Game Companies » Electronic Arts »

Criterion Games announced this morning that the popular driving game Burnout Paradise is being rebuilt specifically for the PC. Burnout Paradise will be the first Burnout title ever made for the PC, customized with expanded multiplayer, enhanced online features, and community driven content.Originally released for the PS3 and Xbox 360, Burnout Paradise has won over 55 awards worldwide and delivers an open-world environment built for speed, excitement and exploration and boasts a nice transition from single-player offline to online gameplay. The PC version will combine all the open world racing, speed and action of the original game with additional new gameplay.

Want to know more? Then tune into a live webcast on the Criterion Games website at 8:00 AM PST on Friday, May 9th for more details on this announcement.

If you found this story interesting, why not subscribe to our RSS feed to get your daily fix of gaming news?

EA Sport’s Peter Moore has confirmed to Eurogamer that the company is currently at work on a Wii Fit game and said that EA plans on making it more strenuous than the current offerings for the Balance Board. Speaking at an EA Sports conference, Moore stated:

“We’re watching very closely what the Wii Fit board does. We think we have to have a role to play with that mum - the kids have gone to school, she’s got 45 minutes on her own, the Wii is there, it’s the first console she’s ever liked because she can do things herself. And we’re working on stuff, trying to work out how we can use EA Sports applications there.

“We also need to make sure we’re delivering something that’s truly exercise. I’ll call [Wii Fit] more eastern fitness, where it senses weight and balance, like Tai-Chi. It’s more about holistic fitness. I don’t think the board is going to take a pounding. We need to look more at western fitness in which I can actually be moving and start to sweat a little bit, and that’s what we’re working on right now.”

No details on the game were given, and no release date was even hinted around at but lets hope that this Wii Fit title will not tell you that you are fat. If it does, I am going to smash the board to pieces and hand deliver the carnage to EA myself. You may want to start raising bail money for me now just in case.

Via: Eurogamer

When Pandemic announced back in February that they would be developing the next console version of a Lord of the Rings Game, I was pretty excited. Despite the fact that they are under the umbrella of the evil EA overlords is no matter because Pandemic make great games. Add to this the news that the new LotR title would be like Battlefront but with orcs was even more enticing information, and recently the director for the game Eric Gewirtz revealed even more information for the upcoming title.

Apparently, gamers will be able to choose from different battles from the film such as Helm’s Deep, Pelennor Fields, Minas Tirith, The Black Gates, along with other skirmish areas such as Moria, The Shire and Weathertop. The cool thing about it though is that according to Gewirtz, you get to play play as a bad guy as well and can start “running through The Shire, trampling Hobbits and burning the place to the ground”. Awesome! Death to those nasty little hobbitses. Some other battles or skirmishes that were not featured in the movies will be added as well, these will be from both the books and made up by the writers for the game but will remain true to Tolkien’s lore.

Also according to Gewirtz:

“We’ve focused equal parts on the good perspective and the idea of re-creating cinematic moments from the films — not faithfully so much, but just kind of allowing the player to experience moments that are like the films — but also really, for the first time, letting you get the chance to play as all of the bad guys. Play as the Balrog, play as Sauron and Sarumon, and really kind of live out that fantasy fulfillment of “what would it be like to really just destroy Middle-Earth? What if evil had won?”

During battles, players will be able to choose between fighting as a melee warrior, third-person archer, support class mage or stealth scout and will be given access to key characters from the film and books like Aragorn, Gandalf, and Legolas. Gewirtz also went on to discuss the different modes to choose from, such as Ringwraiths and all other kinds of really interesting tidbits that I just cannot fit in this post.

To read more of the interview, and to get the rest of the scoop on the game, just hit the link below. In the meantime, you can expect Lord of the Rings: Conquest to hit retail sometime in the Fall for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. You can read the full press release issued this morning after the jump.

Thanks: Videogaming247

Read the full article

Electronic Arts is looking to a new avenue — casual sports — to try and capitalize as they today announced a new sub-brand of EA Sports, called EA Sports Freestyle. It’ll be focusing on the growing casual sports gaming audience, with games that are “playful, inclusive, casual, and easy to pick up and play for kids and parents, women and men, and casual and hardcore sports fans of all ages.”

“The launch of EA Sports Freestyle is an exciting milestone in the evolution of the EA Sports brand,” said Peter Moore. “EA Sports Freestyle will be a perfect complement to our core portfolio of games that our loyal fans are deeply passionate about, and will provide compelling opportunities for new audiences looking for a lighter gaming experience and an easier entry point into EA Sports.”

