FPS General

Good news today for everyone playing Ravaged, 2Dawn Games' post-apocalyptic shooter, as the team announced that the game would be receiving a massive DLC update completely free of charge.

The update includes new game modes, new weapons, vehicles and more, expanding the multiplayer offering in Ravaged. Namely, you're looking at:

• Two New Game Modes
  
  • Team Deathmatch
    
  • Highjack Mode: Hijack Mode offers players the chance to fight for control over the all-powerful Dump Truck, a massive mobile fortress.
• One New Vehicle: Available only in Highjack Mode, the Dump Truck becomes the ultimate power target, pitting players against each other as they scramble to control the monster power vehicle.
• Two New Weapons
  
  • The Chainsaw
    
  • The Flamethrower
    
• Improved XP: Ravaged now displays accumulative Experience Points when they are awarded.
• Reduced Ammo: Reduced access to ammunition encourages players to scavenge for weapons and ammo to stay alive.

If you haven't started playing Ravaged yet, there really isn't any reason to put it off any longer. This is the second free DLC expansion for the game, and to begin with it will only set you back $9.99. You really can't go wrong, so check it out on Steam!

Earlier this week, FPS General had the chance to chat with Carsten Boserup, from 2Dawn Games, on their recently released first-person shooter, Ravaged. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and features an amazing array of weapons and vehicles, with an emphasis on vehicular combat.

Both the vehicle and shooter mechanics are solid and a ton of fun to play, with a variety of both aerial and ground vehicles to choose from and a massive arsenal of creative weapons.

With Ravaged having launched, 2Dawn is shifting into post-launch mode, beginning to work on balancing tweaks and DLC for the game.

With the first major DLC add-on just being release for free last week, we thought this would be a great chance to chat with Carsten and see how the team is faring post-launch.

Check out our interview below!

(Note: some of these interview questions were written before the release of the latest DLC add-on)

How long have you been working in the industry and what led you to it? Did you always want to be in game Community management?

I’ve been a hardcore FPS player and active in the gaming community for years, but started officially working in the industry this year with 2Dawn.

Prior to that I hadn’t really thought about becoming a Community Manager (CM), but I always followed CMs from other game studios and often thought that I could probably do a better job if I had the opportunity.

How did you come to work on Ravaged, and what did you do for the title? What was your favorite part to work on?

Back in 2011 I managed a successful competitive event for Homefront’s launch and later some of the 2Dawn developers asked if I was interested in providing feedback for Ravaged as well as helping to recruit additional alpha/beta testers.

While doing this I saw a lot of potential in the game and really enjoyed hanging out with the devs. After spending a lot of time together and playtesting they asked if I wanted to be part of their community management and I said yes. I developed ideas on how to manage the community and communicate with players and presented that to the 2Dawn guys. That’s when they decided to bring me on as their full time CM.

My favorite part of working with Ravaged is without doubt the daily contact I have with the community whether it’s on forums, Steam chat, or on our public TeamSpeak (ts.2dawn.com). Games always have fans and haters but I learned that if you approach the haters with respect and took on some of their good ideas they could be turned around. Listening to the players’ feedback and ideas is my favourite part of the job. I remember when I was just gaming, I wished that the game developers would listen to me and my ideas, so that is what I want to do for the 2Dawn community and bring them closer to the development team.

Keep reading for the rest of our Ravaged interview with Carsten Boserup of 2Dawn Games!

2Dawn Games this morning has released some brand new content in Ravaged. The update brings new vehicles and weapons to the multiplayer-only shooter, as well as some new features and tweaks, as well.

“This new DLC Pack is a gift from us to our community,” says 2Dawn Founder Boris Ustaev, in a press release. “We strongly believe this new assortment of maps, vehicles, and weapons will increase the chaotic team-based fun so many people have already enjoyed — with a whole new level of depth and replayability. And the best part? It’s free.”

The Apocalypse DLC Pack, as they're calling it, features:

• Devastating New Vehicles: The Tractor Tank, Quads and Trikes with two seats, and the new Mini Chopper with mini guns on both sides for both the Resistance and the Scavengers
• An Arsenal of New Weapons: The new weapon unlock system offers players the brutal Nail Gun, AK-47 (with scope), AK-47 (with silencer),.357 (gold colored), Mp7, M16 Scope, M16 Silencer, MK16 with Ironsight, and AN94
• Voice-Over Internet Protocol (VOIP): Players can now voice chat with their squad instead of using a third-party option
• One New Map: Introducing The Dust Bowl, a large map for vehicle gameplay
• More Visible Squads in UI
• Auto-Kick: For players that don't spawn for three minutes
• New Skins: Three new skins for the mini-helicopters

If you haven't picked up Ravaged, yet, the game is on sale in Steam's Winter Sale for just $4.99. Check it out!

2Dawn Games has announced that to celebrate some massive DLC that is coming to Ravaged next week, they are slashing the price of the game in half, making it available for just $4.99. Picking the game up today will also get you the DLC next week for no additional cost.

To sweeten the deal a little more, 2Dawn has released some new content in the game in advance of the main DLC drop that will go live next week. Today's update introduces a bunch of new weapons and some new features and bug fixes, including:

• New Weapons (DAO-12 Shotgun, Nail Gun, MP7.)
• New Unlock System (Silencers & Scopes.)
• New Squad Interface.
• Squad Voice Over IP (VOIP.)
• Fix for the Server Browser.
• Fix for when a retail Ravaged copy was showing up as a DEMO.

