Brothers In Arms Furious 4 Announced [UPDATE] News

Ubisoft has announced Gearbox Software's Brothers In Arms Furious 4 at E3. The game is due for release in the first half of 2012 on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Gearbox's Randy Pitchford has been teasing a new Brothers In Arms game over the last year, so this announcement doesn't come as a massive surprise. What is slightly surprising, though, is the decision to stick with the World War II FPS setting that Brothers In Arms has classically used.

With every major publisher abandoning the WWII setting like a dry oil well on current-gen consoles, the decision to stick with it this far into the cycle seems a bit odd.

According to the press blurb, the story follows four soldiers as they attempt to track down Hitler through a campaign that will support 4 player co-op. "Special weaponry" and "unexpected combat abilities" are promised for the game as players attempt to fight off a top-secret "experimental Nazi army".

It all sounds a bit mysterious to be honest, which is possibly why Ubisoft states that Furious 4 will be "spinning the series in a new direction". Nonetheless, competitive multiplayer will run alongside the campaign to ensure that Furious 4 is a fully stocked FPS package.

"The Brothers in Arms franchise has been renowned for its gritty direction that has dropped players into the middle of World War II," said Adam Novickas, U.S. Director of Marketing at Ubisoft. "With Brothers in Arms Furious 4, Gearbox brings the action to a whole new level filled with unexpected twists and over-the-top battles that are sure to please new players and fans alike."

Gearbox also has Aliens: Colonial Marines and Borderlands on its books for SEGA and 2K Games respectively, so it'll be interesting to see whether the developer can hit that early-to-mid 2012 window its aiming for with Furious 4.

The last Brothers In Arms title, Hell's Highway suffered two years of delays in the end, so hopefully Furious 4 can avoid the the pitfalls of its predecessor.

Update: We've embedded a trailer below from Ubisoft's E3 conference that reveals the series' "new direction". If you could compare Brothers In Arms to TV's Band of Brothers in its previous iterations, then this one looks more like Quantin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. It's certainly an intriguing new angle, but can it sell the tired World War II setting? your thoughts in the comments...