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Pre-order PC Bulletstorm from EA Store, get Shank for free
Every, um, cloud in a Bulletstorm has a silver lining, because it's full of steel Shanks. Okay, that belabored metaphor is supposed to refer to the fact that if you pre-order the PC download version of Bulletstorm from EA's store, you'll get a free download of Klei Entertainment's side-scrolling action game Shank. We just wanted to say it in a more poetic way than "buy this one game about committing thousands of bloody murders, and get another game about bloody murders for free," okay? The deal is good only with purchases of the $60 Bulletstorm Limited Edition, through Feb. 21.
How Bulletstorm became 'the worst video game in the world'
Much like seasonal allergies and taxes, the gaming populace is periodically subjected to mainstream news coverage of its favorite entertainment medium. And while said coverage is often laced with inaccurate statements and fear-laden non sequiturs, it doesn't usually ask questions in the headline like Fox News' latest treatment: "Is Bulletstorm the Worst Video Game in the World?" Our brief time with the game's demo -- not to mention the time we spent playing Superman 64 so many years ago -- certainly gives us the impression that Bulletstorm isn't "the worst video game in the world," but we get the feeling that Fox's John Brandon is asking something else.
Bulletstorm preview: A day in the life of a space pirate
From the personal log of Grayson Hunt, space pirate and connoisseur of booze: Most folks, they think my job's all about shootin' things. Other people, mostly. And it's true. But just shooting scumbags all day would be two words: bor-ing. Today? Anything but. Truth is, it was pretty crazy ... from what I can remember before blacking out. Heh. It all started onboard my ship. Some creep thought he'd try to collect the bounty on my head (and the rest of my crew), so we tied him to a chair and I practiced aiming by shooting at a bottle on his head. I'd just downed the contents of said bottle, so it was a little tricky. Didn't kill him, though; let the airlock do that.%Gallery-115868%
Duty Calls downloaded over 1.25 million times
Last week, a free game called Duty Calls was launched as part of a promotion for People Can Fly's latest, Bulletstorm. The free game is a spoof on the Call of Duty series and is meant to point out the tired mechanics of most first-person shooters, thus hyping the buck-trending qualities of Bulletstorm. The campaign seems to be going surprisingly well -- the @Bulletstorm Twitter account reveals over 1.25 million have picked up the phone and spoken with duty directly. In fact, if you'd like us to conference you in on the call, you can grab Duty Calls free of charge from our sister site Big Download right now.
New Bulletstorm 'Skillisode' would make Ozone and Turbo proud
See, here we were, about to say something critical of Bulletstorm's unabashed, deplorable violence -- and then they go and release a new Skillisode trailer, showing off a "Breakdancing" maneuver that has filled our hearts with utter delight. Watch it here, and share in our joy.
Duty Calls: Bulletstorm spoofs Call of Duty with free game (and we've got the full walkthrough vid)
If Bulletstorm's ad campaign teaches you one thing, it's this: Someone on development team People Can Fly came up with the term "dick-tits" and they put it in a video game. If it teaches you two things, it's the "dick-tits" thing and the fact that Bulletstorm shouldn't be compared to other popular shooters. Yes, if you're reading the contextual clues (smarty), the inclusion of "dick-tits" in the game may have told you that already, but in case you're really thick, the devs have created another expensive spoof for you. The first time around, Bulletstorm poked fun at Halo 3's famous "Believe" diorama commercial; this time, it's Activision's Call of Duty series, which is reimagined as a free downloadable game dubbed "Duty Calls." You can download the 758MB game file directly from thedutycalls.com (or from our sister site Big Download, if that's more your speed), but we should warn you: You'll need at least 512MB of RAM, a 2+ Ghz CPU, 8GB of hard drive space, eighteen sound cards, three CD-ROM drives, and a subwoofer to play it. So we've done you a solid: Clamber past the break to watch the full four-minute walkthrough.
Bulletstorm 'Skillisodes' trailer manages to sneak in the vulgarity
The Bulletstorm "Skillisodes" trailer posted after the jump features no in-game dialogue whatsoever. Don't worry, though -- People Can Fly managed to inject the video with the required amount of inappropriateness in the names of the previewed skills themselves. Pretty sneaky, People Can Fly.
Bulletstorm trailer makes very specific promises
The Bulletstorm trailer after the break really speaks for itself. Specifically, it says things for itself like "combos that'll pucker your butthole." To find out if that claim is accurate, you'll be able to check out a demo tomorrow. You don't have to tell us if it is.
Bulletstorm PC to support Nvidia 3D Vision display
Based on all the promotional materials we've seen and hands-on time we've had with Bulletstorm, we can confidently say that the game looks to be what those in the scientific community would call "a trip." Epic Games has clued in our sister site Big Download to a feature that might exponentially increase said trippyness: The PC version of Bulletstorm will include 3D-display support, provided you've got the right kind of monitor, glasses and an Nvidia GeForce-based graphics card. As excited as we are about the opportunity to freeze an enemy in the air, then kick him backward through actual planes of depth, we're actually more thrilled about something else: seeing the game's dialog as three-dimensional subtitles. It's like we can reach out and touch the "dick-tits."
Bulletstorm shows off more skillshots, still no sign of 'drilldo'
Bulletstorm's latest skillkill trailer misses the mark by not showing us the skillshots we really want to see - "Gag Reflex" showed up in last one. Thankfully, we can try to figure them out for ourselves when the demo hits January 25.
