NewNews - ShootMania Storm Open Beta

Official Site: http://www.maniaplanet.com/shootmania/
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/229870/
Source: Youtube Channel ubisoft

I mentioned ShootMania Storm a few times last year and had hoped to play it during the Winter of 2012 but was later delayed to Early 2013.  Not having checked for a while, ShootMania Storm had showed up Steam with a "demo" which happens to be Open Beta.  ShootMania Storm is a twitch-based First-Person Shooter that allows players to create their own levels and customize their character look.  Much like classic twitch-based shooters such as Quake and Unreal Tournament, gameplay is extremely fast-paced and requires quick reflexes.  Other players won't be standing still as much and will most likely be flying all over the place which makes it really difficulty to land hits.  I'm downloading the Open Beta right now as I write this article, but watching tournament videos of the game I can say that the graphics are absolutely gorgeous.  The gameplay is very fluid if not scary seeing how fast everything goes.  I really hope this game gets really big and captures a strong community of level creators and custom game makers.  I love Call of Duty and many other tactical-shooters in the past decade, but I really miss the excitement and craziness of twitch-based shooters.  So I'm hoping ShootMania Storm will bring some of that community back.  ShootMania Storm officially releases in April 2013 and is available on Steam for a 10% discount for pre-purchase of $17.99 from its regular price of $19.99.

GameLight - ShootMania Storm

Official Site: http://www.shootmania.com/
Source: Youtube Channel maniaplanet

Anyone who has played the versatile racing course creator "TrackMania" will be happy to hear that Nadeo is creating another incredible game for the First-Person Shooter genre.  ShootMania Storm is a competitive, fast-paced, arena-style, first-person shooter with beautiful graphics and a comprehensive arena creator so that players can make their own levels to fight in.  As much as I like tactical-military first-person shooters, the industry needs to make other types of first-person shooters once again.  I had high hopes for "Nexuiz" but it has sadly been met with unfavorable reviews or was neglected altogether.  I'm not a huge fan of Quake and Unreal Tournament, but I have played them in the past and really enjoy the open feeling of the games where movement and falling knows no boundary.  With ShootMania, there are endless possibilities for game types, level design, and interesting machinima as long as there's a community for it.  I'm hoping this game will get big and provide long replay value as a casual game to mess around with as well as a competitive one.  ShootMania Storm is set to launch on PC exclusively through digital distributions by the end of 2012.

On a side note, TrackMania 2: Canyon is out right now for $24.99 and Nadeo seems to be working on a game called "QuestMania" an RPG which has me very excited.

Source:
-Kotaku: Bring on Shootmania, A Shooter Without Guns