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Metro: Last Light 'Tower Pack' DLC launches next week
4A Games is gearing up to launch the second batch of downloadable content for its subterranean first-person shooter, Metro: Last Light, next week. Metro's Tower Pack offers a series of single-player challenge levels that advance in difficulty as players scale a fortified guard tower in virtual reality. Each stage is packed with hordes of mutants and other enemies, and players will be ranked on a level-by-level basis in the mode's global leaderboards. Last Light's latest round of DLC will debut via Steam, Xbox Live, and the PlayStation Network on September 3 in North America. The Tower Pack is available as part of Metro: Last Light's Season Pass content, and is priced separately at $4.99.
Metro 'a positive experience' for Deep Silver, will 'absolutely continue'
If you're a fan of the "suffocating despair" found in the Metro series, the good news is you'll be able to buy a ticket back to that world in the future. Today at Gamescom, Deep Silver CEO Dr. Klemens Kundratitz told Joystiq the company is sticking with the series beyond Metro: Last Light, which it picked up nearly complete for $5.9 million during the THQ asset auction. "It's been a positive experience," he said. "I'm very glad we acquired that brand. While it launched in a very dry space in the gaming calendar this year, it still got a lot of attention. Our ambition is to absolutely continue with that brand and we will also, in the next phase, look to making it more accessible for a broader gamer audience." Asked whether broadening the imposing, claustrophobic experience would diminish what fans love or create problems with the license holder, Kundratitz clarified. "It is true with a license you have to be aligned with the license holder. In this case it's [Metro 2033 author] Dmitry Glukhovsky who holds the license and he's a great guy. He enjoys the game, the success of the game and we have a good relationship." Kundratitz continued, "He is a great contributor. Also, going forward, as he has been very positive contributing to the last game – I think he can play an active role for whatever comes in the future." Kundratitz politely emphasized Deep Silver isn't announcing a Metro sequel, but he says the brand is part of the future of Deep Silver, and the company has plans to work with Metro developer 4A Games.
Humble Deep Silver Bundle adds Metro 2033, Sacred Citadel, Risen
The Humble Deep Silver Bundle recruits Metro 2033, Sacred Citadel and Risen today. These new additions are free for anyone who's already purchased the bundle, while new customers must pay over the average price (currently just shy of $5) for the trio. Calling the Humble Deep Silver bundle successful is perhaps an understatement: It has sold over 340,000 bundles and earned in excess of $1.6 million since its introduction last week. The pay-what-you-want lineup consists of Dead Island: Game of the Year Edition, Saints Row 2, Sacred 2: Gold Edition, Risen 2: Dark Waters and Saints Row: The Third and all its Full Package DLC. Paying more than $25 also secures a copy of Dead Island: Riptide. The Humble Deep Silver Bundle has little less than a week to go before closing its virtual doors. It's also worth noting that these games are provided as Steam codes, so you'll need Valve's digital distribution platform to run them.
Metro: Last Light 'Faction' DLC dated July 16, more content announced
Metro: Last Light's first piece of downloadable content pulls into the station on July 16 (July 17 for PS3 in Europe). The "Faction Pack" includes three single-player missions, with players taking on three specialist roles in the radioactive wasteland. The DLC includes the perspective-shifting roles of a Redline Sniper, Reich Heavy and Polis Ranger. The Faction Pack is priced at $4.99 (£3.99, €4.99, 400 MSP), and there's always the Metro: Last Light Season Pass for $14.99 (£11.99, €14.99, 1200 MSP), which also includes the Abzats weapon and all upcoming DLC. The upcoming three packs were also revealed today, but there's no release window to be found in the rubble. The "Tower Pack" includes a challenge-based game mode, the 'Developer Pack' adds another solo mission and finally "The Chronicles Pack" explores the side-stories of Pavel, Khan and Anna.%Gallery-193523%
Metro: Last Light gets season pass, first DLC in June
Metro: Last Light developer 4A Games is planning to release four different content packs throughout the summer, all bundled together today in a season pass available on Xbox Live, PSN and Steam for 1200 MS Points ($15). The Faction and Chronicle packs are the first listed, each aimed at continuing the single-player story of Metro: Last Light. Faction is due first, in June. The Tower pack will be aimed at Metro veterans, offering "a unique solo challenge." Finally, the Developer pack aims to offer some additional tools aiding in exploration. All season pass purchases will also unlock an exclusive semi-automatic shotgun rifle, while each piece of DLC will be available for individual purchase. Metro: Last Light launched on May 14, with our review placing it in the company of another story-driven shooter, Half-Life. The game was originally set to be published by THQ, but after the studio's fall Deep Silver came in and acquired the game.
