ShootMania Storm Message Board

Nadeo has tried nearly everything to get people to play ShootMania: there was a pre-release beta, they have a friend-of-a-friend scheme for you to invite people to play, and let’s not forget the 24 hour telethon that Bono hosted. The problem is that the Nadeo office radio has been set to Wub Wub FM, and when the team meets to ask about the next stunt to bring people in it drowns out the answers. And do you know where Geoff Voiceofreason sits? That’s right: he’s right next to the radio. For all those meetings he’s been shouting “release a f*****g demo” over and over and over, but has been wubbed out. Well this time around he waited for the drop, shouted as loudly as his vocal cords would allow, and we now have a Shootmania demo. Thanks, Geoff! Have a lozenge.(more…)

When is a demo not a demo? That is a question that has plagued many, many, many people. It’s why Plato and Socrates fell out at Wrestlemania -320BC. There are alphas, betas, demos, and even schemes that share games among friends, like Shootmania now has. Everyone who owns the game can invite a friend in to play the game in Elite mode, the 3vs3 attack/defend mode. I can see the invitation causing a strain on a few friendships, because the owner of the game can generate two different types of passes: one that gives the friend limited access to the mode, and another where they get unlimited playtime.(more…)

ShootMania: Storm is the strangest name. On one hand, it sounds like some kind of lighthearted term for craving or addiction – kinda like party fever, March madness, or meth ragekillsanity. But before long, the “Storm” subtitle rolls in all ominous and gloomy, raining  on even the most incurably diseased of parades. Naturally, then, ShootMania: Storm is a game about lasers. Oh, but there’s also exceedingly robust level creation, arcade-y speed, and balance that’s been meticulously honed for eSports purposes. All indications point to it being quite the thing, honestly. Take a jump pad past the break for a snazzy launch trailer. Here, grab my hand. We’ll go together. One, two, three… SPROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOING.

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ShootMania: Storm is now available Steam!

ShootMania: Storm is a fast-paced shooter for PC, designed to open competitive gaming to everyone. Easy to access but hard to master, ShootMania Storm is part of the ManiaPlanet platform and ecosystem that gives to gamers the powerful tools they need to create their own experience by building user-created maps, game modes, graphic assets and videos , but also allows them to create and manage their own teams and tournaments, and interact with the lively ShootMania Storm community.

In celebration of the launch of the game, communities from all around the world are gathering today for both live and online events as part of the ShootMania 4 All Launch Party. From France to the US, Germany to Ukraine, Norway to Canada, everybody has the opportunity to take part in the celebration or follow the dedicated livestream. For more information about the ShootMania 4 All Launch Party, check out the dedicated website here: http://www.maniaplanet.com/shootmania4all/

You know its time to play a fast-paced modern videogame when the dubstep drops. So it is with Nadeo’s latest trailer, which heralds – via the medium of distorted bass and exploding people – the arrival of the open beta for their multiplayer FPS, Shootmania Storm. Yes, the keys are no longer required, and anyone can walk in through the front door. The big lure of Shootmania is, of course, that you can craft your own levels, but this trailer also highlights the speedy, acrobatic action, and the, uh, ability to change your character from red to blue. Mm.

Anyway, it looks ace, and I am finally diving in for a play. Join me? *wub wub*

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ShootMania Storm entered open beta this week, and you can now freely download the game client and hop into some frenetic multiplayer shooter/builder action. Developer Nadeo says the beta includes most of what'll be in the final game, but some features will be restricted to players who've pre-ordered.

Ubisoft announced a delay last month just a day before the game was due. The publisher did at least whip up a new ShootMania Storm release date of April 10.

Ubi’s French horn of public relations sends word that ShootMania Storm’s release is now set for the 10th of April. Fortunately, though, there’s going to be a lengthy open beta for us to hop skip and explode into, starting 12th February and continuing, as you’d expect, until launch. It seems like earlier testing phases have give developers Nadeo pause for though, hence the delay. Nadeo’s Anne Bondel-Jouin said: “…following the release of the Beta 2 in December, we received a tremendous amount of information from the very active ShootMania community. For a living, online multiplayer title like this the work is never done, but these extra few weeks will allow us to polish the game further and release it to the level of quality we think our players deserve.” This beta has apparently already seen 20,000 maps created by users. Which sounds like too many.

Significantly, Ubi and Nadeo are making serious noises and e-sports, and seem to intend to make the game a contender in that area – something that hasn’t happened for a new FPS for some time, particularly in a circuit dominated by RTS and Dotalike play. It’ll be interesting to see if the pro care about Nadeo – I suspect they will if Ubi backs the competitions with significant cash.

