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.

Futuremark delivers the first in-game footage of its zero-G multiplayer PC shooter, Shattered Horizon. We all float up there.

We’ve seen screenshots of shattered moonscapes and still shots of men in colourful space suits firing weapons at each other, but this is the first we’ve seen of actual zero-G fighting in Shattered Horizon. A terrible mining accident has destroyed the moon, and someone does something that gets two rival factions fighting. It doesn’t really matter all that much, as long as one set of people is shooting at another set of people in the depths of outer space. Mission accomplished!

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.

The Finnish software company had initially filed papers on the prevalent word on Feb. 26 to protect the word in relation to:

“… computer game software; computer game programs; computer game discs; interactive multimedia computer game program; downloadable ring tones, … multimedia software recorded on CD-ROM featuring fictional characters and computer games; pre-recorded DVD’s, video tapes, laser discs featuring movies about fictional characters, and pre-recorded compact discs featuring music; motion picture films on fictional characters…”.

But they did it, Mäkinen says, to protect their company, not make money:

Fellow gamers,

Our purpose in filing for trademark on the name “Pwnage” is not to charge money or stop people from using the expression. That’s not what a trademark is for. Instead, we want to protect ourselves from squatters (or what I call campers) – people looking to trademark the name on false pretenses, just to make a claim against Futuremark Games Studio for its use.

Jukka Mäkinen, Executive Producer, Futuremark Games Studio

What confuses me is how Pwnage in anyway has anything to do with Futuremark Games Studio. I mean, sure, I suppose you could use the word and the company in this sentence: Futuremark was pwned by the United States Patent and Trademark Office when they tried to trademark a word that had no rights to.

Maybe they should patent n00bs instead.

Futuremark responds to “Pwnage” trademark controversy [Futuremark's YouGamers Site]

Now Futuremark has founded Futuremark Games Studio, a company that will create original IPs running their own engines. The whole setup reminds us of those comics when Superman and Lex Luthor have to team up, and then eventually it gets steamy.

Futuremark Enters Gaming Space with New Studio [gamedaily]