Company of Heroes is a WWII Real Time Strategy game that brings to life the journey of the brave men of Able Company as they fight across Europe in the greatest war mankind has ever known.

From the studio that brought you the blockbuster games of the year Homeworld, Impossible Creatures and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War comes the next revolution in action strategy. Company of Heroes is a WWII Real Time Strategy game that brings to life the journey of the brave men of Able Company as they fight across Europe in the greatest war mankind has ever known.

From the opening shots of the D-Day invasion of Normandy players will find themselves immersed in a rich single player campaign. Experience the cinematic intensity, courage, and bravery of the heroes that defined a generation, set against the backdrop of the most dynamic battlefield ever seen in a game. It is simply without equal!

Here are some key features of "Company of Heroes":

· Essence Engine - Relic's next generation cutting-edge engine provides graphics quality and a physics driven world that is unprecedented in an RTS.
· Environmental Strategy - Real-time physics and a completely destructible environment guarantee no two battles ever play out in the same way. Destroy anything and re-shape the battlefield in your image! Use buildings and terrain to your advantage, or deny them to the enemy.
· Living Soldiers - Advanced squad AI brings your soldiers to life as they interact with their changing environment, take cover, and execute advanced squad tactics to eliminate all enemy opposition.
· 2-8 players MP competition via Lan or Internet - Go online with friends and join in the ultimate battle of Axis versus Allies.


What's New in This Release:

