The last clip Futuremark released was nice, but it didn’t show much of Shattered Horizon’s actual combat. They certainly make up for that oversight in this clip, which is chock full of muzzle flashes and floating bodies.

Shattered Horizon can be preordered on Steam right now for $US17.99, with a pre-loading available for those of you who wish to get right into the action once the game goes live.

Eliminate is a pretty straight forward online first-person shooter with average graphics. You play the game with twin virtual thumbsticks, using one to aim and the other to move.

We’ll have a full review of the game soon, but it’s worth pointing out the game’s take on pricing.

Eliminate is technically free-to-play, but to earn the money you need to upgrade your character and purchase new skins, armour and weapons, you have to earn credit. To earn credit you need to play matches using energy. While you get a free drip-feed of energy by downloading the game, if you want to excel you’ll likely want to purchase energy packs from the in-app store.

I haven’t worked out all of the details yet, but I believe that winning a match gives you some energy back, although I spent $US1 last night to purchase enough energy to play a half dozen matches or so. Seems a bit pricey. Of course I don’t need to buy energy, I could play and not worry about winning credits or I could just wait to get the free energy which is delivered over time to your account.

Like I said, very interesting.

Oh, anyone who gets the game and wants to play a bit, my username is Crecente.

After showcasing the poor Marines in the first faction trailer for Aliens VS. Predator, Sega focuses on the clear winners of the conflict — the Aliens.

The Aliens were my faction in the original Aliens VS. Predator game, and they’ll be my faction in the new game as well. You can keep your stealthy cornrowed Predators, and the Marines are nothing more than cannon fodder. Give me the relentless, terrifying, ceiling-crawling Aliens any day. They have tongues with teeth! What more could you possibly ask for?

OK, the real reason I play as the Aliens is because I am so terrified of them that the only way to avoid being killed by one is to actually become one. Either way they win the day.

Nexon America’s revenue for August was up 32% over the previous year, and if the company’s celebratory press release is any indication, Combat Arms had a lot to do with its “explosive growth”. Since Combat Arms launched in July 2008, Nexon has updated the title on a regular basis, adding in new game modes like Quarantine and Fireteam, aping modes in popular retail releases to tremendous effect.

“We have worked extremely hard to make sure that our players get new, fun and interesting content delivered as frequently as possible,” said Min Kim, Nexon America’s vice president of marketing. “The progress we have made with Combat Arms is significant, substantial and added a great deal to the outstanding summer success for Nexon America.”

Nexon continues to grow Combat Arms, recently adding new zombie maps to the Quarantine mode and a new mercenary character modeled after a movie action hero, and I can’t see them stopping anytime soon. You can almost rest assured that if a new FPS game type becomes popular, Combat Arms will get a free version of it eventually. It’s a business model that work—just ask those three million users. Visit the Combat Arms website if you’re interested in becoming one of them.

So far our coverage of Shattered Horizon has consisted of a couple of teaser images to commemorate man landing on the moon, which is completely destroyed before the game starts. Set in the future, Shattered Horizon pits players against each other in zero gravity, and now we know what those players will look like. It’s certainly more colourful than I imagined. I think I like it.

Closed beta should be starting soon, so if you like it, head over to the Shattered Horizon website and sign up for the mailing list.

Immersion Games and Ubisoft have created a somewhat humorous machinima video with their upcoming downloadable first-person shooter CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars, featuring references to Cobra Commander, Osama Bin Laden, and yes – snausage nipples.

CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars is a first-person shooter being released on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade early this year, which mixes mental powers and guns at various strengths to create a balanced multiplayer experience. It’s being published by Ubisoft and developed by Immersion Games as a follow-up to their 2007 PhysX PC video card showcase, CellFactor: Revolution.

In case the most unappealing mental image of a woman’s naked chest I’ve ever received isn’t enough to sell you on the title, check out GameTrailer’s exclusive gameplay trailer below for the real (sausage) meat.

