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I stayed up til about 2 AM to watch Relic's announcement on their coming content. When I went to bed after watching it I was pretty unhappy. It seemed like the Eastern Front, a period of the War that I am fascinated by and believe to be far more important than the business on the Western Front, had been trashed for consumer dollars and the US Hollywood market. This is probably true. But it's unimportant.
I still have reservations and worries about the idea of having Soviets and Americans on the same map in action. But honestly, when it comes down to it. Who cares? I love my Soviets, whatever their imbalances, underpowered, overpowered and cheesy abilities. I'll always be a fanboy just because their history fascinates me. But that doesn't mean that Relic should just stick to the Eastern Front, because where was it going? What do we want? There's been constant complaints about DLC commanders and all the imbalances that have been spawned by them. If Relic had stuck to the Eastern Front, DLC commanders would have inevitably resulted, with rather bland Theatre of War content as well. Theatre of War is cool and interesting but it isn't enough to keep a game going. The release of the Americans and the Oberkommando De Wehr will.
People have been asking for new factions ever since the game released. Largely it has been for the Americans. It pissed me off no end, but the Americans and a German counterpart make the most sense. A German second faction on the Eastern Front would have been pretty easy, we've seen it with the PE in vCoH and now we're seeing for the OKW. A Soviet second faction would have all sorts of problems. All the major Soviet "branches" of their army, Red Army, Guards, Shock Armies, Tank Armies, Assault Engineers (considering what Shocktroopers are) have all been covered more or less by Commanders or in the core faction. To create a Soviet "shock army" or "Guards Army" faction would be extremely difficult, probably wouldn't differentiate enough from the base Soviets (after all, what kind of Soviet army doesn't have T-34s?) and wouldn't hold enough appeal.
Now look at the US. They have all new units, new equipment, new AT (which Soviets really could do with, I can't wait to have a 2v2 with Soviets and Amis) and the Hollywood Sexy factor that has been being created since the moment the US entered the War. Honestly, whilst I have massive reservations about the whole things even now, it's going to be a lot of fun and I cannot wait. The new German units we've seen look awesome, some features that are definitely going to migrate over to the Soviets (tank riders for one) look fricking awesome. Honestly, I cannot wait to see how Relic makes the Amis different and exciting from vCoH.
But there's more.
Look at how Relic are implementing these factions. You can buy one, or two, or more. You only need one to play. I'm making a few assumptions here, but I hope to whatever deity will listen that my assumptions prove correct.
The implementation (and my interpretation of it) is awesome on a pile of levels.
a) it significantly lowers the price to enter the game. If what I read is right, The US will cost $13. What I've read so far is that this will open up the one faction and allow them to play the entire multiplayer game and assumably the ToW DLC that the US get. That's great, I'll be able to force any number of my recalcitrant friends to play by simply showing them how cheap the game is at entry level. Then they can pile on the DLC commanders all they like.
b) It makes future factions super easy to make and market. This is what I find most exciting. This isn't being marketed as an expansion or anything, it's just more DLC. DLC always sets people's teeth on edge, but this is the virtue of DLC. It's easy to produce, sell and implement. From this Relic can make half a dozen new and different factions. Definitely what will next be on the list are Brits. Definitely. Along with that I can imagine a whole host of German and allied nations. A German Fallshirmjager-Luftwaffe faction is extremely likely to my mind, we've seen a great deal of many German arms of service, we haven't seen sight or sound of the Luftwaffe despite it obviously being in the original game. Now there's a possibility that they'll appear in the OKW faction, I doubt it however because they'd have shown it in the trailer, we'll see however. A German Gebirgjager army is possible... as well as the PanzerLehr divison possibly being able to have a faction all to itself considering amount of random things it has.
My fantasy is to have a German Mechanised faction along the lines of the Panzer Elite but incorporating elements of the British (portable command truck etc) with all the cool hardware of the German Gepanzerte PanzerGrenadier units, Half-tracks, Stummels, all those strange Marder versions as well as the 234/4 PaK-40 and even Pumas.
I'm sorry for the tangent there but whilst some people regard DLC as a pain and a waste of cash, which it often is, I think we have limitless possibilities down the road for Company of Heroes if all goes well. The turn around time for all this appears to be about a year, who knows how we'll be going in 3 years time?
There, I've said my piece, enjoy!
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MarcoRossolini
Relic Entertainment
cblanco ★ 
보드카 중대 
VonManteuffel 
Heartless Jäger 
