Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Setting a shooter in the ruins of Dubai seems a little cheeky. Poor old Dubai, they must be regretting that thing where they decided to metaphorically and literally build on sand. Anyway, 2K’s shooter is set in the near-future ruins of the city, and looks rather exciting. The blurb from 2K says: “Spec Ops: The Line is a provocative and gripping third-person modern military shooter that challenges players’ morality by putting them in the middle of unspeakable situations where unimaginable choices affecting human life must be made.” Unimaginable! Wow, that must be pretty extreme, because I can imagine some pretty outlandish choices. The trailer (below) has a Heart Of Darkness-meets-Gears of War vibe going on. Could be interesting. The game is slated for release during Take-Two’s 2011 fiscal year, which begins on November 1, 2010.
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I’ve not even had time to starting playing the first bit of expansionising DLC for Borderlands and another one has been announced. Titled “Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot” it will apparently feature “an intense single-player or cooperative experience that expands the mayhem by adding three new Riot Mode arenas where players will endure an onslaught of Pandora’s baddest enemies.” Hmm. Additionally: “Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot also adds a new bank feature, which allows players extra storage capacity for when they encounter one of the more than 16 million weapons that Borderlands has to offer; and the ability to acquire two additional skill points as quest rewards, making their characters even more powerful than before.” So that’s good, but shouldn’t a bank or locker system have been patched it anyway? Wasn’t it one of the most obvious oversights in the basic game?

It’s hitting consoles on the 7th of January, and the PC release date is, naturally enough, undisclosed.

The Zombie Island Of Dr Ned, Borderlands’ first piece of downloadable content, is now available. You can get it here (link dead at time of writing, which is a lot of use…) for retail versions of the game, and here for the Steam version. I’m not sure about other digi-download versions, but I’d assume the retail patch will work? Any ideas about that, comment below. I’ll have a play and report back if it’s worth paying the $10/£6.30. Trailer below.
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As we’ve mentioned a number of times previously, Bioshock 2 will feature multiplayer. A new video of that mode has been released unto the internet today, and we’ve posted it below for your delectation. As you might expect, it demonstrates a number of the in-game powers, the barks of your freakish gene-splicing characters, their weapons, and the rather splendid Art Deco environments that all the murderin’ is going to take place in. It’s an odd addition to the game, however, and I can’t help thinking about how hard they’re going to have to try to compete with their contemporaries. Is an old-skool deathmatch add-on really want we demand for 2010?
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UPDATE: Patch ahoy!

Zombies, zombies, zombies. We might as well rename the PC the Personal Zombie Slayer. Borderlands‘ zombie island DLC expansion, The Zombie Island Of Dr Ned, is out on consoles on the 24th of this month, and should be available for PC shortly thereafter. We’re still chasing the exact PC details from 2K. It features some freaky-looking zombies, Borderlands style, as well as “were-skags” (?) and promises to add another “six to ten hours” of game time.
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Eurogamer editor Tom “Tom Bramwell” Bramwell has been delving into Bioshock 2, and – following a trip to 2K Marin – he’s been kind enough to unload some of his head-meat into our blog. Read on for hot diggity.

Hello, Role-Playing Shooters! Remember BioShock? They’re making another one. Seeing as I’m a bit of a regular in Rapture, Jim asked me if I’d be willing to write something about it on my next trip to the surface, and I said I’d be delighted. Either that or I got drunk and offered. I can’t remember, and it doesn’t matter.
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2K Games have released another trailer, via CVG, for Bioshock 2, this time narrated by a lady who is, presumably, the person who appears in a clever twist/cutscene about three-quarters of the way through the game. Or Shodan Under The Sea? Hmm, perhaps, but I guess it’s all a matter of philosophy, as we’ll no doubt find out soon. Anyway, go watch the action – for it is actiony – in the video-bathysphere below.
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We’ve played Gearbox’s fancy-lookin’ “role-playing shooter”, Borderlands, and we’re ready for a verdict. What will we have to say?

Jim: Who wants to try to define the game in a single sentence then, eh?
Kieron: Hellgate in a desert, but not shit.
Alec: There’s some sort definition involving the words “Diablo” and “guns”, but I can’t work out how to stick them together.
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This week we’ve had a chance to play through the beginning of Borderlands, courtesy of 2K Games. What follows are some preview impressions of that co-op experience. We expect to unleash a full RPS Verdict on the game later this month.

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Bah: The PC version of Borderlands has been delayed until October 26th in the US and October 30th in the rest of the world. Why WHY? “Optimization”, that’s why. Perhaps even optimisation. Stupid PCs and their different cogs.

Hurrah: While talking to MTV Gearbox creative director Mikey Neumann said it took him a rather long time to get through the game. “It took me about 100 hours. More the second time, actually, and that was to find every single little mission. I wanted to do everything.” (How long until the 20-minute speedrun, eh?)

We’re probably going to get to play the game before release, and “preview” it. Soon thereafter: judgement.