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Grym writes "The recently released Battlefield 2 was met with various levels of acclaim by reviewers. Besides the insane hardware requirements, the chief complaint was the amount of bugs in the game. Hoping to address the situation quickly, EA hastily released a patch to address the concerns cited in reviews. Big mistake. The patch turned out to be littered with bugs. One of the biggest was a huge memory leak. Another actually turned teammates' names red--just like enemies. The game became unplayable because of the patch. Tycho at Penny-Arcade discussed the issue in his latest news update. EA has owned up to the buggy patch and has said that there will be a hotfix released soon. In the meantime, gamers have been offically told to uninstall Battlefield 2 and play without the patch; advice that many fans are not happy to hear. Meanwhile, some sites are still offering the 1.01 patch for download on their front pages, only adding to the confusion. When are game companies going to learn? Quality assurance and play-testing should not be an afterthought!"

bbzzdd writes "Looks like FPS geeks aren't leaving the house this weekend. EA games has released a demo for the long awaited Battlefield 2 . The 547 MB demo is available at: Filerush (Torrent), GameSpot, Filefront, Gamer's Hell, Worthplaying, Download.com, Computer Games Romania .

Though it was released back in September of 2004, I've only had the chance to play the racing/action title Burnout 3: Takedown post-Christmas. Marked by imaginative gameplay and extreme speeds, Burnout 3 is an amazing example of what's possible when developers look outside the traditional confines of a genre. While games involving cars may be the furthest thing from the minds of some readers, if you were ever a four-year-old who made "psshhhh-kapoooo!" noises with your Hot Wheels, you are probably going to dig this game. Read on for my take on this Criterion Games title.

• Title: Burnout 3: Takedown
• Developer: Criterion Games
• Publisher: Electronic Arts
• System: Xbox
• Reviewer: Zonk
• Score: 9/10

Let me say something straight off: I don't play racing games. I don't play sports titles in general. My enjoyment of Burnout 3: Takedown stems from the fact that it is only a racing game in the loosest sense of the term. What Criterion has done with this title is to make racing incidental to the purpose of the game. The purpose of Burnout 3 is twofold: Go Fast and Hit Stuff.

Burnout's premise is that in racing "Risk = Reward", a catch phrase the radio-style announcer repeats often. The reward in this case is Boost, the game's consumable go-fast juice that increases your rate of travel from merely jaw dropping to truly ludicrous speeds. You obtain Boost by taking risks such as driving on the wrong side of the road, initiating near-misses with other vehicles, catching air, and skidding around corners. The primary way that you obtain Boost, and the way you increase the capacity of the Boost-meter, is through Takedowns.

Takedowns are awarded when you take out another vehicle in a race. This can be accomplished in numerous ways, from grinding another car into a wall to tail-gating him into crashing (called a "Psyche Out"). These Takedowns fill and expand your Boost meter, allowing you to go faster and more effectively crash other vehicles. This leads to an amusing cycle of destruction that makes even a simple race through the Italian wine country into a Mad-Maxian experience. When you are taken out (or kiss that oncoming pillar) you're penalized some Boost, but the game rewards you for impressive flips and slides. Holding the Boost button post-crash allows you to view your explosive re-entry in Impact Time, a bullet-time-like slow-mo. Impact Time can even net you more Takedowns, called Aftertouches, as you direct your flaming heap into fellow racers. A Tony Hawk style breakdown of your crash ("Into Truck + Triple Somersault + 350' Sidewall Slide") can also net you some boost to refill your meter once you're done crashing.

The key is that Takedowns and being taken out, rather than things to be avoided, are the core of the game. Great looking damage is applied to the (non-licensed) vehicle models, with shattering windshields and flying debris the norm for any given race. Unlike some racing games where a vehicle can be thrown off of a cliff without suffering a scratch at the speeds you move in Burnout 3 you can twitch wrong and blow apart your vehicle on a fencepost. The sense of movement and danger is conveyed through excellent graphics and extremely responsive controls.

