Kotaku Australia » brothers in arms: hell’s highway

Celebrate A WW2 Disaster With Free Achievement Points!

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:30:00 +0000

Operation Market Garden, an Allied aerial assault on the Muese and Rhine rivers during the Second World War, was a disaster. Thousands killed, thousands captured. So let’s celebrate its anniversary with free achievement points!

Yes, if you drop a copy of Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway (which depicts events from Market Garden, obviously) into your 360 and sign into Xbox Live before midnight (so while it’s still September 17), you’ll be rewarded with 50 GP. You don’t even have to play the game, just spin up the disc.

You stay classy, Ubisoft.

[Major Nelson @ Twitter]

Rumour: Gearbox Lays Off 26, Drops Aliens: Colonial Marines – Update: Gearbox President Responds

Michael McWhertor — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:30:00 +0000

Update: Gearbox president Randy Pitchford tells us that the Sega published Aliens project is still on, that the independent developer has been undergoing “some transformative changes” resulting in “some talent changes.” His full statement is after the original report.

Gearbox Defend Brothers In Arms Gore

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:30:00 +0000

A week ago, we saw a trailer for Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway that was, well, a little unsettling. Not the gore itself, we’ve seen that before, it was just odd seeing it so, well, glorified in a series that’s traditionally prided itself on historical accuracy, not bloodthirsty thrills. And we weren’t the only ones unsettled, so Gearbox have come out in defence of the game, telling MTV that the latest clip was a result of the “marketing department looking for specific features to highlight about the game”.

Explains the frequence of the money shots, at least. They also say that having such extreme violence in the game is necessary if they’re to stay faithful to the source material, as “you can’t talk about war and not have it”. Hrm. The fact remains, the game will contain those zoom-in, gore-filled money shots. Would a GI fighting in 1944-45 have been treated to an on-rails camera tracking his bullet – in slo-mo, no less – as it flew 100 yards and burst a German head like a pineapple?

Gearbox Carefully Defends ‘Brothers In Arms’ Extreme Violence [MTV]

Brothers In Arms Trailer Not For The Squeamish

Luke Plunkett — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 04:30:00 +0000

And here I was thinking Brothers In Arms was all about the camaraderie, the historical accuracy. All they focus on here is exploding Germans and excessive gore. Sure, maybe that’s realistic, too, in its own way, but all the slo-mo and disintegrating heads and gratuitous dismemberment comes off looking more Soldier Of Fortune than Band of Brothers.

Gearbox Partys In Dallas Tonight With DJ Jazzy Jeff

Mike Fahey — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:20:00 +0000

Gearbox Software is celebrating the upcoming release of Samba De Amigo and Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway with a Victory Party, being held this evening at the Palladium Ballroom in Dallas, TX. Festivities kick off at 8:30PM, running til whenever the booze runs out. The party features musical guests Candy West and the Whatchamacallits, Josh Taylor, and (Fresh Prince of Bel-Air guest star) DJ Jazzy Jeff featuring SKILLZ.

The party is open to everyone, but you have to be 21 (Samba De Amigo is pretty racy) and you have to RSVP at the website before heading out. They’ve still got slots open, so if you’re in the Dallas area tonight or just a really big DJ Jazzy Jeff fan with airfare money to burn, hit the link below to sign up!

Gearbox Software Victory Party [Gearbox Software - Thanks Connor!]

Hell’s Highway Barbershop

Brian Crecente — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 01:00:00 +0000

The Brother’s in Arms: Hell’s Highway booth at Penny Arcade Expo this year was turned into a bootcamp barbershop. If you got your head shaved and had “Hell” spraypainted on the back of your skull, Ubisoft would send you a free copy of the game.

A free haircut and video game apparently seemed like a sweet deal to a lot of people, even if it did turn them into walking billboards. There was a line. A long, long line. For this.

Pre-Purchase Hell’s Highway on Steam Get Hill 30 Free

Brian Crecente — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:00:00 +0000

Steam sends us word that you can now pre-purchase Ubisoft’s Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway via steam. And, if you purchase the game before it is launched in late September you will get a free copy of Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 totally free. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. This will also give you a chance to practice your command-under-fire skills.

While Hell’s Highway doesn’t reinvent the wheel, I found that it offers up enough changes to make checking it out worthwhile, especially if you’ve ever been a fan of the World War II shooter.

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway Trailer Focuses on Storytelling

Adam Barenblat — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:20:00 +0000

Just a heads up this video does have some offensive language in it so viewer discretion is advised. In this latest trailer for Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway we get an inside look at the story development. I am pretty excited to see that they are putting so much time and effort into building deep characters. It’s very rare that character development pulls me in enough to the point where I become somewhat emotional, unless we’re talking about MGS4. Regardless, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway is shaping up nicely and will be out to feed your WWII shooter needs in late September. Video after the jump.

Treyarch Takes A Crack Gearbox’s Hell’s Highway, A ‘Crappy War Game’

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:40:11 +0000

Fightin’ words. That’s what Call of Duty: World At War senior producer Noah Heller was speaking to Eurogamer when asked about Treyarch’s World War II competition, Brothers In Arms. Asked about Gearbox Software’s take on the genre, the newest iteration of which will be Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway, Heller said “I watched the trailer and I’m was like ‘These guys aren’t even in the same league.’” Heller has even more gentlemanly things to say about the Brothers In Arms series.

“We don’t even think about them”, Heller noted, giving his opinion about the other WWII hold out. “They’re not a game we even think about when we’re playing, we think about the best shooters, we play [Call of Duty 4] Modern Warfare, we play… Gears of War, we play Halo, you know, that’s the competition. We want to look at the games that do great storytelling”.

Heller sums up, “We don’t want to look at someone who’s just making a crappy war game”. Guys, guys, take it easy. Can’t we all just get along and agree that you can both make crappy war games? There’s enough to go around.

Just kidding, Gearbox! How’s that new Halo game coming along anyway?

Exclusive: Call of Duty: World at War – Interview [Eurogamer]

Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway Hands-On

Brian Crecente — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:00:00 +0000

I’ve loosely followed the Brothers in Arms franchise through its couple of iterations, but despite the tight command system it’s never really struck a chord with me. It just wasn’t different enough to separate itself from the pack.

After spending some time with Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway earlier this month my opinion hasn’t changed much, though I was impressed with some of the visual work Gearbox Software is doing on the franchise.

In this latest version of the series you continue to play with Sgt. Matt Baker and the rest of the 101st Airborne Division. I played through a couple of encounters in the game and noticed a few changes.

This time around Brothers In Arms has some destructible cover, which can play a pretty big role in the firefights. There are also a few new commands you can issue, like snipe or destroy.

One of the neat visual tweaks is the inclusion of occasional cinematics which are triggered by certain events. For instance, I was behind cover with my squad shooting it out with some Germans and I popped up and landed a quick headshot. The game slowed and the camera angle switched to show my bullet blasting through the guy’s eye. Pretty impressive. It helps that Hell’s Highway is running on the Unreal Engine 3.

I also loved the weather effects. For the section I played through it rained constantly, and the rain effect actually cut down on my ability to spot enemies.

Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway was fun enough to play, I just don’t know if tweaking commands, adding destructible environments and a couple of new units is going to be enough to help this game stand out from the pack.