This is the long-awaited version 1.50 patch for Battlefield 2.  In addition to making all content from both expansions free-to-play, it includes a number of bug fixes and gameplay tweaks.

Download the patch here.

Battlefield 2 Patch v1.5 Notes
FEATURES:

- Additional support for Windows Vista.
- Added Highway Tampa as a required map.
- Added a new map called Operation Blue Pearl.
- Added Euro Force and Armored Fury as free to play content for all Battlefield 2 players.
- Added Widescreen support
- Allowed BF2.exe to use more than 2Gb RAM
- Added support for the Novint Falcon controller (http://www.novint.com).
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Battlefront.com and Fury Software have announced that their combat simulation/strategy game Strategic Command WWII Pacific Theater has just gone gold! In order to ease the wait for the much anticipated third title in the award-winning Strategic Command game series and have also just published an online version of the full game manual.

What does “gone gold” mean? It means that the game code has been “frozen” and a final release candidate has been created. It does NOT mean that the game is ready for release yet. They are now finalizing the testing, proofing all the print materials, creating and testing the installers, and preparing the online delivery system for the downloads. A firm release date as well as info about pre-orders will be announced Sunday, December 7 (yes, that’s a historic date). The game is a stand-alone third part of the series, does not require any previous games to play, and will cost $45.

For more information on the game, hit one of the links above.

Ever heard the phrase, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?” Well, that applies to the online world just as much as in real life. One Japanese man found this out the hard way recently when his virtual “wife” in Maple Story got so angry that she effectively killed his online avatar (via Yahoo! News).

The 43-year old woman carried out the digital murder after the 33-year old man suddenly “divorced” her in the game. She was quoted as saying, “I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry.” So angry in fact that she used login information she got from her former “husband” to access his account and then kill his character. The man notified police when he realized his avatar was dead, and the woman was arrested on “suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data.” She hasn’t been formally charged yet, but she could face up to five years in prison or a $5000 fine.

Fellas, let this be a lesson to you: never EVER give out your personal info to people you meet online. No, not even to your virtual spouses.

Today is GameTap Thursday, like most Thursdays here at Gaming Today, and just look what the folks over there have in store for you:

• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory: Yes, Sam Fisher is once again out to save the world in this third installment in the stealth-action series. Against the background of rising tensions in the East, protagonist Sam Fisher (Michael Ironside) is once again called into action, utilizing brand new stealth mechanics and close-quarter combat techniques to diffuse the situation before it’s too late. And with major graphical and lighting improvements, Splinter Cell looks better than ever.

• Ocean Express: This puzzle game from Strategy First has you working on the docks so to speak. There’s ships to load and money to be made! But filling those big barges is more complicated than it sounds, and only the most efficient shippers can possibly hope to earn a profit. You’ll start with just one barge and grow your shipping empire, one crate at a time.

Added to the ever growing roster of free games this week is none other than the illustrious Lara Croft in Tomb Raider: Anniversary which will be free-to-play for an entire week. Should you not be interested in this game or if you already own it, take heart because they have 143 other free games to play which is enough to keep even the most hardcore gamer busy for more days than one would care to mention.

The full list of free games can be seen after the jump or you can head on over to GameTap yourself and see what hoops you have to jump through to become a gold member. Personally I recommend doing a few summersaults and maybe a back-flip with a full twist. Okay, I am kidding, all you have to do is register and you will be guided through the process from there. If you are strapped for cash and just want the freebies, you still have to register.

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The Chronicles of Spellborn is gearing up for release and revealing enticing details on PvP servers, the Fame system and Classes to whet gamers’ appetites.

Players that relish PvP now have their own TCOS servers free of carebears. Spellborn released the following details in a recent press release.

On the PvP servers, all regions will be enabled for PvP at the exception of Hawksmouth, Aldenvault (being the starting areas) and the major cities. An extension of that PvP immunity to villages will be subject to feedback from the current closed beta tests. Spellborn NV has already implemented a PvP cave in Aldenvault for all types of servers, purely designed for PvP, where players can engage in fights at low level. Other caves and mines where players can gather resources will remain PvP and free-for-all areas for both PvP and PvE flagged servers as well. Generally, the final PvP rules are currently tested on the beta servers and will be adjusted depending on the feedback from the beta community.

There’s a PvP FAQ on the web site if you have more specific questions.

