It's a significantly flawed expansion pack, true, but the two new factions it brings to the table are so spectacularly over-the-top that the weaknesses seem far more marginal than they are. Most games are lessened come the second expansion pack, but DoW is as strong as ever. Which means, for now, that the 40K RTS Dawn of War is as good as we get. Why, why, why is the first Games Workshop MMORPG the upcoming Warhammer Online, which, however good it may turn out to be, enters into such an overcrowded online fantasy market when there's a near-vacant sci-fi one GW could just stroll right in and, thanks to that incredibly rich Warhammer 40,000 universe, take without contest? Sigh. If I met one in the street, I'd probably punch him. But no, instead we get another couple of dozen cheerless grind marathons filled with elves and wizards. Imagine, just imagine playing as a Space Marine and falling prey to the corruption of Chaos, then choosing the fascinatingly monstrous ways in which your body mutates and gains dark new abilities. The sights you'd see, the things you'd kill and be killed by - aliens, mechs, demons and men in a startling array of flavours, all itching for a taste of your Heavy Bolter.

Just imagine all that presented as a living online world to carve your way through.

This is, after all, the franchise that cheerfully pilfers every single great idea sci-fi has ever had, sticks it all in a giant fiction-blender and then adds several pints of bubbling blood. Dear Santa, for Christmas please bring me a Warhammer 40,000 MMO.

Dawn of war dark crusade update