VentureBeat » Company of Heroes 2

Company of Heroes 2 features a cool Theater of War co-op mode with 18 new missions

Dean Takahashi — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:00:20 +0000

Relic Entertainment’s Company of Heroes 2 development team is dropping a very pleasant surprise today on fans who have been waiting for this real-time strategy game to debut. The new Theater of War mode is a cooperative single-player mode that serves as a bridge to multiplayer play.

Company of Heroes 2, which Sega picked up along with Relic from the ashes of THQ, will ship with the 1941 pack of Theater of War missions, including nine German and nine Russian missions. That’s a huge amount of additional content, considering that the single-player campaign itself has just 14 missions. I played one of the missions and found it to be a lot of fun.

While the single-player campaign follows a strict narrative — a story about the war — this new mode offers battles that illustrate other important moments between the Russians and the Germans during the first part of the war, said Simon Watts, a spokesman for Relic in an interview with GamesBeat. Big battles of 1941 are in Theater of War missions — engagements that the main games doesn’t cover.

The new missions bring about different kinds of play that you may or may not pursue in multiplayer games. For instance, in one mission, you only get two or three squads for the entire battle, and you have to keep them alive as you take a series of strong points. You can face off against different kinds of artificial intelligence, such as one that turtles up with defenses around its artillery, or another that builds only tanks so it can rush you.

“It allows the player to get used to different kinds of multiplayer strategies in solo missions,” Watts said. “With Theater of War, we have a mission pack to tell a story within the larger war. We held this as a surprise until the end.”

Some of the missions can also involve multiple players in cooperative mode, such as a battle where you have to hold a map for three days and three nights against enemy assaults. During that time, you have the benefit of a daily morning artillery strike.

In another map, you’ll have two squads of infantry along with armor to take a whole map. You have to avoid booby traps and deal with a limited number of tools to win.

I played this mission over the course of a half hour or so. In this match, I had to take a bunch of points that earned supplies for the Germans without losing all of my infantry. I had to creep into some locations to avoid ambushes. This exposed my infantry, but kept my tanks alive. And I had to make liberal use of German artillery and air power. At one point, you can take over a repair depot that fixes your tanks and keeps them alive for a longer time as the Russians launch a counterattack.

I almost made it through to the end. In fact, I did manage to take the last control point, but then I lost my last infantry unit to the Russians. It was an interesting take on the early stage of the war, where the Germans had a lot of advantages but were vulnerable at the same time.

Relic is also preparing a second Theater of War pack for those who preorder Company of Heroes 2.

“We’ll keep on expanding this cooperative mode,” Watts said.

The final game is shipping from Sega for the PC on June 25.

Filed under: Games

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‘Like’ Company of Heroes 2 on Facebook to get in the closed beta

Jeffrey Grubb — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 18:47:10 +0000

I think publisher Sega is stretching the definition of “closed beta” with its most recent take on the concept for Company of Heroes 2.

Sega is opening the closed beta to anyone who likes developer Relic’s real-time strategy game, which is due out for PC on June 25. Really, gamers don’t even have to like Company of Heroes 2, they just need to click “Like” on Facebook. For a limited time, anyone who does that on the Company of Heroes page can exchange the “Like” for an invite to the closed test.

“After a successful first phase, we are delighted to be able to open the closed beta up to all of our Facebook fans and invite them to help us test and improve the game,” Relic producer Greg Wilson said in a statement.

Company of Heroes 2 is a squad-based real-time strategy title set during World War II. The trial game features competitive multiplayer across six maps. Players can face off against each other or against computer-controlled opponents.

To get your code, simply head to Company of Heroes’ Facebook page and “Like” it. Then select the “FREE Beta Download” tab next to the “Photos” tab. Follow the instructions on that screen, and then redeem your code through the Steam digital-download service.

Filed under: Games

Company of Heroes 2 preorder for $45, includes beta access

Dealzon — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 02:24:15 +0000

This sponsored post is produced by Dealzon.

For those of us who didn’t get Company of Heroes 2 beta access earlier this month, there’s always the option of forking over cold hard cash to get what you want. Green Man Gaming has the Steam-activated version plus beta access for $45 after coupon.

Beyond getting an early taste of the game prior to the June 25th release date, you’ll also get the usual digital bonuses like additional skin packs, mini campaigns, additional commanders, and extra added in-game abilities for the German and Soviet army.

If you’re absolutely certain you’ll be playing Grand Theft Auto V and don’t want to bother with preordering closer to the release date, Microsoft Store has an added incentive of 1600 Xbox Live points if you preorder now at retail price. It’s not too shabby of a deal, especially considering 1600 points is valued at $20.

Hot deals & recent releases

June 25: Company of Heroes 2 (PC Download) — $45 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Preorder and you’ll get access to the closed beta that went live April 3rd. Thankfully the title’s still being released despite THQ’s liquidation.

Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel (Xbox 360, PS3) — $42.99 at Groupon. Elsewhere $60. A pretty solid $17 drop for a 2 week old release. Offer is only good through Thursday, April 11th.

Sep. 17: Grand Theft Auto V (Xbox 360) — $59.99 at Microsoft with bonus Xbox LIVE 1600 Points. Elsewhere $60, no points. The 1600 Xbox LIVE points bonus is equivalent to $20. Unfortunately, no PS3 bonus offer spotted yet.

Summer 2013: Deadpool (Xbox 360, PS3) — $47.99 at NewEgg after coupon. Hey, it’s a Deadpool game – can’t go wrong with this, right? Right!? Ads are touting a summer release this year.

Apr. 26: Star Trek (PC Download) — $37.50 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. We’re not expecting much out of this Trek game, but maybe Trekkies will get lucky with this one.

June 14: The Last of Us (PS3) — $49.99 at NewEgg after coupon. If you’re not hyped up enough about this game yet, just head to YouTube and watch all the trailers again.

