Icarus Studios, co-developer of the first-person-shooter/MMO hybrid Fallen Earth, announced restructuring plans recently, noting widespread staff cuts.

Fallen Earth, co-developed by Icarus and Fallen Earth LLC, released in September of 2009 and James Hettinger, CEO of Icarus Studios, made the announcement on its official website recently, expressing the situation.

“The steps were taken to maintain the growth, continued development and profitability of Fallen Earth,” the statement read.

The two companies will keep core staff, but the total number of employees has dropped from 110 to 35.

Jessica Orr, marketing manager on the project, speaking with Massively, said “We have a core team comprised of folks from the departments, and we’re eager to push forward on our goals and milestones.”

I guess it’s hard to make money in the MMO genre with this guy always looming in the shadows.

Source: Joystiq

Yep. Fallen Earth is going to fix up it’s post apocalyptic Earth.

The environment is getting upgraded so as to heighten player immersion.

The visuals looks like they enhance the environmental aspects, sharpen the textures and add more detail to resolution quality and enhance the appearance and atmosphere of the game.

Leaving no environmental element untouched, developers have also incorporated distinctive cloud movement and have further taken a look at fog effects.

Improvements on the existing fog equation now enable fog to build up more gradually, distance-wise, to players, creating a more realistic and layered appearance.

I don’t personally play the game, but if any of you do then let us know what you think about the upgrades (and whether you noticed them at all).

Players should be excited! They can now acces Fallen Earth via their iPhone. The iPhone app allows playesr to have constant access to Fallen Earth and allow them to view their in-game stats, mutations and trade skills, as wel as provide access to equipped and stored items. The release is scheduled for the first part of 2010.

For those of you who don’t know what Fallen Earth is, here’s a summary of the premise: The deadly Shiva virus has decimated the population by 99%. 2156 years after the virus struck, the Grand Canyon is the last citadel of humanity. Inhabitants must choose to ally with one of the remaining factions or rally against them. You can re-build the human race or destroy it. The choice is yours. Sound interesting? Look into it!

With the iPhone app coming out, hardcore players will love the opportunity to check their stats on the go.

Fallen Earth LLC, the team behind the MMO of the same name (sans LLC), today announced a special and limited All Hallows’ Eve event going down in the expanses of the FPS/MMO hybrid.

The “Days of the Dead” event began last Friday, runs through Halloween, and lets gamers slay zombies to receive special weapons including a signature shotgun, sawed-off shotgun and a cricket bat.

If you’re not a subscriber to the game and want to try it out, signing up for the 15-day free trial will not exclude you from participating in the zombie hunt. Thank goodness!

“We wanted to give fans some fun, seasonal activities,” said Jessica Orr, marketing manager for Fallen Earth. “Halloween is a perfect time to give our players a chance to be creative as they make costumes and knock-off a population of zombies.”

Venture to the Fallen Earth official site for more on this event and the game in general.

The FPS/MMO hybrid, Fallen Earth, is set to hit physical shelves and digital warehouses this coming Tuesday, but if you want to play right now, look no further than digital download powerhouse Steam.

The digital video game purveyor is now accepting pre-purchases on the title and those who do so will earn access to the game right today, no waiting necessary.

“We are excited to bring Fallen Earth to Steam’s thriving community of subscribers,” said Jessica Orr, product manager for Fallen Earth. “The Steam partnership gives our fans more choices and flexibility for purchase.”

What’s more, if you do throw down the $50 to pre-purchase the game, you’ll earn an in-game Steam t-shirt good enabling you+5 bonus to the Scavenging, Nature and Geology skills helpful when harvesting materials as well as 10+ bonus to the Social skill, enabling your character to get minor discounts from merchants.

We’ve played Fallen Earth and more than enjoyed our time in the post-apocalyptic world, and for anyone already sold, why not pick up these extras?

Pre-Purchase Fallen Earth on Steam

Fallen Earth LLC, the publisher behind the game of the same name (sans LLC) today announced that the FPS/MMO hybrid will not release today as previously scheduled.

The PC project, which we played and loved, will now hit shelves and digital spaces two weeks later on September 22.

“Our main focus is to make sure that Fallen Earth is easily accessible to as many fans as possible,” said Jessica Orr, product manager for Fallen Earth. “We are working on initiatives that are near fruition and we simply need more time.”

