shattered-horizon posts

March ends with a bang with a ton of major gaming news today; some good, some bad. Tomorrow we will get hit with a bunch of non-news thanks to April Fool's Day. We will post some of it on this site but we will be very careful to label them as April Fool's jokes (in fact it looks like a couple of web sites have started already; no names).

BTW, should be be scared that Steam hasn't held a big mid week or weekend PC game sale like it usually does? Just saying.

• Steam has a small automatic update for Shattered Horizon.
• The soon-to-be-owned-by-GameStop Impulse has posted its weekend PC game sales deals.
• Strategy First will donate 20 percent of proceeds from its online store to the Red Cross from now until April 11.
• Ubisoft is trying to stop THQ from poaching its game developers from its Montreal offices.
• Finally let's remember that Company of Heroes Online will be shut down for good in a few hours.

Shattered Horizon, the 2009 released zero-g based space shooter from Futuremark Game Studios, is about to get a big update. This update, titled the Last Stand Pack, will turn the formerly multiplayer online game into a single player experience.

Basically the Last Stand pack gives players' AI enemies to play o any of the game's maps and any of its multiplayer gamplay modes. You can also check out the new Last Stand gameplay mode which has four human pals fighting against waves of in-game bots. So far the developer's plans for Shattered Horizon continue to evolve and grow the game. As with the previous mini-expansions this one will be free to play. It's scheduled to be released later this month.

Update: The Last Stand AI pack is now available for the game via Steam automatic download.

After getting a last minute delay earlier this week, the team at developer Futuremark has now secured a new release date for its games-themed PC benchmarking software 3DMark 11. After finding some last minute bugs that caused the delay from its previous November 30 release date, 3DMark 11 is now set for launch on Tuesday, December 7.

As compensation for those folks who pre-ordered the benchmark software before the announcement of the delay, Futuremark has sent out a key to those people that will allow them to purchase and download its 2009 zero-g shooter Shattered Horizon. As we mentioned before, 3DMark 11 will be released in three versions; a free one, a $19.95 version that will turn off ads and a $995 version of 3DMark 11 that will have other features like demo looping. an image quality tool and more.

As promised earlier this week two inide game games are having a free play weekend on Steam. Fatshark's third person Western shooter Lead and Gold and Futuremark's sci-fi zero-g shooter Shattered Horizon are now currently available to play for free until 4 pm Eastern time on Sunday. Both games are on sale until Monday at 1 pm with Shattered Horizon just $9.99, Lead and Gold priced at $7.49 or get both in the Frontiers Pack for just $12.49.

Also on sale until Monday on Steam is Gas Powered Games' sci-fi RTS game Supreme Commander 2. You can get the game for a mere $5.10 at the moment. The recently released DLC pack for the game also has a big price cut this weekend to just $3.40.

Two of Steam's higher profile indie games are joining forces later this week for a special event. The zero-g space-based first person shooter Shattered Horizon and the Wild West-themed third person shooer Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West will both be free to play starting on Thursday and ending on Sunday. Pre-loading for the free versions will begin on Wednesday.

In addition to the free play period, both games will be on sale in a bundle called the Frontiers Pack. The games from developer Futuremark and Fatshark will be priced together for $12.49, a savings of 60 percent from the games' normal prices.

So we are getting a graphical remake of Defense of the Ancients with some enhanced community features. But will Valve continue to support the original DoTA? How much will DOTA 2 cost? Will the game be a downloadable only title? Will it support third party mods? There are still lots and lots of questions.

• Want to read Jordan Mechner's script for the Prince of Persia movie before the Hollywood types got a hold of it? Now you can.
• New Stream updates to Alien Swarm, Recettear, Shattered Horizon, Lead and Gold, Team Fortress 2, Worms Reloaded, and Booster Trooper have been released.

Futuremark Games Studio's 2009 released zero-g themed shooter Shattered Horizon has only been made available as a digital download via Steam so far. That's going to change, at least in the UK, next week as the title gets a boxed retail release via publisher PQube.

The retail version will include the original game plus the two downloadable expansions that were released for free for Steam users. It also comes with a printed keyboard and mouse control guide and, oddly enough, a set of 16 Shattered Horizon stickers for all you gaming scrapbookers out there. Meanwhile the Steam version of the game just got a small update which prepares the game for a German version that will also be released next week. It also adds in-game containers with a Cooler Master logo "as part of an upcoming sponsorship deal."

The Steam folks have launched their weekend sale deals and they have put in another big price cut to a game besides the already announced Shattered Horizon (which is on sale this weekend for just $9.99 along with a free weekend of play). For this weekend you can grab Gas Powered Games' recent sci-fi RTS game Supreme Commander 2 for just $11 (technically its $10.99 but what's one cent between friends?)

In related Steam news a number of previously announced games are now available on the service including the top-down shooter Alien Breed Impact, the first of four map packs for Defense Grid: The Awakening and a bunch of classic Sega Genesis titles that have been ported to the PC. Also a Greek myth themed action-RPG titled Numen: Contest of Heroes (previously released in Europe) has found its way to Steam with a 10 percent discount.

Update: There's a new Supreme Commander 2 patch that has been released via Steam with a number of bug fixes and improvements.

Players of Shattered Horizon now have some new in-game toys to play with. As promised, developer Futuremark Games Studio has released the free Firepower Pack that greatly increases the number of weapons and grenades that are in the zero-g based sci-fi shooter.

The pack adds new weapons like the Railgun, Machine Gun, Assault Rifle, Sub Machine Gun, Shotgun, Pistol, Grenade Pistol and Moon Mining Pick. Three new grenade types (Flare, Pulse and Decoy) are also newly available in the game. At the moment the game is on sale via Steam for $14.99, 25 percent off its normal price. This discount also applies to the game's four-pack bundle.

There are no new full PC games that are currently scheduled for release this week but there are two downloadable expansions of note; one is free and one costs $15:

Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package: Would you pay $15 for a five map multiplayer upgrade? Apparently a lot of you are judging from pre-order sales on Steam for this upcoming map pack for Infinity Ward's best selling first person shooter. Three of the maps are all new while two of the maps are converted from the previous game in the series Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.