Aug. 20: Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist (Xbox 360) — $49.99 at NewEgg after coupon. First discount spotted so far on this August release. Although this deal is only applicable to the Xbox 360 version, the game will also release on PS3, PC, and Wii U.

PC download deals

Dark Messiah Might and Magic (PC Download) — $2.49 at GamersGate. For Thursday only, GamersGate has the lowest price seen thus far by $0.50. Elsewhere you’ll pay at least $7, or as high as the $19.99 list price.

360, PS3, and Wii U deals

Tomb Raider Survival/Collector’s Edition (Xbox 360, PS3) — $67.99 at GameStop after coupon. Goodies include a Lara Croft figurine, CD soundtrack, weapons pack DLC, double-sided island map/poster, and a 5×7 lithograph – all in a large tin case.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (Xbox 360, PS3) — $49.99 at NewEgg after coupon. The release date is still TBA 2013, but since preorder deals are harder to find on PS3 and Xbox 360 titles than on PC, the discount’s worth mentioning.

Ni no Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch (PS3) — $39.99 at Amazon. Still close to the full $60 price at most retailers, excluding those engaged in a price war with Amazon.

Batman Arkham City: Armored Edition (Wii U) — $19.99 at Best Buy. Good discount on a decent game on an already forgotten platform. /snark

Nintendo 3DS and PC DLCs

Naruto Powerful Shippuden (3DS) — $25.49 at GameStop after coupon. Next best is $30 at Amazon. Best discount yet on this March 5th release by $10. Amazon tried to price match GameStop at $30, but GameStop’s additional 15% off coupon code makes it a more compelling retailer choice.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (3DS) — $19.99 at GameStop. There’s shipping of $3.49 unless your purchase is above $25.

Battlefield 3: End Game (PC DLC) — $11.99 at GameFly after coupon. Next best is $15 at Green Man Gaming. Don’t buy if you have already have the BF3 Premium package – this DLC is already included.

Dead Space 3: Awakened (PC DLC) — $4.99 at Amazon. New low by $3, with a next best price of $10 at Green Man Gaming.

Gaming Laptops

Toshiba Qosmio X875 Laptop — $1,169 at BuyDig.com after coupon. Specs: Quad Core i7-3630QM, 12GB RAM, 1TB HDD, 3GB GeForce GTX 670M, and 1080p Full HD display.

HP Envy dv7t-7300 Quad Edition Laptop — $774.99 at HP after coupon. $10 shipping. Specs: Quad Core i7-3630QM, 8GB RAM, GeForce GT 635M 2GB, and Blu-ray.

HP Envy dv6t Laptop — $674.99 at HP after coupon. $10 shipping. This is the “Quad Edition” with Ivy Bridge Core i7-3630QM and a mid-range GeForce GT 635M. It’s not the fastest GPU ever, but this is a sub-$700 laptop before tax and shipping.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 59371972 Laptop — $869 at Lenovo after coupon. Specs: Core i7-3630QM, 1080p Full HD, GeForce GT 750M 2GB, and 1TB HDD + 16GB mSSD.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y400 59371954 Laptop — $749 at Lenovo after coupon. Little brother to the 15-inch Y500. Specs: Core i7-3630QM, GeForce GT 750M 2GB, and 1TB HDD + 16GB mSSD.

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Filed under: Games

Relic moving original Company of Heroes servers to Steamworks

Jeffrey Grubb — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:01:04 +0000

Company of Heroes 2 goes on sale in June, but a dedicated group of fans will likely continue playing the original 2006 release.

For those players, Sega and developer Relic are announcing that the multiplayer servers will continue to function after a migration to Valve’s Steamworks platform. Company of Heroes previously ran on a middleware server solution called Quazal. In 2010, Ubisoft purchased that company, which put Relic — then a subsidiary of THQ — in a precarious position. Finally, in 2012, Ubisoft informed Relic that it would terminate Relic.

“So we immediately started making plans about how to transition to Steamworks,” Relic producer Greg Wilson wrote on the company blog. “Unfortunately, it was quickly obvious that we didn’t have the time to focus on it ourselves, and that due to the timing of Company of Heroes 2′s server features coming online — after Quazal’s shutdown date — that a number of Company of Heroes 1 features would cease to be supported.”

Relic went out and found help in the form of Smoking Gun Interactive, a studio that former Relic staffers founded. Smoking Gun handled the server port with the goal of getting as many of the original features working as possible.

On April 8, Relic plans to offer a new version of the game with Steamworks support to customers who own the original. Players will have to make a new account. Wilson says the studio is looking into creating an online archive of the final data from Company of Heroes 1.

The developer doesn’t have a list of what is working and what isn’t, but it plans to publish that shortly.

On May 7, Ubisoft will cut off Quazal.

Filed under: Games

GamesBeat weekly top 10 deals: SimCity, Tomb Raider, and more

Dealzon — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 22:35:17 +0000

This sponsored post is produced by Dealzon.

Welcome to the first installment of GamesBeat weekly top gaming deals, where we trot around the web and find you the best gaming deals out there. Deals are curated from a giant list of 100+ game deals that includes everything from the latest AAA titles to small-time indie games.

This week we see the release of two big titles: SimCity (in all its glorious server-connection error issues), and the well-received Tomb Raider. If you haven’t bought SimCity and you’re still planning to play after the server snafu, happily there’s a 20% promo code at GameFly, making the game $48 vs. the full retail price of $60. On the Square Enix front, Tomb Raider is available for $40 at Green Man Gaming for the Steam activated version. This isn’t the lowest price we’ve seen for Tomb Raider, but it is the cheapest since release date.

Recent Releases

March 5th release: SimCity (PC Download) — $48 at GameFly after coupon. List price is $60. Interestingly enough, Amazon even halted sales on SimCity temporarily, given all the server issues the game has been experiencing.

March 5th release: Tomb Raider (PC Download) — $40 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. List price is $50. Steam activated version. GameFly also has it for $40 after coupon, in case that’s your preferred retailer.

