As the great philosopher Alfred From Batman once said, "some men just want to watch the world burn," it may not have been entirely clear from that scene, but he was referring to engineers from Company of Heroes, some of the most devastating flame troops in gaming. They start out as humble builders. They set up defences, they repair tanks, they sort out all the odd jobs that your highly trained troops won't do. Then, when you have enough fuel, you give them all flamethrowers and transform them into shock troops.

Then the mildest unit in the game suddenly becomes a deadly force, the bane of any entrenched infantry unit caught unawares. It looks like they'll be making a return in Company of Heroes 2. See the results of their handiwork, and a big ol' tank column in these new screenshots from E3.

For more on Company of Heroes 2, check out the first details and watch our interview with Relic's Jacen Torres.

It looks as though Vostock Games might not be the only studio to form in the aftermath of the break up of STALKER developers, GSC. Russian gaming site, StopGame reports that a significant element of the GSC STALKER team have set up shop in Kiev, and have formed a new outfit called Union Studio.

There are a few tidbits to back this up. A description on UnionStudio's sparse LinkedIn page describes the developer as a "new company, created together with the best professionals that worked for GSC GAME WORLD and other AAA class studios." The page announces that they're making a "cross-platform action shooter which will be available for PC, Mac, PlayStation, XBOX." There's also a work-in-progress Union Studio site, which simply says "coming soon."

The LinkedIn page of former GSC team lead and software developer Eugene Kim now has him listed as the new CEO & Founder at UnionStudio in the Ukraine. Kim's Google+ feed is topped by a link to StopGame's "another shooter from the developers of STALKER" story. StopGame claim that the game will be announced this Autumn and have a futuristic setting.

The developers haven't officially announced anything yet, but we could end up with another ex-GSC effort to look forward to alongside Vostock's free to play MMO, Survarium.

Wow, a ray of sunshine! There's more cheer in that beam than you'll find in Metro: Last Light precursor, Metro 2033. The first game did bleak underground tunnels better than almost any other. The underground towns inhabited by survivors of the mutant apocalypse were especially memorable, packed full of characters and incidental detail. Weapon sellers haggled with mercenaries, old ladies cooed at each other in corners, burly blokes guffawed over baked bean tins of vodka and every so often you'd come across someone who'd seen the surface and returned alive. They'd stand still and stare into middle distance looking sadder than a badger in a washing machine.

The sequel looks as though it'll bring similar levels of detail to its outdoor environments, get a good look at them in these new screenshots. Click to see them full size.

Company of Heroes 2 is coming! Relic, makers of Homeworld and Dawn of War, have finally announced the sequel to their glorious, Nazi-stomping World War II strategy game.

If you want to read every shrapnel of information, you'll need to run out and buy the next issue of PC Gamer magazine - on sale in the UK on May 9th, and the US May 22nd. UK readers even get Company of Heroes 1 free with every issue.

But if you want to know the basics, read on below for how Relic intend to follow the best real-time strategy game of all time.


It's set on the Russian front. You control the Soviets in their fight to repel the invading Nazi force.


Snow plays a major part on the battlefield.


The cover system has been revamped.


The game is due out 2013.


We'll have loads more information on Company of Heroes in the coming weeks, as and when we're allowed to talk about it. Or you could order a PC Gamer magazine right now.

The issue of PC Gamer UK arriving with subscribers right now has something very special on the cover: Company of Heroes 2. Relic, makers of Homeworld and Dawn of War, are returning to their classic Nazi-stomping RTS.

The magazine contains the exclusive first details based on our trip to Relic's offices, but you can read the key details right here in our Company of Heroes 2 info post.

Not familiar with the original? We've got you covered there, too. The magazine on UK shelves comes with a free Steam copy of Company of Heroes 1 for every reader. We gave it 94% when we reviewed back in 2006, and we think it still stands up today. But you can play it and tell us if we're wrong. (We're not wrong.)

The magazine will appear on newsstands on May 9th, or you can camp out to by a physical copy of PC Gamer Issue 241 via My Favourite Magazines.

Saints Row: The Third has very few qualms about where gangstas can go. Gangstas on a plane? No problem. Gangastas inside computers? Fine, whatever. Gangstas in space? Sounds like an average Tuesday afternoon in Steelport. Except: a twist! The Saints aren't actually in space at all: they're filming a b-movie. It's either a cutting parody of Mass Effect 3 or an excuse to add pink laser guns and spaceships. Or both! It'd be wrong to place limits on the game that brought us a tiger that can be placated by power-slides.

The new mission, guns and vehicles are available now on Steam. The DLC is also included in the Saints Row: The Third Season Pass.

A Ukranian news site is reporting that the developers of Stalker and Stalker 2, GSC have shut down their studio. An "informed source" told them that founder and CEO, Sergei Grigorovich made the announcement at a staff meeting, saying that the company was closing because of unspecified "personal reasons." RPS spotted a tweet from the company denying that GSC has been closed, but that has since been deleted. If true, it would be a sudden and very sad turn of events. We'll know what's happening for certain when GSC make official comment.

The innocent bystander you just murdered with a giant dildo in Saints Row: The Third isn't alone. He shares a special circle of gaming hell occupied by 1,999,999 other victims who suffered the same terrible fate.

That's just one of the stats turned up by a new post on the Saints Row: The Third site, spotted on Shacknews. 5.8 million player deaths have been recorded across the city, 44 million foes have been killed in Whored Mode, 650 hot dog mascots have been flamethrowered to death and players have collectively spent two years "streaking the streets of Steelport and making old ladies scream." You monsters.

But how many hours have been spent rushing around Steelport as a toilet? I have no idea. Whatever the number, it's not high enough. Follow Graham's guide to being a toilet in Saints Row: The Third to help boost the tally. For the Saints!

 
Saints Row 3 is the unrestricted id of gaming smeared across an open world city. It's brash, juvenile, violent and obsessed with toilet humour. So much so that you can play the game as a toilet.

Watch the video above, and then read on for how you can easily do it yourself in an instant and without mods.

The game's character creator is tremendously powerful, letting you play the entire game as the hideous chubby manbaby of your dreams. To help people share their best creations with the world, there's a Saints Row 3 community site where you can upload and download those creations. There are a ton on there, with all the inevitable copyright infringement and naked people you'd expect. But there's also the toilet.

The toilet wasn't created by another player, but is one of the rewards you get for completing the game. Why wait till then? As the video above shows, there is no better way to experience Saints Row 3's cutscenes for the first time than as a feisty hispanic toilet.

To get the character for yourself, simply sign up at the Saints Row 3 community site, visit the Toilet character page, and click "Add to queue". Then, when creating a new character at the start of the game or via one of the city's cosmetic surgery shops, select the option to connect to saintsrow3.com. It'll hook up with your account on that site, and a short while after you added it to your queue, the toilet will be available to select. Enjoy!

 
Several days after it was released for the rest of the world Saints Row: The Third has come out in the UK. Huzzah! Now we can finally experience all the fun Tom S had in our Saints Row 3 review! However, like several other recent games, it's missing from the steam store in the UK. Boo! Hiss! This sadly means UK players won't be able to get the Saints Row 3 Team Fortress 2 promotional items. You can, however, still buy the game digitally via Gamersgate, Direct2Drive or Origin.

Once again, we wish we knew why steam is being affected by these absences and no-one else is, but we're being kept in the dark as much as you are. Rest assured, if we ever find out, we'll let you know.