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THQ signs Ukranian shooter Metro 2033

Cross between S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Fallout 3.

THQ has become the publisher of promising Ukranian shooter Metro 2033, and plans a release on PC and Xbox 360 early next year.

Metro 2033 was revealed in a video at Germany's Games Convention in 2006, giving off an atmosphere sandwiched somewhere between S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Fallout 3. Given that the developer 4A Games consists of many former GSC (S.T.A.L.K.E.R. maker) employees, the similarities are understandable.

The key is the licence: a novel bearing the same name written by Dmitry Glukhovsky that has sold hundreds of thousands of copies in Russia, as has its recently released sequel.

Set in Moscow in 2033, the game follows a young chap called Artyom who, like the rest of his race, now lives underground in Metro City-Stations - colonies established after a terrible apocalypse turned the Earth's surface poisonous 20 years earlier.

He's not going to stay put for long, though, as a desperate event forces him outside the established boundaries on a quest that leads on and on and on.

The PC version of Metro 2033 will use NVIDIA PhysX graphics, but those are all the gameplay details we know.

There's a newer trailer on the official Metro 2033 website. Looks promising.

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