PUCKVPUCK hits Early Access on November 5 - here's everything new

PUCKVPUCK launches in Early Access on Thursday, November 5. Thank you to everyone who played the demo and the playtest: a lot of what's coming started as your bug reports and your "what if". Here's everything that's new since the demo.

SOCCER: THREE WILD PITCHES

Three brand-new soccer maps that fight back - they sit first in the map list:

• FOOSBALL: the match is played inside a foosball table. The rods spin and KICK - they'll fire the ball at your goal, and the front rods will strip the ball off a carrier.
• THE RINK: soccer on ice. No brakes, bouncy boards, a black hockey-puck ball - and an ice resurfacer that laps the rink every so often and shoves anyone in its way.
• TILT: every 20 seconds the whole pitch tips and everything slides downhill. Get two goals ahead and the tilts start turning against you.

ZOMBIES: A NEW GAME TYPE

PVE is its own game type now. One to four of you, on one screen or online, hold HOLLOW HILL against the dead for as long as you can.

• Earn cash for every kill. Spend it on guns off the walls, the LUCKY CRATE, doors to new parts of the map, ammo and perks.
• PUCK ME UP upgrades your gun, and then upgrades it again.
• A boss every five waves up to wave 20. From wave 25 they come back stronger, with new attacks.
• Adopt a zombie of your own. It follows you, bites for you and grows every fifth wave.
• Late in a run: traps, a forge, a BLOOD MOON every fifth wave, a perk machine that might help or hurt, and a bounty board.
• New to it? A 3-minute ZOMBIES tutorial walks you through cash, wall guns, doors, the DASH and reviving a friend.
• Your best wave is kept for every difficulty and player count. Steam achievements at waves 20, 30, 40 and 50.
• There are a few things in HOLLOW HILL we're not going to tell you about.

SHOOTER: RIDES, GUN GAME, THE ARSENAL AND FOUR NEW MAPS

RIDES. Every minute or so a ride is called onto the map - the spot is marked a few seconds ahead, and the first puck to touch it rides it:

• THE MOTORBIKE is the fastest thing in the arena. It carves instead of strafing, and it's a battering ram: hit someone at speed and they take a big chunk of damage and go flying.
• THE HORSE strafes like a puck, and BOOST makes it LEAP - over cover, over pucks, across the CYBERPUNK alley - and land in a STOMP. Come up behind it and it kicks you.
• A ride runs out after half a minute or so, and it can be taken from you: a heavy hit (a blast, a ram, the harpoon, the ball cannon) throws the rider off and leaves the ride for anyone to grab.

GUN GAME. Every kill moves you up to the next gun, through 22 weapons - first to the top wins, free-for-all or in teams. The rides join in: a ride kill climbs a rung too (just not the last one).

Seven new guns sit on the pads: CROSSBOW, NAIL GUN, FLAMETHROWER, HARPOON, DISC, BALL CANNON and LASER. Four new maps go first in the list:

• SNOWLINE EXPRESS: two railway lanes through the middle, and a train every 22 seconds.
• HIGH TIDE: an old sea fort on a sandbar. The tide comes in and floods the sand - grab something that floats.
• THIN ICE: no grip, an ice resurfacer doing laps, and the ice cracks open.
• BIG HOUSE: toy-sized pucks in a giant living room, and a robot vacuum that hunts you down, then goes home to recharge.

Kill streaks got wilder too: the BLACK HOLE now swirls everything into an orbit and swallows anything loose, paint included, and every minute or so a free streak reward drops onto the floor for whoever gets there first (you can switch STREAK DROPS off in the lobby).

The four older maps got new tricks:

• WILD WEST: HIGH NOON, TNT every 90 seconds, and rolling kegs.
• PAINTBALL: a piñata with a power gun inside, and a giant beach ball that bowls you over.
• CYBERPUNK: sky shuttles, a ramp to jump the alley on a bike, and a bounty drone.
• LASER TAG: mirrors that turn, an overcharge pylon, and BANK SHOT.

ALSO NEW

• A new title screen and main menu: pick a game type and you're one press from a match.
• 13 new Steam achievements (19 in all).
• HOW TO PLAY covers ZOMBIES and every new map.
• The lobby fits a 1280x720 screen properly.
• Lots of fixes for online play, and a memory leak that slowly built up over long sessions is gone.

PUCKVPUCK launches in Early Access on November 5, 20% off for its first week. Wishlist it now and Steam will tell you the moment it's out. Grab your crew.