We’re still combing through the assorted reveals from last night’s PC Gaming Show By PC Gamers For PC Gamers Master Race Master Race No Normals Allowed Alright, but one immediate attention-grabber is the follow up to brutalist WW2 multiplayer shooter Rising Storm (n e Red Orchestra). It’s left me all nostalgic – not because the trailer for Rising Storm 2: Vietnam [official site] has a Creedence soundtrack and a style lifted from the only bits dudebros remember from Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Platoon et al, but because this used to be how it went before Modern Warfare was a twinkle in an executive’s eye. There’d be a popular World War 2 shooter, and then once its devs got the itch for something a bit less fusty, they’d excitedly go do Vietnam next. … [visit site to read more]

Ready to discover once-and-for-all whether X-Plane is better than FSX? Whether Falcon 4.0 is better than Milk Float Simulator 2012? Ready to read the word ‘realism’ 46 times in a single hour, and spit feathers on discovering that the sim that caused got you through your divorce has been cruelly cold-shouldered by an idiot with a bus fetish and a sci-fi blindspot the size of the Crab Nebula? You are? Splendid. You’re in the right place.

… [visit site to read more]

Gathering together the best shooters is no easy task, but if you’re looking for a new PC FPS to play, look no further.

Your favourite game is at number 51.

… [visit site to read more]

“Doing anything nice this weekend?” the hairdresser asks, running their hands through your luxuriant quiff. “I’m actually heading out on a whistle-stop tour of battlefields on World War 2′s Eastern and Pacific fronts,” you reply, leaning back to press your scalp into their supple fingers as they gasp in respect and admiration, “and I’ll have the cyber razor cut thanks.”

Ho ho but while your haircare specialist now believes you’re a big-shot billionaire history expert, you’re merely planning to take advantage of the Company of Heroes 2 and Rising Storm free weekends on Steam. All and sundry can play Relic’s RTS and Tripwire’s FPS for two days, and they’re on sale too. Later today a familiar voice will respond to your cry for reinforcements, as confident as mousse and warm as curling tongs, and you’ll know: everything’s going to be okay.

… [visit site to read more]

“Some days war takes patience, but other days it demands action,” the sergeant barks, I write, lazily imagining how sergeants may speak in all those WW2 films from the 1960s that I haven’t watched. “Today is a day for action,” I hint to lead into the crux of this video game news post for Rock, Paper, Shotgun. “… you maggot,” the sergeant adds then immediately regrets and blushes, fearing he’s perhaps a major conflict or two ahead of language like that.

It is a day for action, mind. Until 6pm today, Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad is free on Steam. Not just free to play for one day, oh no. If you grab it in time, it’s yours to keep forever. If you don’t, I guess you would need to pay money to own and play it, and make a decision about whether that’s something you’d like to do or not.

… [visit site to read more]

Tripwire is set to release a new free content pack for Rising Storm – the Pacific Theatre cousin of Red Orchestra 2 – and it’s called Island Assault. The name implies much. I had a play with it over the weekend, and I’ll tell you about that experience, below. (There’s a trailer, too!)

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Red Orchestra 2′s Pacific-theatre standalone expansion, Rising Storm, appeared last week and offered tough-as-nails World War II multiplayer for the discerning FPS player. I waded on to its tropical beaches with my rifle above my head. Here’s Wot I Think.> (more…)

Rising Storm - a quasi-sideways-sequel-but-also-merger with the splendid Red Orchestra 2 – has been released. As you might expect, it’s a multiplayer FPS where US Army and Marine Corps battles the Imperial Japanese Army across the Pacific theatre.

I’m planning on spending a little time with this – I’m generally reminded of why I always get a kick out of this series of games, particularly with the asymmetrical nature of the two factions, as well as suppression and morale stuff. Anyway, more on this soon, so in the meantime go watch the launch trailer below. (more…)

Red Orchestra 2 occupies some space on my hard-drive. I keep it there, along with Sniper Elite V2 and Build & Shoot, to satisfy a basic need I have to shoot at a tiny cluster of pixels in the distance and hope that their widows are weeping come the end of the round. I’m not a super expert at it, but it’s satisfying enough for me to keep my sights trained on the upcoming Pacific-based Rising Storm, Tripwire’s mod-gone-pro expansion thing. (more…)

Killing Floor knows all about mods, having been one itself. They never tidy their rooms, leaving files scattered all over internets and hard drives alike, and trying to organise them is like trying to herd cats. The multiplayer horrorshow is gathering all its mods in one place, the increasingly active Steam Workshop, which should make keeping track of maps and modes much easier. Tripwire will also be adding Steam Workshop support to Red Orchestra 2, which is receiving a paid for expandomod by the name of Rising Storm. I’ve got a load of notes about that which I shall compile later this week. There are booby traps, flamethrowers and kamikaze bayonet stabbings, all of which I approve of in games though I frown at them in life.