THQ, which has recently announced cutting five studios and significantly reducing staff at two others, is trying to get a new hit out as quickly as possible and revealed that developer Relic is creating Tales of Valor, a stand alone expansion for Company of Heroes, the real time strategy title set in World War II which pretty much re-defined the genre.

The new expansion is set to offer a big amount of content. The company says that three new campaigns will be implemented, although the sides which are involved in them are not known at the moment, with new multiplayer modes and a big fresh feature called “direct fire” which is supposed to offer “even more tactical control during the heat of battle”.

Tarrnie Williams, the general manager of developer Relic, stated that “In Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor, we're offering players a ton of rich, new content including more strategic options in single-player and multiplayer. With fresh new campaigns and multiplayer modes, brand-new units, additional maps and the introduction of the 'direct-fire' feature, we're once again committed to delivering the best in strategic gaming”.

Company of Heroes is a very deep game. The main innovation is the addition of retreat and suppression mechanics to the game, which make the combat much more tactical and engaging. The single player campaigns of the original game and of the first expansion, Opposing Fronts, were well designed, with interesting tactical challenges intermingled with quality cutscenes. The amount of possibilities the game offered was staggering and players quickly developed a variety of approaches to each of the battlefield situations they encountered.

As long as Relic manages to deliver the same quality of content that the original game delivered, the Tales of Valor expansion might be one bright spot in the otherwise apparently gloomy future of THQ.