tactical shooter
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Valorant's ranked mode will return soon with some welcome changes
The top rank will be called Radiant instead of the super-confusing Valorant.
SOCOM spiritual successor H-Hour gets pre-alpha trailer
Pre-alpha action for H-Hour: World's Elite was shown off in trailer form today. The developer, SOF Studios, stressed that the tactical shooter hasn't been tuned or polished yet, so the smaller details seen in the teaser video are best viewed in a more forgiving light. The game comes from former SOCOM Creative Director David Sears, who earned $252,662 on Kickstarter in July 2013 to develop what he called a "spiritual successor" to the series. H-Hour: World's Elite is a team-based PC and PS4 game, and as such it will feature community and clan management support. The multiplayer shooter is currently aiming to enter its beta program in July 2014, launching in full on PC in January 2015, according to the reward tiers on its Kickstarter page.
Mobile shooter APB: Retribution announced
Players wanting a little more shooter action while on the go will soon be able to jump into APB: Retribution, a top-down tactical shooter developed expressly for mobile devices. Not too much more is known about the game (like whether or not it is multiplayer let alone massive is any way) other than it is set in the same universe of the MMO APB: Reloaded. Retribution is the first step along the planned route of expanding beyond the main MMO. This project was completed in six months, and Blazing Griffin, working with Reloaded Productions, already has a spin off planned. APB: Retribution is slated to release for iOS devices this month.
Insurgency gameplay video and screens are being dramatic
This gameplay video for Insurgency, a team-based online FPS from New World Interactive, includes some rather dramatic music. We get it, a trailer for a game based on a popular Half-Life 2 mod by the same name deserves a little extra spice. The fact that the game is already available on Steam through the platform's Early Access service for $14.99 says something else to us, though. Given Insurgency's tactical online play for up to 32 players, the game seems more inviting and inclusive than the dramatic music makes it sound. If New World Interactive is stumped while matching music with its trailers in the future, however, we'd recommend something more lighthearted. %Gallery-194176%
Takedown: Red Sabre bringing tactical shooting back to Steam and XBLA
Indie developer Serellan billed its first-person shooter Takedown: Red Sabre as a "spiritual successor to the original Rainbow Six and SWAT 4" when the developer successfully raised $221,833 on Kickstarter in April 2012. Squad-based tactical shooters, where real-life military tactics take priority over the run-and-gun trappings of triple-A shooters, are arguably harder to come by and have become a niche in the broad FPS genre. Crowdfunding Takedown made more sense to creative director Christian Allen then, who told Joystiq at E3 that "part of [the decision to crowdfund] was figuring out what people really care about and what people really wanted." The project's 5,423 backers saw promise in the game, due in no small part to the team's history; Allen is a former creative director on the Ghost Recon series and was design lead for Halo: Reach. Perhaps equally reassuring for tactical shooter fans is the fact that Allen spent about nine and a half years serving in three different United States military branches: Four years as law enforcement in the Marines and over five with the Air Force and Army. Takedown: Red Sabre features single-player, six-player co-operative and 12-player competitive multiplayer modes. Like tactical first-person shooters of the past, sprinting through the non-linear maps isn't a viable strategy, as the game places an emphasis on slow, strategic and realistic warfare. Part of that realism comes from the work put into the game's weapons: Allen said that creating just one gun for the game takes about three weeks of development time for the Seattle-based team of about 10 developers. %Gallery-192121%
'Ground Branch' aims to revive the tactical military shooter
BlackFoot Studios is seeking $425k on Kickstarter by July 6 to fund the game Ground Branch. The studio seeks to launch the first-person shooter for PC and Mac in 2013.BlackFoot Studios is deeply rooted in the genre, as Founder/Creative Director John Sonedecker is credited in over 20 games in his lengthy career in the industry. He worked on Ghost Recon and the original Rainbow Six game before founding the Ohio company in 2004, according to the game's website.Details on the depth of character and weapon customization as well as design choices are nearly too dizzying to list, though Sonedecker spelled out the development team's aspirations in the commentary video above.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
E3 demo: Rainbow Six Vegas (Xbox 360)
We're pleased to report that Rainbow Six is back on track. Lockdown was a huge disappointment, but Ubisoft Montreal lead game designer Jean-Pascal Cambiotti has pledged to bring the series back to its "core values," meaning tactics.Rainbow Six Vegas was running off of an Xbox 360 dev kit and being played by a developer. We caught a glimpse of the new snake cam, which can be inserted under doorways to assess what lies within. Using the camera, players can tag enemies within the room, in effect, giving your two teammates targets to attack upon entry. This is all part of an improved tactical interface, which oozes smart action.You bust through one door, your teammates through another. You've already given them their targets, all you need to worry about is yours. A few calculated bursts from your rifle, a few more from your teammates, and when the smoke clears, you've got a pile of dead evildoers and a handful of lucky hostages.
