If you've spent the past couple months enjoying THQ's Warhammer-ed RTS, Dawn of War II, you might want to brace yourself for a massive influx of new content coming soon in "Patch 1.3." Chief among these is a new 2v2 multiplayer mode (as well as two new maps which compliment this mode), UI improvements, push-to-talk voice chat, new squad decorations and a few "significant" AI improvements. The update is due out in "early May," which is ... right now! Keep an eye out for a firmer launch date -- we're sure to hear it soon.

Good news for you friendless, cheap, space-marine-lovin' Scrooge McDucks out there: You can now pick up a single-player demo for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II for free. The sample casts you as a gun-toting band of soldiers "battling the heretic Eldar, the pillaging Orks, and the ravaging Tyranid threats."

If you want to know what to expect from the game, you can check out our hands-on here, or, you know, just go play it. It's free. If you like what you see, you can buy the game for 25 percent off until April 20.

The debut of Dawn of War II and F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin did little to hold back the mighty power of the Lich King. NPD has released a list of February's top 20 selling PC games at US retail and, per usual, the World of Warcraft and The Sims 2 are a significant presence.

Just to give an idea of how significant WoW and Sims 2 are in the PC space, nine out of the 20 titles on the list are held by some SKU of those franchises. Check out the full list after the break.

Everyone loves the NPDs, but sales data for digital distribution channels has been much, much harder to come by. That's why we're happy to bring you the top 10 sales chart for the Direct2Drive service. As you can see in the chart after the jump, new kid on the block Dawn of War II was at the top of the pile, but Galactrix is putting up a fight in the number 2 position.

See, we think this stuff is interesting, but we want to make sure you do too. Is this the sort of thing you guys and gals would want to see every week? Let us know in the comments.

As reported last week by GI.biz, the NPD Group revealed THQ's new RTS, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, had topped PC sales for the week ending February 21 -- knocking World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King down to second place in the process. We'd analyze the data ... only there is no data to analyze; the NPD Group didn't include unit sales on its list. So, the lingering question remains: Is Dawn of War II a new trend in PC sales or was this simply a surge for a new -- and anticipated -- title?

That's a question which can't be answered until new data -- hopefully with numbers -- shows us second-week sales of the game. THQ is in dire need of a cash injection after a February announcement in which company announced plans to axe 600 jobs and analyst rumblings it has a 50% chance of bankruptcy. However, after a week's worth of sales and toppling the current (Lich) king of the PC market, it is possible that the publisher may not have such "mediocre product" as analyst Mike Hickey once theorized -- and, if all else fails, it could always unleash 50 Cent.

Relic Entertainment's Mark Noseworthy has confirmed with Joystiq that the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 closed beta will begin January 21st if you purchased the original Dawn of War expansion, Soulstorm. Procrastinators, take note: you'll be introduced into the public beta just a week later on January 28th. Or, break the cycle of lethargy and pick up the expansion in order to grab an early beta spot.

We got a closer look at Dawn of War 2 during CES, and fans of real-time strategy games will not be disappointed ... unless you don't own a PC (but c'mon, how could you be an RTS buff without owning a PC?). Dawn of War 2 will be a PC-only release with Games for Windows Live features like voice chat and Achievements.

We learned a valuable lesson at CES last week: Don't demo an RTS game on a trade show floor. Why? Because it's nigh-impossible to hear a developer's instructions over the deafening noise of geek-outs. It turns into something like this dialogue snippet from our hands-on experience with Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War 2:

Relic: "So, you'll quickly want to set a rally point here." *taps screen*
Joystiq: *clicks on random units* [units march off-screen]
Relic: "Okay, so if you look at this icon, you'll see that your character is earning zeal. You might want to build some heavy firepower units for support."
Joystiq: *attacks enemy power generator* [cue: bad move!]

It was just too darn loud at CES to get good instructions, and Relic only had one demo station on hand, which obviously did not feature any PVP gameplay. Naturally, we had StarCraft 2 in mind as we fooled around with Dawn of War 2, measuring Relic's RTS against what we've played of Blizzard's next blockbuster. We can say that Dawn of War 2 is currently winning in the looks department. As we watched an Imperial Tank literally roll through walls and crush them into powder while Space Marines jumped over the action with jetpacks, we were remiss to have left our drool bib back home in the hamper.

We've embedded a pair of videos from our session after the break, including producer Mark Noseworthy blowing stuff up!

Situated in the exact opposite corner of the CES Central Hall, Microsoft must have been strategically placed so that no wars would break out between the two juggernauts. Although Justin McElroy thinks it's so that an employee from Microsoft won't fall in love with an employee from Sony and cause complete chaos. That's definitely more plausible.

However, just like Sony, Microsoft only had a tiny section devoted to gaming. You could get some hands-on time with Fallout 3, Lips, the new Scene It, Gears of War 2, Dawn of War II and Halo Wars. The rumor we'd heard that Fallout's upcoming Operation: Anchorage DLC would be there turned out to be untrue, so we spent most of our time beating young girls at karaoke with Lips. Okay, we kid. We geeked out on Dawn of War II. More on that soon. Meanwhile, enjoy the gallery below for you booth addicts.

THQ CEO Brian Farrell has revealed that the company plans to only release one or two hardcore titles as part of its "significant business realignment." According to Gamespot, Farrell stated at a recent conference that the new model would cut the publisher's previous development expectations in half and focus on quality over quantity.

Don't expect to see the changes until at least 2010. THQ already has four core titles set for 2009: Red Faction: Guerilla, Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 2, Darksiders: Wrath of War and Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor. Saints Row 3 could become one of those two 2010 titles, considering the game is currently in development.

Cleanse the heretics and long live the Emperor! The latest Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II video gives us an amuse bouche of in-game footage to check out until we (cross-fingers) get to see at lot more at E3 next month. With the series back in the hands of Relic studios, hopefully the game will help THQ's bottom line when it releases early next year.

For those who missed out on the original Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War series (which is three games -- four, if you count Soulstorm), it still holds up well and can be found in a boxed Platinum Set, and on Steam, for around $30. For the sake of DoW II's sales, we hope Starcraft II isn't released anywhere close to the same time.