If you know me well at all, you should know that there’s one thing other than gaming that’s near and dear to my heart: hockey and the Detroit Red Wings, equally. I’ve been a fan nearly as long as I’ve been alive and when you give me the chance to mix hockey and video games, I am more than happy to participate. Now, I liked it a little more during the 16-bit and 32-bit generations when there was a great deal more competition when it came to hockey video games, but things have gotten so refined now that it would be hard to do things so differently without being radically different and we all know how people react to that kind of change. NHL 16 is another step in a long history of hockey games from Electronic Arts that stretches all the way back to 1994 and even further back, depending on who you ask. While you have a game that feels extremely refined and awesome, you also have a game franchise that feels like it’s bordering on stagnancy.
Tag Archive
Is Star Wars 1313 going to rise from its grave?
Posted on December 10, 2015 by Fionna Schweit
Remember Star Wars 1313? Honestly if you feel asleep for two weeks in 2012 you might have missed it, it was a game announced at the tail end of the Lucas Arts tenure over Star Wars games, and featured a grim gritty Star Wars world that hadn’t really been seen in games before. In case you need a refresher hers the sum total of every singe bit of video of the game the public ever saw Featuring fan favorite Bobba Fett’s early years of bounty hunting on Courscant, the game was pretty gritty cover based shooter. It was pretty for 2012 and fan reaction was good. Unfortunately, the acquisition of the whole Star Wars world by Disney put and end to Lucas Arts as a game studio and 1313 feel in to “developer hell”
It seems Disney likes the idea of Star Wars money and games, as in a recent interview with Slashfilm, Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy made mention of the huge archive of unrealized Star Wars-related material that Disney “would very much like to explore, Our attitude is, we don’t want to throw any of that stuff away. It’s gold. And it’s something we’re spending a lot of time looking at, poring through, discussing, and we may very well develop those things further,” she said. “We definitely want to.” Well 1313 wasnt mentioned specifically and saying, “We’re not throwing anything away” is as much a hard confirmation as saying that there will be 24 more Battle Front games. Many fans continue to hope that 1313 will eventually see the light of day. Personally with the recent release of Star Wars Battlefront and the hype of the moves being released themselves, I really dont need any more Star Wars in my life, even if it is a gritty reality cover based shooter.
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Battlefield Hardline Joins EA Access Program
Posted on October 14, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards
Electronic Arts is expanding the EA Access vault to include Visceral Game’s take on the classic confrontation between cops & criminals, Battlefield Hardline, for all subscribers to enjoy as much as they would like.
Developers from Visceral Games will be holding a community multiplayer event to mark the inclusion of the game into the vault. The community and developer shoot ‘em up will take place on October 15th.
EA Access launched exclusively on Xbox One on August 11th 2014. The EA Access Vault currently includes: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Need For Speed: Rivals, FIFA 15 and Battlefield 4.
Visceral Games and EA launched Battlefield Hardline on March 15th of this year. Making the release of Hardline into the vault the fastest transition from retail to vault, happening in just over seven months.
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Editorial: What’s in a game, how DLC stops me from buying what I love
Posted on October 14, 2015 by Fionna Schweit
After playing the Star Wars Battlefront beta I was 100% sold on purchasing the game. I planned to order the game through origin and pre-load to play day 1. Then came the announcement of a 50$ season pass DLC. I immediately found myself stuck in a major conundrum. I am HUGE Star Wars fan girl, my love for the franchise extends far beyond the movies in to games, books, and even comics. So Battlefront should have been a guaranteed sale for me. However I found myself hesitating, the game itself is 60$, a fully priced AAA game from one of the largest dogs in AAA publishing. EA has no shortage of money, and yet in what would seem to be a clear money grabbing move they have priced the first DLC pack for their new game at 50$ (it is a season pass and so contains 4 DLC map packs). My mind was changed faster than Han Solos blaster draw. There simply is no room in my already crowded budget to have to purchase a game like Battlefront twice. Perhaps even more important than the money I can’t understand why a company would still think it’s a good idea to sell this much DLC for this price. It alienates your core multiplayer audience if they can’t afford it, and causes strife in the games community. Yet it seems EA simply keeps making the same set of mistake. Diving your player base and charging an already stretched player an additional sunk cost isn’t the way to win over your core audience.Read More
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EA Announces That There Will Be No Voice Chat In Star Wars Battlefront
Posted on October 13, 2015 by Fionna Schweit
EA is keeping the Star Wars hype alive by trickling out a steady stream of news about the final release of Star Wars Battlefront. The latest bit of news is to say the least controversial, EA today through a series of tweets confirmed there will be no “ingame” chat in Battle Front. The tweets are below, but the gist of it is that 3rd part voice clients are going to be needed to talk to anyone in Star Wars Battlefront.
