This trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Chaos Rising features Lead Designer Daniel Kading from Relic Entertainment showing off the new content featured in Chaos Rising.s single player campaign.

Set in the grim, war-ravaged world of the WH40k science fiction universe, Chaos Rising transports players into the midst of an intergalactic war between ancient enemies.

Last week we saw the id/Bethesda merger under parent company ZeniMax Media and there was much rejoicing, but what if Electronic Arts merged its two online game developers into one giant super developer wouldn’t that raise some eyebrows and be general cause for mass excitement?

Well that actually happened as the publishing giant reorganized a bit putting RPG mavens Bioware and long time MMO developers Mythic in the same division. While the two studios will remain mostly autonomous for the time being, they now both have a single reporting line up the chain to the big bosses and money men. That single leader? Bioware’s Dr. Ray Muzyka.

Dr. Muzyka’s ascencion to the head of the organization basically also points to the exit of Mythic’s longtime leader Mark Jacobs. According to Jacob’s blog the MMO pioneer is taking a sabatical for awhile and he leaves with a classy ‘I’m not going to dish on anything, I’m just going to thank folks and peacefully step aside’ sort of announcement – a classy response that we don’t get to see so often these days.

Regarding the future path of the now combined studio’s efforts, Dr. Muzyka indicated in an official response over on IGN that:

Anything’s possible. We can’t say it wouldn’t happen. There’s no active plans, currently to do that, but the teams at Mythic and BioWare I know from talking to all of them, they’re really excited about working together, so I think that fuels a lot of cool things.

Warhammer: Age of Reckoning is still holding strong in the WoW dominated MMO market while Bioware’s first effort – the much anticipated Star Wars: The Old Republic is still a ways off. Mythic has a lot of experience that could help the minds at Bioware pull off their vision of Star Wars and maybe even put a dent in the Warcraft numbers but only time will tell if this pairing will be all it seems.

If you’re a Warhammer Online player looking for some insight or official answers to the most commonly asked questions relating to the huge upcoming update for Mythic’s MMO then it’s probably a good day for you. Earlier today the developer published a FAQ about the changes and additions coming to the game with the update.

The FAQ covers the level requirements, how the new areas will be handled in Realm v. Realm control and discusses some details on the dungeons and lair instances in the expansion.

While I’ve not played Warhammer Online since shortly after launch (not because I dislike it, but because I only have time in my life for 1 MMO and Lord of the Rings Online already has a claim on my soul), EA Mythic seems to continue to deliver many of the features promised before launch and thanks to player feedback since.

Reading through the FAQ almost convinced me it was time to reload the client and rejoin my Dark Elf compatriots in preparation for the new content.

A mega update for Relic’s RTS Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II has gone live. This brings the game version up to 1.3.1. The update will be applied automatically when you login to Steam.

Key changes include addition of a 2 vs. 2 mode, two new maps, new unit selection graphics, and a re-tooled skirmish AI.

An in-depth developers’ log (including screenshots) of the update can be found by following the links below:

The Road to Patch 1.3 (Part One)
The Road to Patch 1.3 (Part Two)
The Road to Patch 1.3 (Part Three)
The Road to Patch 1.3 (Part Four)
The Road to Patch 1.3 (Part Five)

If you are not interested in reading something that fancy, you can check out a brief listing after the break.

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I don’t know how many of you are Warhammer Online players. Personally, I still play it here and there. I’ve been very interested in their Call to Arms live expansion so far, and it look like what is yet to come is even bigger than what we’ve seen so far.

Two of the upcoming releases that really catch my eye are the Land of the Dead, and the Necropolis. Luckily for me, the folks over at G4, specifically X-Play, had a really cool feature with Jeff Hickman and Paul Barnett from Mythic Entertainment. Not only is there a ton of cool information in these clips, but there is also some brand new footage of both the Land of the Dead and the Necropolis.

Check out the Land of the Dead in this Clip, and then hit the jump to see the preview of the Necropolis. Then, tell us what you think of them both in the comments!

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Relic and THQ have released a new trailer for Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 2 which unveils the game’s all new multiplayer modes. So far, what we know about the multiplayer aspect is that all four races are playable, you get to pick your leader (Apothecary, Force Commander, and Tech-Marine at this point), heroes can level to 10 max and the more points you earn the more gear you get, there will be a three versus three Team Battle mode with co-op features, and strategic points include Power, Requisition, and Victory with resource gathering being an important part of the gameplay.

Relic has been a bit teasing regarding multiplayer details for their RTS, and while they have dished a bit about it–they are keeping a lot of it under wraps for the time being. So if what we do know is any indication of how big and fabulous the multiplayer will be, it looks like gamers are in for a fun ride come release. The trailer posted above should also give you a major idea of what to expect, and it looks like one chaotic battlefield full of death and glory to me.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning’s newest live event is called the Keg End and will be running December 17th – January 5th. All armies of WAR are invited to celebrate the Dwarf New Year festival which will be filled with the things that those short, hairy little men like the best: beer, boasting and things that explode. With plenty of things to do whether you are part of Order or Destruction, you can look forward to new ways to earn drops and elite Influence rewards and fireworks will be prevalent as well as capital city pub crawls.

Looking for glory and bragging rights? Then you may wish to search the battlefields for the Golden Stein to earn the blessing of Grimnir himself and partake in its frothy goodness. However, watch your flank as the Ogres have caught the scent of blood and beer and they want both very much because, well that is just what ogres do. Also, in Realm vs. Realm, the Keg End live event also introduces a new emote – /boast – to taunt your adversaries. You can also grab a free beer and /toast your comrades-in-arms to receive special Tome of Knowledge unlocks.

If you want to learn more about the Keg End event, check out the Warhammer Online website where you will learn all the ways to celebrate the upcoming holidays in game. New screens depicting some of the live events are posted below.

The Knight of the Blazing Sun and the Black Guard are the last new classes for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning players will see for a while. WAR Developers say plans for Orc Choppa and Dwarven Slayer are a long time out if the classes see live play at all.

Mythic devs Adam Gershowitz and Josh Drescher told Massively that any future careers will be well thought out and added because they bring something new and worthwhile to the game. Although they won’t add new classes to WAR just to throw in more stuff, they refuse to table edible halflings. They’re my kind of guys.

Read the full Warhammer Developers’ Class interview on Massively for all the details.

I was going to post some of the new screens THQ released for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 today, but since we do not have them loaded up on FileFront yet I thought I would post the video instead. It is much cooler anyway.

The video reveals the members of the Space Marines, the squad you will play with throughout the single-player campaign. today, but this trailer is much cooler because this video reveals the members of the Space Marines, which is the squad you will play with throughout the single-player campaign.

Dawn of War 2 is expected to be released for the PC February 23, 2009.