Metro: Last Light dev warns against changing FOV with coming patch
Metro: Last Light features a fixed field of view, and while we didn't have a problem with that, other players have. Developer 4A Games heard the feedback and has a fix in the next title update coming to Steam – but it comes with a warning. Changing the field of view could trigger a range of bugs, including breaking cut scene animations and decreasing game performance in general. "We had considered offering three FOV pre-sets, but this would still require significant work to re-do every animation, adjust the HUD and UI and other seemingly small but incredibly time consuming tasks," 4A writes on the game's Steam discussion board. "Even with a wider but still fixed field of view, Artyom's hands would look too far away. We know – we tried." 4A is looking at other possible solutions, but for now the next title update's fix will have to do. "This may well trigger a number of issues listed above – you have been warned!" 4A says.
Ex-THQ president Rubin discusses cramped Metro working conditions
Former THQ president Jason Rubin has spoken about the struggles Metro: Last Light developer 4A Games went through to get its game to launch. In a post on GamesIndustry International, Rubin extolled the efforts of the Ukrainian studio, citing a relatively meager budget, cramped working conditions, and extreme logistical troubles as major adversities. According to Rubin, the game's development budget was "less than some of its competitors spend on cut scenes, a mere 10 percent of the budget of its biggest competitors." That budget apparently didn't extend to swanky office equipment, with 4A's staff sat "elbow to elbow" at card tables and on folding chairs. Upon seeing 4A Games in person, Rubin wrote, he wanted to buy them proper office chairs, but the logistics were something else. "When 4A needed another dev kit, or high-end PC, or whatever," Rubin wrote, "Someone from 4A had to fly to the States and sneak it back to the Ukraine in a backpack lest it be 'seized' at the border by thieving customs officials. After visiting the team I wanted to buy them Aeron office chairs, considered a fundamental human right in the west. There were no outlets in the Ukraine, and our only option was to pack a truck in Poland and try to find an 'expediter' to help bribe its way down to Kiev." In the end, the offices were too cramped for the wider Aeron chairs anyway.
PSN Tuesday: Metro: Last Light, Dust 514, Jacob Jones
It's quite the week for content on Sony platforms, with several major releases making their debut on the PlayStation Network today. Metro: Last Light, the 4A Games' sequel salvaged by Deep Silver, launches today. If you haven't had a chance to read our review yet, be sure to give that a gander. It's joined by CCP's EVE Online offshoot (get it?) Dust 514, available free to all PSN users. Jacob Jones and the Bigfoot Mystery eases its way onto PS Vita today as a $3 download, while Rockstar makes good on its promised Manhunt for $10. PlayStation Plus subscribers' freebie this week is Knytt Underground, which is flanked by discounts on both Metro: Last Light and a special pre-order price on Grid 2. For the full list of what's in this week's content dump, hit up the PS Blog through the source link below.
