The games industry doesn’t hibernate for very long over the winter and holidays, so there’s already the first stirrings for what looks to be one of the busiest periods in gaming that I can remember. The next few months are jam-packed with game releases, many of which were delayed from the end of last year, and more trailers and announcements are starting to drop. That’s in addition to PC gamers getting a month where they can catch up on some huge games that are being ported to their platform for the first time. In the News This Week Hitman 3 Year 2 starts 20th January – Freelancer mode, a new level and free updates revealed All Xbox One consoles were discontinued by the end of 2020 Take Two purchasing Zynga for $12.7 billion Troy Baker backs a voice based NFT site but won’t be selling his own voice Deep Rock Galactic gains 6 million players in one week after PS Plus launch STALKER 2 hit with massive delay More Days Gone sequel plans revealed by game director Jeff Ross Overwatch 2 LEGO set delayed due to Activision Blizzard allegations PUBG’s free-to-play relaunch is now live on PlayStation, Xbox and Steam Techland clarify how long Dying Light 2 takes to complete Giveaways We’ve got a great giveaway this week for fans of the RuneScape MMORPG. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, which is mind-boggling for pretty much every game, Jagex created a gorgeous RuneScape: The First 20 Years book looking back of the game’s history. We’ve got five copies of the Deluxe Edition for a giveaway, which you can enter here. Games in Review and Featured Articles January seems to be the month of choice for games to get ports to PC, with both Monster Hunter Rise and God of War making the jump to keyboard & mouse. How did they hold up? Monster Hunter Rise – PC, NSW – 9/10 God of War – PC, PS5, PS4 – 8/10 Battle Brothers – PS4, XBO, PC – 7/10 Elsewhere, we took a good long look at The Anacrusis, a new sixties sci-fi themed take on the Left 4 Dead formula that’s now in Early Access and Xbox Game Preview, while Gareth dove back into the mind of Far Cry 4’s arch villain with the Far Cry 6 – Pagan: Control DLC. His mind is rather similar in structure to Vaas’ from the first DLC… Over the weekend, we had two features, the first from Eric delving into The Legend of Zelda Second Quest, and the second with Reggie asking what happened to Arena Shooters? Finally, What We Played featured The Anacrusis, Far Cry 6 and Fantasian. Trailer Park We could post trailers for days this week, but here’s a few of the highlights: Gran Turismo 7 gameplay trailer heads to the Daytona International Speedway Pokémon Legends: Arceus trailer reveals more gameplay from its Hisuian adventure Kirby and the Forgotten Land is coming out in March – new gameplay and co-op revealed in trailer New ELEX II trailer dives into the overhauled RPG combat Your Achievements And finally for this round-up, we come to… you! MrYd finished of Ghost of Tsushima’s main story and started on the Iki Island expansion. He also enjoyed playing through Life Is Strange 2 and got sucked into the cave-dwelling delights of Deep Rock Galactic. And willbuchanan is aiming to finish off Guardians of the Galaxy this weekend. He might even shoot for the platinum, which just depends on getting all of the outfits. That’s it for this week’s gaming round-up. Have a fun weekend, wrap up warm, and we’ll catch you again next week.

Lately, I’ve been wondering: are arena-style shooters back on the rise? My instinct says no, as the battle royale genre still clearly reigns as king. However, with games like Splitgate and Halo Infinite, I’m thinking that perhaps there’s some evidence of growing battle royale fatigue, and classic shooter action may once more return. It feels too early to say for sure. However, with LEAP, announced this week by Blue Isle Studios, it’s clear that arena shooters aren’t ready to bite the dust yet. Described as a ‘blend of FPS genres,’ LEAP will feature battles with up to 60 players who fight on the ground and in the air. Will it be different enough to drag people from Fortnite for a bit? We’ll know when LEAP enters closed beta starting next week. LEAP‘s developer certainly has an interesting pedigree. If you don’t recall the name Blue Isle, then you may surely know of its first game known as Slender: The Arrival. Yes, the ̵...

