I don't know who the crazy cats at The Tech Game are or how they got a hold of what looks to be the first Modern Warfare 2 map pack. But they did, and Activision has proceeded to yank their original video of the "Stimulus Package" add-on, making us think it's probably legit.

Luckily, at the time of writing, there was a backup video on Vimeo. The maps shown are Crash, Overgrown, Complex, Compact, and Storm. Infinity Ward really nailed a lot of the original maps in Call of Duty 4, so it makes sense that we would see a few of them resurface as downloadable content in Modern Warfare 2.

If you're curious for pictures of the new maps, the aforementioned site (linked below) has a .rar packed with watermark-laden images. Last we heard, the DLC was still on for this spring, so it shouldn't be much longer 'til we get the big (official) reveal.

Modern Warfare 2 Map pack 'Stimulus Package' Exclusive sneak peak [The Tech Game via Joystiq]

According to sources, tonight's mystery PS3 announcement could indeed be Killzone 3. What's more, the big news is that the game (currently one of Sony's worst kept secrets) will support 3D visuals, and full motion control for the Sony Wiimote. 

The gossip states that Guerrilla Games' big shooter sequel will release this Christmas and shall be part of a huge 3D push that Sony is planning to make, despite the fact that most people don't have TVs that support it. The rumor is unclear on whether or not Killzone 3 is Sony's big mystery sequel, but the rest of the information is alleged to be "rock solid." 

Not entirely sure what to make of this. The whole 3D gimmickry has already gotten on my nerves, and I'm not sure I'd like to see full motion control in my Killzone 3. We shall see, however. I'm a big fan of Killzone, so I'm excited to find out more about the game. Fingers crossed that the news is good!

Source: Killzone 3 is 3D, uses Wand [CVG]

I've always loved Square Enix games because music never seemed to be an afterthought. I believe the soundtrack is such an important part of the experience, and the company's releases always seemed to show that they were on the same page. Now, in a new string of layoffs, some of their best are being sent home.

Earlier we heard about Final Fantasy XIII composer Masashi Hamauzu jumping ship. That was one of their best. Now it seems that the company will make cuts for budgetary reasons and will send home the rest. Some of the listed composers have been at Square for 15 years now. According to the rumor, heavy hitters like Junya Nakano and Tsuyoshi Sekito are clearing out their cubicles now. Check out the full list after the jump.

What would Square Enix do for music after this? Outsource. Bleh. While these external composers and music houses would likely report to an internal music director, I still feel the move from in-house to outsourcing is placing a lesser focus on music.

In the scheme of things, these composers will still work, and I'm sure they'll be fine. SEMO reports that Junya Nakano and Kumi Tanioka have recently become part of the sound alliance GE-ON-DAN. Hamauzu is looking to start up his own studio. Who knows? Maybe Square Enix will hire these guys for their next game score.

Square Enix Axes Music Staff [SEMO]

Masashi Hamauzu (Final Fantasy XIII, Dirge of Cerberus, SaGa Frontier II)
Junya Nakano (Final Fantasy X, Threads of Fate, Musashi: Samurai Legend)
Tsuyoshi Sekito (The Last Remnant, Dawn Of Mana)
Naoshi Mizuta (Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy Gaiden)
Kumi Tanioka (Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Chocobo series, Code Age Commanders)
Takeharu Ishimoto (The World Ends With You, Dissidia, Compilation of Final Fantasy VII)

Hey, remember that infamous Ubisoft DRM that requires you to maintain a perfect internet connection? That was a big problem for a lot of folks. Well, a big problem for about 24 hours, at least.

If rumors currently going around the scene are true, Silent Hunter 5, a submarine sim released by Ubisoft and equipped the DRM that will also be vexing owners of Assassin's Creed 2, Settlers 7 - and all future PC gamers who wish to buy their Ubisoft games legitimately - has already been cracked wide open by cracker group SKIDROW.

According to instructions from the released crack files' .nfo document, the process is apparently quite simple:

Don't use/install Ubisoft launcher, or block any connection to the internet.

Install game and copy crack, it's that simple!

We don't intend to download the game for the sake of confirming the claim (that would just be rude), but if they're true, it really didn't take too long at all.

Ubisoft's new DRM cracked in under 24-hours [Infoaddict, thanks to Michael for the tip!]

Oh Valve and your adorable marketing team -- is there anything you can't do? Taking a break from the absolutely insane Portal shenanigans, let's instead take a look at some swanky pictures that various game-covering outlets received today.

So far, this is what we've got: Gordon Freeman with an Apple logo (MacRumors), a Mac ad parody (MacNN), a Team Fortress 2-flavored iPod parody (Shacknews), Francis saying "I hate different" (Eurogamer), a faux old-school magazine ad for Steam (Rock, Paper, Shotgun), and finally, a recreation of Apple's memorable 1984 commercial (Joystiq).

What does it all mean? Based on prior rumblings of Steam on Mac sounding very plausible, I'd say Valve is gearing up to announce -- or, possibly even release -- the popular digital distribution client for our Apple-loving friends. How does next week at GDC sound?

Valve Leaks Teaser Images for Announcement of Steam (and Games) for Mac [Mac Rumors]

According to a mysterious source, Atomic Games' controversial Six Days in Fallujah has been finished and is ready for release this year. This source has promised that the game will be released as well. Now, if only they could find a publisher with more balls than Konami ...

"I can promise you that game is still coming out and it is finished," claims the source. 

Six Days was torn apart by mainstream media within 48 hours of being announced, and Konami chickened out of publishing it because it somehow wasn't prepared for backlash from a game set in Iraq. Hopefully whichever publisher dares to take the game on won't agree to take it on, only to get cold feet later and leave the game hanging. With Activision currently raping Call of Duty up its arse, we could do with another war FPS to take the mantle.

Six Days in Fallujah Finished, Still Coming Out [IGN]

According to GameTrailers TV host and all-around man of the industry Geoff Keighley, we can expect a new Tomb Raider reveal as early as next week.

"I've heard rumblings of a new Lara Croft project that's gonna be at GDC," he tweeted earlier today.

These "rumblings" come after Crystal Dynamics art director Darrell Gallagher told Gamasutra that no less than two projects were in the works at the developer. One of them could be (and probably is) the rumored and leaked Tomb Raider reboot. The leaked details pegged the game as an open world adventure, with a survival horror feel.

As someone who's been knee-deep in GDC appointment scheduling, I should probably mention that... yeah, I shouldn't be talking about this. With GDC just around the corner (that corner being this week, "around the" referring to next), we just might have something Lara-related for you soon enough.

Okay, we get it -- Sony's motion controller is probably called "Arc."

Sony has just filed for trademark of PlayStation Arc in Japan, following rumors, a domain name registration, and various high-level execs talking about it like it's official. Yet still no official word from Sony on the product name, still referring to it simply as the "Motion Controller."

Next week at GDC, Sony plans to unveil the controller, along with (likely) its official name... which, considering the evidence, is probably "Arc." So what do you think? Looks more like a "Bulb" to me, but I suppose "PlayStation Bulby-thinger" would be a pretty stupid name.

A PlayStation Arc Trademark, Wonder What That’s For… [Siliconera]

So, a game usually needs to turn a profit in order to warrant a sequel, right guys? Mushroom Men 2 and Dark Void 2 will likely never be created, but we'll definitely be seeing Just Dance 2 and Assassin's Creed 3 in the next few years. Sell over a million copies, and your a success, sell less than half a million, and you're flop. That's what the gaming industry tells us, so it must be true.

So what's the deal with this rumor about a sequel to  The Conduit? The gang at G4tv seem fairly certain that it's happening, based on some time they spent with High Voltage Software at GDC. Does that mean that The Conduit was a success? From what I've been told, the game is yet to sell a half-million copies worldwide, which makes it far less successful in terms of sales than other FPS Wii titles like the Metroid Prime 3 and the Call of Duty games.

Still, it looks like the hundreds of thousands of copies of the game that did sell may have been enough to warrant a follow up of some kind, though it may end up being a lower-budget, hand held title like Valkyria Chronicles 2. Either way, maybe all the FPS ideas that High Voltage had planned for The Grinder (which went from being a FPS to a top-down shooter) will make their way into The Conduit 2. If so, I'd be up for it. The first game certainly had it's moments, and if those moments could be expanded upon, a sequel could be a beautiful thing.

The Conduit 2 teased at GDC? [G4tv]

If a slew of ESRB listings is any indication, we might soon be seeing a bunch of NeoGeo titles hitting the PlayStation Network.

Alpha Mission II, Baseball Stars Professional, League Bowling, and Super Sidekicks were all recently rated as invidual PlayStation 3 and PSP games. While this would usually indicate PSOne releases on PSN, Siliconera points out that some of these titles were never released on the original PlayStation.

If I were to be choosing NeoGeo games to play on my PS3 and PSP, I'm not sure any of the above titles would be my first, second, or third choices. What would yours be?

NeoGeo Classics Coming To PlayStation Network? [Siliconera]

Motion controls are coming and there is nothing you can do about it. They're coming to your favorite games too, not just new ones. With the new PlayStation Move site up and running we can check out which games will feature Move controls. Nothing much surprising there under the featured game list... wait, is that Gran Turismo 5? Well, that's interesting to say the least. Could Move work with GT5?

Now, it should be kept in mind that this is simply under a listing of featured games on the site, so it may be that Sony is just randomly listing Gran Turismo 5 as a cool game for the PS3. However, looking over the rest of the featured games on the page, which include SOCOM 4, Move Party! and Sports Champions, they have all been confirmed as Move compatible except for Split Second and ModNation -- two other racing games that could easily have motion controls. The fact is this confirms nothing, but offers up plenty of speculation.

Considering that motion controls have really only been proven with kart and arcade racers this is an interesting find. It's even more interesting when you consider the fact that Move doesn't really lend itself to well to being turned sideways and pushed into a plastic steering wheel. Would we be using both the Move and its sub controller to drive or simply grabbing the light bulb end and steering that way? Would the latter even work considering the light is what the PlayStation Eye picks up on?

