19 October 2003: Fixed a few broken items, and updated the link to Paper Starships.

07 October 2003: I know that there are a number of items here missing or incomplete; please hang in there while the site is redone. Extracting ship information from the compiled game files is a manual, labor-intensive, tedious process, made more so by the fact that Relic has postponed release of their editing tools to some unspecified time "later this year." I was preparing to write some tools of my own to aid in the process when I suddenly asked myself: what the hell am I doing? Contrary to what Sierra's Marketing Weasel seems to believe, this site is updated not by some magical pool of free fan labor, but rather by one person who has a day job and other demands on his time. So for those folks who simply must write snippy emails bemoaning the incomplete nature of the current site, kindly cut me some slack and direct them instead towards Relic for not releasing their tools on the promised schedule.

28 September 2003: Now that we've been able to decompile the new HW2 .ship files (thanks to Thought and the Tanis crew) I've set up the new stats format for the HW2 ship entries. It will require more tweaking as more tools are released and more is learned, but most of the stats are there. Added are entries for Hiigaran Battlecruiser, Interceptor, Gunship and Sajuuk.

24 September 2003: Added a large number of thumbnail images throughout the HW2 section; full-size images to follow. Also added 6 new pieces of Concept Art.

21 September 2003: I've posted Keiichi's transcription of the History of Hiigara from Appendix C of the Official Strategy Guide.

20 September 2003: I've posted a bunch of screenshots from the released game into the images directory here. Keep in mind that there are many spoilers therein.

18 September 2003: HW2 should be in stores most places, so go play! There's obviously a lot to do here, but I'm going to take about a week to play the game through, and I'm not exactly focused on taking screenshots right now. :) But you don't need me right now when you can see the game for yourself. Have fun and I'll see you next week.

16 September 2003: Homeworld 2 is shipping today, and should be in stores today or tomorrow.

13 September 2003: Added a bunch of screenshots (too many to list here) as well as image captions for some of the entries detailing the date/build of the image, which some folks have been asking for for a while now.

12 September 2003: GameSpy has up a review of HW2, including 20 new screenshots. [WARNING]: There are definitely spoilers here, so proceed at your own risk. Updated: Progenitor Dreadnought, Hiigaran Destroyer, Vaygr Shipyard, Gehenna Asteroid Bases.

10 September 2003: A few more updates: Vaygr Battlecruiser, Scout, Laser Corvette. Thanks to THX1138 for the screenshots. I've also added basic armament information (culled from the .ship files) to all the ships that are in the demo that have weapons.

09 September 2003: The Homeworld Mod community (bless 'em) have already been hard at work digging through the data files of the demo. Already they've been able to sneak looks at the Vaygr Resource Collector, Resource Controller, Probe, Gun Platform and Missile Platform. Thanks to Rebelflt for the screenshots.

05 September 2003: PCGAMER UK has published a review of HW2 in its October issue that includes screenshots of never-before-seen alien vessels. Check the Miscellaneous section for more (WARNING: possible spoilers).

04 September 2003: Updated the majority of the entries to bring them up to date with most of the information available from the demo.

03 September 2003: The HW2 demo (141 MB) is now available for download. Check the RelicNews post for download locations.

I've played through the two single-player missions and a bit of the multiplayer game. If you've followed the development game thus far, the demo is pretty much what you would expect: the gameplay is essentially Homeworld, with very nice enhanced graphics and effects; the sound effects are very similar to the first game, and the music is very good. The interface is a bit different, and takes some getting used to for HW vets; the units are much smarter than before, which is (mostly) a good thing. Not all of the ships are in the demo, but I've updated stats for most of the Hiigaran entries, and added a few images for those that were most in need of them: Scout, Gun Platform, Ion Platform, Probe, Target Drone, Torpedo Frigate.

As of this moment about half of what's on the site is now obsolete, so bear with me.

02 September 2003: I don't know quite what to make of this yet, so I'll just post it:

LOS ANGELES, CA (September 2, 2003)- Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) announced today that, in conjunction with Relic Entertainment, it will release a sneak-peek to Homeworld®2, the sequel to 1999's award-winning, space-based real-time strategy game, tomorrow.

The demo will include looks at both the single- and multi-player campaigns of Homeworld 2, including the tutorial mission, two single-player missions, and two multiplayer missions, which will be playable over both LAN and the GameSpy network. 

"We recognize that our community's support of Homeworld 2 is both incredibly valuable and vital to the success of this game," said Chris Mahnken, producer of Homeworld 2.  "The community has been requesting a demo of the game for many months now, and we are proud to be able to deliver it to them."

The 141 MB Homeworld 2 demo will be released via the VU Games website tomorrow.

