The first expansion for Warhammer: Vermintide 2 – Winds of Magic – is launching on August 13th, indie dev Fatshark revealed today.

Winds of Magic introduces a new enemy type known as the Beastmen, a faction of cloven-hooved bipedal jerks who, according to Warhammer lore, are intent on destroying civilization and being all around bovine-faced hooligans. After a meteor crashes in the Reikland, the Beastmen rush to its epicenter to claim their sacred Herdstone shrine. The result is a bloody mess of dark cow action, a first-person slash-and-prod in a deep fantasy woodland that is explorable by your collective of heroes. Watch the gameplay trailer after the jump.

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I’ve always thought Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide did a lot for the Skaven’s image. What were once an unconvincing race of miniature rat folk, are now as horrifying as an entire horde of zombies.

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The next DLC for Warhammer: Vermintide 2 will call back to the first game, revisiting and reworking three of the cooperative FPS’s most popular levels. Back To Ubersreik is its name, and making three old levels “Bigger, better, and crazier!” is its game, according to developers Fatshark. They’ve only confirmed one level so far, the game-opening Horn Of Magnus where our four ratsmashers have to blow a big ol’ horn to warn everyone: rats, oh god rats.

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The bad rats are back again – no, not those> ones. Warhammer: Vermintide 2 was a lot of grimdark, co-op hack n’ slash fun, but some folks have already picked every last scrap of diseased meat from its bones already. Today, it got its first bit of paid DLC – Shadows Over B genhafen – adding another two missions to the mix, plus a massive patch for all. In this DLC, everyone’s favourite plague god Nurgle is up to no good (again), so it’s time to call our band of continually bickering heroes to come clean up, and maybe bop some rats while they’re at it.

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This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the difficult journeys they ve taken to make their games. This time, Warhammer: Vermintide 2 [official site].

In designing Vermintide II s melee combat, Mats Andersson ran through the same preset level 50 times a day for two years. This hodgepodge of the game s most distinctive areas, enemies and swarms makes no sense and it looks terrible, but playing it about 100,000 times was what it took to ensure face-to-face brawling would be rich in heft and detail.

Andersson knew how fast he could clear that level, how much damage he should take, how many kills he should be getting; yardsticks by which he could measure each run, and it s how clicking to swing your hammer feels like it s caving a skull in, and why your sword feels like it can split a rat s stringy carcass in two. It s very much home to me, he says. (more…)

I d wager most folk around these parts devoured Left 4 Dead back in the day, just as I did. Valve s 28 Days Later with your friends infected my life for a good year, and a bigger, better sequel one year later only strengthened the disease. But as Valve haven t really been in the business of making games for a good few years – hopefully, that s about to change – and while it felt like Left 4 Dead was going to change the world back in (oh no) 2008, for a long time nothing filled the rotten hole where my heart used to be.

That is, until Fatshark s rowdy rat-smash, Vermintide. The four vs the world setup and the UI were highly reminiscent of Left 4 Dead, and what are Gutter Runners and Pack Masters if not reskinned Hunters and Smokers? But there was much more to that game than swapping out zombies for skaven. With both series now/still on their second games, let s look at how Vermintide ran with the legacy of Left 4 Dead, while managing to forge its own identity.

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I don’t tend to think about how many things I murder in a murder-related videogame. I just remove whatever obstacles are in the way and move on, in the time-honoured tradition of solving problems in action games. In co-op online stabber-shooter Warhammer: Vermintide 2, I’m unusually conscious of the body count. It is, if you’ll forgive a little early-90s melodrama, extreme>. That’s just one reason why Vermintide 2 successfully escapes the shadow of ‘it’s just Left 4 Dead but with Games Workshop’ faint-praise damning that its predecessor stood within.

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Rat season has officially begun. Following directly on from Vermintide 1’s bombastic finale-as-free-DLC earlier this week, the sequel – due for launch early next month – is letting players in for their first taste of next-gen first-person Skaven-squishing starting today and continuing over the course of the weekend.

Closed beta access is primarily for those who pre-ordered Warhammer: Vermintide 2, but those who picked up the Humble Jingle Jam charity bundle are being granted access as well, plus folks who snag beta keys at PAX South recently.

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We may be just two weeks from the release of Warhammer: Vermintide 2, but studio Fatshark are supporting the original game right up until the bitter end. In fact, the latest update for the game adds that bitter end for you to experience first-hand.

Released as part of a free update, yesterday’s Patch 1.11 adds one final mission to the game, entitled Waylaid, which sets things up for the sequel in surprisingly dramatic fashion. Lohnar has a job for you, so it’s back to the Red Moon Inn for one last round.

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The Vermintide will be coming in on March 8th, developers Fatshark have announced, giving us less than a month with which to sharpen our axes, re-string our longbows, and generally mentally prepare to carve up hordes of ‘orrible ratmen in Warhammer: Vermintide 2. We’ve not covered the co-op FPS since its announcement last year, but since then it’s been made clear that the ratty Skaven have teamed up with those jerks from the Chaos army, meaning we’ll be fighting humans as well as rodents this time.

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