Even more importantly, do Gran Turismo fans even want this? I can hardly believe it would add to the realism of the racing no matter how 1:1 the controls are. Do you want waggle with your Gran Turismo?

Gran Turismo 5 works with PS3 Move? [CVG]

While the DSi XL hasn't even hit store shelves in the U.S. rumors of a succesor to the DS line of gaming systems have been circulating since last year when we learned that the new system could be landing this year. Even more recently we've heard rumors of dev kits for the system being in developer's hands at this very moment. Where better to get confirmation of this fact than at a conference for game developers that is full of said game developers? Raymond Padilla thought just that, and asked around. He got a lot of interesting answers.

According to his sources at GDC the DS2 is indeed in developer's hands and they are not having any trouble developing for it. This is because it's practically a Gamecube power wise and everyone knows how to develop for that because they've already done it (here comes the Wii insult) twice (burn). This is a little strange since the DS is a chip based system, but he reports that "the people familiar with the dev kit made it sound like there wasn’t much of a learning curve on the new system" and that devs who "worked on GameCube or Wii games will find it easy to create with."

Padilla also gathered that the DS2 has a built in accellorometer and two bigger, higher resolution screens that are closer together so that they can be more easily used as one screen. The biggest bit of news, however, is that the devs all say that they'll be done with their games by the end of the year meaning we very well might be seeing an announcement at this year's E3 and a roll out of the new handheld by the end of the year.

The DSi is still going really strong so I'm not sure why Nintendo would need to do this, but as they've proven plenty of times before, people are willing to buy new DSs over and over. With the DS2 being an actual upgrade in system power it wouldn't surprise me to see this one fly off the shelves just as quickly. I know I'll be getting one.

We'll end this with one word: RUMOR.

Nintendo DS2 Information Unearthed at GDC 2010 [Raymond Padilla, via Shacknews, via 1Up]

CVG reckons that Codemasters' upcoming first-person shooter -- the one with Black creator Stuart Black at the helm -- may be called Bodycount.

The hunch comes from CVG piling together a bunch of information based on trademarks, including a UK trademark patent for Bodycount that was approved today. It also appears that Codemasters trademarked Bodycount in the United States last year, as well as in Japan not long after.

The plot thickens, but Codemasters tells CVG it "regularly applies for and registers trademarks relating to current, future and potential projects. We do not comment on the use of those trademarks until the appropriate time, such as a new title announcement."

In other words, this is simply a lot of speculation on CVG's part... or they're on to something here.

Is new Codemasters FPS 'Bodycount'? [CVG]

Fans are railing against 2K Games after it was suspected that the newly released BioShock 2 DLC, the Sinclair Solutions Test Pack, wasn't really downloadable content, but a mere key to unlock stuff already hidden on the disc. Like Namco Bandai does all the time. 

Suspicions were aroused thanks to the small file size of the alleged download. The file is 108kb on Xbox 360, and 24kb on PC, which is pretty damn tiny. Naturally, people are upset to think that 2K is taking the piss out of them, and one poster on the official forums believes that it should be labeled "unlockable content" rather than downloadable content to reflect its true nature. 

Honestly, publishers  should be held to some advertising standards when it claims that unlockable extras are DLC. If you're merely purchasing a key to activate something on the disc, that's not downloadable content, and it's wrong for companies to advertise it as such. Whether 2K has gone this controversial route or not remains to be seen, but it does throw this issue back to the fore, and it's something that I believe should be examined. 

What about you? Do you believe that unlockable content should not be called DLC, or do you think that it's fine to have such content masquerade as a download?

BioShock 2 DLC already on disc? [CVG]

According to a number of reports, what you are looking at are some screenshots of Sonic 4 leaked from PartnerNET and yes, that IS Dr. Robotnik in a very old school boss battle you're seeing. The new images, which we are waiting for Sega to verify, show off scenes from the leaked game footage we saw a while back. I don't care what anybody else thinks, this stuff looks damn hot. 

The Sonic fanbase, well known for their Internet sleuthing, have certainly found these hard to prove fake, so but until we get verification, we can only run this as a rumor. In the meantime, all I can say is that the shots look f*cking great! Hopefully we'll get more original boss battles than this first one, but what better way to warm up to some retro-flavored Sonic with one of the most classic bosses of all time? 

What do you think? 

More Sonic 4 Screenshots Leaked [SonicRetro]

You may have noticed that we don't have a Final Fantasy XIII review up yet. In fact, an astonishing number of North American outlets are missing a review for the biggest RPG of the year. Unfortunately, we're here to tell you that you can't expect one on Destructoid at the present moment because of piracy. 

Wait, what?

Yes, piracy! Don't ask us for the logic behind it, because we don't quite understand ourselves. However, Square Enix only started sending review copies out yesterday due to "piracy concerns", so barely anybody got a game before launch (save for the obvious big sites). However, apparently piracy doesn't exist in Europe because they've all had copies for weeks. Bizarre logic is bizarre, but there you are. 

So, just letting you all know that our Final Fantasy XIII review is coming, but that your humble author (me) will be enjoying a week or two of sleepless nights as he writes GDC news by day and plays FFXIII by night, all in the name of getting you guys a review. In the meantime, check out Dale North's pros and cons gleaned from the Japanese version of the game. 

Oh, and for those console fanboys out there, we'll be reviewing the PS3 version!

You can put this one under the "probably not going to happen" file, but British retailer GAME is listing a Rogue Squadron game for the Wii. GAME does not list VC games and the price point is at £29.99, so this does seem to be a full retail release of some sort. If it is real this could mean a brand new Rouge Squadron or a re-release of the original game.

For me, all three games in the series were a blast, but I still have the fondest memories of the original. If this is a port/update I'm hoping it's either the original or a compilation of all three. Then I hope it sells really well. Then I hope they make a new one. Then I want a puppy, but that doesn't really have anything to do with this.

Don't be too alarmed by the publishing credit on the GAME page. Activision Blizzard has published LucasArts games in Europe for a decent amount of time now, if not always.

GAME (UK) Lists Rogue Squadron game coming to Wii in April, Plays with OP's heart. [NeoGAF, via Nintendo Everything]

It looks like somebody at EA Sports may have been listening when I implored EA Canada to bring NBA Jam to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 along with the Wii. The publisher has always spoken of the game as a Wii exclusive, but the LinkedIn profile of Andrea Schiel, a software engineer at EA Canada, suggests otherwise: in her résumé, she lists NBA Jam for the "Wii, XBox 360, PS 3 [sic]" as one of the games that she has worked on.

This isn't a huge surprise, since the decision to make the game a Wii exclusive in the first place seemed curious, but it's still heartening to see this semi-confirmation of an HD console version of NBA Jam. I sure hope it's a confirmation, anyway. We'll update this post with any comment we receive from EA.

2010 NBA Jam (Wii, XBox 360, PS 3) [Superannuation; image via The Big Picture]

[Update: Schiel's LinkedIn page now lists NBA Jam as only having a Wii version. There's subterfuge afoot!]

I know you've all been patiently waiting to once again discover that Mortal Kombat is a terribly weak fighter, that basically devolves into button mashing and knowing finishing moves. Every time a new game in the series launches there seems to be this strange hope that it will turn into the great fighter that it never was. However, despite not being a great fighter, it's still hella fun to tear people into bloody pulps with ridiculous moves as Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe reminded us (sans blood).

So we'll stick to the rose tinted memories of MK and bring you this update of information on Mortal Kombat 9 that TRMK has put together. Through a variety of sources they have figured out that we will most likely be seeing a holiday release of Mortal Kombat 9, as almost every place has a Dec. 25 release date for the game. As we know this is the standard place holder date for a holiday release.

They've also confirmed some characters through casting calls for motion capture and voice actors. It looks like some people from MK vs. DC will be reprising their roles and this has confirmed that Sonya and Kitana are definitely in and Kano is a strong maybe.

Finally, we will most likely be hearing something about the game next month as one of the actors resume's stated that her next job for WB will be revealed in April. Only one months until we can start pretending that Mortal Kombat will become a great fighter this time around.

MK9 Update [NeoGAF, via TRMK]

It appears that the race for the title role in the upcoming The First Avenger: Captain America may soon be coming to a close. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Fantastic Four's former Human Torch, Chris Evans has been offered the coveted role.

Of course, it's not that simple. (Is it ever?) Scheduling conflicts are now his biggest obstacle. Evans is apparently tied-down by a commitment to a romcom with Anna Faris called What's Your Number, which is shooting this summer around the time that First Avenger was set to be shot. The upcoming Avengers prequel is set for release on July 22, 2011. Therefore, this decision needs to be made quickly, as the shooting schedule (and possibly the costume) may end up being uncorfortably tight. (Remember what happened to X-Men Origins: Wolverine?)

How did the ascendancy of Chris Evans occur? Let's recap.

A late addition to an illustrious original list of candidates for the role, the 28 year-old Evans would later be joined in the rumor mills by bigger-named latecomers such as Channing Tatum and Ryan Phillippe. However, what Evans would bring, is big-budget superhero blockbuster experience. (Evidenced by the fact that he did not even need to screen test.) It seems that Marvel's priorities for the project had them looking beyond the prospect of established stars. Despite being recognizable from the Fantastic Four films and Push, Evans is far from a household name. Should he be able to work out these scheduling issues, that would certainly change real quick.

However, the prospect of his landing the gig is still a rumor. In fact, when the folks over at SuperHeroHype attempted to obtain a confirmation from Marvel, they were given the "no comment" cold shoulder, dismissing the claim as "rumors." Similar brick walls were hit by attempts by others to contact Evans' agency over at CAA. Therefore, the "rumor" status will have to remain for now.

What are your thoughts on Chris Evans? Does his involvement in the Fantastic Four films (which Fox are already planning to reboot) taint his viability? He may have the look, but does he have what it takes?