Metareview: Metro - Last Light
Metro: Last Light doesn't sound appetizing with its "suffocating despair" and "gnarled monstrosities," but it's that kind of loveliness that made Ludwig enthuse about the Metro 2033 follow-up in his four and a half stars review. He deemed Last Light "an unusual, meticulously detailed shooter inextricable from its environment." Of course, Ludwig wasn't the only brave soul to delve into the underground sequel. Here are some other thoughts we dug up. GamesRadar (90/100): "Subtlety is what makes Last Light such an exceptionally immersive game. It nails the core tenets of a shooter, then forces you to react to enemies in ways outside of simply taking cover. It plops you in a post-apocalyptic world, then fills it with tons of minor but substantial details, like the shadows of once-living people now permanently nuked into stone walls. It strips you of hope, only to dangle a tiny sliver of it ahead of you like a carrot on a stick." Game Informer (88/100): "This sequel plays more like a shooter than its predecessor, but doesn't sacrifice its intricate narrative or creative vision in the process. Masochistic fans will appreciate the harder difficulties that recreate the grueling experience of the original, but no matter how you approach it, exploring Last Light's absorbing world is wholly entertaining." Giant Bomb (80/100): "By its very nature of being a sequel, Last Light doesn't feel as fresh as Metro 2033 did, but there's still nothing else like it. Few games generate immersion through gameplay and transport you to their world the way Metro does." Eurogamer (70/100): "Metro: Last Light is not a bad game, but nor is it a good one in quite the same sense as its predecessor. Metro 2033 was flawed but trying to do its own thing. If anything, Last Light feels like a regression. Similarities abound, but this is a more conservative FPS, one looking at the competition rather than itself, and one with some terrible missteps. So go in with low expectations, and you might be pleasantly surprised."
Metro Last Light review: Tunnel vision
There is so much suffocating despair in Metro: Last Light. The world is irradiated rubble, blanketed in noxious fumes and trampled by gnarled monstrosities. Humans that remain must huddle underfoot, eking out lives in Moscow's underground railways. But the worst thing, the cruelest twist, the darkest dick move of the apocalypse, is that millions die and the accordion still makes it. If not its purpose, I have to respect the accordion's presence in Metro: Last Light. You can listen to the instrument's musical wheezing as part of a show put on in a dilapidated theater, one of several populated hubs you'll visit in your trek through the tunnels of Moscow. If you opt out of the game's scavenging and shooting for a few moments, there's an entire show to take in. It has all the awkwardness and earnestness of a production that only needs to be less bleak than its surroundings. Last Light, much like predecessor Metro 2033, is a feat of obsessive, paradoxical world-building – you believe this as a place that has been demolished, poisoned and forced to retreat into claustrophobic hovels. There are glimmers of recuperating life in these bastions, most of all in Metro's stunning sewer-bound equivalent of Venice. The town layouts are noticeably linear, in part because there isn't much room for subterranean sprawl, and because the game spends all its money on the critical path. To explore is to linger, listen and look; and that's fine.%Gallery-188180%
Metro: Last Light on Steam includes Metro 2033 e-book
Metro 2033 was a prominent post-apocalyptic novel from Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky before it inspired 4A Games' shooter. Making up for the lost marketing opportunity of the first game, sequel Metro: Last Light will include a free copy of the Metro 2033 novel with all PC purchases authenticated through Steam.The story of Metro: Last Light was provided by Glukhovsky, who has also created two written sequels to his acclaimed original work. Metro: Last Light is being developed by 4A Games and published by Deep Silver, who acquired the rights after the collapse of THQ.
Deep Silver clarifies Metro: Last Light PS4, SDK reports
Andrew Prokhorov, creative director on Metro: Last Light at developer 4A Games, recently had the nuance of his words lost in translation, according to publisher Deep Silver. The ITCChannel interview allegedly shook out details about a version of Metro: Last Light for PS4, the release of a software development kit (SDK) for Metro and downloadable content details."It is no secret that 4A Games do want to release an SDK for Metro, finish the extremely promising multiplayer component and release this in some form, and investigate a PlayStation 4 version provided it makes commercial sense," a Deep Silver representative informed Joystiq. "Although no development has started on any next-gen console versions [of Metro: Last Light]. We have confirmed these hopes and ideas plenty of times before."The statement continues, "However, all these ideas are just ideas at the moment. It will be some time before we can officially commit to any of these projects or suggest when they might materialize. They genuinely might all happen, but equally none of them might happen. Anyone expecting Metro: Last Light as a PS4 launch game is probably going to be disappointed..."Deep Silver plans on confirming details about Metro: Last Light DLC in the near future. Pick up Last Light on May 14.
