A short time ago the WorthPlaying crew posted an extensive preview on Dawn of War II. They go into some detail on a variety of aspects of the game including gearing and customizing your squads, the campaign, and even Tyranid unit AI:

“Toss a grenade over a wall into a group of Tyranids with a synapse creature, and they will immediately recognize it as a weapon, move to avoid it, and search out the attacker who launched it. Use a sneak attack to eliminate the synapse creature before tossing in a grenade, and the reaction is quite different. The individual Tyranids won’t know that the grenade is a threat. Some may ignore it. Others may sniff it. But they won’t run, and when it blows up, it takes out most of the group.” - WorthPlaying

Fighting against the Tyranids is going to be a blast, if you’re thoughtful in how you go about it. The article also comes with a boatload of screenshots, so give it a look.

Everyone loves these awesome screens of the Tyranids and the Plastic Wax CG trailer is phenomenal… but many people still want to know what are the Tyranids going to play like. How will they move, attack… swarm? Many of these answers can be found in this article from Gamespot. Furthermore, they’ve got our longest gameplay video yet! And this one is featuring the Tyranids in action.

More Leipzig information coming to you! This time courtesy of IGN. They confirm the Tyranid reveal and talk to our Senior Designer, Philippe Boulle in this Interview.

In addition, they have a copy of our extended Plastic Wax CG trailer first revealed at E3, and now extended for Leipzig!

Check it out!

Nothing makes us more excited and happier to let you in on the secret we’ve been hiding (and working so hard on) for so long. And not only are we letting you in on the secret, we are letting you in first!

The Tyranids are in Dawn Of War II!

For us, the Tyranids was a way to give the fans something they have been asking for ever since Dawn Of War… but it wasn’t until we designed the Essence 2.0 Engine did we think that the Tyranids could be brought to the Dawn Of War universe they way that we felt we could do them justice and in the way that the fans deserve. The Tyranids are a great way for us to bring something new and different to the franchise… a completely different race which operates unlike any other seen in Dawn of War to date.

“Each Tyranid is a living weapon, perfectly adapted to its designated function, but each creature is no more than a single cell in a galactic entity governed by a monstrous Hive Mind. As the Tyranid hive fleets drift through space they strip all life from the worlds in their path, leaving nothing but scoured rock in their wake…

…In the war zones of Warhammer 40,000, the Tyranids are instinctive masters of swarm-tactics and close combat. Frequently appearing by the thousands across untold numbers of world, they always outnumber their opponents, a fact that often guarantees their victory. Each Tyranid is equipped with diamond-hard rending claws, razor-sharp teeth, and a variety of other bio-weapons suited to both close quarters fighting and ranged attacks. What’s even more fearsome are the monstrous creatures striding through a Tyranid swarm like Carnifexes and Hive Tyrants, true behemoths who tower over even the largest of tanks and mechanised units. In total, the Tyranids are a cold and brutal opponent to face. Even the best warriors in the galaxy can only hope to stall the Tyranids’ advance.” – www.gamesworkshop.com

We have been working feverishly over the last year to bring this to Dawn Of War II successfully and in a way the fans will love. With the Essence 2.0 Engine and the incredible talents at Relic, we think we have been able to do just that.

Hi everyone!

This week is the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany… and therefore often referred to as just Leipzig. You can expect a bunch of updates and stories to come out of us this week.

In case you don’t know about Leipzig and what it means for us, it is the biggest Games Convention of all. It dwarfs the E3 Games show by comparison. Last year Leipzig attracted 185,000 attendees to a floor space of 115,000 square meters. That the size of more than 6 average Wal-Mart Supercenters put together!

We’ve sent Jonny Ebbert, Lead Designer, and Jonathan Dowdeswell, Executive Producer, all the way over there to make sure out presence is felt. That’s why we’ve been saving some pretty big announcements until this week. But you don’t have to be there to get in on all the action, we’ll be posting HUGE new information right here! And as promised… even some exclusive content including a pre-Leipzig announcements So make sure you keep watching the blog. And keep watching this picture.