Hmm, another game releases on the 22nd, but what is it? Oh, right, Halo 3: ODST. Good luck Fallen Earth.

The launch of The Fallen Earth will be delayed until September 15, 2009. The Fallen Earth team is continuing work on their server and client optimizations along with a few graphic improvements. The beta testers have noticed several areas which could be tweaked and the changes will not delay testers in the Open Beta experience. Those who pre-ordered the game will be able to gain early access to the game on September 9^th. Are you curious about our thoughts on the game? Read our preview piece here.

Fallen Earth LLC, the parent company being the game of the same name, today announced that an open beta for the post-apocalyptic and open world MMO/FPS hybrid drops a mere 5 days from now on August 17.

All you must do to secure your pretty little self a spot in the beta is sign up at FilePlanet beginning August 14 at 1PM EST.

The game has been in closed beta for some time now, and our very own Joe G has delved into the chaos and lived to tell the tale of Fallen Earth. Check out his very hands-on preview right here.

“The Open Beta and Pre-Order programs give a much larger group of players the opportunity to experience Fallen Earth,” says Jessica Orr, product manager for Fallen Earth. “We are excited that players want to get a jump on the game, and we are including a little something extra for being among the first to order.”

That “something extra”? That’d be the “Wasteland Runner” mount, a guaranteed spot in the open beta, and access to the full game 5 days before everyone else beginning September 5, but is exclusive to Direcr2Drive pre-orderers.

This weekend only, Fallen Earth,the ambitious FPS/MMO hybrid is hosting a virtual “Dev Hunt” and is awarding headhunters some pretty top notch prizes.

Beginning this Saturday August 8 and running for an extremely limited 3 hours from noon to 3PM EDT gamers can wage war against members of the development team and take home a high end video card, Logitech gaming keyboard, Razer gaming mice, and tons and tons of Fallen Earth swag.

Current testers, including our very own Joe G,who threw you this hands-on preview already, are already signed up for the promo, and everyone else can sign up at this page to enlist in the virtual firefight. Enjoy!

Look for Fallen Earth this September on PC everywhere

Fallen Earth Dev Hunt FAQ

The dynamic and genre-busting Fallen Earth MMO/FPS hybrid set in a gritty post-apocalyptic setting from publisher FALLEN EARTH LLC (see what they did there?) now has a release date.

What is now becoming a heavy-set September, now has another title among its ranks. On September 9, 2009, Fallen Earth will hit physical shelves and digital warehouses exclusively for PC, and if you’ve had your buttons pushed by our hands-on preview, you just might want to try this one on for size.

If you must have your up-to-the-minute news, beginning today, www.FallenEarth.com features some nifty countdown happenings with gorgeous assets and the like to stare at. ooooh prettttty.

Fallen Earth LLC, the guys behind the MMO of the same name (sans LLC) today announced a partnership with IGN’s Fileplanet download service in preparation of the games’ impending launch.

Beginning June 23 (tomorrow), but available for pre-load now for Fileplanet members, the Fallen Earth official stress test by way of hopeful increased usership will commence and will allow the development team to confirm launch capabilities of the network infrastructure. So what it sounds like to me, is that if all of you screaming MMO fans race to the expanses of the FPS/MMO hybrid and it crashes and burns, we might just be due for a delay of sorts.

Our own Joe Godlewsky was granted early access to the title, and his hands-on preview can (although you really should) be read here.

A note: you have to be a paying member of Fileplanet to enjoy the beta, so either open that wallet, or miss out.

Fallen Earth stress test/beta signup page

Icarus Studio’s new title, Fallen Earth, is set to bring an exciting new twist on the massively-multiplayer online role-playing game genre, taking place at a post-apocalyptic Grand Canyon and drawing from both the RPG and first-person shooter genres. The Fallen Earth universe takes place in the year 2156, after the deadly Shiva Virus has wiped out almost all of the human population and nuclear war has left the Earth as nothing but a desolate wasteland. Of the humans who survived, there are now six factions that dominate the region “" some allied with each other, but many at war. You have the option of aligning yourself with the faction of your choice, at the cost of being attacked on sight by rival factions.

Many unique features are available in this new title, ranging from special abilities to offensive and defensive mutations to exotic weaponry, and I was lucky enough to experience these by gaining access to the game’s closed beta event.