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EA’s Star Wars Battlefront Beta Surpassed 9 Million Users
Posted on October 13, 2015 by Kenny Keelan
Whether they jumped on for a short time and hated it or loved it and stuck it through the entire beta phase, the game’s senior producer, Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir, revealed the the beta is officially the largest open beta in Electronic Arts history by accruing over nine million active users through the course of its tenure.
Considering that a lot of Star Wars franchise fans have been salivating for a Battlefront game for a very, very long time, now, this isn’t entirely surprising. What is surprising, however, is the mixed responses it’s gotten from those who have played. While there are reports that this game is one of the most anticipated of the last quarter of the year, after playing the beta, there seems to be some hesitation among some of the people I know that are playing the game, hoping, at the very least, that it will improve.
Star Wars: Battlefront is coming on November 17th of this year, putting it in direct competition with another titan of a franchise being release around the same time: Fallout 4, which is coming out a week earlier. The season pass, which will set you back fifty dollars, will give you access to all planned expansion content.
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Star Wars Battlefront Season Pass Priced at $50
Posted on October 13, 2015 by Fionna Schweit
Just when we thought we had all the Star Wars news we could handle EA has released the price for their season pass. The price will be 50$ The four map packs that have been announced so far. The Collection of maps is quite expensive but if you calculate the total cost of each DLC to be 15$ you actually get a bit of a discount. EA is sweetening the pot with another added incentive. Players who buy the DLC season pass to Star Wars Battlefront will get two week early access to the maps before the release and an exclusive emote. The emote will say “shoot first” in a reference to the iconic original Cut of Star Wars Episode 4 where Han Solo shot Greedo first.
50$ seems like a lot but its become fairly standard for most season passes that contain this number of map packs. EA is also giving a nod to its player base by giving out the maps early to loyal customers who pre-purchase the season pass. The season pass will also be available to anyone who buys the Star Wars Battlefront Ultimate Edition which clocks in at whopping 140$. Both are currently available on the Origin store for pre-order.
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A Computer Capable Of Running Battlefront Is Much Stronger Than You Can Possibly Imagine
Posted on October 6, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards
The force must be strong with EA as they prepare to launch the Open Beta for Star Wars: Battlefront on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC. Ahead of Thursday’s official kick off the publisher has posted the minimum and recommended specs for game on its official Origin page.
The recommended specs are probably going to shock a lot of people considering they are recommending an NVIDIA Geforce 960 & an Intel i5 6600 both of which are top-shelf components costing about $300 USD a pop and both of which were only released in the last few months. If you want to go with the minimum specs they’re recommending only a Geforce 660 or higher *phew*. Oh and the 16GBs of RAM is a little absurd if you ask me!
Is your PC up to the task? Perhaps you’ve squirreled away some money into your Death Star construction fund and can use some of it to upgrade your rig.
My computer falls squarely in-between the minimum and recommended. My processor is older (and is an AMD which has no recommended specs) and I’ve only got 8GBs of ram but at least my graphics card clears the recommended mark.
We’ll have full impressions of the Star Wars: Battlefront beta when it launches later this week. Oh and we’ll be playing it across multiple platforms to try and bring you the most comphrensive coverage possible.
Minimum PC System Requirements
OS: 64-bit Windows 7 or later
Processor (Intel): Intel i3 6300T or equivalent
Memory: 8GB RAM
Hard Drive: At least 40 GB of free space
Graphics card (NVIDIA): nVidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB
Graphics card (ATI): ATI Radeon HD 7850 2GB
DirectX: 11.0 Compatible video card or equivalent
Online Connection Requirements: 512 KBPS or faster Internet connection
Recommended PC System Requirements
OS: 64-bit Windows 10 or later
Processor (Intel): Intel i5 6600 or equivalent
Memory: 16GB RAM
Hard Drive: At least 40 GB of free space
Graphics card (NVIDIA): nVidia GeForce GTX 970 4GB
Graphics card (AMD): AMD Radeon R9 290 4GB
DirectX: 11.1 Compatible video card or equivalent
Online Connection Requirements: 512 KBPS or faster Internet connection
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Star Wars Battlefront Open Beta Begins Next Week
Posted on September 28, 2015 by Rae Michelle Richards
I’ve been eagerly awaiting for my chances to check out EA’s upcoming Star Wars Battlefront reboot since it was announced over two years ago at E3 2013. As a lifelong Star Wars fan it’s always my hope that the next playable Star Wars experience will bring me one step closer to channeling the force. Now we’ll all get our chance to see if EA & DICE will make this dream become reality with the Star Wars Battlefront Open Beta on PS4, Xbox One and PC next weekend – October 8th thru the 12th.
The open beta is meant to stress-test the game’s multiplayer servers ahead of the game’s November release date and includes a lot of the content that was present in the E3 2015 build of the game. That is to say a 40 person VS match set on the iconic ice planet Hoth as well as a co-op survival mode. Making its playable debut in the Open Beta is the brand new Drop Zone mode.