March 5th release: The Sims 3: University Life (PC Download) — $32 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. List price is $40. Yep, another expansion to The Sims 3. Activates on Origin.

Upcoming Releases

March 12 release: Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 (PC Download) — $24 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. List price for is $30. If you didn’t like the first installment of Sniper: Ghost Warrior, you probably should pass on this one.

March 26 release: Battlefield 3: End Game (PC DLC) — $12 at Green Man Gaming. List price is $15. The DLC includes four new maps, along with a Capture the Flag gameplay mode. Activates on Origin.

June 25 release: Company of Heroes 2 (PC Download) — $47.99 at GameFly. List price is $60. After THQ folded, Sega picked up Company of Heroes 2 developer Relic. Release date was recently announced, with a closed beta in the near future (yay).

Multiple Platforms

Crysis 3 (PC Download, Xbox 360, PS3) — $39.99 at GameStop. Amazon is price matching the console versions. Next best is $42 at Origin. A little bit wild that a triple-A game is discounted so much only a month after release.

Red Faction Armageddon (Xbox 360, PS3) — $5.99 plus $3.49 shipping at GameStop. Next best is $14 at Amazon. Released back in 2011, with a Metacritic score of about 75/100. Published by now defunct THQ (sniff).

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Xbox 360 Download Card) — $23.99 at Amazon. Skyrim is one of those titles that rarely gets discounted, especially for the 360 and PS3 versions. If you have slow net connection, you may want to skip on this deal.

Mobile and Classic Games

The Humble Bundle with Android 5 — Pay What you Want! The 5th installment to Humble Bundle for Android is out! If you pay at least $1, you’ll get Beat Hazard Ultra, Solar 2 and NightSky HD. Pay above the average of $6.65 (at time of writing) and you’ll also get Dungeon Defenders with DLCs and Legend of Super Hexagon.

Super Strategy Weekend — 50% Off at GOG. Eleven strategy titles on sale from GOG (aka Good Old Games) for $3 or $5. All DRM-free. Our picks would be the Heroes of Might and Magic series along with Age of Wonders.

Want a bigger list? Smaller list? Ditch the box art images? Feel free to leave feedback in the comments, and we’ll incorporate your suggestions as best as we can in future weekly gaming deal roundups.

Filed under: Games

GamesBeat weekly roundup: GLaDOS in Pacific Rim, more Black Ops II zombies, and Portal on a calculator

Jasmine Maleficent Rea — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:46:24 +0000

If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, the voice of GLaDOS from the Portal series shows up in the trailer for the movie Pacific Rim, Disney buys South Korean game developer Studio Ex, and Call of Duty: Black Ops II gets more zombies, now on the Nuketown map.

You’ll also find reviews for Uncharted: Fight for Fortune and Guardians of Middle-Earth.

News:

Mobile News:

Previews:

Interviews:

Reviews:

Pieces of flair:

Filed under: Games

Why Company of Heroes 2 could warm the frozen real-time strategy market (interview)

Dean Takahashi — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:00:12 +0000

THQ has a lot riding on Relic Entertainment’s Company of Heroes 2. The real-time strategy (RTS) game is a sequel to the top-selling 2006 title, Company of Heroes, and it should make strategy fans happy when it debuts in the spring of 2013. But THQ is out of money, and it needs every title it launches to be a success. Quinn Duffy, the game director at Relic, shakes off the pressure and says that the company is working hard on polishing the game.

Relic recently showed off the multiplayer version, where “every battle tells a story,” as Duffy puts it. The PC game is set in the Eastern Front in World War II, where the Soviets clashed with the Germans and millions perished. It includes cool features such as blizzards that can kill your troops, destructible environments like cracking ice on frozen rivers, and detailed 3D imagery.

The title has been delayed a couple of months, but you can still expect it to come out early in the year. We caught up with Duffy at THQ’s recent multiplayer event in San Francisco.

GamesBeat: What’s your approach to multiplayer in this game? What might be different from the first time around?

Quinn Duffy: We have a similar approach, I think. We’re trying to deliver on a tone and an experience. What we did differently with this game, right from the beginning, was rethinking our creative vision. One of the things I loved about the original was how, in multiplayer, we had this concept that we coined called, “Every battle tells a story.” We wanted to make sure there was ebb and flow and comeback. Cool moments to talk about. A real narrative developing, even in the multiplayer experience.

These battles have their own little stories. When we finished playing a game, we’d get up and talk about the stuff that we did, the things that we saw, the cool pieces of emergent stuff that happened with physics. A building collapsing or whatever. It made it feel like a more social experience. That was something that we embraced wholeheartedly. We wanted to deliver a game that, when you have two evenly matched players, it should feel like a battle. You don’t know who the victor is going to be.

GamesBeat: If you want to become a good player, what are the things you’re paying attention to?

Duffy: We wanted to reward smart commanders. Part of that is through applying the benefit from tactics. If I’m finding cover, I’m going to win. If I flank you, I’m going to win. If I use the line of sight to get up close to your guns, I’m going to win. We wanted to get players to think intelligently about tactics.

One thing was reducing a bit of the mindshare on the resource side of the game and putting more focus on tactical gameplay. That was one reason we reduced the number of points and changed the resource system. We wanted to put that focus on tactics. I think that’s more fun. Resource management is a means to an end. I want to be flanking guys and throwing grenades.

GamesBeat: With RTS games, one of the things people always have to face is the strategy of the early rush, the Zergling rush from StarCraft. Is that a tactic that’s easily executed here, or easily countered?

Duffy: The bases have built-in defenses. There’s a measure of protection right from the beginning. We have a lot of systems in the game that are designed to counter blobs, large numbers of guys. A machine gun will suppress 100 infantry as easily as it’ll suppress six. Those are systems that can be used against early mono-unit armies. If you just send in infantry, I can get out a unit to counter that. It’s a game where being aggressive helps and expanding helps, but early rushes tend to not be super effective.

GamesBeat: If it’s not an early rush, then, what is something that is a way to start out and get yourself on the right foot?

