Karl Fairburne, the titular Sniper Elite, is a pro at pinging baddies in the distance. The master of shooting Nazis in the balls across hundreds of metres. It’s a mystery, then, why the French Resistance constantly hand him objectives that require close-quarters combat. “Sneak into this chateau,” or “blow up that radar,” they say, probably with a smirk assuming that he won’t be able to pull it off. He can, of course, but it’s a monotonous series of missions that rarely asks you to get inventive with your trusty rifle.
]]>The Sniper Elite series has found a comfortable 7/10 groove, ploughing the territory halfway between Hitman and Call Of Duty and planting seeds by letting you shoot the bollocks off a Nazi. The next in the series was officially revealed during this week's Game Awards, and you can find the first trailer below.
]]>Here's a surprisingly fine thing on an otherwise somewhat bleak Sunday: Duncan Jones (director of Moon) is making a Rogue Trooper movie. What's a rogue trooper, you ask? I mean, it's all in the name. He's gone rogue. He's a trooper. He's blue and all of his dead friends live inside of his equipment and he does battle on a ravaged planet called Nu-Earth where poison gas has-- okay, sure. Not everything is inherently included in the name.
]]>There were perhaps too many games at E3 2018 for any one person to have caught them all. That's why we're still trying to cover videos and reveals a week later. I accidentally typed "a year later" because that's how it feels. I'm fine; we're all fine here. One of the sleeper hits of the show on my end was Strange Brigade. I always super-dig what Rebellion puts out, but I wasn't feeling this one before E3. Then I got to see a supernatural co-op shooter with puzzles and third-person combat in gigantic levels. Now I'm intrigued. And there's a little bit of a Clive Barker's Jericho vibe I'm getting here, which is equally exciting.
]]>Mummies! They're like zombies, but easier to clean up once you're finished with them, at least according to Strange Brigade's new gameplay trailer. The cooperative 1930s-set shooter isn't far off now - due out at the end of August - but Rebellion have apparently got one last PR blitz in them before E3 swallows all and everything blurs into one nightmare gaming haze. Within, a very pulp serial trailer, featuring one of the most cheerfully bombastic narrators around.
]]>Those without fancy VR future-goggles can now enjoy the neon tank-wars of Rebellion's Battlezone. While I'd assumed that the Gold Edition update for the game would be a separate release or some manner of paid upgrade, I'm happy to be wrong here. Today, the Gold Edition rolled out as a free update to all existing players, opening the door to a whole new set of players.
]]>Why didn’t the Mummy go to the party? Because she had no body to oh no I’ve fudged it. Forever getting my skellingtons and mummies mixed up, me. But here are four Egyptologists less likely to misclassify their cadavers. Strange Brigade was announced last summer - a pulpy 4-player shoot ‘n’ loot set in a 1930s of unapologetic empire maintenance. You play a group of artefact stealers fighting against lots of dusty proto-zombos. Today, Rebellion (developers of Sniper Elite and the Nazi Zombie Army spin-offs) have announced a release date of August 28, and blown the tomb dust off a story trailer, which lurks below.
]]>You wait forever for a Battlezone game, and suddenly two roll up at once. Mere weeks from the release of Battlezone: Combat Commander, Rebellion have the confusingly named Battlezone: Gold Edition lined up for launch on PC at the start of next month. Completely unrelated to the recently-remastered RTS/shooter hybrid series, this is a port of the PlayStation VR arcade tank shooter from last year, although our version will make the fancy space-age headgear optional.
]]>Some may grumble about the recent glut of HD updates and remasters that have been bulking out release schedules the past few years, but when it means that a new generation can experience joys like 1999's RTS/tank-combat hybrid Battlezone 2: Combat Commander, then I'm all for it.
Following up from the slightly wonky re-release that was Battlezone 98 Redux, Big Boat Interactive (under Rebellion's publishing banner) have poured a lot more time and effort into the sequel's enhancement, which launched via both Steam and GOG today.
]]>Not every PC classic is deserving of a full remaster/remake/spit-and-polish treatment, but I reckon that 1999's RTS/FPS hybrid Battlezone 2: Combat Commander has more than earned its place on Rebellion's list of games to update to modern spec, and Big Boat Interactive's update looks to be doing the game justice.
Along with announcing a release date - March 1st, just one month off - Rebellion have released a new trailer comparing the game as it looked back in the day to how it looks now, given the blessings of a modern renderer, sharper textures, smoother models and an upgrade to 4K resolutions.
]]>Rebellion, the makers of Sniper Elite (not to mention the owners of the comic 2000 AD), have expanded their business portfolio once more. It's bound in black leather with red contrast stitching, has built-in pen holder and a cartridge pouch, and... oh, yes, they've bought Radiant Worlds. That studio name might not be familiar, as they'd only worked on a doomed Minecraftbut MMO named SkySaga: Infinite Isles, but you might know two of the names behind the studio: Andrew and Philip Oliver. You know, the Oliver Twins, them lads in the '80s UK games scene who span an egg so hard it became Dizzy. Well, now Radiant Worlds is part of Rebellion and working on Rebellion's games.
