Futuremark® Games Studio today released a major update for Shattered Horizon™, their PC exclusive multiplayer first-person shooter. The update adds some of the most requested features from the game’s active community, including voice chat, a new rank system, tutorial content, 5:4 monitor support and point limited servers as well as fixing several bugs and issues. The game’s menus and audio have been given an overhaul and as an added bonus the studio has also released the soundtrack from Shattered Horizon to the community as a free download.

“This update which includes voice chat and other popular suggestions gathered directly from our community makes Shattered Horizon a better experience for all our players,” said Jaakko Haapasalo, producer at Futuremark Games Studio. “And with four new levels coming soon in the free Moonrise content pack Shattered Horizon will soon be even better value too.”

Significant New Features:

• Added in game voice chat support.
• Improved ranking system better tailored to both new and existing players.
• Cosmetic changes to player’s suit as rank is gained help distinguish between new and experienced players.
• Tutorial screens added to main menu.
• MPR grenades have been made more effective against flying targets.
• HUD targeting brackets no longer appear on spawning astronauts.
• Level loading, team selection and match results screens have been redesigned.
• All game audio has been re-mastered to improve dynamic range.
• Added support for 5:4 monitor resolutions such as 1280×1024.
• Servers can now be set to limit access to players above, below or between configurable point thresholds.
• Server browser list now refreshes player count, level and ping every few seconds. Dead servers are removed from list.
• Added Melee Only (MO) option to server configuration options.
• Fixes for several game and server bugs.

For the complete list of new features, changes, bug fixes and optimizations please visit the Futuremark Games Studio forums: http://futuremark.yougamers.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1318583

Soundtrack available as a free download:
By popular request, Futuremark Games Studio has released the soundtrack for Shattered Horizon composed by Markus “Captain” Kaarlonen of the band Poets of the Fall as a free download from the game’s official website: http://www.shatteredhorizon.com/media/soundtrack

About Shattered Horizon
Shattered Horizon is the innovative first game from Futuremark Games Studio that immerses you in the cold reality of zero gravity combat in space.

• Multiplayer first-person shooter set in near-Earth space 40 years from now.
• Experience intense zero gravity combat and complete freedom of movement. Use your rocket pack to fly freely through space then land on any surface.
• Join your friends in action-packed 32 player battles fighting to control hollowed-out asteroids, huge fragments of Moon rock and the ruined remains of the International Space Station.
• Four new levels coming soon in the free Moonrise content pack.

Shattered Horizon requires DirectX 10, a DirectX 10 compatible video card, and Windows Vista or Windows 7. There is no support for Windows XP or DirectX 9. Suggested retail price: €19.95 / $19.95 / £14.95

Shattered Horizon is available now from Steam and the official website: http://www.shatteredhorizon.com/buynow/

GamerSyndrome.com is proud to announce that they will be giving away 100 closed beta keys for the Battle of the Immortals Closed Beta. Battle of the Immortals is developed by Perfect World Beijing and is being published by Perfect World Entertainment.

Information about how to obtain one of the closed beta keys can be found here: http://gamersyndrome.com/2010/video-games/battle-of-the-immortals-closed-beta-key-giveaway/

Additionally, if the GamerSyndrome Twitter or Facebook pages receive over 1500 followers, they will increase the number of beta keys we are giving away to 300.

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About Battle of the Immortals

Battle of the Immortals is a 2.5D multiplayer game that incorporates eastern and western cultures ranging from Norse Mythology to the Qin Dynasty.

Taking up the mantle of relic hunters, players can expect to travel throughout the world from the ancient tombs of past emperors in the East to the mythical Mount Olympus in the West. They will also be able to explore the Great Pyramids, uncover the mystery behind the Lost City of Atlantis and delve into lost temples deep within the Mayan jungle. Players will engage in epic battles against other players for the right to battle monsters, control cities & rule supreme.

About Perfect World Entertainment

A subsidiary of Perfect World Beijing, Perfect World Entertainment is a leader in publishing and operating massively multiplayer online games. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., Perfect World Entertainment is bringing the pinnacle of online gaming to North American and international audiences.
Perfect World Entertainment offers all their games free-to-play, operating the microtransaction business model. All players can download, access and play the games for free and can later purchase non-essential game enhancements like character customization or convenience items.

Futuremark® Games Studio today released the first screenshots from the upcoming Moonrise content pack for Shattered Horizon™, their PC exclusive multiplayer first-person shooter. The Moonrise pack, which will be free to all players, includes four new environments effectively doubling the number of levels in the game. http://www.shatteredhorizon.com/

In Shattered Horizon, a catastrophic explosion on the Moon has filled near-Earth space with billions of tons of rocky debris. Teams of players fight in zero gravity to control the limited supplies that mean the difference between survival and death in the cold of space.

The four Moonrise levels are set around the shattered Moon, taking the fight deeper into space and showing a new side to the conflict. The screenshots released today show hints of exotic new locations: an MMC cargo ship lured into a trap by the ISA, a huge mass driver installation, the broken remains of a luxury lunar hotel and fragments of what was a massive communications dish on the Moon.

Although a release date for the Moonrise pack has not yet been announced, Futuremark Games Studio confirmed that a small group of selected players is helping them test near-final content.

Moonrise Screenshots:

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About Shattered Horizon

• Shattered Horizon is the innovative first game from Futuremark Games Studio that immerses you in the cold reality of zero gravity combat in space.
• Multiplayer first-person shooter set in near-Earth space 40 years from now.
• Experience intense zero gravity combat and complete freedom of movement. Use your rocket pack to fly freely through space then land on any surface.
• Join your friends in action-packed 32 player battles fighting to control hollowed-out asteroids, huge fragments of Moon rock and the ruined remains of the International Space Station.
• Dedicated server available for players and game hosting companies.

Shattered Horizon requires DirectX 10, a DirectX 10 compatible video card, and Windows Vista or Windows 7. There is no support for Windows XP or DirectX 9. Suggested retail price: €19.95 / $19.95 / £14.95

Shattered Horizon is available now from Steam and the official website: http://www.shatteredhorizon.com/buynow/

• Server Status (Online/Offline)
• User’s Currently Online
• What rooms are currently available
• If offline, when I expect to have the Server back online again.

Any questions, drop me an email.

Kris

It has been just over 2 weeks since I launched the @Freelancer_MP twitter campaign in conjunction The Starport.

The @Freelancer_MP campaign is supplementary to the FLCN (details on my ‘Freelancer FLCN page) and the overall objective is to help raise awareness that Freelancer as a Multiplayer game still lives on even after support was withdrawn by Microsoft. I invited Community Site Admins and Server Admins to submit to me their front page RSS feeds. These have then ‘tweeted’ out to the world to follow via an automated Feed-Tweet tool. What better way to build recognition for all the communities at once?

After 16 days, the results are as follows;

Freelancer_MP has 91 followers.

The Starport – Live – Feed recieved 24 clicks across two tweets.
Procyon Server – Live – Feed recieved 53 clicks across four tweets.
Digital Brilliance – Live – Feed recieved 37 clicks across three tweets.
Freelancer Community – Live – Feed recieved 146 clicks across 5 tweets
FFS Freelancer – Live – Feed recieved 85 clicks across 4 tweets.

Total = 345 Unique visitors across 5 sites.

These results will be published on The Starport every 2-3 days. And the campaign is still open to as many Servers and Sites that wish to join.