Futuremark Games Studio, whose last outing was the well-received by largely unplayed Shattered Horizon, have announced that they are making three new MYSTERY games. They tell us: “you can tag this under PC, XBLA and iOS. We will leave it to your readers to guess which platforms apply to each game (there are only 343 possible combinations).”

Hmm! Let’s see whether we can guess from the trailer, which is below. (I think it’s actually pretty obvious.)
(more…)

UPDATE: This is now available on the Steam version of the game, and will update automatically.

The next update for zeg-G astro-manshooter Shattered Horizon is called Last Stand, and it’s going to add bot support to all the multiplayer modes. It’s also got one of those co-op “fight waves of bots” modes added to it, “which pits a team of four against waves of increasingly difficult bot enemies.” No exact launch date for this yet, but “before the end of the month”. It’s turning out to be quite a rounded shooter. If they have another one of those free weekends we’ll have to organise an RPS pile-on.

Well, only two multiplayer games, but they are> games. One is zero-G astronaut battler (with excellent space furniture), Shattered Horizon, and the other is slightly wonky Wild West shoot ‘em up Lead & Gold: Gangs Of The Wild West. They’re temporarily free to play on Steam over the weekend, with a large discount for actual permanent purchase if the freeness persuades you of long-term appeal.

Hmm. That – Shattered Horizon, I mean – would have made a good game club outing. As Phill pointed out, it’s benefited great from its updates. Oh well, maybe we squeeze in some astronaut deathmatchery between the Arma II exploits. Hell, I bet Notch goes and makes SMP work properly before the weekend and then I will have to play that too.

That’s this coming weekend, the 4th-6th. There’s a reason why I am pimping this one, however, which is that lots of people were interested by our recent examination of Shattered Horizon’s maps and weapons updates, and this provides you an opportunity to actually try the astronautical zero-G fancy shootin’ game out for free. It’s also 50% off the normal price, which is precisely half as much as it normally costs. That, I insist, is science>.

Might as well get an RPS contingent on there, eh?

You’re fired into battle at a speed just shy of making the stars in front of you blur into parallel lines, an ever rising tone in your ear letting you know that your suit is coming online.

‘Establishing communication uplink.’

‘Creating simulated audio environment’

The HUD flickers into life on the inside of your visor, letting you know your orientation, the position or your nearby team mates, locations to hold and take. You’re in the thick of it.>

That was a metaphor for something, but we’ll come back to that. (more…)