]]>After last year releasing a revamped version of Battlezone, the 1998 RTS-FPS hybrid where spacelords join the battlefield themselves to drive vehicles and scamper about, Rebellion are now focusing on its sequel. Today they announced Battlezone Combat Commander, a remastered version of 1999's Battlezone II. Coming some time in 2018, it'll boast a similar amount of fancying-up as the Battlezone 98 Redux though with a less clumsy (but more confusing) name. Check out the announcement trailer:
]]>Rebellion's 2006 third-person shooter Rogue Trooper is, as I have said before, the archetypal 7/10 action game. I mean that only positively: a game you fire up with no expectations of bar-raising, but just a solid good time. (As opposed to a 7/10 game that you expected 10/10 things from but were left underwhelmed). I've been in two minds about the revelation that it was coming back this year, remastered for PC as well as assorted consoles. For one thing, the original still looks pretty fine when cranked up to big resolutions. For another... well, it's good, but it's not quite Carling, is it? How much betterer could jiggery-pokered graphics really make Rogue Trooper?
I've been playing Rogue Trooper Redux [official site], and the answer is: not much. If this is your first time with it, the new version's still that crucial solid good time nonetheless.
]]>Rebellion today announced that Rogue Trooper Redux [official site], the fancied-up re-release of their perfectly good 7/10 cover shooter, will launch on October 17th. The original still runs on modern system -- and looks pretty good at a 1800p resolution -- but sure, it'll be nice to see the game spruced up a little. Accompanying today's news is a new trailer showing comparisons between the 2006 and 2017 versions and yup, that's a fancier version of Rogue Trooper all right. Have a look:
]]>Today, in news I never thought I'd hear: Evil Genius 2 has been announced. Evil Genius, to refresh your memory, is a 2004 real-time strategy game made by Elixir Studios, about a Bond-y villain building super secret bases for dastardly reasons while fending off meddling spies. It's a bit like Dungeon Keeper, and it is good fun. Sniper Elite developers Rebellion picked up the rights to Evil Genius back in 2006 and, after a foolish attempt at a free-to-play Evil Genius for Facebook a few years back, now say they're making an actual proper real Evil Genius 2.
]]>Real talk: the only opinions I'm capable of having right now are related to ice creams that will see me through the UK's unfamiliar hot weather. That's why my emotions towards Rebellion's next game, Strange Brigade [official site] are pretty much just "WHY ARE YOU NOT AN ICE CREAM?" Instead of being a delicious Twister, Strange Brigade is determined to be a third-person adventure thingy for 1-4 players set in a 1930s explorer kind of world. It's all ancient evil and dirigibles and Egyptology and British Empire this and that. Aesthetically it reminds me of films like The Mummy - the one with Brendan Fraser, not the reboot with Tom Cruise which is confusing me every time I pass the local cinema - or the Tintin comics from around the 1930s. Maybe even a '50s rendition of the '30s?
]]>Rebellion, the studio behind the Sniper Elite and Nazi Zombie Army games, have announced a new class-based shooter for 1-4 players with all the sights, fights, and colonial stereotypes of 1930s pulp adventures. Strange Brigade [official site] is its name, and shooting monsters is its game. As adventurers with different abilities, players will kick in the doors to "forgotten civilisations" and "treacherous tombs" to fight undead nasties, anthropomorphic animal monsters, and maybe even Anubis (or one of his bros). Here, have a look in the announcement trailer:
]]>Last time someone 'rebooted' Battlezone [read: applied a known brand name to a largely-unrelated game -ed.], we got a splendid FPS-RTS. This time, new owners Rebellion are rebooting closer to the series' origins with arcade-y tankblasting in the game they call simply Battlezone [official site]. After jacking into PlayStation VR last year, Battlezone today arrived on PC exclusively for cybergoggles.
In more-important Rebellion news: did you see that they have got a live-action Judge Dredd TV show in the pipeline? Mate!
]]>A new trailer gives a teeny look at Rogue Trooper Redux [official site], the upcoming revamp of Rebellion's perfectly good 7/10 action game from 2006. Unlike 2000 AD's attempts to revamp the comic strip this game is based on, the Redux's plans are fairly modest. It's like Rogue Trooper but prettier and hopefully slightly less clunky - but only slightly less so. I don't even want a huge overhaul or modernisation; I'd be content with a mild prettying-up, support for modern resolutions, and a few fixes and tweaks. Don't risk that 7/10ness. This trailer mostly explains backstory but does have a cheeky peek:
]]>Huh. Big day for blue people. I've long wished that venerable Britcomic (and home of Joe Dredd) 2000 AD would take another shot at sticking its best characters into videogames, and I say so no merely from wishful thinking, but also because they did it rather well the last time they tried in earnest. Rogue Trooper was a Good 7/10 third-person action game developed by 2000AD owners Rebellion back in 2006, starring a vengeful blue dude with a talking hat, gun and rucksack. I've always been fond of it, and now it seems I'll get to play it again as whatever a 'redux' version turns out to be.
