Video game:Company of Heroes

Developed by Relic Entertainment and published by THQ in 2006, Company of Heroes became the first installment of the real-time strategy series of the same name. The game released exclusively for PC.

Players take control of actual American units from World War II, such as Able Company of the 29th Infantry Division and Fox Company of the 101st Airborne Division, as the game progresses through D-Day and the Allied liberation of France. Company of Heroes puts players in command of varying units such as infantry squads, tanks, and other vehicles and artillery. Gamers succeed by using these units to capture specific Resource Points across each level in order to build additional units and defeat the enemy. These resources include Manpower, Munitions, and Fuel. Manpower creates additional combat units; Munitions upgrades units to improve their effectiveness, and creates special abilities such as artillery strikes; and Fuel creates tanks and other vehicles, as well as the structures for the main base.

Gamers maintain a close proximity to Strategic Points in order to capture them. Individual sections make up each level, with a Strategic Point representing each one. The player must maintain control over the sections connected to their main base to keep a supply line established. If a section is lost in between, then all sections not connected will stop providing resources until players can reestablish a connection. Resource management provides an additional concern, and keeping supply lines open proves just as important as defeating enemy forces. Taking advantage of nearby buildings makes it easier to use infantry units to advance on and defend these Resource Points. Squads can be ordered into buildings to provide additional cover and protection, which can also be turned into Field Barracks in order to create additional squads away from the main base. Buildings are subject to attacks from armor units, however, and buildings can be damaged or destroyed, thus exposing the stationed soldiers.

The game's online multiplayer mode, which includes both Allied and Axis forces, allows for player vs. player combat for up to eight players. Gamers can choose to fight in different game modes, such as Victory Point Control and Annihilation.

Company of Heroes proved popular and commercially successful enough to warrant two expansion packs: Opposing Fronts in 2007 and Tales of Valor in 2009. Both expansions contain single-player campaigns and expand on the multiplayer experience, with new game modes and different armies to command. As stand-alone expansions, Opposing Fronts and Tales of Valor do not require Company of Heroes in order to play them. In 2013, Relic released a sequel, Company of Heroes 2, which shifted the focus of the game to the Eastern Front with the fighting between the Germans and Russians.

-----------This artifact is part of a donation from Tony Van, a producer and designer in the video game industry since 1988. He worked for many of the industry's top publishers, including Activision, Infocom, Strategic Simulations, Inc., Sega, Lucasfilm Games, Segasoft, Ubisoft, Zynga and Electronc Arts. He created games of almost every genre for personal computers, home consoles and online game portals. This donation contains over 200 items from his personal collection, including games, magazines, posters, industry conference material, clothing, company gifts and swag.