What ever happened to arena shooters? We delve into the rich history of this beloved gaming subgenre, how its survived over the years, and what arena shooters look like in 2022. First-person shooters dominated the 1990s PC gaming scene. Classics such as Wolfenstein and DOOM reached critical acclaim and defined the genre for future generations. As the internet boom rolled out, developer minds started to focus on how this could change multiplayer. Thoughts of LAN parties and two players sharing a keyboard drip in nostalgia, but the arena shooter embraced online multiplayer. Origins of Arena Shooters PC gaming in the 90s was quite limited compared to the thousands of games on various stores we see today. It focused players on some critical titles for the arena shooter sub-genre—specifically Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament, Half-Life Deathmatch and Counterstrike. Whilst Quake II revolutionised online multiplayer, its sequel and Unreal Tournament took full advantage of it. The big appeal with arena shooters were frenetic, high octane deathmatches. Starting with the same weapon and no buffs, players would pick up more advanced guns, health, defence and damage modifiers found scattered across the map. Quake III vs. Unreal Tournament This fast-paced gameplay required skill and quick reflexes, the main pulls for arena shooters. Whilst Quake III Arena focused on multiplayer-only gameplay, Unreal Tournament took the best arena shooter’s crown for its time. Still played today; Unreal Tournament featured more weapons, complete with dual fire options. For example, the now-iconic Flack Cannon fired white-hot scrap metal as a primary fire, with the secondary being a grenade launcher. It’s one of the best weapons in first-person shooter history. UT featured pin-point gameplay. An announcer was present for all matches to highlight player performance. “Dominating” and “Killing Spree” would be heard for kill streaks, backed by a synth original soundtrack. It’s a visceral delight that stood out from the crowd, also creeping into pop culture, its influence is still felt today. Arena Shooters: Reloaded The amount of content in the game was genuinely unreal; it also provided much better value for players overall compared to its competitors. It featured more maps, modes, characters and weapons than other arena shooters with a decent single-player mode to boot. Unreal Tournament also marked the birth of the Unreal Engine, a toolset that has gone on to power countless video games. However, the best thing about arena shooters like Unreal Tournament was their pick-up and play approach. With no levelling, skill trees or load-outs to think about, people could concentrate on improving their skills in a mostly even playing field. Arena shooters started to phase out as players moved to team-based experiences with more mechanics and realistic presentation. Map design also advanced quickly in the 2000s, allowing players to experience multi-platform strategies that were a far cry from the corridor/big room combos of the 90s. Gameplay Shift Games like Counter-Strike and Battlefield 1942 heralded a shift towards strategy and a more significant focus on teamwork. This transition would only escalate with the boom in esports scenes in the 2010s onwards. People wanted more from their games, and some titles did try to translate arena shooter mechanics into a more enticing format. The Halo series initially did a great job of transplanting arena shooter gameplay into a new generation. The weapon selection, vehicles and map layouts felt like a natural progression of the genre. Teamwork felt key to capturing the flag and in deathmatches, with new modes such as ‘Grifball’ and ‘king of the hill’ offering more ways to play with friends than ever before. Arena Shooter Crysis Crysis is also another excellent example of using the arena shooter formula to introduce new gameplay aspects. The title’s multiplayer flopped due to poor net code and the limited amount of people that could physically run Crysis on PC. Using powers such as increased strength and invisibility shook up deathmatches, introducing new ways for people to play. With gunplay and presentation being on point, this should have been a coming of age title for arena shooters. DOOM’s 2016 reboot was a great opportunity to revamp the sub-genre, given its shared heritage with Quake. Although it succeeded in some respects, there just wasn’t an appetite for it. It wasn’t until a few years before its release that tacked-on multiplayer modes were seen as an industry-wide plight. With DOOM’s multiplayer having been outsourced, there were concerns that Bethesda had included the mode simply to tick boxes on a checklist. That perception marred what was actually a fun and frenetic suite of online game modes. Rise of the Hero Shooter Hero shooters such as Overwatch and Paladins would carry the torch for arena shooters into the modern age. Although they have brought some pretty big deviations such as preset weapon loadouts, progression systems, and attack/defend game modes, there’s still a focus on quick, skill-based gunplay and memorising map vantage points. This sub-genre of shooter, which also includes games like Valorant and Rogue Company, has taken hold thanks to their emphasis on team gameplay, something that wasn’t core to the original arena shooter experience. However, that extra layer of strategy – especially when it comes to team compositions – make these games arguably more involving and engaging to watch. It’s no wonder why they boast such an esports following. The future of Arena Shooters With Epic still raking it in thanks to Fortnite, the chances of there being a new Unreal Tournament in the pipeline seem pretty slim. The company recently attempted to reboot the series with a focus on player-created content and assets. However, it’s very rare that we hear of any updates. What about id Software and Quake? There’s definitely scope for Bethesda to resurrect the long dormant series (again) with modernised sensibilities yet sporting that same speedy gunplay, punchy weapons, and fluid movement. This would seem like an open goal if not for the fact that Quake Champions had tried to do the same not that long ago. There’s something else, of course. With Bethesda now owned by Microsoft, could this stop Quake from making a return? If that meant drawing away focus from the company’s plans for Halo Infinite then yes, probably. Speaking of Halo Infinite, it’s one of the titles that brought arena shooters kicking and screaming into 2021. It has an unabashed classic style that, for many younger gamers, will be their first exposure to the genre. It’s facing fierce competition, however. Just when we thought traditional arena shooters were long done, along came Splitgate with its big killer twist, allowing players to create Portal-like gates during matches. Both games are currently free-to-play and have already massed millions of players between them. The stage is now set for a new generation of arena shooters and hopefully more will join them while other games look to reinvent the FPS in new and interesting ways.