]]>2000 AD, home of Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog and Flesh, is opening up its characters for licensing opportunities. Acknowledging that they can't create games based on all of the characters and setting, 2000 AD owners Rebellion stated on Saturday that they hope to license out the properties, including Dredd and related characters. Rebellion are now best known for the Sniper Elite series but have owned 2000 AD since...well, 2000 AD. In that time there have only been two 2000 AD games*, 2003's Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death and Rogue Trooper in 2006 (updated for Wii in 2009), but this move should open the floodgates. Or at least the faucets.
]]>Sniper Elite 4 [official site] is my first time with Rebellion's World War II third-person shooter series, games I have hitherto only been peripherally aware of as 'that one where you get to shoot Hitler in the plums'. I must admit, from afar I'd presumed this was a game about spending 80 minutes crouched on rock, gauging wind direction with a wet finger and applying mathematical levels of after-touch to each level's single shot.
Turns out, no, it's a halfway house between Hitman and Call of Duty - equal parts stealth and firefights. It's entirely accessible, and that biggish number at the end of title doesn't mean any prior knowledge is necessary either.
]]>Heart shoulders knees and guts (Knees and guts) Heart shoulders knees and guts And jaw and brain and liver and nose Heart shoulders knees and guts (Knees and guts)
That's a handy song to help you remember which bodybits get shot, stabbed, punched, kneed, ruptured, shattered, and exploded in slow-motion internal views in the first 'gameplay' trailer for Sniper Elite 4 [official site].
]]>Battlezone 98 Redux [official site], Rebellion's recent revamp of Activision's ace RTS-FPS, now has an expansion. Not a new expansion, mind. Not really. Available now is a revamped version of Battlezone's old expansion The Red Odyssey, which adds two new singleplayer campaigns with two new factions and loads of vehicles and weapons and whatnot to continue the secret wars across our solar system and beyond.
]]>Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 [official site] and Sniper Elite 4 [official site] are giving each other the eye from either side of the no man's land between January and February. Open-world snipe 'em up Ghost Warrior 3 will launch on January 27th, 2017, CI Games announced this week during E3. The very same day, Rebellion announced that they'll launch Sniper Elite 4 on February 14th, 2017.
]]>Battlezone 98 Redux [official site], a revamp of the splendid sci-fi FPS-RTS from 1998, is out... oh! Today! Now! It's out now! Publishers Rebellion today jumped out a box yelling "Boo!" and flinging it onto Steam. They say they have more revamps coming too.
Battlezone's your usual '90s arcade-y RTS - the space race was a cover for an interplanetary hot war between the USA and USSR, where they collected resources to build tanks and blow up each other's bases - only with the delightful addition of the ability to scamper around the battlefield yourself, taking control of vehicles to lead the fight. I remember it fondly.
]]>Rebellion are returning to World War 2 for more sneaky sniping action later this year, having today announced Sniper Elite 4. This time, Ian Elite is headed to Italy to fight with the resistance against the forces of fascism. While we see Nazis in movies and video games all the time, Mussolini and friends are less common. Is the most known pop culture image of them perhaps from Allo Allo? Bit less sunny in reality, that lot. Anyway, yes, Sniper Elite 4 is announced and coming this year. Observe, a trailer:
]]>When Sniper Elite devs Rebellion announced last year that they were bringing back Battlezone, everyone responded "Oh. But not the good Battlezone?" (by which I mean I said that, but I'm using my authority to make you complicit, sucker). Luckily, Rebellion soon added that as well as making a game based on Atari's 1980 arcade shooter, they were revamping The Good Battlezone, the FPS/RTS Activision released in 1998.
Now we know that Battlezone 98 Redux [official site], as they're calling it, will arrive in spring with Steam Workshop support for mods and other new bits.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
It's a little baffling that nobody's tried to make Evil Genius [official site] again. A transparent derivative of Dungeon Keeper, it did more than enough to distinguish itself from that noble luminary of base building and evil overlording.
]]>Continuing today's festive programming, here is a Christmas treat from Mickey Rourke In An Old Bad Videogame that I have spent hours and hours and hours deliberating over.
]]>Whoo yeah, October 22nd! This means... Wombat Day? Yeah, it's Wombat Day! And, you, ah, you know what's like a wombat? It's a wolf. Right? Kinda. I mean. They're both mammals. Greyish. Got legs. Basically the same. This works. Happy Wombat Day!