There is also a new Anark model on the official site, the Vaygr "Hammer" Missile Corvette. As with the rest of the Anark models, the stats listed are bogus.

29 August 2003: Just when you thought that the two-year-long train wreck that has been the Homeworld 2 PR campaign couldn't get any worse, Sierra rises to the challenge. Sensing that morale had climbed too high with the news of the impending release of the game, Sierra's Brand Manager for HW2, Alex Rodberg, dropped into the Relic Forums to return spirits to a suitably low level. The salient bits of his post as follows:

*yawn*

Well, I'll be concluding my participation in this forum with this post. Frankly, the effort put into keeping this miniscule community informed is not worth the aggravation or the time.

I look forward to hearing more complaints about how Sierra ignores the community. I'm sure accusing instead of asking, and bitching instead of learning will accomplish your goals admirably.

Penny Arcade has posted an amusing missive on the subject.

27 August 2003: GameSpot has up 40 new screenshots; head over or see them locally here. Updated: Hiigaran Mothership, Carrier, Battlecruiser, Torpedo Frigate, Field Frigate, Resource Collector, Interceptor, Ion Frigate, Mobile Refinery, Shipyard; Vaygr Destroyer, Pulsar Corvette, Lance Fighter.

25 August 2003: It's official:

Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) announced today that Homeworld 2, the sequel to 1999's award-winning, space-based real-time strategy game, Homeworld, has gone gold and will ship to North American retailers September 16, 2003.

18 August 2003: Brief update: Concept Art, Vaygr Transport Frigate, Shipyard, Command Corvette.

12 August 2003: HW2 Assistant Producer Geoff Thomas has confirmed on the Relic boards that, contrary to earlier statements, there will be no Beta test for Homeworld 2 (nor a demo). On the positive side, this means that Homeworld 2 may be Gold very soon, and should hit stores in mid-September. On the negative side, this means that early buyers will be paying full price to playtest beta software. It also means that there will probably not be any substantial new information between now and the release date, so my work here is pretty much done. 

10 August 2003: German PC Games magazine has a members-only gameplay video that reveals a few items of interest in the Reseach Menu, and a few close-up images of subsystems. Updated entries for Hiigaran Carrier, Mothership, Gun Platform and Ion Beam Platform.

30 July 2003: In the HW2 print ad that has been running in a number of magazines, there is what appears to be a previously unseen vessel. Credit to Paladrache for the spot.

28 July 2003: HomeLan Fed has posted a brief preview with 3 "new" screenshots from the June 5 press build (1 2 3).

22 July 2003: Most of the screenshots on the bonus CD have been seen before, but there are a few new ones in these sections: Hiigaran Pulsar Gunship, Support Frigate, Resource Collector; Vaygr Assault-type Frigate, Assault Craft. Or you can look here at the most recent files.

20 July 2003: Best Buy is offering a bonus CD with a preorder of HW2; it includes some large versions of the Trailer and some screenshots and concept art, including 42 (!) pieces of concept art not seen before. I've posted these in the HW2 Concept Art section. Be aware that some of these images may contain plot spoilers, so look at your own risk.

19 July 2003: The current issue of PCZone UK was a two-page preview of HW2, which includes new views of the Vaygr Resource Collector and Hyperspace Gate in action.

17 July 2003: GameAxis posted an interview with Dan Irish. There's not much new in the text, but there are two new screenshots that appear to be from a new build; there have been noticeable refinements to the user-interface of the Build Menu and Research Menu. Updated entries: Hiigaran Mothership, Carrier, Resource Collector and Distortion Probe.

16 July 2003: 3DGamers has up four screenshots that I haven't seen before. I've updated entries for Hiigaran Mothership, Destroyer and Support Frigate. Thanks to JAL-18 and Blade for the info.

09 July 2003: Computer and Videogames has up a brief HW2 preview, which includes 16 somewhat dull "exclusive" screenshots. Shots of the Build Manager do reveal the existence of the Hiigaran Probe, Proximity Sensor, and Sensors Distortion Probe, however.

03 July 2003: IGN Vault has up a HW2 Team Q&A, that includes four enormous new high-res (3200x2400) screenshots. Updated entries for Hiigaran Mothership, Carrier, and Bomber.

02 July 2003: Adrenaline Vault has a new HW2 Preview up, which includes 10 new screenshots taken from the June 5 build. Updated Mothership and Fleet Command entries.

29 June 2003: A few people have made some Homeworld paper-ship kits that can be downloaded, printed out and assembled. We've agreed to host some of them, and I've added the first one, Brett Gentz's Supernova Research Station, to the new Card Model page. I've also added links for card model resources.

23 June 2003: Überjumper reports that Sierra has posted a new gameplay video on the official site. It's tame stuff, but reveals what appear to be two previously unseen Vaygr ships: the Command Corvette and Frigate Type-K.

