Not to be outdone by the likes of 2K Sports and their Don King Presents: Prizefighter, Electronic Arts jabbed out an announcement today that Fight Night Round 4 is indeed on its way. I had my doubts after previous developers, EA Chicago, were shut down but I can rest easy now. I love me some Fight Night and I’m going to love me some Fight Night even more with Mike Tyson (minus the face tattoo unfortunately) being included finally! Ever since Mike Tyson’s Punchout I’ve been wanting to unleash Iron Mike on a boxing game.
I anticipate that most of the EA Chicago team will be included on this effort so we should be free to expect more of the same awesome sauce that Fight Night Round 3 had. Fight Night Round 4 is scheduled for a 2009 release.
“The EA SPORTS Fight Night franchise has always been synonymous with quality and innovation that raised the bar for the sports videogame genre”, said Kevin Wilkinson, Executive Producer, EA SPORTS. “EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 3 was a platform defining game as the industry transitioned to next generation consoles. EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 4 will change how boxing games are played and measured in the future.”
Dead Space will scare the hell out of you! Or at least that’s what EA is aiming for. You’ll be hearing about this title quite a bit over the next few months. I posted a Developer Diary of the game a little over a month ago and now I’m here to share more from EA’s latest new thriller that aims to scare the bajeebus out of you. (literally) It features more of the designers and producers talking about the story of Dead Space along with some gameplay. I’m loving the look of the main weapon. Let’s hope this one continues on the right path and gives us all a treat when it releases this year.
There’s a lot of new content going on at the official site for Dead Space so if you’re not afraid and you want to know more. You can even peep the Dead Space comic written and illustrated by Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night) and Anthony Johnston (Wasteland) which kicks ass so be sure to check it out. In the meantime, check out the developer diary below.
This just in….Brett Favre has officially put an end to the so-called Madden Curse. He’s been selected as the cover boy for this year’s Madden NFL 09 and because he’s retired, it’ll be literally impossible to have a football injury. Well, he hasn’t actually turned in his retirement papers so there’s still a slight chance that this “curse” will get him.
Peter Moore dropped the news to fans on his EA Sports blog today. It’s an awesome selection and a fitting end to an incredible career. Even though I’m a Dallas Cowboys fan, I’ve always enjoyed watching Brett Favre play. I still remember him being drafted and announced as Brett “Favor”. And I wonder if he’ll actually be playing Madden NFL 09 to replace playing on Sundays?
It was a cool day in San Francisco when I arrived for the Battlefield: Bad Company Community Day event with EA and DICE last week. A day that featured a massive wave of college women and the first hand’s on time of the single campaign in Bad Company. Needless to say it was a perfect mix for me. Jamie Keen, Producer on Bad Company, was there from Sweden to walk everyone through some exclusive play on both a single campaign level and a new multiplayer map, Harvest Day.
The brief mission we were allowed to do was pretty intense. The Frostbite technology was in full swing as I left a path of destruction everywhere I went. It wasn’t mission critical but it was just so much damn fun that I went on a destruction spree. It may have been because all of the weapons and devices were unlocked for us to play with. And there were a lot of kick ass weapons from plastic explosives to rocket launchers to marking devices. The stage started off with the rookie (you) and the rest of the team including Sarge, Sweetwater and Haggard. I was the sacrificial lamb to charge into each mission over land and sea doing a variety of objectives. I drove tanks, boats and all kinds of vehicles just parked around. I’m really going to miss the unlimited health injections though.
I know you didn’t think I had forgotten about all of my peeps did you? (you did get a fancy little scheduled post today afterall) Well, this is a real-time update right now as I’m actually sitting at a computer in the Sofitel hotel only minutes after finishing up some incredible multiplayer on a level of Bad Company that no one outside of EA and DICE have played!
Screenshots: Battlefield: Bad Company
Anyway, check out the box art for the Gold Edition of Battlefield: Bad Company. Even the PS3 Gold Edition box art looks pimp. (notice the dual shock icon on it) There’s also a few other screenshots from the game included. I also have some news on how to get your hands on those five unlockable weapons coming soon!