Sniper Elite developers Rebellion have made a furry friend of their own, announcing that they've bought up Woolfe – The Red Hood Diaries [official site]. Its developers Grin (different to the Bionic Commando Grin) folded in August after the genericly 'twisted' platformer reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood sold poorly, but apparently Rebellion see something in it. They'll fulfil overdue Kickstarter rewards too.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
Alec recently revisted Rogue Trooper to take pretty screenshots of Rebellion's cover shooter, so I'll try not to tread similiar ground. It's a third-person shooter based on a 2000 AD recurring story about a genetically-engineered blue supersoldier fighting with the help of his dead pals' personalities living in his helmet, rifle, and rucksack. It's pretty fun! What I'll instead focus on is how I like it makes me create my own ammo, giving me freedom to use the weapons I want.
]]>Louis, Francis, Bill, and Zoey, and Ellis, Rochelle, Coach, and Nick have returned, though probably not in the way you'd hope for. The Left 4 Dead survivors have found themselves transported back to Nazi Germany to tackle those dreadful Nazi zombies in Zombie Army Trilogy. A free update last night added the eight survivors to Zombie Army's character lineup for your undead-redeading enjoyment.
To celebrate this merging of zombworlds, the game's on sale on Steam this weekend.
]]>Rebellion are not content with simply rebooting the old green-and-black Battlezone [official site] from 1980. They've put out an open letter to fans of the series today letting them know that they will also be working on a "remaster" of Battlezone 1998. I guess now no one can moan at them for remaking the "wrong" one.
]]>The everlasting threat of a single bullet, the terrifying glint of a sniper scope in your eyes, and the darkness that covers your enemy make Sniper Elite V2 [official site] one of the most gripping gaming experiences I’ve had. You can't take your eyes off the screen for a second; instead, you must remain calm, remain patient, and study your environment. Was that sliver of movement in the corner of your eye the enemy or foliage shifting in the wind? Does that scope glint signal impending death or did they fail to see you as you had failed to see them?
The tension is greatest in a one-on-one deathmatch fight, in which one wrong move can be your end. The skills of a sniper are your only help.
]]>I didn't know Sniper Elite devs and 2000AD owners Rebellion had the Battlezone [official site] rights these days - seems it's passed through more hands than a brown envelope at FIFA HQ. Anyway, the olden tank battles game is coming back, back, back for the umpteenth time, now as a VR-focused game based on the original 80s Atari game rather than on Activision's 90s FPS/RTS mash-up. "The father of VR gaming has returned," they say. Sadly I can't see it in gogglevision from the discomfort of this slowly-collapsing Ikea chair, but the trailer tries to give us some sense of what fractal spaceships launching themselves directly at your eyeballs might be like.
]]>Zombie Army Trilogy [official site], the follow-up to Sniper Elite 3 as well as Nazi Zombie Army 1 and 2, is out now. As the 'Trilogy' in the name suggests, this package also includes Nazi Zombie Army 1 and 2, plus a third chapter based on Sniper Elite v3. Confused yet? Don't worry, there's plenty of delicious brains to go around.
]]>2006's Rogue Trooper, an adaptation of the 2000AD comic, isn't the first game off anyone's lips, unless they're specifically talking about 2000AD games which were pretty good but no-one remembers them. But I remember Rogue Trooper. I was all about 2000AD at a certain point in my life, enough so that an attachment to the holy trinity - Dredd, Johnny Alpha, Rogue Trooper - will stay with me for life. But while Dredd vs. Death seemed like a hollow disservice to the character and his world, Rogue Trooper was a very straightforward game which just nailed it, and took me right back to why I used to love the surly blue guy. It is not a classic. But it is an extremely well-judged action game that is extremely true to its source material. I like it a lot. No-one's ever going to celebrate it.
So I will.
]]>Yeah, I guess that is Adolf Hitler as a burning zombie demon sort of monster. Okay then. I imagine that's what you'd end up with if you formed a committee to design the video game villain players would feel least bad about killing. One person insisted he be a litterbug too, leaving a trail of Twix wrappers and Coke cans, but it was decided that'd dilute the idea. This chap's the villain of Zombie Army Trilogy, a package revamping Rebellion's two Sniper Elite spin-off Nazi Zombie Army games and boshing in a third chapter along with female zombie-hunters and other new bits.
]]>Every Sunday, we reach deep into Rock, Paper, Shotgun's 141-year history to pull out one of the best moments from the archive. This week, Alec's 2007 celebration of the real meaning of Aliens, in (the original) Aliens versus Predator.
Like every good geek, I have a favourite gaming moment. It's in Aliens Versus Predator, a vintage but oft-forgotten first-person shooter that gets mentioned by my games-hack peers about as often as the Pope says "are you sure this hat makes God happy?"
]]>Years of pining for a decent Alien game have been ended by Alien: Isolation, a right little stonker, which probably means it's time to start hoping for another good Aliens game. That little extra s makes a huge difference, calling for space marines with big guns yelling "Let's rock!" then melting in sprays of acid blood. If you fancy a fun interspecies rumble on PC, you'll need to look back a good decade.