The overall mood of the game is accentuated by the music selection. Like many sports games they've done lately EA has opted to include a selection of name-brand music with their title, allowing you to race to bands such as The Ramones, Jimmy Eat World, and Ash.

Beyond the basic building blocks of the game, Criterion provides you with a panoply of cars, tracks, and things to run into. Events are spread out over three areas: the US, Europe, and the Far East. Within these areas are several themed courses which allow you to experience high speeds in places such as the California coast, downtown Chicago, downtown Rome, and a busy Hong Kong street-maze.

I say events because straightforward races are just one of the activities you can find yourself completing in Burnout 3. Road Rage pits you against other cars in a challenge to take out as many opponents as you can in an allotted time. Timed laps force you to traverse a course under a certain time to prove yourself worthy the gold, silver, or bronze. And then, most deliciously, there is Crash Mode.

Crash Mode is the stand out event type in the game as well as being the most straightforward. You start at the beginning of a course, rev up to speed, and throw your vehicle into traffic. Your goal is to cause as much destruction as possible and rack up as much damage as you can in dollar amount form. Spinning coin icons add to your totals and icons representing cash amount multipliers float in challenging positions on the course. These add a strategy element into the wanton destruction of all you see before you. This is accentuated again by Impact Time, which allows you to savor the metal crunching results of your careful planning and permits you to guide your vehicle through the air.

A Hong Kong based track was host to a particularly memorable crash for me. After the countdown I sped out of the start, laying down rubber behind me. Looking ahead I saw the Boost icon coming up quickly. In Crash Mode there are icons that instantly fill your Boost Bar and as I sped through it my speedometer leapt from 115 up into the 160+ range. Other racing games say you're going that fast, but the presentation of Burnout 3 really reinforces the awesome speeds at which your vehicle goes. Boosting hard I aimed directly at the small ramp they'd thoughtfully provided just before the busy intersection I was heading towards. I launched off of the ramp and Impact Time took over, allowing me to see the huge tanker truck plowing through the intersection at high speed. The small coupe I was driving entered the tank of the truck just behind the cab from above in a fiery conflagration that shook the room. Impact Time quit and the now burning and blackened coupe flew upside down through the air into a pillar, taking out a pair of the tiny TukTuk cars so common in this area. As my coupe landed the camera pulls back to reveal the devastation in the intersection, where the tanker explosion has ripped open the frames of several small cars and caused a few others to slide over into the oncoming lane. Another truck, this one with a long trailer laden with boxes, slams hard into the wreckage and adds flying cargo to the confusing pile. At that point the camera swings back to my already burning wreck and informs me that if I hit the B button I'll be able to use the Crashbreaker. After a certain number of wrecks are accumulated in a Crash Mode session, you're allowed to effectively detonate your vehicle to add more burning metal to the experience. This explosion also allows a second go at Impact Time and can be the key to hitting out of the way points icons. Always willing to destroy things, I hit B and with an explosive *wham* my vehicle goes from a burning cinder to a rapidly expanding vapor cloud. The largest chunk is the one I have control of and I guide it through the air with my control stick directly into a score multiplier icon, netting me a huge amount of cash.

Moments like these accumulate more lasting rewards as the game plies you with an endless string of medals, trophies, new cars, and (most amusingly) headlines in the newspaper. You can specifically go for these rewards but I found during the course of play that cool things(tm) would just organically happen, netting me accolades as a byproduct to my fun.

Beyond this rich tapestry of single player speed hedonism, the game is fully Xbox Live compatible. Though there aren't hundreds of games available like you'd find with Halo 2 there are still plenty of Burnout 3 players to be found on the service. Online games come in many different flavors, from straight matches to series of races, time trials, crash contests, and battle races where one team tries to take out the other team before they reach the finish line. The Xbox Live service does the game full justice with very little lag and extremely tight response.

The only complaint that I can offer up is that the game is extremely to the point. There isn't a create your own racer mode or any building features for the vehicles you're offered. It's a small thing, though, as Burnout does what it does very very well. I highly recommend this game to speed lovers, Hot Wheels aficionados, and anyone who has found themselves on a go-kart track saying "Maybe I'll give him just a tap."

