Company of Heroes 2 beta up on Steam

[WalkinTarget]

As of late yesterday, the open beta for Company of Heroes 2 was available on Steam. Restart Steam and it will show up in your library. I think it's open for the next 12 days, so for anyone looking to try before a buy this is your opportunity.

My thoughts after a few games - the game did not live up to the massive hype that I personally was putting into it. CoH has been my go-to game for many years now, and for the old timers I equate it to the move from Quake to Quake II ... nothing could reach the pinnacle of FPS games for me after Quake, and Quake II just didn't offer the same level of gaming fun.

The game also took so long to be released that mods popped up here and there that filled in the missing Soviet factions for the original Company of Heroes (if you haven't played Eastern Front, you should - it's Mod of the Year for several years running now). Eastern Front did such a fantastic job incorporating the Soviets into the original CoH that you'd have thought the devs of CoH had a hand in its making. They aren't even close to done either, as a new Ostheer faction will be included in the next 2.0 release of Eastern Front.

[WalkinTarget]

Beta ends in roughly 8 hours ... I played the crap out of it, ranking up to Staff Sergeant (level 35) by last night. The beta tops out at level 40, so I did pretty freakin' good with the limited time I had to play. I initially wanted to give this game a pass after seeing some in-game videos, and the beta at first left me less than impressed, but it soon grew on me. Any game with WWII era tanks and gameplay draws me like a moth to the flame.

I would have a very hard time justifying the $100 Digital Collectors Edition price to anyone, but I managed to get $125 on Amazon GCs this past weekend for my B-day, so of course I used that to buy the DCE version of the game. Altho very pricey, I can now enjoy an additional 5 commanders to choose from plus the 'Theater of War' pack, which is an interesting recreation of WWII timeframe specific battles dating from '41-'44.

Expect to see me playing this game almost exclusively for at least a year. I'm getting too old for the twitchfest FPS shooters, and even with CoH2 my tendinitis flares up in my right elbow after every game. Getting old isn't any fun, but we all knew that, so just find a game that appeals to you, play it til the fun has left it and then move on. I will be on the battlefield laying mines, digging in emplacements and capping VPs.

[{CLR} Cobalt]

I played CoH Opposing Fronts for a pretty good while while I was overseas. Never did play the MP cause I suck. But I played the single all the time. Kept me occupied. But I really rather play FPS with friends.

[WalkinTarget]

Cobalt, I know I managed to play 500+ games on CoH1, and not a single one was online. I play only SP these days, primarily CoH1 or CoH2. MP is a very different animal in how its played - I watched countless matches on YT to see if I was missing anything.

I enjoyed TF2 as my CoH diversion, but it kept getting more and more gimmicky to the point that I didn't even know half of the weapons that guys were carrying around. FPS games for me are dead, unless someone makes an 'Enemy Territory 2', at which point I will come back and haunt you all with my Engy rifle grenade and mine laying skillz.

I enjoyed CoH1 so much I forked over the $70 for a lifetime sub to CheatHappens so I can run the trainers and toy around with instant builds, no pop caps and other fun stuff. That lifetime sub applies for all games, so I can now use a trainer on CoH2 - its cheap, but its my stress relief from work. Nothing takes out your frustrations on an enemy like spamming 3 Shermans, a pair of snipers and 2 squads of infantry in 5 seconds flat.

[WalkinTarget]

No more beta, its LIVE as of 12:00 AM today !! I got a chance to start the 'Theater of War' portion of the Digital Collectors Edition, and it really is a treat. It offers up I believe 18 scenarios, 9 per faction, offering pre-designed battle scenarios for test your skills. Some have those god awful time limits on them (first one I played in fact) which annoy me, but force you to not turtle and camp. Further ToW scenarios are promised down the road, as Relic can set up some classics like Kursk or Stalingrad and let players duke it out against the AI.

I think I will spend the meat of my game time playing ToW, as it gives you a lot of different scenarios to slog through, and the campaign itself seems to be a rather short one compared to CoH1, but Relic has always supported the gamers, so I look forward to seeing many more maps and scenarios released in the coming months. I still can't believe I paid $100 for the DCE version, but I know I will get my money's worth when it's all said and done.

[AmazingRedd]

someone buy me the game.

[WalkinTarget]

someone buy me the game.

GreenManGaming had it for $45 after a 25% off coupon. $60 is still more than I ever wanna pay for a game, but knowing the amount of DLC that Relic will be offering, and the fact that each DLC will add up quickly, I opted for the Digital Collectors Edition. The Theater of War mini-games are freakin' coo! ... I am playing them every day now, altho at launch there are only a paltry 18 missions total.

If you are playing something else, keep playing it. CoH 2 has its issues, namely the performance, which is unbelievably slow on modern hardware. No SLI support forthcoming, and even an Intel 2600 with an Nv Titan card will only bring you around 40fps average at max detail. Pick it up on the Steam holiday sale for around $30-35 at that time.