People Can Fly
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Bulletstorm 'Anarchy' screens show strength in numbers
These new screens from People Can Fly's upcoming kick-em-then-shoot-em-up, Bulletstorm, provide only the slightest glimpse of the game's Anarchy multiplayer mode -- a variant of the popular Horde mode in Gears of War 2.
Bulletstorm trailer adds phallic progeny to its lexicon
Kick back and watch this trailer, you sonuva dick.
Appreciate the quiet side of Bulletstorm in these new screens
You know, it's hard to focus on the art of Bulletstorm while watching gameplay footage, as most of your attention probably gravitates to bon mots like "yum-yum, blister juice." Why not soak in some of the game's visuals in a recently released batch of screenshots, posted below?
Bulletstorm preview: Just for kicks
Writing about games always comes with a peculiar kind of self-defeating dissonance. This morning, I might have grabbed a metaphorical megaphone and shoved it in some ebert's ear, right before laying out why Shadow of the Colossus is such a magnificent meditation on loss and sacrifice and etc. "Games involve and encourage and inspire!" I'd say. "It's for grownups, you know." And then, just a few hours later, I'll write about a game that's awesome because it lets you kick people to death. %Gallery-103112%
A guided tour of Bulletstorm's Gamescom demo
Ready for a little cognitive dissonance? Check out this footage of the Gamescom build of Bulletstorm, featuring commentary by producer Tanya Jessen. The game is as violent, gory, and inexplicably disgusting as ever (you can even hear the infamous "Yum yum blister juice" line spoken in this clip), and Jessen's discussion is calm and conversational, even as she describes four-barreled shotguns and mutants covered with pus . It's not that we expected everyone who worked on this game to sound like "Macho Man" Randy Savage, but ... no, actually, that's exactly what it is. See the video after the break.
Bulletstorm shots confirm giant monsters, giant explosions
When they're not busy slow-mo combo killing each other, the characters in Bulletstorm enjoy fighting Cloverfield's cousin and bringing down entire skyscrapers. Or so these latest screens from the Epic Games-produced arcade FPS would have us believe. See 'em after the break. %Gallery-99645%
Bulletstorm kills retail with skill on February 22, 2011
Epic Games' Cliff Blezsinski took the stage at the EA keynote to show off People Can Fly's Bulletstorm. Thankfully, he had more than a new trailer with which to scare your dick off (that's an actual phrase in the game, by the way) and confirmed a launch date of February 22, 2011 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 EA Partners title. Would you like to know more? Feel free to crack open our preview and sup on its delicious juices.
Impressions: Bulletstorm
Epic Games and Painkiller dev People Can Fly have finally taken the wraps off Bulletstorm, their FPS collaboration for EA, and it's looking like a brutal yet beautiful love note to fans of over-the-top action. Epic's design director Cliff Bleszinski and Bulletstorm producer Tanya Jessen (who also produced Gears of War on PC) flew in to San Francisco last week to debut the game. The duo kicked things off with the above trailer before getting into the nitty-gritty details in a live gameplay demo, with Bleszinski steeling the crowd for what he considers to be "a mix of Burnout, Duke Nukem and Firefly / Serenity." Bleszinski prefaced the demo by saying that, while still very much into the Gears series, "what really gets me out of bed in the morning is crafting a whole new world" -- something that he's excited to do on this project with the team at People Can Fly in Poland. He says he plays the game three to four times a week to offer his feedback, and that Epic's art and production teams in Raleigh, NC work daily with PCF. He said that Epic also sends techs to the developer on a frequent basis to ensure that it is up to speed on Unreal Engine updates. Whatever they're all doing, it looks amazing -- both from a visual and gameplay standpoint. Blezsinski said that, unlike most modern FPS titles, Bulletstorm "doesn't take itself too seriously," adding that it has the intense action, the headshots and the like, but "does it with a wink and a smile." But what does it do differently? Skillshots. "It's like a cat playing with a mouse before killing it," Blezsinski said of the game's core play mechanic, claiming that it takes the scoring system introduced in Unreal Tournament -- killing sprees, double-kills, etc. -- to "the next level." %Gallery-92124%