Screenshots are from EA's official Burnout 3 site, ©2005 Electronic Arts Inc.

Drac8 writes "EA Games has released a demo of the highly anticipated Need For Speed Underground 2. The demo includes the Circuit, Free Roam, Downhill Drift, and Quick Race modes, and there are plenty of mirrors available."

blackbearnh writes "The folks over at Rooster Teeth Productions, best known for their Red vs Blue comedy movies based on the Halo rendering engine, are branching out with a second series, with more of a sitcom flair, called The Strangerhood. This time, they're using the Electronic Arts Sims 2 game as their rendering engine."

TupperTrenine writes "Galactic Conquest, the Star Wars modification for Battlefield 1942, has just released their 4th edition of the mod. This continues their long history of updating a quality mod. Included are brand new vehicles like the Rebel T-3B Assault Tank, and the Imperial DTAP (Dual Trooper Arial Platform). Many textures and maps have been completely revamped, and there are 3 new maps: Dantooine, Lok, and Anchorhead."

CFresquet writes "Gamesindustry.biz reports that Electronic Arts has purchased developer Criterion Software. Criterion is the game developer behind Burnout 3 and 'anticipated first person shooter Black', but also makes RenderWare, arguably the most popular 3rd party game engine solution used in PC, console, and hand-held game development. With this purchase, EA now suddenly has its fingers in the development of many of its competitor's games. Formerly independent studios now find themselves unexpectedly partnered with the gorilla of the industry, and EA could be in a position to leverage its ownership of this technology when negotiating with publishing agreements with studios." Intriguingly, this means that the engine technology powering Grand Theft Auto 3/Vice City (and GTA: San Andreas?) is now EA-owned, though Criterion's David Lau-Kee claims "a win for everybody", arguing the takeover gives RenderWare "the capability to step up today and say to the entire industry, you know, 'We'll help you out?'"

Thanks to 1UP/OPM for its article discussing what they describe as the 'thugging' of the videogame industry, referencing games such as Def Jam Fight for NY and Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition. The piece suggests: "Whether it was established franchises morphing into more streetwise versions of their former selves or new franchises emerging wearing their hip-hop influences on their sleeves, it was clear that the urban lifestyle is being embraced by developers and publishers alike." Marc Ecko argues "I think the problem is that the games industry is generationally nostalgic", and Steve Allison of Midway charges: "The guys bitching about this new trend are inching up on 35 years old, and they grew up on old-school gameplay. They're a very vocal bunch, but they're just not the market anymore."

Thanks to TeamXbox for its story discussing issues requiring some Xbox Live players to switch their GamerTag name IDs, since, according to Microsoft: "There are many names on the Xbox Live service that are extremely similar to other Gamertags (in most cases differentiated by only a single space.)" Some gamers who have had the same nickname for almost 2 years are understandably upset, though Microsoft is offering "a free game... [and] 1 year subscription to Xbox Live" by way of compensation. An official Microsoft spokesperson on the Xbox.com messageboards indicated: "This problem has nothing to do with the way we code...it's what we need to do to normalize data as we connect to other partners that need to work w/ [Xbox] Live... We are very upset that we had to do this" - some commenters claim (though it's not been specifically stated) that EA's upcoming Xbox Live debut has helped precipitate the name switch.

eToychest writes "According to a post by David Yeeon on the front page of the official EA site, PC MMO title Ultima X: Odyssey has been cancelled. The post reads: 'As of today, development on Ultima X: Odyssey has ended. We feel that Ultima Online is where we need to focus our online efforts and most of my team will be moving to the UO expansion pack, the UO live team, and an unannounced Ultima Online project.' It's too bad, but perhaps it was for the best." GameSpot sketches out the background, explaining: "The [August 2003-announced] game went through an evolution when its design and development staff were recently moved from EA's Austin, TX studio to the company's main Redwood Shores campus... UXO was to have picked up where the Ultima IX storyline left off", and GameSpy adds that the new Ultima Online expansion pack "will be officially revealed later this month at an EA press event."

