Five years after LawBreakers shut down, we're getting to play the gravity-defying multiplayer FPS again thanks to fans. LawBreakers was the first game from Boss Key Productions, a studio co-founded by Gears Of Wars lead designer Cliff Bleszinski, and it had delightful ultraviolence beneath its uninspiring genric look. Alas, it did not sell well. Boss Key closed less than a year after launch, and the game soon followed. But after years of work, a group of fans this weekend successfully ran the first public test for a workaround to play the game again. While there's no clear launch plan yet, more playtesting will follow.
]]>Among the avalanche of trigger-happy competitive shooters, LawBreakers is an obvious homage to the twitchy, run-and-gunnners of yesteryear like Quake and Doom. Set in an over-the-top, zero-gravity arena, it encourages and demands from its players a mastery of sharpshooting and bullet-pumping. It’s a pity this may have deterred many aspiring LawBreakers players, and a double pity that the ill-fated studio is shutting down its servers in September. To be at the receiving end of a dizzying, acrobatic assault is the zenith of this breakneck shooter. There’s an artistry to be found in the sleek movements, the speeding bullets, the quick surveying of enemy positions, and the frenetic, instinctive reaction against a flurry of attacks.
]]>I feel genuinely sorry for the folks at Boss Key Productions. By all accounts, LawBreakers wasn't the game that they wanted to make, but they still delivered a pretty polished arena shooter that just never found the audience it was looking for. Publisher Nexon America are keeping the lights on until September, and in order to give the game a proper sendoff, the formerly retail game is now free for all to jump in and play.
]]>The games industry is an oft-cruel place. For every game that gets greenlit for production, another dozen ideas are rejected. With his studio - Boss Key Productions - now closing its doors after the failure of Radical Heights, head man and former Epic lead Cliff Bleszinski has been sharing concept art and pitches on Twitter for a trio of games that publishers rejected before Nexon decided to fund development of LawBreakers.
]]>After LawBreakers failed to strike it rich, many saw studio Boss Key's decision to rush-release '80s game-show themed battle royale Radical Heights as proof that the studio was in jeopardy, and that pushing the game out with only one half-finished map available was a wild spin on the wheel of fortune. While starting out free-to-play ensured that the price is right, it just wasn't enough to hit the jackpot and save the studio from a complete wipeout.
Today on Twitter, studio head Cliff Bleszinski announced that Boss Key Productions is no more.
]]>Radical Heights is the 80s retro battle royale blastathon that's the newest kid on the battle block. Whether you like shooting up arcades or shooting up other, different arcades, Radical Heights has you covered; all wrapped up in a sense of gnarly attitude not seen since Sunset Overdrive. That's right, I invoked Sunset Overdrive in the first paragraph. I'm on a warpath today. Sorry, back to the issue at hand: Radical Heights has a second update that introduces a number of new elements to the game. This includes bug fixes (obviously) but also a range of BMX bikes and bike ramps and cosmetic options. There's also a scanner that reveals enemy locations on the map. That's the bigger thing. Unless you're into battle royale games for the bike ramps. TBH a Paperboy Battle Royale does sound kinda great. I just want to deliver newspapers and murder indiscriminately. Give it to me.
]]>I’m hiding in a bush when a man in a garish tracksuit runs past. The fool. I step out and spray him with bullets from an uzi. He’s dead in a second, exploding like a piñata into a shower of guns ‘n’ goodies. I’ve reached the final 20 survivors, and yup, Radical Heights is a battle royale, no doubt about it. But this rough and ready deathmatch has been in development for just five months. That dead man’s tracksuit? Identical to my tracksuit. The bush? An ugly placeholder of blurred leaves. In five minutes I will be murdered in a non-descript building made of textureless grey walls. Some might call the shooter unready. Zach Lowery, of developers Boss Key Productions, calls it “XTREME early access”.