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Congratulations are in order for inFAMOUS, which won for Best Original Soundtrack Album at this week’s G.A.N.G. Awards. (G.A.N.G. is the Game Audio Network Guild, in case you are unfamiliar with them). So, to celebrate, let’s take the inFAMOUS soundtrack for a spin and we’ll give you the rundown on all the G.A.N.G. Award winners after the jump.

There is a very good reason why inFAMOUS took the soundtrack album award. It is an immensely enjoyable listen top to bottom and features the talents of Amon Tobin, composers Mel Wesson and Jim Dooley along with cellist Martin Tillman (more on him later). Overall, the sound is heavily percussive and perfectly fits the futuristic urban decay/post-disaster setting of Empire City. As a stand alone listening experience, the album is definitely top notch and succeeds in being a worthy listen, even if you’ve never heard it while wielding the electricity-based weapons of the game. The opening music on the album is the high energy throb of “Rabble Rouser” which is an excellent example of the composers’ use of non-traditional instrumentation and found sounds.

Watch Larger Version of this Video

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There are many mythical weapons and upgrades in Sony's God of War III. To obtain many of them, you'll have to solve some puzzles along the way. Early on in the game, there's a flammable puzzle involving: tinder, flaming hellhounds and rising hot air. Trial and error not your thing? Well then, here's how to solve the fiery Bow of Apollo puzzle in God of War 3.

Watch Larger Version | Watch HD Version

If you're still exhausted from all the Mt. Olympus climbing and want a couple of walkthrough videos to help stem the tide, then feel free to check these out:

•How to take down Hades.

•How to solve the Hades Throne puzzle.

•How to take down Poseidon.

What better way to prep for next week's PAX East event than with 10 gameplay-heavy minutes from Twisted Pixel's (The Maw, 'Splosion Man) upcoming throwback platformer, Comic Jumper. Join Captain Smiley and his comic book world which repeatedly breaks the "fourth wall" in oh so humorous ways. Enjoy.

Watch Larger Version | Watch HD Version

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The Adamo by Dell is the world's thinnest laptop, which means Chris Hardwick and Alison Haislip are all over the device to check out its unique design (0.4" thin?!), 4 gigs of RAM, 128 gig solid state drive and more for a $2,000.

Find the full review from Attack of the Show after the cut.

What You Need To Know

• The Adamo is as thing as the length of a fingernail and weighs only 3 lbs.
• The stylized brushed metal case feels sturdy.
• There are 2 USB ports and an ethernet port, unlike the MacBook Air which only has one USB and no ethernet.
• The most unique aspect of the Adamo is the way the keyboard folds out from the screen.
• You slide your finger over the heat sensitive strip.
• The keyboard them comes down at an angle with the back of the laptop acting as a stand.
• This both helps and hurts the overall use of the computer.
• It feels more natural to have the keyboard at an angle when you're typing.
• The keys are large and spaced out well.
• But the laptop may slide a little if you're typing vigorously.
• You may need to change the angle of the screen to eliminate glare, which may make the laptop a bit more flimsy on its stand.
• The touchpad is large and can do gestures like pinch and zoom.
• Overall, the design works and is interesting, but may not be ideal in all conditions.
• They've managed to fit 4 gigs of RAM and an Intel Dual Core Processor with Windows 7, all of which translates into high performance.
• In our normal PCMark Vantage tests, the laptop scored really high for a thin and light laptop at about 4300 points.
• From start up to browsing the Internet, it's only about 35 seconds, which is super fast.
• Overall, we were very impressed with what this could do.

 Price

• Starts at $2,000.00

Rating

• 4 Seals of Approval out of 5. (How do we rate gadgets?)
• Even though the design may not be as stylish as the MacBook Air, it's still quite impressive with its performance.

Want something reviewed on Gadget Pr0n? Email us your suggestions to gadgetpron@g4tv.com.

Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto announced Pikmin 3 a while ago, but we haven't heard a peep about the game's development since. There's hope for real-time-strategy garden-dwellers, however, as Official Nintendo Magazine UK was on-hand at the BAFTA awards today and managed to eek a little bit of an update about Pikmin 3 from award-winner Miyamoto.

"Miyamoto just told us Pikmin 3 development is 'well under way,'" reads ONM's Twitter update.

It seems like Pikmin 3 has been "well underway" for a while, but hopefully E3 brings us more.

Source: Official Nintendo Magazine UK

Have something to share? Sitting on a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.

Sony and Media Molecule continue to bring in additional franchises under the LittleBigPlanet umbrella and the latest is Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog. Entrepid LittleBigPlanet fans have been creating Sonic the Hedgehog-centric levels since the game's release, but as of next Thursday, there will actually be an official set of Sonic-themed characters and stickers to download and incorporate into your creations.

The character lineup includes, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Dr. Robotnik and, erm, the Werehog. Sorry about that last one, but there's nothing I can do about it. We must live with the Werehog.

No word on a specific price point, but the characters will be made available individually. To gain access to the sticker pack, however, you'll have to purchase them all at the same time.

Have something to share? Sitting on a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts handed out their annual video game awards today, and while Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves walked away with the most awards (4), it was Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Asylum that went home with the Game of the Year statue.

There were a few rather surprising results, including Wii Sports Resort besting the Fab Four-fest The Beatles: Rock Band for Best Family and Social Game, FIFA 10 over Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for Use of Online (and Left 4 Dead 2 over MW2 for Multiplayer Game for that matter), and Flower over every juggernaut game of last year.

However, the highlight of the evening had to be Nintendo creative head and industry legend Shigeru Miyamoto receiving the BAFTA Fellowship. Miyamoto becomes the third gaming icon to receive the prestigious honor, after  Sims creator Will Wright (2007) and Atari founder Nolan Bushnell (2009), and the first ever Japanese recipient. Well deserved indeed.

The full list of this year's winners can be found after the break.

Best Game

Assassin’s Creed II
Sebastien Puel, Patrice Desilets
Ubisoft Entertainment Ltd/Ubisoft Montreal

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Sefton Hill, David Hego, Nick Arundel
Eidos/Rocksteady Studios

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Development Team
Activision/Infinity Ward

FIFA 10
Andrew Wilson, David Rutter, Gary Paterson
Electronic Arts/EA Canada

Left 4 Dead 2
Gabe Newell, Chet Faliszek, Tom Leonard
Valve/EA

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio

Action

Assassin’s Creed II
Sebastien Puel, Patrice Desilets
Ubisoft Entertainment Ltd/Ubisoft Montreal

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Sefton Hill, David Hego, Nick Arundel
Eidos/Rocksteady Studios

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Development Team
Activision/Infinity Ward

inFAMOUS
Brian Fleming, Bruce Oberg, Chris Zimmerman
Sony Computer Entertainment/Sucker Punch Productions & SCE Foster City Studio

Left 4 Dead 2
Gabe Newell, Chet Faliszek, Tom Leonard
Valve/EA

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog and SCE Foster City Studio

Artistic Achievement

Assassin’s Creed II
Sebastien Puel, Patrice Desilets
Ubisoft Entertainment Ltd/Ubisoft Montreal

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Sefton Hill, David Hego, Nick Arundel
Eidos/Rocksteady Studios

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Development team
Activision/Infinity Ward

Flower
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/ThatGameCompany and SCE Santa Monica Studio

Street Fighter IV
Yoshinori Ono
Capcom/Capcom

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio

Family & Social

The Beatles: Rock Band
Alex Rigopulos, Paul DeGooyer, Josh Randall
Electronic Arts/MTV Games/Apple Corp/Harmonix Music Systems

Buzz! Quiz World
David Amor, Andrew Eades, Lee Clare
Sony Computer Entertainment/Relentless Software & XDEV Studio Europe

EyePet
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE London Studio

Guitar Hero 5
Brian Bright, Paul Robinson, Allen Freese
Activision/Neversoft Entertainment/Vicarios Visions/Budcat

New Super Mario Bros Wii
Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Hiroyuki Kimura
Nintendo/Nintendo

Wii Sports Resort
Katsuya Eguchi, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshikazu Yamashita
Nintendo/Nintendo

Gameplay

Assassin’s Creed II
Sebastien Puel, Patrice Desilets
Ubisoft Entertainment Ltd/Ubisoft Montreal

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Sefton Hill, David Hego, Nick Arundel
Eidos/Rocksteady Studios

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Development Team
Activision/Infinity Ward

New Super Mario Bros Wii
Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Hiroyuki Kimura
Nintendo/Nintendo

PixelJunk Shooter
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Q-Games & SCE Santa Monica Studio

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio

Handheld

Gran Turismo
Kazunori Yamauchi, Yuji Yasuhara, Hiroki Imanish
Sony Computer Entertainment/Polphony Digital Inc

LittleBigPlanet (PSP)
James Shepherd, Piers Jackson, Mark Green
Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Cambridge & xev Studio Europe

LocoRoco Midnight Carnival
Kenji Sakai, Saeka Horikoshi, Hiroya Matsugami
 Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Japan Studio

Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story
Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Hiroyuki Kubota
Nintendo/Nintendo

Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box
Akira Tago, Akihiro Hino, Tatsuya Shinkai
Nintendo/Nintendo

Scribblenauts
Jeremiah Slaczka, Marius Fahlbusch
Warner Bros Interactive Entertainmnent/5th Cell

Multiplayer

Battlefield 1943
Patrick Liu, Gordon Van Dyke
Electronic Arts/Dice

The Beatles: Rock Band
Alex Rigopulos, Paul DeGooyer, Josh Randall
Electronic Arts/MTV Games/Apple Corp/Harmonix Music Systems

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Development team
Activision/Infinity Ward

Halo 3: ODST
Development Team
Microsoft Game Studios/Microsoft

Left 4 Dead 2
Gabe Newell, Chet Faliszek, Tom Leonard
Valve/EA

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog and SCE Foster City Studio

Original Score

Assassin’s Creed II
Jesper Kyd
Ubisoft Entertainment Ltd/Ubisoft Montreal

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Sefton Hill, David Hego, Nick Arundel
Eidos/Rocksteady Studios

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Development team
Activision/Infinity Ward

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
James Hannigan, Zsolt Marx, Campbell Askew
Electronic Arts/EA Bright Light

