Thanks, Kotaku.

The DLC is reportedly already live for PC and PlayStation 3 and will arrive on Xbox Live shortly.

If you want to jump right in, you’ll be pleased to learn that all your progress from competitive multiplayer will carry over.

THQ announced the post-launch DLC just before the game’s release; until then, it had kept quiet on the possibility of co-op play.

Thanks, gamesradar.

Here’s what you’ll get:

• The Last Stand Tau Commander comes with 26 pieces of wargear, 2 achievements, an all new voice and 20 levels of progression and can be used in the Last Stand Mode. It will run you $9.99.
• The Chaos Word Bearers Pack adds the Chaos Space Marine Legion, seven models for the major multiplayer units as well as new color schemes for the others. It will run you $7.49.
• The Death Korps of Krieg Pack adds the Imperial Guard regiment, 10 unique models for the major multiplayer units as well as the Death Korps of Krieg color pattern. It will run you $7.49.

Hit up the Steam link for more information.

Thanks, Blue.

THQ core boss Danny Bilson has cast doubt on any potential sequel for the game, which first launched last month, due to the release of MMO Dark Millennium Online.

But speaking with Joystiq, he said Space Marine’s currently performing well.

“It’s a really good game, it’s doing pretty well. In this world, honestly, you have to do exceptionally well to make any money, because the games are so expensive,” said Bilson.

However, he then added on any potential sequel and Dark Millennium: “We’ve already announced the Imperium in the MMO as a class you can play. And if you combine that it’s very active, as opposed to the more turn-based stuff. I’m not sure there’s room for Space Marine.”

But fret not: Bilson said that “there’s more stuff coming in the 40K universe, absolutely. We extended the deal for quite a while.”

The exec refers to the “multi-year” extension of THQ’s deal on the Warhammer 40k IP with Games Workshop back in April.

According to a purported insider source, we can expect the MMORPG on March 31, 2013. A flood of information accompanied the date, some of which we’ve quoted below.

See the full list on the Warseer forum.

* Relic is lending a very small hand in the overall development of dmo. Winking, a chinese based developer is also on board. They helped with Spacemarine as well.
* Vigil is doing 90% of the work. Most of the shared work load is art, and animation.
* Spacemarine is built on the same engine as darksiders (and darksiders 2 respectively)
* Dmo is using the same engine, with gameplay (at least combat) akin to Spacemarine.
* Contrary to what I was told, the art style is NOT like Spacemarine, rather the whole game is more like darksiders (1 & 2), very stylized. The videos released at the last E3 are fairly accurate to the current state of the art style. Less realistic.
* Revision to what I was told by the rep, is that Spring 2012 is unlikely… maybe for more announcements on the game’s progress. Though a Darsiders 2 release in spring is likely, Vigil is working on both.

Thanks, Strategy Informer!

Original article by Andrew Groen, with additional updates from Brenna Hillier.

“Was it our best work?” he said. “It was our best console work. I’m pretty humble; I don’t look at [criticism] and get all upset. I thought most of the reviews were fairly on the mark with what they had to say; the character design does get a bit repetitive and certain parts of it, just how the game plays – we didn’t have time to really polish that stuff to where we wanted to get to. There wasn’t anything that was oh-my-god shocking in the game.”

“We’re not super surprised by [the scores]. Of course we’d always like to have higher scores, but with our feature-set and coming out late in the console cycle – it’s really hard to have that feature-rich game. We did our best to deliver that blockbuster experience. And the scores landed where they landed.”

“It was a new experience for many of us on the team,” he recalled, “but we did bring in a lot of new talent that have worked on these games before to flesh it out. And Relic’s pedigree of pushing for quality that we’ve done in RTS titles – we really tried to bring that level of polish to a third-person game. With regards to the strategy genre, we’re on our fifth, sixth iterations; with this genre we’re just starting out.”

Thanks, Eurogamer!

The pack, which will be free, brings four-player co-op to the game with the introduction of a mode called, surprise, Exterminatus. You’ll be able to pick up to three classes – Tactical Marine, Devastator or Assault – as you take on the Orks and the Forces of Chaos.

When Exterminatus drops, it’ll come with just two scenarios: ssault on Hab Center Andreas and Escape from Kalkys Facility. Expect more DLC after Exterminatus, though.

“There are some plans [for more], said producer Andy Lang. “We’re working on some other DLC,” with both Lang and a Relic PR confirming that there’ll be both free and premium content in future DLC.

Confirmed by the site as Exterminatus Mode, it will allow player to choose from three different types of marine: Tactical, Devastator or Assault. Each will come with its own weapons and perks.

The scenarios included in the DLC are Assault on Hab Center Andreas and Escape From Kalkys Facility, and feature multiple arenas, leaderboards, and dynamic in-game challenges such as “Kill 10 Orks in 10 seconds”. Those who complete the pop-up challenges will receive extra lives and points if completed.