17 June 2003: Gamer's Hell has up 4 new screenshots, plus several that were used to make the downloadable wallpapers from the Official Site. Updated Hiigaran Interceptor, Pulsar Gunship; Vaygr Pulsar Fighter & Destroyer.

14 June 2003: I've set up Concept Art galleries for Homeworld 1 Concepts, Cataclysm Concepts, and Homeworld 1 Storyboards & Animatics. The Animatics one is pretty bare... I'll add more to it as time permits.

11 June 2003: GameSpot has posted a new preview that includes 20 new screenshots, and IGN has thrown up a snootload of media, including 42 shots and 18 gameplay videos. I have updated entries for Hiigaran Carrier, Transport, Shipyard, Mothership, Bomber, Destroyer, Gunship; Vaygr Resource Collector, Flagship, Missile Frigate, Missile Corvette, Carrier, Cruiser, Bomber, Hyperspace Gate; Unknown 16.

31 May 2003: We've run across some more E3 video footage. I've updated entries for the Base at Tanis, and added entries for the First and Third Cores. Beware of some potential spoilers.

27 May 2003: The trickle of E3 HW2 info appears to have dried up, but Rob Cunningham (HW2 Art Director) sent over some larger-size versions of two concept art pieces, a Hiigaran Interceptor and Vaygr Comm. Station. I've also added a new entry: Unidentified 16.

15 May 2003: IGN has posted a gameplay video, and some impressions of the first two missions of the single-player game. They mention a group of Hiigaran refugee transports that you have to protect, and it seems clear to me that these are what U11 and U12 must be. There's also a shot in the video of a massive ring which appears to be a Vaygr Hyperspace Gate, as well as a globular ship which looks like the Hyperspace Inhibitor concept art.

I also found a gameplay shot from Thresh's Firingsquad that shows an updated UI, as well as a substantially retextured Hiigaran Carrier.

14 May 2003: E3 is underway, and GameSpot has the first new screenshots up. I've updated entries for: Hiigaran U11, Assault Corvette, Destroyer; Vaygr Interceptor, Carrier, and Destroyer. I've also added several new pieces to the Concept Art Gallery.

09 May 2003: Sierra's official Homeworld 2 site has been revamped with new content, including screenshots and some ship data (although it appears that a few items are incorrect; they label some corvettes and frigates as cruisers, for example). I have updated my entries for Vaygr Pulsar Corvette, A-Type Frigate, Heavy Corvette (a.k.a. Missile Corvette); Hiigaran Torpedo Frigate, Battlecruiser, and Ion Cannon Frigate. The Vaygr and Hiigaran sections are updated with new information about the races themselves.

There is also some very nice new concept art, which I have added to the gallery.

07 May 2003: There is a new HW2 gameplay video on the Sierra FTP site; check RelicNews for the download options. The short video depicts a group of Hiigaran frigates and strike craft attacking a Vaygr Cap-E (which, according to the cursor-rollovers seen in the video, is a "Mothership"). The Hiigaran Support Frigate also gets its name verified thanks to a rollover. Perhaps of most interest is the view of the Pulsar Corvettes in action; the pulsar beams fire fairly rapidly, and trace out a line of explosions along the length of the target ship as the corvettes zip along.

01 May 2003: IGN has Part 5 of Geoff's Developer's Diary up, and sports three new screenshots. Updated entries: Vaygr Attack Bomber, Heavy Corvette, and new Corvette Type IV.

29 April 2003: Went through the video again in slow motion and grabbed a few more shots. Updated entries: Hiigaran Scout, Bomber, Battlecruiser, FooFmobile; Vaygr Scout and Pulsar Corvette.

28 April 2003: The Homeworld 2 Trailer is available for download now at DivX.com. It's in .AVI format (you'll need the DivX codec) and weighs in at about 65 MB. Be warned that it's a bit processor-intensive (it sputtered a lot on my puny work P3-700 system, but ran nicely on my home P4-2400). The Sierra website also has smaller QuickTime and Windows Media versions for download. (Thanks to Jason Prashad for the heads-up).

MissingSea has found what looks to be the Hiigaran Minelayer Corvette. Aquarius has discovered that the red "alien writing" on the Vaygr ships is not writing at all, but a red dragon motif.

Other updated entries: Hiigaran Hyperspace Core, Fleet Command, Tanis Derelict, Tanis Base, Destroyer, Resource Collector, Attack Bomber (F-B); Vaygr Cap-F, Destroyer, Pulsar Corvette, Unidentified 12.