Duffy: I still like this philosophy of combined arms. I try to build weapons that can support each other. I try to put a mortar with a machine gun, so I can pin guys and then drop mortar bombs on them. You have the ability to create a large number of casualties with an efficient use of units. The goal of the game is to end up with enough units to get the big tanks out onto the field, but infantry always play a role. They’re always a potential counter to tanks. You need them to capture territory. You need them to capture victory points. If you don’t have infantry, you’re going to lose.

GamesBeat: I was always trying to make sure I won the first encounter, so I’d throw everybody I had at that one location where the first contact happened. Then I would spread out again and try to take as many points as possible. It was sort of a trick to make me seem bigger than I was.

Duffy: Yeah, it’s like those little animals that puff up. [Laughs] If you’re in multiple places, they don’t know if you have one army that’s really mobile or if you have a bunch of guys all over. That’s de facto tactical stuff. I’m the same. I try to keep a little bit of pressure on all the time. I send somebody out to see what you’re doing. I don’t want to be surprised. I’m going to keep you on your back foot as much as I can.

GamesBeat: Eventually that runs out, though. It works for a little while, but then you run out of people, and you have to go back to building stuff.

Duffy: Yeah, you can. One of the things that’s important in the game is preservation. Even on the Eastern Front. It’s cheaper and faster to bring a squad back and reinforce than it is to build a whole new squad. If you’re rotating, you can maintain a pretty good-sized force. It allows you to get a good basis for building up. Think of something like a conscript. They have the ability to get antitank grenades and Molotovs. If you get a number of those guys in one spot with the ability to throw grenades, and you have the resources to support them, they can be a really powerful force.

GamesBeat: Is there going to be a way to hand-hold people into the game, with tutorials and things like that? Do you play the single-player in order to learn how to play multiplayer?

Duffy: For sure. The campaign introduces players at a measured pace. It’s not really about button presses. It’s about learning how to play the game, about what it means to flank or to use line of sight. The tutorials work in much the same way. We’re doing a whole bunch of videos that players can view. Those teach them how to play the game bit by bit, from basic to advanced tactics and strategies. There’s a number of ways that we’re looking to use to bring the players in. Even things like automatch, making sure that they’re automatching against somebody of comparable skill. We want to make sure you go up against somebody that’s going to give you a fun experience.

GamesBeat: The user interface must be a little hard to design. There’s so much information. You can overload people, to the point where they might not notice certain things.

Duffy: Yeah, it’s a risk. Too much information is just as bad as not enough. We rely to a degree on a lot of the visual presentation of the game. That delivers elements of the cold. There’s UI [user interface]. You can put in the thermometer dropping and show when guys will start to freeze. But there’s also the audio and the animations. They’re playing their cold animations. That makes them feel more like real units, and it gives you valuable feedback, too.

Filed under: Games

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With Company of Heroes 2 multiplayer, ‘every battle tells a story’ (preview)

Dean Takahashi — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 17:00:15 +0000

THQ’s Company of Heroes 2 is looking better and better with every veil that company lifts on this real-time strategy game set on World War II’s Eastern Front. Today, THQ’s Relic Entertainment is showing off multiplayer combat for the PC game that debuts early next year.

Company of Heroes 2 takes places during the cruel cold winters and brief springs of the war, chronicling the start of the German invasion of Russia in 1941 until the Battle of Berlin at the war’s close. You can play either side, and it offers very cool features, such as blizzards that can kill your troops and destructible environments such as cracking ice on frozen rivers.

I played a couple of rounds of the game. This was the third time I’ve seen it, and I must say I am looking forward to it. After all, it’s been six years since the original Company of Heroes came out, and we haven’t seen a really good real-time strategy game since StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty in 2010.

In the single-player campaign for Company of Heroes 2, you have to create your soldiers and send them out to take territory. Multiplayer’s gameplay is the same. But your opponents can be a lot smarter, because they’re human and therefore unpredictable. With this multiplayer version, Relic Entertainment tried to create matches that could really get your competitive juices flowing.

“We rewrote our creative vision for multiplayer,” said Quinn Duffy, the game director for Companies of Heroes 2 said in an interview with GamesBeat. “Our saying was ‘Every battle tells a story.’ These battles have their own little stories, and when we finish playing a battle, we get up and talk about the stuff that we did. It makes it feel like a more social experience. We embraced that wholeheartedly.’”

When you have two really well-matched players, Company of Heroes 2 should feel like a big struggle. As such, it is a fitting tribute to the horrible Eastern Front, where the Red Army and the Wehrmacht suffered more than 14 million military casualties. The horror of the war comes through in features such as storms that can freeze your troops, flamethrowers that send them screaming in pain, and ambushes that can take all of the morale out of your soldiers and leave them crawling on the ground. The Soviets are aggressive and have bigger squads, but they are not particularly well led. The Germans are hardcore veteran soldiers, with the advantage of having better weapons on almost every level. You can equip German infantry with antitank weapons that will stop Russian tanks cold.

In multiplayer, you can play one on one or as many as four against four. I was able to play a couple of 1-on-1 matches in the preview.

First blood in multiplayer

The multiplayer map was set during a winter campaign. As you start a multiplayer match, all you have is a team of engineers and a headquarters area. You start training soldiers, and they walk onto the battlefield as training is completed. To get more resources, you have to start taking territory.

In the first battle, I fought against fellow GamesBeat writer Kat Bailey. She was Russian, I was German. We were both equally inexperienced (after all, I hadn’t played Company of Heroes in six years). I had played the single-player version fairly recently and was able to get my production of soldiers going. I played the Germans and produced plenty of engineers, dubbed “pioneers” on the German side. I used the pioneers to upgrade my base so that I could produce half-track vehicles and large numbers of soldiers. Then I sent them out one by one to grab as many strategic spots as possible.