As luck would have it (or a convenient marketing opportunity), you can now grab one of the last good Aliens games for free. GOG are giving away Rebellion's Aliens Versus Predator (the nice one from 1999, not 2010's so-so Aliens vs. Predator) to get folks testing the infrastructure for the upcoming Galaxy service.
]]>In the first of what certainly won't be a regular innuendo-strewn column entitled Dan's Hot Tip, I bring news directly from the Twitter feed of handsomely bearded journo Dan Griliopoulos. Jason Kingsley of Rebellion, the home of Sniper Elite and 2000 AD, discusses the UK developer's plans for Battlezone. [We] "bought the IP at auction from Atari last year. Have some exciting plans for it and lots of ideas". The purchase was made last summer and Rebellion picked up Moonbase Commander rights at the same time. The real news though - the part that you can actually touch - is the release of Bionite's alpha.
]]>You would like to shoot Adolf Hitler, wouldn't you? You wouldn't want Winston Churchill to die, would you? No, you're not a monster, are you? Sniper Elite 3's big DLC packs focus on rewriting history, but it comes off a bit tacky to me. Yesterday brought the first part of a three-chapter DLC campaign about foiling a plot to assassinate Churchill and it's not the most enticing start, reusing and reworking an old campaign level. Still, Rebellion have also released a free new multiplayer map.
]]>If you're looking for a Wot I Think on the recently released Snipe Elite 3 - a game in which you spend most of your time wading around wet meadows, using a long bill to probe mud for worms and larvae, you are in the wrong place. This is a Wot I Think on the recently released Sniper Elite 3 - a game in which you spend most of your time waddling around dry wadis, using a long arm to probe flesh for bones and organs. The only feathers you'll find here are feather palms, the only helpless invertebrates Axis soldiers crudely de-spined by Lee-Enfields and M1 Garands.
]]>"German officer, your life force energy is fading."
The screenshot made me hope for Treguard's tones but sadly it was not to be. Sniper Elite 3 could have taken the series in a bold new dungeon-crawling direction but further inspection reveals another WWII organ-busting simulator. That's not to say it's not worth your time and precious pennies though. The game is out in Blighty now, having struggled through a staggered geographic release, and we'll be taking a look through our critical scopes in the near future. Go prone and watch the trailer from afar.
]]>I find Sniper Elite's fascination with face-breaking slow-motion bullet impacts somewhat grotesque, because I'm exactly the kind of hand-wringing, self-loathing videogame journalist the internet commenters warned you about. That doesn't mean I don't like the core idea of hunkering down behind some crumbling buildings, fearing for my life and timidly scanning the treeline for fascists. It only means I'd rather play Sniper Elite V2's multiplayer, where pace necessitated fewer lovingly rendered shots of severed bollocks and where the presence of other players created far greater tension.
Good news, then! Not only am I getting to the point of this news story, but the point is this: Sniper Elite 3 expands the series' multiplayer offering considerably, and there's a trailer below.
]]>It's rare that videogame violence makes me feel uncomfortable. After all, it's just polygons, only code. I like the idea of games that purposefully make me feel uncomfortable with the heinous acts I commit - in ways more nuanced or subtle than po-faced script writing, at least. But I don't think that's what Sniper Elite 3 is going for with its X-Ray killcam. I think it's going for, "hey bullets are awesome, look at how badass they are."
The developer diary below outlines the changes to the system in their next World War 2 sniping sim.
]]>I'm getting the strangest feeling of deja vu. Rebellion - developers behind the mediocre Alien Vs Predator reboot, and the abysmal Sniper Elite Nazi Zombie Something nonsense - recently announced a Facebook version of Evil Genius, now in open beta. Um, it's not 2010, right? This already happened. As Alec reported three years ago, a game was up on Facebook and there to play. The link's dead now, but it happened. We're not mad. It happened. Now everyone else, including Rebellion, seems to have forgotten this, it's happening all over again.
]]>As we approach the twilight of 2013, I can't engage in my favourite hobby without hitting a zombie. I'm talking, of course, about swinging a dead cat. Before you call the authorities, take note that the cat isn't properly dead and I certainly didn't harm it in any way. The mewling monstrosity is mostly dead, meaning that in some ways it's just another zombie on the corpse vine. The rotters are everywhere, from Austin to Shakespeare, and the tainted tide shows no signs of letting up. On Halloween, the dead are going back to Berlin in Rebellion's Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2. I thought the original had the most appropriate title for a vidya game ever but popping a '2' on the end makes it absolutely perfect.