PixelJunk Shooter
Dom Beken, Alex Paterson
Sony Computer Entertainment/Q-Games and SCE Santa Monica Studio

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio

Sports

Colin McRae: DiRT 2
Matt Horsman, Clive Moody, Guy Pearce
Codemasters/Codemasters Studios

FIFA 10
Andrew Wilson, David Rutter, Gary Paterson
Electronic Arts/EA Canada

Football Manager 2010
Development Team
Sega/Sports Interactive

Forza 3
Development Team
Microsoft/Turn 10

Wii Fit Plus
Shigeru Miyamoto, Tadashi Sugiyama, Hiroshi Matsunaga
Nintendo/Nintendo

Wii Sports Resort
Katsuya Eguchi, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshikazu Yamashita
Nintendo/Nintendo

Story

Assassin’s Creed II
Sebastien Puel, Patrice Desilets
Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Sefton Hill, David Hego, Nick Arundel
Eidos/Rocksteady Studios

Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: The Director’s Cut
Charles Cecil, Neil Richards, Tony Warringer
Ubisoft Entertainment/Revolution Software

Brutal Legend
Tim Schafer
Electronic Arts/Double Fine Productions

Dragon Age: Origins
Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, Mike Laidlaw
Electronic Arts/BioWare

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio

Strategy

Command and Conquer 3: Uprising
Development team
Electronic Arts/EA Los Angeles

Empire: Total War
Development Team
Sega/Creative Assembly

FIFA Manager 10
Gerald Köhler, Cord Westhoff, Bernhard Maiberg
EA Sports/Bright Future

Football Manager 2010
Development Team
Sega/Sports Interactive

Halo Wars
Development Team
Microsoft/Ensemble Studios

Plants vs Zombies
George Fan, Tod Semple, Rich Werner
Popcap Games/Popcap Games

Use of Audio

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Sefton Hill, David Hego, Nick Arundel
Eidos/Rocksteady Studios

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Development team
Activision/Infinity Ward

DJ Hero
Jamie Jackson, Dan Neil, Tim Riley
Activision/Freestyle Games

Flower
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/ThatGameCompany and SCE Santa Monica Studios

Left 4 Dead 2
Gabe Newell, Chet Faliszek, Tom Leonard
Valve/EA

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog and SCE Foster City Studio

Use of Online

Battlefield 1943
Patrick Liu, Gordon Van Dyke
Electronic Arts/EA DICE

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Development Team
Activision/Infinity Ward

FIFA 10
Andrew Wilson, David Rutter, Gary Paterson
Electronic Arts/ EA Canada

LIttleBigPlanet (PSP)
James Shepherd, Piers Jackson, Matt Porter
Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Cambridge & XEV Studio Europe

Singstar TakeThat
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE London Studio

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Development Team
Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog and SCE Foster City Studio

BAFTA Ones To Watch Award in association with Dare to Be Digital

Colour Coded
Murray Sinclair, Faye Wright, Liam Wong, Sean Donnelly, Nnanna Kama
(PixelPirates)

Quick as Thieves
William Wright, Michael Doig, Andrew Knight, Jamie MacKinnon, Lee Cresswell
(Gentleman of Fortune)

Shrunk!
Vykintas Kazdailis, Andrew Macdonald, Michael Cummings, Jacek Wernikowski, Stuart Kemp
(The Butterflyers)

GAME Award of 2009 (The only award to be voted for by the public)

Assassin’s Creed II
Ubisoft Entertainment/Ubisoft Montreal

Batman Arkham Asylum
Eidos/Rocksteady Studios

The Beatles: Rockband
Electronic Arts/MTV Games/Apple Corp/ Harmonix Music Systems

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Activision/Infinity Ward

FIFA 10
Electronic Arts/EA Canada

GTA: China Town Wars
Rockstar Games/Rockstar Leeds/Rockstar North

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Nintendo/Nintendo

Street Fighter IV
Capcom/Capcom

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog & SCE Foster City Studio

Wii Sports Resort
Nintendo/Nintendo

Well? What do you think of the results? Agree? Disagree? Indifferent?

 

If there's one thing Eastern European game developers are good at, it's recreating bleak, lonely landscapes filled with things that go bump in the night. The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series is proof positive of this trend. And it continues with Ukraine's 4A Games -- a team of ex-S.T.A.L.K.E.R. team members -- and their new title Metro 2033, published by THQ. In this post-apocalyptic shooter, players must wade through the ruins of Moscow and encounter dangerous while armed with minimal ammo. Paul Semel reviewed the game for us.

"Based on the 2002 science fiction novel by Dmitry Glukhovsky, (which may or may not have taken a cue from Terry Gilliam’s 1995 movie 12 Monkeys, a movie which, perhaps not coincidentally, was partially set in 2035) Metro 2033 is set in Moscow after that city, and the rest of the Earth’s surface, is rendered uninhabitable by an atomic holocaust. Well, rendered uninhabitable by humans, that is. The persistent nuclear radiation has created some unfriendly mutants, and they like the surface just fine.

Unfortunately for you, they like where you live as well. You’re name is Artyom, and you’re a young Muscovite who’s lived his entire life underground in the Exhibition metro station. That is, until you’re asked you to deliver a message to a different subway stop. And with that, you toss aside your friends, your family, and your guitar to run a fool’s errand that will probably get you killed. Though really, where would videogames be without fool’s errands?"

Want to step in to the dark, bleak lands of radioactive Moscow? Then read the review and make your informed choice!

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Gather round close to enjoy the top five videos from around the Internet, which include one man's failed attempt to lighting a fart, lottery tips, a surfing alpaca and more.

Find the direct video links from Around the Net on Attack of the Show after the jump.

Break.com: Fire Fart Disaster 4

Vimeo: Lottery Tips

YouTube: Kenneth Aspertrand - Amazing Shotgunner

YouTube: Top Model Double Fail

YouTube: Surfing Alpaca

For those interested in living out their criminal fantasies via a massively multiplayer online game, now is your last chance to get in on the closed beta for Realtime Worlds’ APB.

“As APB enters this final stage of closed beta testing,” said Realtime Worlds creative director Dave Jones, “we’re anticipating a huge surge of interest with gamers from all over the world applying to take part and provide invaluable feedback to the development team preparing us for launch.”

Eager virtual cops and robbers can sign up for the beta right here.

Anyone participating in the APB beta at the moment? The game looks pretty wild. What do you think so far?
 

BioWare took player feedback to heart for Mass Effect 2, creating a more streamlined shooter-RPG, and while the studio is promising to listen just as closely as Mass Effect 3 gears up, they're also expecting gameplay changes for the final installment in the trilogy won't be nearly as drastic.

"There will definitely be things that we tweak and modify but in some ways," said CEO and general manager Ray Muzyka to UGO. "I think Mass 2 was closer to the original vision we had anyway. Mass 1 was more in the traditional BioWare game sense where Mass 2 was a bit more evolved game. I don't think Mass 3 will be as revolutionary when we really streamlined the experience, but what we're going to do is refine it and make it even better."

That said, even BioWare admits it might be too early to make that call.

"It's all on player feedback honestly I think," added VP and creative officer Greg Zeschuck. "We are still gathering that."

Source: UGO

Have something to share? Sitting on a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.

UPDATE: 12:55PM PST: A sharp-eyed reader has just informed me that Assassin's Creed II (and Silent Hunter 5, it turns out) were not in fact ever released on Steam in the UK, making the whoel removal thing a bit tricky. Thanks Gaff!

The Ubisoft DRM drama sort of continues today as it’s been reported that Assassin’s Creed II and Silent Hunter 5 have both been pulled not been released on Valve’s digital distribution platform Steam in the UK.

Ubisoft explained the rejection to CVG, saying, "The games listed are available for sale in all other countries on Steam. The fact they are not available on Steam UK has nothing to do with the DRM - but is linked to a local business discussion between Ubisoft and Steam in UK.”

An industry insider told CVG that they believed the rejection from Steam was directly related to the high-profile DRM issues Ubisoft has been dealing with for the past few months. However, considering both games are currently still available in other regions, it would appear that the action has little to do with the continued frustration on the part of PC gamers who have had to deal with the issues surrounding the DRM restriction that requires a constant internet connection in order to play the games. I'm not sure what a "local business discussion" refers to, but I buy it.

Source: CVG

Should the need arise, feel free to E-Mail me your suggestions, tips, and/or personal philosophies, or follow me on Twitter.

Gamers have become accustomed to games throw them into the action straight away with little or no time to become accustomed to the world they’ll inhabit for the course of the game. It’s understandable then that Lionhead Studios’ head Peter Molyneux is a bit concerned about the opening section of his team’s anticipated Fable III.

Molyneux shared his worry via Twitter today, saying, “Been playing the opening of Fable 3, I am slightly worried that there is no combat for the first 30 mins. Is this too long, thoughts.” Molyneux later went on to say that, “There is no combat because it is so dramatic, and that drama has little room full combat.”

This explanation makes total sense, especially when you consider that a good portion of Fable III's opening section will be used to introduce players to the game’s new “touch” mechanic (and perhaps even a Natal feature or two?). Regardless though, 30 minutes is nothing, and anyone who gets genuinely frustrated by not being able to stab something for half-an-hour at the beginning of the game probably shouldn’t be playing it in the first place.

The opening section of the original Half-Life remains one of my top five favorite gaming moments of all time, and the highlight was exploding a fellow scientists lunch in a microwave and putting on my work clothes (aka HEV suit). I’m all for games taking their time and establishing mood and atmosphere before putting a weapon in your hand, and I wish more games did it.

What do you think?

Source: Twitter

Ubisoft gave love to the higher-end platform versions of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands last week and now they're back to show the Wii some love with a new developer diary detailing the built-from-the ground up approach. No leftovers for Nintendo's cash cow console, no sir-eee.

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Hrm, I'm thinking the co-op drawing portion will drive me bonkers if someone else is tell me to do something on my screen.

