Spotlight
Digital FoundryFace-Off: Bodycount
Fade to Black.
Digital FoundryBodycount PS3/360 Performance Analysis Video
Screen-tear. Lots of it. On both consoles.
Digital FoundryBodycount PS3/360 Face-Off Video
Head-to-head comparisons of Codies' debut action FPS.
Surprisingly low.
Key events
19th April 2012
13th January 2012
Laid-off programmer details "unlawful" last days at Bodycount studio
14th September 2011
3rd September 2011
3rd September 2011
3rd September 2011
2nd September 2011
31st August 2011
5th August 2011
29th June 2011
24th June 2011
14th June 2010
9th March 2010
Codemasters announces Codemasters Racing label
Operation Flashpoint KIA as publisher focuses exclusively on racing games.
UPDATE: Codemasters has been in touch to clarify its Codemasters Racing announcement.
Codemasters remains the name of the company. Codemasters Racing is a new label, which launches alongside DiRT Showdown, and will be the home of Codies' racing brands: DiRT, F1 and GRID.
ORIGINAL STORY: Codemasters is no more: meet Codemasters Racing.
Laid-off programmer details "unlawful" last days at Bodycount studio
UPDATED: Codemasters responds.
A former Codemasters employee has accused the publisher of imposing unlawful working conditions and threatening laid-off staff with bankruptcy proceedings for not returning wages "mistakenly" paid to them.
Semi Essessi, a programmer who worked on 2011 first-person shooter at the publisher's now defunct Guildford studio, contacted Eurogamer to detail a long list of grievances held against his former employer.
Codemasters has now responded to these allegations.
EU PlayStation Store update 14th Sept
From Dust! Renegade Ops! God of War!
All hail god game From Dust, which headlines this week's update to the EU PlayStation Store.
Ubisoft's beautiful Caribbean sandbox was showered with a delightful 9/10 in Eurogamer's From Dust review.
But perhaps you fancy something with more firepower. Then meet Renegade Ops, a twin-stick vehicular shooter from Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios.
Codemasters closing Bodycount dev
Staff just told. Pub to focus on racing.
Codemasters has told Eurogamer it is "proposing to retire" the studio responsible for lacklustre shooter Bodycount.
UK Top 40: Deus Ex deflects Driver: SF
Bodycount bungles into 36th.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution has defended its UK chart top spot from dream-world racer Driver: San Francisco.
Digital FoundryFace-Off: Bodycount
Fade to Black.
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Xbox 360
PlayStation 3
Digital FoundryBodycount PS3/360 Performance Analysis Video
Screen-tear. Lots of it. On both consoles.
Digital FoundryBodycount PS3/360 Face-Off Video
Head-to-head comparisons of Codies' debut action FPS.
Surprisingly low.
You can tell a lot about a game from its Achievements. After one hour and six minutes of playing Bodycount, it had doled out 335 points. Not only are the names uninspired ('Boombastic' - really?) but they're handed out in great chunks for standard progression. Unlock a new ability, another 50 points. That's not generosity - it's desperation.
Bodycount is a desperately average FPS, a poorly-conceived and barely finished rush-job entering the most over-saturated genre around. It has a campaign clocking in at around four hours, a multiplayer mode that redefines bare bones, enemies that don't respond to your presence, and a frankly terrible line in costumes.
This was supposed to be Black's spiritual sequel - a line that Codemasters has been playing down since the departure of Bodycount's spookily-named former project lead Stuart Black. But Bodycount loses out in every way to Black, a game released five years ago on last-generation hardware. There's no point in dwelling on the comparison just to stick the boot in, but you wonder why it was made in the first place.
EU PlayStation Store update 31st August
The Baconing! Bodycount! Resistance 3!
Downloadable DeathSpank threequel The Baconing headlines this week's EU PlayStation Store update. As part of Sony's PlayStation Network Play promotion, co-op character Roesha comes unlocked.
The plot picks up from part two, with DeathSpank's dabbling with the Thongs of Virtue causing the appearance of an evil clone, the Anti-Spank, which must be defeated.
PlayStation 3 owners get a demo of Codemasters' destructible shooter Bodycount, while access to the Resistance 3 multiplayer beta opens up to all.
Driver! Bodycount! Mortal Kombat!
This week sees the return of a long-running racing series, pitted against the birth of a new shooter IP.