EA forecasts Bulletstorm in Q1 2011
Last month, EA announced that Epic and People Can Fly's FPS, Bulletstorm, would be released in 2011. Prior to that, an EA earnings report slated an unannounced shooter from Epic for a Q1 2011 release. It looks like we were able to predict the ballistic weather accurately. Today's fiscal 2010 earnings report (PDF link) brings it all together in a nice, official manner, clearing up any speculation we may have had, by listing Bulletstorm with a release date of Q1 2011 (which is EA's fiscal Q4 2011). That means that between Bulletstorm and Dead Space 2, EA has both the 1st- and 3rd- person alien-shooting markets covered in 2011. Who's going to step up with the second-person shooter, played from the perspective of the aliens being shot? %Gallery-92124% Source: EA Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2010 Results (PDF)
First Bulletstorm screens surprisingly void of bullets
Click image to head into our gallery When you title your upcoming game Bulletstorm, we envision a kind of whirlwind of ammunition, a tornado leveling the landscape with gunpowder-coated vengeance. Turns out, People Can Fly's upcoming joint collaboration with EA is a little less grim -- the first screens actually show a vibrant world and some goofy, over-the-top violence. Nary a bullet in sight. The screens also give us a glimpse at the proposed "kill with skill" system -- not to be confused with skills for kills -- which is evident in the extra 50 points gained by capping that poor schmuck's dome in the screen above. %Gallery-92124%
Bulletstorm to induce yells in 2011
[Game Informer] It's official: EA has announced Epic and People Can Fly's Bulletstorm for Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3, targeted for a 2011 release -- which means that both of the games we thought Cliff Bleszinski planned to bring to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon have been revealed by publishers beforehand. It was a scheduling error that got Gears of War 3 announced early; EA's motivation for sending out this press release before the show is less clear. Perhaps it's the fact that Game Informer beat EA to it. Or perhaps this press release was the Monday announcement Bleszinski was talking about, and Bulletstorm won't be on TV tonight. But enough of that: what's the game about? Bulletstorm stars Grayson Hunt, one of two mercenaries exiled to a distant planet when they're labeled as traitors. The pair end up "surrounded by hordes of mutants and flesh eating gangs in an abandoned paradise," and fight to survive, make it back home, and get revenge. Bulletstorm features a "skillshot" system that offers rewards (in the form of points that can be redeemed for weapons) for creative kills -- a system that the announcement says "produces unprecedented levels of frantic gameplay and yell-inducing satisfaction."
CliffyB: 'Two upcoming games' on Monday's Late Night; Us: It's totally Bulletstorm and Gears of War 3
When Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski got bumped from last night's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon because of a Justin Bieber-shaped "scheduling conflict," someone forgot to tell the Xbox Dashboard programming team who, inadvertently, spoiled Mr. B's big reveal: Gears of War 3. Re-booked for Monday's show with no big reveal has left Epic Games with only one alternative: reveal a second game! CliffyB took to Twitter with the following comment: "NEWSFLASH: Two announcements about two upcoming games on Monday. BOOM!" Lucky for them, Epic has a second game that's just about ready for its close-up, People Can Fly's Bulletstorm. Now, he didn't say specifically that Bulletstorm would be the second "upcoming" game, but the pieces are certainly in place. Take, for example, the cover of next month's Game Informer magazine, which can already be found floating around various corners of the internet. Of course, Epic could simply be following Nintendo's lucrative Pokemon strategy and releasing two editions of Gears of War 3. If so, might we suggest Gears of War 3 Brown and Gears of War 3 Gray? [Update: Not ones to let some internet scans steal their story, the Game Informer crew has come right out and said it, albeit a few days earlier than planned: "The latest issue of Game Informer Magazine [has a] world-exclusive look at People Can Fly's upcoming shooter, Bulletstorm." They've got some higher-res art too, if you're interested.]