Final Fantasy XIII, the latest epic entry in Square Enix’s mega successful Final Fantasy franchise, has officially become the fastest selling installment in the series’ history.

According to Square Enix, the game surpassed the 1 million units sold mark in its first five day of sale in North America, and since its release, it has shipped (not sold) over 5 million copies. Square didn't provide console-specific sales figures. To date, the Final Fantasy franchise has sold 96 million units worldwide. Is that all?

How many Final Fantasy games have you bought?

Warner Bros. Interactive announced yesterday that The Lord of the Rings: War in the North would take the beloved fantasy franchise into darker, more mature territory. Today, a teaser trailer has descended from the mountain to help you visualize what a mature Lord of the Rings game might look like:

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Flogging Molly Track Pack

“(No More” Paddy’s Lament”
“Requiem for a Dying Song”
“The Seven Deadly Sins”

Price: $5.49/440 Microsoft Points/550 Wii Points for pack, or $1.99/160 MSP/200 WP per track

Click through to see new tracks for Rock Band, Lips, SingStar, and DJ Hero.

Pack

Lady Gaga Pack 1

“Bad Romance”
“Just Dance”
“Monster”
“Poker Face”

Tracks

3 Doors Down – “It’s Not My Time”
Mute Math – “Control”
South Park – “Poker Face (Cartman version)”
The Subways – “Oh Yeah”
The Subways – “Rock & Roll Queen”

Price: $6.99/560 MSP for pack, or $1.99/160 MSP/200 WP per track

Jay-Z vs. Eminem Mix Pack

"Can I Get A...” by Jay-Z featuring Amil and Ja Rule vs. “Lose Yourself” by Eminem
"Shake That" by Eminem featuring Nate Dogg vs. "Show Me What You Got" by Jay-Z
“Without Me” by Eminem vs. “Encore” by Jay-Z.

Price: $7.99/640 MSP for pack, or 300 WP per track



Tracks

The Archies – “Sugar, Sugar”
Simply Red – “If You Don’t Know Me By Now”
Huey Lewis & the News – “Do You Believe in Love”

Price: 160 MSP per track

No new releases

Super Mario Bros. 2 explored a trait in platformers that never quite caught on with the rest of the genre by having players swap between characters with wildly different abilities and traits. Such differences are usually called classes in first-person-shooters. Here's a thought: what if you brought those differences over to a platformer? Specifically, what if you did that to Valve's Team Fortress 2?

Fortunately, I don't have to speak in hypotheticals, as GameSetWatch noticed the release of "The Great Class Dash," which magically drops Team Fortress 2's characters into a sidescroller. According to the description, you actually do have to take advantage of all nine classes to beat the game.

I will be downloading this immediately from MOD DB. Maybe the trailer will convince you, too.

Source: GameSetWatch

Have something to share? Sitting on a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.

You would think that unlocking a platinum level in God of War III would be enough of reward for gamers, but Sony developers have apparently decided to couple that satisfaction with utter dismay and confusion.

It seems that achieving said platinum medal provides players with a link to a mysterious website with "Spartans stand tall" in the address.

The site contains no obvious info, unless you count a circular meter that appears to be either counting down or counting up (keeping track of how many platinum medals are unlocked?), rainfall and an indistinguishable reflection in a stretch of water. As such, it’s impossible to say what the site could be teasing, but I’m sure that won’t stop people from checking the site on a regular basis to see if anything, especially that meter, has changed.

Any theories?

"A local business decision," says publisher.

Ubisoft's piped up and explained that Assassin's Creed II and Silent Hunter V were not removed from Steam due to DRM disagreements.

"The games listed are available for sale in all other countries on Steam. The fact it is not available on Steam UK has nothing to do with the DRM but is linked to a local business discussion between Ubisoft and Steam in UK," said Ubisoft in a statement.

Both games had mysteriously vanished amid speculation that Valve didn't want to muddy its reputation and be associated with Ubisoft's controversial DRM solution that requires users to be online at all times.

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Out two weeks after Xbox 360 version.

Ubisoft has revealed that Splinter Cell: Conviction on the PC will now be released on 30th April, two weeks after the Xbox 360 version.

That's according to the publisher's latest release schedule issued this afternoon.

Ubisoft has had some PR difficulties with PC gamers lately, stemming from its controversial DRM system, which has become a target for hackers since it launched with Assassin's Creed II and Silent Hunter 5.

Read more...

Valve "really excited" about future.

Valve's released the first "bunch" of user-made items and weapons for Team Fortress 2 on Steam.

These were submitted to the new Team Fortress 2 Contribution Site, and Valve's excited about the potential this has for the future.

"This is really exciting for us here at Valve," reads a post on the TF2 blog. "This update represents the next step in that process. The line between developers and players is getting very blurry, and we think that's a great thing. "

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Digital adventure gets retail extras.

In case you hadn't noticed, Telltale's Tales of Monkey Island PC adventure series is being put on disc this spring.

The box, available to pre-order from the Telltale Shop right now, costs $34.95 (£22.90) and offers the full five-game series on both PC and Mac. Plus, extras: design team commentary videos, official trailers, cliff-hanger videos, wallpapers and a sneak peak at new series Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse.

There's a Deluxe Edition, too. In here are collectible replicas of in-game items as well as all the guff from the standard box. There's a Voodoo card, Piratey Piece of Eight, coaster from Club 41, souvenir button from the Trial of the Century and a fancy slipcase cover for the DVD drawn by Steve Purcell.

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Alpha top dog.

Saying I'm a fan of Planescape: Torment is a bit like saying that Vlad III Dracula enjoyed a spot of impaling - it gets the point across, but doesn't quite convey the extent of the fervour.

It doesn't reveal how Vlad took the time to ensure his preferred method of execution was as painful and humiliating as possible, nor the number of poor souls he consigned to such a fate. Similarly, it doesn't address the fact that I grunt "I feel stronger" whenever I finish my daily exercise routine, and sometimes wish my wife had a fleshy tail and a Scottish accent.

However, I am eternally grateful to the man who, by and large, made my dysfunction possible: Chris Avellone, whom you may also know for having a hand in Alpha Protocol, Knights of the Old Republic II, Fallout 2, and, perhaps less excitingly, Descent to Undermountain.

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Valve's Steam authentication favoured.

The Steam edition of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will ditch SecuROM in an upcoming game patch. Valve's own authentication service will be used instead.

The update, version 522175, is imminent. Apparently there's a bit of extra QA on Steam to bypass.

All non-Steam users can download the patch now. Unfortunately, a few problems appear to have cropped up; members of the BFBC2 forum report crashes to desktop after installing the update, and some are having account login issues.

Read more...

They have a voice. They're going to use it.

Let's remove any confusion from the start. Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening is not another piece of crappy DLC following the dismal inclusions we've seen since the BioWare RPG's release last November. This expansion is 25 hours of full-scale new content, essentially an entire new game, that picks up the story however you may have left it. It has a new setting, a (mostly) new crew of companions, new abilities, skills, spells and talents, and most importantly, a re-imagined approach that's appropriate to a shorter format while still achieving the necessary sense of scale.

You've finished Dragon Age, right? By necessity, this review has to mention the events at the end of that game, so consider yourself spoiler-warned. That said, we can all rest easy because the Archdemon has been defeated, the Blight quashed, and now all citizens of Ferelden live in happy bliss, singing songs of praise to the mighty Grey Warden [your name here] who saved the day. Except, of course, that's not the case at all. It's never that easy.

There are a number of ways you could have chosen to end Dragon Age. The consequences of these can be dramatic enough that you might not even have a character to import into the start of Awakenings. My character, Simon, survived, and so I pick things up with the level 21 Grey Warden being attacked on his way to Warden stronghold Vigil's Keep to take up his post as Commander. Attacked by darkspawn.

Read more...

It's tough not to get a little nostalgic and think about how things have changed across the past ten years. Back then, I had to go to the store to buy Perfect Dark on a cartridge and it wasn't exactly cheap or pretty. Today, I'm able to legally download Perfect Dark for just $10, and it's got better graphics, a much smoother framerate, and online play.

Back then, I had to level up my Pokemon by actually playing the game. Today, I can level them up by wearing a pedometer as ...

2009 BAFTA Winner for Best Game: Batman: Arkham Asylum

17 Other notable winners are Uncharted 2 for Story, LittleBigPlanet for Handheld Game, and Flower for Artistic Achievement.

The full list of winners can be found below.

Action

• WINNER: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
• Assassin's Creed II
• Batman: Arkham Asylum
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• inFAMOUS
• Left 4...

The game is reminiscent of Zynga's Farmville as players build and improve cities, which generate resources over time. Resource gains are determined over hours, not minutes as the pace of the game is one that allows brief interaction throughout the day.

I had taken some screenshots from the open beta to show you all, but apparently the beta agreement prohibits publishing screenshots from a completely open-to-the-public, anyone-can-play beta. Instead, here are screenshots of a completely different game, currently in closed beta, with absolutely no NDA.

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Early in our conversation Tori...

There is no official changelog, but the word from DICE is that "early signs from the hosts are good with 20% less load on the server CPU, improved hit detection, Veteran rank handling is fixed so you should get your M1 Garand back now plus some other...

Today, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift was confirmed for US console release. This is great news for fighting game fans. The original BlazBlue had a good number of balance issues and some of the systems weren't great. BB:CS is re-tooled and re-balanced along with new characters.

While we only have a summer 2010 release date to go by, this should be good for when the release hype from Super Street Fighter IV dies down. Too bad BlazBlue was bumped off of the event list at EVO2K10. Oh well.

I've got a pile of games to play ...

The adventure game, originally released in April of 2006, is a remastered version of the original, which was released in 1991. Included in the $9.99 package is a 20-minute 'Making Of' video.

Title title has a reputation for being extremely difficult and completely awesome.