For all you guys out at ComicCon or planning on heading over tomorrow, Jonny will be part of a THQ panel happening Saturday afternoon. Not only will he be talking about the game, he’ll be doing so using actual gameplay footage! Here’s the official word:

ComicCon: Saturday July 26th. Room 4 (2:30-3:30)

Dawn of War II & Deadly Creatures - From concept art to video games. Explore the richness of the Warhammer 40,000 universe and the inspiration behind Dawn of War II with Relic Entertainment’s lead designer, Jonny Ebbert. Rainbow Studios’ art director, Brent Ashe and concept artist, Andre Kirk take you through the creepy concepts, art direction, and twisted innovation of Deadly Creatures.

Gamespot’s E3 Live Show will be airing a pre-recorded segment with Jonny Ebbert, Lead Designer for Dawn of War II this afternoon with questions straight from the forums on community.dawnofwar2.com. this was recorded this morning to make up for the technical difficulties from yesterday’s live interview.

It will be a part of the 2:30pm (PST) segment cut in-between the live bits. So be sharp and watch for it here:
http://e3.gamespot.com/live.html

(EDIT: Gamespot wanted us to pass along that the failure with the Fan questions yesterday had to do with the fact that as soon as they opened their site for questions, 60,000 of you hit it and it couldn’t handle the onslaught of questions from you. …Yes Sixty-Thousand hits for Dawn of War II questions.)

Down at E3, Mark and Jonny are currently in a recording session with the guys from the GFW Radio Podcast right now! Currently you can listen to the podcast from July 15th where they talk a little about impressions of Dawn Of War II (about 55 min in).

They’ve let me know that in a couple hours, today’s podcast will be posted with the interview that is going on as I write this. Don’t forget to check it out.

*EDIT: it has been posted: http://www.1up.com/do/minisite?cId=3148397

Hey guys,

More Dawn of War II coverage coming at you from E3. This time tune in to check out Mark Noseworthy, Dawn of War II’s Producer, on IGN’s Livewire. He will be live tomorrow morning at 11:30 Pacific Standard Time.

In case you didn’t get the link, point your browsers to http://livewire.ign.com/2008/e3/index.html.
If you missed the live feed, look through Thursday’s archives to find the video!

Our very own Lead Designer, Jonny Ebbert will be LIVE on Gamespot’s E3 Live show to talk about Dawn Of War II. It is happening this afternoon, Wednesday July 16th, at 2:25 PST. The Gamespot’s E3 Live show gives you the unique opportunity to post questions about the game in an interactive session. So get logged in and ready.

In case you aren’t already glued to the E3 coverage the link is here.

edit 2:30 pst: GS is running a little behind, word has it at about 20 minutes, but don’t stop watching, just in case

Thanks for coming out to see the site! I hear word has gotten around the internet and more and more people are stopping by to see what’s going on. So I thought it give you guys a little teaser…

Well actually the little teaser is courtesy of GameTrailers.com. They mention that they have some hot new info on this weeks GameTrailersTV which airs Friday night on SpikeTV. I wonder what it might be… sounds interesting. In the mean time, you can check out the show’s own teaser here.

Welcome to the new Community Portal for Dawn of War II!

This portal is dedicated to help you join Relic and our development process as we bring you Dawn Of War II. This is something new, a first of its kind for us. We are really excited to be able to talk to our fans through this site. This will become your source to learn about the game, glean insights, and hear news directly from the development team at Relic.

Our goal is to provide you with not only information about the Dawn Of War II but also all the cool on-goings around the studio bringing it to you. So don’t come here just anticipating new screenshots, previews, and videos. Sure we’ll be sharing all that, but anticipate a behind-the-scenes look at what we do here at Relic and how we make kick ass games. I’m Dan Molina, Associate Producer along with Mike Torillo, Assistant Producer on Dawn of War II. Together with others, we will be your guides through the halls of Relic and on the road to Dawn of War II.

Usually you’ll see new stories appear at the top of the blog but we’ve gone ahead and posted some content for you already. Scroll down and you’ll see some new screenshots exclusive to the community site, the new teaser video, and some bio’s about our leads.

Check back soon, and check back often, the doors to Relic open very very soon!
- Dan and Mike