Those spots can earn you victory points, help you gain fuel, or get more ammo. My trick was the puff myself up as big as I could, to strike fear in Kat’s heart. As soon as we fought our first clash, I sent a bunch of soldiers into the battle from all directions. That made my army seem stronger than it was, and I was able to win the first battle. Company of Heroes 2 makes good use of the “fog of war,” where you can only see the enemies that are within the line of sight of your own troops. I took a watchtower, and that gave me extra visibility.

Duffy told me that the designers didn’t really want quick battles, but they also didn’t want maps that were so big that the first contact didn’t happen for a full five minutes. That’s just too boring.

Once we started fighting, I tried to develop a combined arms group, with machine gunners, a mortar crew, pioneers, and general infantry. I added half-tracks with machine guns, and I upgraded my pioneers to flamethrowers when I remembered that they could do that. I sent the main force into the center of the map, but I also kept the pressure on the enemy in all sections of the map. My machine gunners did a good job of stopping enemy attacks, but they didn’t last long on their own. The half-tracks, however, were pretty good at stopping infantry attacks.

What complicated the battle was the blizzard that swept through it on a couple of occasions. Company of Heroes 2 has an in-game weather mechanic made possible by Relic’s Essence Engine 3.0′s ColdTech system. You can play on the same maps in springtime weather when the terrain is green and brown or in the heart of winter when you have to deal with deep snow (which slows infantry down) or brutal subzero winds. At any given moment, a blizzard could start or stop. The snow has depth, and it can accumulate, blocking your view of what’s ahead. You can melt it and reduce it or get stuck in it. Rivers may freeze over, but they may crack under the pressure of heavy vehicles. The blizzard obstructs the vision of your soldiers. That’s bad, because you only see what your soldiers can see. And if you don’t get your soldiers to cover, they will die.

As the blizzard struck, I knew that my soldiers had to get to cover. I moved my soldiers into buildings or vehicles for warmth. But I had to send some pioneers to build fires that protected the soldiers at my headquarters. During this time, my opponent had the same problem. So combat came to a halt and surviving the weather — and building up forces — took over. I eventually took enough of the victory points on the map to put the squeeze on the enemy. At some point, Kat couldn’t send soldiers over to retake victory points that I had taken. And I eventually won.

Turning the tables

In the second battle, it was my turn to bleed. This time, I lost the first encounter and suffered setbacks. My rival was better at everything, including taking territory and building soldiers faster.

I made a mistake of signing up an artillery commander, rather than a tank commander, for my support. That slowed me down in the development of my armor capabilities, and this turned out to be a tank fight.

I tried to build up vehicles as quickly as I could, but I was constrained to building half tracks. As soon as I saw the enemy’s first Panzer tank appear, I knew I was finished. I built some anti-tank guns in response, but those were not very maneuverable, and they required a lot of infantry protection. And I was running out of soldiers.

The enemy hit me with a devastating attack by three T-34 tanks on my headquarters. Fortunately, I had an antitank gun nearby that put a stop to it. But my German infantry grenadiers had not upgraded to anti-tank weapons. Like in the real war, machine guns and rifles have no effect on an heavily armored tank.

Also, as Duffy pointed out, the bases themselves have defenses. I had a machine gun nest that stopped the enemy infantry. And machine gunners can pin down 100 soldiers as easily as they can pin done one. So it is possible to counter a surprise attack.

I rained down an artillery strike on the invader’s tanks. I had a Stuka dive bomber airstrike, but all I could really do was set the general direction of its attack. It circled around until it could find a target, but didn’t do much damage to the enemy tanks. It gives an umbrella of protection, but it doesn’t last forever. An antiaircraft tank can counter the Stuka.

I survived that assault on my headquarters, but it served its purpose of crippling my military unit production. Eventually, time ran out for me. The enemy took control of the three major strategic spots on the map and I couldn’t take them back. In the first game, everything went right for me. In the second game, played on the same map, everything went wrong.

Epic scale?

The multiplayer combat is wonderfully fun. You can find use different strategies to fight the same battle over the same ground. Does every multiplayer battle tell a story? Well, I felt compelled to tell you about mine, so I guess that’s true.

I have one nagging feeling I have about Company of Heroes 2. In some ways, the scale of the game is off. On the Eastern Front, you had huge battles. But in Company of Heroes 2, the size of each map is contained to a really small area. Tanks can’t fire at each other from a mile away. If the tanks get in a fight, it’s almost like a duel at point-blank range. That’s fine, but it’s not exactly realistic. The battle maps are about a half-kilometer square. That’s not huge, and it forces close combat.

This closeness isn’t a problem in ancient warfare games like Age of Empires, where you had hand-to-hand combat. I almost wish that there were a better way to zoom out to see a much larger battlefield, as you could with the “strategic zoom” of the Supreme Commander series of games. Still, this is where entertainment value trumps realism, and the nature of the game’s scope is fine, for a fun game.

Here’s a developer diary video from producer Greg Wilson, lead animator Brett Pascal, and lead campaign designer Jasen Torres.

Filed under: Business, Games

Desperate for cash, THQ hires firm to ‘evaluate strategic alternatives’ (It’s up for sale)

Dean Takahashi — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 22:21:03 +0000

It looks like THQ is up for sale. The struggling video game publisher said today it has hired a consulting firm, Centerview Partners, to evaluate its “strategic alternatives.”

Typically, that statement means a company is looking for buyers. Brian Farrell, the chief executive of THQ, made the announcement on the company’s earnings call with analysts. He said that Centerview Partners would determine THQ’s future course considering that the company does not have enough capital to fuel all of its plans.

Jason Rubin, the newly appointed president of THQ, said he had evaluated three announced games in the pipeline and found them wanting. He asked for changes that would result in a two-month delay in publishing the games, including Company of Heroes 2, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and Metro: Last Light. As a result, THQ won’t have all of these games coming out and producing revenue as expected. THQ decided it would no longer issue earnings guidance going forward until it resolves its future.

Farrell then announced that the company would not take questions from analysts on the conference call. Such question-and-answer sessions are usually customary. He said the company is unable to answer questions right now until it hears back from Centerview regarding its evaluation.

