The evil gods of Chaos tend to use fear and the promise of power immortality to motivate their warriors, but it turns out all they really need is an experience system and a linear series of unlocks. THQ are setting out to prove this with a new lump of paid DLC for Space Marine's recently added co-op survival mode, Exterminatus.

Exterminatus added two survival maps to Space Marine for free recently. Many Orks were slain. Much honour was gained in the eyes of the Emperor. Many badass assault packs were unlocked. The new Chaos Unleashed pack will cast you as the forces of Chaos, and will pit you against waves and waves of Imperial Guardsmen and Orks in new arenas. The pack also includes three multiplayer maps, Habs Ablaze, Station Tertius and Aquila Canyon. The pack will cost 800 Microsoft Points / £7.99 and will arrive in December.

THQ announce that they will also be selling Salamander, Alpha Legion, Legion of the Damned and Blood Angel skins at the hefty price of 240 Microsoft Points / £2.39 each.

If you're not tempted by any of this stuff, THQ say that the update will also add a capture the flag mutliplayer mode to Space Marine for everyone for free. A flag seems a little mundane for the Warhammer universe. Capture the Giant Robot Skull might be better, don't you think?

Space Marine has finally received its four player co-op survival mode, Exterminatus. An automatic Steam update should add the mode to the Online section of the Space Marine main menu, and will offer you and four friends two maps on which to trounce hordes and hordes of Orks. I jumped in for five minutes and killed about 115 with nothing but a Heavy Bolter and a big power-armoured booty. Stomp, stomp! Dakka dakka! Weapon unlocked!

Experience earned popping green monsters in survival mode will also count towards your overall multiplayer rank, giving you new weaponry with which to embarrass your enemies, which acts as an unnecessary extra motivation to team up and make a big gooey mess of a charging Ork Waaaagh!

THQ's executive VP of core games, Danny Bilson has been talking to Joystiq about the possibility of a sequel to Space Marine. His muted reaction isn't good news for those hoping for a bigger and better follow-up. He says he's "not sure if there's room" for Space Marine 2, thanks in part to the upcoming Warhammer 40,000 MMO, Dark Millenium Online.

Bilson points out that THQ have "already annouced the Imperium in the MMO as a class you can play," and notes that it's "very active, as opposed to the more turn-based stuff. I'm not sure there's room for Space Marine." Dark Millenium's estimated 2013 release could put it in competition with a Space Marine sequel.

There is some good news for those who have enjoyed Relic's use of the license so far with the Dawn of War series and Space Marine. "We are heavily invested in the 40K universe, so there's more stuff coming in the 40K universe, absolutely. We extended the deal for quite a while," says Bilson.

Dark Millenium is being developed by Vigil, but recent rumours have suggested that Relic may be helping out a little with development, and the MMO could use a version of the Darksiders Engine, with similar combat to Space Marine. That would fit Bilson's description of the MMO as "very active." The information, mentioned on Strategy Informer, hinted at some of the included classes and characters, namedropping Imperial Assassins, Eldar Farseers and even Tau units. The info-dump mentioned that races would be separated into Order and Disorder factions, with Chaos and Orks on one side, and Imperials and Eldar on the other.

THQ have since responded to say that "at this time THQ has not officially announced a release date and any reported features are pure speculation. THQ will announce confirmed game features and an official release date at a later time." We've assigned our finest Eldar Rangers to the bushes outside Vigil, but they haven't discovered anything yet because Eldar Rangers are a bit rubbish. We'll be sending in the Space Marines as soon as Rich has managed to fit himself into his power armour.

Skyrim. The very name makes all other roleplaying games tremble in fear. But not PC Gamer—we charged into Bethesda's breathtaking new game world without regard for personal safety. We emerged hours later with a sacred tome containing the tales of our adventures therein, which we now present to you in the form of this month's cover story.

Once you've read and reread the Skyrim feature, be sure to check out the 50 things you need to know about the free-to-play MMO shooter Firefall. We've also got a preview on Gearbox's gorgeous-looking Borderlands 2, in-depth insight into PlanetSide 2, and the review of Relic's Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. Also, see which mouse tied the highest review score ever. This, fellow PC gamers, is sexy hardware at its best.

The Exterminatus mode for Space Marine will be available as a free download on October 25, Eurogamer report. Exterminatus will add two co-op arenas, Assault on Hab Center Andreas, and Escape from Kalkys Facility. In each of these up to four marines must fend off increasingly brutal waves of enemies made up of Ork and Chaos enemies.

Each member of the squad can choose to be Tactical Marine, a Devastator or an Assault Marine, and will be able to use perks unlocked in multiplayer to gain an advantage over the AI controlled hordes. Kills in Exterminatus will give you experience that will level up your characters in competitive multiplayer, too. Teams will be rated in each round based on their performance. Point multipliers and "dynamic challenges" aim to keep the survival maps fresh.

As for future DLC, Relic tell Eurogamer that "we're working on some other DLC" for Space Marine, and "there will be a free component to them as well as some paid components." Perhaps we'll see new maps and more wargear in future, similar to the DLC packs Relic and THQ released for Dawn of War: Retribution's superb Last Stand mode.

Space Marine has some of the most gristly, crunchy combat we've experience this year. The prospect of stomping on Orks with friends makes us sternly thump our desks in approval. Find out why we enjoyed Space Marine so much in our Space Marine review.

We've gathered together for an extra long PC Gamer podcast to celebrate our return after a bit of a hiatus. We discuss Tom's trip to play Skyrim, get excited about Firefall and Planetside 2, have a think about Space Marine co-op and chat about Diablo 3's spectacular runestones.

Download the MP3, subscribe, or find our older podcasts here.

Slowly but surely, the intern takeover/revolution is beginning. Join us as Gavin leads Dan, Evan, Lucas, and newcomer intern Greg into battle, discussing their impressions of Warhammer 40k: Space Marine, Dead Island, Hard Reset, and the trials and tribulations of proximity mines in Goldeneye: Source. We also (attempt to) answer the age-old question: do unlocks in multiplayer FPS games enhance or encumber our experience?

PC Gamer US Podcast 287: SMAZ (Space Marines and Zombies)

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UK fans of everlasting war in the 41st millennium will have been looking forward to the release of Space Marine today, but if you're looking to pick it up on Steam, then there's bad news. Space Marine isn't available on Steam. The old Space Marine Steam page has been replaced by a message saying "this item is currently unavailable in your region."

It seemed likely that this would happen when the Space Marine demo pulled the same vanishing act a couple of weeks ago. Previously, Dragon Age 2 and Brink have vanished from Steam in the UK with no explanation. Brink eventually reappeared several weeks after launch. Hopefully Space Marine will return in good time. Until then, this means yet more frustration for UK customers.