electronic-arts
December 10th, 2009 at 01:15am
Under Xbox 360
Electronic Arts has called in another marketing airstrike against
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, hoping to pull members of its fanbase who’re unhappy with its online play towards
Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The previous target was
dedicated servers for PC players; now it’s Xbox Live party chat and the ability to use it in multiplayer.
Speaking with MTV Multiplayer, EA DICE producer Gordon Van Dyke stated, “We are ok with [party chat]. We haven’t taken a stance being against it and feeling like people are cheating.” Modern Warfare 2 only offers party chat support in a handful of its multiplayer playlists, ostensibly to curb cheating. But, according to Van Dyke, he doesn’t “think [cheating with party chat is] that big of an issue, that I’ve seen, where we have to worry about that” in Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
So, is party chat (or the lack thereof) really that important to you? Share your thoughts in comments.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 won’t put up a fight against XBL party chat originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: battlefield-bad-company, battlefield-bad-company-2, ea, EA-DICE, electronic-arts, xbox-live
By Mister-X
Continue Reading Battlefield: Bad Company 2 won’t put up a fight against XBL party chat
December 5th, 2009 at 07:30am
Under Xbox 360
In simple terms, Green Day and Rock Band are friends. There have already been several Green Day tracks released for Harmonix’s musically inclined baby and it was announced today that even more are on their way later this month. Starting December 15 on the Wii and Xbox 360 – and December 17 on the Playstation 3 – players will be able to grab three new Green Day tracks from the band’s 21st Century Breakdown album: “Christian’s Inferno,” “Last of the American Girls,” and “¡Viva La Gloria!“. The tracks will be available individually for $1.99 / 160
/ 200 Wii points. The full track pack will be available on PS3 and Xbox 360 for $5.49 / 440.
More Green Day headed to Rock Band originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 05 Dec 2009 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: 21st-century-Breakdown, dlc, ea, electronic-arts, green-day, harmonix, mtv-games, rock-band
By Mister-X
Continue Reading More Green Day headed to Rock Band
December 4th, 2009 at 06:30pm
Under Xbox 360
Mass Effect 2 producer Adrien Cho thinks developers are pampering players, making games much easier now than in previous generations. “It goes back to that learning mechanism of “Well, I tried this – it didn’t work. I’m going to try something different.” And I think that’s going to be something in Mass Effect 2, we don’t want it to be a cakewalk, you want a challenge,” he told Video Games Daily.
Using the brutally difficult From Software title Demon’s Souls as an example, Cho says hardcore players today want to earn progress in games. “I think gamers want a more sophisticated game, they don’t want a breezy game where you see all the cinematics and just put in your hours and play it through.” According to Cho, Mass Effect 2 aims to give players a healthy dose of challenge and sophistication when it launches early next year. We’re all for hard work and challenge, but our idea of sophistication doesn’t include the ancient mechanic of trial and error.
Mass Effect 2 goes for challenge and sophistication, not pampering originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: bioware, ea, electronic-arts, mass-effect-2
By Mister-X
Continue Reading Mass Effect 2 goes for challenge and sophistication, not pampering
December 3rd, 2009 at 05:00pm
Under Xbox 360
EA has opened the garage door and rolled out its
Team Racing Pack for
Need For Speed: Shift, adding five new cars and a cooperative online racing mode to its superb driving game. Available today for Xbox 360 and PC, the DLC is priced at … wait, it’s free? Five cars and a new mode are
free? This is obviously an error and the DLC should be downloaded before EA starts asking like 1500 space bucks for it. Oh, EA did this
intentionally? Kudos, giant publisher. (We’re still not sure if this is some kind of trick.)
XBL Gold members can grab the expansion from the Xbox Live Marketplace at this link. PS3 owners in the UK will find the free DLC on PSN today, with the US PlayStation Store getting it next Thursday, December 10.
PSA: Free NFS Shift ‘team racing’ DLC out for 360, PC originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: dlc, ea, electronic-arts, free, need-for-speed, need-for-speed-shift, slightly-mad-studios, xblm
By Mister-X
Continue Reading PSA: Free NFS Shift ‘team racing’ DLC out for 360, PC
December 2nd, 2009 at 10:00pm
Under Xbox 360
Mindscape has established a new development studio in France called Punchers Impact, Develop reports. The news here isn’t so much that the team will be focusing on downloadable games for XBLA, PSN and PC — rather, that many of the 40-odd staffers come from noteworthy devs EA and Free Radical.
The studio is being led by Guillaume Descamps in the role of studio director and executive producer. Previously of casual game devs ZigZag Island and DK Games, Descamps is in charge of Punchers Impact’s yet-unnamed first release, which Mindscape says will be ready for the end of 2010. While the team’s makeup may lend itself well to delivering a solid downloadable action title, we have a sneaking suspicion that, given Mindscape’s track record of games such as My Pet Hotel, the chances of a TimeSplitters-like release have been neutered.
New Mindscape studio pulls EA, Free Radical staff for downloadable games originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: ea, electronic-arts, free-radical, mindscape
By Mister-X
Continue Reading New Mindscape studio pulls EA, Free Radical staff for downloadable games
December 1st, 2009 at 01:00pm
Under Xbox 360
With Dragon Age: Origins out the door and making friends, BioWare has switched the Mass Effect 2 hype machine into full gear, inviting us to play the game and provide a peek at some of the new squad mates who’ll be joining Commander Shepard on his/her most dangerous mission yet. The latest cast member to make a debut, Samara, should have absolutely no problem taking care of herself — as well as anything (or anyone) that gets in her way.
