Company of Heroes 2 Announced

[sAnt@]

- 2013 release
- Main campaign is Eastern front, playing as Russians
- Lots of snow. Snow slows down troops and tanks, but can also form cover.
- Units can vault over cover such as low walls.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=472681

[Xplode]

OMG I jizzed

Never been more excited for a game EVER!

[Chubz]

With this and C&C Generals 2 from BioWare on the horizon, it seems the PC RTS scene is finally starting to pick back up.

[{0}Salamander{0}]

Oh right, I thought the developer or the publisher of the original COH went "bump" or something? No?

[Sundance Kid V2]

Originally Posted by Chubz

With this and C&C Generals 2 from BioWare on the horizon, it seems the PC RTS scene is finally starting to pick back up.

[RAY16]

That is a really good cover. Also, I still haven't finished the first CoH or its expansions.

[Xplode]

This is EXACTLY what I wanted. I always said I wanted the Russian theatre with snow playing a factor. Can't wait!

[spindoctor]

first thought that comes to mind... will thq even be alive by the time this is ready to release?

[icecold1983]

lts see if they hammer out another cookie cutter game on their same tired 7 year old engine

[Redshirt_X]

Too early to be really optimistic, but hell--more Relic product is usually a good thing, and more CoH should be even more so.

(Magazine scans over here for the time being, it appears.)

[Xplode]

Originally Posted by icecold1983

lts see if they hammer out another cookie cutter game on their same tired 7 year old engine

Which is still one of the most impressive if not the most impressive RTS engines out there. Just shows how good the engine is.

[Thorney]

From the article, Quinn Duffy is lead designer now. He goes all the way back to co-designer credit for Homeworld and worked on each of COH titles. Relieved to see continuity at Relic despite the restructuring and vulnerability to corporate takeovers thanks to THQ.

Originally Posted by icecold1983

lts see if they hammer out another cookie cutter game on their same tired 7 year old engine

True, the expansion were soft in content but this isn't an expansion. I don't think anyone in multiplayer cared, they got four factions out of it.

"Puma is trying to engage our armor... good luck!"

Originally Posted by Xplode

Which is still one of the most impressive if not the most impressive RTS engines out there. Just shows how good the engine is.

Imagine the response if COH2 is the first DirectX 12 game. It's easy to forget COH was the first retail DirectX 10 game unless you still have tweaking nightmares of the benchmark. "Hunter! Flash! Is this everyone?"

[sittal]

more coh? yes please!

[Chubz]

Here's some additional/more detailed information directly from PC Gamer's website:

• It’s set on the Russian front. You control the Soviets in their fight to repel the invading Nazi force.
• Snow plays a major part on the battlefield, falling and melting dynamically, and slowing your soldiers and tanks based on its depth.
• The game runs on the Essence 3 engine, the latest version of the graphics engine Relic have been updating and expanding upon for years.
• The cover system has been revamped, to function more realistically and allow soldiers to vault over obstacles.
• Line of sight plays a large tactical role, with the game’s fog of war based on what your soldier’s can actually see. Relic call this system “True Sight”, and it causes areas of the map to be grayed out and enemies within turned invisible by buildings, items of cover, or dropped smoke grenades.
• The Normandy landing that opened Company of Heroes (and Saving Private Ryan, one of its key inspirations), was the 23rd biggest battle of World War 2. “13 of the 15 bloddiest battles” happened on the Eastern front, points out Company of Heroes lead designer, Quinn Duffy. The game should represent those battles and their vicious scale, as much as it does minute infantry tactics.
• Just like the original, the scenery is highly destructible, and you’ll be given control of plenty of tanks and other explosive equipment. That includes barn-burning flamethrowers.
• There will be multiplayer, but Relic aren’t ready yet to talk about it.
• The game is due out 2013.

Snow that falls and melts dynamically, huh? Could this be some sort of groundbreaking new technology? I don't really understand how something like that could be done on maps as large those in RTS games. Cryostasis had some nice PhysX effects which featured melting icicles, etc. but I don't know that I've ever seen snow that actually falls and piles up and can melt.

[Perky McGiggles]

OH

****

YEAH

[spindoctor]

Originally Posted by Chubz

C&C Generals 2 from BioWare on the horizon

you might want to do some research into that. generals 2 is being made by a studio that consists of the folks who worked on c&c 4 and itt was named "bioware victory" to cash in on bioware's brand name.

[Perky McGiggles]

Yeah, I liked Generals but Generals 2 is a very much wait and see. I don't trust the new studio much less Bioware after their last few games. Here's to hoping though...

I'm really looking forward to COH2 and have high hopes, but I'm a little bit leery that they might do to COH -> COH2 what they did to DOW -> DOW2. That is, gut the base building and focus more on hero unit combat.

[icecold1983]

scans look identical to the first company of heroes. theres rly no excuse if they release a game in 2013 with minor improved visuals over a 2006 game

[Chubz]

Originally Posted by icecold1983

scans look identical to the first company of heroes.

Interesting... I'm sure the gameplay will still be top notch, though.