Mass Effect 2 and Project Runway

Steam
• Aliens vs. Predator - $33.49 (33% Off)
• EverQuest Starter Pack - $2.50 (88% Off)
• Sniper Elite -
  
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David Jaffe, creator of the original God of War, and Sony Computer Entertainment America were named as defendants. The Hollywood Reporter reports that Judge Marilyn Hall Patel determined that, after playing some of the game, reading plot summaries, and hearing expert opinion, that any similarities were not significant enough to warrant an infringement lawsuit. The lawsuit was thrown out.

According to the decision, the plaintiffs works all "open with a Spartan attack on Athens" and the Spartan ...

Furthermore, players can earn achievements within Game Room to add to their Xbox Live or Games for Windows Live profile. The full list of these can be found on MyGamerCard (via JoyStiq).

Many achieve...

The game will be released this summer, but no pricing has been announced at this time. If I had to guess, I would put it at $9.99.

The following developer diary details these exclusive features.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will be released across all platforms on May 18th.

In addition, pre-order customers will get beta access to the game, which will run right up to the retail release.

I had a chance to play Lead & Gold at GDC 2010 and was very impressed by the game. The game was developed by Fatshark, a Swedish studio made up of veterans from GRIN. How about some features?

• Four distinct playable ch...

The game features sweeping game-mechanic and character balance changes, three new characters, and several new game modes. The new modes are:

• Beginner Mode - "Encourages a wider audience with an easier control scheme."
• Tutorial Mode - "Allows the novice and pros to practice everything from the basic mechanics unique to BlazBlue."
• Challenge Mode - "Offers advanced players character-specific combos and missions."
  
  
  Read Full Article

An expanded and updated version of the Heavy Rain demo developer Quantic Dream was showing off in 2008, The Taxidermist revolves around one of journalist Madison Paige's early leads in the Origami Killer case and features several different outcomes.

Already released free for pre-orderers, The Taxidermist will run everyone else $4.99.

[video]17696[/video]

The the trailer is only cinematic, it offers some information on the tone and look of the game:

• Luke Timmins - Lead Multiplayer/UI Engineer
• Tyson Green - Systems Designer
• Lars Bakken - Multiplayer Design Lead
• Brian Jarrard - Community Director

Active Roster - A list of your friends in Reach, showing their status in real-time.

...

So, what's in this field resupply? For starters, new special edition light machine guns for each of the game's three private military contractors (PMC's). Raven gets the APEX 100SE; for SVER it's the RTK-74 VLa; and Valor takes the Mk46 Mod 1. Besides offering a new look, these new guns also have their own performance specs. Trooper Gear als...

Quick as a flash, fans on the official TF2 forum dug around and found new apparel for all classes as well as a new melee weapon usable by both the Soldier and Demoman, a new melee weapon for the Pyro and a delicious new snack for the Heavy.

Left, "Gentlemen," one verily doth insist. Right, The Great Class Dash.

Valve e...

Probably more details will be found inside the issue, but right now all we know is the title of this still-unannounced game on the mag's cover (via MTV Multiplayer). Activision CEO Bobby Kotick recently made news by stating their past Spider-Man games "sucked," saying that a Spider-Man game should be "about web-slinging. If you don't do web-slinging, what is the fantasy of Spider-Man?" So, probably expect a big focus on web-slinging in the next Spider-Man game.

What else to expect is anyone's guess, but as Multiplayer points out, the name "Shattered Dimensions" might suggest a crossover between Spider-Men other than Peter Parker, like the Scarlet Spider and Spider-Man 2099. It'll also be interesting to see how the changes in the movie franchise's schedule will affect Activision's plans for it's Spider-Man games. No doubt they would have had a game ready for Spider-Man 4 in 2011, but now that Sony has decided to reboot the franchise with a new movie in 2012, it leaves some open room for what will likely be another original game starring the wall-crawler. We'll probably find out more soon.

Oddly enough, though, Uncharted 2 did still win Best Action Game -- which Arkham Asylum was also nominated in. Uncharted 2 also won Best Story and Best Original Score, also categories Batman was nominated in. But Batman did win in the Gameplay category, and well, these are games after all.

Other noteworthy awards went to Little Big Planet on the PSP for Best Handheld Game, Left 4 Dead 2 for Multiplayer, and Flower for Artistic Achievement. The full list of winners follows below.

"We're planning for 17 games," joked Dr. Ray when asked how many Dragon Age sequels to expect. "Well, both Dragon Age and Mass Effect are franchises so they have different strategies and different kinds of story arcs but we plan on continuing to make games and worlds and expanding on those worlds in both franchises," the CEO added, continuing, "Both in different ways, but we want to continue to provide content to fans, whether that be separate games or new adventures that have very different kinds of gameplay. So we have some cool stuff for both of them that we're exploring that'll be fun and different for the fans, and yet in a familiar setting at the same time.

Dr. Greg tossed in his thoughts on sequels, as well. "In the case of Dragon Age, it's exciting because there's this whole timeline and geography," explained the Bioware creative officer. "So with Mass Effect, we're constantly thinking about the trilogy. But with Dragon Age, it's more open and you can put more all over the place. Seventeen... Sixty-six? Infinite! Infinite games for the Dragon Age universe! (laughs)"

The pack will feature five new missions based on the brand-new Hammerhead. It will be free to those who have the Cerberus Network.

It will be followed shortly after by Kasumi's Stolen Memory, which is slated to launch April 6. It will introduce the thief Kasumi along with her loyalty mission, and will be the first paid DLC.

So what's up with the delay? Apparently Rockstar opted to make some "minor content changes" to the PS3's PAL version of the game at the request of Sony Europe. What these changes are, exactly, remains unclear, but a representative from Rockstar assured us that the alterations won't affect players' enjoyment of the games. They also noted that the adjustments have nothing to do with the requirements of any local ratings boards.

We'll let you know as soon as we know anything more about whatever it is Sony wanted cut from (or added to?) Episodes from Liberty City.

Not only that, but -- as seems to be the trend these days -- they also threw out a handful of absurd statistics gathered from the game's servers. EA's stats show over 2.9 million hours of multiplayer have been racked up during the last 24 hours alone, and that players have earned a total of more than 81 billion points, unlocking over 43 million pieces of equipment in the process. The publisher tallied a peak-concurrent-users figure of around 230, 000 -- a number that's caused EA's multiplayer servers to buckle on more than one occasion.

DICE's Karl Magnus Troedsson chimed in to address the game's on-again, off-again server stability issues. "In the first 48 hours we had such a tremendous rush to multiplayer gameplay that our servers experienced overwhelming demand. This is a testament to the massive response players have had worldwide for the extraordinary action experienced in the Battlefield sandbox," explained the game's executive producer. "DICE and EA have brought more servers online. We now have enough capacity to handle all BFBC2 connections seamlessly and we continue to monitor online play daily."

Impressive as that number may be, the rest of the data Square cataloged is even more stupefying. Did you know, for instance, that demo players have exterminated a cumulative 30 million people on Just Cause 2's Panau Island? Or that they've also done enough base jumping to add up to the length of two Earths stacked end-to-end? That's more free-falling than even the most insufferable Tom Petty cover band could muster.

Look for Just Cause 2 on store shelves on March 23.

The patch for Steam users will come slightly later than it will for those with a retail copy, as it has to go through additional QA testing. It may be wise to hold off on updating for the time being, as there have been reports on the EA forums of crashing and freezing issues for some users. As the patch is only applied on the client side, and not to the servers, you'll be able to play with others who have successfully patched their game without patching yourself.

This isn't the first time we've seen SecuROM patched out of an EA game; last year, we saw it removed from Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. In other instances, we've seen the harsh restrictions SecuROM can impose be lifted (to an extent): Both BioShock and BioShock 2 had their activation limits removed, thanks no doubt to the outcry from gamers who didn't want to be treated so poorly simply because they reinstalled their game more times than 2K decided to allot them.

The latest update to EA's free-to-play shooter includes six new weapons, a health boost item, and two outfits designed to look like characters from Bad Company 2. All this comes at a price, but anyone who bought a new copy of Bad Company 2 can tie the included VIP code to their accounts and get a free gift of 700 Battlefunds ($5) on the Battlefield Heroes Store.

Of course, why you'd spend your time with Battlefield Heroes after investing in Bad Company 2 is a total mystery. At least there's some incentive there should you ever choose to go back.

The source explained Microsoft's reason for abandoning the traditional November release that the first two games followed: "Microsoft's keen to avoid a clash with Halo: Reach and wants Natal to own Christmas. That's why we won't be seeing Gears of War 3 until next year, but expect a major marketing push ahead of its release."

We've heard that the next Killzone game, Killzone 3, is scheduled for a release in the same time frame as Gears of War 3 next year, so it looks like the two heavy hitters will be going head-to-head in about a year from now. Last time around, Killzone 2's release trailed Gears 2's by about four months.

"Everyone who wants to make a good strategy game is going to be compared to the bar set by Blizzard," he said.

Consequently, Reactor features much the same functionality as the new Battle.net, including placement matches and tiered online leagues. But the functionality will also soon be fully integrated into supported Impulse titles.

Blizzard is one of the few companies that has consistently offered Mac versions alongside its PC releases. While a beta is ostensibly a chance to stress-test the servers, and thus it makes sense to concentrate on the platform with a larger audience, some Mac users have felt a bit put out by the long wait. The beta is expected to end in late spring, making the two month gap for a Mac release a pretty substantial chunk of available time. Still, Blizzard is committed to making it happen, when most developers don't bother with the platform. As the old saying goes, better late than never.

Developed by Fargo's inXile Entertainment, it will be more like Gears of War than Demon's Souls in its emphasis on taking cover against enemy attacks. Bethesda emphasized Fargo's experience with fantasy games in their release, noting his work on The Bard's Tale and Baldur's Gate.

No mention of a release date, so look for this one sometime next year. Expect more details soon.

Former Team Ninja head Tomonobu Itagaki went into detail on his new company, Valhalla Game Studios, in a recent issue of Famitsu, and also teased a new website. That site launched earlier this month (with an English version!) and includes interviews with the game designers and programmers, details on the company, and a column by Itagaki himself, who is Valhalla's Chief Technical Officer and game design lead. The first edition of "Itagaki's Thought" covers what he's been doing for the past two years, touching on his work as a photographer, his fascination with professional railroading, some points about Valhalla, and of course, videogames.

