John is the man to ask about upcoming Warhammer 40K MMO, Eternal Crusade. Or at least he's the right man to ask the questions of the people in the know, as he demonstrated last year when he interviewed Behaviour about their project. He discovered that Eternal Crusade is likely to be more Planetside than World of Warcraft, which makes sense. Space Marines don't quest, they WAR. It will be a game of territorial control, against both player-controlled enemies and NPCs. The first footage is available below, along with a teaser trailer. It's pre-alpha. The real kind, with grayboxes, stuttering and explosion animations plucked from 1952.

Is this burning, an Eternal Crusaaaade?

First up, we have a Marine enjoying a romantic sunrise on a death planet where the atmosphere literally chews exposed eyeballs until nothing is left but a bleeding nerve-stem.

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Next, how about a Chaos Rhino that appears to have broken tracks, shooting at some smoke?

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And here are the grayboxes, providing the backdrop to a battle between Marines and another Rhino. This one is cornered and soon falls to bits.

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How about some Jump Pack action?

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And wall jumping!

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And a bit more of that sort of thing.

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Very early footage indeed but on top of the incomplete nature of it all, it's not entirely clear what the short snippets are supposed to be demonstrating. Day/night cycles, vehicular combat and locational damage on armoured vehicles perhaps? Oh, and vertical level design with chainswords from above. It's all a little too hasty to gain much of an understanding.

Here's the teaser trailer.

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Founders packs, which will provide early access on a 'first come, first served' basis range from $40.00 to $450.000. The extra cash provides in-game currency, exclusive banners and the like. There are already 'limited' items available to buy with the currency.

It's a sad Friday when I end up being grumpy about 40K twice.