Playing a console game is always a known quantity. No matter what the system, you know that setup never takes more than putting in the game and turning on the system. A minute or so later, you're there playing, controller in hand, and no matter where you are, you know that your experience is going to be the same as anyone else playing that game. Even minimum specs can be misleading, as marketing departments often stretch the truth a bit in the hope of making more sales.We were pleasantly surprised by the results, finding that not only did the beta run on a minimum spec machine, but it ran well. Sure, it didn't run in a super-high resolution with all of the effects turned up to high, but it was more than playable at 1024x768 with basic effects enabled. We played a few rounds against the AI before heading online to check out the competition.

The answer to that question came last month, when THQ and Relic released the Dawn of War II multiplayer beta on Steam. Containing the core multiplayer element of Dawn of War II, the beta allowed us to take a look at how the game performed on low-end hardware as well as uber-powered gaming machines.Playing online was a little different than going toe-to-toe with another player in the same room, though that mostly had to do with communication differences. Otherwise, everything was there, and all features were enabled.Although we've heaped a lot of praise on both the single-player and multiplayer aspects of Dawn of War II, until recently we weren't allowed to play it on our own computers. Instead, we had to play on machines that accompanied the dev team on the visits. Though the game was fun, we were left wondering, "How is this going to play on an average system?"