shattered-horizon posts

As they announced a few weeks ago, Futuremark Games Studio plans to release a second free expansion pack for their downloadable sci-fi multiplayer shooter Shattered Horizon. Today they announced that the Firepower pack will be released on May 5.

The expansion will add a number of new weapons to the game along with new types of grenades. While the developer has not yet announced exactly what will be included in the weapons pack, a new video, shown above, shows off some of what players can expect when the Firepower pack is released. Starting tomorrow, a new weapon or grenade type will be officially revealed at the game's official web site.

Download HD Shattered Horizon 'Firepower Weapons Pack' Trailer (45 MB)
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Using all in-game footage, this video shows off the expansive maps included in Moonrise, the free content expansion for Shattered Horizon. To mark its release, Steam is hosting a free-to-play weekend for Shattered Horizon complete with a 50% off sale to give both new and current players a chance to try out the new maps. Players can pre-load the game now, and the free-to-play weekend will last from today 4:00 PM PST until February 21st at 1:00 PM PST.

"Shattered Horizon immerses you in the cold reality of combat in space like no other game before. This multiplayer first-person shooter is played entirely in zero gravity. A catastrophic explosion on the Moon has filled near-Earth space with billions of tons of rocky debris. You and your friends will join intense 32 player battles to control hollowed-out asteroids, huge fragments of Moon rock and the ruined remains of the International Space Station."

Download HD Shattered Horizon Moonrise Trailer (50 MB)
Read the Shattered Horizon Review
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Earlier this week Futuremark Games Studio released their Moonrise four level map pack for their zero-g space-based shooter Shattered Horizon. The map pack doubled the number of levels in the full game. Now the developer is giving folks who have not played the game a chance to check out its rather unique features via a free play weekend on Steam.

Folks can now pre-load the game which will unlock beginning at 7 pm Eastern time later today. The free play period will end on Sunday at 4 pm Eastern time. Futuremark is also making it easier to purchase the full game. During the free weekend it will be priced at $9.99, a 50 percent cut from its normal price. As we always do with this game, we want to remind everyone this is a DirectX 10 exclusive title which means only folks with Windows 7 and Windows Vista installed can play it.

Players who wanted more levels for Shattered Horizon can rest easy now. Developer Futuremark Games Studio has now made available the promised Moonrise map pack that added four new levels to the unique zero-g space based shooter. This new map pack now doubles the number of total maps in the game.

The maps included in the Moonrise map pack include Deadeye (set in a massive but broke communications disk) Ten Star (on board a space hotel resort), Searchlight (which takes place around an abandoned space craft) and Slingshot (on a mass driver which you can see above). Players will have to play on updated servers in order to access the four new maps.

Earlier this week we reported that the free Moonbase level expansion pack for Shattered Horizon will be released "soon". While we wait for that to happen, developer Futuremark Games Studio has issued a new patch for the multiplayer first person shooter via Steam. While there are lots of bug fixes in this patch it also add a few new game features.

One big new addition is in-game voice chat which means the title now natively supports chatting and hearing back from fellow players. Also players with more experience will see cosmetic changes to their character's space suits that sets them apart from less experienced players. The game's ranking system got revamped with 50 new experience ranks added to the game. You can check out the list of changes, improvements and additions on the Steam web site.

It's been a while since we have heard anything new on the Shattered Horizon front but today the zero-g first person shooter's developer Futuremark Games Studio offered an update and new screenshots from the upcoming free Moonbase expansion pack.

As we have reported before the free expansion will contain four new maps which when released will double the number of levels in the full game. The locations include a mass driver installation, a lunar hotel, a communication dish that was once on the Moon and a cargo ship. There's still no word on when the Moonbase expansion pack will be made available. Last December it was revealed that layoffs had occurred at Futuremark Games Studios although it was not clear how many people on the team were dismissed.

If you want to celebrate the end of 2009 by playing a classic or new PC game, the folks at Valve have a selection of games on their Steam service that have had their prices cut for one day only. The games include the recent PC port of Street Fighter IV which can be yours for $9.99 for the next 23 hours.

Other games on sale include Half-Life Source for just $2.49, Shattered Horizon for $4.99, the Multiwinia and Darwinia bundle for a mere $2.99, Crysis Maximum Edition (with Crysis and Crysis Warhead) for $13.59 and Medieval II: Total War for just $4.99. Remember, Steam still has a ton of games and game bundles on sale that will stay that way until January 5.

Update: The web site has apparently changed the sale prices since this post was released. We have changed the prices accordingly.

A year has gone by, and we find ourselves once again looking at our family and wondering just what to get them for Christmas. While you can certainly get them such stellar titles as Dawn of War 2, you may want to shift your focus to some cheaper and more interesting games. For the price of three indie games, you can get one triple AAA title, and many of these games exceed the games put out by major studios. Excellent gameplay at a third of the price always sounds like a deal to us, and with massive sales going on in the spirit of Christmas, the deal is even sweeter. We have 15 indie games that we think you or someone you love will absolutely adore this holiday season, and most of them run around or under a $20 price tag. Take a glimpse at some of these titles, and see if you want to go back to the big budgets of more mainstream games. After all, every year indie gaming only gets better.

Once again it looks like some game developers are losing their jobs just before Christmas.The latest dev studio to suffer layoffs is Futuremark Games Studio which released their multiplayer zero-g themed first person shooter Shattered Horizon less than two months ago.

At least two members of the studio announced they were laid off today on the game's official message boards and it sounds like less than expected sales of the game are to blame. The game's now formal level designer Petri Jarvinen stated in his farewell post, "Now this does not mean that the game is dead, it´s just that there are less people making it." We have emailed Futuremark to try to find out exactly how many people were laid off and what this means for the future of Shattered Horizon.

[Via Blue's News]

Yesterday, we listed our picks for some great multiplayer games to play over the holidays. However, the thing about PC games is that you usually need an individual copy for each computer to play. It gets really expensive to shell out $40-50 per game to give as gifts. It can also be difficult to convince friends and family to buy those games for themselves.

Big Download knows your pain, and we've got you covered. Here are our top picks for multiplayer games that cost $20 or less, but provide plenty of fun for the holiday season. Some of these games might go on sale in the next few weeks for even more savings. Now you can spend less time worrying about what you can afford and more time planning that gaming get together.

Click on the image above to continue reading Big Download's 2009 PC Gamer Single Player Game Holiday Gift Guide.