Guns? Check.
Nazi’s to shoot? Check.
Massive list of secrets to find? Check
Action-packed adventures? Check.
Welcome to the Verdict on Wolfenstein: The New Order, do you need to read any more after that intro?
Shootmania Storm is an epiphany. It’s like someone took the modern expectations of what a multiplayer FPS should be, turned it upside down and shook it until all the bells, whistles and nonsense clattered onto the floor. What was left was sparse, light and clean. No iron-sights, no customisable classes, no massive production values… what on earth was left? An epiphany. As I said.
A large gun, and an area full of people in front of me. In any other genre, there may be some hope of conversation, perhaps a spot of exploring, even. But no, this is a first-person-shooter and all must die. Hesitate, and you either die, riddled with bullets and with a screen full of jam, or the game simply shouts at you and forces a restart regardless.
This isn’t a problem, financially, for many developers and publishers. This is the norm; this is what people expect from a modern FPS and if it wasn’t full-on, balls-to-the-wall bullet-action, fans would be disappointed. Provided it has a pedigree – Call of Duty, Halo, or any number of yearly spin-offs – it will make oodles of cash one way or another, so what’s the problem?
It’s all getting very boring indeed.
Do you remember the days when you could run backwards just as fast as you could forwards? When you were allowed to carry more than two weapons onto the battlefield? When plots could generally be summed up by the words ‘bad stuff’s gone down?’ Brad Carney, creator of Wrack certainly does, and he misses them.
Welcome to the fortnightly series of articles that is to hopefully become a record of The Best Of Free Online Gaming*. We here at The Reticule know that not everyone has the spare cash to spend on every AAA or indie release, or to sign up to monthly payments for all the latest MMO’s. Trouble is, if your looking for some free gaming there are literally hundreds of games taking up the free-to-play structure nowadays and trawling through them all…
With the release of Startbreeze Studio’s re-imagining of the Syndicate series just over a week away, a new trailer has been released showing us clips of storyline and the innovative chip hacking combat. Syndicate is an overhaul of Bullfrog Productions original tactical shooter series from the 90’s.
The Back to Karkand DLC for Battlefield 3 hit the PC and 360 yesterday while PS3 owners got it last week. (damn exclusivity deals) If you pre-ordered the game you will get free access to the pack which re-imagines four maps from the brilliant Battlefield 2 and also throws in a handful of new unlockable weapons and some new vehicles to play with. If you didn’t pre-order you can get the DLC for £11.99. A steep price, but quite possibly worth it. Hit the jump for some thoughts.
With Deus Ex Human Revolution out of the door and the team behind it presumably enjoying a little rest in between lighter DLC work, all eyes should rightly be on Eidos Montreal’s second team and their big project: Thief 4. Doing the rounds in the last couple of days have been 12 storyboard illustrations apparently from the game, posted on the portfolio of Vancouver-based artist Marlon Deane.
Coming from iD Software – the creators of the FPS genre as we know it – comes their latest release – RAGE – a game with 20 years of shooting pedigree and some of the most well known figures in the industry working away on it’s innards. No pressure then.
A few of us have been playing Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad over the past week, some with more success than others I must say. Here we are then to present our initial thoughts on the gritty World War Two shooter.