Metro: Last Light included with select GeForce GTX cards
If you're in the market for a new graphics card, Nvidia is hoping to entice you with a special promotion. Those who purchase an Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 or above will also get a free download of Metro: Last Light when it launches this May. The deal is available via many online retailers, though it looks like Micro Center is the only physical retailer to offer the promotion. A full list can be found here.In other graphical news, publisher Deep Silver has revealed the PC specs required to play Metro: Last Light, and the good news is you won't need that GeForce GTX 660. Baseline specs bottom out at the Nvidia GTS 250 or AMD Radeon 4000 series. See the full specs after the break. You can also automatically test your rig for compatibility right here.
Metro: Last Light trailer teaches us about the trouble out there
This new Metro: Last Light trailer further explores both the human and monstrous elements to emerge in the game's hopeless, irradiated landscape.
Metro: Last Light illuminates 'Salvation' trailer
Only darkness and things that go bump in the night lay hidden in the subway systems of Metro: Last Light. Sorry, we meant: only monsters and things that will give you bumps in the night are down there. Tickets to ride Metro: Last Light will be available this May.
Metro: Last Light flickers in NA May 14, EU May 17
Metro: Last Light is coming to North and Latin America on May 14, and Europe three days later on May 17, publisher Deep Silver announced this morning. The PS3, Xbox 360, and PC sequel to Metro 2033 was, last we heard, expected to be released this month, but that was always uncertain following original publisher THQ's troubles and the horror/shooter's acquirement by Deep Silver.
Metro: Last Light live-action trailer has a distant past
This trailer for Metro: Last Light features real actors coping with their loss of identity in the series' post-apocalyptic version of Moscow. The game is expected to arrive in March 2013 for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
Metro 2033 price cut in half on Xbox Live starting tomorrow
If you like Eastern European first-person shooters, paranormal nuclear fallout, and desperately gasping for air, then you, friend, are in luck. That's if you don't already have Metro 2033, because THQ is cutting the 2010 cult hit down to half-price on Xbox Live, starting tomorrow. The publisher tells us the novel adaptation will be available on Games on Demand for $9.99 until Monday, October 22.If you missed the recent Steam sale (or if you'd prefer the game on Xbox) then this isn't a bad consolation offer for a tense shooter we handed four out of five stars to. But for the love of Бог don't forget your gas mask.
Metro: Last Light dev removes multiplayer, focusing resources on single-player
Metro: Last Light will no longer include a multiplayer component when it launches early next year, developer 4A Games announced today on the game's official blog. Multiplayer had previously been revealed soon after the game's 2011 announcement, something the blog notes was "probably a mistake.""Throughout the development of Metro: Last Light a small, dedicated team had been working on a number of multiplayer prototypes," the entry reads. "After E3, we decided to fold this multiplayer team back into the main group and focus 100% of the studio's resources on the single player campaign. As a result, Metro: Last Light will not ship with a multiplayer component." 4A Games believes that the game's single-player campaign is "what the fanbase cares about the most."Whether multiplayer will be added post-launch as DLC or an update is uncertain. "Right now we're 100% focused on the single player campaign and not thinking beyond that. We don't like throwing away work though, it's a project we could potentially return to after Metro: Last Light ships."%Gallery-157492%
Steam weekend sale on THQ games, Metro 2033 is $5 today only
All this weekend, THQ games are on sale through Steam. On top of a 50% discount on the embattled publisher's entire catalogue, each day will see a select game receiving even further discounts in a daily spotlight.Like today – Metro 2033 is in the spotlight and available for only $5. This deal only lasts for today, so if you want to get a head start on Metro: Last Light, now may not be a bad time.