Here’s a quick run-down for all of the open Beta’s content:
Walker Assault on Hoth: Fight in epic 40-player battles as a Rebel to destroy the Empire’s onslaught of AT-AT’s by calling in Y-wing bombers. Or, side with the Empire and protect your walkers while utilizing their mighty weaponry to crush the Rebel objective.
Drop Zone on Sullust: Escape pods are crashing down and you and your team must fight to control them. With its frantic 8v8 matches, Drop Zone is sure to put your combat and strategy skills to the test.
Survival Mission on Tatooine: Play alone or with a friend via co-op or split-screen as you battle to hold off waves of Imperial forces including AT-ST’s, TIE fighters, elite stormtroopers, and more.
The game’s companion app will also be available on iOS and Android and allows you to earn credits via a special “Base Command” mini-game which can be used to purchase new gear in Battlefront.
We’ll have more on Star Wars Battlefront ahead of its November 17th release.
[Source]
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EA Planning SimCity BuildIt for iOS and Android
Posted on September 10, 2014 by Jason Nason
Electronic Arts announced today that they are making a mobile version of SimCity for iOS and Android called SimCity BuildIt. The game will be coming soon to iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets. The release states that this will be an all-new SimCity game like you’ve never seen before, designed for gamers on the go.
Whether you’re a savvy city planner or a strategic mastermind, you can take control and have fun wherever you are. The choices you make evolve your city in a variety of ways. Meet your citizens’ needs to keep them happy, or make questionable choices and feel your citizens’ wrath.
Pinch, zoom, and rotate 360 degrees as you manage your city in the palm of your hand. With countless buildings and vivid, 3D-quality graphics, it’s the most advanced mobile building simulation game.
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Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare Live Action Trailer
Posted on February 17, 2014 by Joshua Rust
Ever wonder what would happen if EA/Popcap’s Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare crossed over into the real world? Well, us neither, until we seen this new trailer released this week. Can you imagine what a dolphin gun would look like? Ace Ventura is probably screaming out to his jungle friends as we speak. Seriously though, this is plants eating zombies eating plants, so why not have a dolphin gun?Read More
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Titanfall Beta Sign-up Access Launches In A Few Hours
Posted on February 11, 2014 by Joshua Rust
Those looking to get in on the Titanfall beta will have their shot in just a few short hours. Work came via tweet on Respawn co-founder’s, Vince Zampella, Twitter account. The website to sign-up for the beta will be announced at 6 p.m. PST/9 p.m. EST/2 a.m. GMT. The tweet states, “Tonight at 6pm PST there will be a website to sign up for #titanfall beta access. The website will be announced shortly before 6.”
The website will be announced via Twitter, so keep your eyes on this page, https://twitter.com/Titanfallgame, around that time frame.
A firm date has not been released for Titanfall’s beta, but if rumors are to be believed – it may start around February 14th!
Keep your eyes peeled on the Twitter site so you can get in!
UPDATE: http://www.titanfall.com/beta & beta trailer after the jump!
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Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare Gameplay Trailer
Posted on November 21, 2013 by Joshua Rust
Branching out from the previous Plants Vs. Zombies games, Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare will be a third-person shooter that with up to four player co-operative multiplayer missions, titled “Garden Ops”. It will also feature 12 vs. 12 competitive multiplayer madness across 10 different maps titled: “Garden & Graveyards” and “Team Vanquish”.
In “Gardens & Graveyards”, players will have to defend their bases from the zombie hordes, while in “Team Vanquish” each opposing team looks to eliminate the other – so basically your traditional team deathmatch.
In the video below, new gameplay is shown off as well as customizations as PopCap Executive Producer Brian Lindley takes you through the world of Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare.
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THQ Suing UFC Owners, EA Over Videogame Rights
Posted on October 15, 2013 by Kintarius
Former publisher THQ is suing EA as well as UFC brand owner Zuffa, claiming EA garnered details from purchase negotiations in order to dismantle and undermine THQ’s relationship with Zuffa.
THQ claims it is owned an additional US$10 million beyond the $10 million Zuffa paid previously in order to terminate its license agreement.Read More
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Battlefield 4 Takes To The ‘Angry Sea’ At E3
Posted on June 10, 2013 by Les Major
I’ve been impressed already with how the Frostbyte 3 engine handled the Fishing In Baku video DICE and EA released which could in itself be a short movie. At E3, they’ve created another featurette called Angry Sea which features gameplay footage of a naval level of the game.
After aquiring the intel they needed, the team is forced out into rough seas to head towards their escape. This happens after the ship they are in splits in two, revealing the hallway before them breaking away as the ship separates. It could seemingly have been an aircraft carrier, as you soon find yourself avoiding jets that slide down the deck before your team. The physics involved in the destruction alone are amazing. I still love the character models themselves too. Check it out after the break!Read More
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