• What Reviewers Aren't Talking About in Metro: Last Light

    Metro: Last Light hits shelves tomorrow, May 14th, 2013 and the floodgates on reviews of the game have opened up this morning. As we all get inundated with hands-on pieces for the game, we wanted to take a minute to point out an oddity that we couldn't help but notice.

    Before you read this, go ahead and browse a few reviews of Metro: Last Light. Just pick two or three arbitrarily and come back when you're all done.

    Ready?

    Now, odds are that you just read about Metro's dark undertones. It's unashamed take on violence and maturity in gaming. The technical prowess that 4A Games has demonstrated in Metro: Last Light. Without question, you read about the fantastic environment of the underground. All of these things are true, but there's one thing that reviewers are shying away from discussing.

    Metro: Last Light features a graphic and shocking attempted rape scene.

  • Grab Your Red Orchestra 2: Rising Storm Beta Key Right Here!

    Tripwire Interactive is finally ready to give us all a taste of their incredibly anticipated first-person shooter Red Orchestra 2: Rising Storm and FPS General has you covered with closed beta access!

    If you're not familiar with the game, Rising Storm began as a full conversion mod for Red Orchestra 2 before Tripwire Interactive approached the team and offered them full backing from the studio. The teams worked together and Rising Storm was born. This is a full standalone game built upon Red Orchestra 2 framework, but one that moves the action from Europe to the Pacific Theater of War during World War II.

    Player will take part in some of the most iconic battles between 1942 to 1945 as the United States Army and Marines fought endlessly against the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy.

    So, how do you get into the Rising Storm closed beta?

    We're making it east, simply visit this page and grab your free Rising Storm beta key! These are redeemable on Steam and that page includes instructions. Enjoy!

    Grab your Red Orchestra 2: Rising Storm beta key right here!

     

  • 6 Screenshots That Will Sell You on Next-Gen Gaming

    Ready or not, the next-generation of gaming is coming and it's actually not that far away. The sheer power that next-gen gaming consoles boast is nothing short of stunning, but don't take our word for it...

    #6. Infamous: Second Son

    Infamous: Second Son
    Platform: PlayStation 4
    Release Date: TBA

    Honorable mention for this close up of protagonist Delsin Rowe.

  • The 5 Biggest WTF Moments in BioShock

    In the Summer of 2007, a little game by the name of BioShock came along and shook the very foundation of what the community expected from first-person shooters. From those opening moments this franchise has given rise to some of the most iconic and mind-blowing moments this industry has seen in the last decade, including...

    Note: this post will contain spoilers from the BioShock franchise.

    #5. The Shotgun Ambush, BioShock

    In the first few hours of the original BioShock, players come upon the shotgun for the first time in the murky depths of Rapture. This would be great, except for the fact that the moment you pick it up, every light in the damn building goes out and a wave of Splicers attack.

    This was one of the first moments that legitimately put a panic in us and little did we know, it wasn't going to be the first. After all, later in this very game we experienced...

  • Black Ops 2 Free to Play This Weekend, 5 Features You Can't Miss

    Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is going free to play this weekend on Steam, available for anyone who hasn't had a chance to check out the game to do so without any obligation to purchase.

    If you haven't been playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, we highly recommend that you do so for this weekend regardless of whether you have played the franchise in the past. The game is fantastic and a lot of fun to play, especially with friends online. We're thinking that anyone who takes part in the free weekend probably hasn't already played Black Ops 2 in any capacity, so here are a few things that you are not going to want to miss while you have your chance.

    Multiplayer - hands down the bread and butter of Call of Duty, make sure you jump online and spend some time in the competitive multiplayer modes that Black Ops 2 offers. Get your feet wet with Team Deathmatch or Free for All if you're new to the game before you move on to objective based game modes. We recommend Domination and Hardpoint as enjoyable objective modes to start with.

    Party Games - originally featured in the first Call of Duty: Black Ops, party games are an absolute blast. These free for all game modes all have a unique spin on them that drastically distances them from traditional MP modes. One in the Chamber, for example, spawns every player with only their knife and a pistol with one bullet and three lives. Kill an enemy and you take their bullet - knife them and you don't even have to spend your own ammunition, allowing you to stockpile bullets.

  • 3 Features Call of Duty: Ghosts Simply Has to Have

    Yesterday, we ran a piece entitled 3 Features Battlefield 4 Simply Has to Have in which we speculated on a few things that DICE absolutely has to include in the game for it to be as awesome as we're expecting. Today, we set our sights on Call of Duty: Ghosts and the team at Infinity Ward for the same treatment.

    Call of Duty: Ghosts is making a lot of bold claims so far and if the game is going to be half as good as we expect it to be, there are a few things that Infinity Ward will need to focus on and keep in mind with Call of Duty: Ghosts.

    Those things are...

    Balanced Multiplayer

    Call of Duty: Ghosts can have the most engaging and fascinating singleplayer campaign in Call of Duty history and the plain fact of the matter is that most players will never touch it.

    Call of Duty is first and foremost a multiplayer experience for the vast majority of its fanbase. To that end, the most important thing that Infinity Ward needs to keep in mind is strong, balanced multiplayer.