We’ve seen it in a sequence in Doom already, but that was a movie about an FPS, so it doesn’t count. This, though – an FPS sequence in the TV show Lost – counts.

Counts for…something. What it is, exactly, we’re not sure. But hey, since there’s a very good chance the writers and creators of Lost play a ton of video games, and the viewers of Lost play a ton of video games, stuff like this probably just becomes second-nature.

TV’s ‘Lost’ Pays Homage To First-Person-Shooters [MTV]

A post on the sporadically updated official Team Fortress 2 blog reveals that the gameplay update for the Scout class is only a few short patches away from hitting the servers.

Valve’s Robin Walker explains that the coding team has already moved on to the next class update, with only the final art needed to make the upcoming Scout update complete. Here’s how things should play out.

We’ve got an update that should be out tomorrow with a bunch of bug & exploit fixes. Later this week we hope to have another update out that changes the way we store your unlockable items. You shouldn’t notice much difference, other than if you play on multiple computers we’ll now propagate your item choices. You can think of that update as the one that moves your inventory into the Steam Cloud. Once that’s out of the way, we’ll be able to ship the Scout pack.

I am filled with glee! The Scout is definitely my best class, and by that I mean the class I die the less as. I can’t really measure my success on kills. I’m that bad.

That’s what I’m talking about! [Team Fortress 2 Blog - Thanks Cody!]

Monolith put up an Armacham site promising to chase all your fears away, and flacked it with that infomercial above. Ha ha. OK. Yeah. I get it. Shrug — wait, boobie?!

I have to say, I do admire Nurse Lauren’s commitment to delivering her lines even though she knows not one dude is listening to a goddamn word she’s saying. I’ve watched it five times and I still have no idea what this is about. Except I’d like that platinum level service. With a happy ending.

“Fear Away” [Monolith d/b/a Armacham]

Someone’s put together a Left 4 Dead mod that aims for more realistic gameplay but definitely ratchets up the difficulty. It does pack a nifty laser sight however.

A modder by the handle Doku found the original a little too arcadey and set to putting the survival back into survival horror. Among the fun he delivers to the PC version:

• New weapon sounds (Most made by Doku but with others grabbed from various soundpacks).
• New weapon scripts – Adjusted accuracy, recoil, rate of fire, clip sizes etc.
• Weapon melee less effective.
• No survivor bots.
• Slower survivors and zombies – to change the pace of the game and make it feel more tense.
• Higher density of zombies on the maps, more frequent hordes/ambushes.
• No special zombies (apart from tweaked tanks for the finales).
• Headshots only to kill zombies (apart from molotovs / pipebombs etc).
• Increased damage when hit from behind – you must always be aware of you surroundings, don’t turn you back on that unchecked room
• No in-game music – You have to identify incoming hordes by the sounds of the zombies.
• All maps tweaked (apart from part 4 of the blood harvest campaign)
• Removed weapon,ammo & health pack spawns from safe rooms. Weapons and health packs are now limited and scattered around the maps, so you have to search for them. There are no ammo points in the map so if your primary gun runs out you’ll need to find another. However everyone still has infinite pistol (although with smaller clip and less accuracy).
• HUD completely revised – It now only shows your own health, no crosshair/inventory or teammate statistics (If you equip first aid then you can see your teammates health when you aim at them).
• Added in-game laser dot – Useful for close to medium range. This emphasises the sniper rifle as a proficient long range weapon as its the only gun with an effective long range aiming mechanism.
• Removed flashlight – This adds much more tension to darker areas of the map, especially when you need to search for weapons or first aid… Be careful in the dark…
• Various other smaller tweaks.

I don’t have the PC version (don’t have a PC) but if I did I’d be willing to give this at least a few tries. It sounds more like it was written for a singleplayer experience, although with no survivor bots, you’re not gonna last long.

Doku’s Survival Mod for Left 4 Dead [L4DMODS.com]