World War 2 is no stranger to PC game veterans. How many World War 2 shooters are there now? Every publisher has at least one franchise depicting that particular era. I recently got to see THQ's latest World War 2 based game, Company of Heroes, a World War 2 strategy game being developed by Relic.

The game is a real-time strategy that takes place on a battle by battle basis, as you lead a Company, a Company of Heroes, to victory against those damnable dirty Nazis. As for the strategy aspects, the game involves you taking command of your troops, conquering portions of a city, and ordering things to be blown up. Quite a nice change from typical resource gathering or micromanagement frequently seen in strategies. Your troops move in squads, and, like I said, most of your tasks involve ordering these troops around.

The first thing I noticed about Company of Heroes is that the game looks absolutely phenomenal. The characters and levels are detailed, the buildings can be blown up in a variety of different fashions, falling apart a special way depending on what type of ammunition hit it, and where it was hit. The cities have all kinds of different debris scattered about, on top of which they were designed to fit that particular era. The explosions are also fantastic, displaying a variety of unique effects. At one point I witnessed a full artillery barrage on one small area, as the explosions hit, sand and dust were tossed into the air, with the fire of the blast visible behind it. It looked great, plus it felt like the artillery was actually destroying something.

The units themselves also seem pretty cool. As mentioned earlier, your troops move in squads, but you aren't limited to just infantry, there are tanks and jeeps and airplanes as well, although you don't get to command the airplanes, so much as just call in for air drops, strafing runs, and paratroopers and the like. The vehicles look absolutely awesome, I watched a US flame tank take on some infantry with a giant flamethrower, and the entire action worked out pretty well, at least until the Panzers showed up. What was interesting is that the tank unit had different levels of armor at different points, just like real tanks. When a tank got shot from behind, a warning would come up on the screen illustrating the conditions of the tank engine, which eventually got critical.

The game's AI works pretty good as well, with your squads actually seeking cover on their own during a firefight, and they are smart enough to take shelter just about anywhere, including blast craters. The path finding looked very good with the units moving smoothly through the city. At one point I even saw a tank drive through a brick wall, knocking it down and out of the way, as opposed to going around. It felt very real to watch, and it made me want to go to the armory and steal a tank to try it myself a few times.

Company of Heroes looked at least semi-complete when I saw it; however I do not know the release date. The game looks good, which is saying something when you're at a show where there are a lot of good looking games. And of course, it's Relic, and they certainly have a nice track record to back them up.

-- Jackson 'Smapdey' Johns

Dancing in the dark!!

Looks like God just emptied his ashtray.