Thanks to GameSpot for its 'GameSpotting' editorial discussing the problems of online console gaming without dedicated servers. The author points out: "Let's consider the top upcoming shooters on both the PS2 and the Xbox: Killzone and Halo 2... the cold, hard fact is that these games will only offer a maximum of 12- and 16-player online multiplayer, respectively. In other words, if you can find a good nearby server, you'll be playing a game that isn't fundamentally different than what we've been playing for about eight years on the PC in Quake 1." He continues by contrasting this to the PC experience: "EA has promised that the upcoming Battlefield 2, currently scheduled to ship in the first part of 2005, will have more than 100 simultaneous players", before suggesting: "The bottom line is that console games need dedicated servers. As it stands today, only individual Xboxes are serving matches while simultaneously allowing the host to play. You simply cannot run a 24- or 32-player game with just a 733MHz processor and 64MB of system RAM available, hooked up to a potentially flaky cable or DSL line."

Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for its article discussing the quashing of rumors regarding media giant Viacom buying Electronic Arts, with Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone (also in the process of privately buying into Midway) saying: "We have looked at the obvious companies like Electronic Arts... but their price is so high, it would be dilutive to our earnings. We have ruled it out." Meanwhile, EA's annual financial report has been released, showing "net revenue for fiscal 2004 was $2,957.1 million, up 19.1 percent", and also confirming "an [in-progress] workforce reduction of approximately 117 personnel in development and administrative departments", following the closure/relocation of "the majority of our leased studio facility in Walnut Creek, California and our entire owned studio facility in Austin, Texas." The financials also note that rising online sales from casual gaming portal Pogo.com was "partially offset by a decrease in subscription net revenue from The Sims Online, Ultima Online, and Earth & Beyond subscription services."

Thanks to GameSpy for its interview with Electronic Arts exec Scott Evans regarding the official announcement of a PC sequel to the popular team-based FPS, Battlefield 1942, hot on the heels of the recent news of a separate PlayStation 2-based follow-up, Battlefield: Modern Combat. This title is "bringing modern-day warfare to the series as well as a completely new engine", and Evans notes: "Each side will bring military hardware to the battle appropriate to their nationality. For example, the Chinese forces have a really cool mix of Soviet and homebrew technology that much of the world knows nothing about." He ends by addressing bias concerns: "It's important to remember that Battlefield is politically neutral... It's not just a game about the U.S. versus a Middle Eastern coalition."

anakin876 writes "The unofficial Star Wars-oriented mod Galactic Conquest for Battlefield 1942 has finally released a new version (0.2) today, which includes 8 maps and 40 vehicles. Check out http://www.galactic-conquest.net/ for mirrors. Tonight the Empire Falls!" Not to be confused with a similar official product, Star Wars: Battlefront, there's a large number of screenshots showcasing this unofficial BF1942 mod, which we've previously reported on

Thanks to GameSpot for its news that Electronic Arts is backing the Sony PSP portable and reserving judgment on Nintendo's DS, as a conference call following the company's Q4 financial results revealed "the publisher has eight to 12 titles in development for Sony's upcoming handheld console, the PSP." However, EA "haven't made any decisions" regarding support of Nintendo's recently revealed dual-screen DS. Yahoo/Reuters also has EA's software/hardware predictions for 2004, with the company expecting "price cuts to $129 from $179 in the United States on the PS2 and the Xbox by this spring, and no later than Labor Day." Elsewhere, 1UP are reporting that EA's first Xbox Live title could be on the way, as they relay an as yet unconfirmed rumor that "three different Battlefield titles are in the works, one each for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC", each online-enabled and "built around a modern warfare setting instead of the historical settings of Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield Vietnam."

Thanks to GameSpot for their interview with Loren Kaiser regarding his company's DISCover software system that "aims to let users play PC titles on televisions as though they were console games." He discusses licensees of the technology that include the recently announced ApeXtreme PC 'console', though comments: "We don't like to use the term 'licensing' because we provide a BIOS chip that contains portions of the software. They're also getting our database of scripts, and several programs that work together that we call the DISCover engine." He also touches on example games such as Battlefield 1942, where the DISCover system makes it so "you put in [the] Battlefield [CD, and] the game starts right up." As for optional upgrades and add-ons, he says: "We'll handle the patches. As far as the mods, we'll just work with the mods that hit critical mass, the major ones."