26 April 2003: I've created and uploaded 53 screencaps from the videos, and have updated a number of entries. Updated entries are as follows:

New ships: Hiigaran Shipyard, Unidentified 11; Vaygr Assault-type Frigate, Type-I Frigate, Type-R Frigate, Super-Capital Type-G, Cruiser Type-H, Res-1.

Updated ships: Hiigaran Destroyer, Mobile Refinery, Support Frigate, Scout, DefenseField Frigate, Torpedo Frigate, Marine Frigate; Vaygr Super-Capital Type-E, Capital Type-F, Destroyer (B).

You can see all of the vidcaps here: go fish.

Gamer's Hell also has up higher-resolution versions of the 4 IGN shots from yesterday.

25 April 2003: Both IGN and GameSpot have some members-only HW2 gameplay videos up. It's a lot to go through (there are six files altogether), so I'll post analysis as it is available.

There are short HW2 updates on IGN and GameSpot. The IGN blurb includes 4 previously unseen shots that appear to be from a previous build. Entries for Hiigaran Mothership, Resource Collector, Mobile Refinery, and Vaygr Bomber and Heavy Corvette have been updated.

24 April 2003: A report from the Insidious Spy Network™ indicates that the HW2 trailer will be released Monday.

There is also Volume 4 of Geoff's Developer's Diary up at IGN Action Vault. It has 3 new shots of the new textures for the Hiigaran Interceptor, and some really nice backgrounds. There also appears to have been a change to the Vagyr Cap-A; there's now a large docking bay topside.

23 April 2003: IGN has posted Dan Irish's Fan Q&A session, where he answers a number of question from the various fansite operators (including yours truly). A few highlights:

· The Taiidan, Kadesh and Turanic Raiders do not have significant roles in HW2.
· The events of Homeworld: Cataclysm are not mentioned explicitly, but they are accepted as having happened.
· Fuel for strike craft is not modeled in the game, nor is ammunition. 
· Supercapital ships (such as the battlecruiser) can't be built by the Mothership, but must be built by the Shipyard.
· There will be unit caps, based on the number of production-capable ships you posses.

22 April 2003: There is a new preview at Games Domain UK, in which a "reinforcement" feature for the single-player campaign is mentioned:

"Of course, harvesting -- the staple of every RTS game since Dune II -- will be integral to your success, but Sierra has improved the "persistent fleet" feature so that you can keep all the battleships that survived the last mission and then rely on a dynamically changing reinforcement model so that harvesting isn't quite as time-consuming."

19 April 2003: I've split off the craft that appears to be the Vaygr Scout from the ordinary interceptor entry.

18 April 2003: There are a lot of interesting new things in the 19 screenshots released to the various fansites. What I've done is to place in the new thumbnails, but to only include links to larger images for those fansites that have given me permission to use their "exclusive" pics; others link directly to the hosting site. New ships: Vaygr Capital Ship F, Vaygr Pulsar Corvette; Hiigaran Scout. New shots of existing ships: Hiigaran Mobile Refinery, Hiigaran Destroyer, Hiigaran Support Frigate, Hiigaran Frigate U6 & Frigate U7, Tanis Derelict; Vaygr Carrier (Cap-E), Vaygr Heavy Corvette, Vaygr Capital Ship Type D.

There's also a new (and quite meaty) interview with Dan Irish and Josh Mosquiera at IGN Action Vault, where they answer questions on a number of subjects. Cool new shots of the Hiigaran Carrier and the production interface. (Thanks to G()re for the spot.)

Relic Entertainment, Inc. and Sierra Entertainment are proud to announce the finalization of the Homeworld 2 trailer. This trailer will be available online at www.homeworld2.com, Div-X.com as well as several other mirror sites to be announced shortly. The trailer will be available for download in early May. It will also be shown at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles from May 14-16th, 2003.

The trailer video isn't up yet, but we have five screen captures: 1 2 3 4 5. This same message also went out to 7 other HW fansites, and two of the shots are unique to each site... so tomorrow there should be 14 more shots floating out there, in addition to these five. Thanks Geoff! The shots depict a new Vaygr capital ship, and some more shots of the Hiigaran Destroyer... it's late, so I'll save the rest of the analysis for tomorrow.

In other news, Mark Hills spotted that on Amazon.com, they have a new, larger version of the Homeworld 2 boxshot. Call me weird, but I kinda like it.

Also, there was part 3 of Geoff's IGN Dev Diary earlier today, but I clobbered the news item by accident. C'est la vie.

