I realize that most people go “ga ga” for Madden NFL every year, but to be honest I’ve always found college football far more exciting. Each year I look forward to EA’s incremental updates to their NCAA Football series just like the slavering Madden junkies do. Growing up in Columbus, Ohio and working at Ohio State has left me a bit numb to my hometown college team – The Ohio State Buckeyes because here college football is the second biggest thing next to God, but regardless there is something about playing college ball, racing for the Heisman that I just find more interesting. Maybe its the lack of professional polish, maybe its just the presentation and the crowd elements of the game that don’t exist in the NFL. This year EA is adding a number of needed defensive improvements as well as a TeamBuilder feature so players can completely create their own virtual college to compete against the best.

Its interesting to see how Madden and NCAA change and this years tweaks are bit different. You can find all the new features after the jump.

Read the full article »

EA is releasing DLC from the 2009 Warped Tour for Rock Band and Rock Band 2. There are five master tracks from featured bands A Day to Remember, Bad Religion, Chiodos, Escape the Fate and Underoath. This year’s Warped Tour includes BMX and pro-skating exhibitions and these thrashing tracks are just thing to accompany extreme sports. You’ll be able to pick up these hard rocking tracks as a pack for $8.49 (680 Microsoft Points) or individually for $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points) June 23 on the Xbox 360 and June 24 for the PS3. Here’s sampling of these tracks for your listening pleasure.

For those of you who like it on the lighter side, a trio of Maroon 5 tracks will also be available. “Little of Your Time,” “Makes Me Wonder” and “Wake Up Call” come as a pack for $5.49 (440 Microsoft Points) or at the usual individual price.

For the full list of masters and music videos for A Day to Remember “The Downfall of Us All” and Maroon 5 “Wake up Call” follow the jump
Read the full article »

It’s that time of year again: The time when Electronic Arts begins releasing its yearly stable of sports games. Yeah, I know. Who cares, right? Every year I see at least one person write something about how EA will eventually tire of this schedule, or else how the gamers will eventually reject it. After at least a decade of this, it doesn’t seem likely that either of those outcomes are imminent.

However, many of us are making progress. It’s been two years since I bought a Madden game, ditto for NCAA Football. I don’t remember the last basketball title I purchased, and I’ve managed to avoid succumbing to the urge to pick up FIFA, NHL, or Fight Night titles as well.

Unfortunately, I still have one crippling weakness: Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Yes, I realize that golf isn’t the ‘hardcore’ gamer’s choice, but for some reason I just can’t stop myself. Case in point: I headed into GameStop yesterday to pick up my copy of Ghostbusters. While I was standing in line at the counter, I was overcome with the urge to grab Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10. I fought valiantly, but lo and behold, once I arrived at the front of the line, the first words out of my mouth were those.

What is driving me to do this?

Read the full article »

dragon age origins

Bioware, long the favorites of PC RPG fans are firing up the information train to release new trailer and new screens for its upcoming magnum opus – Dragon Age: Origins. While the movies all make folks drool and the screens look exciting one key question every PC gamer asks is: “Will I have to upgrade to play this beast?”

Well as of today we have the final system requirments for the game, and its likely that anyone who owns a moderately powerful modern PC will be able to play it in at least Neverwinter Nights 1, 1995 style graphic mode. As expected the requirements for Vista are a bit higher than their XP counterpart but both have a sizable hard drive footprint – 20GB! Wow! The game will also be released on the Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 console this October.

Here are the Specs:

Windows XP Minimum Specifications
OS: Windows XP with SP3
CPU: Intel Core 2 (or equivalent) running at 1.4Ghz or greater
AMD X2 (or equivalent) running at 1.8Ghz or greater
RAM: 1GB or more
Video: ATI Radeon X850 128MB or greater
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT 128MB or greater
DVD ROM (Physical copy)
20 GB HD space

Windows Vista Minimum Specifications
OS: Windows Vista with SP1
CPU: Intel Core 2 (or equivalent) running at 1.6Ghz or greater
AMD X2 (or equivalent) running at 2.2GHZ or greater
RAM: 1.5 GB or more
Video: ATI Radeon X1550 256MB or greater
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB or greater
DVD ROM (Physical copy)
20 GB HD space

