The Metro: Last Light DLC that contains a weapon designed by Gameplanet reader Alexandre Bannwarth is out today.

In June, Bannwarth’s multi-barrelled bicycle shotgun won Gameplanet’s Metro: Last Light Design A Weapon competition over some pretty stiff competition.

His unique shotgun is part of the game’s Chronicles Pack, the final piece of DLC for the game that also features three new solo missions which run parallel to the story of the main game’s protagonist Artyom.

Continue reading...

Discover Khan's dark secret as you explore the haunted, forgotten tunnels to Polyanka; break free from the Bandits' Lair as Pavel; and stage a daring rescue attempt as the deadly sniper, Anna.

Continue reading...

Today we have a remarkable story to share with you. Some of you will recall that Gameplanet recently partnered with the teams behind Metro: Last Light to give away a gaming PC.

We challenged you all to come up with a design for a new weapon that could be cobbled together from items found in the post-apocalyptic Moscow metro system. Entries were to be judged on their relevance to the world of Metro: Last Light, their practicality, and their innovation, or humour.

There were many exceptional designs, but there could be only one winner: the 'Multi-Barreled Bicycle Shotgun' by Alexandre "Hypron" Bannwrath.

Continue reading...

Designed by Alexandre "Hypron" Bannwrath as the winning entry in the Gameplanet.co.nz Metro: Last Light weapon competition.

Continue reading...

Designed by Alexandre "Hypron" Bannwrath as the winning entry in the Gameplanet.co.nz Metro: Last Light weapon competition.

Continue reading...

Metro: Last Light’s second piece of downloadable content is out now.

The DLC tasks players with stepping inside a virtual combat simulator in the game to conquer a series of increasingly-hostile towers.

Each tower is packed with hordes of enemies, mutants, and other deadly threats, said Deep Silver.

Continue reading...

The first piece of DLC for Metro: Last Light contains three new singleplayer missions and weapons, and returns players to classic Metro 2033 locations, Deep Silver has announced.

Each mission in the Faction Pack DLC casts the player as a different specialist from the game's warring factions: a Special Detachment Sniper of the Redline who must infiltrate a heavily guarded Reich Outpost at night; a Reich ‘Heavy’ defending the front line with “some of the most devastating weaponry found in the Metro”; and a Polis Ranger in training tasked with exploring the vast library complex for artifacts and relics.

In the latter, salvage can be exchanged for ammunition, filters, and hazard suits, allowing ever deeper exploration into the library, and players are advised to leave a trail of light torches so they can find their way back to the base before their oxygen runs out.

Continue reading...

Gameplanet recently ran a competition to win a new gaming PC rig together with Metro: Last Light.

Entries were taken in the form of Metro weapon designs.

Contestants were asked: If you were stuck in the post-apocalyptic Moscow Metro system, what kind of weapon would you cobble together?

Continue reading...

The numerous aesthetic accomplishments and mechanical improvements in Metro: Last Light are undone by uneven attention to detail and a lack of player agency.

Despite its relative infancy, the Metro franchise has done an incredible job of endearing itself to the hardcore, game-playing masses. Despite myriad technical and mechanical problems in Metro 2033, players lapped up its unique setting and mechanical eccentricities.

Metro 2033 established itself as a unique narrative and gameplay experience, a highlight in THQ’s slow push towards creating games primarily for the hardcore player. Metro: Last Light seemed like the natural evolution of this, as though THQ was puffing its chest out proudly, arguing its support for unique, hardcore franchises that could never see the light of day with another publisher.

Unfortunately, THQ was squeezed out of the market before Metro: Last Light was completed. Luckily for fans, Deep Silver swept up the game and saw it across the line. The final product, whilst still plagued by some of the mechanical oversights of its predecessor is a triumph of style and atmosphere, and bizarrely, easily one of the best horror experiences on consoles.

Continue reading...

IT IS THE YEAR 2034. Beneath the ruins of post-apocalyptic Moscow, in the tunnels of the Metro, the remnants of mankind are besieged by deadly threats from outside – and within. Mutants stalk the catacombs beneath the desolate surface, and hunt amidst the poisoned skies above.

But rather than stand united, the station-cities of the Metro are locked in a struggle for the ultimate power, a doomsday device from the military vaults of D6. A civil war is stirring that could wipe humanity from the face of the earth forever. As Artyom, burdened by guilt but driven by hope, you hold the key to our survival – the last light in our darkest hour…

Continue reading...

Jason Rubin, the former president of THQ and co-founder of Naughty Dog, has lauded Metro: Last Light for its technical and creative achievements while drawing attention to the working conditions at Ukraine-based developer 4A Games.

"The budget of Last Light is less than some of its competitors spend on cut scenes, a mere 10 percent of the budget of its biggest competitors," Rubin wrote in a post on GamesIndustry.

"Yet it is lauded for its story and atmosphere. It is built on a completely original and proprietary second-generation engine that competes with sequels that have stopped numbering themselves, with more engineers on their tech than 4A has on the entire project. Yet its tech chops are never in question."

Continue reading...

In the year 2034, a nuclear war has turned the world into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. In Moscow, the tunnels of the Metro have become a new home for the former inhabitants of the city. Within the catacombs, they fight for their survival, fending off hordes of hideous mutants born from the toxic atmosphere, as well as other factions desperate to take control of what little hospitable land remains.

Continue reading...

The spectre of the Chernobyl disaster casts a long shadow over the Ukrainian psyche.

More than a quarter of a century ago, on the outskirts of the Soviet city of Pripyat in the Ukraine, the Chernobyl nuclear facility was rocked by a huge explosion that blasted radioactive fallout over much of the former USSR and Europe.