]]>Gaming confession time. I'll tell you all a secret if you respond with one of your own. Here's mine: I have played 31 hours of Sniper Elite V2. I have a good reason, though. I got a bit sucked into the multiplayer. In some way, the multiplayer solved a lot of the issues I had with the single-player game: the levels are non linear, and deathmatch on the right server is definitely tense fun. It's not a great game, but it did generate a series of interesting experiences for me. So I'm wee bit interested in Sniper Elite 3, even after watching the trailer.
]]>You might remember that John tried out a little bit of Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army a while back. And by "a bit," I mean "a bit over half an hour." Then he quit playing forever, tore out his own brain stem, and offered it as a chew toy for a pack of encroaching, maggot-riddled undead mongrels. Such were the depths of his loathing for Rebellion's not-particularly-rebellious spin-off. So of course the developer's making another. Naturally. It'll be out this year, because why not release a sequel months after the obviously rushed original? Maybe it'll be a little better this time? Somehow? We can only hope.
]]>And that's as much as I think any human should have to.
]]>Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army is quite possibly the last game that will ever be made. The title itself is the culmination of everything that has been achieved in the field of interactive entertainment. As the game is now out, I've honoured the occasion by making a short list of important occurrences in the launch trailer. You can find them, and it, below.
]]>A couple weeks ago, Richard - that mad master of international intrigue and puns, our resident pioneer of spiderfear - stumbled across a teaser video for a mystery project from Sniper Elite creator Rebellion/2000AD. It was all spooky-like and featured running, which is the kind of thing that prompts one of three responses from a person: 1) Zombies? 2) Zombies! or 3) [Drawn-out sigh] ...Zombies. And yep, sure enough, here's Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army. You can probably guess what it's about, but just in case, a trailer stirs beneath the break's loamy soils, courtesy of Digital Spy.
]]>"One man is utterly alone amidst the chaos of war," warns the YouTube summary. "But there are worse things to fear than bombs and bullets here..." What could this mystery game be?
]]>Rebellion's Sniper Elite V2 was quite good but not great, wasn't it? Come on, do my job for me, I'm tired. Also lazy. Also playing Retro City Rampage (WIT very soon) has fried my ability to concentrate on anything. Kill me, basically.
My point, if indeed I do have one, is that the quite good Sniper Elite V2 has some DLC, and hopefully that is quite good too.
]]>World War II shooter Sniper Elite V2 has topped the all-format charts in the UK for the past couple of weeks, which meant it was time to turn the searchlight of RPS judgement on this high flier. Was it one of the great FPS sniping experiences? Or had Rebellion really just given everyone a good excuse to put a bullet in Hitler? Turns out that without his robot-suit, he wasn't so tough.
Jim and Adam got together to talk killcams, testicles, and Thief with a rifle.
]]>The demo for Sniper Elite V2 is now available on Steam, having previously been holed up in consoleland, waiting for a chance to break from cover and dash across to nestle inside your tower. Once there, it'll scan the room for enemies to gratuitously shoot in the spleen. The level provided, which has been specially tweaked for demonstration purposes, does contain some sniping, although I can't comment on the amount of elitism. There's apparently a lot more running between cover than I expected, non-sniper gun rattling away, and there's a bit of sneaking and stealth-killing as well. Then everything blows up.
]]>Being taken to an undisclosed location and surrounded by men chatting idly about firearms is something more associated with hostage situations than press events. And yet here I was. I had accepted RPS’ mission to go out to the countryside and shoot WWII sniper rifles with complete strangers, despite harbouring very straightforward phobias of both bullets and dying of bullets. It’s not that I hate men with real guns; it’s just that I prefer them to be very far away. Did you know I have a recurring nightmare in which I am shot in the head by an unknown assailant – and, in one instance, by Daniel Day-Lewis? Well, I do. Yet here I was in some remote farmhouse waiting to be handed a loaded Springfield M1-something-something. The things I do for you, dear reader. The things I do for you.
]]>Morning sniper fans. Remember when there were no sniper related games around? The army's stealthiest strategist has never commanded an audience, preferring camo and a nice bush to kicking down doors and shouting bad things about your various female relatives. But soon there will be two sniper game vying for your beady eyes. I've already spoken a bit about Sniper Elite V2, so the newest kill-cam from that will be relegated to second place. Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2, however, has managed to elude my scopes thusfar. What I need is a short, explanatory video, I'd say about a minute or so in length that shows off the sort of distances bullets will be traveling, and maybe the locations as well. If that could somehow happen, maybe dropping in below, then I'd be the happiest sniper.
]]>I still don't quite know if Sniper Elite V2 is as open and as stealthy as I'd like it to be. My hope is that it's a bit like Hidden And Dangerous, just sniper-centric, but then I wake up every morning hoping for that game. This new walkthrough video shows one mission, trying to get an angle to snipe Müller, sliced into tiny chunks, so we're left with little glimpses through the sniper's scope rather than a complete picture. I want to know the choices made, the potential for the player to tell his own snipey story, but there's not enough here. There's some talk of recreating the places accurately, so it could be there's enough open space to move around in, but until I know 'ja' or 'nein', I'm remaining snootily interested. I'll have to wait for Brendan's upcoming hands-on to know more.