[FMT]

Originally Posted by spindoctor

you might want to do some research into that. generals 2 is being made by a studio that consists of the folks who worked on c&c 4 and itt was named "bioware victory" to cash in on bioware's brand name.

Considering the last couple of games out of Bioware...I dont know if they have much of a name anymore.

[Napoleonic]

meh, Men of War series > CoH...

[KAC]

Fantastic news. Can't wait.

[dawdler]

Originally Posted by Chubz

Snow that falls and melts dynamically, huh? Could this be some sort of groundbreaking new technology? I don't really understand how something like that could be done on maps as large those in RTS games. Cryostasis had some nice PhysX effects which featured melting icicles, etc. but I don't know that I've ever seen snow that actually falls and piles up and can melt.

Areas with snow level X out of max based on a global "is it snowing? Is it melting?" variable and graphics to follow each stage. Hardly groundbreaking, the theory is very simple. The implemention is a little harder, especially if we assume a smooth slider. I doubt we are talking per-snowflake physics

Anyway, Company of Heroes is BY FAR one of the best RTS games I have ever played. Everything was quality work, a true 10/10 game and a worthy successor to the old Close Combat series. CoH2 is a certain buy!

[Xplode]

Originally Posted by dawdler

Anyway, Company of Heroes is BY FAR one of the best RTS games I have ever played. Everything was quality work, a true 10/10 game and a worthy successor to the old Close Combat series. CoH2 is a certain buy!

Can't stress this enough. Every single facet of the game was done amazingly well.

Are there any ingame pictures lurking around from the scan? I can't seem to find any.

[poohbear]

erm, hate to be a downer, but alot of the Relic staff were sacked, including quite a few that worked on CoH & DoW2, so not sure if this will ever see the light of day. THQ is on the verge of bankruptcy, so not sure how they're gonna pull this one off.

Originally Posted by Perky McGiggles

I'm really looking forward to COH2 and have high hopes, but I'm a little bit leery that they might do to COH -> COH2 what they did to DOW -> DOW2. That is, gut the base building and focus more on hero unit combat.

u actually enjoy base building? It slows RTS games down and becomes a sim/RTS. I prefer the strategy part of RTS and the adrenaline associated with that, DoW2 revolutionized that and took all that base building nonsense away so we get right to the action! but hey to each his own.

[Fleksta]

I thought the base building of CoH was handled very well. It didn't seem to hinder anything. CoH wouldn't feel proper with DoW2 gameplay mechanics.

[Redshirt_X]

According to Relic CoH2 will use the third version of their Essence Engine (the CoH line before this used EE1.0, and the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II line uses EE2.0). They also said some other fluffy stuff, along with this:

[Thorney]

"Getting ready to show Company of Heroes 2 to the world’s press! http://pic.twitter.com/EGe8JKA3" @companyofheroes

Presumably (one of) COH2's E3 booths. Blizzard won't be at E3, again.

"This channel has no videos" - YouTube: Company of Heroes 2

Should be an E3 trailer premiering in about 18 days, or less-ish.

Coupla Points;
- For those of you wondering, there are a large number of original COH team members on COH2. I was on the original from day one, and I'm in year 14 at Relic.
- This is a true sequel - with all that entails. - qduffy (aka Quinn Duffy)

About the snow... several RTS genre-like games have featured on-the-fly deformable terrain; Perimeter, Maelstrom, Black & White, more recently From Dust, and hey, even Battlezone once upon a time. But it's always been a gimmick in that it lets the player deform the deformable terrain themselves (with special powers or splodey mayhem) while not substantially adding to game play. I'm hoping the snow adds a naturalistic element of randomness so that no map plays the same twice. COH's less gimmicky destructible buildings and fortifications were a promising precedent. "Let's burn them out of their rat holes." Although COH's weather and time of day map settings did affect movement speeds and sight ranges, it was pretty static and slightly gimmicky.

I'd be very surprised if the line of sight feature is startlingly innovative. You've always had "circles of vision" in fogs of war for a reason, other methods are computationally prohibitive. Some dungeon crawler games have used ray casting for line of sight, no big terrain RTS titles come to mind.

[Fleksta]

Didn't Earth 2150 have snow? I seem to remember it accumulating and affecting line of sight; but I don't think it had any other gameplay effects.

[Thorney]

"The first RTS to make you jump"

For returning COH vets, the idea that every unit can be cloaked/camouflaged simply by hiding out of sight in most any cover, as close as the nearest building corner or wall, promises a substantial transformation in game play. The only detection methods are being ambushed, destroying cover, or observing signs of previous movement as tracks and footprints in light snow. (Not heavy. Presumably light snow becomes heavy over time.) All unmanned vehicles are capturable. So... Company of Heroes: Dirty Pool You Aren't Used To. I can hear the whining of the rudely ganked already.

The press invite was a "Pre-E3 First Look" sneaky peek held up in Vancouver.

In attendance were Gamespot, IGN, CVG, Destructoid, Kotaku, Escapist, and Rock Paper Shotgun, etc.

Everyone took home five new screenshots. GameTrailers and PCGamer got video, but not game play video.