]]>It's been a thrilling 24 hours for Radical Heights, the new free-to-play battle royale shooter from LawBreakers studio Boss Key Productions. Within the past day, the game has been announced, trailered and launched into Early Access, but not before becoming embroiled in a short-lived pay-to-win controversy. Unsurprisingly, it's not been the smoothest of launches either, with players currently as likely to wind up stuck in a tangled heap of limbs in the lobby as placed in a match.
]]>'80s nostalgia is a rich vein of material, but few games have dug as close to bedrock as Radical Heights, the next game from LawBreakers studio Boss Key Productions. Tapping into a second source of zeitgeist, it's a free-to-play battle royale shooter, but with a hyper-capitalist twist and more luridly neon-painted BMX bikes than ever actually existed. It's also out tomorrow.
]]>Boss Key Productions are stepping back from their gravity-bending FPS LawBreakers, at least for a while, because it simply didn't make enough money to fund the post-launch support they'd planned. That's not surprising to hear, given that last month the multiplayer game struggled to muster 25 players online at the same time.
Boss Key mention the prospect of turning LawBreakers free-to-play but it doesn't sound like that's happening, or not yet at least. So, for now, they're working on something new. They didn't say what that is, but have followed yesterday's announcement up by tweeting a mock magazine ad for a retro run 'n' gunner named Double Dudes 2: Quadruple The Dudes. That could be a joke, a hint, or literally the game they're making. As with all of this, it's a bit vague.
]]>Good news everyone, I've found my jetpacks! They were hiding in LawBreakers all along, and there's a free weekend that might be just what I need after my so-so experience with CoD WW2's multiplayer. I played a little bit of LawBreakers when it launched, and while I didn't have enough room on my plate for another multiplayer shooter at the time, the game's aerial bullet ballets made me wish that I did.
]]>There’s no escaping the dread howl of the free weekend. I don’t know if gravity-averse hero shooter LawBreakers [official site] is any good but Sam liked it, calling it a “rock solid shooter”. If you want to know if he’s telling the cold, hard truth or a tepid, soggy lie, you can find out for yourself from 6pm today. It recently added a deathmatch mode and a new map, so it looks like you’re going people-shooting at the right time.
]]>Gravity-bothering FPS, LawBreakers [official site] has launched a "significant" patch, boosting player lifespans, dunking in a new map - Namsan - and bundling in a bunch of new features. There's also a new game mode in the form of Skirmish - Team Deathmatch. I'll get into a bit more detail on these bits after the jump but basically it's the start of the developers at Boss Key experimenting with ways to bolster the game's appeal and build its audience.
]]>Zero gravity FPS LawBreakers [official site] will add three new maps, new game modes and a new class before the end of the year, developers Boss Key Productions have announced. All updates will be free and the first – due later this month – will include a map called Namsan, a new temporary team deathmatch mode, and some extra tutorials to make it easier for new players to jump on board.
Other temporary game modes, called skirmishes, will pop up throughout the rest of the year. But perhaps the most significant change is the addition of a permanent competitive ranked mode, something the game desperately needs because it lacks a meaningful progression system - as I mentioned in my LawBreakers review. That'll arrive before the end of the year too, alongside a map specifically designed for the game's blitzball mode (where players vie for control for a central ball and then fly it to the other team's goal), plus the game's first asymmetric map, called Valhalla.
]]>You want to know which are the top ten selling games on Steam this week, but you also still don't know the capital city of Turkmenistan. What is a person to do? Well worry not, because here at Steam Charts HQ, we've got you covered! All the games that are in the top ten games in the Steam top ten games chart, and all the facts you need for that surprise government test!
Join us today as we laugh and learn.
]]>Lawbreakers [official site], as I wrote yesterday, is an excellent zero-gravity FPS that you should probably play if you like fast-paced action. It's also a very balanced game, with no one class able to dominate. But that doesn't mean there isn't the odd tweak to be made, and developers Boss Key Productions have released the game's first post-launch patch with welcome nerfs to some classes.
The Harrier's Convergence ability is their first target. It's a giant, powerful laser beam that she shoots from her chest and kills you before you have time to react. So, its base damage has now been bumped down from 500 DPS to 400 DPS to "make it easier for coordinated teams to take advantage of Harrier's vulnerability" (she can't move very much when she fires it). I approve.
