Toll the Bell of Lost Souls. Full Control, the folks most recently behind Space Hulk Ascension and Jagged Alliance Flashback, has stopped making games. The Danish studio ran into financial trouble and will soon only exist as a far smaller company selling and supporting their games. Current plans for DLC, updates, and ports are still in effect, but it’s unclear how much we’ll see from them or how they’ll exist after that.

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I am hopeful that Warhammer 40K FPS-RPG Space Hulk: Deathwing [official site] will be, at the very least, a weird game. Developers Streum On Studio were behind E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy, another FPS-RPG about an order of warrior monks stomping around a dystopian future in ornate power armour. It was hugely ambitious, baffling and wonky yet fascinating and endearing, which I’ll take over mediocre any day. So a new trailer choosing a soundtrack with mariachi-tinged rap from a Swiss pop band, well, that’s certainly unconventional for a 40K game. I’m quietly hopeful.

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Space Hulk is back. Again. From developers Full Control, who were responsible for last year’s digital release, Ascension is a sequel of sorts, with a new approach to campaigns, with persistent stat progression, and over a hundred missions. It’s an improvement over the company’s first attempt in many ways but there are still plenty of reasons to have a bit of a space sulk.>

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Space Hulk Space Hulk Space… Hulk? Full Control’s adaptation of the cult classic Games Workshop boardgame turned out to be a divisive experience after early excitement. A buggy launch (though rectified later) didn’t help, but players seemed polarized between enjoying its careful faithfulness and being put off by what some felt was too slow and rudimentary. Rab was very much in the latter camp when he covered it for us.

Last month, the Danish devs unexpectedly announced Space Hulk: Ascension edition, which has a looser, faster, flashier interpretation of the hallowed source material, including adding roleplaying mechanics, revised combat, different types of enemy, many more weapons and a slew of brand new missions. I talked to their lead Thomas Lund about the intent behind this deliberately more ‘videogamey’ standalone expansion, what’s changed both on the surface and deeper down, the critical differences between a boardgame and a videogame, why the two Space Hulks are companions rather than replacements, his response to criticism of the first game, why it had a messy launch and what they’ve learned from it all.> … [visit site to read more]

Full Control’s grand dream for Space Hulk was to recreate the beloved Games Workshop boardgame. It got off to a rocky start. Patching did a lot for bugs (though can’t change that it doesn’t have that cardboard feel), and today They say it’s a fairly solid adaptation. So having made Space Hulk, Full Control want to make a different Space Hulk.

Today they announced Space Hulk: Ascension Edition, a standalone new version boshing in a load of RPG bits, new stuff, and Ultramarines, who do at least bring Cyclone missile launchers to compensate for being so dull.

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Shhh! Read this in silence. If Alec catches wind of it, he’ll start babbling “Space Hulk Space Hulk Hulk Space Spulk Hace Spalk Ace Ace Ace Ace” all over again, his face flitting between ecstasy and agony, and we’ve only just got him settled since the last Space Hulk news. Shhh. Quietly round up a few battle brothers and let them know that Space Hulk’s long-promised co-op has arrived in a new patch today. Actually it’s a cooperative-competitive mode, pitting several Space Marines against one Genestealer.

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I am faintly aware that a few people have been waiting for me to say something about Full Control’s Space Hulk, which I had been highly impressed by very brief encounters with but then unable to review the thing due to being on paternity leave. Rab, stepping into the breach (possibly the wrong choice of words for that context) was most distressed by what he found. But what of me? Did I love the finished game as much as I’d hoped, or had I sold my soul to the Chaos god of preview hype, and tricked you all?

I’ll reveal all below, along with sharing details of expansion pack stuff. (more…)

Eschewing the often broken International Laws of Highlander and Vampire Slayers, there is another> Space Hulk game in development. A surprisingly swift announcement after the miasma of sadness generated by the recently released strategy game, Space Hulk: Deathwing transposes the corridor-set alien masher into a more appropriate format. It’s a first-person shooter by Streum Studios, the makers of the interesting and flawed E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy. A tiny, mouse-sized teaser trailer is squeaking in the undergrowth. Let’s all disturb it, shall we? (more…)

Deep breath. Take it right in. Expand those lungs, fill them with air until you feel like you’re going to burst. Now exhale. Feel your body contract as your breath heaves out of it. Remember that feeling of clean air, because it was taken in a pre-Space Hulk world. In about an hour the game unlocks on Steam (6pm UK time), and from then on each breath will be tainted with the smell of oil, death, burning Genestealer flesh, and if you live anywhere near a Lush shop, the lingering aroma of boutique soap. Not even death and war can cover that smell up. (more…)