THQ said it has $36 million in cash but has borrowed $21 million on its credit facility, resulting in net cash of about $15 million. The company has been losing close to that amount on a quarterly basis, with the latest loss at $12 million in the second fiscal quarter ended Sept. 30. THQ’s share price is at $3.02 a share, up 6 percent from a day ago. That gives the company a value of $20.7 million, only slightly above its value in cash. That is extremely low for a company that has $400 million or so in annual sales. But it suggests investors have lost confidence.

Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush Securities, said that THQ may be in danger of running out of money before the summer. THQ can easily spend $50 million on expenses in a quarter and the company needs to bring in revenue to offset that. He said that Darksiders II breaks even around 2 million units sold and it is still far short of that.

Atul Bagga, analyst at Lazard Capital, said that the schedule slip for the major games raises the risks for THQ as to whether it will continue as a “going concern.” He noted that THQ’s $100 million in convertible senior notes come due in August, 2014.

Filed under: Business, Games

In Company of Heroes 2, blizzards may kill you before the enemy does

Dean Takahashi — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 17:00:23 +0000

In Company of Heroes 2, the upcoming real-time World War II strategy game from THQ, the weather is likely to be your worst enemy. A new preview of two new levels of the game shows that soldiers in the snows of the Russian front are not likely to survive blizzard conditions unless they have warmth. That makes the task of managing a battle a lot more complex for a player, who has to monitor enemy forces as well as the ever-changing weather conditions.

Simon Watts, a spokesman for THQ and its Relic Entertainment division, recently showed us two new levels that illustrated the extremes in weather conditions. One was part of a winter campaign along the Pripyat River, while the other showed a spring scene from Operation Bagration, the 1944 Soviet offensive into Belorussia which resulted in the complete destruction of Germany’s Army Group Centre. It was the worst defeat of the war for the Germans, and by the end of it, most of the Western Soviet Union had been taken back by the Red Army.

Company of Heroes 2 is a sequel to the PC game that debuted in 2006. That award-winning game pitted the Americans against the Germans in the battle for France after the invasion of Normandy. This game is set over a longer period, depicting the war on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945. Relic aims to make this game a much more cinematic experience, where you can watch company-level strategy unfold and still witness the bravery of individual soldiers who can turn the tide of battle.

The game features an in-game weather mechanic made possible by Relic’s Essence Engine 3.0′s ColdTech system. You can play on the same maps in springtime weather when the terrain is green and brown or in the heart of winter when you have to deal with deep snow (which slows infantry down) or brutal sub-zero winds. At any given moment in the Pripyat level, a blizzard could start or stop. The snow has depth, and it can accumulate, blocking your view of what’s ahead. You can melt it and reduce it or get stuck in it. Rivers may freeze over, but they may crack under the pressure of heavy vehicles. The blizzard obstructs the vision of your soldiers. That’s bad, because you only see what your soldiers can see.

When you start a battle session in Company of Heroes 2, you have nothing but a camp site for training engineers or rifle soldiers. As you claim more territory, you get more resources for building. Then you select the kind of soldiers you want to train. When training completes, they march onto the map and you can dispatch them to the front. The graphics of the game are beautiful, and you can zoom in on the action from a soldier’s point of view.

At the start of the Pripyat level, blizzard winds were blowing. I marched my rifle soldiers toward the river, but they very quickly started suffering from the severe cold. Left alone, they would die from hypothermia. I sent engineers to join them so they could light a campfire to keep them warm. This kind of babysitting kept them alive, but it tied up the valuable engineers. The soldiers can stay warm if you pack them into vehicles, but then the vehicles become a prime target. You can also have soldiers take shelter from the cold in a building. But the blizzard conditions come and go. When things warm up, you can send your forces across the river.

But in this case, the Germans had machine gun nests waiting for me. To deal with them, I had to send vehicles into the river. But the ice will crack if too many try to cross. I sent snipers into the river to serve as spotters for my mortar crew. But the Germans counterattacked, and eliminated my snipers and rifle crews. If I had the time, I could have laid a trap by blowing up the ice underneath attacking vehicles. My engineers were quite vulnerable until I upgraded them with flamethrowers.

With the seasonal warfare, you can play the same maps in good or bad weather. The Bagration map depicted a river crossing where German armor was seeking to cross through a narrow bridge in June, 1944. The skins on the tanks and the uniforms of the soldiers were all different, as was appropriate for warmer weather. The changes make it seem like you’re fighting in an entirely different place.

On that map, I was able to build some medium T-34 tanks and a Katyusha rocket launcher truck. The latter makes such a screaming noise that the German soldiers’ morale suffers upon hearing it. A barrage from the Katyusha is just enough to take out the enemy’s anti-aircraft Flakpanzer IV Wirbelwind vehicles, which are exposed at the top.

But the enemy kept on creating new vehicles and sending them across the bridge. I discovered too late that I should have created as many armor or antitank units as possible and concentrated their fire on the bridge. In the single-player battle, I had one partner player who was controlled by the computer. My partner and I squared off against two artificial intelligence players. They were aggressive enough, but if I had figured out how to cross the river in flanking maneuvers, I’m sure I could have defeated the enemy.

Company of Heroes 2 is a PC-only game slated to launch in early 2013.

Filed under: Business, Games

No casual or Facebook games for THQ: Internal studios all working on new triple-A titles

Jeffrey Grubb — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 21:57:48 +0000

In an investor call for fiscal first-quarter 2013, THQ president Jason Rubin announced that the publisher is ceasing all “experimentation” with Facebook and casual mobile games.

This is in line with the company’s new direction, which values quality big-budget releases. On that front, Rubin announced that in addition to previously announced titles, all four internal THQ developers — Relic Entertainment, Volition, Vigil Games, and THQ Studio Montreal – have started work on new games. Rubin made it clear that the studios are developing these titles under the new marching orders to create works of the highest quality.