Epic president hints at new game announcement at E3
Epic Games president Mike Capps is already teasing some kind of new announcement at E3. Speaking to VentureBeat at the Interactive Achievement Awards, Capps responded to a question about possible new games by saying that "We might have a new one coming. I think E3 is going to be really exciting for fans of Epic." You can see him make this statement on video after the break. It might have a new one coming? Shouldn't he know? What kind of company doesn't keep its own president in the loop? Oh, we get it. He's being coy. So what's this new game? It could be the "Shooter from Epic TBA" listed in EA's schedule for early 2011. Which could be People Can Fly's "Bulletstorm." We suppose "fans of Epic" would be happiest with a sequel to one of the company's franchises, so a new Unreal, Gears of War or even Shadow Complex is always a possibility. It's probably not a new Jill of the Jungle. Which is too bad. [Thanks, Fintan!]
Dead Space 2 and EA's Epic shooter slated for early 2011
EA's tentative release schedule for Q4 of its fiscal 2011 (or, as us normal people call it, January–March 2011) contains more than a few intriguing entries. You already heard about the new Dragon Age game -- but listed just below that is an untitled "Shooter from Epic TBA." Of course, this can only mean one thing: Gears of Madden 2012 is within spitting distance of becoming a sweet reality! Wait -- what's that? Oh, right, the listing more likely points to new speculative details about that possible "Bulletstorm" project from Epic's People Can Fly studio. How ... unofficial. Also listed under the early 2011 releases is Dead Space 2, which EA had previously promised would drop before next March. The excitement level of the remaining games drops off like the deep end of a pool: The list includes (deep breath) a new Need For Speed on consoles and PC (in addition to an apparent Holiday 2010 release), a downloadable "action" game, a new fighting game designated as a "sports" title, a new Hasbro game (more Family Game Night?), and new installments in the Sims and Spore franchises.
Epic's People Can Fly trademarks 'Bulletstorm'
It's been over a year since EA announced plans to publish a new IP developed by Epic's People Can Fly studio (Painkiller), and now we just might have the name of the project. People Can Fly has filed a software trademark (spotted by superannuation) for the term "Bulletstorm." While we could speculate as to whether this is the EA project, or whether it's the unnamed project that wowed Mark Rein back in 2007, there are more important things to discuss. Specifically, what kind of game could Bulletstorm possibly be? With such an ambiguous title, it could be almost anything. A point-and-click adventure game? A suburban economy simulator? The mind boggles at the possibilities.
EA to publish new Epic IP
EA's got an impressive stable of original games due in the near future, and it has just added another one to the list: The company announced it's signed a deal with Epic to publish a new intellectual property from the latter's People Can Fly studio, the same folks that brought you Painkiller. It's an action game (duh) coming to the PS3, 360 and PC and that's all EA's saying at the moment.If you remember, Epic's Mark Rein was extolling the virtues of this mystery game (we're assuming it's the same one) last August, saying, "[They] showed us their early prototypes within only a few weeks and we were totally blown away." Let's hope we get the same feeling when Unnamed EA/Epic/People Can Fly Action Game arrives ... at some point.
Not-so-secret projects probed
FiringSquad has done its best to out 18 high-profile "black ops" projects currently in development. While the site's sleuthing skills might not be up to par with Mr. Holmes', the report does a good job of rounding up under-the-radar titles that are begging for some attention.We'd like to direct the spotlight on two studios in particular: Tim Schafer's DoubleFine and Bungie expats Wideload, which are responsible for Psychonauts and Stubbs the Zombie, respectively (both titles landed in our top 10 'gems' of last generation). The two developers are hard at work on new projects; and with DoubleFine striking a publishing deal with Vivendi, its next game is sure to stir up more buzz (when it's time) than Majesco managed to generate for Psychonauts. Also, we can't wait to see what Warren Spector and Junction Point have under lock and key. Keep those ears (and eyes) glued to the street!