Moore talked about expanding the EA Sports brand when he first took over last year. Freestyle has three games in development that will launch in the next year, the first of which will be FaceBreaker, set for release in September.

EA is claiming we’ll see more innovation from this brand; FaceBreaker is the first new IP from EA Sports since 2002, so we’ll have to wait and see if that’s all they have up their sleeve.

EA has announced that Fight Night Round 4 is currently in production for the Xbox 360 and PS3. The game will feature a reworked gameplay engine that allows for different varieties of fighting styles to more accurately represent some of the fighters’ real-life fighting styles. This allow players to pit some of the world’s greatest boxers against each other. This will also mark the first time Mike Tyson has been featured in a video game for almost a decade. The last Fight Night game was used to show off the evolution of the next generation of gaming, so you can probably expect more jaw-dropping graphics from this one. Look for the game to hit store shelves sometime next year. And let’s all hope they don’t suddenly replace Tyson with a modern version of Mr. Dream, even though that would be kind of funny.

Via EA

EA has announced that Boom Blox, the first game released in collaboration between EA and director and producer Steven Spielberg, has shipped in North America and will be available May 8 in Europe, May 13 across Asia, and May 22 in Japan for Wii. Perfect for kids 8-99 years old Boom Blox offers action-packed destruction that takes Wii play to a new level of enjoyment and creativity.

“Boom Blox was designed to be interactive, pure escapism, and fun for kids of all ages,” said Steven Spielberg. “My hope is that it will be a great shared family experience.”

In Boom Blox, players make their way through almost four hundred levels of strategic destruction where they can destroy their way through brain-twisting challenges with single player, co-op, and versus multiplayer options. Joined by a cast of more than thirty wacky characters with distinct personalities and behaviors, such as Marion “Fluffy” McCluck, the bomb blox-laying chicken and Boots Beaverton, who likes to make the bomb blox explode. These fun characters bring personality to the Tiki, Medieval, Frontier, and Haunted themed worlds.

Equipped with an easy-to-use in-game editor, Boom Blox allows gamers to express their creativity by building and bringing to life their very own levels in Create Mode. Players can even remix any existing levels in the game using any props, blocks, or characters that have been unlocked throughout the game. Plus, their designs can then be shared with friends or used to challenge others to solve their newly created puzzle via WiiConnect24.

Boom Blox is also available for mobile phones where players will slide on ice blocks, blast blocks with bombs, and bounce off springs to solve brain-twisting puzzles and level the playing field. Players will advance up to forty levels to reach a target score and once the in-game puzzles are mastered, the game will then expand to a new arena. Custom creations can then be posted online directly from a mobile phone. Players can challenge a global community with their dynamic puzzles, and rate other players’ works. For more information on the mobile version visit eamobile.

For more information on Boom Blox for the Wii, check out our previous posts and more of the new screens.

Via: Press Release 

Remember how many people were up in arms about the PC version of BioShock’s copy protection, SecuROM, which limited people who bought the game legitimately from having it installed on more than two computers at once? Well apparently EA and BioWare don’t, since they’re using an even more restrictive version of the software in the upcoming PC release of Mass Effect. This version of the game will automatically authenticate your CD key with your PC every time you run the program, and will actually run this check on its own every five days as long as your computer is connected to the internet. If the game can’t find a connection, then it will still allow you to play the game for five days before locking up. At that point, you’ll have to contact customer support to get your beloved game unlocked again. Bottom line: you’ll have to re-authenticate your copy of Mass Effect online every ten days…forever. In other words, don’t leave your internet unplugged, don’t toss out an old computer without uninstalling the game first, and God forbid you should ever go on vacation and take the precaution of leaving your electronics unplugged.

Naturally, this raises a lot of issues with gamers. For one, nobody likes being treated like a criminal for legally purchasing a product for their own entertainment. Besides that, this makes you wonder if people will even be able to activate the game years later — seriously, I still crack open the original Fallout every few years without a fuss. At least they’re disclosing this now rather than after the game hit store shelves, like with BioShock. Of course, some people with enough free time won’t even need the ten days to finish with the game (hell, it took me three days to plow through it around Christmas time). Unfortunately though, it sounds like SecuROM isn’t going anywhere as far as EA is concerned, seeing as Spore will apparently use similar copy protection methods.

Via The Angry Pixel

MTV and Harmonix have landed themselves a sponsor to temporarily drop the price of various songs in Rock Band from now through June 1. The songs will cost just 80 Microsoft Points, rather than the usual 160. Just who is sponsoring, you ask? Why, McDonald’s, of course. Because when you think rock music, you think McDonald’s.

