Halo 4 Promethean Enemies and Weapons Revealed

Images of eight Promethean enemies and seven of their weapons from 343 Industries' upcoming shooter Halo 4 have surfaced.

Taken from a forthcoming issue of Game Informer and hosted by All Games Beta, the images are accompanied by a little bit of information about who our victims will be come November.

Minor spoilers follow for Halo 4 in terms of enemies and weapons, but there's also minor references to the plot of Halo 4 that leaked last week.

The Promethean enemies will live on Requiem which, as we discovered last week, is where the ancient Forerunner called Didact is hidden. In terms of enemies, there seem to be three basic types, though these then further diversify through attack methods and armour designs.

First up are the Crawlers, which are apparently common, agile and hunt in packs. They come in Alpha, Snipe and normal flavours, with each one sporting different weapons that they can utilise from a distance.

Alongside the Crawlers are the Knights. These are the captains of the Promethean forces, and can appear as Lancers, Battlewagons or Commanders in addition to their normal version. The special versions can deploy turrets and fire through walls, so it sounds like we'll have to utilise all our skills to best them in combat.

And finally there are the Watchers. These will apparently fight shoulder to shoulder with Knights, but will ominously be equipped with resurrection powers and the ability to summon Crawlers. So they're the ones we'll be taking out first, then.

Alongside the already intimidating range of abilities referenced, the Prometheans will be decked out with some pretty full on weaponry, details of which you can see below.

Halo 4 is due out on Xbox 360 on November 6.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 isn't a Brother's in Arms game anymore

Despite rumors from a couple months back that the patent for the upcoming war shooter, Brothers in Arms: Furious 4, had been abandoned, it turns out Gearbox has actually been considering the title's future very carefully.

Apparently, they've decided that the game is no longer a true installment in the BIA series, and will be dropping the prefix from the name. Currently we don't know whether it will just be called Furious 4, or if they have another name in mind.

The news came today at a PAX panel reported on by Polygon in which Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford said, "the game that was announced as Brothers In Arms: Furious 4 has evolved," adding that when the company "pushed the gameplay loop, they got into a place that got away from the core."

He didn't mean that as a bad thing though. He added that they merely felt the game needed to be "unshackled" by the constraints of an established franchise. The resulting game will now be a completely new brand.

Given this new information, it now seems likely that the game's publisher, Ubisoft, had made the decision to abandon the Brother's in Arms name way back before May when the trademark for the name lapsed.

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

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

Gotham City Imposters goes free-to-play on PC

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced today that their fast-paced downloadable shooter, Gotham City Imposters, is now officially free-to-play on Steam.

As of today you can get on Steam and download the title, as well as all of its expansion packs absolutely free. As the game already supports microtransactions, it seems like this will be a fine strategy for helping increase a surely shrinking player base (and also making WBIE some money in the process.) 

The only question that remains is whether the console versions will make the F2P jump as well. Given XBLA's recent propensity toward experimenting with that business model, it seems like this would be a perfect match.

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

Borderlands 2 Will Have Four Add-on Campaigns

Gearbox has announced that upcoming shooter Borderlands 2 will get four brand new add-on content campaigns following the game's launch.

Though specific details are scarce, each campaign is slated to contain several hours of gameplay with new adventures, allies, enemies and environments in each.

While each pack can be purchased individually for $9.99 (on PC/PS3) or for 800 MS points (Xbox 360), Gearbox has also revealed that it will be offering a Borderlands 2 Season Pass which will allow gamers to download each expansion as soon as it's released for no extra charge. The pass will cost 2400 MS points and $29.99 on both PS3 and PC (in the UK it will cost £19.69 on PS3 and £19.99 on PC).

All four DLC add-ons will apparently be released by June 2013. While we don't know what each one will involve, as the upcoming Mechromancer class apparently won't be covered by the Season Pass, it's a fairly safe bet that it isn't being counted as one of the four pieces of DLC.

Borderlands 2 will release on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on September 18 in the US and September 21 in the UK.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

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Gearbox: Why Borderlands 2's Story Won't Suck

Gearbox Software knows where the first Borderlands fell short, and in working on Borderlands 2, Lead Writer Anthony Burch can pinpoint precisely why. 2009’s role-playing shooter “feels comparatively lonely because you just don’t have a lot of dialogue pushing you forward and explaining why you’re doing what you’re doing,” Burch says. “Every time an objective changes in Borderlands 2, somebody’s there saying a line of dialogue, explaining why you should care, telling you what you should do next.”

Consequently, the script for Borderlands 2 is five times larger than the first.

Burch is positive about the original Borderlands – a game he had no creative involvement in – but says “there were lots of cool stories that could have been told.” Players responded well to a lot of the side characters, like T.K. Baha, but without reading each piece of mission text they’d never get a full understanding for the substance or subtle humor surrounding them. “There was a lot of good stuff there, but maybe it wasn’t delivered to the player as obviously as it could have been,” says Burch. With a laugh, he continues. “Plus, the ending sucked, and we’ve admitted that a bunch.”

So what’s in that gigantic new script that makes Borderlands 2 so much better?

“Pretty much every new character we have,” he says, giving nods to Tiny Tina and Ellie. “We gave them three to five sidequests to say what their backstory is, what their personality is.” This is especially true of the returning characters – in particular, the Vault Hunters from the first game. “You spend a significant amount of the main plot getting to know who they are now,” says Burch. The Borderlands heroes were about their class, not their character, and most players remember their skill trees more than their personal qualities.

“We have this scary opportunity to give them personalities and have them play off one another,” he continues. Burch and Gearbox spent “a great deal of time” considering “what are their relationships like with each other? How do they treat each other? What have they been up to since the first game ended?”

