This has been known for awhile now, but I have yet to see a topic here so I thought I would make a topic to try and generate some hype for this game. When you preorder you get access to the beta and some other neat stuff like tank camo. If any of you have ever been in to RTS's but have never checked out COH, then you owe to yourself to check out this series.

http://www.companyofheroes.com/preorder

I got it preordered, just waiting for the beta to launch.
 
Notice that if you preorder it on Steam, you might get more bonuses the more people preorder it. If there are enough preordered copies we might just get a free copy of DoW 2.

BETA IS UP
 
http://beta.companyofheroes.com/
 
GO GO GO

Already on it, downloading it now on steam.

The game seems familiar yet different. There are some parts that feel a bit broken, Russian inf seem to be able to run right up to a squad in green cover and just throw a molotov at them which kills most of the squad and they have minimal losses and tanks feel like they are made out of paper.

To me it feels exactly the same. There are blizzards now though which are supposed to be a great new addition, but im not amused as they are annoying as hell. Soldiers can freeze to death and it isnt fun just 100% tedious.

I never played Company of Heroes before, but hearing some of the comments saying its the same game makes me want to play the original more (If I can get a PC). Then again this is Beta so maybe Relic will fix some things up by the time this game is released.

Though the blizzard addition sounds like its an unwelcome feature, which sounds like a bummer

I loved the original game. I also played Company of Heroes Online (the free to play game) a lot before it got canned (sadly). It really is a compliment to the graphics and gameplay of the original that I feel this is more like an expansion with a blizzard/cold weather feature added-on than a game taking Company of Heroes to a higher level.

So to be clear; I do like what I've played so far, and keeping in mind it is a beta and also that it is a last stress-test type beta. The final product won't differ much from this. I thought maybe it'd look 'even' better and have 'even' meatier effects and terrain deformation.

About the blizzard, it is different, but I might adjust to it. Sometimes it triggers frequently, and clouds the screen with snow and wind, and requires you to move troops to fires or in-doors/inside vehicles to avoid taking damage. Sometimes people die if you leave them in the snow. If it triggers too often it just feels like an unnecessary wall between players and the flow of the game set up in a good match for the sake of the visuals and in the name of realism. Also note it is not featured in every map in the rotation.

Now I've played 11 hours of the beta and I can say that I've had a lot of fun with it. I still want to point out that the blizzards are a bad/annoying factor rather than something that adds to the awesome factor and overall enjoyment of gameplay. Still. It is something that they're going to be pushing for this game and I guess it makes a lot of sense when the major German/Russian conflict of the war involved some pretty nasty weather conditions.

I've played some multiplayer and quite a bit of the AI custom game option, where I can team with AI versus AI. Setting team mates and opposition to Expert makes it for an intense experience. I kind of miss that the team AI seeks to cooperate more, like when there are friendly AI Engineers near my near-shot-to-pieces tanks and they've never once tried to repair them, or in terms the AI trying to fortify a position with bunkers and such, it never happens. The enemy AI seems to absolutely love mortars and long-range missile vehicles so I always expect to face those and to be honest when faced with a lot of them they pose a serious threat to pretty much anything, infantry or armor.

So far I can really recommend this. If you liked the previous game/expansions you'll find a near-identical experience in Company of Heroes 2.

I think you just need to get over your fear and timidness around blizzards and use them to your advantage. New players, the first thing they think when they see a blizzard, and all those temperature meters dropping is that they game slows to a crawl and nothing happens.

Once you get over the sight of a dropping temperature meter, and start planning ahead, a blizzard goes from a tactical nuisance/nightmare, to an opportunity to either launch an unexpected attack, or hold ground and recover.

I have done raids on enemy territory on the verge of a blizzard, destroying all the fire pits and preventing his infantry from having any warmth, meanwhile I built extra fire pits in my side of the map, allowing me to launch an all out assault in the middle of a blizzard while his troops froze in the fields trying to counter it.

Seriously, build more fire pits, they actually have quite a large range of effect. Built extra fire pits along roads that you commonly use, all the way from your base, to the front lines. Fill in the fire pit coverage gaps with your own. If you see a blizzard coming, buy a half-track or transports.

I've used the drastic sight reduction during blizzards to navigate flanking vehicles around the sides of AT gun killzones to hit enemy lines as soon as the blizzard let up.

I've tracked large troop movements right after a blizzard by their footprints, then redirected my entire army to counter a massive flank attack.

I have definitely had run dropping tanks and infantry into frozen lakes, it's great. I've taken to using demolition charges on maps where people often cross frozen lakes.

The AI and Mortar stats have recently been rebalanced in a beta patch. Also, if you're only playing against AI, then you likely have seen or learned of the awesome blizzard tactics to use during blizzards.

Lastly 90% of computers can't handle the graphics people say they want out of CoH2. FPS games and other types of games get around this by using all sorts of tricks, usually involving streaming, but with a big RTS game, there's just no getting around some technical issues when you have to have an entire complicated map and many units active at the same time.

They are giving out beta access on facebook now: https://www.facebook.com/companyofheroes?sk=app_351292091639277&app_data

@vertrucio: Yeah. Blizzards are a new feature that I feel isn't FUN. It is there. I see and understand the mechanics and how they affect players, but I don't find it entertaining at all. Some maps throw blizzards at us very frequently.

I have like 30 hours put into this Beta and I have to say that it is a really fun game, CoH 1.5 in terms of gameplay; there isn't much news with regards to improved cover mechanics; it is mainly the same game. I do want to stress that I don't find that to be a bad thing.

I don't like however that they are going to add a store to this and have people purchase commanders and such, but in these times we live in now I guess that was to be expected.