Otter writes "An Iraqi weblog has a series of pictures of the gaming cafe scene in Baghdad. Lots of Counter-Strike and Medal of Honor, apparently." The photographer also uses the comments to respond to questions about the lack of women in the pictures: "The reason you don't see women at these places is that Iraqi women (at least my age) don't have that much interest in gaming... Another thing is that I'm a bit cautious about photographing women due to cultural issues and misunderstandings they might get me wrong and think I'm using the pics for... err 'other purposes'." We previously reported on earlier comments about gaming in Iraq.

Thanks to GameSpot for their interview with the Japanese PC game publisher Cyberfront, discussing what it takes for a Western PC game to sell in console-dominated Japan. The company's best-sellers are Civilization III, which boasts "good name recognition", and takes advantage of "the... popular simulation genre" in Japan, and interestingly, SWAT III - apparently, "the tactical shooter struck a chord among this particular group: Japan's model firearm subculture." The company's founders argue that the first-person shooter genre can still be popular in Japan, pointing out that "Medal of Honor for PS2 sold 200,000 copies." However, the PC market is still relatively small, so "...a title that sells 10,000 copies in Japan is considered a hit."

Thanks to Telefragged for their review of Activision's World War II-themed PC FPS, Call Of Duty, which they seem to approve of, commenting that "the action and pacing... is done just right", though they point out your enjoyment depends on "whether you still enjoy WWII shooters" after so many predecessors, notably Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault, which Call Of Duty developers Infinity Ward also developed. GameSpy are extremely impressed, hailing Call Of Duty as "one of the best games of 2003", with "tons of amazing missions", alongside"solid [Quake 3-enhanced] tech and lots of white-knuckle combat." Finally, GameSpot are also effusive, hailing the shipping-now title as "an all-around excellent game that confidently challenges, head-on, all the other WWII-themed shooters out there and comes out on top."

Thanks to TotalGames.net for their feature discussing what makes a videogame character popular. They point out that "almost every character-led game will see a significant chunk of development time spent honing, adjusting and, in some cases, scrapping characters", and discuss Link's famous make-over for Zelda: The Wind Waker, saying "...the outcry that greeted this graphical overhaul underlines just how important game characters are to players." However, the piece concludes: "But for every ignored genius, there are hundreds of mediocre and downright irritating game icons lurking on the shelves", citing Ty the Tasmanian Tiger and the Poochy-like Bitmap Kid as examples of the bad in character design.

Thanks to GameSpy for their article exploring whether massively multiplayer games can ever break into the mainstream. The piece starts by contrasting EverQuest's 460,000 subscribers with other media, saying: "What EverQuest is not, however, is a mass-market success. J.K. Rowling sold over nine million copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix this summer. Michael Jackson sold 25 million copies of 'Thriller.'" It goes on to analyze mass-market MMOG attempts such as the still-profitable, but disappointing The Sims Online, which Sims creator Will Wright says "...was the poster child for massively multiplayer games going wrong with the mass market", and Richard Garriott also comments: "...though the high concept was fabulous, [The Sims Online] suffocated under its own development weight."

Thanks to GameSpyDaily for the news that Vivendi's Lord Of The Rings game sequel, The Treason Of Isengard, has been cancelled. The PS2/Xbox title, a Surreal-developed follow-up to last year's disappointing Fellowship Of The Ring, was apparently "not going to achieve the strict... standards for our Tolkien games", and so the book-licensed game was axed, despite a number of public showings and the newly-unveiled ability to play as Treebeard. In other LOTR game news, EA has announced the ability to play online for its forthcoming, non-cancelled movie-licensed title, Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King.