Spellborn has tweaked the fame system which replaces experience in other MMOs. Players will find that although more fame points can be earned through questing or aiding others in their quests, the amount of fame awarded for killing MOBs has been increased. The warrior sub-class named “Furyhammer” has seen some changes as well. The nerfs made to the “Furyhammer” over time have taken the class in a direction that doesn’t fit the intended feel and Lore anymore. Spellborn has chucked the “Furyhammer” altogether for the new “Adept” which is a warrior class that emphasizes agility.

The Chronicles of Spellborn website will be relaunching before the end of September. Watch for more complete details on the “Adept” and other changes leading up to the release of TCOS.

I’m really looking forward to playing TCOS specifically because of the complex combat system. It takes the standard MMO mechanics and makes fighting a challenge again. Every MMO’s got grind, but you should at least have fun while you’re at it. Spellborn is still taking sign ups for the beta if you want to get in on the action.

Black Rock Studio’s Ian Hudson took time out for a Q&A with Gaming Nexus on the upcoming off-road racing title, PURE. As the Lead Environment Designer on the PURE team, Hudson poured a lot of energy into creating tracks with hightfield technology without sacrificing visuals.

Hudson fields questions on PURE’s powerful ATV customization engine which can be as simple or complex as you can handle. He also covers gameplay issues like ranking and racing online, paying special attention to PURE’s custom tricks.

After working on the ATV Fury franchise we really wanted to add more depth to our trick system. We felt that the trick system that we had inherited with Fury didn’t challenge the player enough or reward them for learning all the tricks on offer. We wanted a system that was very simple to use (as tricks are integral to the game) but would offer immediate reward to more skilled players. What we come up with was a multi-tiered system where all players can easily perform the basic tricks that the characters can do. As they build up their “thrill bar” they can start pulling bigger tricks until they can start pulling the top level tricks. When the player fills their thrill bar they get to see their characters special tricks. It’s these special tricks that are unique to PURE. The other 80% of the tricks in the game are all current tricks that are being done on ATV’s and MX bikes.

You can catch the complete interview with Ian Hudson on Gaming Nexus.

Once again, GameTap Thursday is here, and that means that another episode of Grimm has been released.  Per the usual, it is free to play for the first 24 hours of release just like past episodes.

• American McGeee’s Grimm: Godfather Death: When a couple gives birth to their 13th child, the father ventures out to find a godfather for the boy and chooses … dum dum dum.. Death. Raising the boy to become a famous doctor who has a “knack” for knowing who can be saved and who cannot; all seems well until the boy falls in love with a girl whom Death has laid claim to, so he tricks his father into sparring her life. Should be interesting.. we all know what happens when you try to trick Death, just look at the mess Peter Griffin got himself into.

• Sub Command utting you at the helm of one of three legendary submarines you much choose whether it will it be the Akula, Russia’s nuclear-powered silver shark? Will it be the Seawolf, America’s fast and stealthy secret weapon? Or will you pick the extremely versatile 688i, capable of top performance under the most adverse conditions? The choice is yours! Woo Hoo! We all love choices, don’t we?

• Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader?: Ok, I have no clue if Jeff Foxworthy is in this game or not, but regardless, you can still figure out if you learned anything in school when playing this quiz game. Based on the popular FOX Television game show, Valusoft’s Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? pits your mind against those of average grade-schoolers. How much knowledge have you retained from your youth? Find out with over 3,000 unique questions.

I am assuming that no free games were debuted this week because of the Grimm episodes, which – btw – only has two more episodes left.

September 11             The Devil and His Three Golden Hairs
September 18             Beauty and the Beast

However, there are 142 games free over on GameTap for you to choose from, and if you are so willing, I have posted the entire list after the jump. As always, check out the official site for yourself to see what goodies are hiding within the hallowed servers of GameTap.

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Fury, the PvP focused MMORPG from Australian game developer Auran, has had some issues for a while now but today it looks as if the hard times they were having have come to a dramtic but not wholey unexpected end.

Over on the official forums, a post was made by Bossman (Auran Staff Member), which I have posted bleow:

We have reached our time limit to find a solution that would help us keep the Fury servers open. Sadly, no solution has been found and so we have no alternative than to shut the servers down in 48 hours.

To all those players who have enjoyed Fury and played countless battles, I am sorry that we could not find a viable business model that would allow you to continue playing. To all those naysayers and doomsdayers, we know that deep down you wanted Fury to succeed. Have fun with your parting wishes.