Relic Entertainment is the team responsible for the critically acclaimed Company of Heroes real-time-strategy games. Volition recently released the popular Saints Row: The Third and is now working on Saints Row: Enter the Dominatrix, which Rubin referred to as Saints Row 4. Austin-based Vigil Games just finished work on Darksiders II, which is hitting store shelves on August 14. THQ Studio Montreal, which was previously overseeing the followup to Homefront (that’s been moved to an external developer), is also working on something new.

Rubin and chief executive officer Brian Farrell didn’t provide specifics on any of the titles, and it’s likely we won’t see anything from this announcement until at least some time in calendar 2013.

Filed under: Games

Company of Heroes 2 will feature cool new weather simulation technology for even more strategic gameplay

Rob LeFebvre — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 18:16:02 +0000

Multinational game publisher THQ announced today that its upcoming strategy title, Company of Heroes 2, will have special technology to simulate brutal weather conditions in-game, making this the first weather tech of its kind in the genre. Set in World War II, Company of Heroes 2 will help players realize the full role the incredibly cold Soviet winter played in the Eastern Front theater in that war. The weather technology, created with the Essence Engine 3.0′s ColdTech system, includes an “extreme cold” mechanic that accurately recreates the chill of the era, which reached -40˚ F in the winter of 1941.

Players will need to keep their infantry from freezing to death by building fires and enclosed garrisons. Snow will build up and accumulate on buildings and vehicles, becoming a hazard to troops and affecting strategies. Players will need to cover their tracks in fresh snow, or melt it from vehicles to continue the campaign. Ice will also play into various scenarios, affecting troop and vehicle movement, collapsing (or being destroyed) underneath armies, and re-forming as the bitter cold continues.

“Company of Heroes 2 is all about authenticity, and no game based on the Eastern Front would be complete without extreme weather conditions,” said Quinn Duffy, Game Director at Relic Entertainment. “Thanks to the enhanced technology offered by the new Essence Engine, we are able to accurately portray the bitter Soviet winter which crippled the German army.”

The first Company of Heroes was released in 2006 and was highly rated by critics and fans alike. The upcoming sequel is scheduled for release on PC in early 2013.

THQ is based in Los Angeles County, Calif.

Filed under: Games

Struggling publisher THQ names game veteran Jason Rubin as president

Dean Takahashi — Tue, 29 May 2012 21:23:00 +0000

Jason Rubin, the co-founder of famous game developer Naughty Dog, has been named the president of struggling video game publisher THQ.

Rubin will report to Brian Farrell, who remains chairman and chief executive. But Danny Bilson, who has headed THQ’s creative efforts in recent years, is resigning his post as executive vice president to pursue other interests.

THQ is one of the largest publicly traded video game publishers in the U.S., but it has been troubled by a dearth of hits, a shift in gamer tastes, and an ill-advised bet on a drawing tablet during the last holiday season.

It remains to be seen whether the appointment will be enough to lift the company’s stock price. THQ needs its price to go above a dollar a share or it faces delisting from NASDAQ. The stock is flat in after-hours trading.

Rubin has been involved in creating hit video games for more than 20 years. He will be responsible for all of THQ’s worldwide product development, marketing, and publishing operations.

Rubin is best known as the co-founder of Naughty Dog and was the co-creator of titles such as Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter. Those games sold more than 40 million units worldwide. He and co-founder Andy Gavin sold the company to Sony in 2001. And Rubin led the Naughty Dog team until 2004. He co-founded Flektor, a media mashup tool, which Fox acquired in 2007.

“Jason’s proven track record in the industry speaks for itself, and he is one of the brightest minds in the business,” said Farrell in a statement. “We believe he can be a game changer and can contribute immensely to executing on our strategy of delivering quality connected core game experiences.”

“THQ has incredible internal and external game development teams and an exciting slate of games in its development pipeline,” said Rubin. “The recent transformation of THQ into a creator of wholly-owned IP has placed it in a perfect position to leverage future trends in the game business. I look forward to working with the management team and board to realize the company’s goals.”

THQ is realigning its focus from a maker of licensed games to a developer of AAA games for core audiences. It has titles coming such as Darksiders II, Saint’s Row: The Third — Enter the Dominatrix, Company of Heroes 2, South Park: The Game, WWE 13, and Metro: Last Light. Jason Kay, co-founder of Flektor, has been appointed chief strategy officer at THQ. Dave Davis, senior vice president at THQ, is also leaving the company.

Regarding Bilson, Farrell said, “Danny has made significant contributions to THQ, and we thank him for his efforts. Along with Danny, Dave has been instrumental in getting our strong pipeline into production.”

GamesBeat 2012 is VentureBeat’s fourth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. This year we’re calling on speakers from the hottest mobile, social, PC, and console companies to debate new ways to stay on pace with changing consumer tastes and platforms. Join 500+ execs, investors, analysts, entrepreneurs, and press as we explore the gaming industry’s latest trends and newest monetization opportunities. The event takes place July 10-11 in San Francisco, and you can get your early-bird tickets here.

Filed under: Business, Games

THQ attempting creative math to maintain NASDAQ listing

Jeffrey Grubb — Mon, 28 May 2012 15:00:38 +0000

In an SEC filing on Friday, THQ informed the agency that it plans to propose a reverse stock split at a June 29 shareholder meeting. The reverse stock split will collapse the number of shares outstanding on the market from 68.5 million down to 22.8 million (1:3 reduction), 13.7 million (1:5), or 6.8 million (1:10) depending on which ratio the board decides is best for the publisher. These proposed reductions would increase the stock price from its current (according to the paperwork filed with the SEC) $0.68 to $2.04, $3.39, or $6.80 respectively.

THQ’s board hopes to raise the price of the common share above $1.00 with this action. The NASDAQ, home of the THQ stock, requires that a company must consistently trade above $1.00 to maintain a listing on the market. In January, NASDAQ warned the Saints Row: The Third developer that it would be delisted from the index if it could not regain compliance with that minimum bid by July 23, 2012.

