With its servers, Steam page and website down (and having had trouble paying staff before firing most of them), it looks like this is the end for ambitious online shooter Firefall.

According to a statement made by his rep, the actor and athlete Lee Reherman, best known for his role as Hawk on the original series of American Gladiators, has passed away at the age of 49.

Red 5 Studios went to a lot of trouble to make some real-life outfits based on their online shooter Firefall, so it's understandable they went and made a live-action trailer for the game's impending public debut.

There is nothing more mundane in the world of video game marketing than the bullet-point announcement. Unless the game's developers go to the trouble of kinda realising this, and dressing the "news" up as an excuse to make a neat little video where everybody who works there gets to pretend they're about to give the…

The cinematic intro to multiplayer PC shooter Firefall has just been released. And unlike previous pieces from the game, there's no shooting in it whatsoever.

Red 5's Firefall is an upcoming shooter whose development is being led by Mark Kern, former Team Lead on World of Warcraft. All we've seen lately about the game is some cosplay, so let's get back to basic with gameplay footage. Two hours of it.

You may have noticed a few websites around the place pledge to "shut down" on January 18 in protest against the awful Stop Online Piracy Act. That's all well and good, but now Red 5 Studios, the developers behind the upcoming Firefall, are doing it as well. Thing is, they're shutting down their video game.

To help shill their upcoming Firefall, Red 5 Studios is employing two models to play the part of the game's characters at press events and shows. One is cosplayer Crystal Graziano, who Red 5 is also sponsoring for a full year. The other is not a cosplayer. He's an actor and...American Gladiator.

Regular readers of our Fancy Pants cosplay feature here on Kotaku will be familiar with the phenomenal work of Crystal Graziano. From Metal Gear to Valkyria Chronicles, she’s one of the most recognisable and successful video game cosplayers around. So much so that her work is now being professionally sponsored.

Firefall is an upcoming co-op shooter for the PC, made by Red 5 Studios, which is helmed by the guy who was team lead on World of Warcraft. So it should know what it's doing when it comes to online gaming.

Firefall is an online shooter that is quietly pushing a lot of people's buttons. Which is what happens when you pitch an online, co-op shooter that looks a lot like classic jetpack simulator Tribes.

Orange County, California might be bland, confesses one developer of Red 5's team-based shooter Firefall, but the game certainly is not. Armor-bound medics squirt now de rigueur healing ribbons that glow a pale green to extrude life back into teammates wearing primary yellow or red that's too busy for G or B.

For a game that the developer will be handing out for free, Firefall looks impressively promising. The large scale team-based online shooter—don't call it an MMO—is certainly pretty from way up here.

Video game designer Dave Perry predicted a few years ago that a day would come when a company released a high quality game you'd expect to pay full price for but will play for free. It would change everything.

So what if it's Dune, Starship Troopers and Tribes thrown in a blender. This cinematic trailer for the multiplayer shooter looks expensive, and sure is pretty.

Red 5 Studios, the developer founded by former World of Warcraft team lead Mark Kern, finally unveiled its long-in-the-making online shooter, Firefall today. The free-to-play futuristic action game also has a futuristic release date.