Beyond the 30 to 70 killed (reports from the USSR varied) by the explosion and radiation sickness, the human cost of the disaster is hard to quantify. Some estimate there will be between 50- to 60,000 excess cases of cancer attributable to Chernobyl.

Continue reading...

Exploring the unique equipment and brutal, hand-made weaponry every Ranger needs to survive the perils of the Metro, this chapter also teaches you how to use light as an ally (or even as a potential weapon) as well as detailing Metro's infamous bullet-driven economy and gun trading and customisation mechanic.

Continue reading...

Deep Silver and 4A Games have announced the PC specs for Metro: Last Light, which is due out on May 17.

Minimum

Windows: XP (32-Bit), Vista, 7 or 8
CPU: 2.2 GHz Dual Core e.g. Intel Core 2 Duo
RAM: 2GB
Direct X: 9.0c
Graphics Card: DirectX 9, Shader Model 3 compliant e.g. NVIDIA GTS 250 (or AMD equivalent e.g. HD Radeon 4000 series) or higher

Continue reading...

The second video in a series of three, "Enemy Danger" prepares the player for the hostile inhabitants of the Metro, both human and mutant.

Continue reading...

The first video released in a series of three, the survival guide prepares players for their service in the Spartan Order, the self-styled protectors of the Metro.

Continue reading...

Metro: Last Light is perhaps the most visually arresting game in existence, says its publisher.

When questioned about the game's next-gen ambitions by Eurogamer, Deep Silver's Huw Beynon said that the game was coming to a next-gen system: the PC.

"If someone asks me are we doing a next-gen version - well, yes we are. It's the PC. We're one of the few studios out there that have a proven piece of tech that's built for high-end PCs,” he said.

Continue reading...

Entitled Salvation, the trailer focuses on the storyline behind the game, as the last remnants of mankind hurtle towards a final, fateful reckoning.

Continue reading...

Metro 2033 sequel Metro: Last Light will be available from May 17, Deep Silver has announced.

The franchise was acquired by Koch Media for US$5.88 million (AU$ 5.76 million) following the bankruptcy of publisher THQ.

“The new release date is the ideal way to strike the balance between bringing the best out of Metro: Last Light and not keep the fans waiting longer than necessary,” said Koch Media CEO Dr. Klemens Kundratitz.

Continue reading...

Military shooters have crushed any creativity within first-person shooters, says THQ's head of global communications Huw Beynon.

Speaking with OXM, Beynon argued that fantastical escapist games were becoming rare in the FPS genre these days due to the popularity of titles like Call of Duty.

“[Military FPS titles] kind of stamp out memories of what I remember being great about first person shooters, whether that was Half Life, System Shock or GoldenEye – where a first person shooter didn't necessarily have to involve military material, it just meant an invitation to a fantastic other world, which to me was always the point of video games in the first place," he said.

Continue reading...

Through the millennia, civilisations rose and fell, each re-telling their own story of the world's creation. Now, beneath the ruins of Moscow, the last civilisation of man has its own story to tell...

Continue reading...

When disaster strikes and the doors to refuge must be closed, how does one decide who lives and who dies?

Continue reading...

In underground Moscow, what status does a beautiful, formerly wealthy model hold when people are struggling for survival? She may have escaped the bombs and entered the metro just in time, but who could predict what depths humanity could sink to?

Continue reading...

"They fled to the refuge of the Metro and escaped Armageddon. Now beneath the toxic wastelands, these lucky few adapt to survive in this new and inhospitable world, an unrelenting purgatory."

Continue reading...

Metro: Last Light won’t be released on the Wii U, and 4 A Games isn’t shy when it comes to explaining why.

“Wii U has a horrible, slow CPU,” 4 A’s chief technical officer Oles Shishkovtsov told NowGamer.

Metro publisher THQ's head of communications Huw Beynon was more diplomatic, explaining that his studio couldn’t justify the effort required to make a Wii U version on par with those of other consoles.

Continue reading...

Development of the multiplayer component of Metro: Last Light has been shelved for now, 4A Games has announced.

The small group that had been prototyping the game’s multiplayer mode will be integrated back into the singleplayer campaign team.

“Your response to our E3 demo made it very clear that although there was a lot of interest and intrigue around Metro’s multiplayer, the single player campaign is what the fanbase cares about the most," said 4A.

Continue reading...

Metro 2033 didn’t receive the backing it deserved and was slightly rough as a result, THQ has admitted.

“Last time around on Metro 2033, THQ came to realise a little too late that it had this unpolished gem on its hands,” said THQ’s head of global communication Huw Beynon.

“For whatever reason, that meant that the first game didn’t quite get the production support from THQ that could have raised the polish and quality level a little bit.”

Continue reading...

Continue reading...

Continue reading...

Our eyes finally adjust to reveal an apocalyptic scene: what was once a sprawling metropolis is now an empty husk of deteriorated buildings, eroding towers thrusting skyward through rubble and debris. Menacing clouds hang low in the sky, split by sudden flashes of forked lightning, and always the miserable patter of acid rain.

The remnants of a passenger jet litter the immediate area. Only the tail end of the fuselage appears to be intact, though it’s scorched and damaged beyond repair. Exposed wires hang limply from the shredded outer shell like an eviscerated torso. A luminescent number ticks down on the wristwatch. 0430. 0429. 0428. Less than four and a half minutes worth of filtered air.

Continue reading...

Continue reading...

Continue reading...

Continue reading...

Continue reading...

Continue reading...