Battlefleet Gothic Armada Video Released

There's a BFG video game coming!

Horus Heresy: Drop Assault Video Game Coming

 

A Horus Heresy Video Game is coming!

Horus Heresy Drop Assault Video Game

The Horus Heresy video game is coming!

Space Hulk: Ascension

A new video game is coming your way!

Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade - Wars of Arkhona Official Trailer

Eternal Crusade is coming!

New 40K "Chess:Regicide" Video Game Trailer

The new 40K video game is coming.

Space Wolf Game Revealed

The little blurbs we heard about this game months ago have finally turned into something altogether more tangible. Today we have an announcement trailer for the game that shows off something reminicient of Chaos Gate and XCom. I can't wait to see more!

New Video Game: Space Hulk Deathwing

A Promo Poster for SH:DW

It seems there's yet another 40k video game in the works. Displayed here is the promotional poster for Space Hulk: Deathwing. It's being developed by a French studio called Streumon Studio. They've already garnered some attention for their game EYE: Divine Cybermancy and definitely have the 40k look down.

Space Hulk: Pre-order Details Announced

Photos courtesy of Steampowered.com

The Space Hulk video game is now up for pre order. It'll be out on PC/Mac on August 15th and later this year on the iPad.

Warhammer 40,000 MMOG Announced

Big announcement in the gaming world as Games Workshop and Behaviour Interactive announced a 40K MMOG.  

Space Hulk PC Game Demo Footage at GDC

Space Hulk is here!

I had heard tell last November of a new PC game within the 40k Universe due to spring up quite soon. Here it is! Space Hulk, or rather a demo of Space Hulk has just shown up at the Game Developers Conference this week. It's still a short ways out, but will soon be available on PC, iPad, and Steam. If you're interested in following its continued development you can check out it's official website here.

You can also see a review of the advance here and an interview with Thomas Lund of Full Control Studios.

Son of Dorn

Introduction to Vassal 40K

By Matt Plonski

My friend Mike came over last night and helped me set up Vassal on my computer. Vassal is a program that allows you to play a virtual table-top wargame on your computer against an opponent on their computer over the internet. They support a wide variety of games. We played 40k, but Mike said he had only used War Machine before.

You start the program and connect to the server on the internet. One player creates a 'room' and then, once in the room, starts a game by picking a 'table' by size and terrain. Both players can build their virtual armies in a scratchpad area. A model is represented by a small picture, called a sprite, which is a top-down view of the model. The sheer amount of sprites available is impressive.

I was playing Dark Angels so I selected the category "Space Marine" then sub-category "Dark Angels." Under that sub-category there are the normal HQ, Troop, Elite, Fast Attack, and Heavy Support. Choose Troop and Dark Angel, and Dark Angel Specialist gives you a guy with a meltagun. Using the right-click context menu you can switch through all of the legal combinations of special weapons, so I choose Plasma gun. The sprite's weapon changed accordingly. Repeat until you have all of your army's models in the scratchpad area.

We then proceeded to play 40k as if we were at a table. You'd think, since the purpose of the program is to play over the internet, you'd have to trust your opponent to tell you what his dice results were. The creators have thought of that. They have a text chat system similar to an instant messenger. Built into the chat is a whole series of dice rolling schemes. They have straight-up dice (D6, 2D6, 3D6, ... , D3, and others), To-hit & Wound (enter # of shots, to-hit number, whether you can re-roll one hit, all hits, or none, and the to-wound number), To-hit & Penetrate (same as previous, but with armor values), and several more.

The user interface is a lot of fun. Simply select a model or group of models, rotate it using keyboard shortcuts or the context menu, then move it forward one inch at a time using keyboard commands. Measuring range is accomplished with a very simple drag line, but you can also put a 'range circle' around most models to see, for example, what is within 24" of your model.

Figure 2 Vindicator checking range to objective

All templates, scatter dice, and other tools are included. My favorite is the scatter die. You place the sprite of the correct template or Deep Striking center model where you are aiming and drop the scatter die right on the center-most point. Right-click "roll die" and either a 'Hit' appears or an arrow pointing in a random direction. If it is an arrow, roll your 2D6 in the chat window, select the die again, and move it 'forward' the correct number of inches. 'Forward' is the direction the arrow is pointing. Then move the blast marker or teleporter to the new location of the scatter die and continue from there.

Figure 3: Plasma Cannon scatters 3"

 Figure 4: New Template Location

 

Figure 5: Two dead Orks!

Another very powerful ability is the basic 'undo' function. Don't like where you put that Landspeeder? Hit undo until it is back where it started and move it again.

Once we got over the basic learning curve we were cranking through turns much faster than we could have in real life. Clean-up is non-existent. You simply save the game to your hard drive and you are done. You can also have the computer keep a log of the game so you can go back and re-play it. It is a perfect way to generate battle reports. I'm wondering if you could edit the steps into some sort of video. That would be great.