You'll also find job postings on the site, with openings for designers, programmers, artists, and a number of other positions. Greetings from the CEO, CTO, and CFO all give an idea of what to expect from the studio and about their various qualifications.

Overall, it seems like the best place to get a firm grasp of what Valhalla is all about without actually have even the slightest modicum of information about what their first project is. The site can be found at http://www.valhallagamestudios.com/en/

You could argue that the map pack being just $5 more than the price that most people were expecting (800 points) isn't really that big of a deal. But Activision and CEO Bobby Kotick have continued to amass a reputation as a company that cares about nothing more than money, and this decision isn't going to help that perception one bit.

Will you be buying the maps when they're released in just over two weeks? If not, is it because of the price or other reasons? Let us know in the comments.

It turned out that the mysterious session was being headed by none other than SimCity and Spore creator Will Wright.

"I am not Phaedrus," Wright said, as he made his way to center stage amid thunderous applause. He said that the reason the panel was under a pseudonym was because he wasn't entirely sure he could attend the conference.

Paul Bettner, who worked at Ensemble Studios for 12 years before it was shut down by Microsoft in 2008, blamed their own internal "crunch culture" on the studio's demise. "The reality is that every single game we shipped took twice as long as we said it was going to take, and cost twice as much to make," Bettner said. "Microsoft is a public company, they answer to their shareholders, and we were simply too expensive."

Part of the problem, Bettner explained, was that a culture grew in Ensemble where "everyone was a workaholic" and "addicted" to repeated successes with the Age of Empires series, leading to high project costs and poor quality of life for employees. And, he argued, it's a problem that's industry-wide: "This is a horrible vicious cycle. We burn out all our best people. We destroy these precious artists, we wreck their families and we sacrifice their youth. So they leave, and they take all their experience with them," he said.

The returning maps are Crash (you know, the one clearly inspired by Black Hawk Down), and Overgrown -- no doubt two of the most popular maps from the first game. The new maps, according to the description of the map-pack, include Bailout, "a multi-level apartment complex;" Storm, "an open industrial park littered with heavy machinery;" and Salvage, "a snowy junkyard fortified by stacked debris and crushed cars."

Infinity Ward has announced the Stimulus Package is set for release on March 30 on XBLM, but no PS3 or PC dates have been announced yet, nor has a price been set.

To be sure, high-profile developers joining with a Hollywood talent agency is an unusual development. Whereas agents and managers work to negotiate deals between studios and talent in the film and television industry, the gaming industry is, as you surely know, drastically different: Developers almost always are full-time hires with a studio and have no representation.

As such, this is a fascinating move for Zampella and West and also demonstrates just how serious Hollywood takes the gaming industry these days (as if the countless questionable video game film adaptations in recent years didn't demonstrate that enough). Will it open the way to revolutionize how the industry works with talent agents representing every developer in the biz? Maybe not, but if you were just responsible for making a billion-dollar-grossing game and find yourself looking for a new home, having an agent sure couldn't hurt.

At a discussion panel at the Game Career Guide seminar during the last day of GDC 2010, developers who worked on Flower, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, and Portal discussed how they got their college student games noticed enough for publishers to give them jobs and put their games out commercially.

Portal

After last nights EA server outage on PS3 and PC, EA have found the issue and put a fix in place and brought the servers back online. This  means that both PS3 and PC players can return back to playing Bad Company 2.

We are aware of a number of remaining disconnect issues on PC and we have released the “R5” server to hosts yesterday to address some of the disconnects. We are continuing to work on the remaining disconnect issues to have a solution as fast as possible as well as looking into reports of other issues raised on the forums for consoles: http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/battlefield-bad-company-2-ng/ and PC: http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/battlefield-bad-company-2-pc/

Battlefield Bad Company 2 has managed to prove so popular that yesterday the concurrent users in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 surpassed that in Battlefield 2 which has been going strong for almost 5 years.

Yesterday DICE featured twice in this years Swedish Games Awards at Grodan Sergel in Stockholm taking home both awards we were nominated for.

Battlefield 1942 won Best Swedish game of the decade

Battlefield 1943 won Best Swedish game of the year

EA also won a couple of other awards with Dark Age Origins winning Best RPG and FIFA 10 winning Best Sports game.

For the Swedish speakers amongst you, check out the award ceremony including an interview with Lars Gustavsson - http://www.press2play.tv/rekommenderat/19/summering-av-dataspelsgalan-2010 

As Battlefield Bad Company launched today (4th March) in Europe and is set for tomorrow launch in the UK (5th March) it seems only right to mention what European reviewers think of Battlefield Bad Company 2.

Eurogamer being one of the more memorable reviews with a great score of 9/10 gets put in the spotlight here. The reviewer, Dan Whitehead, even goes as far as explaining his enjoyment of the game by saying "So let me pin my flag to the mast right from the start. This is the superior game." when comparing BFBC2 to its competition.

Check out their full review over at: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/battlefield-bad-company-2-review and see why he found Bad Company 2 to be a "superb package, with neither single-player nor online feeling like it's been given short shrift".

Battlefield Bad Company 2 is currently on target to become the top selling title of March 2010. With over 2.3 million units sold it has become the best-selling March release on record in North America and Europe.

With 46 reviews awarding Bad Company 2 over 90 or higher (allowing for converting to a score out of 100 by www.metacritic.com) it is no wonder Battlefield Bad Company 2 is showing such strength in numbers throughout the game stats and social media networks:

81 billion points have been earned in online multiplayer sessions

43 million weapons and gadgets have been unlocked in online multiplayer

Over 6 million video views on YouTube

2.9 million hours have been spent playing online in the last 24 hours alone

230k peak-concurrent-users (PCUs)

Over 44k Twitter fans (most out of any EA title) http://twitter.com/OfficialBFBC2

Bad Company 2 has proven so popular that our servers experienced such overwhelming demand that EA and DICE have had to add even more hardware to handle the player numbers. We continue to monitor online play daily to make sure everyone can play as well as continue to work on the game for future updates and DLC which you can get at no extra cost with the VIP code (PC BFBC2 players will get the content in the form of downloads without the need for a VIP code).

Since 5am this morning the dedication has shown outside Webhallen in Stockholm as queues for tonight's midnight launch started forming. Braving the -5 degree temperatures it seems they can't wait to get the game, just hoping they don't get too cold during the day that stops them playing tonight.

We aren't sure if the one in the middle was shy or was meant to have been at work today and didn't want to be seen by their boss. Either way thanks for the support and hope you enjoy the game when you get your hands on it.

CC  Sabathia and Private Terrence Sweetwater take time to talk about the problem close to all our hearts... random grenades. Together with Friends Really Against Grenade Spam (F.R.A.G.S) and the useful tips in the PSA video we can put an end to the shameful waste of grenades and team play, together.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Website Update 3: We've disabled the Stats and Leaderboard pages for now. We will get them back up as soon as we can. Your stats will still exist and you can check on them in game. :)

Website Update 2: We're continuing to optimize the site, so you may experience some issues connecting on and off. Don't be alarmed, it's just us working.

Website Update: The site is available again. We are monitoring it to see if the issue occurs again. We are now only fetching the stats every 15 minutes, so the stats updates may be slow. The leaderboards only update once an hour.

Game Update: The game issue is separate from the web entirely and is already being worked on. I don't have the ETA.

Veteran Update 2: We're looking into expanding the auto-check for Heroes, for those players who are having problems with Heroes being detected.

Veteran Update: Too many users tried to entitle BF2+xpacs at once and overloaded that system. The adding of BF2+expacs is now suspended until a solution can be found. Please be patient as your BC2 Vet reward will still be waiting for you. :)

How do I get my Veteran Reward in BC2?

You go to the BC2 website, login the site then click on "Soldier" in the main menu.

In your "Soldier" page, click on the Veteran link. BC2 should automatically appear. You will need TWO battlefield games for the Veteran reward!

Note: The CD Key games won't work and 1943 (still) doesn't detect all the time. We are working on those two items.

The BC2 site is experience a high amount of traffic and is having intermittent accessibility!

Please be patient while we work on resolving this as quickly as we can.

The day is finally here, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has launched in North America on all platforms (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC) along with some impressive review scores such as GamePro magazine giving a 5/5, Game Informer magazine giving 9.5 out of 10, Eurogamer's 9/10 and Team Xbox giving 9.5/10.

To get you all in the mood check out the launch video and get a feel for the destruction you can unleash in the game when you get it home:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

While we are at it, don't forget to claim your M1 Rifle for use in BFBC2 by registering your other Battlefield games at http://veteran.battlefield.com.

EA Belgium took Battlefield Bad Company 2 to the streets of Brussels... literally. Soldiers plus projectors and a copy of Bad Company 2 brings a new meaning to mobile gaming.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Starting today, March 16th, until 19th April Battlefield Heroes is turning all Battlefield Bad Company 2 with new content and a website reskin. The Battlefield Bad Company 2 tribute consists of:

• Exclusive Battlefield Bad Company 2 tribute weapons and outfits
• New health boost item (Sarge’s Stamina Boost)
• Website reskin

The new items are premium content in Heroes so will cost Battlefunds, however if you have your VIP code assigned to your EA account you will get 700 Battlefunds (worth $5) when you log in to www.battlefieldheroes.com when using the same login as you use on www.battlefieldbadcompany2.com. All Battlefield Bad Company 2 PC players are eligible for the 700 Battlefunds without needing the VIP code that console Bad Company 2 has.

If you do not have a VIP code you can purchase one through the in game store on PS3 and Xbox 360, that will get you access to the 700 Battlefunds as well as all the extra VIP content that Bad Company 2 will get.

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We have had a lot of questions about Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on all platforms about the issues some have had. Here we will answer some of the more common questions, some will help you get in game, others will give an insight to what we are working on.

