First-Person Shooters

six-days-in-fallujahSource: Blue’s News

Victura and Highwire announce Six Days in Fallujah will come to PC and consoles in 2021, offering a first-person tactical military shooter based on the Second Battle of Fallujah which was fought in 2004 during the Iraq War. Development of this game began in the aughts at Atomic Games, but it in 2009 publisher Konami dropped support for the project due to the controversy it stirred up. Atomic expressed hopes of finding another publisher, and it was reported in 2010 that development was complete, though this was later refuted. In late 2010 Atomic was still expressing hopes that the game would be released, but shortly thereafter they released Breach, which used a cover system developed for Six Days in Fallujah, which was the last we heard of the game from Atomic. That is until now, as the CEO of Victura is Peter Tamte, who was CEO of Atomic Games when it was in development there. There’s a statement from the team on the new Six Days in Fallujah Website explaining why they think this is an important game and refuting the argument that video games are not the medium to deliver insight on controversial real-life events. Here’s a new Official Six Days in Fallujah Announcement Trailer, and here’s more on the revival:

Victura and Highwire Games today announced Six Days in Fallujah, a first-person tactical military shooter based on true stories from the Second Battle for Fallujah in 2004, coming to PC and consoles in 2021. Originally announced by Atomic Games in 2009, Six Days in Fallujah returns with a new publisher, new developer and an all-new game from many of the core leadership team who created the original Halo and Destiny games.

“Sometimes the only way to understand what’s true is to experience reality for yourself,” says former Marine Sergeant Eddie Garcia, who was wounded during the Battle for Fallujah and proposed the original idea for Six Days in Fallujah in 2005. “War is filled with uncertainty and tough choices that can’t be understood by watching someone on a TV or movie screen make these choices for you. Video games can help all of us understand real-world events in ways other media can’t.”

The Second Battle for Fallujah began in 2004 after Al Qaeda seized control of one of Iraq’s major cities. The battle proved to be the toughest military conflict for Western forces since 1968.

Atomic Games announced Six Days in Fallujah in 2009, but saw the title abandoned by its original publisher following controversy about the ability of video games to cover challenging real-world events. Victura is a publishing and production company founded in 2016 by former Atomic Games CEO Peter Tamte with the goal of bringing a new Six Days in Fallujah to players, along with other games based on true stories.

Working in partnership with frontline Marines and Soldiers who fought in the Battle for Fallujah, Victura and Highwire have spent more than three years building unique technologies and game mechanics that bring players closer to the uncertainty and tactics of modern combat than other video games have explored.

Over 100 Marines, Soldiers, and Iraqi civilians who were present during the Second Battle for Fallujah have shared their personal stories, photographs, and video recordings with the development team. The game gives these stories voice through gameplay and first-person accounts captured in original documentary interview footage. Six Days in Fallujah aims to be the most authentic military shooter to date and to tell these military and civilian stories with the integrity they deserve.
“It’s hard to understand what combat is actually like through fake people doing fake things in fake places,” says Peter Tamte, CEO of Victura. “This generation showed sacrifice and courage in Iraq as remarkable as any in history. And now they’re offering the rest of us a new way to understand one of the most important events of our century. It’s time to challenge outdated stereotypes about what video games can be.”

Six Days in Fallujah will launch for PC and consoles in 2021. Victura will announce more details about Six Days in Fallujah in the coming weeks.

insurgency-sandstormDiscover Insurgency: Sandstorm with a free Steam weekend, 50% discount, and the free 1.9.1 Update for the Lunar Year

Insurgency: Sandstorm, the indie smash hit FPS from New World Interactive and Focus Home Interactive, welcomes players with a free-to-play weekend running until February 8, and 50% discount on Steam, letting new players dip into the blood pumping mayhem of the military shooter before immersing themselves entirely. At the same time, the game grows its arsenal of modern weaponry with two new free weapons available in the latest update.

Two new weapons accompany a free weekend on Steam!

Two new assault rifles hailing from China expand players’ choice of mid-range weaponry even more in the fast-paced FPS. The QTS-11 for Security and the QBZ-97 for Insurgents can be wielded by the Rifleman, Demolitionist, Commander, and Observer classes. With this update, players also enjoy a long list of balancing, fixes, and quality of life improvements.

With a 50% discount and a free weekend on Steam, there has never been a better time to jump into the teeth-rattling realistic warfare of Insurgency: Sandstorm.