The next thing we are going to try is to create our own sprites so we can make our own units and tables. I'd love to change the Eldar to fit my paint scheme, for example, and it would be a fantastic way to design huge Apocalypse tables and see how deployment would work.

Google Vassal 40k to find out more.

One side note, you can save the game and game log, which enables you to go back and re-watch your game.  After you are done with the log and try to exit the Vassal engine you must make sure you save it again otherwise Vassal will delete both the game and the log.  I’m glad my opponent saved the game as well.  Oops!

Matt Plonski is the man behind Apoc-Eclipse in North Carolina, one of the premier Apocalypse clubs in the USA and a founding chapter of The Big Game.

Space Hulk Becoming a New Video Game

It looks like we will be treated to a  new video game, as announced on Games Workshop's daily blog.

From Games Workshop:

Storm bolters, power fists, bulky suits of Terminator armour and a claustrophobic corridor full of Genestealers. Space Hulk is one of our classic games that's attracted a cult following over the years and many an evening has been spent by hobbyists pounding up and down cramped passageways blasting Genestealers into bloody chunks. Well there's good news on the horizon because computer games developer Full Control have started work on a new Space Hulk computer game.

You take command of a strike force of Blood Angels Terminators as they make their way through the close confines of the Space Hulk - Sin of Damnation. It's a turn-based game that emulates the look and feel of the board game, but with full 3D animation. Genestealers lurk menacingly while the Terminators use their action points, bolter rounds tear down corridors in overwatch cut-scenes and whole sections of corridor are set alight as the heavy flamer hoses them down. There's a lot of exciting features to this game, which will be coming out next year on PC, Mac and iOS. I'll be sure to post teaser pictures on White Dwarf Daily when I get them. Until then, make sure you check out the Space Hulk website to find out more about it. Now, seeing as Terminators and Genestealers are very much the theme for today, here are a few pictures of them that you've sent in.

The obligatory video is really weak.  This is it? 

40k Mentioned in Family Circus

It looks like we 40k fans (and Dawn of War fans) got a treat for Halloween from Family Circus with a brief mention. I do have to say, of all the newspaper comics, Family Circus is the last one I'd expect to see any 40k reference in.

Son of Dorn

Steam Warhammer 40,000 video game sale this weekend!

Steam is having a HUGE sale on all Warhammer 40,000 computer games.  Now is the time to buy Space Marine for only$ 16.99 or Dawn of War II: Retribution for only $ 10.19 or any of the Dawn of War Games for only $ 6.79

Steam's Warhammer 40,000 order page.

If you are even thinking of playing any of these games, buy them now!

Alec

Is the 40K MMOG "Dark Millemium" in peril of cancellation?

While it happened 2 weeks ago, I thought I would cover this story, which is pretty important to us gamers.  Dark MIllenium Online was to be a THQ produced MMOG based on the Warhammer 40 Universe.  But THQ is in trouble and has started cancelling projects.  What is not clear, is if DMO is one of them.

Kotaku.com reported that THQ may well have cancelled DMO.  Reports from Kevin Dent, an industry insider say THQ is being forced to save cash as it prepares itself for sale.  The whole article is here.  The relevant portion is:

Kevin Dent, a games industry veteran, tweeted late yesterday that THQ had canceled an MMO it was developing under license from The Games Workshop, meaning Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millenium Online (pictured above). Dent went on to say that the publisher had also canceled all projects due for release in 2014 and was in the process of returning intellectual property to their licensors.

The purpose, Dent alleged, was to ready THQ for sale. "I am hearing everything (in 2014 is canceled), they need to preserve cash," he said. Dent noted THQ's stock price is around 66 cents; it was about $6 this time last year.

THQ then responded with this:

"THQ has not cancelled its 2014 line-up, and has not made any decisions regarding the planned MMO. As part of the ongoing review of our business, we have made decisions to ensure that the company is strategically addressing the most attractive markets. As we have previously announced, we have dramatically reduced our commitment to the kids' boxed games sector which leads to a significantly more focused release schedule moving forward. Our slate for calendar 2012 and beyond is focused on high-quality core games and continues to build our digital platform and business. We are excited for our pipeline of original and high-quality content along with our relationships with some of the best talent in the industry."

What is telling is that THQ doesn't say Dark Millennium Online is NOT dead.  It gives that wonderful corporate double speak to say they are "reviewing" it.

GamesIndustry.biz then corroborated the speculation about Dark Millennium Online with separate sources, which claimed the MMO was being offered for sale to other companies. 

Some will remember that Cryptic Studios took over Star Trek online when the company producing it previously went bankrupt.  MMOGs are notoriously expensive projects to develop.  I know that I consulted with an actor friend who wanted to develop one for his IP and had to get it through his head that he, and even the small company he was working with, did not have the resources to do so.  He finally dropped it.

Hopefully we will hear in the near future about the plans for Dark Millennium Online.  I for one was looking forward to playing it.