NEW FEATURES
· New multiplayer map: 6P_Seine River Docks
· New and improved Game Replay functionality allows players to view the game from a selected player's perspective in slow motion or fast forward. In addition the game UI can now be minimized to reveal a larger viewing space of the action going on in the replay. To compliment this, a new Cinematic Mode allows players to sit back and enjoy the show.
· Cinematic Mode camera - Replay your battles as the game automatically switches between cinematic camera angles, capturing the sound and fury of war from the combatants' perspective.
· IME support for Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Vista
IMPROVEMENTS
· Improved SLI performance on Nvidia systems using the latest drivers.
General Fixes
· BugReport has more space on the success dialog to show Cyrillic text.
· Far East characters will not clip when listed in a multi-line text box.
· 30260 is now listed as the correct port to leave unblocked.
· Removal of ghost bug that could leave duplicates upon reload of a saved game.
· The playback controls for viewing a recorded game have their graphics fixed.
Campaign
· Medal text is now visible (Korean)
· Reinforce radius has been fixed on certain buildings.
· M02: Fixed several instances of having the wrong named character's picture attached to subtitled text.
· M02: Game no longer incorrectly instructs the player to reinforce the squad.
· M04: Fixed a Fatal Scar Error that occurred when the church is taken back by the enemy forces, just as the timer ends, and as the cinematic is about to begin.
· M05: Convoy will no longer exit the map using an unsecured road after you complete the final objective
· M08: Fixed critical error after countdown reaches 0 after holding the city centre point
· M10: The ''Select HQ'' Button now properly selects the forward HQ
· M10: Fixed the lack of audio for subtitled text.
· M10: Game no longer incorrectly instructs the player to convert a building outside controlled territory
· M11: Briefing fixed subtitle timing issue
Gameplay
· Fixed the problem where mouse-clicking on a unit onscreen under heavy loads often does not result in the unit being selected.
· Improved load times by fixing pathfinding regens.
· Fixed the bug where capturing an enemy weapon resulted in it having enemy unit occlusion.
· Veterancy speech samples are now triggered correctly.
· The vehicle repair icon now shows up offscreen.
· Fix for Allied Engineers becoming trapped when building barbed wire close to sandbags or other obstacles, which prevents them from completing orders.
· All sectors default to neutral on Map Montherme, previously one player would start with ownership of a sector.
· Allied and Axis HQs can no longer be deleted by the player.
· Players will no longer lose munitions income from creating an Axis Sniper.
· Axis Blitzkrieg ability now displays appropriate icon over Axis Anti-Tank Gun.
· Axis Halftracks and Allied halftracks will now carry a maximum of 3 squads total opposed to 4.
· Weapon capture squads can now reinforce to full squad size.
· Tuned projectile launcher location for Axis Pak 38 so it now shoots from the correct gun height.
· Sniper "Make Casualty" or "Hit but not killed" criticals no longer kill their target. The result of this is that Snipers will no longer one-shot-kill other Snipers if they have full health.
· Allied Engineers had a 1% chance to instantly kill a target, this was fixed and they now operate as intended.
· Fix for the computer AI constantly cancelling construction and rebuilding a structure when destroying the building and staying in the area in any game.
· Allied Engineer Demolitions ability will now destroy an Axis Security Post in one detonation as intended.
· Axis Salvage ability is no longer giving inappropriate returns for the Axis Halftracks and Stug.
· Allied Rangers were detecting camouflaged units at a very high radius, this has been reduced to the standard radius for infantry units.
· Axis Flammenwerfer Halftrack will now successfully upgrade when pioneers are loaded inside.
Online
· Fixed the issue of split or cut-off text when viewing the Play Now screen in the Online Lobby on 1920x1200 (widescreen)
· Players should now hear an audio prompt when sending a chat message to an ally or enemy.
· The scrollbar for the player list now resets properly to the top position when switching between chat channels in the online lobby
· Fixed the bug where Annihilation games would end before players could see the enemy's HQ collapsing.
· Users with slower computers will see each other properly in the game lobby.
· Most Wins list and top 15 players list display properly in the Leaderboard 1v1 bracket.
· Players looking for Ranked Games are no longer displayed as "0" on the News tab.
· Fix for cut-off and split text in the Online Lobby when viewing 1920x1200 widescreen in Polish, Spanish, Czech, German and Italian.
Performance
· Performance measurements now include loading time.
· Fix for no SFX, Music or Speech play if you ALT-TAB from the MP lobby and ALT-TAB back after the game has loaded.
· Fixed a crash relating to players logging out of Relic Online during the countdown to game launch.
· UI now properly filtering out old replays from previous versions of the game.
BALANCE CHANGES
· Axis Ostwind has more frequent reloads, will be less effective vs units in cover or in buildings.
· Axis Ostwind's damage to player-buildings has been reduced (35-40% reduction)
· Axis Panther tuning moderate speed and rotation rate increases (bringing mobility a bit closer to the Allied Sherman).
· Axis Armoured Car cost increased by 10 fuel.
· Axis Stug build time increased by 10 seconds.
· Allied Sherman main gun effectiveness vs. units garrisoned within ambient buildings reduced.
· Allied Sherman main gun Area of Effect damage slightly lowered.
· Fixed the Allied Bazooka's unnecessary accuracy penalty vs. the Axis Stug and Panzer IV.
· Allied Airborne Satchel charges strengthened against buildings and bunkers.
· Fortify the Perimeter Commander Tree item in the Defensive Doctrine has had a 1 Commander Point reduction.
· Axis Flak 88 Commander Tree item in the Defensive Doctrine has had a 1 Commander Point increase.
· For the Fatherland ability cost has been reduced by 40%.
· All vehicle main guns effectiveness vs. infantry in cover reduced.
· Sherman Calliope Main Turret reload time is 50% slower than the standard Sherman.
· Allies Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) is significantly less effective on the move.
MOD SUPPORT
· Scenario pack support
· A scenario pack (*.sga file) is an archive that contain all the files needed for a scenario allowing for easy map sharing. To play a new map put the scenario pack in the "$CoHInstallDirWW2Scenarios" or the "My DocumentsMy GamesCompany of HeroesScenarios" folder.
· Added the Worldbuilder tool.
· Added the MovieMaker tool.
· Supports export of scenario packs by selecting Export Scenario in the File menu.