Dawn of War II getting major update this month

It dropped to $35 dollars on newegg a week after the release of the game. Once or twice it went down to 30 shipped but now it's back up to 39.99 again. Probably should have jumped on the lower price when it was down. I have no interest in getting into the game though with the lack of real base building.

I'll buy this game if they have it for like $20 on Steam. As a massive massive fan of Dawn of War and it's expansion, changing over to playing this style of RTS with no base or army building, its just not as good IMO.

Actually Trebeck, i'm one of those who not only calls the Metroid Prime games FPSs, but the best FPS games to come out in a decade. I'll probably buy Dawn of War 2 when it's nice and cheap, but after getting into the Beta, not only did i find it was terribly unbalanced (which is probably fixed now), but it was so different from the game i loved so much in the original, that i was sorely dissapointed. It's probably an excellent game that i'll buy and enjoy when it's cheaper, but for me, the first game will probably remain superior in my eyes.

Base building and army building is the core foundation of all RTS games. Its part of the challenge, it's part of the game. Without it, this isn't even an RTS. I would be more likely to call it a 3rd person squad-based tactical strategy or something. Its missing most of the meat of the RTS genre and is simply too different for my tastes. I was looking forward to this game more than Starcraft 2 and it was a massive let-down.

No Foetoid. Maintianing troops is a fundamental of RTS gameplay, however base building is not. Building a base is an entirely skippable "feature" if you ask me. If I wanted to build infrastructure, I'd go play Sim City.

Yes. Maintaining troops is one of the fundamentals of RTS gameplay, but so is base and resource micromanagement. They're all parts of a the whole picture of a good RTS game. Starcraft and Dawn of War 1 are perfect examples. Take out pieces and the puzzle in incomplete and doesn't look right. This game is more comparable to a RTS-viewed point-and-click Gears of War. I dont see why they couldnt have had all the 'get behind cover' features of this game with the building and resource management from the first game. Without base building and base defending, it doesn't at all feel like a RTS to me.

RTS games don't just fit to a narrow definition. This game has unique strategic elements, and it is real-time (Hence, RTS). If you want base-building on top of victory point control, you should be looking at Company of Heroes.

But it's sucks that people are skipping over this game because it removes an unnecessary element. There's no base building, but that doesn't mean the game has been gutted. The focus has just been shifted. And this game still have resource micromanagement. You're required to hold requisition points and power nodes, as well as construct generators around these nodes for power. The key difference here though is that the economy is much closer to the battlefield. You can choose to decimate the enemy's army, but can you can also go about winning by decimating their resources supply (power starving the enemy is a great way to win).

Base building might be fundamental to some of the classic RTS games, but it is by no means fundamental to the genre (as this game clearly proves). Personally, I'd say this game plays more like Battlefield than Gears of War, except you're in control of all the units on the field.

The thing with Dawn of War II (which I am an owner and fan of) is that it is different, as you guys have pointed out. It fits a certain niche in the genre, a very tactical RTS with an emphasis, as you guys have said, on the troops themselves rather than bases. If you want to play a more traditional RTS, there are plenty of options already on the market, I.E. Age of Empires, Starcraft, and soon to be Starcraft II, none of which Dawn of War is truly comparable to, and in that sense, I think it succeeds. For someone like me, who lacks the skills required to manage resources, bases, and units all at once, this allows me to focus on what I'm best at, commanding units.

Base building in Dawn of War sucked anyway. After building my millionth bolter turret I kind of lost interest in building bases.

Foe, "I dont see why they couldnt have had all the 'get behind cover' features of this game with the building and resource management from the first game." Because having absolutely solid and inflexible rules to what the RTS genre "can" and "can't" do is about as silly as the "rules" of punk rock. You sound like one of those assholes who has a seizure when someone calls Metroid Prime an FPS because OH MY GOD ITS EVER SO SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT FROM MOST FPS GAMES SO ITS NOT A FIRST PERSON SHOOTER DESPITE BEING A FIRST PERSON PERSPECTIVE ONLY SHOOTING GAME!!!!

Sorry bud, it's still real time, there's still strategy and resource management, and there are some players (such as myself) not only don't care if it fits the PRECISE definition but who ENJOY having something a little more straightforward for a change. Did you ever play 40k on tabletop? No resource management. This is a much more faithful representation of the 40k universe.

i think you can keep your eyes on the battle and manage your flanks and utilize the abilities and cover available because you don't have to jump back to your base to build the next structure in your carefully formulated plan to the perfect base. it's quite nice to play an rts and be able to focus on the battle.

Actually Trebeck, i'm one of those people who not only calls the Metroid Prime games FPSs, but the best FPS games to come out in a decade. I guess i just psyched myself up for this game too much. I got into the beta and was sorely dissapointed to find out it had strayed so far away from the original formula that i love so much. I've finished the campaign in Dark Crusade about 12 times and to see this as such a dramatic change was a bit of a shock actually. I'll probably get it when it's cheap and i'll probably enjoy it thoroughly, but to me, the original Dawn of War games will probably always remain superior. Yes i did play the table-top, with Tyranids actually, which is why i was looking forward to this so much.

Foe-

Ewwww, a Tyranid player? :-P

I never played them, actually, and amazingly never played against them either. I had a small set of Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Orks, and when the Necron first appeared a few of them too. I keep thinking of coming back to it, but so far I'm quite pleased with both of the DoW games, "real" RTS or not.

As for Metroid, I'd have to strongly agree, except for the third one. Didn't really do it for me. The first one, though, magnificent, and I wish that it'd get a PC port or at least a damned fine imitator. The concept of it "not" being considered an FPS boils the blood.

Get the Dawn of War Anthology off Steam. Excellent game!

indeed!

When I loaded the first level of the campaign I was pleased to see that DOW has moved away from the typical "small" RTS and gone back to basics and Games Workshops original concept for the game.

Would like to see more races and an ability to have larger battles using more units all across the galaxy. I just hope some time in the future we will see a campaign where all races and their chapters (armies) are used on an ultimate RTS scale, then this game will be close to perfect.