I gave a few column-inches to Metroid: Confrontation back in my second Fangame roundup article, but it has since gotten a couple of minor updates, and now a major one, so it gets another few words written about it.

Will you rise to the challenge of Oryx?

This may have been covered sometime in the past, but it’s well worth revisiting, due to how much the game has grown. A long time ago, on another, much less handsome indie site, a strange and unique game-development competition was held. Group A produces random game art assets, and Group B makes games using them. Of the many interesting an exciting results, Realm of The Mad God was probably the most ambitious. An MMO, of all things, and it worked! It was very bare-bones at first release, but has grown into a great way to waste an hour or two from time to time.

Retro, familiar, 8-bit... arena FPS? Weird, but it works.

Having gotten Mario out of the way in the previous fangame roundup, let’s have a look at some other famous franchises, adopted and adapted by their loyal and industrious fanbases. Todays theme: Robot heroes and armored warriors.

Argentinian independent developer NGD Studios, known for Regnum Online, have announced via press release that they’re working on a top-down shooter opting for a Q2 2011 release. After reading the plot description for Bunch of Heroes and watching its equally amusing trailer, I can suggest this for any DeathSpank fan like myself. With online co-op of up to 4 players, NGD’s PC shooter puts players in the shoes of Agent Liu, Jared Joe, El Comandante or Captain Smith as they defend the Earth against an alien invasion and its zombie army. Yup, you read right, aliens and zombies. Win.

Weapons in the game include flame throwers, rail guns, gravity bombs as well as “over-the-top superpowers” which I’m assuming each character has one of their own. With stylized cartoon artwork, retro music, and an all-new game engine, NGD is looking to make an impression with Bunch of Heroes. They’ve also entered it into IGF, as I’m sure many other upcoming games have as well.

Expect Bunch of Heroes sometime in the middle of next year and for PC on digital distributors (most likely Steam and the like). I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw an XBLA or PSN release as well, however.

[NGD Studios]

Trailer:

[Source: GamesPress]

DiezelPower has announced the release of a new update for their arena-based zombie shooter Nation Red, now available to download for owners of the game on Steam.

The patch adds the new “Laser Guided” perk along with a trio of new achievements in “Held The Line”, “Pushover” and “Perforator.” The update doesn’t stop there though, support for generic gamepads, new weapon reload visuals, optimized co-op play and a list of other adjustments and fixes for all the fast-paced action.

Nation Red goes for $10 on Steam with a demo offered as well. From the change log:

Nation Red

• 3 New Achievements: Held The Line, Pushover, Perforator
• New Perk: Laser Guided
• Added support for generic joypads in addition to Xbox 360 joypads
• Allow separate locking of primary and secondary weapons
• New weapon reload visuals + option where to display these
• Fixed some achievements not triggering correctly
• Adjusted barricade mode difficuly level in Bridge and Warehouse barricade
• Adjusted difficulty in missions Point Defense and Breakdown Crew
• Sentry guns can now be reloaded at any time
• Mission unlock progress now saved to Steam after each mission
• Optimized Coop gameplay
• Adjusted Super Shorty weapon effects and damage
• Various other suggestions and bug fixes

On September 10th, the acclaimed and seemingly spectacular MMO shooter from Hi-Rez Studios, Global Agenda, will be arriving in retail stores throughout the United Kingdom. Publisher Iceberg Interactive is excited to be shipping the digitally successful release in boxed versions. The boxed version is packed with new content, including the Sandstorm expansion pack. Pre-orders were opened on August 12th and are available at GAME retail outlets throughout England and Ireland as well as Play.com, Zavvi, TheHut.com, Shopto.net and Amazon.co.uk (by the looks of it, at around £19.99 pounds).

Since ditching the monthly payment schedule, Global Agenda will offer future content updates via optional paid expansions. But players can still play Player-vs-Player combat, Player-vs-Environment solo and co-op content, and Agency-vs- Agency seasons right out of the box.

A German retail release is also planned for October 29. For more info, check out the game’s official website.

[Source: GamesPress]

Without a word of warning DnS Development has announced the start of a free weekend for their multiplayer shooter Booster Trooper, with the game now available for anyone with a Steam account to play through Sunday.

