Sniper Elite 3 announced, Rebellion focused on "more of a sandbox game"

Adjusting their scope, accounting for wind, and holding their breath to steady their aim, 505 Games fired a series of bullets, each engraved with the message: "Hello, Sniper Elite 3 exists and we are publishing it." Those bullets travelled whole kilometres, eventually piercing the soft casings of PS3, Xbox 360 and the next-generation upgrades of both. The PC looked on aghast, thinking "Hang on! Why am I not in your crosshair?"

Just then, it too was hit square in the hard-drive, this time with a bullet direct from the Rebellion rifle. This one had the message : "Hello, yes Sniper Elite 3 is coming to PC too. It's just we're self-publishing it. Like we did with all the other Sniper Elite games." It was a much larger bullet.

"Sniper Elite V2 was just the beginning of what we want to do with the franchise, there are things we didn't have time to do before that we can really look at featuring this time," says Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley, presumably sans rifle. "We want to focus on making this latest incarnation of Sniper Elite more of a sandbox game but also build on the awesome X-Ray Kill Cam and the atmospheric World War 2 setting."

Given that its a multiplatform release targeting next-gen consoles too, just imagine what Rebellion could do with their gruesome slow-mo gore-cam? Maybe this time we'll get to see what each dispatched Nazi had for lunch as their organs are graphically mutilated by your well aimed bullets. Hopefully not though. That would be horrible.

My distaste at the X-Ray gimmick aside, a more sandbox oriented battlefield is exactly the direction I'd love to see Sniper Elite take. V2 had some marvellous sniping physics, but hobbled them with a mostly linear campaign that too often devolved into corridors of pop-up shooting. A larger, more open set of levels sounds like the perfect antidote.

Sniper Elite is planned for a 2014 release, meaning there's plenty more time for questionable sniper analogies.

Thanks, IGN and DSOGaming .

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.