This is BioWare's next project

Here is the image of what will be BioWare's next project, and it will apparently be about a guy who was texting while driving, and consequently hit a boulder on the side of the road which then sent him into quite a tumble.

Seriously, the whole concept is up in the air, pardon the pun, but we'll find out the official reveal on December 10, at this year's Video Game Awards.

What do you see?

[via GameInformer]

Battlefield 3 unlocks exceed that of Bad Company 2 ten-fold

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is still a great shooter to this day. However, once you reach a certain point there's not much to unlock anymore. That wouldn't be such a problem, mind you, had this "certain point" not arrived so quickly. Needless to say, the proverbial "hanging carrot" was not really out of arm's reach, and some people found this to be rather...lame.

DICE is fixing all that with Battlefield 3, which is said to have "10 times the hardware unlocks spread over weapons, weapon attachments, gadgets, and a huge unlock tree for vehicles alone."

Annual Battlefield titles would "eventually kill the franchise," says DICE; prefers Vietnam-esque expansions

Those who were worried that the Battlefield series would hop on the ol' Yearly Release Express with the other big franchises of today can put those fears to rest. DICE's Patrick Bach told GamerZines that an annual release of Battlefield is not part of the company's current "business goals," and that doing an annual release would "eventually kill the franchise." Well said, Bach, well said.

"To us, we need the time to be able to create the next game that consumers will hopefully like," says Bach. "If we were to release another big Battlefield title next year, that would mean that we'd have less than a year to build it, and that would mean that we'd have to have another studio building it for us, which would mean it wouldn't have that DICE seal of approval, which would mean they'd just have to release a copy of the game we just released. Ugh, no."

Bach went on to reassure that EA would never force DICE to release a game every year, and that he feels that expansions similar to Bad Company 2's "Vietnam"--which introduced new weapons and vehicles along with new maps--are what makes a game "feel new and fresh again." 

"It's not a new game but a twist on your old game, and I think that's a healthier way of looking at a franchise rather than just trying to cram every single last penny out of it."

Say Goodbye--EA Pulls Plug on Army of Two, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, and other servers

If you snatched up that bundle-bin copy of Army of Two recently hoping to score some sweet online time with a buddy in the near future, you'll be sorely displeased. As of August 11, 2011, EA will be pulling the plug on a multitude of their game's online servers, including Army of Two (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3), the Army of Two demo for Xbox 360, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (Xbox 360, Xbox 360 demo), and Battlefield 2142's PC demo.

EA stated that these titles, as well as others mentioned after the break, barely make up 1% of "all peak online players across all EA titles," and that they [EA] would rather keep focus on the brand's more popular games. Check after the break for the full list of titles that will become quite dead[er] next month.

Battlefield 3's Classes Detailed; No Medic Class, Recon "more of a team player"

DICE detailed the four playable classes for Battlefield 3--Assault, Engineer, Support, Recon--on the game's official blog. Notice anything missing? That's right, there is no Medic class in Battlefield 3, but rather...

...the Assault class now carries both the Med-kits and the defibrillator. Senior Multiplayer Designer Alan Kertz states that since the Assault class is usually the run-n-gun class, "it makes sense that the guy on the frontline will be able to revive fallen teammates..." On the other hand, players can still customize the Assault class to play more like a soldier, and less like a medic.

Rumor: Original Crysis Console-bound

There have been many rumors about the original Crysis hitting consoles, but perhaps now we have a bit of concrete evidence. MyCrysis user catmario1121 posted a thread noting the Korean Game Rating Board listed Crysis to come out for the Xbox 360. The ESRB soon followed suit with a listing of Crysis for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

While Electronic Arts has yet to comment, many ESRB listings in the past have mostly come out to be true. We'll keep you posted as to whether or not Crysis actually sees the light of day on consoles.

[via GameInformer]

Watch the Console Debut of Battlefield 3 from Fallon

Last night on Jimmy Fallon's show the first ever console gameplay footage of Battlefield 3 was shown. The gameplay is the usual urban footage we've seen for the past few months now, only this time we have the douche-chilling commentary from Fallon.

I'll be clear--I've never liked Fallon, nor do I think he's funny. But, at the end of the day, he has his own show, and I don't.

...just watch the footage taken from the PlayStation 3...

Battlefield 3 Loves Orange Peel

Amazon reveals the "Limited Edition" boxart for Battlefield 3, complete with an orange peel and the "Back to Karkand" access notice.

Battlefield 3's Pre-order Incentive Causing Some Anger

Update: [http://www.respawnaction.com/2011/06/battlefield-3s-physical-warfare-pre.html]

Although a failed attempt with a prior Battlefield title, EA and DICE are once again trying to give pre-order incentive to would-be Battlefield 3 owners with the "Physical Warfare" pack that grants access to weapons, equipment, and other goodies that only those who drop $5 can utilize.

Everybody else, meaning those who don't pre-order, would be left out in the cold which of course is causing a stir among the internet.

It will be interesting to see how EA and DICE respond to this hullabaloo this time.

via Kotaku

Ohhhh, Myyyy: Battlefield 3 Pre-orders Skyrocket over BFBC2

Just a quick tidbit here...

EA announced in its fourth quarter fiscal year report that Battlefield 3 pre-orders have garnered a 700% increase over the publisher's 2010 FPS release, Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Certainly, that's worthy of a Takei.

Additionally, the report noted that Bad Company 2's sales-to-date are over the 7 million mark.

One has to think though, could these pre-orders be mostly from the PC crowd who have been waiting for the true successor to Battlefield 2? Remember, they weren't fond of the console "spin-offs."

Press Release

EA Lists Job Openings for Another Army of Two

If you can't get enough of over-the-top man-love, or, perhaps just love the great back and forth dialogue produced by mercenaries, then rejoice! EA/ Visceral Games Montreal listed job openings for both a Senior Producer and a Lead Environmental Artist for a new Army of Two game.

Army of Two is a co-operative based series that stars mercenaries Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem, or, stereotypical big dude and Zack Morris with brown hair. The first title came out in 2008 with mixed reviews, and its sequel The 40th Day suffered the same fate last year. Personally, I enjoyed the first game and the ideas it had to offer, though I thought the second one tried too hard to be something it wasn't.

If the third title keeps the over-the-top dialogue and focuses more on being a funny, popcorn-flick romp, then I think it can do well.

Crysis 2 to Receive a DirectX 11 Update

It has just been announced by Crytek that their mainstay title, Crysis 2, will receive an update which will allow the game to work with newer hardware. The "DirectX 11 patch" will allow gamers to run the game using all new bells and whistles, making alien killing even more enjoyable now.

The information is rather scarce up to this point, so we just have to wait until Crytek reveals more details on the patch, including a release date.

Kotaku

EA's Battlefield Play4Free Available Now!

"JOIN THE FIGHT TODAY! BATTLEFIELD PLAY4FREE OPEN TO PLAYERS WORLDWIDE

The wait is over! The Battlefield experience is now available to anyone, anytime, anywhere – for free*. Yes, for free. Today, EA launched Battlefield Play4Free, a deep, rich, adrenaline-filled Battlefield all-out war experience. Battlefield Play4Free delivers an endlessly entertaining experience on the PC that combines the most popular maps from Battlefield 2™with the popular classes and powerful weapons of Battlefield: Bad Company™ 2, all rendered with stunning visuals. Battlefield Play4Free raises the bar in the free-to-play space even further with 16 different vehicles including the Mil Mi-28 attack helicopter, its nemesis the F35 VTOL jet fighter, the massive Russian T-90 main battle tank, and the hard to catch LSV light strike vehicle.