Additionally, the deathmatch-prominent title goes for 50% off throughout the free play period; taking a single copy down to just $5. If you can think of a few others that would go in with you, grab the already discounted 4-pack for just $15 ($3.75 a copy.)

The free weekend ends Sunday, August 15 at 1 PM PST with the half-off sale going through Monday, August 16 at 10 AM PST.

Developer/publisher redspotgames has revealed that their attendance at gamescom Cologne in under two weeks will be for several reasons. Firstly, the company will be showcasing their upcoming Xbox Live Indie Game Solar Struggle (which Geoff covered earlier this month) — and yes, it will be available to play. redspotgames promises that Solar Struggle will set new standards for the XBLIG platform and — having the likes of David Michael Williamson (“Over My Dead Body”) and Willi Röbke (“The Simpsons,” “Futurama,” “The Super Mario Bros. Super Show”) as voice talent in the game — their promise does not seem shallow. Solar Struggle will be available for 400 MSP ($5) when gamescom begins.

Secondly, redspotgames has also revealed that an as-of-yet-undisclosed title will be announced and also fully playable at the event. The only information given pertaining to this new project is that it is not going to be on the XBLIG platform and it is something completely new. Attendees will be able to view redspotgames’ presentation on August 18th and 19th at Hall 8, booth A-012.

Catch a glimpse of the upcoming awesomeness of Solar Struggle below. For more info on the game, check out the official website.

Trailer:

[Source: GamesPress]

While the Xbox Live Indie Game platform’s updates are scarce, they do exist — and that’s a good thing. Gnomic Studios released its first major update for Square Off, a cartoony shooter where players must protect humanity from aliens… or simply shoot their own friends in a team deathmatch game-type. The free update offers a few fixes and some new content as well. It is available for free through Xbox Live.

“We decided to work on a free update because there were a number of niggling issues with the initial release we wanted to address. This turned out to be the perfect opportunity to throw in some bonus content.”

- Aranda Morrison, lead developer at Gnomic Studios

That new content is in the form of two new deathmatch levels in addition to a “whole multitude” of tweaks to make the gameplay funner. Gnomic also added a new level for both single- and co-operative play, but it doesn’t end there. Difficulty has been rebalanced so as to accommodate “n00bs” and still challenge veterans. Each level now has a scoreboard linked to Xbox Live, so you can keep track of your ranking amongst your friends. Finally, even the sound effects have been improved and new songs have been added to the soundtrack.

Perhaps the biggest news of all regarding Square Off is that its price has gone down 66% to only 80 MSP ($1). The developer commented that they would like to experiment with this new price plan and use the data to aid future developers on the XBLIG platform when relating to pricing.

[Try/Buy from Xbox Live Indie Games.]

[Source: GamesPress]

After months of development, Soldat v1.5 has rolled out for public release thanks to the continuing hard work of Michal Marcinkowski and his team on the long lasting multiplayer shooter. The game’s massive community should be pleased with lots of new content, tons of improvements and fixes and more.

A whopping 17 new maps including eight CTF and three deathmatch levels. Other highlights include action screen caps, lobby chat, teamspeak2 intergration and plenty more additions geared toward a complete multiplayer experience.  My favorite note: a player’s head has a 50% chance of exploding when killed by either the Barret or Ruger, which results in “bloooood!”

You can grab the full version of 1.5 weighing in at a just under 14 MB via ModDB. From the update’s description and change log:

The long awaited number change in the Soldat version is finally here. Soldat changes from 1.4 to 1.5. This version has been in development for months. All credits for this version go to EnEsCe with thanks to everybody that contributed. There are some people that helped and of course a lot of people that tested this version in the first Soldat public beta release. So maybe you know the list of changes or not but here it is. Finally we can play this officially against all Soldat players!

Changes 1.4.2 – 1.5:

- Added CTF Maps: ctf_Blade, ctf_Hormone, ctf_IceBeam, ctf_MFM2, ctf_Raspberry, ctf_Rotten, ctf_X, ctf_Guardian

- Added DM Maps: Aero, CrackedBoot, Unlim

- Added INF Maps: inf_Biologic, inf_Rise, inf_Rescue

- Added HTF Maps: htf_Niall, htf_Star, htf_Vortex

- Added Ban Reason + Duration displayed above Join Game button.

