Earlier this month I visited Killing Floor and Red Orchestra 2 creator Tripwire Interactive to play Rising Storm, the upcoming standalone expansion to RO2 (look for a preview on Monday). After the demo, Tripwire President John Gibson and I got talking about the state of first-person shooters, and Gibson laid out a detailed criticism about the way Call of Duty “takes individual skill out of the equation.” Gibson also expressed frustration over how difficult it had been trying to design a mode for Red Orchestra 2 that appealed to Call of Duty players.

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The release of SimCity will likely be studied for years as a case of how not to launch a product, and the story keeps getting stranger and stranger. Six hours ago, an anonymous redditor posting under the name “DisappointedEA” made a thread containing an open letter expressing his disappointment in the company’s handling of SimCity. The twist? He reportedly works there.

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Here’s the full text of the letter in question, since nothing ever actually disappears from the internet once it’s made public:

[i]“To the executives at EA, from one of your employees

I am deeply embarrassed by the troubled launch of Sim City and I hope you are too. When I walk around our campus and look at the kind of talent we’ve collected, the amenities we have access to and the opportunities working at such a big company affords us, I can’t imagine how for release after release, EA continues to make the same embarrassing, anti-consumer mistakes. We should be better than this. You should not be failing us so badly.

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Nvidia GeForce 314.14 Beta Drivers Now Available to Download
Posted 03/04/2013 at 11:23am | by Paul Lilly at: www.maximumpc.com

Kotaku claims that the project has undergone "some tumultuous turns" after LucasFilm was acquired by Disney for $4 billion last year.

It is claimed that LucasArts' parent company had suddenly changed the studio's production path (likely to line up games against the next trilogy of films. The JJ Abrams-directed Star Wars Episode 7 is scheduled for a release in 2015.

"Three unrelated sources familiar with game development at LucasArts have all told us that development on the game has been frozen or put on hold," the Kotaku report claimed.

"That freeze has caused a game that was slated for a late 2013 release on next-gen platforms to potentially miss this year's E3 and to slide into next year."

LucasArts declined to comment on the specifics of the matter but insisted that the game has not been cancelled.

A company spokesperson said: "LucasArts has been working diligently to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities that the new Star Wars movies present."

The stand-alone PC game takes the WW2 setting of Sniper Elite V2 and introduces zombies as Hitler deploys his most terrifying weapon in a last ditch attempt to win the war.

Featuring four-player co-op for the first time in the series, Nazi Zombie Army is available to buy on Steam for £9.99 / €10.99 / $14.99.

Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley said, "We've self-published NZA as a stand-alone title, which has been enormously satisfying, and the response from both Sniper Elite fans and other gamers alike is fantastic. The whole new co-op focused campaign means you can enjoy blowing away demonic hordes with friends who might not already own Sniper Elite V2."