All experience earned also goes towards multiplayer rankings whether played in co-op or competitive multiplayer.

Space Marines’ Exterminatus Mode is to be made available sometime next month, but previous reports have it set for an early October release.

We’ll send a mail.

According to a post over on RPS, which is trying to get to the bottom of the matter, the only comment received regarding the absence so far is “no comment.” We have mailed THQ ourselves to see if we receive the same stance on the situation.

You can still, however, play the PC version through Steam, even if purchases are through a rival outlet such as Direct2Drive and Gamersgate due to the inclusion of Steamworks.

RPS also notes that ShopTo.net is selling the Steam activation code for £23.

Hopefully the matter will be cleared up soon.

• Eurogamer – 6
• Joystiq – 4/5
• PC Gamer – 82
• Joystick Division – 3/5

As always, let us know if you come across any more, and we’ll toss ‘em up there with our mighty link-hurling arms, honed from years of hunching over keyboards and occasionally reaching for whatever vaguely edible item happens to be nearby.

Kotaku reports the mode is called Exterminatus, and features up to four players battling waves of enemies.

The mode won’t be released until early October, but will be free.

THQ accidentally let slip last month that co-op would be added post-launch, but delayed detailing it.

Space Marine is due for release on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It hits the US on September 6 with a European launch on September 9. A demo launched two weeks ago has proved remarkably popular.

The first two show a variety of people revelling in their status as Space Marines – which appears to be largely true, as everyone in the whole world seems to be playing this thing and loving it.

The last one has a bit more substance and shows off some gameplay – although, obviously, if you have your console hooked up to the magical Internet, you can grab the demo and look at it with your very own eyeballs.

Don’t forget to check out Pat’s video playthrough of the demo – he made no bones about having fallen in love and proposed marriage to it.

Space Marine is set to launch on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on September 6 in the US and September 9 in the UK. The demo’s out now on all three platforms.

The series of videos, called Dark Future, focus on the game’s enemies, weapons, the universe and other elements of the shooter.

Our Universe, Part One of the series, delves into the universe of Warhammer 40,000, and how humanity is coping with the threat to its existence.

Part Two, which is titled Our Brothers, focuses on the bond between the Space Marines.

In Part Three, Our Weapons introduces you to the various armaments used in the fight for survival.

And finally, in Part Four, Our Enemies, takes you up close and personal with the Chaos Daemons, Chaos Marines, and Orks you will be tasked with dispatching in the game.

Each one is rather well done, and can be watched below courtesy of Gematsu.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is slated for release on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on September 6 in the US and September 9 in the UK.

Destructoid reports the demo will hit PC and Xbox Live on August 23, with a PlayStation Network version due the day after.

Two levels will be showcased, one against a pack of orcs and one featuring the Jump Pack. Nice.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is due on the three major platforms in early September.

Shack reports a THQ community manager revealed the mode on the game’s official forums, but the post has since been deleted.

The representative reportedly said the co-op mode would be patched into Space Marine around 30 days after launch, apparently delayed by a need for polish.

The post also seemed to suggest that the co-op patch will be free to those with a brand new copy of the game, but will be paid DLC for the second-hand market, alá Online Pass systems.

THQ has issued a statement confirming the game will include co-op and promised more details this month, although it did not comment on when the mode will be available.

Space Marine is due in early Septmeber on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

According to Kuzminski, these Ultramarines have a “distinctly Roman Empire influenced look that makes them stand out from the rank and file.”

The blog post focuses on the various annimations and look for the Force Commander, Apothecary, Tactical Sergeant, Tactical Marines, Terminators, the Rhino, Predator, and Land Raider, as well as the Dreadnought.

Relic has also pulled out some “old Space Marine armour sets” that have been the library and re-dressed them for the Scouts and Devastators. Devastators also wear the veteran helmets with gold laurelling.

Shack notes in the past, armor packs have cost $7.49, so it is likely this new bit will run the same, but nothing has been announced as of yet.

Hit up the blog for more information and check out the screens below.

• Sony’s Buser: ‘We Don’t Design Home Based On What We Think Is Cool’. That’s over on Gama.
• Speaking of Home, Sony has updated it for the US and Europe.
• Ubisoft and a bank in Montreuil are having a post-it window art war
• EA’s CCO Richard Hilleman will keynote SIEGE in Atlanta during October.
• WH40K: Space Marine features a score by Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan.
• Marvel Universe Online is getting Deadpool.
• First screens for Heroes Fantasia have been released.
• A 99-year-old woman in Japan plays Bomberman on Nintendo for hours every day. Bless.
• Tetsuya Nomura has told Famitsu Disney is having a hard time understanding what he is doing with the next Kingdom Hearts.