To the Auran team, who put their heart and soul into making Fury, thanks for your efforts. As I said many times before, we need to be much better than the competition to have a chance of succeeding. We gave it everything we had and history now judges that it still wasn’t good enough.

Whilst this marks the end of the Fury chapter, who knows what the future may bring. There were many gems hidden within Fury and many lessons learned. Hopefully one day the full potential can be realized in some other form.

So for now, so long and thanks for all the fish.

P.S. We informed all stores more than a month ago to remove stock from their shelves. If you have purchased a copy of Fury in the past month, we suggest you return it to the store.

P.P.S. This website will also close down in 48 hours

You may recall that back in December 2007, Auran laid-off several employees and filed for a chapter 11 bankruptcy despite heavy launch sales of Fury. Many gamers who played Fury believe that the game failed when Auran releasesd the expansion “Age of the Chosen” – various opinions state that the game became “dumbed down” afterwards.

Whatever the cause for Auran shutting down along with the subsequent death of Fury, we wish all the former employees the best of luck and we hope gamers who stuck with Fury through thick and thin find something else to enjoy very soon.

Keep yourself calm until this set-list for Guitar Hero: World Tour is confirmed folks, otherwise you will blow a gasket like I did when I saw Tool on the list.

Some of the songs listed are a bit too good to be true in my humble opinion, not that they are false, but until Activision says otherwise just keep your fingers crossed.

OMG OMG OMG!! TOOL! (calm down Steffy, calm down)

Eagle Rock High School Tour:
“Dope Nose” by Weezer
“The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World
Encore: “Today” by Smashing Pumpkins (yay!)

Big City Kids Tour:
“Roland” by Interpol
“Santeria” By Sublime
Encore: “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers (hooray!)

Feelin’ Nostalgic Tour:
“Take It on the Run” by REO Speedwagon
“Hold the Line” by Toto
Encore: “Rebel Yell” by Billy Idol (this one has already been confirmed via the video)

Vixens Tour:
“Heartbreaker” by Pat Benatar (her best)
“All Around Me” by Flyleaf
Encore:”Misery Business” by Paramore

Undertow Tour: (omg omg Tool!!!!)
“Stinkfist” by Tool
“Lateralus” by Tool
“Schism” by Tool

Synchronicity Tour:
“Guitar Battle Vs. Sting” (Guitar Career Only)
Encore: “Every Breath You Take” by The Police

Fight the System Tour:
“The Kids Aren’t Alright” by The Offspring
The Good Left Undone” by Rise Agaisnt
Encore: “Bleed it Out” by Linkin Park

QQ Tour:
“Face Down” by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
“The Kill” by 30 Seconds to Mars
Encore: “Thank You for the Venom” by My Chemical Romance

Rockin the Carnival Tour:
“Dammit” by Blink 182
“When You Heat Stops Beating” by +44

Neva’ Forget Tour:
“Jumpin Jack Flash” by The Rolling Stones
“Don’t Fear the Reaper” by Blue Öyster Cult (any cow bell in this one?)
Encore: “Light My Fire” by The Doors (grrrr)

We Want the Funk Tour:
“Take it Away” by Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Renegades of Funk” by Rage Agaisnt the Machines
Encore: “No Sleep till Brooklyn” by The Beastie Boys Feat. Kerry King (cool!)

Rockin’ the Joint Tour:
“Are You Gonna Go My Way” by Lenny Kravitz
“I Don’t wanna Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith

On Top of the World Tour:
“Man in the Box” by Alice in Chains
“Kickstart My Heart” by Mötley Crüe (kickstart… MIATA!)
Encore: “Spin the Black Circle” by Pearl Jam

G. Stinger Tour: (very awesome)
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana
“Car Chase City” by Tenacious D
Encore: “Everlong” by Foo Fighters

Lands End Tour:
“Animal” by Def Leppard
“Runaway” by Bon Jovi
Encore: “Paradise City” by Guns N’ Roses (yay)

Doin’ it Different Tour: (good set list)
“Song for the Dead” by Queens of the Stone Age
“Vasoline” by Stone Temple Pilots
Encore: “Assassin” by Muse

Hootin’ and Hollerin’ Tour:
“The Boys Are Back in Town” By Thin Lizzy
“Life in the Fastlane” by The Eagles
Encore:”Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd

All Pissed Off Tour:
“Here to Stay” by KoRn
“Dragula” by Rob Zombie (oh hellz yez!!)
Encore: “Bat Country” by Avenged Sevenfold

Here Me Roar Tour:
“10,000 Fists” by Disturbed
“Duality” by Slipknot
Encore: “Toxicity” by System of a Down

S.D.M.F. Tour:
“Guitar Battle Vs. Zakk Wylde” (Guitar Career Only)
*Encore: “Demise of Sanity” by Black Label Society

Fathers of Metal Tour:
“Don’t Talk to Strangers” by Dio
“Heaven and Hell” by Black Sabbath
Encore: “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne (can you imagine?)

Making Progress Tour:
“The Spirit of Radio” by Rush
“Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd
Encore: “Pull Me Under” by Dream Theatre

Eruption Tour:
“Beat it” by Micheal Jackson Feat. Eddie Van Halen
“Hot for Teacher” by Van Halen (yay)

Tooth Fang & Claw Tour:
“Guitar Battle Vs. Ted Nugent” (Guitar Career Only)
Encore: “Stranglehold” by Ted Nugent

Decades of Metal Tour
“Warriors of Time” by Black Tide
“Leather Rebel” by Judas Priest
Encore: “Hallowed be Thy Name” by Iron Maiden (hooray)

Livin’ in a Nightmare Tour:
“Angel of Death” by Slayer
“Tornado of Souls” by Megadeth
Encore: “Master of Puppets” by Metallica (master!… master!)

Legends of Rock Tour:
“Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry
“The Wind Cries Mary” by Jimi Hendrix
Encore: “Purple Haze (Live)” by Jimi Hendrix

Bonus Tour:
“45? by Shinedown
“96 Quite Bitter Beings” by CKY
“Bombshell” by Powerman 5000
“Clavado en un Bar” by Maná
“Enjoy the Silence” by Lacuna Coil
“Feuer Frei” by Rammstein
“Fury of the Storm” by Dragonforce
“Never Too Late” by The Answer
“Nottingham Lace” by Buckethead
“One Armed Scissor” by At The Drive-In
“Satch Boogie” by Joe Satriani
“Schrei” by Tokio Hotel
“Soul Doubt” by NOFX

“We’re An American Band” by Grand Funk Railroad
“Guitar Battle Vs. Sting” by Sting
“Guitar Battle Vs. Ted Nugent” By Ted Nugent
“Guitar Battle Vs. Zakk Wylde” by Zakk Wylde

Sample Songs:
“Untitled Drum Sample” created by Chad Smith
“Untitled Drum Sample” created by Dave Grohl
“Untitled Drum Sample” created by Travis Barker
“Cliffs of Dover” created by Neversoft
“Misirlou” created by Neversoft
“Walk This Way” created by Neversoft
“YYZ” created by Neversoft

Thanks: GONintendo

In Requiem: Bloodymare, Possession Beasts are powerful beings that can take the most horrific of monsters and make it beg for its life… while it has a mouth, that is.

Remnants of an ancient tribe, the Possession Beasts are rare and powerful creatures. Born from sealed relics, the Beasts are the lasting heritage of the Khun, a human-beast hybrid tribe from southeast Parness. Taming the beast sealed within the relics, Temperions can summon forth the great power of these beasts. With the brawling Giont and the intelligent Rebria, Temperions can temporarily enhance their own fighting abilities with the beast’s skills. Most fighters prefer the Giont’s skill, feeling their own strength and power swell into crushing blows. The caster classes stay more towards Rebria, preferring to use their wits to freeze enemies at a distance. As more of Ethergia is explored, who knows what other beast relics lay in wait, patiently waiting for a new owner to tame them and bring them to bear against their foes.

Starting on level 23, players can take the Forgotten Relics quest and obtain their first Possession Beast at the end of the quest-chain. Another way to obtain a Possession Beast is by hunting monsters of level 40 and above. Once a player’s Hardcore Gauge is full, he or she can call upon their Possession Beast (just like they would activate a skill) and use it inflict maximum damage on their enemies.

More information on Possession Beasts Giont and Rebria is posted after the break. They don’t come out that often, so when they do, it’s always a fun time. For more information on this Mature MMO, check out our previous posts on the game.

You can also check out some screens of them in action by clicking here.
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