]]>If Sniper Elite V2's Killcam of the Week is a thing now, then I'm all for it. Simple, effective delivery of bullets to the brain over distance has always been my favourite thing in games, even better when we get to join the bullet on their journey, to share the excitement of their life's ambition of making a skull's acquaintance. Rebellion's WW2 sniper sim puts you in the pants of a an OSS agent, hunting his targets through the Battle of Berlin. Historically inaccurate video, below.
]]>Snipers are like normal soldiers, but much further away. Except when they are behind you! Yikes. All these sniper-things are illustrated in a new non-gameplay trailer from the men at Rebellion, who are currently remaking Sniper Elite to be even more man-shot-in-head-from-half-a-mile-away than ever before. The game itself is out next year, so hopefully we'll actually get to see some in-game footage between now and then. Anyway, go take a look at the exciting sniper adventures!
]]>Games about shooting people in the head remain moderately popular, it seems, because Sniper Elite is back, Back! BACK! And baddies are going to get shot in all kinds of locations, but particularly in the head. Not only that, but the new game is being self-funded by Rebellion, whose bossman Jason Kingsley has said they wanted to create a PC-specific version which “will be built specifically for PC to take advantage of the more flexible and powerful hardware, with strong support directly from Rebellion.” So that's good. It'll be coming out on Steam, and possibly retail at some point. Assuming the shops are not on fire, I suppose.
505 Games, who have taken on the console version of the game, have celebrated its existence by releasing a grisly cinematic trailer, entitled "One Bullet Can Change History", which features a cut-away sequence of a Nazi's head, showing the bullet going through his spine and the base of his skull. Mmm! Lovely.
]]>Somehow, 2000AD owners/ AvP developers Rebellion ended up owning the Evil Genius IP in the wake of Elixir's sad demise, and they've finally revealed their nefarious plans for the spiritual Dungeon Keeper sequel - a social network adaptation that should perhaps be known as MinionVille.
]]>Everyone loves a giant sale. How else are you supposed to get your giants cheap?! Ahahaha! Oh, that was good. Hey, remember that time I did the giant sale joke?
]]>Continuing the RPS trend of being up-to-the-minute with its verdicts, here's my brain-meanderings about the recent AvP sequel/remake. It's late because, frankly, the PC port wasn't in rude health. Like many other owners of the game, I suffered a bug which caused it to freeze for a few seconds every couple of minutes. A patch hit last week which, though it didn't fix the problem, alleviated it enough that I could stand to play the thing. Despite the naughty words this bug had me shouting, this write-up's consciously penned as though it wasn't an issue - partly because I'm sure it will be fixed, and primarily because it seems the majority of players didn't suffer it. So, on with the words. As RPS's resident AvP expert, it is my duty. Er. Which one's the Predator again? Is he that robot policeman, or is that someone else?
]]>This enjoyed a more timely mention in Saturday's bargain bucket, but as an aged fanboy of Rebellion's finest hour, it would be frankly remiss of me not to grant last week's surprise release of Aliens vs Predator Classic 2000 a post of its own. The name is absolutely ridiculous, and could only possibly stem from someone important losing their mind in a board meeting - "no-one must possibly mistake it for the new game! Keep adding words until it sounds like something different, no matter if it sounds like an ancient console or the sequel to Aliens vs Predator 1,999! Add more! More!" But this does not matter. What matters is that it's the original PC AvP, one of the finest first-person shooters ever made, spit'n'polished for maximo-compatibility with modern PCs, and available for a silly price on Steam.
]]>Bold attempt to contextualise shooting dudes in the face ahoy! Rebellion's AvP remake seems determined to make the world take Aliens seriously again - though alas it's a doubly hard task after the UK developer making a woeful mess of things yet again with the recent Rogue Warrior. I got the chance to try out AvP's multiplayer a couple of months back, and left the event extremely concerned about how formulaic and rustic my admittedly very brief time with it had felt; but hopefully the Rebellion guys are now driven and veteran enough to kick more heft and character into it than my superficial encounters have suggested. Perhaps, as in the Lance Henriksen-narrated trailer below, pinning it tightly to Weyland-Yutani lore will help...
]]>The development of Rogue Warrior has been tumultuous. Beginning with Zombie Studios, publishers Bethesda weren't satisfied with what they were making and took it away from them, scrapped it, and gave it to AvP developers Rebellion to have a go. It's out, and let's not pretend no one's noticed, it's getting one of the biggest kickings ever. But hey, how about me? Wot will I think?
