wanted-weapons-of-fate posts

GoGamer.com always has a ton of PC games ready to unload at sale prices during their 48 Hour Madness periods. This one is no exception and ends at 3 am Eastern Time on Friday. For example you can get the boxed PC copy of Wolfenstein for just $24.90 (compare that price to getting game via download for its full $49.99 price).

Other sales include the PC port of X-Men Origins Wolverine for just $14.90, Wanted: Weapons of Fate for $19.90, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood for $24.90 and the recently released PC game adaptation of Terminator: Salvation for a mere $9.90. Ouch.

Even with the release of three major games in the space of a few months this year, the Stockholm-based game developer GRIN could not stave off extinction. Today the company's official web site has now admitted it will close its doors after shutting down two of its satellite development teams earlier this year.

In its farewell message, GRIN blamed unarmed publishers it worked with for its demise saying, " . . . many publishers have been delaying their payments, causing an unbearable cashflow situation." It doesn't look like one of those publishers is Capcom; the company's two founders Bo and Ulf Andersson thanked the publisher of their Bionic Commando game "for being honest, a rare gift" in their farewell message. GRIN also had two other games come out this year; Wanted: Weapons of Fate (from Universal's interactive division) and Terminator Salvation (from Evolved Games).

GRIN released a couple of smaller PC games in the early part of this decade; the futuristic racer Ballistics and the post apocalyptic racer Bandits. Later Ubisoft hired GRIN to create the two PC ports for the Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter series before they were signed to multiple console-PC products. In their farewell message, GRIN's founder makes mention of "our unreleased masterpiece that we weren't allowed to finish" indicating they were indeed working on a new game project before their shut down.

It's been a couple of months since rumors started to fly about major issues with game developer GRIN. Despite releasing three games in the space of just a few months earlier this year (Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Bionic Commando and Terminator Salvation) the company reportedly shut down two of its satellite dev studios late in May.

Now Gamasutra is reporting through unnamed sources that GRIN's central office in Stockholm, Sweden could be going under as well. The reports claims that employees of the office were told not to show up for work today and it's possible that the company is preparing to go into bankruptcy or shut down completely. This news comes on the heels of this morning's announcement of Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West. Developed by Stockholm-based Fatshark, the company has GRIN as a stakeholder and used GRIN's engine as the basis for the game.

They seemed to be one of the most successful independent game developers around. Now rumors have hit the Interwebs that European based developer GRIN has been hit with mass layoffs, which might include the shut down of two of its development teams.

Kotaku is reporting through unnamed but "multiple sources" that between 100 and 160 GRIN team members are affected by the layoffs. In addition two of the company's development teams (one in Barcelona, Spain and the other in Gothenburg, Sweden) will be shut down, according to the report. In addition the company's headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden have alledgedly let go of 30 team members.

GRIN has released three games inside of three months; the movie based Wanted: Weapons of Fate (released in late March) and two games this month; Terminator Salvation and the console versions of Bionic Commando (the PC version is scheduled for July).

Gallery: Wanted: Weapons of Fate

Gallery: Bionic Commando Screenshots

Gallery: Terminator Salvation

We are not sure why GoGamer.com calls their sales periods "48 Hour Madness" since most of the time they last much longer than that. Anyhoo . . . The game retail web site now has some PC games at some rock-bottom prices for their latest sale including a number of recently released titles.

They include Wanted: Weapons of Fate for $24.90 and Velvet Assassin for $23.90 (50 percent off their current normal price). Other games on sale include Command and Conquer: The First Decade for $17.90, Unreal Tournament 3 for $9.90, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars for $4.90 and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for $7.90. The sales end on Wednesday at 3 am ET.

Last week GoGamer.com cut prices to the bone on a large number of mostly older titles. This weekend the mail-order game retailer has put a number of more recent games on sale (some shipped out just a coupe of weeks ago).

Among the games on sale this week include the RTS tile Stormrise for just $19.90, the action game Wanted Weapons of Fate for $29.90, the FPS F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin for $27.90, the open world crime game Saints Row 2 for $24.90, the retail box edition of the MMO EVE Online for $29.90 and the voice controlled RTS title Tom Clancy's EndWar for just $19.90. Happy savings.

This demo is for Wanted: Weapons of Fate, a third-person action shooter based on the movie. Continue after the jump to view the launch trailer and other gameplay videos. Be aware that they contain profanity. Wanted: Weapons of Fate is available now in retail stores and via Steam. The PC version has an exclusive special ending that will be "one of the most vulgar endings of any game."

Download the Wanted: Weapons of Fate Demo (843 MB)
Check out all Wanted: Weapons of Fate downloads

The last full week in March brings a number of major PC retail and downloadable titles down the pike along with a big downloadable expansion:
Stormrise - The Creative Assembly releases this original sci-fi RTS game for publisher Sega featuring battles on a future Earth between technological and biological-themed factions. If you just have Windows XP and DirectX9 installed, you can ignore this game; it's one of the very few that's a Windows Vista-DirectX10 exclusive.

This narrated video for Wanted: Weapons of Fate demonstrates the use of bullet time Assassin Time, where the character enters an adrenaline fueled state and perceives time as slowing down. The enhanced mental state is featured in the movie and will come in useful in taking out enemy assassins that have the ability to dodge bullets. Weapons of Fate is expected to release later this month.

Download HD Wanted: Weapons of Fate 'Assassin Time' Trailer (58 MB)
Check out all Wanted: Weapons of Fate downloads

February may be the shortest month of the year but it's turned out to be a huge one for PC gaming news. From the reveal of a long awaited sci-fi RPG sequel to the launch of a browser-based FPS to the delay of one of the most anticipated titles of the year, we were kept on our toes with lots of major and sometimes unexpected news.

Now that February is over we wanted to look back and remind both ourselves and you about what the big events of the month were like. You may disagree over some of our choices and that's OK. However all of the news items we picked will likely have effects, both big and small, that will be felt for a while.

Click on the image above to continue reading The Top 10 PC Game News Events of February 2009