PAX: Halo 4 Updates Grifball and Oddball

If you've ever wanted to throw your skull before, you'll enjoy the changes planned for several multiplayer modes in Halo 4. 343 Industries announced today that players will be able to pass and catch the ball/skull/bomb in both Grifball and Oddball during its Halo panel at PAX.  This news comes a day after the announcement of Capture the Flag (CTF), and a new War Games map, Exile. Similar to allowing the flag carrier to carry a Magnum in CTF, you'll also be able to weild a pistol while carrying the ball in Oddball. Assassinations are also possible which apparently vaporzize your enemies.

Here's the two modes in action.

Both modes themselves are carry-overs from past Halo games, Oddball featuring classic "earn points each second you control the ball" gameplay, while Grifball arms players with Gravity Hammers and Swords in a bid to score points by carrying the ball to the other team's goal.

Including a weapon in CTF makes enough sense given how wide open t=most CTF-ready maps are, but I wonder about adding a pistol to the ball-carrier mix given the typically smaller-sized arenas best suited for Oddball. There's something about relying solely on melee attacks that's always balanced out the gameplay, so it'll be interesting to see how it plays (343 only showed the mode off via its presentation, it wasn't playable).

In case you missed it yesterday, here's what we thought of the new CTF mode.

Casey Lynch is Editor-in-Chief of IGN.com. Follow his non-sequitur ramblings about video games, '80s films and Protest the Hero on IGN and Twitter.

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Shootmania Storm getting two free modes at launch

Nadeo, the developer behind the enormous racing game Trackmania, has announced that their upcoming shooter, Shootmania Storm, will include two game modes that will be available for free to any user.

The two free modes will be called Royal and Elite. The former is a free-for-all mode in which players try to gain control of a point on the map (in other words, it sounds like FFA King of the Hill.)  

Elite will be a team based game in which two squads attack each other's base. Nadeo has also released a trailer detailing the two modes which you can see below.

We don't currently have a firm release date for Shootmania, but it is still set to release sometime in 2012. You can check out the announcement trailer here. 

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

I am Alive PC release announced by Ubisoft

Ubisoft announced today in a press release that their survival horror title I am Alive will be expanding to PC later this year. The PC release will also introduce two new modes to the experience: Easy Mode and Replay Mode.

The former, as you might have guessed, aims to make the experience a bit more pleasant, allowing the player infinite retries and a smoother introduction to the experience. While Replay Mode allows players to replay levels to seek out new secrets and hidden items.

Originally released on Xbox Live Arcade earlier this year in March and introduced players to a very different kind of survival horror than the Resident Evil-esque fare the industry grew up on. Though occasionally frustrating and even dull, we found it to be a worthwhile experiencethanks mostly to how unique and unforgiving and realistic it is.

The announcement comes just a day after Ubisoft announced that their piracy rate on PC is close to 95%. Apparently, that astounding rate still isn't harming their ability to do business on the platform.

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

New GTA V Screens Show Car and Jet

Rockstar has released new screenshots taken from Grand Theft Auto V. The photos were posted on Rockstar's Newswire. They showcase various modes of transport that will be available to citizens of San Andreas.

Transport won't be limited to vehicles with engines. (That looks an awful lot like Santa Monic Pier.)

The 'Cheetah': will it be one of the fastest cars in the game?

Take to the skies in fighter jets?

Tantalisingly, the post finishes with the promise of "More to come this week..."

Daniel is IGN's UK Staff Writer. You can be part of the world's worst cult by following him on IGN and Twitter.

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