Closed Beta Test for THQ 'Company of Heroes' Expansion
One of the most critically acclaimed games to have premiered in 2006 is Company of Heroes, designed by Relic and published by powerhouse THQ. The game gives you a bird's eye view of realistic World War II ground combat, as you make command decisions that direct the mission of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne. Now, the first expansion pack for Company is undergoing limited beta tests, and now you have the option of leading companies in the British 2nd Army and the German Panzer Elite.
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts uses Relic's outstanding battlefield engine, first in enabling you to substitute the 101st Airborne for the 2nd Army in a critical mission to retake Caen from Axis occupation. But second - in a surprising divergence that reveals the Relic engine was more capable than at first realized - you can lead the Panzer division that successfully repelled the 1st British Airborne division from taking that key bridge in Arnhem, Holland, depicted in the classic film A Bridge Too Far.
The limited beta is being offered through FilePlanet, to the earliest registrants to receive download keys.
Last year at the final E3 Expo in Los Angeles, THQ gave me a preview of the original game up close. Here's how I wrote it up for TG Daily:
Perhaps nothing in this game is a mere boundary or border edge, or indestructible object. Almost everything that isn't a soldier is a resource, including the ground itself. Buildings, once partly blown up, can be adapted for cover. Soldiers occupying a building soon make use of whatever shape it may have taken during the battle, which for this game is not predetermined. If soldiers have to knock out a window, or even part of a wall, to attain a proper shooting angle, they'll do so. You don't order them to do it; that's just part of their job.
...Maintaining the dignity of one of history's great turning points, while at the same time addressing the need for fun and excitement, is a daunting task. Yet from the first previews we've seen of Company of Heroes, Relic just may pull this off. At E3 this year, attendees were drawn to its detailed strategic game play, although some were turned away by the lack of a Hollywood hero or a commando leader. What attracted us to this game was its dignified, solemn approach to the simulation of warfare, which counters the unrealistic - and, frankly, false - representation of war in most modern gaming as a stage play with a star and a happy ending.
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| Relic designer Josh Mosquiera showed me the first ready-for-public-viewing beta of Company of Heroes at the final E3 Expo in 2006. (Original photograph for TG Daily) |
