The DLC pack can be purchased for $4.99, or you can purchase the 3 individual packs for $1.99 each. The full game is priced at $9.99, and there’s even a demo so you can try before you by.

For more on the update, once again here’s John McLaughlin from Xdev Studio Europe to give you a rundown. Looking forward to seeing you online soon!!

Hello to all Crash Commandos,

Well I asked you all to go easy on my last time, but it looks like no one took any notice of my begging. :o)

I hope you are enjoying the new maps and characters…I’ve been hearing the Colonel taking about some lederhosen and had the Ninja chop me like Sushi!

Well I know it hasn’t been long since the last one, but we have another patch coming your way. This fixes a couple of things we have noticed since the last build and adds in some rumble support!

I’ll be seeing you all online – and remember, “Hurts so bad, feels so good.” :o)

• Sound fix for issues where various sounds are not being played at all
• Unlock Heist Map Pack fix
• Now unlocks the Heist Map Pack properly when purchasing it within the game’s online store.
• Heist cash bag fix
• Corrected detection of when players and other players bots are removed from the game taking the cash bag with them.
• DUALSHOCK 3 Vibration support
• Added rumble for player weapons, near player explosions, player vehicle weapons, player vehicle collision impacts, weapon impacts on the player etc.
• To avoid any new text issues the game only acknowledges the on/off setting of vibrations the player can set in the system’s controller settings.

John

Attention, Commandos :o)

First of all I’d like to thank the Crash Commando community who are still out there kicking my butt when I manage to find the time to grab a quick game.

I’m pleased to announce that on August 27 we will be releasing a new patch and some new content that I’m sure you will all love.

We are always looking for feedback and listening to what you guys are saying about Crash Commando. We’ve been taking your comments on board and will be releasing a patch with the following improvements:

• Rebalanced primary weapons
• Portraits of the characters on the standing screen
• Access to the online store within the game
• Specific invert axis option for the turret gun
• Improved sound output levels
• Taunt animation when standing still added for original characters
• Improved BOT AI

As well as that we have a bunch of cool new downloadable add-ons for you.

First of all there are the New Recruits, 6 new characters for you to choose from. Each package comes with 2 characters that have a ton of attitude and plenty to say for themselves.

Colonel Chaos & Army Chick

Get to der choppaaaa with these two characters. The Colonel is a beefy guy so you best watch out for his lederhosen, and Army Chick may look cute but she packs a mean array of weaponry.

Nukem Ninja & Maid Mayhem

Who’d have thought Ninjas would be so good with Rocket Launchers?? Well the Ninjas in Crash Commando are….As for our resident French maid…..all I will say if you have a moustache then you may be in line for a date ;o)

Gangster Rapper & Reggae Rasta

Which is best – Rap or Reggae? Well these two guys like to argue with big guns rather than clever lyrics. Why don’t you help them win their argument!!!

We will also be releasing the Heist Map Pack. This contains 2 new large maps for you to wreak destruction on and the all new Heist game mode will test your crash Commando skills to the limit!!

Grab the bag of cash and get to the safe to deposit it. But beware, the bag is heavy and you won’t be able to use any weapons. You have to rely on your team mates for covering fire to keep your opponents away and see you win the day. If you buy this pack you also get to play Heist mode on all the standard maps too. And don’t forget, this pack will add a new bunch of Trophies for you to collect!!

That’s all from me. Remember, keep firing and keep feeding back – we love to read your comments on the game. Oh and do me a favour….next time I’m online, go easy on me :o)

The full game is out now for $9.99, and there is a demo to try it out before you buy. The new map pack will be available this Thursday for $2.99 (trailer below), and each of the three character packs will be available for $1.99. Or, you can pick up the maps and all of the new characters for a steal at $4.99.

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.”