]]>Chilly, Wintertime face-munching and spinal severing awaits us on the the 19th of February 2010, according to trade mag MCV. Which, while pleasingly soon, does mean we've got one more game to add to the now frighteningly busy Feb/March period. February: it's the new Christmas! Oh, and there'll be three different editions of AvP to choose from - sane people will want Standard, people who like metal DVD cases and extra multiplayer maps will want Survivor, and people who like toy facehuggers and and badges will want the no-doubt crazy-priced Hunter edition. I quite like toyfacehuggers, but badges do nothing for me. Y'know - special editions don't seem quite so special now every game under the sun does one.
]]>We remain quietly hopeful about the upcoming AvP game. If it manages to capture some of the terrifying atmosphere of the original game then we could be in for a treat. The one part of the jigsaw we haven't yet seen in action was the alien itself, which gets fixed today. Eeech, face-huggers still give me the willies. And I wonder if the speed of the alien that we see here is representative of the game experience.
]]>BRING ME ALIENS VS PREDATOR. BRING IT TO ME NOW.
We've seen the Predator at play already - and in fact I sat through a live demo of ol' crab-face in action just last week. In short - he's a lot more agile, a lot more outdoorsy and a lot more assassiny than the tank-like role he took in Rebellion's original Aliens vs Predator. Also, the spinal cord-removal death move is one of the most gruesome things I've ever seen a videogame do. Even so, I don't really give a single facehugger poo about the Predator. Always thought there was something oddly boring about him, at least when he's not wrestling with Arnie. For me, AvP is about the age-old conflict between the Aliens and the Marines. The latter may be the most vanilla of the three races, but survival horror always suited this IP better than anything else - so Marine is the campaign I know I'll be playing first. Bidee-bee... Bidee-bee... Bidde-bee...
]]>Update: cheaper Ground Control bundle here, but only for Britons.
Quite a few people sent in comments about classic, resource-free, 3D real time strategy Ground Control being on GoG.com. It's interesting to see the game up there for a number of reasons, not least because the original game was actually freely distributed by Vivendi for quite some time. Of course with Vivendi disappearing into the ActiBlizzard merger there's all kinds of funny things going on with the ownership of their games, their distribution and so on. Rebellion - the chaps who are making the new AvP game - now own Evil Genius, Ground Control, Empire Earth and Lords Of The Realm, and they're distributing them via that aforementioned digital download service. I suspect a few of you will have something to say about all those games, but Ground Control was a particular love of mine, and I wanted to say a few things about the GoG bundle, and why it might actually still be worth a few dollars.
]]>Wahey - proper footage at last of what looks to be an epic comback for Aliens, Predators and fallen-from-grace Britdevs Rebellion alike. Should we be concerned they're trying to rescue their reputation by revisiting past glories? Nah, not when it looks as good as this. Only the Predator mode is shown off for now, but there's nonetheless plenty of opportunity to ogle the sci-fi FPS' other two species. In motion, it's perhaps not quite as pretty as screenshots suggest, but that doesn't stop it from being the FPS I'm currently most excited by, hapless little nerd that I am.
]]>Okay, most folk have known about this for a little while already, but today's the day official word and oh-gawd-so-pretty pictures spill into the public domain. It's Aliens! It's Predators! It's by Rebellion, creators of the still-splendid original AvP game! Admittedly, Rebellion have been churning out rubbish for the last couple of years, but I'm quite sure that, with this, they intend to reclaim their crown as one of the most accomplished FPS developers in all the world. Y'know what this is? This is redemption. Information, pictures and frothing follows.
]]>It’s Splinter Cell if Sam Fisher wasn’t such a gigantic pussy. Escape From Butcher Bay if Riddick was more than a shiv-wielding, growly thug. Gears of War with something like brains. Metal Gear Solid, as written by someone with a mental age of more than 14. Call of Duty: Far Future Warfare. So: why wasn’t 2006 tacticalish shooter Rogue Trooper massive?
]]>I recently found myself rereading a whole load of Judge Dredd strips I’d eagerly devoured as a violence-crazed teenager. I’d not questioned the politics or attitudes of them at that age – I’d just cheered when Dredd killed a guy. Coming to it now is fascinating, trying to spot the dividing line between satire and the disturbing inherent implication that a police state is a-ok so long as the police are moral and honest actionmen. Of course, it also made me want to go shoot some perps.
]]>Here's a sequel I didn't expect to happen. Shellshock: Nam 67 was what Guerilla Games got up to before making those Killzone games on Playstation 2/3. An underwhelming fps-but-with-more-shoulder, it turned up in the midst of the brief Vietnam obsession that hit the PC in the mid-2000s. It was also a straight down the line war is hell jobbie. Which makes its having a sequel even odder, because Shellshock 2 is about mutants and experimental toxins and stuff. Someone's been reading their Agent Orange conspiracy theories, clearly.
]]>Like every good geek, I have a favourite gaming moment. It's in Aliens Versus Predator, a vintage but oft-forgotten first-person shooter that gets mentioned by my games-hack peers about as often as the Pope says "are you sure this hat makes God happy?"
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