THQ and Relic's brutal RTS Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War rocks the casba because of its larger than life characters, insanely powerful weapons, and completely over the top and gory special effects. In fact, it's safe to say that, although the PC has more RTS games than any sane individual can keep track of, Dawn of War is by far the most deliciously violent and in your face. Therefore, it goes without saying that THQ and Relic would plan to release an expansion and plan they have! Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War Winter Assault is looking very kick @$$, and anyone looking to build on the devilishly addictive original game will be doing themselves an enormous favor in purchasing this stunning expansion.

In case you've been under the proverbial rock (or you just haven't discovered the joy that is PC gaming), Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War is a futuristic real time strategy title that takes place during the 41st Millennium in some post apocalyptic universe. In it you take control of one of four races: The blood-thirsty Orks, the Emperor-created Space Marines (who are doing their duty to save mankind), the Chaos Space Marines (who were corrupted by the Chaos Gods), and finally, the alien race known as the Eldar (that have all sorts of nifty psychic powers). Battles take place across a varied array of war-torn locales, and numerous units can fill the screen at a time, so your monitor will be exploding with gunfire. What's also cool about this game is its unmatched brutality. Unlike in other RTS titles, there's no huge emphasis on collecting resources. Rather, the game's all about wanton destruction. Blood flows like wine at an expensive prime rib dinner, and there's lots of close up shots of characters slicing and dicing their foes as well as unloading an innumerable amount of hot rounds into their soft and squishy bodies. Seriously, there's gore all over the place.

For the expansion, Relic is adding some cool new features and tweaking the gameplay in order to provide the most intense Warhammer experience yet. For starters, they've added a new faction/race known as the Imperial Guard, which is a basically a collection of grunts who aren't necessarily the most courageous groups of guys. In other words, they don't fare so well when ordered to run into a sea of Orks. Rather, their better skills revolve around striking from a distance and effectively utilizing cover. There are several classes to choose from and each is quite different, so you'll command standard-looking army dudes/shock troops as well as Ogryns, which are ogre-like creatures. Other types include special infantry units that execute deserters and cowards (which can raise the morale of a group), Psykers (who can strip the souls of enemies), and an Imperial Captain (who fights using these blades attached to his arms).

In addition to having various types of ground troops, the Imperial Guard also has access to all sorts of deadly and super powerful weapons and vehicles including tanks, two-legged battle machines that sort of resemble AT-STs from Star Wars, and the Baneblade, which is this gigantic (ENORMOUS actually) tank that has 11 guns on it! With all of this hardware at their disposal, it's no wonder why the Imperial Guard is also known as the hammer of the Emperor.

In addition to the new Race, all of the old factions will be receiving new units. The Chaos Marines will now have the Khorne Berserkers (crazy strong melee units that can make short work of their enemies), the Eldars will have Fire Dragons (they can destroy vehicles), the Orks have the Mega Armored Nobz (not only are they half Ork and half machine, but they can teleport), and finally, you'll be able to issue commands to Space Marine Chaplains (intimidating warriors marked by skulls that adorn their masks). I know this is a short list, but on the flip side, each of these units offers the player something special and are definitely worth checking out.

It doesn't appear that Relic's messing around with the multiplayer component much, though from what I've heard the developers are busy making some tweaks to ensure that the quality gameplay experience from Dawn of War will remain intact. As for the single-player campaign there are two games which allow you to check out both the good (Imperial Guard and Eldar) and evil (Chaos Marines and the Orks) perspectives.

Seeing as how this expansion is titled, Winter Assault you should expect to see some snow-covered war zones. Like in the previous game an innumerable amount of units can clog the screen, resulting in numerous gunfire flashes. When you add vehicles to the mix what you've got is complete and total anarchy unfolding across your computer monitor. It's quite a sight.

When you think about, Winter Assault isn't really bringing anything Earth-shattering to the table, especially when you consider that other expansions offer entirely new countries, islands, and continents to explore, but there's enough here that it warrants a purchase, if for nothing else to toy around with the Imperial Guard and tinker with the enhanced skirmish modes. THQ's releasing Winter Assault sometime this fall, so definitely make sure that it's on your 2005 holiday wish list.