FPS General

Torn Banner Studios has released the very first content update for Chivalry: Medieval Warfare and it is both exceptionally massive and entirely free. Before you get your chainmail in a bunch, we understand that Chivalry isn't a first-person shooter per se, but it is played from the first-person perspective and players can shoot arrows, so that's enough for us. Plus, the game is really, really good and everyone should play it.

Today's update includes new weapons, new maps, performance tweaks and updates and the much-anticipated 1v1 Duel Mode! Some of the highlights include:

13 New Maps 
 - Citadel
 - Frigid
 - Argon's Wall
 - 10 new duel arenas
5 New Weapons
 - Sling
 - Quarterstaff
 - Polehammer
 - Flail
 - Heavy Flail
2 New Game Modes
 - Duel Mode
 - Capture the Flag
Alternate Swings
 - Can now do left to right swings!

In addition to that, the update includes performance enhancements, bug fixes, increased anti-cheat systems and improvements to spectator mode for tournaments and live streaming.

Check out a video of today's content update after the break and get some more information on the game at http://www.chivalrythegame.com/.

As we begin a brand new year of gaming and, more importantly, first-person shooters, we have been spending some time reflecting on the year that was. 2012, by all accounts, was a good year for the first-person shooter genre. Sure, another year came and went and Half-Life 3 is nowhere to be seen, but we did see some really good games see the light of day. I mean, who would have guessed that Black Mesa would (finally) be released?

But interestingly enough, one of the best first-person games of the entire year was Chivalry: Medieval Warfare and there were no guns, no oscar mikes and, come to think of it, it was pretty much devoid of all of the cliche FPS staples. There are handheld ranged weapons but nothing more extravagant than a crossbow and that doesn't count as a gun! In a world dominated by modern military first-person shooters, a little studio called Torn Banner decided to take things back a few years. Well, more like 700 years if you be specific about it, but who's counting?

We haven't covered Chivalry: Medieval Warfare very much this year and part of that was simply our hesitance to even call it a first-person shooter. After all, you don't really shoot things very often in the game and there is a distinct lack of guns, something that has been a staple in the genre since the beginning. But, by that same note, is Portal really a first-person shooter? Yes you fire a 'gun' from the first-person perspective, but what about all of the other classic FPS staples that the game leaves out?

At the end of the day, Chivalry - like Portal - is in a class of its own, and we love it.