Ubi send word that Nadeo’s competitive FPS spin on the community-driven “Mania” platform, Shootmania: Storm, will soon be entering its second beta test phase soon: December 19th, in fact. That really is quite soon. Also check out this extract from their blurb: “Create your own frag style with the new movements and game modes.” Haha, “frag style”. That’s how they say it on the street, you know.

There’s also a fancy new trailer, which you can see below.(more…)

Mr Griliopoulos has been to see Nadeo’s Maniaplanet announcements. He’s come away scratching his beard in puzzlement.

We’re at a ManiaPlanet announcement. But what’s going on? I was told by Ubisoft that I was here to see the announcement of two new games. During the first half of head honcho of Nadeo-inside-Ubisoft, Florent Castelnerac, demo we’re introduced to TrackMania: Stunters and TrackMania: Raid. Stunters is a stunt-based TrackMania spin, emphasising tricks. Raid is a huge rallying game, tracing the routes of continent-spanning real world races, like the Dakar to Paris rally raid. Confusing… Wait, I’m a doofus! These are user-made. They’re mods players have created during the ManiaPlanet beta. (more…)

ShootMania, my many well-placed sources have informed me, includes a potentially significant component of shooting. This, I believe, is probably an exclusive, so it should be treated with all the reverence and majesty such a title commands. But apparently – and I heard this through my ultra-secret source, who may or may not be a grapevine dressed in a trench coat that lives in a perma-dimly-lit parking garage – that there will also be other things. But what? And how? These are the great questions of our time. Oh hey, here’s a trailer that answers, like, all of them at once. Neat!

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I don't see the option for "clinically depressed," so I guess I'll just pick "day."

Jeff, Ryan, and Brad spend some time in padded cells for their shoot-related illnesses.

ShootMania: Storm, with its creative tools and its day-glo combat, seems worlds away from the brown, gray and blood of so many of today’s multiplayer man-shoots. I’ve yet to play it myself but because it looks like a cartoon rather than a war, I’m tempted to poke my head in and risk the slight public humiliation of hanging around the roots of a leaderboard or two. Pre-orders, at a 20% discount, now give instant beta access and there’s a new trailer to celebrate that fact. Musical choice? I can’t be sure, but I believe it’s Shostakovich.

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It’s been a good week for mania. Pyromania got things started in truly asylum-worthy style, and now ShootMania‘s filling the middle of our week with intrigue. And lasers. More specifically, Nadeo’s DIY FPS is gunning for a closed beta in “early July,” and registration just opened up. The window will slam shut on July 2, but there’s a good reason for that: “Every player who has registered for the beta on the official site will receive a 7-day beta key,” notes the website, which talks about itself in the third-person. Also, yeah, beta access only lasts seven days. Bummer. But don’t let that disintegrate the smile from your face. Instead, watch techno Tron people disintegrate the smiles from each other’s faces (and, you know, their faces and also all of them) after the break.

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You're already a MANIAC about tracks! Check out this demo to see what other manias you can develop. Like a collection.

It's a battle of the sexes as teams of male and female Counterstrike champs challenge each other in Shootmania Storm, the new shooter from Ubisoft.

Witness the fast paced, futuristic, flag capturing frenzy in Shootmania Storm.

#shootmania Red guys fight blue guys in what may be one of the more ambitious games on the horizon, the goofily-named Shootmania. More »

Well, allegedly. I mean, it opens with “This video has been created using only in game tools,” so – once Shootmania Storm releases later this year – you’ll have your canvas. Of course, I suppose you’ll also need an eye for cinematography, a hand for level design, and an ear for music that makes people think “Is this dubstep? Is it going to become dubstep? No? OK, phew.” I also love the somber, oddly Dear-Esther-esque opening… that’s almost immediately interrupted by lasers. I will hang it in a museum and call it “Videogames.” All that said, it is pretty impressive-looking, and if the toolset’s anywhere near as robust as TrackMania, this one has a long life of firearm-based life-ending ahead of it. Exercise your creative individuality by constructing the same path as everyone else past the break to see the full trailer.

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Building a first-person shooter in the same style of Nadeo's Trackmania games presents a new set of problems. The rules for what can be altered and what needs to stay fixed are entirely different in order to keep the experience competitive. So far, the decisions Nadeo's made for Shootmania: Storm seem to be the right ones, which will hopefully result in a highly customizable, community-driven shooter experience whenever Shootmania is eventually ready to launch...

In ShootMania Storm, Ubisoft-owned developer Nadeo is attempting something very ambitious indeed: to take the versatility, accessibility and competitive fun of its acclaimed racer TrackMania and apply those principles to the most saturated of genres, the FPS. In doing so, it hopes to appeal to both the greenest cadet and most grizzled veteran...