Play the game for free on Steam now and get it at a 50% discount.

Visit the official Insurgency: Sandstorm website for more game information.

Battlefield-6Source: GURU3D

The marketing hype has already begun. During Electronic Arts’ fiscal 2021 third-quarter earnings call, Andrew Wilson CEO of EAm shared some news about the upcoming Battlefield and revealed that the new game is coming by the end of the year.

It’s not really a secret and unexpected of course, the game arriving this year but the new Battlefield installment will offer a “total military war and will have support for more players than ever. This probably means that the game will be capped at more than 64 players. Also, the title reveal will take place this fall.

We look forward to sharing much more about our plans for this new fiscal year in the coming months, including our upcoming Battlefield experience, which will mark a return to all-out military warfare.

The game takes full advantage of the power of next-generation platforms to bring massive and immersive battles to life with more players than ever before. With maps of an unprecedented scale, the next edition of Battlefield takes all the destruction, vehicles, and combat weapons that the franchise is known for and takes it to another level.

The team is focused and the game is ahead of our internal milestones. We will reveal the game in the spring and deliver a defining Battlefield experience for our players in the 2021 holiday season.

zombie-army-4-dead-warThe thrilling conclusion to Death from Above is out now!

Zombie Army 4: Dead War fans can kick off 2021 with a blood-chilling new campaign mission, available NOW on all platforms!

Watch the Zombie Army 4: Dead Zeppelin trailer HERE.

LOOMING TERROR

Dead Zeppelin is the third and final mission in Season 2’s thrilling new Death from Above campaign. The Resistance airfield may have been saved, but the jarring terror of an undead airship and its hellish arsenal still looms over mankind.

You and your fellow deadhunters must chase the demonic airship down and bravely dare to board it! Will you be able to destroy it before it rains death upon the Earth?

KICKING OFF THE NEW YEAR FRIGHT

In addition to the Dead Zeppelin campaign mission, there’s loads of new, fiendishly great content for Zombie Army 4 players to enjoy, all available individually or with Zombie Army 4: Season Pass Two.
Today’s new content drop includes:

• Night Ops Jun Outfit
• Toxic Hazard Weapon Skins
• Black Ice Weapon Skins
• Horror Charms Pack
• Buckets Headgear Pack
• 7.65mm Polizeipistole Pistol Bundle
• Nagant M1895 Pistol Bundle

For more info, please visit ZombieArmy.com.

call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-warSource: Blue’s News

A new update is now live in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, adding new content to Season One in the first-person shooter sequel. A post on the Call of Duty Blog has all the details on the new weapons and modes in today’s update along with more on the new 6v6 multiplayer map and a new zombies experience coming to the game on February 4th. This also kicks off the week of free access to the zombies mode they promised earlier this week. Here’s a summary of what’s in the new update:

The following are included in the Season One Update:

  • Sanatorium multiplayer map – Ten squads of four will head up to the Ural Plains to fight over objectives and vehicles on land, sea and air.
  • Express multiplayer map – Returning from Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Express arrives Feb. 4 in Cold War as a 6v6 Multiplayer favorite, known fondly as the hi-tech train station that hosted many a jaw-dropping moment in competitive Call of Duty history.
  • Operator Zeyna joins the fight in Cold War and Warzone, starting on January 21st.
  • New multiplayer modes, including the continuation of the fast-paced 3v3 experience, Face Off. Additional modes include Dropkick (live now), Snipers Only Moshpit and Endurance Mode.
  • In February, the Dark Aether storyline continues with an all-new Zombies map called Firebase Z and new Onslaught maps. Available now is the new Zombies mode entitled Cranked.
  • Zombies Free Access Week is live now through January 21.

insurgency-sandstormNew map, new guns, new customization items, and more!

Cold Blood introduces ‘Bab’ – a brand new winter map. Bab is set in a snowy mountain village built around an ancient citadel. It’s perfect for snipers with long sightlines and an open layout. Tight alleyways and indoor combat mark the areas between them. Bab is a brand new and unique layout, offering players something really different to get stuck into.

On the gun side, the Marksman class now has two new high caliber semi-automatic battle rifles to play with. The M110 SASS on Security, and for Insurgents, an older Army issue and WWII classic, the M1 Garand. As with everything in Sandstorm, they come with a wide selection of attachments and scopes to let every player customise how they wish.