This will not increase THQ’s current market valuation of $41.75 million. In fact, investors typically view the reverse-split tactic as a desperate maneuver and could respond by decreasing the company’s perceived value even further.

THQ is still in the thick of a company-wide realignment after a tough fiscal 2012. In its last quarterly investor report, where it announced a $95 million operating loss for the year, the publisher reaffirmed its new commitment to AAA games.

“We exceeded our initial fourth quarter guidance for net sales, earnings and cash position, driven by high quality core games with a significant digital component, which is the blueprint for our future,” said THQ President and CEO Brian Farrell. “We have made significant changes to our business, and are on track to execute our strategy of delivering quality connected core gaming experiences, beginning with the sequel to the award-winning Darksiders in August.”

The publisher has cut back $30 million on its investment in kids’ titles and expects to sell through its stock of uDraw tablets during fiscal year 2013. In making these changes, the company racked up $62.8 million in “business realignment” expenses. The Nickelodeon and uDraw lineup of games appear to be the great boondoggles responsible for THQ’s current financial predicament.

THQ continues to publish downloadable content for Saints Row: The Third, including the recently released Penthouse Pack of characters featuring real models from Penthouse magazine. This August, the corporation will release Darksiders II for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. In September, the developer will release a new, stand-alone addition to the Saints Row: The Third universe titled Enter the Dominatrix. By the end of 2012, the annualized WWE wrestling sim will hit all major consoles.

For 2013, THQ is preparing Company of Heroes 2, Metro: Last Night, and South Park: The Game.

Filed under: Games

Company of Heroes 2 takes the battle to the frozen Russian front

Dean Takahashi — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:00:30 +0000

On the frozen terrain of the Eastern Front, Germany suffered more than 80 percent of its casualties in World War II. That grim fact is reflected in the brutal combat of the upcoming Company of Heroes 2, which THQ plans to publish on the PC next year.

The original Company of Heroes was one of the best real-time strategy games of 2006. I played the entire game, and it was one of my favorites of the year. It covered battles on the Western Front after the American invasion of France. But Company of Heroes 2 will cover a longer span: from 1941 until the storming of Berlin in 1945.

“For Company of Heroes 2, we wanted to be different, to do more, add more authenticity, realism, immersion, and dynamic tactical battles,” said Quinn Duffy, lead designer of the Relic Entertainment-developed game.

Duffy showed a group of journalists a scene from the Rzhev meatgrinder.The 3D art work is more detailed and more beautiful than in the first game, and the level of realism is almost as good as what you would find in a modern first-person shooter. The game uses the Essence 3.0 Engine, which improves graphics quality and accuracy of combat via a system dubbed TrueSight.

Company of Heroes 2 blends cinematic cutscenes (like the one at top) that zoom in on dialogue between soldiers and their commanders. In one battle, the Soviet soldiers retreat from a German attack, only to be gunned down on the command of a Russian officer. The cinematic blends into the real-time environment of the game, which is viewed from an overhead isometric angle.

When you pull up above the scene, you can see the snow-covered terrain and barren trees around Russian farmhouses. But if you zoom in on the soldiers, you can see that their legs vanish into the deep snow. Duffy said the depth of the snow comes into play because soldiers can’t run through deeper snow.

In one attack, the Russian soldiers crawled toward a German position and were met with a rain of artillery shells. When the two armies got close enough to exchange fire, a pitched battle began. Then the Russians brought out a flamethrower and roasted the Germans inside the farm house. That means that the cover system, while effective, is also dynamic. It changes as the battle takes its toll on the buildings.

You control groups of soldiers in small squads. The action unfolds without your direct control, but you can engage in tactical decisions such as ordering soldiers to lob grenades. If solders are flanked and in the open, they’re likely to start dropping like flies when fired upon. If they’re in protected cover or are crawling, they can probably escape German machine gun nests. Soldiers who are pinned down can be aided by teams that go around the side. And the army that brings up heavy armor first can gain a big advantage. While you won’t fight every single battle of the war on a tactical level, the game will put you at the turning points of pitched battles where the individual bravery of each soldier mattered.

THQ also said it will have competitive and cooperative multiplayer sessions, though it didn’t show any of that yet.

Filed under: Business, Games

GamesBeat Weekly Roundup

Jasmine Maleficent Rea — Fri, 11 May 2012 20:48:39 +0000

If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best games stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week Minecraft on 360 broke all digital-sales records on its first day, controversial marketing specialist Paul Christoforo filed a lawsuit against N-Control, Activision Blizzard touted Skylanders as bigger than Angry Birds, and Take-Two delayed BioShock Infinite.

You’ll also find reviews for Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition, Toy Soliders, Lone Survivor, and Awesomenauts.

Company of Heroes 2 explores WWII’s Eastern front

Jasmine Maleficent Rea — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:47:52 +0000

Company of Heroes 2 shifts focus from the American and British troops of its predecessor (and accompanying expansion pack, Opposing Fronts) and lets players take control of Russian forces.

The game takes place in 1941 and has players commanding the Red Army and defending Moscow against Germany’s push into the Soviet Union. Gameplay remains centered around applying strategic skill and tactical expertise to commanding troops just like it was in the original Company of Heroes.

“Company of Heroes 2 is a true successor, introducing a new front, new protagonists, and new technology while retaining the unique mix of strategic gameplay and competitive multiplayer that made the original Company of Heroes such a success,” said Greg Wilson, producer at Relic Entertainment, in a statement.

The original Company of Heroes was very successful, earning a 93 percent on Metacritic based on 55 reviews. The publisher, THQ, is currently going through a rocky financial period after the underwhelming performance of the company’s kid-focused uDraw tablet, having laid off 118 people in two development studios and drastically scaling back content for an upcoming Warhammer 40k game. Company of Heroes 2′s potential success could help put THQ back on track.

Company of Heroes 2 is a PC-only game slated to launch in early 2013.

Filed under: Games