Not difficulty-wise. They seem to have altered quite a lot from the table top rules. The control quirks are gone and Tyranids lost a ton of flexibility in unit options. Developers made them Zerg.

Anyway, are DoW 1 campaigns any good? The non-linear conquest ones form expansions.

Well what they did because they couldn't really use synape rules in an RTS game is to give all Tyranid synapse creatures an area buff for other units. When the synapse creature is killed it lets out a psychic shockwave that damages nearby nids. The spirit of the game is there as it still encourages you to shoot the big ones but if you are expecting synapse control then no it's not present. For a good reason IMO.

I'm on the fence regarding the original DoW. Paying $25 for those games seems a bit steep, it should've been 75% off for the original DoW, 50% for DoW2 :\

Dawn of War has the best campaign hands down. It also has the most memorable characters like Gabriel Angelos and Sindri who have ascended into meme legend. Winter Assult is decent but you switch between Chaos (Chaos & Orks) and Order (Imperial Guard & Eldar) only in the last two missions do you truly pick a side. Still these games have the best stories.

Dark Crusade is more of a meta-game where you fight for control of a planet and pick territories to conquer. A little like Risk. It adds Tau and Necrons to the mix and I would say it's the best overall package if you were to pick just one Dawn of War game.

Soulstorm.... well it's a clusterfuck really. It expands the Dark Crusade meta-map to include other planets and adds Dark Eldar and Sisters of Battle but the plot makes no fucking sense (The Sisters immediately attack the Imperial Guard and the Dark Eldar immediately attack Chaos and vice versa). Also flyers are flat out broken. It has had a decent patch though and it offers the most variety with 9 individual races. It was the one game not coded by Relic but Titan Quest developers Iron Storm and it shows both in Q&A and in fluff abuse.

100 Baneblades... Stehil Rheign....

OnLive weekend 2K Games sale. Nothing too special.

Indeed. I wished for a 75% discount on all DoW/DoWII games, but 10€ for Retribution will do for now. They also seem to have removed the big DoW pack that contained all DoW games plus DoWII. I used to recommend the THQ Complete Pack for DoW newcomers but sadly its not complete anymore.

Tempted by the Runaway games on Dotemu for $5 a piece.

I first one is pretty good! I liked it.
The 2nd Runaway got pretty mixed reviews, so I cannot comment on that.


PS:
And Max Payne 1+2 are 75% off on Steam (again)

I went ahead and grabbed 'em. $5 a piece for DRM free copies is too good to pass up, even though I have an adventure game backlog the size of the moon.

Makes sense in 40k story lines. The Sisters are not above burning out rot wherever they find it and Dark Eldar and Chaos have zero affiliation other than they like to use words like "offal" and "charnel".

SS is just as good as any other DoW game if you are coming from TableTop interest, but the fliers do suck. I simply dont use them and am happier for it. You are never required to do so.

Sadly not in Italy, I don't know why.
I can see the News announcement but the games pages are unavailable. Looking in the forums looks like I'm not the only one.

Oh well, I suppose it means I have some more cash to spend on the GOG promo ;)

Makes no sense because when Dark Eldar die at the hands of Chaos they are dead. That's rather off-putting to an immortal race. The Sisters of Battle are the brides of the Emperor and figures of worship to the Imperial Guard, they don't exterminate them with no evidence and there is no evidence in Soulstorm that the Imperial Guard were corrupted (*spoilers*). I fear you are confusing the Sisters with the Inquisition and even the Inquisition don't start burning humans when there is plenty of heretics and xenos to be found.

Wasnt available to Australians for a longtime either. Now it is.Instant buy :).

Soulstorm loses the tightly polished feeling of the previous games. Everything's a little off.

Yeah I paid the full $14 when it became first available in Japan and don´t regret it.