campaigns, but the addition of British and Panzer Elite forces in Opposing Fronts makes it easily worth the extra cost. Tthe German Panzer Elite specialise in lightly armoured fast vehicles, and have a tendency to mount any gun of any size onto a half-track to blitzkrieg foes from unexpected directions. The British have a degree a of manoeuvrability thanks to their mobile bases, but specialise in building trenches and holding ground. They're most notable for their incredible artillery, Churchill tanks and Commandos who come crashing into the fight in a glider.

Tales of Valour is the most disappointing part of the package. With an uninteresting series of quick single player campaigns and no new factions (a smattering of new units for existing armies is added instead), it's the one you should drop if you're looking to save a bit of money on the deal. If you're interesting in playing co-operatively with friends, the £1.39 / $1.99 is worth it for the survival map, an early precursor to the brilliant Last Stand mode in Dawn of War 2.