- Added volume can be adjusted ingame by pressing Shift and +/- (increase/decrease).

- Added ‘/mute all’ can be used to mute all players. Type ‘/mute all’ again to unmute all.

- Added current computer time is displayed under map timeleft in F1 menu

- Added completely new File Downloading code

- Added text can be pasted using ctrl+v in chat input

- Added last line in console is displayed in join game tab when you get kicked (Last 2 lines if BattlEye kick)

- Added players head explodes sometimes(50% chance) if killed by a headshot from Barrett/Ruger (Bloooood!).

- Added players invulnerable to damage from Flamegod now spout out tiny flames

- Added ActionSnap feature – Press F5 after Killing/Dying and you can view+save that special moment! (Disabled in 16bit Bitrate)

- Added current demo filename is displayed at the bottom center of the frags menu (F1)

- Added number of Flag captures to the frags menu next to a player’s name (F1)

- Added TeamSpeak2 Integration. An icon will display above players who speak and are on the same Teamspeak server as you.

(NOTE: You still need to have Teamspeak running in the background).

- Added Animated GIF Scenery (You can disable the animations by unchecking ‘Animated Scenery’ in Config.exe)

- Added Lobby Chat. Click the ‘Chat’ tab next to Join Game to participate. Various options can be found in /Txt/chat.ini

- Added Ingame Radio Commands! If in CTF, INF, or HTF you can issue Voice Radio commands to your teammates! Default Key: V

(Dont stress! The Voices are pre-recorded and found in /Sfx/radio/)

- Added Checkbox to start Soldat after exiting the Config.exe program

- Added Mouse Sensitivity can be adjusted ingame by pressing Ctrl Alt and +/- (increase/decrease).

- Added ” has dropped the Red/Blue Flag” to the console. If the player that died with the flag is on your team, there will be a Big Text message, and a warning sound will play.

- Modified pressing enter while in the IP/Port/Pass textbox now requests the server

- Modified Spectators Interface now displays stats for the current player being watched. (Ammo/health etc)

Servers can disable this option by setting Advanced_Spectate=0 in server.ini

- Modified Join Game button is disabled for 1 second after clicking to prevent flooding.

- Modified players dont get binked by team mates bullets if Friendly Fire is disabled (Explosions will still bink)

- Modified Soldat now uses FMOD Version 3.75

- Modified Players no longer gain 20 points when they Capture the Flag

- Fixed various annoyances regarding Forward Join popup.

- Fixed cmd menu appearing for players with / at start of their name

- Fixed changing team from Spectator during pause will correctly repause the game

- Fixed Access Violation when adding too many bots

- Fixed ‘Bot Team’ frame not appearing when restarting Soldat

- Fixed players who join as spectator are unable to select Change Team menu

- Fixed massive FPS lag when players catch fire

- Fixed Spas-12 reload cancelling when rolling forwards/backwards

- Fixed CTF Maps: ctf_Nuubia, ctf_Laos, ctf_Division, ctf_Dropdown2, ctf_Voland, ctf_Viet, ctf_B2b, ctf_Snakebite, ctf_Kampf, ctf_Maya, ctf_Run

- Fixed AutoDemo only working once

- Fixed Grenades/Bullets not appearing on screen in realistic mode when owner is behind a polygon

- Fixed player indicator showing during spawn while Player_Indicator=0

- Fixed Explosions that are in your Line of Sight not appearing when the attacker is not in sight

- Fixed Bullets in Realistic mode now have dynamic visibility

- Fixed various “%s” formatting errors in some strings

- Fixed Corrupt Weapon Mod bug

- Fixed RM servers using default Realistic Weapon Mod appearing as Custom

- Fixed ‘C’ ‘V’ error message dialog. Now displays the intended error message

- Fixed Weapon/Flag Random Drop bug

I’m always looking for ways to make some cash from Soldat while still having the game free. This version has some ads in the installer. You can choose to install some useful software if it is presented to you. Also you might see an option to install a Soldat Community Toolbar which will most of all keep you updated with community news and useful links. That’s it. Without further adieu these are the new files. Download and have fun!