W40K: Winter Assault review

[Vandenh]

Looks like IGN (http://pc.ign.com/) is the first with a review of the expansion pack to one the most fun recent real time strategy games, Dawn of War (http://pc.ign.com/articles/652/652246p1.html).
One of the more interesting factors when considering how to use the Imperial Guard is their morale. Anyone that played the original Dawn of War will remember the bits where the Imperial Guard played a role in the campaign. Compared to the Space Marines, they were weak sauce, in large part because of the hit their morale would take so quickly. To counter this, special leader units can be attached to troops that will give them a morale boost. The Commissar (one of these units) can even execute one of the members of the unit in order to provide a morale boost ala WWII Russia.
I live to fight again!

ÜberJumper has spotted another review (http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3143974) at 1Up.

The real measure of Winter Assault's success is that you'll willfully put the hours in doing exactly that. Not since Blizzard unleashed Brood Wars on the Starcraft community has a developer put such a well-conceived effort into an expansion pack. Relic has rewarded the patience of its fans with an absolute must have add-on, and for any RTS fan that hasn't already picked up the original game...no more excuses.
No More Excuses! They scored it an 8.0 Dynamite.

[JessePeel]

I am so looking forward to picking this up today. Only reason I got up this morning...

[CaptainAssholay]

I swear to god if the EB I preordered this at doesn't get it in today I'm going to be so sad :(

[ÜberJumper]

Some members on Relic's official forums have indicated that their online retailers have shipped it already.

My local EB said it should be out in the next week :-(

[MrMeatshake]

sweet. surely executing members of a squad in the middle of actual conflict is a bit odd, especially considering the way reinforcements during combat work in DoW? so, execute one guy, and then another one will be added to the squad a second later? hm.

also, can i just say again: i love the imperial guard, but i think they were just about the worst idea as the next race to add. they're not only allied with one of the original sides (the SMs) but they were IN the f'king game ALREADY!

EDIT: damn! there's not gonna be another intro. cinematic. that thing was seriously awesome. i must've watched it 30 times... i showed it to people who turned thier noses up at talk of WH40K, and even they were blown away.

anyone else think that if they got someone like blur studios (http://www.blur.com/indexl.html) to make a full movie in the 40K universe, it could actually be really good?! (unlike most game--> movie conversions, of course!)

[agentgray]

Yes, this expansion is hard to find. EB's own site keeps pushing back the ship-date. I cannot wait...well, yes, I can.

[MrMeatshake]

lol:

[The final map] centers around a gigantic piece of Empire armament that had been undiscovered by the Chaos forces during their occupation.

way to go, IGN. that's some impressive primary-school writing assignment action! if only the people at IGN had more power, we could just go ahead and 'undiscover' nuclear weapons. :)

[JessePeel]

I swear to god if the EB I preordered this at doesn't get it in today I'm going to be so sad :(

Indeed, as I reserved a copy as well. I hope Gamestop makes good on their word.

[CapnBob]

way to go, IGN. that's some impressive primary-school writing assignment action! if only the people at IGN had more power, we could just go ahead and 'undiscover' nuclear weapons. :)

Well, in the context of missions from the tabletop game, that actually makes sense. The Imperium of Man tends to lose things... technology, weapons, planets... There could be some ancient STC weapon from the earliest days of the empire buried on a planet that Chaos space marines had taken in recent centuries and nobody would have the slightest clue it was there. Perhaps some lexmechanic was pouring through the old records on Earth, found some mention of some huge weapon being on this planet and sent a whole company of Imperial Guard to go reclaim it before some demon or corrupted space marine discovers it.

[ÜberJumper]

(I spotted the 1up review at bluesnews actually, but yeah)

[The Iron Weasel]

Walk softly, and carry a big gun!

[ElPresidente]

lol:



way to go, IGN. that's some impressive primary-school writing assignment action! if only the people at IGN had more power, we could just go ahead and 'undiscover' nuclear weapons. :)

Yes but this is IGN... writing skills of a diseased lemur.

I think WH40K fans are going to be very happy with Winter Assault. I'm certainly not far enough in to give a definitive judgement of the expansions worth but it is certainly closer to being a Frozen Throne than a Battle out of Hell (Just in case that wasn't clear enough... Frozen Throne = Good, Battle out of Hell = bad expansion, bad, bad!).

And the folks at THQ know how to make a guy laugh, you can't ship a late 20s male a package with the words 'dongle inside' and not expect childish giggling. ;)

[Magnanimous Gnome]

I just may pick this up, although I am generally loathe to buy expansions for more than 10-20 bucks.

I love the original game, although the whole religious "we worship the emperor" blah blah stuff got REALLY annoying.

[jwbxx]

I'm gonna pick it up today. For glory, for honor, and of course FOR THE EMPEROR!

[Shifteh]

Do you hear the voices too?

[MrMeatshake]

I love the original game, although the whole religious "we worship the emperor" blah blah stuff got REALLY annoying.

really? i thought it was kinda essential to the fluff. the space marines are crazed zealots, every last one of them. otherwise there's no way they could do the sort of things they do.

EDIT: surely you can turn the voices off? or play orcs!

[Magnanimous Gnome]

really? i thought it was kinda essential to the fluff. the space marines are crazed zealots, every last one of them. otherwise there's no way they could do the sort of things they do.

EDIT: surely you can turn the voices off? or play orcs!


Yeah, I know that they are crazed zealots and all. It just got really annoying in the single player campaign. It was kind of amusing at first, but after a while it wore thin.

I still love the game though.

[Stormwatcher]

oooooh... I can't wait to play it!! Pitty that the GotY edition of the original doesn't include the expansion.