14 April 2003: Sierra has released three new screenshots: 1 2 3. Included in the shots are a new Vaygr fighter type, and an updated shot of the Tanis Derelict. HomeLan Fed also has a new Dan Irish interview, but it's an almost word-for-word rehash of previous interviews. With one exception: they did ask the reason for the 2-year silence about HW2... but Dan's answer was less than forthcoming:

There’s a number of reasons why, but most importantly we want to ensure that when we talk about the game we can back it up with stunning visual progress. If I’d talked about it two years ago and said, this game is going to be great, but I didn’t have a lot to show that was really impressive, that message would get lost over time. We also want to focus on building the game, not building the hype around the game. When we deliver a great game, the hype will build around it anyway. And finally, we weren’t sure when we were going to be done so we wanted to focus all of our messages in the year in which the game was going to come out. And, that’s what we're doing.

11 April 2003: IGN Action Vault has posted Part 2 of Geoff's Developer's Diary. There's some slight illumination of the main story arc (which is starting to sound a bit heavy on the mysticism for my tastes); here's a bit that's not quite as far-out as some of the rest:

10 April 2003: The May issue of PC Gamer has a preview of HW2. Included in the screenshots is a better look at the Vaygr Capital Ship type D. Thanks to Mnementh for the scans and Spectre_Wrath for the heads-up.

03 April 2003: IGN Action Vault has posted a HW2 Developer's Diary written by Assistant Producer Geoff Thomas. He talks a little bit about the visual design influences on the project, and the article features 12 pieces of previously unseen HW2 concept artwork. I've added these images to the Concept Art Gallery.

26 March 2003: Adrenaline Vault has posted a four-page interview with Executive Producer Dan Irish and Lead Designer Josh Mosquiera. It includes two new screenshots (1, 2) that appear to be from the same batch as the recently released ones. Dan provides your daily moment of Zen:

Players bore witness to beautifully eerie music and stunningly attractive and amorous background scenes.

Watch out for those amorous background scenes; you don't know where they've been. 

20 March 2003: GameSpot has posted a HW2 video interview. It's members-only content, so don't even bother heading over unless you're willing to buy (or already have) a subscription. Updated entries include: Assault Frigate, Battlecruiser, Carrier, Fighter A, Fighter B, Ion Frigate, Assault Corvette, Mothership, Systems Briefing, Command & Control Briefing, and perhaps most significantly, the elusive Frigate U8.

14 March 2003: LoadedInc posted some Vivendi GDC coverage, with a useful tidbit about the Marine Frigate. 

12 March 2003: HomeLan Fed has posted their GDC impressions of HW2. The three screenshots, while not new, are larger than the previous versions available: 1 2 3. Probably the most interesting snippet of the text is as follows:

We have been told that the Mothership will also have some more powerful weapons of its own in Homeworld2 (it won’t just have wimpy anti-fighter guns).

06 March 2003: Relic is showing HW2 at the Game Designer Conference here in San Jose. There is a new HW2 preview at GameSpy that includes 7 new screenshots. Entries have been updated for Vagyr Cap-A, Hiigaran Fighter type B and Corvette type C.

04 March 2003: Higaran sent in a scan of the new shot in the PCGamer article.

03 March 2003: There are a few minor new HW2 Previews, and apparently a short blurb on HW2 in the April PC Gamer; mostly just regurgitation of the VU Games Faire information. I've reorganized the HW2 section so that it's more like the rest of the site, with separate sections for the Hiigaran and Vaygr ships, but also an enhanced index with links to the concept art, info history, and tech briefings. Check it out.

Elorran asked me to plug The Apocalypse Project, a Homeworld/Freespace mod. And because I'm such a peach of a guy, I didn't even charge him... much. :)

01 March 2003: Added thumbnails to the Concept Art page.

28 February 2003: Geoff Thomas mailed out a press packet containing the screenshots and concept art from the Vivendi faire in Germany (which popped up earlier on ActionTrip), plus a few press items. Probably most important were the names of pieces and artist credits for the Concept Art, which have led me to create a new entry for a Hiigaran Minelayer Corvette.

27 February 2003: Added a Megaliths entry.

26 February 2003: I added a rudimentary Concept Art Gallery, and merged the U5 and Hiigaran Carrier entries.

25 February 2003: If you can believe it, there's yet another new preview at Action Trip, with 17 images, including some concept art. Here are the updated entries: Hiigaran Battlecruiser, Carrier, Fighter A, Resource Controller, Resourcer; Vaygr Heavy Corvette, Strike Craft C, Capital Ship C, Capital Ship D; Bentusi Space Station. 

There are also a number of concept art pieces that don't really belong in individual ship pages; for now you can fish for them in the images directory. Eventually I'll set up a dedicated concept art page.

24 February 2003: My. There's a new preview on Gamespot including 8 new screenshots. It never rains, but it pours. Updated entries for the Hiigaran Battlecruiser, Destroyer, Assault Frigate, Assault Corvette, Corvette Type C, Resourcer, Ion Frigate; and Vaygr Cap-A, Destroyer (Cap-B), and Bomber. The cookie goes to Viper114 for the first heads-up.