Bulletstorm's enemies: An army of clones
We've all seen it: you're making your way through a game and you notice something about the enemies. The bad guys in level seven look eerily familiar to those zombie elves you dispatched in level three. In Bulletstorm, an entire army has been created from just one guy, and a People Can Fly dev blog post tells us how regular enemies puts that same character model to use (as a single model helps to combat memory limitations). The way the developer sidesteps the whole "boring generic army of clones" thing is through slight body size variations, cosmetic attachments and even skin tones, as you can see above. This varied accoutrement will (hopefully) help each baddie seem unique when the game launches next month.
Bulletstorm's weapons of virtual destruction documented
The latest Bulletstorm trailer gives us a close-up look at some of the game's weapons ... and some developers talking about them. We shudder to think of how drunk on power we'll become next month when we get to kill countless virtual thugs with a toybox full of big, bad guns.
Bulletstorm demo blows up Jan. 25 on Xbox Live, PSN
"It can't possibly be that stupid, can it?" It's the thought we've had from the moment we first saw the game title (which is still Bulletstorm, by the way) to when we heard an NPC call the player a "butt chugger" and "wiener apprentice," or whatever it is they actually say. Can the game really be this meatheaded and still, by most accounts, be a joy to play? You'll be able to judge for yourself when a demo for the game drops on Xbox Live and PSN on Tuesday, January 25. (If there's a PC demo on the way, EA has made no mention of it.) The Bulletstorm demo features the score-attack "Echo Mode," which provides a sliver of the campaign with rigid time and weapon constraints, and then compares your score against friends. Your tolerance for being profanely insulted will not, as far as we know, be tested.
Bulletstorm shows off (relatively) tamer skillshots
Some of Bulletstorm's "sexual innuendo"-infused skillshots were recently revealed by the ESRB and now you get to see one of them, "Gag Reflex," in action. Also, for the sake of killing our runaway imaginations, we must know more about Rear Entry, Drilldo and Fire in the Hole.
Withstand a Bulletstorm on your PC with these system requirements
Epic has posted the system requirements for the PC version of Bulletstorm. Find out if your hard drive, RAM and video card are up to the task after the break. Not listed: The required maturity level for the player. (You just might exceed that particular requirement.)
Bulletstorm vid spoofs Halo 3's 'Believe' diorama, arrives in big box full of little things
Last time we got a package in the mail for People Can Fly's lewd, crude, and full of 'tude shooter Bulletstorm, it was a pile of meat, hair, and teeth with a prominent "do not consume" sticker on it. Today's package, while nearly as inscrutable, at least sheds the "do not consume" warning, which is a step in the right direction as far as we're concerned. At the end of this post is a new Bulletstorm video spoofing Halo 3's now famous "Believe" diorama commercial; however, if you want to see it you'll need to walk the same path we did. Come, join us, as we journey deep inside The Box. %Gallery-113837%
Bulletstorm started as a third-person shooter
The prototype for People Can Fly's profanity-laden shoot-and-kick-em-up, Bulletstorm, began as a third-person shooter, and at one point added cover-based attacking. Speaking with OXM, producer Tanya Jessen said the early gameplay was "completely different than it is now," revealing that Bulletstorm has transformed from "a third-person shooter to a cover-based first-person shooter to a non-cover-based first-person shooter." "We actually went through lots of iterations of how cover could work really well in a first-person shooter," Jessen explained. "But when it came down to it, once we started to see how great some of the weapons were coming along, we felt the core of Bulletstorm is the face of the enemy and the player figuring out what to do. So in that case, cover-based combat didn't really work so well." It's all good -- we're sure Gears 3 will have it ... covered.
ESRB ironically rates Bulletstorm 'Mature,' tries to summarize game
If you're not sure whether Bulletstorm exists to mock a 15-year-old's view of masculinity, or to celebrate it, the ESRB's rating summary isn't going to deliver any answers. The ESRB puts on a straight face as it describes Bulletstorm's inclusion of "Intoxicated Skillshots," references to "sexual acts, venereal diseases, and having sex with one's mother" and skillshots infused with sexual innuendo (e.g., Gag Reflex, Rear Entry, Drilldo, Mile High Club). The ratings board makes special note of one skillshot, "Fire in the Hole," which involves shooting at enemies' "exposed buttocks." Yummy!%Gallery-109508%
Bulletstorm to feature a mother-hugging profanity filter
It's time once again to play Choose Your Own Analogy! Here's the situation: People Can Fly's Adrian Chmielarz recently addressed concerns about Bulletstorm's frequently obscene dialogue on Twitter, explaining that the game "features optional subtitles, and yes, you can tone the language down if you wish so." (In a followup tweet, Chmielarz suggested one might want to mute the voices and display the profanity in subtitles, say, if the kids could be listening from another room.) Chmielarz clarified to Joystiq that the game will apparently feature options to tone down "both" the voice-overs and subtitles, though it's as yet unclear if that will entail replacement words or a simple censoring device. If the latter, here's where we play the analogy game: Based on the promotional material we've seen so far, we can't help but feel like playing through Bulletstorm with a dirty word filter on will result in more beeps than a ... Car alarm factory Old-timey Morse code station Chiptunes concert Los Angeles traffic jam Beeper convention Chiptunes concert held at a car alarm factory on the same block as the beeper convention
Bulletstorm 'Epic Edition' includes Gears of War 3 beta early access
Not sure how you feel about the we-hope-it's-satire taste level in Epic's Bulletstorm? Allow us to help you make peace with the shooter: Buying the newly-announced "Epic Edition" for Xbox 360 will grant you early access to a Gears of War 3 beta. Yum yum beta juice. The beta is scheduled to begin sometime this year. Bulletstorm is still on for February 22. The limited-run, 360-exclusive Epic Edition will retail for the same $60 price as the standard edition and includes in-game extras in addition to that all-important beta access -- like 25,000 bonus experience points, "visual upgrades" for your leash, new boots and armor, and the "Peace Maker Carbine."
