Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 is the highly anticipated second installment in the Warhammer series. The game is developed by award winning Relic Entertainment. This new chapter will take players straight to the frontlines of this epic battle.

The story is this: In the 41st millenium in the Sub-Sector Aurelia – a cluster of worlds on the edge of the galaxy – a battle of epic proportions is about to begin. Ancient races will clash across the planets that dot this section of space, battleing for the greatest of stakes – not only the claim to the land and its bounty – but the fate of each race.

You will get four different playable armies at the beginning of the game: Space Marines, Orks, Eldar, and Tyranids. The gameplay from the first Dawn of War game was great but the second installment has some differences. The game’s lead designer, Jonny Ebbert, stated that this game “tkes everything that was great about the first game and combines it with the best Company of Heroes(another Relic game) has to offer.” One of the main improvements in the game was put into the cover system. There is a heavier focus on cover in this game than in the first which provides substantial defensive bonuses. There is also a new emphasis on ow to del with cover. For example, some weapons, like grenades, blow up cover while other weapons, like a flamer, bypass cover all together making strategy key.

If there is one thing people hate about a game it would have to be horrible AI. Luckily for all of us, Dawn of War 2 has really good AI. In some games, when your units you are not controlling are under attack, they simply stand there and do nothing which gets them killed and you a loss. However, in Dawn of War 2, the AI has received a boost to its thinking. Units under fire in this game will automatically take strategic cover and fight back to the best of their ability. There are also more realistically sized vehicles and an improved physics engine. This game is also a Games for Windows – Live game. What this means is that the game uses the Achievements system from the X-box LIVE and is the first widely released PC-exclusive game to do so.

The campaign of Dawn of War 2 is an interplanetary campaign where you play as the Space Marines. This campaign can be played solo or with a friend online. However, if you think it will be like any other RTS campaign then you’re wrong. This campaign has absolutely no base building in it at all. Instead you choose which units you want before you start and you play. You can not build more troops or different ones and you are limited on your reinforcement abilities. The campaign functions similar to the X-box 360 game Mass Effect in which you choose which battles to fight and which planets to fight on. And even when you do that you still have to decide between different mission objectives like saving civilians or obtaining a powerful piece of weaponry.

Once you select a mission and a planet, you have to choose from four different squads to use in battle. Each squad, however, is different and unique in lots of ways like how they fight, their bonuses and even the voice acting of their sergeant. These sergeants play a big role in the gameplay of the campaign. They increase in experience and skill and cannot die, thy are only knocked out. When a sergeant is knocked out, a close squad member can revive him, otherwise he is revived when the battle is over. The sergeants and commanders can also be outfitted with special war gear you collect from the battlefield by taking it from dead enemies or by completing objectives and each space marine can gain experience level up, learn new abilities and gain special bonuses while defeating enemies.

Overall this game looks to be a great improvement over the first game which was still very good and very popular. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 has made many positive improvements and looks to have good gameplay. You can pick this game up now in stores.

written by: Zack Duncan

Nvidea’s GTX 295

Nvidea’s Gefore GTX 295 is the most powerful single graphics card out right now. The card is essential two GTX 280 cards squeezed into one ultra powerful card. The GTX 295 offers a very noticeable performance gain over ATI’s previous successor the ATI Radeon 4870 X2.

The new GTX 295 sports 896Mb of GDDR3 memory, 240 shader cores, and a new more efficient 55nm process GPU. The GTX 295 comes with the normal set of ports including 2 DVI ports and a HDMI port. It also comes with Nvidea’s PhysX accelerated physics API, which is nothing to brag about since its hardly supported with any games.

If you are wanting this powerhouse of a graphic card expect to shell out some major cash. Currently EVGA’s version costs $500 for one, but that’s the price u have to pay to be number one.

Blizzard announces Blizzcon 2009

The Blizzard Entertainment gaming celebration will return to the Anaheim Convention center this year on Friday, August 21 and Saturday, August 22. Blizzcon centers around the Starcraft, Diablo, and World of Warcraft gaming communities. Blizzard is anticipating a much greater response to this year’s Blizzcon, and is expanding the number of convention halls from three to four. Some of the planned events this year will include

• Hands-on play time with upcoming Blizzard Entertainment games
• Discussion panels with Blizzard Entertainment developers
• Competitive and casual tournaments for players to showcase their talents
• Community contests with great prizes
• Commemorative merchandise based on Blizzard Entertainment’s game universes
• A silent auction

Further details will be released closer to the convention’s date on the website www.blizzcon.com

Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009

Way back in the far away time of 1995, there arose a convention the likes of which had never been seen, its name was the Electronic Entertainment Expo and to many people it was the embodiment of all things awesome, all things important, and all things gaming.

Since its conception, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, has been the largest and most widely recognized gaming trade show in the world. Its so big, in fact, that it is the only trade show to receive its very own “Best of…” awards by gaming critics. Many game developers spend more time and money on their E3 display and promotion than on any other convention and some even go s far as using fancy pyrotechnics.

E3 had always been open to the public until 2007. The 2007 E3 was invite only which was the biggest mistake in the history of E3 considering attendance went down from 60,000-70,000 people to about 3,000-5,000 people. When it announced an invite only E3, gamers and developers alike erupted in a fury which is probably the main reason I can proudly say that E3 2009 will be back open to everyone! That’s right, we can all say bye bye to the stupid special invite allowing access to the best gaming trade show in the world.

This year’s E3 will be held, as always, at the Las Angeles Convention Center(LACC) on June 2-4, 2009. Headed by the ESA(Entertainment Software Association) E3 ‘09 promises to be bigger, badder, and better than ever and plans to bring back what many would call the “true E3″. The ESA also said that IDG World Expo, whose principles have operated since its beginnings in 1995, will produce the event with ESA. ESA CEO Michael D Gallagher stated in an interview that “the 2009 E3 Expo will be the pre-eminate North American computer and video game event with robust exhibitor sales, high atendee interest, and strong commitments from multiple industry sectors. We are going to ensure the full excitement and energy of this industry is on display.”

Some of the biggest names in entertainment and video games are going to be there like these well-known companies: Activision Blizzard Inc., Atari Inc., Bethesda Softworks LLC, Capcom Entertainment Inc., Eidos Interactive, Electronic Arts(EA) Inc., Epic Games Inc., Konami Digital Entertainment Inc., Lucasarts Entertainment Company LLC, Microsoft Corporation, Midway Games Inc., Namco Bandai Games America Inc., Nintendo of America Inc., Sega of America Inc.,Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., Square Enix Inc., Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., THQ Inc., Ubisoft Entertainment, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Inc. just to name a few.

Needless to say this years Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 will be the best one yet with the reopening of the show to everyone and the major work being put in by the developers added to 2008 being the best year in gaming to date, the only way to go is up.

written by: Zack Duncan