Earlier today, designer Morgan Jaffit ("entrippy" on the Relic boards) confirmed that the "Red Race" vessels are indeed earlier versions of the Vaygr ships.

23 February 2003: I finally figured out how to get screen captures from the QuickTime video (you have to turn your video hardware acceleration off for it to work), and have added some cool shots to the Fighter A and Assault Frigate entries.

22 February 2003: I somehow managed to miss an entire screenshot in that preview; thanks to Uberjumper for the reality check. Added entries for Unidentified-8, Shipyard, Support Frigate, Marine Frigate.

21 February 2003: The IGN preview is up. Good stuff. In addition to the video there are 10 new screenshots, which reveal a new Hiigaran fighter and a new Vaygr capital ship. Also updated with new images are: Mothership, Ion Cannon Frigate, Support Frigate, Vaygr Bomber, Vaygr Cap-A, Unidentifed-4, Unidentified-5, Unidentified-6, Unidentified-7.

In other news, Homeworld Shipyards now has its own domain: www.homeworldshipyards.com. 

20 February 2003: New IGN image and data for the Battlecruiser. The source image is somewhat dark, so I made up an altered image with labeled features. It's not entirely correct, but designer Morgan Jaffit characterized it as "close."

19 February 2003: Today's IGN profile has more images for the Assault Frigate.

18 February 2003: IGN PC's ship of the day is the Hiigaran "Assault Corvette." IGN's entry includes a screenshot, description and some ship data. I have added an entry with the appropriate information. According to the article, all three of IGN's ship profiles will be for the Hiigaran fleet, so we'll probably have to wait to find out more about the Vaygr. (Cookie goes to Chazzone for the spot.)

16 February 2003: Uberjumper had mentioned that the old HW2 poster on the Relic HW2 Product page had been replaced with the new one seen on the Sierra site, but I hadn't realized it contained a link to a larger version until SandPiper pointed it out. Now you can get a better look at that tantalizing stuff in the background.

14 February 2003: Although it took them until about 8PM PDT to get the damn thing up, IGN PC has finally posted the promised HW2 interview. The article reveals the name of the primary antagonist (the "Vaygr"), and there are five new screenshots (which are quite different from those previously seen. Head here to see what's new. Since there's more to come from IGN in the week ahead, I'll concentrate on the major, obvious stuff for now, and try to avoid splitting hairs.

Here's what's on tap for next week:

Tuesday, February 18th: Screenshot and information release for one ship.
Wednesday, February 19th: Screenshot and information release for one ship.
Thursday, February 20th: Screenshot and information release for one ship.
Friday, February 21st: A short clip showing some gameplay (up for three days).

12 February 2003: The first real HW2 info release is due next week. From Relic's Geoff Thomas:

Some good news! We will be releasing new Homeworld 2 information on IGN.com beginning on Friday, February 14th and ending the following Friday, February 21st. The daily updates will consist of screenshots, information about three of the playable ships in the game, interviews with Relic staff, and some gameplay footage.

06 February 2003: On closer inspection, the "Unidentified 2" resourcer-looking ship has the Red Race "V" insignia on it, so I've moved it to that category, and updated the entry. Kudos to TurboBugHunter for the catch.

05 February 2003: The Sierra www.homeworld2.com website has been revised, with a snazzy new image depicting the Cruiser, Frigate and a new Unidentified Fighter in battle. The corresponding HWS entries have been updated. Thanks to Zach Tumbleweed for the heads-up.

22 January 2003: Relic's Geoff Thomas had this to say about future HW2 info releases:

As to your question regarding when more information will be released, we'll be launching the official site at the end of April with the possibility of more information coming out between now and then. 

16 January 2003: Geoffrey Thomas (Assistant Producer at Relic) has emailed out a packet of nine HW2 screenshots, including those from the PCZone & Joystick articles, plus several that haven't been seen before. The Mothership, Resourcer, Ion Frigate, Fighter, Assault Frigate, Light Corvette, Heavy Corvette, Cruiser and Unknown 2 pages have been updated with new or improved images.

16 December 2002: The French gaming magazine Joystick has printed an article that features a number of HW2 screenshots, including some of the same ones in the PC Zone article, but there is also a new one of the Hiigaran ion cannon frigate and the fighters (which are now clearly Hiigaran, even though they appear to be attacking the frigate). Most notable in this shot is the remarkable scale difference between the fighters and the frigate. Thanks to RealFrenchGuy for the info!

