Company of Heroes Online

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I'm not sure of how many here are familiar with Company of Heroes, a great RTS developed by Relic and published by THQ some years ago. Back in the day, it was really impressive, displaying great conflicts with excellent graphics, physics and destructible environments, all this while depicting the worn-out World War II conflict. Plus, it introduced a different resource-gathering mechanic that consisted of dominating and keeping specific points of the map that earns the player personnel, ammo and fuel. The objective was also kinda inventive: you could either destroy the opponents' bases (which is a hard task, considering infantry does minimal damage to buildings and tanks and vehicles are expensive) or hold the Victory Points distributed across the map, until you deplete your foes' points. Similar to what's seen on the Battlefield shooter games. It was a huge hit back in the day and had two expansion packs.

 

Years have passed and the game is still impressive and fun. Gameplay is fast-paced, multiple kinds of cover and tactics makes it unique. And best of all news, the devs decided to release it online and for free. Yep, you can download the game legally, play the original campaign and enjoy a kickass, BattleNet-esque, online-matching system with little lag at all. I know I'm sounding like a propaganda boy here but it's really that awesome.

 

The game follows an architecture shared with many free-to-play MMOs: it's free, but member's can purchase some special items with real money, which gives them an edge over the non-paying. So, rather unfair matches are a possibility. Still, this can be easily avoided if you play with your buddies and people you know that aren't squandering about this game.

 

Game's officially on Open Beta status, but we've recently been assured there will be no database erases, so you can create a Commander (which works like an Avatar and earns Experience and "Supplies", in order to use and buy upgrades to units) and start working on him. It'd be really nice if people interested downloaded it and we started a clan or something less serious here on LF.

 

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Here's the download link: http://www.companyofheroes.com/

[CommanderQ]

Company of Heroes was a pretty awesome RTS in my opinion and it had a ton going for it. Even when they integrated more online play in Opposing Fronts, it was still an excellent game.

 

Then there was Tales of Valor which was slightly more in the direction of being an online game and it wasn't half as good as the other 2. So, the next game being entirely online? I can't say I like that idea very much...

[Ctrl Alt Del]

Company of Heroes was a pretty awesome RTS in my opinion and it had a ton going for it. Even when they integrated more online play in Opposing Fronts, it was still an excellent game.

 

Then there was Tales of Valor which was slightly more in the direction of being an online game and it wasn't half as good as the other 2. So, the next game being entirely online? I can't say I like that idea very much...

 

Make no mistake, this isn't quite a new game. In fact, it's pretty much the original with a new wrapping. Basically, it's very online-oriented, but you can still play offline all right, there's even the original campaign available. Except it's all free.