The sales schedule is as follows:

5/6/08-5/12/08 :
Crushcrushcrush - Paramore
Rock ‘n Roll Band - Boston

5/13/08-5/19/08 :
Shockwave - Black Tide
Sugar Magnolia - Grateful Dead

5/20/08-5/26/08:
We Care A Lot - Faith No More
All the Small Things - Blink 182

5/27/08-6/2/08:
Gimme Three Steps - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Dirty Little Secret - All-American Rejects

Hopefully this sale works out well and we see future advertisers do something similar (and with a broader selection of music). Another point goes to Rock Band in the ongoing battle with Guitar Hero.

via Major Nelson

We know that Electronic Arts was likely trying to take advantage of the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV with the timing of its acquisition attempts. We know that Take-Two was holding off so that they could take advantage of the higher stock values that would undoubtedly come when GTA IV launched. Now that Take-Two’s stock has risen to $26.63, which is slightly higher than the $26 offer EA had made, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick said in a statement that the increase “vindicates our strategy of waiting until the launch with regard to EA’s offer.”

On the other hand, EA’s Jeff Brown doesn’t believe the change is unexpected and doesn’t really make a difference in his company’s offer to acquire Take-Two. He explained, “We’ve seen a share price above and below our offer and it doesn’t change anything. All of that was factored into our offer of $2 billion.”

A New York Times story infers the two different effects that the increase could have on negotiations between the two companies. Both of them seem quite realistic, so it’s difficult to make an accurate prediction about which way things will turn out.

On one hand, the relatively modest increase in Take-Two’s shares could prompt Electronic Arts and Take-Two to act quickly. Take-Two would theoretically do so because it’s not sure how much more it can expect shares to rise in the short term, and would do so because Electronic Arts can justify to its own shareholders a price increase, given that its current offer is below market.

On the other hand, the increase in Take-Two’s stock could serve to greatly prolong talk of an acquisition. Take-Two might feel the market is just beginning to validate its business and that the stock is only just starting to rise. But Electronic Arts could be intent on sticking with its price and feel that the longer it waits, the more the enthusiasm spawned by GTA IV’s introduction will wear off.

I remain hopeful that Take-Two withstands EA’s attempts, if only to save the NBA 2K series. EA murdered my favorite football franchise, and I’m not going to be pleased if they do the same to my favorite basketball franchise.

via Game|Life

This week’s new helping of Rock Band tracks includes a variety that’s been slapped together into a pack called Scene Pack 01. That includes “This Ain’t A Scene, It’s an Arms Race” by Fall Out Boy, “It Hurts” by Angels & Airwaves, and “Date with the Night” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I’ll be frank and say I’ve never even heard of those last two songs or their respective bands, but hey, at least Rock Band is doing a good job of introducing people to new music. (Even if you do have to pay extra.)

The songs cost 160 Microsoft Points individually, or you can save some points and go with the Scene Pack which costs 440 points.

Awhile back, we saw a few screenshots for Dice’s upcoming game, Mirror’s Edge, along with a description that sounded pretty impressive. Now we finally get to see some in-game footage and, yeah, it really does look awesome. The game will have you playing a messenger of sorts in the future, where you’ll have to run across rooftops and use parkour moves to get to your destination. You’ll also have to sometimes fight people who are chasing you in hand-to-hand combat. What’s most interesting though is that all of this takes place in the first person. As you can see from the video, this looks like it could breathe some new life into the FPS genre.

Jonathan brought word earlier that owners of the PlayStation 2 and Wii versions of Rock Band would be able to get their hands on some downloadable content, in a sense. Rock Band Track Pack Volume 1 won’t require you to own a copy of the original Rock Band game – you’ll simply be able to pop in your Track Pack disc and get playing those 20 songs.

Of course, then you won’t have access to all of the good songs that were originally in Rock Band, but maybe this Track Pack has the only songs you’re interested in playing.

via Game|Life

You gotta hand it to Harmonix: they realy know how to crank out that DLC for Rock Band. Aside from their weekly releases, some exclusive new songs, and a standalone track pack, it looks like they’ve even managed to get some DLC crammed into the next South Park DVD. Apparently, several retailers were sent a notice about the upcoming South Park: Season 11 DVD release that mentioned a “3-song download pack” for Rock Band would be included as a bonus. Unfortunately, there’s no indication what sort of songs will be included, or if they’ll even be related to the show (me and Chris have been trying to figure out what South Park songs could actually make it onto the game without being bleeped out completely). Plus it’s anyone’s guess which version of the game the DLC will work for. I guess we’ll have to wait until the DVD’s August 12th release to find out for sure. At any rate, the pure irony of a Rock Band bonus being included in a season that had an episode parodying Guitar Hero seems to have been ost on all parties involved here.