10 December 2002: PC Zone UK has a HW2 article that features new screenshots (although they appear to have been taken in the same batch as the ones we've already seen). There are new views of the Battlecruiser, Assault Frigate and Light Corvette, and new ships: a Resourcer-like vessel, and an unknown which may or may not be the same ship. There's also text in the article that sheds some light on the number of races available in the game. Credit to Mnementh and Uberjumper for the heads-up.

08 November 2002: Added another view of the Assault Frigate that Molotov found on the Switch Interactive website. Also added a bit to the FAQ on the bogus HW2 release dates floating around.

05 November 2002: Through the auspices of RelicNews, Relic has released the high-resolution source images for the screenshots that have appeared in PC Gamer and PC Jeu. Many of them provide substantially improved views of the ships. Battlecruiser, Mothership, Corvette, Fighter, Ion Cannon Frigate and Assault Frigate entries are accordingly updated. (Update: split the Corvette entry into Light and Heavy versions).

22 October 2002: RealFrenchGuy of Esprit Homeworld sends word that Homeworld2 screenshots have appeared in the French gaming magazine PC Jeu. They're the same shots from the October PC Gamer, but you can see a little more of the Mothership in a few of them, and the shot of the Corvettes is clearer. Check 'em out here and here. I've added the improved views to the Mothership and Corvette entries.

19 October 2002: Fixed up a number of things, added a lot of images, and converted over the last of the old HW:CS pages (huzzah!).

13 October 2002: Added more images to various entries, mostly Beast and Somtaaw pages, but the most notable ones that have been missing images for a while are the Headshot Asteroid, Taiidan Light Defender, Kushan Light Defender, Karos Multigun Corvette, Crate, Mine, and the Infected Colony Ship.

12 October 2002: Filled in most of the holes in the Taiidan section, and added a lot of images. I also added a Javascript image viewer to all the images in the Taiidan section, so that you can click on the image to return to the ship page; let me know if this causes problems for anyone, because I plan to eventually use it for all the images on the site.

10 October 2002: Filled out the entries for the rest of the Beast section.

09 October 2002: Added entries for the Beast Acolyte, ACV, Recon, MBF, Processor, Attack Bomber, Interceptor, Cloaked Fighter, and Heavy Corvette.

08 October 2002: Viper114 is helping to fill out the Beast section of the site. We have updated entries for the Beast Mothership, Heavy Cruiser, Cruise Missile, Nomad Moon and Naggarok.

16 September 2002: Another view of the Hiigaran ion cannon frigate courtesy of herr Uber.

15 September 2002: Uber has secured the source images for the concept art seen in the ECTS brochure. See them here and here.

09 September 2002: Added the better quality image for the frigate (thanks to Dawn Falcon, and Uberjumper for the heads-up).

08 September 2002: Relic's brochure from ECTS reveals a new HW2 logo, and what appears to be an Ion Cannon Frigate.

01 September 2002: I updated and added images to a number of HW1 entries that were missing them, including: Kushan Scaffold, Fleet Command, Heavy Corvette, Target Drone, Prison Ship; Taiidan Research Station, Battle Stations, Hyperspace Inhibitor; Kadesh Advanced Swarmer.

29 August 2002: This is absolute friggin' genius. I also updated the links page, which I'm pretty sure must be one of the signs of the apocalypse.

24 August 2002: I've added more images for the Mothership, links to larger images for almost all the thumbnails, and several new entries, including a corvette and a frigate. Head to the HW2 index.

21 August 2002: Added an entry and a short blurb for the Mothership. 

17 August 2002: Out of the clear blue sky, six screenshots from Homeworld 2 have appeared in the October issue of PC Gamer. I'm puzzled why this would happen when the community had previously been told that there would be no new HW2 information this year (along with an assurance that any new information would come to the community first), but I guess being misinformed is something that a Homeworld fan should have become used to by now. One capital ship and one fighter are recognizable in the new shots, so I've gone ahead and created entries for each of these.

18 March 2002: In the interest of completeness, I updated the HW2 section to include the "news" that HW2 has been confirmed as still in production, but still nowhere near release (they're saying 2003 now), nor will there be any new information released about it this year.

19 February 2002: I haven't updated the site recently because there's nothing new to report; the fate of Homeworld 2 remains unclear. It's true that there are still missing entries for Homeworld and Cataclysm ships here; I had planned to resume updating those section in the summer of 2001 along with the new Homeworld 2 info, but that info never arrived. So, until such time as new information is revealed about the future of the series, this site will remain as is. I thank you for your patronage and wish you all the best.

12 November 2001: Relic's "exciting" new press release is only to say that Sigma has been renamed "Impossible Creatures," and that the Relic website has been updated. There is no new information regarding Homeworld 2.

I enjoy being misled, don't you?