Recommended Specifications
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz Processor or equivalent
RAM: 4 GB (Vista) or 2 GB (XP)
Video: ATI 3850 512 MB or greater
NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB or greater
DVD ROM (Physical copy)
20 GB HD space

The Sims series has taken the next big leap forward with the latest full game, The Sims 3. Fans of the sims will find a lot to love about the game as long as they can keep in mind that Sims 3 is a new base game. Gamers who own every expansion and stuff pack for Sims 2 should find the new game mechanics fixes much of what wasn’t fun about the previous titles, but they’ll have to be patient as many of the luxuries they’ve come to take for granted will have to wait for expansion. Read on for the scoop on the Sims 3.

Read the full article »

Not every hardcore Rock Band junkie is a metal and alt rock junkie it seems, so Harmonix is releasing more country oriented tracks for fans of the steel guitar and southern drawl. The new Rock Band Country Pack adds to the existing songs from the genre, 21 new songs in fact. The retail disk is compatible with both Rock Band titles and the new tracks will be exclusive to the disk for a short time before making their way onto the Rock Band stores on the Wii, 360 and PS3.

Here is the complete Track list:

I know that there are several fans of the Battlefield series that wondered if there would ever be a proper PC sequel Battlefield 2. After all, DICE has been concentrating on console development of late, with the release of Battlefield: Bad Company last year, and the imminent release of Battlefield 1943 on PlayStation Network and XBox Live, not to mention the targeted release later this year of Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Well, it’s time for a big sigh of relief. According to G4, development of Battlefield 3 has been officially confirmed.

It seems that John Pleasants, Chief Operating Officer of Electronic Arts, had the following to say in a presentation at the William Blair Growth Stock Conference, confirming that he’s seen Battlefield 3,

“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. Of course, that’s not [coming out] in the fiscal year, but that is a product that is looking very good.”

So, no worries, PC shooter fans. The penultimate military shooter is indeed headed back to your platform of choice. It looks like it won’t arrive until later in 2010, but there is light on the horizon at last. Here’s hoping that it hews closer to the line of Battlefield: Vietnam, my personal favorite of all the Battlefield titles.

Despite the huge number of copies pirated P2P before the release, Sims 3 is raking in the profits with 1.4 million sales for the PC and Mac the first week. The figure makes Sims 3 the best selling EA game for the PC ever. Play created content is also churning out at an amazing rate. Fans have already snagged 7 million downloads of custom content from the Sims 3 Exchange.

I’m playtesting Sims 3 right now, and have been able to find new dlc for the game already on several free sites including Mod The Sims and Parsimonius. There are many sims and patterns to be had and even a few global mods already up. For those of you who are new to this god game, you can find more details on Sims 3 from the EA press release after the break.
Read the full article »

While the controversy regarding Left 4 Dead 2 continues to fester and fans and haters alike debate the merit of Valve’s choice to continue the series in a full game rather than as downloadable expansions or free updates, its still nice to watch the future of Zombie slaying, survivalist nightmares in action.

Earlier today gaming blog Kotaku posted a five minute preview segment of gameplay from Left 4 Dead. The footage includes the melee weapons in action, some new special infected footage and more suntanning zombies than you can shake a stick at.

I previously commented on why I think this was a bad move for the developer but I’ll likely be the first to admit I’m “jonesing” for some new L4D options, the original offerings are growing stale so like a zombie smack junkie.. well Valve you’ve got me on the hook for the next one as well if this video is any indication.

If you’re a Warhammer Online player looking for some insight or official answers to the most commonly asked questions relating to the huge upcoming update for Mythic’s MMO then it’s probably a good day for you. Earlier today the developer published a FAQ about the changes and additions coming to the game with the update.

The FAQ covers the level requirements, how the new areas will be handled in Realm v. Realm control and discusses some details on the dungeons and lair instances in the expansion.

While I’ve not played Warhammer Online since shortly after launch (not because I dislike it, but because I only have time in my life for 1 MMO and Lord of the Rings Online already has a claim on my soul), EA Mythic seems to continue to deliver many of the features promised before launch and thanks to player feedback since.

Reading through the FAQ almost convinced me it was time to reload the client and rejoin my Dark Elf compatriots in preparation for the new content.