Ravaged is on sale right now over at 2Dawn.com and while the deal is not available through Steam directly, purchasing the game on 2Dawn.com will get you a Steam key for Ravaged, anyway.

2Dawn Games and Reverb Publishing have officially let their baby out into the wild; Ravaged is now available for purchase on Steam, Origin and other digital retailers.

Unsure about what the heck Ravaged is?

As Reverb Publishing's Director of Strategic Partnerships, Brian Harvey says...

Brian Harvey, Reverb Publishing

“Ravaged is a post-doomsday shooter that sets itself apart from the competition with brutal kills, gorgeous graphics, a wide variety of weapons and vehicles, and a pace and flow that ensures matches are enjoyable bouts of controlled chaos.

It has the best assortment of features catering to the PC gaming audience that is continuing to show its support for the resurgence of first-person shooters on the platform.”

The game is available now on several games retailers, most notably Steam. For $24.99, Ravaged is a bargain and we encourage you to give it a shot. We've spent many long hours with the game and would love to see the player base increase its numbers now that the game is officially launched. 

Earlier this month, the FPS General crew dropped by Reverb Publishing headquarters in San Francisco, CA to check out some of the publishers upcoming first-person shooters. These games included the likes of Primal Carnage, Insurgency 2 and Ravaged.

While we were there, we managed to grab Brian Harvey, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Reverb Publishing. Brian joined Reverb just last month, after the untimely collapse of OnLive. He seems right at home at Reverb Publishing, and we had a great conversation about the upcoming first-person shooter Ravaged.

Ravaged is set to hit shelves tomorrow and delivers a perfect blend of classic FPS mechanics and vehicular gameplay. From Gyrocopters to armored trucks, Ravaged is not in short supply of vehicles that you can pilot to deal death on the battlefield, or make a quick getaway with the enemy's much-needed resources in the Capture the Resources game mode.

Check out our interview with Mr. Harvey above and visit http://store.steampowered.com/app/96308/ to pre-order a copy of Ravaged.

2Dawn Games and Reverb Publishing are set to release their post-apocalyptic multiplayer shooter Ravaged in just 5 days. To get yourself ready for the mayhem, they've been kind enough to release a brand new trailer for the game.

Ravaged blends vehicles and first-person shooter mechanics in a way that makes both aspects of the game very enjoyable. If you've never played a first-person shooter that incorporated vehicles, don't shy away from Ravaged. Picking up the controls just takes some time, even in aerial vehicles which are sometimes hard to master. Vehicles are incorporated in a very accessible way with respawns occurring often and a very straightforward control style.

In addition to the vehicles, the classic gunplay mechanics in Ravaged are solid and reliable. Throughout beta testing, we've never felt that anyone beat us because of poor mechanics or other frustrating bugs. The homebrewed weapons are a lot of fun, as well. At times it felt like we could see 2Dawn's creative side coming to life in things like tennis ball bombs and a melee weapon that is little more than a baseball bat with nails sticking out of it.

The game is expected to launch on October 17th, but in the meantime you can enjoy the trailer above. Visit http://www.2dawn.com/ for information on where you can pick up Ravaged when it launches next week.

Reverb Publishing has announced a pretty sweet contest that gives aspiring video producers and Ravaged players a chance to showcase their art and win some awesome prizes.

The Ravaged Video Director's Contest is calling for Ravaged players to put together some 'apocalyptic gaming cinema'. These videos will feature epic kills, aerial combat, ground combat, notable areas in the game and just all-around badassery. The team at 2Dawn Games and Reverb Publishing has teamed up with some of the industries leading hardware manufacturers to offer some seriously cool prizing.

Alienware^M, AMD Gaming Evolved, Logitech, and Andrea Electronics are all on board, and the prizing looks like this:

• First Place Award: Four copies of Ravaged, one Alienware X-51 Mini Gaming Desktop, one Andrea Electronics SuperBeam SB-805B Ravaged-branded headset

• Second Place Award: Two copies of Ravaged, one AMD Radeon HD 7870 graphics card, one Andrea Electronics SuperBeam SB-805B Ravaged-branded headset, one Logitech^® G19 Keyboard, and one Logitech^® Wireless Gaming Mouse G700

• Third Place Award: Two copies of Ravaged, one Andrea Electronics SuperBeam SB-805B Ravaged-branded headset, one Logitech^® Optimal Gaming Mouse G400, one Logitech^® Keyboard for Gaming G510

The contest runs two weeks, from 4:00 PM PST, Tuesday, September 18 to 12:00 PM PST, Tuesday, October 2, 2012.

For full details, check out http://www.2dawn.com/ and good luck!

It sure looks like that partnership that 2Dawn Games announced a while back to have Reverb Publishing handle publishing duties on Ravaged is starting to pay off already. The game went up on Steam this morning for pre-order for the very reasonable price of $24.99.

The multiplayer-only Ravaged features solid and engaging multiplayer first-person shooter mechanics plus a massive emphasis on vehicles. We've said it before, and we'll say it again; Ravaged is the game we thought we were buying when id Software launched RAGE last year. RAGE was a great game in its own right, but with a Twisted Metal-esque multiplayer mode and zero first-person shooter action, suffice it to say we were a bit disappointed.

We've been playing Ravaged in beta for a couple months and we've been loving it. The best part of the pre-order offer is that you get instant access to the ongoing closed beta test if you're willing to plunk down the cash in advance.

We can't recommend Ravaged enough, so if you're looking to buy something new and Borderlands 2 isn't in your sights, we suggest checking out Ravaged on Steam.