Via TV Shows on DVD

Warhammer Age of Reckoning has introduced the new High Elf class Swordmaster of Hoeth. This Elven tank has a very strong magical defense. Its the kind of character that can deflect arrows with his sword and the might of magic. Swordmasters prefer two-handed swords and use magic to buff themselves and their allies.

Here’s how the tanks of the side of Order stack up:

• The Dwarf Ironbreaker is a physical tanking dynamo, as you might expect from one of the stout folk.
• The Empire Knight of the Blazing Sun has average physical defences and average magical support.
• The High Elf Swordmaster of Hoeth has lower physical defences but has stronger magical defences.

Which character type you choose is based on your personal play style… or whether you like pointy ears.

via MMORPG

Looks like Harmonix and EA have found a way to bring extra content to people who own the Wii and PS2 versions of Rock Band. Now they’ve announced the upcoming Rock Band Track Pack Volume 1 for release on July 15th. The pack will be sold at retail for $29.99 and will include 20 songs. Luckily the pack mostly includes some favorites from bands like Boston, Weezer, Nine Inch Nails, Stone Temple Pilots, and such. None of the songs are new to Xbox 360 and PS3 owners who can download them, but it’s still a nice service to those with other consoles. Full list of tracks available after the break.

Read the full article

Just when you thought you’d seen everything for The Sims 2, EA has come to an agreement with home deco guru IKEA to produce The Sims 2: IKEA Home Stuff. This will be the eighth stuff pack for the popular series.

• Turn your Sims’ living room into a haven of comfort and relaxation with a plush Ektorp sofa, a unique Expedit TV unit, a complementing Leksvik coffee table, and chic décor, like the Vanna mirror.
• Create a bold, vibrant, and revitalizing bedroom with a new Malm bed, matching chest of drawers, a shapely Storm floor lamp and a bright IKEA PS rug.
• Indulge your Sims with an office that is sure to promote order and productivity with its elegant Vika Hyttan desk, inspiring Kila desk lamp, bold Helmer drawer unit, and Lack zigzag wallshelf.

The IKEA Home Stuff pack is scheduled for release June 24 for the standard $19.99.

Personally, I didn’t expect another stuff pack for The Sims 2 with The Sims 3 so close to finish. I guess you can milk that cow until the next cow comes along.

via EA Store

Well, July is approaching fast, and E3 with it. We received the list of E3 exhibitors, and thought we’d share them with you. As usual, you can expect us to have a team from Gaming Today on site to bring you coverage right from the Convention Center.

This year’s list includes (among others) Atari, Eidos, EA, Konami, LucasArts, Square Enix, and of course the big three of the console world: Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Contrary to popular rumor, Bethesda will make an appearance with Fallout 3, as confirmed by their blog post. Apparently they were left off the initial listing for an unknown reason.

You can see a full list of the companies currently expected to attend after the break.

Read the full article

EA has unveiled a new trailer for the upcoming Wii-exclusive, Boom Blox. The game may look cutesy, but it certainly seems to have enough features to give it a fair amount of depth. Besides completing various puzzles and objectives, you’ll also be able to craft your own elaborate levels and then destroy them. I’ll reserve judgement until I get my hands on it myself, but for now it looks like the coolest game of Jenga ever.

I imagine most people are going to be busy with Grand Theft Auto today, but that didn’t stop Harmonix from doing their weekly Rock Band DLC thing. Three new songs are now available, each for 160 Microsoft Points.

• “Zero” - Smashing Pumpkins
• “Red Tandy” - The Mother Hips
• “Time-Sick Son of a Grizzly Bear” - The Mother Hips

Is anyone going to be tearing themselves away from GTA IV to download any of these? Personally, it would have taken the very top of my wishlist to manage that task, and it’s not often that there’s even so much as a single song released that I’m all that excited about, and this week is no different.

EA has announced BattleForge a new online real time strategy card game for the PC. The title is currently in development by EA Phenomic Studio. Game-play is supposedly similar to Saga.

The trading cards are all online. Players can buy, trade and win cards to build their armies. BattleForge promises “massive online battlegrounds” where players will have the ability to combine elements of cards, mixing and match to create different attacks.

There’s no word at this time on the release date, but Gaming Today will be keeping tabs on it.

via Press Release