Communicating with the player using these character interactions, audio logs, radio transmissions, and environmental storytelling is crucial to strengthening Borderlands 2. “It makes you feel like you’re part of a story rather than checking off a bunch of things on a shopping list that are free of context,” Burch explains.

Ultimately, though, Burch would be totally content if you ignored the story and just enjoyed the game. “There's sort of two types of audience member that I have in mind, that I want to satisfy in different ways,” he explains. One of course, is someone who has an emotional response to Borderlands 2. Ideally, that’s awe during an epic scene or laughter at the lighthearted and comedic bits. Burch mentions the recent run of Doctor Who as the touchstone for what he wants to accomplish.

The other audience member “doesn't give a s—t about the story, never gave a s—t about the story in the first game, still continues to not give a s—t about the story. I hope he can go through the entire game, ignore every single line of dialogue I've written, come out at the end of this thing and say, ‘Wow, that game was awesome.’

As long as they don’t “come out saying, ‘Wow, that story ruined the game and I was doing stupid things because the story was taking precedence over the game,’” Burch says, “Then I'm happy.”

Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor for IGN's Xbox 360 team. He’s also quite Canadian. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

Max Payne 3 to get black and white "Noir Mode" in next DLC

Rockstar Games announced today that their next DLC pack for the critically acclaimed shooter drama Max Payne 3 - dubbed the Disorganized Crime Pack - will include "Noir Mode" which allows players to play the game in black and white.

The single-player game will be unchanged outside of the graphical switch. The DLC pack will also include some multiplayer content as well including the Hoboken Rooftops map and new multipliers for Score Attack mode.

Max Payne 3 launched back in May to commercial and critical success, however Rockstar has said that the game still didn't meet its expectations in sales. The Disorganized Crime Pack will be released for download on August 28, 2012.

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

Spec-Ops: The Line will get free co-op in new update

The highly surprising cerebral shooter from 2K Games, Spec Ops: The Line, is getting a big update today as the developers introduce a free cooperative mode to the title.

The new mode consists of four objective-based maps with their own objectives and playable characters. It's unclear exactly what these missions encompass, or if they're tied into the story in any way. It will be available soon on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.

"The two players must work together to fight through waves of enemies and blinding sandstorms to complete their objectives, emphasizing teamwork and utilizing a variety of weapons and explosives," reads the press release.

Spec Ops: The Line made quite a stir when it launched last month. While it had been hyped as a fairly generic military shooter, reviewers found that it had a lot more to offer than the typical kill fest with its twisting storyline and commentary on the nature of military shooters.

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

Dust 514 big beta update goes live today, coming to PS Plus tomorrow

CCP Games Shanghai announced today that the long-awaited beta update for Dust 514 which will link the shooter to its parent game, EVE Online (just the test server for now), will be going live later today.

They also announced that PlayStation Plus members will also be gaining access tomorrow as well. The beta does not implement the full interaction between the two games, but two crucial aspects will be included: orbital strikes, and cross-game chat.

The orbital strike mechanic is really the tool that will make or break the interaction between these two games. For the purposes of the beta, players will be able to call-in strikes from a war barge orbiting the planet. When the full game goes live, players within EVE will take the place of the war barge, supplying orbital strikes for teams on the ground in Dust 514. Which strikes are available will depend on what turrets and cannons players have outfitted their ships with.

CCP has also said that they have enabled keyboard and mouse support on the PS3 version allow PS3 players to choose how they'd like to play.

Dust 514 made some big strides in gameplay this year at E3, and we're going to be very excited to see how it pans out when it finally releases sometime later this year. 

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

Sponsored: Hitman Sniper Challenge rewards top player with very exclusive Agent 47 print

To celebrate reaching the 100 day mark in the ongoing Hitman Sniper Challenge, Square Enix has awarded JakeOllyHr1sn as the highest scoring sharp shooter so far (he's notched up an incredible 5,222,051) with an exclusive Agent 47 print. Well done him. The numbered print is one of only 47and is signed by artist Ben Oliver. Very nice.

For everyone else, you'll have to make do with looking at the print here:

But Mr JakeOllyHr1sn isn't the only fortunate receiver of prizes. As usual there are the weekly Sniper Challenge winners currently sitting atop their respective scoreboards. And this week's winners - each of whom will be sent an Agent 47 mini-figurine - are...

PS3 winner:

razor_demon - 6,075,533

PS3 honourable mentions:

X1BALBA - 5,257,276

Scottnang - 4,514,754

Lost-Soul-8 - 3,001,564

EllegableFish - 2,595,492

Xbox 360 winner:

WhammyKing - 5,470,695

Xbox 360 honourable mentions:

JakeOllyHr1sn - 5,222,051

Shauncope - 5,037,680

rincewind1990 - 4,745,353

Lewisnic1 - 4,475,428

PC winner:

DolllarrrSuso - 5,415,579

PC honourable mentions:

biscuit092 - 4,983,050

Triplelexx - 4,235,346

Ergosphere - 3,074,467

go4brendon - 2,816,569

If you want to get involved in the Hitman Sniper Challenge, you need to pre-order Hitman Absolution where you'll receive a code. You must then visit www.hitmansniper.com where you can enter that code in order to receive the redeem code to download Hitman Sniper Challenge from Xbox Live Arcade or PlayStation Network. And we're pleased to announce that PC owners can now download Hitman Sniper Challenge and get their league table started.

Remember, for your score to count, you MUST register your Gamertag/PSN ID at www.hitmansniper.com and you MUST “link your account” at hitmansniper.com/leaderboards in order to be eligible!

Once you've signed up... get sniping! Simple as that. Keep checking GamesRadar.com to find out who wins - and make sure you read the terms and conditions. By entering, you are agreeing to them.

Source : gamesradar[dot]com