]]>It’s hard not to get excited about LawBreakers' [official site] simple hook: flying military grunts with rockets strapped to their feet zip around zero gravity arenas dodging grenades and pumping bullets into each other. I'm happy to report that it's as fun as it sounds, and its ideas set it apart from other games in the genre. Yet what has impressed me more is how polished it is away from those aerial segments, which actually only make up part of the action. Far from a one-trick pony, LawBreakers is a rock solid shooter with game modes that necessitate team play, and although it's not fully complete yet (there's ranked play coming soon) it's got enough variety to keep me coming back for more.
]]>The Steam Charts is the only place on the internet to find out the most up-to-date information about the games you care about the most, the latest rumours of upcoming changes to early access hits, and secrets that can see your way to coming top of the gaming high score tables!
]]>Even scientists concede that their Law of Gravity is only a 'theory' -- i.e. total tosh Newton made up as an excuse for why he was napping on the job -- so to heck with it, gravity be darned. I plan to cut off the heavy soles of my feet so I can fly but I suppose the more squeamish among you might be content with playing LawBreakers [official site]. Released overnight, it's a competitive first-person arena shooter where gravity doesn't work the way scientific bods might pretend, letting us soar, swing, and whoosh around. It's also the first game from the new studio of Cliff Bleszinski, formerly a big man around Unreal Tournament and Gears of War studio Epic Games.
]]>Cliff Bleszinski and his Boss Key Productions are holding another open beta test for their gravity-bending multiplayer FPS LawBreakers [official site] this weekend. It'll start Friday then run until Monday, and you can prepare by preloading the client now. The last beta was one month ago and the game will launch in a fortnight, so this is a chance to see basically what it'll be like. Changes since the last beta include a sandbox tutorial mode, balance tweaks, matchmaking improvements, and all the character customisation doodads.
]]>From today, everyone gets to be a LawBreaker! That doesn’t mean you should break into my flat and steal my telly, but it does mean that, until 9AM PDT on July 5, you can play Boss Key Productions’ gravity defying multiplayer shooter, LawBreakers [official site]. The open beta has already kicked off, so consider fighting future criminals and cops this weekend.
]]>Each year E3 rolls around like a giant evil worm, crushing all that's good and pure. BUT that worm also announces lots of exciting gaming news as it wreaks its carnage upon the Earth. Here we have gathered every announcement, reveal, and exciting new trailer that emerged from the barrage of screamed press conferences over the last few days. And lots of it looks rather spiffy.
A rather enormous 47 PC games were either announced, revealed, or updated upon, with new trailers, information, and released dates that will all be missed by at least three months. We've collected the lot, with trailers, in alphabetical order, into one neat place, just for you.
]]>LawBreakers [official site], the new multiplayer arena first-person shooter from Cliff 'Please Don't Call Me "Clifford 'CliffyB' Bleszinski" Like I'm Still 26' Bleszinski and his team at Boss Key Productions, will launch on August 8th. That's a hot slap of news out of E3 today. LawBreakers draws on Bleszinski's years working on Unreal Tournament while at Epic, then whacks it with class-based characters (do we call them 'heroes' or what? with MOBAs I'd just say wizards and you know what, let's stick with wizards) and futzes with gravity in interesting ways.
]]>"Lawbreaker!" shouted the fogie queueing ahead of me. It was a sunny San Francisco afternoon and we stood at a crossing where a pedestrian had brazenly crossed the quiet road against the lights.
"I was thinking the same thing!" her friend added.
I don't know if LawBreakers [official site] is trying to conjure up images of Judas Priest and The Clash with a name like that, rock 'n' roll rebels, but I'll always think of those two cranks sick of jaywalkers. But if you want to see more of the upcoming multiplayer FPS from Boss Key, the new studio founded by Cliff Bleszinski of Unreal Tournament and Jazz Jackrabbit fame, you can sign up for the closed beta which starts March 16th.
