Rock, Paper, Shotgun

When the Modern Warfare 2 thing kicked off I said to my fellow RPSites, “gadzooks, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is so going to capitalise on this.” And lo, I see on Blues that EA have posted a Dedicated Server FAQ on the game. “Other games use player-hosted or ‘peer to peer’ solutions,” says Gordon VanDyke, presumably with a smile, “often resulting in a “host with the most” situation; where the player hosting the match has an advantage over other players connected to their game. Everyone else is dependent on the host’s internet connection and if they don’t have a great connection neither will you regardless how great of an internet you have.” (Further PC related info here, via Planet Battlefield.)

Well, it made me laugh. It’s a bonus that the game looks pretty good (see old trailer below). Roll on Battlefield 3, I say.

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I’ve just returned from a trip to see Pandemic’s just-around-the-corner open world alterna-World War II game for another publication (I do so like to dance with the devil in the pale moonlighting), and was faintly surprised to realise whilst there that it was due on PC. This is because I never read any of John Walker’s earlier posts about the game, due to a dark, ancient prophecy that states existence as we know it will meet a horrific end should I ever read anything written by him.
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Seems a little disingenuous to be releasing new content for Mass Effect 1 when Mass Effect 2 is due sometime within the next six months (incidentally, we hear tell that unlike the infuriatingly tardy first game, the PC version will be released at the same time as the 360 version. Huzzahs!), but shouldn’t grumble really. Now live on the EA digistoremacguffin is Pinnacle Station, which promises 2-3 hours of bonus space bimbling for $5/£4. Not extortionate by some DLC standards, though it does sound as the contents are all a bit shooty-bang-bang…
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Walker lamented a couple of weeks ago that EA were mysteriously promoting Shift, their oh-so-knowingly-named reboot of the horribly tarnished Need For Speed series, by showing almost nothing of the game. In the wake of EA’s press conference at this year’s GamesCom, that’s changed. Now we get to see lots of pretend cars.
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Semi-surprise sequel Command & Conquer 4 (its subtitle is still TBC; there’s currently a contest for fans to submit one. I’ve submitted ‘Those little red guys and little blue guys still really don’t like each other’) is starting to drop hints about its mooted formula shake-up all over the shop. Or, at least, people are cheekily scanning and summarising magazine preview features, the distillation of which is already on the game’s Wikipedia page. I’ll be sharing some thoughts on some early code I saw in a few days, but meantime here’s some detail on where the story’s going, in the former of an FMV trailer chattered over by C&C4’s ‘lore-master’ Samuel Bass.
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For a while the Need For Speed games became something… we weren’t paying much attention to. Then Shift was announced, and everyone sat up to take notice. Why? Because it’s being made by Slightly Mad Studios, a team made up of people responsible for the stunning GT Legends and GTR games. Jim writes much about it here. So a crop of new trailers appear, and I think, hooray! Then I watch them and I shake my pretty head.

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This is odd. The revelation that there is to be a Command & Conquer 4 is scarcely any surprise, as EA’s rejuvenated franchise seems to be on a bit of a roll these days (bar the cancellation of FPS Tiberium). That they’re saying it will finish the Tiberium saga is the shocker – surely its silly sci-fi storyline was designed to blather away forever? A red herring, I suspect – yeah, we might finally get answers as to what bechromedomed uber-bad Kane really wants, and what all those magic crystals will ultimately do to poor Earth, but that hardly closes the door on telling more tales in that future-war universe.

For those who don’t play real-time strategy for the lore, C&C4 also promises major shake-ups to the Dune 2-derived formula it’s been based around for the last 15 years…
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So many battles, so little time. EA/Dice already seem busy alternately delighting and outraging their fanbase with the much-delayed casual shooter Battlefield Heroes and sorta-remake Battlefield 1943, so dropping an apparent Battlefield 3 into the mix seems like a special kind of madness. Then again, perhaps a full sequel, expanding rather than simplifying or repeating the remit, is the way to win back men’s love. I have precisely zero information beyond EA CEO John Pleasants (he’s not a pheasant plucker, he’s a pheasant plucker’s son) dropping a sly “I’ve had the luxury of looking at Battlefield 3 over at DICE in Sweden and was highly impressed by the way the team is working on that product“, so every word of this post I write is essentially killing time until it looks long enough to publish. Oh, there we go.

BF3 then: whadda we want?

Hot off the E3 grapevine is news that Crytek’s ultro-graphics shooter Crysis is definitely due a sequel. A proper sequel, that is, and not another Warheadesque expandalone: Crysis 2 will even sport a whole new engine. No further details whatsoever, and certainly no whiff of a screenshot, but hopefully all that stuff’s inbound later today. All we do know: it’s now multi-format. Oh, won’t someone please think of the children, etc. Me, I just hope it’s a better game than the underwhelming first two Cryses. Let’s start the guessing now, though – will Crytek stick to their tried and tested tropical setting, or elect to demonstrate the might of their new Cryengine 3 in a whole new locale? Urban would be fun… The press release, such as it is, is after the jump.

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A spot of interesting news regarding Dragon Age: Origins. Bioware and EA have announced that the game will be coming out without Securom DRM, or any other form, beyond an old-fashioned disc check before loading. This means the old-skool fantasy RPG won’t require any online authentication at all, and thus will have no install limits. Another sign of EA’s changing mind about game protection.

Blues News reports the story, picked up via the official Dragon Age forums, where Community Coordinator (come on community, follow me in groups of four) Chris Priestly describes the announcement as “good news.”

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