Hardware: Shipbreakers has my undivided attention for three reasons: first of all it’s a new real-time strategy IP and we sorely need more of those; second it’s being put together by a bunch of people who made the original Homeworld; and third, the game’s setting on the planet of LM-27 is so reminiscent of the planet Arrakis in Dune, that it makes me want to jump around and squee.

To date, there’s been no actual screenshots or in-game footage released, but developer Blackbird Interactive has put out these incredible lore trailers made up of slightly animated concept art. It’s very reminiscent of the cut-scenes from Homeworld.

After the jump is the most recent trailer, which explains the history behind a colossal piece of vehicular hardware known as a Baserunner. It’s likely that the Baserunner will be one of the more utilised units you’ll use in the game.

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Planetary Annihilation! You will have heard of it if you’re partial to games of the RTS persuasion. I was convinced that we’d written about it before but that doesn’t seem to be the case. For that heinous oversight, I present to you 20 minutes of brand-spanking-new gameplay footage. It’s also gameplay footage that’s narrated and played by developer Uber Entertainment’s Jon Mavor and Steve Thompson.

Things to remember: this is pre-alpha footage; the gameplay is not far off from their target gameplay that was presented in the game’s very successful Kickstarter campaign; you can blow up planets by strapping rockets to nearby asteroids and then sending them on a collision course. Nothing says “respect my authoritah” quite like hurling a space rock at your opponent’s planet.

The footage also takes the time to answer some fan/backer questions. Some of the more notable questions include “can I play this offline” (a question that, a few years ago, would have made most guffaw before saying “of course, silly”, but today… not so much) to which the answer is absolutely. Oh, and the alpha begins in May, so if you’ve pre-ordered then you might get a little invite popped into your inbox. Hit the jump for the footage.

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