On a slightly more positive note, the updated Relic website does have some nice previously unreleased Homeworld 1 artwork. We also have credible information (sounds like a Pentagon briefing, don't it?) that Relic had a HW2 section ready for the rollout, but that it was pulled back at the last moment. So amid the frustration is the sliver of a hope that fairly soon Relic and/or Sierra will pull their heads out of their collective asses, resolve whatever stupid legal wranglings they're entangled in, and release the information which is obviously burning holes in their pockets.

I did say a "sliver" of a hope. Again, breathe normally and don't wait up.

26 October 2001: Uberjumper at RelicNews reports that Alex Garden dropped in on #homeworld yesterday to say that the date at which he will know the date that he can give us some dates has been pushed back to today. And, today he dropped in to say that the date on which he will be able to say whatever it is he's going to say is November 12.

If you understood that, please explain it back to me.

26 September 2001: dmille over at HWUniverse has posted an IRC log in which Relic CEO Alex Garden stopped by #homeworld in an attempt to cheer people up. Here's the relevant snippet:

"I thought I would drop by and tell you guys that we can't give you any information in the very short term, but within a month there is going to be a whole schwack of info for everyone!!! 

I can't tell you whether it's going to be HW2 info, or Sigma info, (or both...) but I can tell you that it's going to be exciting info. Hell, I already know and I'm excited. :) 

I really hate the fact that i have to give out the lame "i can't comment" actually, cause it sucks not to be able to tell you guys what's going on. Unfortunately, making games these days is an effort with hundreds of people involved and I have to make sure we're working as a team."

21 August 2001: Adrenaline Vault is reporting that an "inside source" at Relic has confirmed that Homeworld 2 is indeed being canceled. However, Sierra still maintains that nothing has been decided yet, and Relic has refused to officially comment on the situation.

20 August 2001: According to RelicNews and HWUniverse, Sierra sources say the fate of Homeworld 2 is not yet determined, but is rather still "in negotiations."

19 August 2001: EvilAvatar has the following report:

A source at Relic sends along word that the highly anticipated 3D space-strategy title, Homeworld 2, was cancelled as part of the recent Sierra "Reorganization".

11 July 2001: From the rumor mill: I received this report today through the Insidious Spy Network™:

I'm not aware if you know this or not, but in the next few months, info about Homeworld 2 will be released. Also, there are 5 playable races in HW2, one of which is the Hiigarans.

24 December 2000: Happy Holidays, everyone. I'm temporarily without a webpage editor, so I'm updating with Notepad.

04 November 2000: Just a small update; put up the stats for the Super Acolyte (under the Bentusi section) and the Khar Toba (under Kushan) and adjusted most of the ships lists to include the Cataclysm ships. 

31 October 2000: Happy Halloween!

12 September 2000: The ships which appear in both Homeworld and Cataclysm have different statistics in each game; here is an example of the first of our dual-stat entries, the Turanic Raider Carrier. You can click on the icon at the top right of the entry to switch between Homeworld and Cataclysm versions. The Raider Outpost is also up.

11 September 2000: About half of the Somtaaw pages have been updated, using the old screenshots, but with new stats. Assembling the new screenshots is the most time-consuming part of the update process; there will be new screenshots, but until then the old ones will suffice.

06 September 2000: The first updated Cataclysm entry is up: the Dreadnought. The figures aren't complete; I still have to figure out how the upgrades and multipliers affect weapon damage and ship speed, but you get an idea of the new stat types in Cataclysm.

04 September 2000: I made a quick update to the Cataclysm Unidentified ships page. Also, I've verified that Cataclysm uses the same .big format as Homeworld, so we'll be able to use the .big editor to get all kinds of fun stats for the Cataclysm ship, just like we did for the Homeworld ships.

02 September 2000: Homeworld: Cataclysm is in stores now. Go play!

01 September 2000: Things are still a little rough around the edges, but all the sections are up and the site is functioning. I'll be adding more screenshots over the course of the next week, and the Cataclysm ship entries will be updated with new info after the game hits the stores (which should be sometime around the 11th).

29 August 2000: Homeworld Cataclysm goes gold! It should be in stores in about a week (which should be just enough time to finish this page). Meanwhile, the Taiidan ships are up, minus the screenshots.

26 August 2000: Things are going along nicely. Thanks to everyone who has mailed in with suggestions and compliments. The Karos Graveyard and Miscellaneous sections are up; most of the sections are fairly complete (except for screenshots) except for the Taiidan section. I'm starting to upload the full-size screenshots and link them up.

19 August 2000: The Turanic Raider, Kadesh and Bentusi sections have been populated. There will be more pics for each ship in the finished version, as well as full-size screenshots in addition to the thumbnails.

17 August 2000: Check out the Kushan fighters and corvettes to see what the individual ship pages will look like.

HW:CS News Archive