We are pleased to announce the release of the Trial version (available tomorrow) and Patch (available now) for Crash Commando. We released Crash Commando on the PlayStation Store last December for $9.99, and people who bought it seem to love it. We have been listening attentively to our loyal fanbase and have been improving the game in as many areas as we can.

For those of you who have not been brave enough to buy the game (what!! after our excellent reviews??) then now you can try a level in the single player offline mode. Just be aware, to get the most out of the game you need to go out and get online and frag everyone out there!!! But nevertheless we are sure that you will really enjoy it :o)

Here is a list of all the improvements we have made to the game:

• Home Game Launching Support
• BGM, custom soundtrack functionality
• Team auto balance
• Increased auto balancing intervals
• Rankings
• Added a Friends filter
• Added Country flags
• Matchmaking
• Added Country flags on found games
• Improved matchmaking game-browsing functionality
• Match details now displayed when selecting a game, so the player knows more of a game before choosing to join

Game play & UI enhancements:

• OSD icons are now pointing towards players carrying blocks in Espionage
• We now show icons for players with enabled mics
• We now display player ID labels when using the turret gun
• We now show health icons above team members
• Only team members with less than 100% health have the icon
• Only visible to team members equipped with the CAB
• We now show hostile mines
• Red flashing light turns on when activated
• “Blip” sound when in vicinity with volume increasing when the player gets closer to the mine
• Includes enemy mines and mines placed by the player
• The killed & suicide messages display icons instead of (“KILLED”,”DIED.”)
• Players can now see which weapon or vehicle that was used
• We now show icons for when the player is speaking
• Ingame next to ID label
• Lobby next to player slot
• We now show icons for when you are taunting other players
• Symbol above player ID label
• Aimline/aiming improvements
• Prevents vehicle aimline to go beyond aim limits to better illustrate where a vehicle can aim
• Voice Chat enabled by default

In the near future you can look forward to some all new exciting downloadable content and game modes. We appreciate your support and strive listen to your feedback.

Thanks for Playing!

The game modes:

DEATHMATCH and TEAM DEATHMATCH
Free-for-all frenzies or team-based skirmishes. Reach the target score first to win! In these modes, bots can be included offline as well as online.

MAP OBJECTIVES
Map Objectives is a game mode exclusive to multiplayer. It is based on having two teams – an attacking team and a defending team. The attackers have to meet set objectives while the defenders try to stop them.

A Map Objectives game is played in steps. At the beginning only some objectives are available, and by accomplishing them, new ones become available until they have all been met and the attackers win. Points are awarded to the attacking team depending on met objectives. The defenders can win by defending efficiently to force the time to run out, since the attackers have to meet objectives to gain extra time. This means that an efficient defense can cut an attack short.

There are two types of objectives games; Espionage and Sabotage:

ESPIONAGE: DATA TERMINALS
In Espionage, the attackers need to download data from four data terminals scattered across the map, and bring them home safely to be uploaded to HQ.

SABOTAGE: CONTROL PANELS
In Sabotage, the attackers need to destroy three clusters of control panels. Each cluster contains three panels and each is destroyed by running up to it and planting a bomb on them. It takes time for the bomb to go off so it is important to guard the panel until it does explode, since defenders otherwise can get there and defuse them.

Strategy tips:

As we have been playing the game like crazy, we have a few insider tips for you, so you can get an upper hand on people while they are busy figuring this out by themselves!

The number one tip that comes to mind is how to aim using the right stick! The best and easiest way to learn to get the bullets to end up where you want them – namely, in the bodies of your enemies – is to have the right stick constantly at a full tilt in the direction you want to aim, and adjust it using a circular motion. Basically you never should release the stick from full tilt while aiming and firing, unless you need that thumb of yours to, e.g., push a button to go to the other side or reload.

The second tip is to get to know each weapon’s strengths and weaknesses – knowing them, you will soon figure out how you can use the environments to your advantage with your weapon against your enemies.

The third tip is that C4 is a really good counter to vehicles because when they’re attached to a vehicle (or soldier J), they kill instantly when detonated.

The fourth tip is to keep track of your jetpack fuel meter since you do have a limited supply that begins to regenerate quickly when you’re back on your feet again. You use it to get to higher grounds as well as in a very useful move called “spinning.” To spin, push the left stick down and slightly left or to the right while pushing the jetpack button, and you will spin away quickly in the chosen direction as long as you still have jetpack fuel left.

The last tip is to actually select your survival bonuses when you receive them during a game. You don’t want to miss out on them – they can give you regenerative health (together with a small max health boost), faster running speed, or quicker jetpacks and the ability to kill people by spinning near them. And you can have all three at the same time, if you manage to earn it.

Finally

We have been playing against the “same-old” players for quite a while now, and we really look forward to be playing the game with and against new players online for greater challenges (the Sony producers are easy meat). We might have the upper hand for a little time until you get the hang of it, but after that we are counting on getting our butts kicked.

If you have any questions about the game, we will try to answer them as best we can on the blog.

We hope to see you online – let the frag-fest begin! The game is available on PSN tomorrow for $9.99, so what are you waiting for?

As this is the first game from us as a company — we know most of you have never heard about EPOS at all before. EPOS Game Studios is a small studio located in Sweden with a 5-man production team — with main occupations being split up between 2 programmers, 2 artists and a sound guy.

The idea
The initial idea for Crash Commando was inspired by a lot of different titles over the last two decades. One game that springs to mind is JETPAC on the old Commodore VIC-20. The challenge was to create a fun game that clearly flirts with the retro genre, giving the players the opportunity to play in teams or against each other in real-time, incorporating the depth of a modern game while maintaining the retro core values.

Features at a glance:

• Frantic, adrenaline-pumping gameplay with exaggerated, slapstick violence!
• Fight on the ground and in the air, using jetpacks or in vehicles!
• Choose between several varying weapons, super weapons and stationary weapon systems!
• 8 maps!
• 1-12 players online play!
• Team-based and deathmatch game modes!
• Single-player vs bots game modes!
• Trophies!
• Online ranking boards!
• Player Profile with persistent stats and Duty Records!
• Voice support!

Crash Commando is primarily a multiplayer game, but it also provides a single-player component that will give you many hours of satisfaction playing the two single-player modes, which will also get you ready for online battles. In Boot Camp you can engage in 16 preset missions, and in Custom Game you can create custom games and play against easy, medium and hard bots. The game also supports host migration in the multiplayer modes, which means that a game created will continue running as long as there are any players left in the game, even if the game creator leaves.

We’ll be back next week with details on specific game modes and some great strategy tips! In the meantime, here’s a quick background on us:

Olof: “Like many others, I started playing video games during the eighties and after a few years of constant gaming I, together with three other guys, founded a games company called DICE. We kicked off with our first title, Pinball Dreams, which was well received by fellow gamers around the world and a game that I very much enjoyed playing myself. After about 15 years, DICE had become quite a giant and I felt I wanted to get back to the roots of game development. Therefore Staffan Langin, another DICE founder, and I teamed up and started EPOS. My role in the production of Crash Commando has been to compose all music and create the SFX, as well as functioning as CEO. I also came up with the original game idea, but the game was thereafter detailed by our eminent game designer Jan Almqvist.”

Magnus: “I used to work at DICE as well and after several years making games there, the productions grew bigger and bigger and somehow during that process the focus shifted off the actual games into addressing administrative and structural problems common in large-scale productions. So I quickly got really interested in the challenge that Olof and Staffan was presenting of taking part in starting up this new smaller studio forming a small tight development team where the focus of all involved was back into making fun games. My role in the production of Crash Commando has been as project-lead and lead programmer.”