Samara is an elite Asari warrior who controls some incredibly potent biotic powers. Forget simply tossing enemies around — she manipulates dark energy in order to levitate herself, as evidenced in the above video. The footage also confirms that there are still five potential party members yet to be introduced before the game ships for PC and Xbox 360 on January 26 (not March 23 as originally noted by Randy, who’s clearly met his recommended daily allowance of paste.)
BioWare reveals Samara, Mass Effect 2’s biotic bombshell originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: bioware, ea, electronic-arts, mass-effect, mass-effect-2, rpg, samara, shooter, video
By Mister-X
Continue Reading BioWare reveals Samara, Mass Effect 2’s biotic bombshell
November 30th, 2009 at 08:15pm
Under PSP
Good news for PSP-toting board game fans: GamerBytes recently spotted an ESRB listing for a PSP version of Monopoly. With the addition of a new version of Monopoly for the PSP — now rated by the ESRB — EA is close to bringing a version of the classic board game to every available gaming platform (only the DS is left out at this point). There isn’t much known about the PSP version, though it does have support for up to four players. It’s not clear if it will be a full retail game or a PSP Mini, though the recently released iPhone version would probably make a prime target for the Mini market.
ESRB rates Monopoly for PSP originally appeared on Joystiq Playstation on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: ea, electronic-arts, esrb, hasbro, monopoly
By Mister-X
Continue Reading ESRB rates Monopoly for PSP
November 27th, 2009 at 12:30pm
Under Xbox 360
What is it about BioWare and its dismissive implementation of races starting with the letter Q? Think about it: Tali the Quarian from Mass Effect and Sten the Qunari from Dragon Age: Origins — on average, did anybody really use either for extended periods of time? It’s Qu-acism, we tells ya! Perhaps Tali, who returns in Mass Effect 2, will prove invaluable when the going geths tough.
Head past the break to see a video of the Adept class, which has been granted some flashy new tricks.
Continue reading Mass Effect 2 vids profile Tali and Adept class
Mass Effect 2 vids profile Tali and Adept class originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: adept-class, bioware, ea, electronic-arts, mass-effect-2, rpg, shooter, tali, video
By Mister-X
Continue Reading Mass Effect 2 vids profile Tali and Adept class
November 26th, 2009 at 04:00pm
Under Xbox 360
Here’s a Thanksgiving treat from the vault – we’ve dug out the following interview with BioWare co-founder (and Group Creative Officer of EA’s newly formed RPG/MMO Group) Greg Zeschuk from earlier this year at PAX. But don’t let the date fool you! Our discussion of multiplatform console development, DLC strategies on future BioWare titles like Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2, and Greg’s recommendation that everyone buy two copies of the game (one on console and one on PC) defies time. Read on!
Joystiq: Dragon Age is the first PS3 game that BioWare’s developed. Can you talk about that process?
Greg Zeschuk: We did partner with Edge of Reality, so we partnered with folks who have had the experience, and that was a good process where we actually had some folks that knew how to do it but also, in general, just worked together with them. A lot of it ended up being like we needed a lot of work to get done and a lot of stuff very fast and everyone was very busy on Dragon Age itself. Collectively, on the console, I would say it was very interesting and challenging to take the richness of the PC game of Dragon Age, with all these different powers and everything else, and actually try to transpose it to the consoles. And the interesting thing about that, or where it worked out really well, is that we literally set ourselves a goal: We didn’t want console players to fell like we ripped them off by taking anything away, by minimizing or simplifying. We want them to feel they have all the power at their fingertips, but it’s very accessible. It’s got the multiple rings that sort of have subsets to them, and you can actually pretty much access any power just a couple little joystick twiddles and button presses. And so with that experience, I think we succeeded there.
Another place where we succeeded on both the PS3 and 360 versions: it feels very different from the PC. Where the PC has got the traditional Baldur’s Gate top-down [perspective], the PS3 and 360 are over-the-shoulder and they do have that kind of, very KOTOR feel and that’s probably what I play, and that’s what I feel most familiar with is KOTOR — and it actually feels more action-y than the PC does, so I think people will find a very different experience. I recommend both platforms actually, PC and console versions.
Continue reading Interview: BioWare’s Greg Zeschuk on Dragon Age, DLC, and more
Interview: BioWare’s Greg Zeschuk on Dragon Age, DLC, and more originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: bioware, dlc, dragon-age, dragon-age-origins, ea, electronic-arts, Greg-Zeschuk, mass-effect, mass-effect-2, rpg
By Mister-X
Continue Reading Interview: BioWare’s Greg Zeschuk on Dragon Age, DLC, and more
November 24th, 2009 at 12:45pm
Under Xbox 360
According to comments made to Edge by EA Montreal general manager Alain Tascan, you can expect more big action titles like Army of Two: The 40th Day from the studio. While previous Wii games, including Skate It, Boogie Superstar and the recently released Need for Speed: Nitro, have enjoyed acceptable levels of success, Tascan believes that targeting HD consoles with “fewer and bigger things” might yield improved results. It’s a prudent approach, no doubt stemming from the publisher’s recent layoffs.
Tascan explains that the Wii market is “a little bit unpredictable these days,” further encouraging a shift to additional “big, blockbuster-type titles.” We probably don’t need Tascan to point out that Army of Two is “the most successful original IP EA has had in the last few years,” since it’s the first to get a big, blockbuster sequel ahead of Dead Space and — can we dream? — Mirror’s Edge.
EA Montreal shifting focus to ‘big, blockbuster-type titles’ originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tags: army-of-two, army-of-two-the-40th-day, boogie, boogie-superstar, ea, ea-montreal, electronic-arts, skate-it
By Mister-X
Continue Reading EA Montreal shifting focus to ‘big, blockbuster-type titles’