Once the game loaded I was presented with the character creation screen (the beta client lacked an opening cinematic), which is by far one of the most detailed character creation systems I have seen. First you select a sex and name for your character (you also have the option of creating a last name if you so choose), and then are able to manipulate your character’s features in a multitude of ways.

There are twenty-five face shapes alone to choose from, and then you have the option of make you character look progressively older, from a youthful teen to a wrinkly, grandfatherly figure. A large variety of skin tones and hair styles, from liberty spikes to a comb-over, are available as well. The feature I liked most here was the ability to add multiple piercings to the ears, eyebrows, and even the tongue, as well as a variety of tattoos and body paintings to the face. The rest of the body didn’t have as much in-depth customization, which really isn’t a shame since it will be covered in an assortment of armor anyways. However, you do have the option of additional tattoos on the arms and legs, as well as choosing the character’s t-shirt and sneaker styles.

The user interface is pretty advanced and very user friendly. Almost every window you open has the ability to be resized, dragged to another location, and have its opacity changed. At start, the chat box is fairly large, but it is fairly customizable so this provided me an excuse to play with it. The top left of the screen provides information regarding your character: your name, health, stamina, and gamma (used for mutation skills), and experience bar. The top right shows your mini-map, which shows quest icons, non-player characters, gathering locations and an interesting little perk “" a meter that measures the volume of sound you are producing, to help you be stealthy. The action bar is pretty customizable as well. You can elongate it as well as create multiple bars and key-map each of them; however, as of this time you are unable to separate the bars from each other.

You play your character in Fallen Earth mainly in third-person view, including combat, though you do have the option to switch to first-person. This is typical of most RPGs, however, combat draws from the FPS genre and uses a circular reticle “" the first feature I didn’t like. When wielding melee weapons this seems to fit “" no problems so far. Though as soon as you use ranged weapons (for example, your starting crossbow or zipguns) combat gets a little aggravating. I am not at all used to playing an FPS game from the third-person view, so part of this has to do with my gaming history, but it was simply difficult and “clunky.” It’s possible to switch back and forth between views between fights, but this is more of an annoyance than anything. Certain weapons do offer the chance to look down the sights, such as scoped rifles, and this efficiently eliminates the problem.

Though at first this is a minor annoyance, you do get used to it and are able to appreciate the unique qualities of the combat and weapon systems. The types of weapons available to your character are vast, ranging from wooden planks to swords to sub-machine guns and sniper rifles. Many weapons also offer the chance to further customize them, and all of them eventually take durability damage and must be fixed. All of these weapons are able to be crafted and maintained by the player through trade skills, which I will explain in more depth later on, or bought from others.

One of my favorite aspects of the game is the ability to equip not one, but six weapons at once! You have six weapon slots to fill up, which you can cycle through at any point, from the two-handed weapon slot over your back to fitting pistols on either side of your hip. There is nothing like shooting a giant spider with a crossbow and then running up and whacking the bug with a two-by-four. You are able to cycle through weapons by holding the Control key and either pressing the corresponding slot number (1 through 6) or by scrolling your mouse wheel. During the beta test, however, there seemed to be a glitch that would pop up from time to time when using the mouse wheel to select the weapons.

Similar to the advanced weapon selection is the gear selection, which boasts the ability to fill 19 armor slots. There is an incredible variety of armor in Fallen Earth, starting with cargo pants and bandanas, but eventually you’ll find old Kevlar and be able to craft top-end protective equipment. Each piece of gear protects against vulnerabilities to certain types of incoming damage, but no one set protects against everything, so multiple pieces of gear will be needed for different situations. During my testing I was able to craft myself a nice set of starting gear, donning some cargo shorts, a bandana, and some black fingerless gloves “" the regular, post-apocalyptic bandit!

The Apocalypse is great, just dandy; but what about the post-apocalypse? That’s where I hear the fun is at.

Fallen Earth, the aptly named persistent online MMORPG is due out at the end of this coming September and will join the ranks of the increasing competition in the expansive MMO space, but why play this one instead of anything else?

That decision is ultimately up to you, but if I’ve learned anything in my short video game career, it’s that visuals and pre-release allure based on said visuals will sell a game before we’ve even got our hands on it.‚  That said; check out these screens below, detailing enemies, environments and all things post-apocalyptic from Fallen Earth.

Bone Claw Sewers

Sewers 2

Cave of Beast

Porkupine...Jeeze that's scary

Hoffa Bunker

Post Apocalyptic

Could be you!