This Q&A isn't a definitive list by any means and we are aware of and are working on more than these issues: 

Connection issues to EA servers

EA Online has been adding more capacity to handle the high number of player connections to EA servers. This is an ongoing process but we currently have enough capacity to handle all BFBC2 connections.

Manually install PunkBuster on PC

If you are getting an error that Punkbuster hasn't installed correctly for reasons such as Windows admin permissions not allowing Punkbuster to be installed, then go to www.evenbalance.com and download PBSetup.exe. When prompted, point PBSetup at your BFBC2 install directory and then check for updates. A PC restart maybe needed once this is done for Windows to pick up Punkbusters location.

PunkBuster kicks with the following error message : « punkbuster kicked player 'PLAYER NAME' (for 0 minutes) ... RESTRICTION: Service Communication. »

This is a Windows Vista/Windows 7 permissions issue that affects all Punkbuster games. To solve this issue download and run PBSVC from http://www.evenbalance.com/downloads/pbsvc/pbsvc.exe

When clicking on a server to join, nothing happens.

This is fixed in a patch going out on PC today.

Server Browser bugged: All the following browser issues are things the team is currently working on improving.

Too slow This is caused by the current browser system. - A new system is being developed by the BFBC2 PC team to improve the server browser

Displaying inaccurate number of players connected on game servers - This is caused by the difference in server status between when the refresh was initiated and when the results display.

No ping displayed - This is caused by Windows admin privileges. To view ping in the server browser run BFBC2.exe with administrator privileges.

High pings even on local game servers. We're actually showing game latency instead of ping.

This is basically how far behind the client is compared to the server. We try to keep the server a small portion in front of the clients so they in most cases can use replicated data until they get the next ghost update from the server. If they get a lag spike they will start predicting the state when they run out of information, however, the basic idea is to smooth out the experience compared to everything having to be corrected when the predictions are slightly off.

After being disconnected, some people got their stats temporary reset.

The team is investigating this issue, we have no solution at this point. Please report any stat loss here: http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/battlefield-bad-company-2-pc/961412-do-you-get-missing-stats.html 

When people try to reconnect to their profile, the game asks for the serial number again

This has been fixed on the entitlement side hence no patch is needed. A really small number of people got affected by this.

360 accounts will be “reset” this weekend?

This is a rumour

Some players have had trouble redeeming their VIP codes

This should have cleared up now, the in game store on PS3 for Europe and Asia is coming soon. 

Not to be out done by Stockholm's tube station advertising, the USA, Europe and Asia have had this spot featuring on their TV's recently.

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Some places just get all the cool adverts.

Advertising next weeks release of BFBC2 has seen Battlefield billboards appearing all around Stockholm's tunnelbana (subway/tube to you US and UK players). If you happen to be in Stockholm you will see these at the following stations; Fridhemsplan, Hötorget, Karlaplan, Mariatorget, Medborgarplatsen, Odenplan, Rådhuset, Rådmansgatan, Skanstull, Slussen, S:t Eriksplan, T-Centralen, Tekniska Högskolan, Zinkensdamm. 

Also, you can't see it in the picture above but there is a disclaimer under the box art on the right poster saying "STHLM is not a map in the actual game" just for those who were wondering.

Yesterday an article went up at VE3D stating that DICE has asked all GSP’s to turn off idle servers and it caused a bit of a stir in the community. While there is some truth to the article it also has a number of inaccuracies which we’ll explain here.

This was not asked of all GSP’s but only to one of our closest GSP’s, Multiplay.co.uk. We approached them with the idea of shutting down servers that have had no players in the server for 8 hours with the option of opting in or out for the server owners.

We did not make this decision lightly but as an attempt to temporarily lower traffic on EA servers that is caused by the game server browser while we work on a client fix for the browser here at DICE. After previously shutting down all EA Public servers which accounted for approximately 40,000 player slots we have actually gained approximately 50,000 more player slots from new rental servers. We currently have enough server capacity to allow over 150,000 players to get in a game server at once and that is just on PC.

As those who have servers at Multiplay will be aware you can opt out of your server being shut down during times of inactivity, however if you aren’t aware of how to do this and you would like to opt out of allowing your server to be shut down when idle you can do so through your account at ClanForge.

1. Goto ClanForge -> Servers, select your server and Click Edit
2. Once in the edit screen configure your servers "Auto Restart Interval" to something other than None e.g. 1 Week
3. Save your server settings

If you chose to opt in to allow your server to be shut down during times of inactivity you can start your server again at any time and as often as you like.

Other server hosts may offer a similar option on their servers. Please contact your server provider directly to see if they have any plans and if so how you can opt in or out.

This temporary solution will help reduce the server load until we can release a client fix to help reduce server browser load while keeping enough game server slots running for everyone to be able to get in game. Once our client update is complete, Multiplay will not use the idle shut server down setting and we will start up all of the EA Public servers again.

Tomorrow, 12th March, and Saturday, 13th March at 8:00GMT/9:00 CET:12:00 (midnight) PST, EA will take the servers down, this time we will come up with even more hardware with more capacity to handle all the BFBC2 traffic. Once the maintenance is complete you will experience an improvement to your online experience.

This will be extended maintenance to allow the new hardware to be installed and affect all three platforms (PC, PS3 and Xbox 360).

Since launch a week ago, BFBC2 has already put EA servers through the following stress:

• The 4 different soldier types have gathered a score of more than 34 Billion.
• There's been more than 400M kills made.
• 1.3M roadkills
• Squads and Teams have assisted each other to 6.2 Billion points.

Now we are adding more capacity to let you smash those numbers multiple times over in the weeks to come.

As Battlefield Bad Company 2 comes out next week, I'll tell you about the Day 1 map pack that is available to all players who purchase the game and apply their VIP code which comes with the game at no extra charge. The map pack contains two new maps which are the Rush map, Nelson Bay and the Conquest map, Laguna Alta which you can check out in the video now. The maps will be available from March 2nd which will allow the lucky North America players to get access and practice while us Europeans wait a few days more.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Later in March another map pack will be released containing Arica Harbor for Conquest and Laguna Presa for Rush

VIP codes are included in the box for all new purchases. Players that buy used versions and don't have a code can purchase one via the in-game store for $15. PC players will get the content as a game update.

Last week EA and GameStop hosted a Battlefield: Bad Company 2 bracket challenge.  EA.com now has a video recap of the event and festivities.  Check it out!

If you missed the coverage last week, you can view the live blog here and also our photo gallery.

Also, don't forget to fill out your bracket and have a chance at winning $10,000!

While the core of the dev team here at DICE as well as all the back-end teams at EA are 110% focused on stabilizing the game experience we do have some other, great news to reveal. Today we’re happy to announce the release date of the second VIP map package for Battlefield: Bad Company 2! It will be made available on the 30th of March on all platforms at no extra cost to all of you who’ve got your VIP codes entered in the game. VIP Map Pack 2 contains the following:

Arica Harbor Conquest mode - US Command launches a break through action directly at the Russian base. Collateral damage is of no consequence. Capture and secure tactical positions in Conquest Mode across the vast Arica Harbor map.

Laguna Presa Rush mode - The valley and surrounding mountains possess a strategic value in the battle for South America, and an infantry assault supported by light armor vehicles is likely by both armies as US forces defend the nearby Dam.

VIP members will be able to expand on the deep and ever changing sandbox experience, which in itself provides near endless hours of entertainment, by having new content to keep things fresh. It also plays a vital part in making sure you, the players get proper value for the money you’ve invested in Battlefield: Bad Company 2. This is why these map packs are available at no extra cost, contradicting the industry standard and what our direct competitors are doing. Of course, it also helps avoid segmenting the community, making sure everyone can play together having the same maps available. There will be future paid downloadable content as well but these packs will focus on expanding other parts of the game experience rather than the selection of maps available for the basic game modes. We’re dedicated to taking care of this product for a long time – helping you avoid “mapathy” without getting nickel-and-dimed.

Finally, a big shout-out to all the fans that are playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2 at the moment. We can see from the logs that you’re spending some crazy hours on the Battlefield – in only the last 24 hours you all logged more than 2.5 million game hours. Impressive!

Best regards,
KM Troedsson

Producer, Anders Gyllenberg has put together a walkthrough of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on the PC and explains some of the PC specific features, including things you have been asking for on the forums, as well as a first look at the Rush map, Valparaiso.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

CyberGamer.com.au are in the final stages of the worlds first Battlefield Bad Company 2 PC clan tournament. They opened registrations for teams to compete in a 3 week single elimination tournament for up to 32 teams during the BETA of the BFBC2 PC. Demand soon became overwhelming with well over 100, 12 man teams registered to compete and they had to increase the tournament to 96 teams and provided beta keys to all.

With 96 teams to manage in 3 weeks, the clans had to be split into three brackets of 32 teams and in the first 8 days, 72 matches were completed, taking the 96 teams down to just 24. The finals series kicked off for each of the three brackets with the teams playing a round on defense and a round on offense in a 30 minute timed encounter per round with the challenge being which team could destroy the most control points in the 30 minutes and in the shortest amount of time.

On Wednesday the 24th of February, the grand finals for the three brackets will take place at 9:00pm Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time (10:00 GMT/11:00 CET/2:00 PST). Its 3 brackets 3 grand finals and a stage set for 3 phenomenal encounters down on Port Valdez.

The teams to make it through to the finals are none other than: Team Sidewinder, 6 Pack, Send For Roar, Anarchy Krew, For Valour, and Bush Rangers. Each member of the winning 3 teams will land themselves a copy of Battlefield Bad Company 2 PC from EA Store.
Check out the tournament bracket here: http://files.cybergamer.com.au/richard/bfbcup.htm

Or if you are awake at the time tune into the Gamestah live video broadcast from inside the match itself at: http://www.gamestah.com/gtv3/

Good luck to the finalists, DICE wishes you all the best of luck and a big thanks to CyberGamer for managing to fit in so much in such a limited time.

You can still reserve your Battlefield Bad Company 2 Limited Edition on PC/Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 from any of these global retailers http://www.battlefieldbadcompany2.com/reserve-limited-edition.