Also included in this update is a swathe of various other tweaks and additions, including toggleable optic scopes. This also marks the release of a new cosmetic bundle including four Cold Blood-themed DLCs. To celebrate, the game is available at a 50% discount running from now until December 14.

Watch the new trailer HERE.

Visit the official Insurgency: Sandstorm website for more game information.

call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-warSource: Blue’s News

Activision is pushing back the launch of Season One for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Warzone from December 10 to December 16. A separate announcement notes the series has taken in over $3 billion in the past year, so they may be trying to protect their cash cow from the release of Cyberpunk 2077, but they do not specify whether or not this is their reasoning. They do say they are offering XP bonuses and free content to all players. This post has all the details and here’s a summary:

The release date of Season One across the new Black Ops Cold War and free-to-play, free-for-everyone Warzone has been moved from December 10 to December 16.

Season One is the largest free content drop in Black Ops history: a massive expansion of free content, including the comprehensive integration of Operators, weapons, player progression, and Battle Pass rewards across Black Ops Cold War and Warzone.

To thank players for their continued support and patience, Treyarch will be enabling Double XP and Double Weapon XP in Black Ops Cold War from 10AM PT Saturday, Dec. 12 until the launch of Season One.

Two free bundles will also become available to all Black Ops Cold War players through a new Pre-Season offer. Players simply need to log in between 10AM PT Dec. 8 and 11PM PT Dec. 15 to claim both bundles.

call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-warBy Wesley Yin-Poole @ Eurogamer

Treyarch has tweaked Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War so players level up weapons faster.

The developer released a patch for the shooter this evening just as Black Ops Cold War’s double XP and double weapon XP event came to a close.

Coming out of last week’s 2XP + 2WXP event, we’ve made some additional tuning changes to global Weapon XP earn rates across the board,” Treyarch said in the patch notes.

Starting today, you’ll now level up your weapons and unlock more attachments faster than the previous standard rate in both MP and Zombies.

Treyarch had tuned progression for the launch of the game so that it took around 1200 kills to max out a weapon – and unlock all of its attachments along the way. I’ve only managed to max out one weapon so far, the AK-47, and that was only possible with the help of Nuketown, the recently-added close quarters map on which you tend to get more kills than any other because it’s so small and plays so fast, in combination with the double XP buff.

Read more…

call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-warBy Morgan Park @ PC Gamer

Talking to friends and colleagues about a new Call of Duty is never the same as our banter about other games. As an annual series defined by incremental changes to a formula, nitpicking is ingrained in the discourse. That’s certainly the case for Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War, a good game that falls short of its predecessor. Instead of being undermined by unforgivable sins, it’s an accumulation of smaller flaws, like how guns feel or maps flow.

Read the Review Here

call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war#1 Selling Call of Duty Series Continues Franchise Momentum and Releases to the Largest, Most Engaged Community at the time of Launch in Call of Duty History

Activision today announced the worldwide launch of the highly-anticipated Call of Duty®: Black Ops Cold War, an all-new entry in the #1 selling series in Call of Duty and a direct sequel to the fan favorite Call of Duty: Black Ops.

The new title infuses 1980s pop culture into a gripping conspiracy set at the height of the Cold War. In the fictional story campaign players must stop a plot decades in the making that could destabilize the global balance of power and change the course of history. The game delivers the next generation of online multiplayer combat with an arsenal of Cold War weapons and equipment across a wide variety of new maps and modes. Black Ops Cold War also provides an all-new co-operative Zombies survival mode experience.

The title supports cross-play across next generation and current generation systems with cross progression across all modes. Players can look forward to the biggest series of free, post-launch content in Black Ops history across Multiplayer and Zombies, as well as a robust schedule of in-game community events.

Today’s launch starts the next great Black Ops experience across story, multiplayer and zombies in a direct sequel to one of the most iconic titles in Call of Duty,” said Byron Beede, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Call of Duty, Activision. “This is just the beginning. Our players can look forward to the biggest series of post-launch free content, community events and ongoing support ever in Black Ops plus tight integration across the ecosystem with Warzone. It’s a great time to play Call of Duty.

The PC edition can be picked up through the Blizzard Shop. Watch the Call of Duty®: Black Ops Cold War Official PC Trailer HERE. For more game information please visit the official Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War website.