VideoBodycount dev diary talks multiplayer
Co-op and competitive blown open.
Co-op and competitive blown open.
VideoBodycount live action spoof vid
Freddie Wong runs and guns.
Freddie Wong runs and guns.
Sample Codemasters' OTT shooter.
A Bodycount demo has just arrived on Xbox Live, Microsoft has announced.
VideoBodycount behind the bullets video
Codemasters explores the game's world.
Codemasters explores the game's world.
The numbers game.
A few years back, when DICE was sitting down and putting together its plans for domination of the first-person shooter genre - plans that may well come to fruition later this year - it peered into the future and asked: what's the one feature that all first-person shooter games will have?
VideoBodycount trailer is fully orchestrated
Codies shooter faces the music.
VideoFresh Bodycount footage takes point
Codemasters talks gun gameplay.
Codemasters talks gun gameplay.
Bodycount release date announced
Get your frag on in September.
Codemasters first-person shooter Bodycount launches in Europe on 2nd September 2011.
It releases in the US on 30th August.
The final box art has been set, and is below for your viewing pleasure.
VideoBodycount gameplay footage shoots in
Codemasters' shooter aims for autumn.
Codies denies Bodycount dev woe rumour
"The money's not run out," says director.
Andrew Wilson, the game director for Bodycount, has hit back at claims that the first-person shooter has suffered from high-profile departures, rumours that suggest a troubled development, and launch delays.
FeatureBodycount: “We wanted to do something different”
Codemasters’ shooter prepares to emerge from cover.
Bodycount's been no stranger to adversity: Codemasters' spiritual sequel to Black has seen the departure of some important team members, and been the subject of plenty of rumour regarding missed milestones and brutal crunch periods. With the project finally headed to a late summer release, we caught up with game director Andrew Wilson to get his perspective on a troubled development – and to see what's driving this ambitious shooter.
Latest Bodycount screenshots tallied
A fresh look at Codemasters' upcoming FPS.
A fresh look at Codemasters' upcoming FPS.
Hunters dev reveals triple-A woes
Ex-Bodycount staffer heads for iPad.
One of the founders of UK powerhouse mobile phone studio Rodeo has railed against the frustrations of creating triple-A video games.
VideoBodycount takes on Target teaser
Deadly new foe, not U.S. retailer.
Deadly new foe, not U.S. retailer.
Abacus not included.
Bodycount approaches the FPS genre a little differently to the real world shooters we've been bombarded with of late. In fact, says game director Andy Wilson, there's been a deliberate decision to move away from what has become a familiar formula.
Black promises "rock and roll" WWII FPS
Plus, dishes dirt on Bodycount departure.
Ex-Codemasters man Stuart Black has let slip a little more information about the "rock and roll" WWII shooter he's now working on for Sniper: Ghost Warrior studio, City Interactive.
Adrian Bolton exits Codemasters
Bodycount now due early summer 2011.
The general manager of Codemasters Guildford, the developer behind shooter Bodycount, has left the British publisher, Eurogamer can exclusively reveal.
Stuart Black to leave Codies in Oct
Bodycount executive producer already gone.
Stuart Black, the outspoken creator of cult first-person shooter Black, will leave British publisher Codemasters in October, Eurogamer can exclusively reveal.
Resident Crackdown: Solid.
When your game's title music is provided by electro noiseniks Holy F***, some might call that a happy co-incidence. I prefer to think of it as Bodycount's mission statement.
Stuart Black's mental FPS.
None more Black.
If ever a man reflected the character of the game he was making, it's Stuart Black, the wild creative lead behind Codemasters' gun porn shooter Bodycount. Loud, effervescent, uncompromising, relentless, engaging, destructive. If his mouth was a gun, energetic banter with the silver-haired Scot would end with your brains smeared over the wall.
Maths market shooter.
Maths market shooter.
Codemasters unveils Bodycount FPS
Made by Black creator Black. Due 2011.
Stuart Black, co-creator of Criterion's superb game Black, is making a new first-person shooter for Codemasters called Bodycount.
He is creative director and his project is scheduled for release on PS3 and Xbox 360 in Q1 2011.
Set in the present day, Bodycount follows the story of a no-questions-asked task force ordered to kill "Targets" on behalf of a "Network". Destructible cover will feature, as will online multiplayer and co-op.
