If you were previously excited about the impending arrival of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War’s Definitive Edition release, there are now two additional reasons to be excited. Firstly, it’s out very soon on the newly announced date of 14th August, and secondly, there’s a nice chunky discount if you own the Anniversary edition of the game.
Dawn of War’s Definitive Edition was announced back in May, amid a wave of other Warhammer 40K news bits, promising a fancied-up version of the original 2004 real-time strategy game intended to be more palatable on modern day hardware.
There’s 4K support, for instance, alongside upscaled textures (4x the originals, supposedly), an enhanced battlefield camera, “optimised” HUD and screen layouts for widescreen viewing, plus improvements to world lighting, units reflections, and shadows.
And it’s not just the base game getting those enhancements, seeing as the Definitive Edition also includes Dawn of War’s three expansions: Winter Assault, Dark Crusade, and Soulstorm. That, according to developer Relic Entertainment, amounts to “four Classic Dawn of War Campaigns, nine Armies, and over 200 maps”. Plus, the Definitive Edition remains compatible with “over 20-years of lovingly crafted community mods”.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition will cost $29.99 USD (or your local equivalent) when it launches for GOG and Steam on 14th August. And anyone that already owns the game’s Anniversary Edition, which released back in 2006, will be able to purchased the new version with 30 percent off as a “thank-you to our loyal fans.”
Eurogamer gave the original version of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 8/10 back in the day when numbers still went above five. “It’s a perfect gaming world,” Eurogamer contributor Keiron Gillen wrote, “being exploited perfectly, for the first time.”