]]>LawBreakers is a multiplayer first-person shooter by Boss Key, the post-Epic studio founded by Cliff Bleszinski. It puts you on one side of a zero-gravity grapple-and-gunfight and Rob was surprised by it when he played it earlier this year. We're giving away 10,000 keys for this weekend's alpha test of the game.
]]>LawBreakers [official site] has a new trailer out. I should know because I watched it. It focuses on the "Enforcer" role. According to the video blurb: "Kick ass from afar with the Enforcer role by using the Aerator Rifle, get close by using the Badger Shock Pistol and finish off your foes with the shoulder-mounted Bloodhound Launcher."
I feel like the gun names hint at an animal theme but what kind of an animal is an aerator? Not a real one in my book of UK Wildlife, that's for sure.
]]>I've been holidaying far from computers for a good while now, and LawBreakers [official site] is the perfect entry point back into the world of PC games. Two recent videos highlight the verticality of the arenas in which teams will battle in this first-person competitive battler. My interest levels have been high since our first hands-on preview, which managed to transform my thoughts about the game from "why would I play this?" to "when can I play this?". The answer, I suspect, is in a couple of weeks time at E3.
]]>Nvidia have unveiled their next top-end GPU, the GeForce GTX 1080, which they say can draw lots of really nice pictures really fast. Look, I'm sure Jeremy and his Week in Tech will have more to say about that soon, but what's interesting to me is the software they announced alongside it. Nvidia Ansel will let people take fancier screenshots, pausing the action to rearrange the camera, apply effects, take ultra-high-res snaps, make 360-degree panoramas compatible with VR goggles, and so on. Support for Ansel is coming to Nvidia GPUs for games including The Witcher 3, The Witness, and No Man's Sky, and it'll work on many cards older than the 1080 too.
]]>When we received an invite to visit the studios of Boss Key Productions, Cliff Bleszinski's new studio, we asked Rob Zacny to represent us. He was there to play Lawbreakers [official site], a game that he approached with some trepidation but the tense multiplayer action won him over. Given that Boss Key is an entire new creative venture for Bleszinski and his team, we wanted to know more. How does the studio work? What is it like to work with the man behind Gears of War, Unreal and Jazz Jackrabbit? And how do you make a salmon with legs?
Right at the front of the Boss Key Production employee handbook is the instruction: no bullshit.
]]>Earlier this month, we sent Rob Zacny to the offices of Boss Key Productions in North Carolina. The studio are working on their first game, Lawbreakers, a multiplayer action game from a team led by Unreal's Cliff Bleszinski. Approaching with a healthy dose of skepticism, Rob spent some time playing the game and learning its secrets to see if it could win him over, and to find the answer to his initial question.
Who, I wondered, is going to give a damn about Lawbreakers?
]]>No Nexus platform, fewer microtransactions, and fewer colours: these were the main points of the GDC panel held by Cliff Bleszinski and his Boss Key Productions about their multiplayer shooter LawBreakers [official site].
The game will be released exclusively on Steam, with an upfront purchase and their latest screenshots showcase a change in visual direction away from the colourful and cartoony look of some of its competitors. But boy, do we need some new marketing lingo in gaming. Come raise your eyebrows with me.
]]>I lost interest during the announcement of Cliff Bleszinski's new shooter LawBreakers [official site] when the former Epic chap's livestreamed reveal-o-rama went into guff about criminals and cops and law-breaking and the future and the moon and... oh, I didn't care. I closed the stream.
However! Watching its 'gameplay reveal' trailer, I discover that the arena FPS has gnarly-looking energy grappling hooks to whip you around levels, rocket jumping, and some other swish gadgets. Aye, I'll keep an eye on this game all right. Watch this:
]]>LawBreakers [official site], the new shooter from Cliff Bleszinski and his new studio Boss Key, was shown for the first time earlier today in a livestream. That livestream is finished now, but below you'll find the game's first proper trailer. It's a competitive, 5 vs. 5 sci-fi first-person shooter about manipulating gravity, with two factions based around law enforcement and criminal gangs.
]]>