I’ll be flying to EA Studios tonight to get some hand’s on time and get dirty with Battlefield: Bad Company. I’m going deep into the foxhole for a few days to get some alone time with the game and find out exactly what the hell happened with the on/off again weapon charge fiasco. Not really but I will hopefully find out some new things going on with Bad Company.
I’m not sure how much time I’ll be able to spend with the Producers and Developers but let me know if there’s anything you want me to try and dig up. I’ve tried the MP Beta for the game and I enjoyed it. The happy face grenades were easily the highlight for me. It’ll be good to get some more hand’s on time with the game to see how it’s stacking up before its June release.
I’ll also try to do some updating along the way. If you don’t see anything from me over the next few days, just know that I was too deep into some Bad Company. I should be able to post something though. I’m pretty good at making time to update my peeps. I won’t get back to Dallas until late Saturday so there won’t be a live show. But there may be a small surprise that I’m trying to work out with EA during the event so stay tuned…you may get a live show from EA Studios if things go as planned.
I know it seems like Rock Band has been out for a while and well, it has for everyone in North America but not for our friends in Europe. That’s about to change as a release date has finally made its way across the interwebs. That day is May 23rd. Before all of my UK friends get happy, I have to let you in on the supposed price for Rock Band in Europe. For the “instrument bundle (doesn’t include the game)”, it’ll set you back £129.99 (169 Euros). The game is being sold separately at £49.99 (70 Euros). So in order to get the full Rock Band experience, you’ll have to dish out £180.
The game has been confirmed to have an “exclusive launch window on the Xbox 360″, with the game available on additional platforms later this summer. The game will include all 58 tracks from the North American release, plus nine new tracks, with hits from Germany, France and the UK.
• Blur “Beetlebum” (English)
• Oasis “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” (English)
• Tokio Hotel “Monsoon” (English)
• Muse “Hysteria” (English)
• Les Wampas “Manu Chao” (French)
• Playmo “New Wave” (French)
• Die Toten Hosen “Hier Kommt Alex” (German)
• Juli “Perfekte Welle” (German)
• H-Block X “Countdown to Insanity” (German)
The day following its release all of the 70+ songs currently available as DLC in North America will be made available to Xbox 360 Rock Band players. Each song will be priced 160 MS Points. From this point forward all new Rock Band DLC will be released simultaneously in the US and Europe on a weekly basis.”
Army of Two Producer Q&A with EA Montreal. Most of you have read my review of Army of Two and it turned out to be a review that received some amazing feedback.
“Your review should be the benchmark for this game because it’s objective, and puts the game in perspective from a Gamers point of view.” - Bumble14.
Now I have even more of the coverage you love. I had a chance to submit a Q&A to EA Montreal made up of community questions about Army of Two. I took all the Aggro for the Q&A so that you all could relax and simply read. And here are the groovy results.
Army of Two
Developer: EA Montreal
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Remember last January when I gave you news about an interesting boxing title from EA not named Fight Night? That title was FaceBreaker and it’s a Ready To Rumble type arcade boxer from the very same folks who brought you Fight Night. Here are a few new screenshots of the game so fans can see where EA is going with it. I know the gameplay will be up to par and it’s looking like visually it’ll be up to par as well. Ready for some old school/new school Glass Joe?
Screenshots: FaceBreaker
Developer: EA Montreal
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Rating Guide: How I Review Games
Review:
Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem work for the Security & Strategy Corporation (SSC). They’re a team of Private Military Contractors with a money comes first golden rule. But as the saying goes, the more money you have…then the more problems you have and that’s just where the fun begins in Army of Two.
I had the opportunity to play Army of Two a little early courtesy of my friends at EA Montreal. It’s no secret that I’ve been eagerly anticipating Army of Two since seeing it at EA’s Studio Showcase. It was fun being at the top of the AOT Leaderboard for a small time I must say. But what kind of gamer would I be if I kept to myself and not shared my opinions? So on that note, let me hit you with how Army of Two stacks up.
... pens are numero uno any day of the year