Thanks to Fortune Magazine for their feature on why games are seriously big business. The introduction reads: "Music? Sales down. Hollywood? Hit or miss. Tech? Flat. No wonder everyone wants to be in videogames", as the piece goes on to throw out some interesting statistics: "Within three weeks [of release, Madden NFL] grossed $100 million -- two million copies sold at $50 a pop. In roughly the same period, the summer hit movie Seabiscuit returned $78 million." The amount of hours spent in front of games is also highlighted: "On average an American will spend 75 hours this year playing videogames, more than double the amount of time spent gaming in 1997 and eclipsing that of DVD or tape rentals today." But despite the article's EA-hyping, it points out the cyclical nature of the industry and failures, too, such as The Sims Online, to which "...just under 10,000 are now subscribed."

Thanks to MCO Stratics for pointing to EA's official Motor City Online site, which has a message announcing the closure of this MMO PC racing title: "We at Electronic Arts and MCO Staff both past and present would like to say thank you for being a part of a great online racing game experience. Motor City Online service ends today, but it will live on forever in the hearts of the racers who loved the game." The closing announcement was originally made in February, citing popularity problems after "the game was quickly dominated by skilled players", but the servers finally shut down on August 29th.

Thanks to GameSpot for their list of the newest set of budget Xbox titles "in the second wave of Platinum Hits". The titles that already have, or shortly will retail for $19.99 include Dead Or Alive 3, Hitman 2, and Medal Of Honor: Frontline. There also seem to be some new additions to the extensive PlayStation 2 Greatest Hits line-up due, although it's difficult to officially verify, with Final Fantasy X (currently), plus Sly Cooper, Ratchet And Clank, and Kingdom Hearts (in the next couple of months) all apparently dropping to $19.99.

DF5JT writes "Icculus has finally released a preview of his current work on the Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault Linux port, in the form of a Beta executable. He says 'It's playable, but the sound is wonky and has other issues.' You'll need an installed Windows version of the game to start the binary."

Thanks to Blue's News for their post indicating that the playable PC demo of Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII has been released, "offering a sample of the upcoming Battlefield 1942 add-on that plays 'what if' with experimental weapons." You don't need the original title to play, and there are mirrors of the 165 MB download on 3D Gamers, Gamer's Hell, BF1942files.com, and a BitTorrent link via 3DGamers.

Thanks to several readers for pointing to the Electronic Arts press release announcing Battlefield Vietnam is in development for the PC. This new title in the Battlefield 1942 franchise "..will drop players into some of the Vietnam Warâ(TM)s fiercest battles. Fighting in theatres from jungles surrounding the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the city streets of Hue, players will choose from two well-equipped forces, the United States or the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Vietcong." Hmm, seems like Vietnam-based combat games are a rather crowded genre suddenly - why now?

Thanks to several readers for pointing to the Electronic Arts press release announcing Battlefield Vietnam is in development for the PC. This new title in the Battlefield 1942 franchise "..will drop players into some of the Vietnam Warâ(TM)s fiercest battles. Fighting in theatres from jungles surrounding the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the city streets of Hue, players will choose from two well-equipped forces, the United States or the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Vietcong." Hmm, seems like Vietnam-based combat games are a rather crowded genre suddenly - why now?

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out that developers 2015 (of Medal Of Honor:Allied Assault fame) have opened their official Men of Valor:Vietnam page on their site. It deals with the upcoming Vietnam-themed PC and Xbox FPS, which is running on a heavily modified Unreal engine, and showcases info and latest screenshots. The unofficial movv.com site has a little more info on this Sierra-published title, which looks to be one of the more eagerly-awaited FPSes of recent.

John Callaham writes "HomeLAN chats with Digital Illusions producer Mikael Rudberg as he talks about Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons, the upcoming second expansion pack to their hit multiplayer shooter for publisher Electronic Arts." Seems like Battlefield 1942 has been one of the out-of-left-field smash hits of recent, and from the guys who honed their skills on Pinball Dreams for the Amiga, too.

Ashram writes "Well, I didn't want it to be true, but apparently the folks over at Electronic Arts have announced on the Origin website that they are halting production of the game until further notice in order to improve the currently existing Ultima Online game. All I can say is that I've been waiting for this game for a while, and now to see it gone leaves me feeling empty." Origin was going to be 3-D, correct?