    This means keeping the post-launch nerfs and buffs to a minimum. Every game will require a bit of tweaking here and there after it gets into the hands of the massive userbase, but we'd like to see some better day one balancing. We're talking across the board weapons balancing, where no class is blatantly more useful than another. To us, DICE has always been great at this in Battlefield games. 

    Killstreaks or scorestreaks need to have their cost/reward structure thought out and tested in great detail. The RC-XD in Call of Duty: Black Ops, for example, was kind of a nightmare. It was ridiculously easy to acquire and yet could net you multiple kills if you timed the detonation properly. To our minds, a 3-kill streak should not be capable of getting you multi-kills.

  • 3 Features Battlefield 4 Simply Has to Have

    Battlefield 4 is in the thick of development at EA DICE and doubtless they have more than a few tricks up their sleeves. Nobody wants a rehash of Battlefield 3 with new weapons and maps - the FPS community is thirsty for something fresh in the Battlefield franchise, even if it's just an amazing feature from previous games brought back in Battlefield 4 in a meaningful way.

    To that end, here are 3 of our must-have Battlefield 4 features, beginning with...

    Commander Mode

    This has been rumored to be returning to Battlefield 4 and we're completely okay with that rumor if it proves to be true. Commander Mode was the amazing feature that made an appearance in previous Battlefield games and it works like this:

    • One player is assigned to be the Commander in any given online match. The Commander doesn't play as a soldier on the ground, but rather as an overseer with a view of the entire field of battle at their fingertips.
    • The Commander is responsible for issuing commands and direction to his troops on the ground that are, of course, played out by fellow Battlefield players.
    • Part of this responsibility includes the capability to call in support in the form of vehicles and other ordnance. This must be done strategically to win the battle.

    At the end of the day, the battle is fought by the men on the ground but the overarching fight here is one of wits, between both teams Commanders. Who wouldn't want that in Battlefield?

  • 3 Star Wars Games EA Should Start Working On

    For better or worse, Electronic Arts will be publishing all core Star Wars games for the foreseeable future. Whether you love or hate the publisher, Star Wars gaming is officially in their hands and it's time to stop whining that EA has control over this beloved franchise and start whining about the games that they should be working on with their new license.

    To that end, here are a few Star Wars games that EA really should be developing right about now. Now, not all of these are shooters but bear with us; we're Star Wars fans, too, you know.

    Star Wars: Battlefront III by EA DICE

    We wrote at length about Battlefront III yesterday, so we won't go into too many details in this post but suffice it to say that having Star Wars: Battlefront III brought back from the jaws of defeat would be nothing short of a miracle.

    Putting DICE at the helm would be even more amazing, as they are one of the undisputed pioneers in the first-person shooter scene. 

    Bringing the power of Frostbite 3 and the passion of the development team at DICE to Star Wars: Battlefront III would seem to be a perfect fit at first glance. 

    EA has already mentioned that DICE is being pulled in to work on something in the Star Wars universe so it stands to reason that it would be a first-person shooter of some sort. Why build something from scratch when the Star Wars community is clamoring for Star Wars: Battlefront III?

    With the creative freedom that this license offers them, DICE would be the only EA studio we'd want at the helm of developing a new Battlefront game - or any Star Wars shooter for that matter.

  • If DayZ Had Dinosaurs, It Would Look Like This

    DayZ is hands down one of the most popular survival games available today. If you haven't played it, the premise is simple; zombies have killed and converted most of the population and you are tasked with simply surviving in this undead-infested world. You must forage for food and supplies while fending off both zombies and hostile human survivors.

    Now imagine that instead of zombies, the enemy was dinosaurs and you had to hunt them for your food. This is the core premise in The Stomping Land and it looks incredibly promising.

    You are a survivor living amongst dinosaurs in the dim past, forced to hunt smaller dinosaurs for their valuable meat. The problem is that when you bring down a small dinosaur, the scent of blood attracts larger dinosaurs who aren't fussy about what they eat - including you. To counter that, players are able to forage for resources that will help them set traps and set up different strategies to successfully forage your food and survive that much longer.

    Of course, you're not alone in The Stomping Land. You're also going to have to deal with fellow survivors who can easily take you down and steal your supplies. All in all, the game looks amazing and it's on Steam Greenlight right now. Make sure you give it the thumbs up on Greenlight and visit http://www.thestompingland.com/ for more information on The Stomping Land.

  • Why We're Using Burn Competitive Gaming Controllers

    When it comes to competitive first-person shooters on console, everyone has their hardware of choice. Everything from the headset you wear to the controller you wield can give you an edge in the game and when competition is as fierce as it is today, these are important decisions to make.

    While we can't tell you which piece of hardware is best for you, we can tell you what we've been using the hell out of over the last couple months and give some insight as to why we've been using it. We'll have a piece on our headset hardware after we've put a few models through their paces, but for now let's focus on the gamepad.

    Earlier this year, we picked up a customized Curse-themed controller from Burn Controllers and we have absolutely been loving it to pieces (although, conveniently, the controller is not in pieces). Here are a few things we've been enjoying about the Burn controller.