“Because of the power of the Space Marine, the fantasy of the Space Marine, you don’t kill a Space Marine in two bullets, right?” associate producer Otto Ottosson told GameTrailers.

“It takes a little bit. The battles take a little longer, you got shields and then you got health to take down.

“So it ends up feeling a little more old school, it feels a lot more like Quake 3 or Unreal Tournament or something like that. We really feel that’s sort of refreshing in today’s market.”

Space Marine is due on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in early September. See the full interview below.

Thanks, EvilAvatar.

Speaking with Eurogamer, McDermott said that while collaboration on the title began earlier on in development, once the finishing touches are applied to Space Marine, Relic will lend a hand with DMO when needed.

“There’s no crossover narrative,”said McDermott, “they will have forge worlds in their game. They’re definitely interacting with us a lot because we have a pedigree and an understanding of the IP, which they’re trying to develop.

“In terms of the some of the core mechanics, they were looking at our combat system quite carefully at one point to see if they could try and make it – not the same – but just have some level of consistency. That’s definitely been a consideration.

“We just, on the whole, try to work as collaboratively as possible, and with Space Marine wrapping up, we may become more involved in just helping them on a day to day basis with some things as we move forward. We kind of do that on all of the products. When something’s getting close to launch or if it’s at a critical point, some of the other talent from other studios start to help out to get them as good as possible.

“We’re going to see some of that on that title as well.”

Dark Millennium Online will be playable at E3 2012, and is slated for release sometime between April 2012 and March 2013.

Space Marine will be out this September.

“Looking at what we had real success with with Dawn of War II – Retribution, with the DLC, and with customisation and building their armies and collecting being a big part of what 40k fans really love, we want to make that a big part of DOW3,” Relic marketing manager James McDermott told Eurogamer.

“There’s going to be lots of opportunities to expand and build your own custom mega army. That’s definitely an area we want to invest in. We see a good opportunity.”

DoW3′s yet to be formally announced by THQ – although core boss Danny Bilson did say at E3 that work was underway on a next-gen DoW game – but Relic does have an announcement next month that’s most likely due at gamescom. This is probably going to be it.

Space Marine won’t convince Ebert that games can be art. It won’t inspire Smart People to go off and do Smart Things. It’s not a revolution – nor does it try to be. And that’s key, because heartbreaking works of staggering genius are nice and all, but after a long day at the office, you don’t want to contemplate the nature of humanity presented metaphorically as a platformer starring bunnies. You want to shoot dudes. Mean dudes. Mean dudes who were born – nay, spawned into existence – for the sole purpose of playing Greedo to your Han Solo .

That’s pretty much Space Marine in a nutshell, except it also has a chainsaw sword that is absolutely delightful. It just feels… right. During our short demo, we piloted our man tank ever forward, shooting and hacking and slashing and eviscerating everything that moved – and that was the game. It was a bloodbath plain and simple, but oddly refreshing in its straightforwardness. Afterward, we sat down for a quick chat with global brand director Morten Haugaard. He even let us keep our entrails, which is something we’re fairly happy about.

VG247: Given the number of games that all but knock it unconscious and steal its space pants, Warhammer 40k’s still a bit of a fringe videogame franchise. Do you think Space Marine has the potential to help the license shed its “geeks-only” label?

Morten Haugaard: We’ve always had the Dawn of War RTS franchise on PC, which is pretty niche. Space Marine is our attempt to bring the Warhammer 40k series to the console games – to the PS3 and Xbox 360 guys. To really get them excited about this rich, deep universe they might not have seen before.

Are you of the opinion that an RTS like Dawn of War simply wouldn’t work on consoles?

I mean, it’s a whole different control scheme. RTSes are traditionally keyboard-and-mouse, and that seems to work better on PC. But you never know; there could be an RTS that works really well on console. But with Space Marine, we’re going for that mix of ranged combat you see in third-person action shooters and melee combat that you might see in brawlers like Darksiders.

So basically, you’re all about killing mountains of dudes with weapons that do everything short of firing mountains. Which is great. It seems like every other shooter these days feels the need to incorporate some fun-incinerating gimmick. Motion controls, squad commands, etc. Do you think gamers are starved for a shooter that’s quick and simple?

Gamers are looking for cool gameplay experiences. Whether that’s an RPG mechanic or if it’s something like Space Marine – where it’s all about shooting guys and hacking them with your chainsword, watching the blood fly – it’s all about that cool gameplay experience.

I mean, with Space Marine, we looked at motion control, but decided not to go that route because we wanted to get a more traditional sort of gameplay experience. But I mean, you look at controllers: they used to have just one button on them. You look at the old Atari 2600 one-button four-way directional, and now you’ve got dual analog sticks and six-to-eight buttons. So who knows what the future’s going to hold for motion control games?

