Halloween is here, and what better way to celebrate than by paying homage to some of the most notorious ghouls and monsters to grace our PCs and consoles? Without such cannon fodder as spiders, vampires and zombies we would be condemned to just shooting our fellow man, which although fun, would get old after a while. In compiling this list, I came across some notables worthy of an honorable mention, but who have yet to become mainstream enough to cross over into different genres, and instead continue to be pigeon holed within their niche. While this list is in no way a complete list of video game baddies, it is instead a list of some of the most common miscreants to get within our pistol sites or in the vicinity of our broadsword.

These distractions on our way to victory in our gaming universe are also not listed in order of importance or occurrence rate – because face it – one is just as annoying and evil as the other. Unfortunately, these monsters never get the glory that their bosses do, because they are nothing more than expendable minions set upon our paths to deplete our life force so that the main antagonist may continue with more important matters – World Domination. In truth, they become nothing more than something for you to enjoy chopping to bits or a vessel for extra health, magic, or cash, the poor, misguided fools. So without further ado, let me introduce you to the stars of this post.

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Digital Battle is claiming to have received leaked information from an anonymous “tipster”on upcoming Battlefield Bad Company. The three page document appears to be destined for investors and features of run down of BF3’s basic features.

According to the pdf, the game will be running the Bad Company engine, a version of Frostbite DX. Frostbite is used on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 and Digital Battle is making an educated guess that the DX refers to DirectX 10. Another thing about the pdf; it doesn’t mention XP, just Vista and OSX, although that doesn’t necessarily mean BF3 will be incompatible with it.

One map is mentioned by name. “Baghdad Burning” will be a massive urban combat map similar to the popular “Strike at Karkand” from BF2.

Here’s a run down of the high points of the document.

• Release in late 2008
• Powered by “Frostbite DX”
• Set in year modern day (just like BF2, ed.)
• Will ship with 8 maps, each supporting up to 40-players per team
• Two playable factions, NATO and MEC (Middle Eastern Coalition)
• Same “ticket-based” gameplay style as before
• Maps are mostly urban, based in Middle East
• Squads and Commanders are present, introduced are “Battalions” which consist of three to four squads.
• Five playable classes; Sniper, Assault, Engineer, Medic and Support
• Will feature 48 different vehicles (24 for each faction)
• Will feature 34 different weapons (17 for each faction) and another 22 unlocks (for both factions), in total 56 different weapons.
• Other unlocks include different types of ammunition, body armor, helmets, camouflage and accessories.
• Possible public beta in “Summer 2008?
• Online stats tracking, awards and “real world ranks”
• “Soldier” feature, looks like MMO-styled characters and avatars
• Ranked servers will be available for resellers weeks before the game ships (for testing, apparently, ed.)
• In-game replay and recording feature
• VoIP, friends list, in-game IM-client and “extensive clan support”
• Built-in auto software updater (no more patches!, ed.)
• Widows Vista and OS X (no XP?!, ed.)
• Announcement and teaser trailer in January 2008.

At this time EA has responded to inquiries with a no comment and DICE hasn’t responded at all.

via  Digital Battlefield

Microsoft is pulling out all the stops to introduce their new line up of blockbuster games with the support of some of the most talented and respected Japanese Developers in the business at this year’s Tokyo Game Show. Takashi Sensui, general manager of the Home and Entertainment Division at Microsoft Co. Ltd., unveiled a holiday lineup of blockbuster hits and exclusives for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system at the Yebisu Garden Hall during Xbox 360 Briefing 2007.

Developers Tomonobu Itagaki from Team NINJA/Tecmo Ltd. and Hironobu Sakaguchi from Mistwalker and representatives from SQUARE ENIX announced their support for the Xbox 360 platform as they introduced their latest creations. Itagaki highlighted the announcement that Team NINJA will develop NINJA GAIDEN 2, the true sequel to the best-selling and critically acclaimed Xbox original, exclusively for Xbox 360. Sakaguchi revealed pricing and availability for Mistwalker’s upcoming role-playing game (RPG) Lost Odyssey, available Dec. 6, 2007, in Japan, and around the world in early 2008. In addition, SQUARE ENIX took the stage to discuss two new games for Xbox 360: INFINITE UNDISCOVERY and THE LAST REMNANT.

“Gamers around the world can look forward to the greatest holiday lineup in video game history,” said Don Mattrick, senior vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft Corp. “We continue to evolve our strong relationships with Japan’s best and most innovative developers, and we’re looking forward to delivering exclusive high-definition titles for consumers worldwide, this year and beyond.”

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Battlefield: Bad Company Trailer 3The Battlefield series’ first appearance on consoles in Battlefield 2: Modern Combat wasn’t a great success. Digital Illusions is looking to appease fans with Bad Company, which features destructible environments – and not the cheap, “one rocket destroys the whole building” destructible, either. Think Red Faction’s geo-mod technology, but with much prettier graphics. There’s definitely potential for a solid Battlefield game on consoles, and seeing as Warhawk is exclusive to the PS3, Xbox 360 will be drooling over this plenty. This is definitely a game to keep an eye out for, but you’ll have to wait until 2008 to get your hands on this bad boy.

The Open File returns this week with a spotlight on 4 new files from the FileFront network sites. These choice maps and mods are recommended to FileFront and Gaming Today readers by the folks who run the various Files sites in the FileFront family.

This week we have:

• A new beta mod for Battlefield 2142 that promises some wildly different future warfare
• A modification for Battlefield 1942 that throws reality out the window for a little added fun
• A mod for Warhammer 40K Dawn of War: Dark Crusade that reestablishes the balance in the Gothic future.
• The addition of choice vacation spots for your daring adventurers in Oblivion Read the full article

In the fiscal year that ended March 31st, Electronic Arts showed sales of $3.1 billion, an increase of 5% over the previous year. However, the increased sales don’t tell the whole story. Profits for the same time frame fell from $236 million last fiscal year to $76 million this year. Now, no reasons are given for this, but one would infer that the production and launch costs of the PS3 can’t be helping the bottom line any.

EA is positive about the outlook, however. Warren Jenson, CFO of EA, said, “We have a strong line-up for the year ahead. We expect to launch more than fifteen games based on wholly owned properties including Medal of Honor Airbourne, Army of Two, Boogie, My Sims, Battlefield Bad Company, Skate and Need for Speed.” While all company officials are positive in reports like this, I have to admit that is a pretty impressive list of upcoming titles.