Futuremark, a company most well-known for their 3DMark suite of benchmark software, has been working on a zero-gravity FPS called “Shattered Horizon,” which has been in closed beta for seven months now.

Today, new screenshots and in-game footage were released for the game.

If you’ve ever benchmarked your computer using 3DMark, you have probably wondered “Why don’t they make a game? I’d play that!” whenever you’ve seen one of their “fake” games during the benchmark run. Watching the footage for Shattered Horizon, one realizes that they have finally made that game.

Set in a near-Earth space of forty years in the future, the game pits ISA astronauts against MMC (Moon Mining Corporation) guards in an armed conflict surrounding a catastrophic mining accident.

Multiplayer mode will allow 32-player maps, with extensive online leaderboards and stats tracking.

The game is PC only, and will run on Windows Vista and Windows 7. Futuremark are known for their punishing, boundary-pushing benchmarks; could this be the next “Crysis”?

The website reveals some details about weapons and gameplay, but one worrisome thing is that it appears there is only one gun available to the players, in addition to grenades. The gun has ranged, close-up, and melee modes, but the lack of variety could become tiresome very quickly.

Fallout 3 meet id Software

It’s difficult to think of any studio more influential and controversial in the history of first person shooters then id Software.  In fact, id Software states that they “created the original first-person shooter, Wolfenstein 3D” and id Software co-founders have been the stuff of legends with John Romero’s rock star lifestyle before leaving id and John Carmack continuing to earn respect at id from gamers and developers alike.  Today, id Software, the creators of Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake announced that they’ve been acquired by ZeniMax Media, the parent company of another game studio legend, Bethesda Softworks of the Elder Scrolls series and Fallout 3.

At first glance, id, an almost exclusively first-person shooter dominated studio; and RPG powerhouse Bethesda may not seem to have that much in common, but this may be the thing that makes them the best fit.  With no directly overlapping internal competition this deal serves to expand ZeniMax Media’s portfolio without creating conflict between their respective subsidiaries.

In the joint press release from all three companies they have committed that id will continue with business as usual and that all of the principles at id have signed long term contracts with ZeniMax Media.  The major changes for id will be having access to more funding, business resources, and stronger marketing under their permanent new publisher. (more…)