“We really want to take back and own what a space marine really means.”

But with Space Marine, we wanted to get a great shooting and melee system, and we felt the controller interface worked better for that. You really get that sense of momentum – like you’re a seven-foot-tall, two-ton power armor guy just charging into combat.

So are you even aiming to have much of a plot here?

Yeah, I mean, you’re controlling Captain Titus of the Ultramarines. The Ultramarines are the flagship chapter. They wrote the book on how combat works in the 40k universe. So we’re really trying to tell a cinematic story with this. Mark Strong’s doing the voice of our main character. He’s also in the Green Lantern movie. We’re really trying to get a blockbuster Hollywood feel to the campaign.

Space Marine’s obviously a big step outside Relic’s normal box. Now that you’re past most of the rough spots and about to launch, is this something you hope to continue doing? Is Relic done being “just” an RTS studio?

I mean, we hired up people with experience in action-shooters – Modern Warfare, God of War. So looking at getting animators and designers who have worked on these different types of titles before. You know, obviously, Dawn of War’s been really great for us, so we want to keep going forward with that. But we want to bring the 40k IP to more people, and the way to do that is get it out on consoles and do more action games.

We definitely want to keep going with Space Marine, but we’re also not going to leave the PC RTS Dawn of War fans behind.

Ok, so I have to put it out there: Space Marine. That name. It, uh, has some connotations around these parts. And I know it has lore significance within the Warhammer 40k universe, but couldn’t you have gone with something that inspires less rotten vegetable-flinging from the peanut gallery?

I mean, Warhammer 40k has been around for 25 years. We were the original space marine. Lots of other games have drawn inspiration from us. In terms of the aesthetics and the weapons… I mean, you look at the chainsword and you look at some other games. I mean, the chainsword was first.

We really want to take back and own what a space marine really means. They’re hulking badasses who aren’t afraid. They don’t hide behind cover. They don’t crouch in the weeds. They run into combat and just wreck people – just destroy them.

On that note, gamers have been cutting down gruff, manly man games with something far worse than bullets lately: words. Hurtful, hurtful words. Do you think we’re reaching a saturation point with this style of game? Is there a danger here?

I mean, there can be, but it’s all about getting a good story – getting a compelling single-player character and character progression in an arc. I think, if the story’s there, gamers aren’t going to feel off because he’s a gruff manly man. I mean, all of us want to be the hero. That’s why we play videogames, right? And if I’m a gruff manly man but I’m still playing a hero with a great story, I’m going to be immersed in that story.

Speaking of men with stories and wives and arms that make muscle cars have mid-life crises, Gears of War 3. Its definitely taken a few pages out of Warhammer 40k’s book, but it’s a gigantic name in the videogame space. And you’re going toe-to-toe with it. Is it at all intimidating?

Gears is a great title. It’s a strong franchise. It’s done a great job with third-person combat. I think we have a unique take on that with our melee system – the seamless shift between ranged combat and pulling out your chainsword. As opposed to Gears, which is a lot more third-person combat cover-based. We want to get you into the action and always keep the combat moving forward – getting you up-close and in the enemy’s face.

The THQ core games boss has confirmed the publisher will make a “big” announcement at gamescom in August, setting up a likely reveal of the new game from Relic in Cologne.

“I promise a big announcement at Gamescom,” he told EG at E3. “It’s unannounced, a new announcement.”

In term of what it actually was, this would be the only could Bilson would drop.

“I can say that crowd, those hundreds of thousands of people, in that space at that time, this one’s built to announce at that place. I’ll say that. That’s my clue.”

Bilson confirmed via the realms of Twitter back in February that the new RTS from the company would be announced in August. This’ll be it, then. Most likely.

It’s one of “a few” planned by the publisher this year at events including ComicCon, with Turtle Rock’s new game also to be shown at some point this year.

THQ is touting this as the trailer in which the Chaos faction is revealed, but since we already knew about them, I’m not satisfied with the brief glimpse offered. We demand more Chaos!

Space Marine is due in September on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The Collector’s Edition comes with a the game, a 10-inch replica Purity Seal along with a hardback art book, 25 foiled character information cards, and the soundtrack all rolled into a premium box for $99.99 on PS3 and Xbox 360 and on PC for $79.99 exclusively through THQ’s online store.

Pre-order bonuses include:

• GameStop – Space Wolves and Black Templar characters
• Best Buy – Iron Warriors and Emperor’s Children skins
• Amazon – Golden Relic Chainsword
• Walmart – Golden Relic Bolter
• Steam – Dawn of War armor worn by the Blood Ravens; a free copy of Darksiders
• THQ Store – Exclusive PowerSword

Darksiders is also free through other select digital retailers one of which is OnlLive.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is out September 6 on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Check out the latest dev diary and screens here.

Thanks, Shack.