Computer Games Articles

Battlefield Bad Company 2

We go hands on with the Port Valdez beta.

January 29, 2010 - I have to admit, I used to be a bona fide Battlefield junkie. In fact, IGN played so much Battlefield 1942 that some of the editors took to living in the office. I honestly wasn't as big a fan of most of the sequels until Bad Company came around. So when DICE announced the PC beta for Bad Company 2 yesterday, I was first in line to download it and, consequently, the first to endure the pre-release connectivity issues. Things have smoothed out since then and I've been able to play through a few rounds of the PC demo. If this is a sign of things to come, we might have to think about breaking out the IGN sleeping bags again.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Beta

DICE's new multiplayer beta now available on Fileplanet and Xbox Live.

January 28, 2010 - DICE made the week a lot more enjoyable today with the release of the demo for its upcoming multiplayer shooter, Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The latest installment in the series, known for its mix of infantry and vehicle action and large sandbox environments, will be released for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on March 2 in North America, with a European release following on March 4. But if you're like us and just can't wait, you can grab the demo right now on Fileplanet or directly from Xbox Live Marketplace.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Hands-on

It's all about the company you keep.

UK, January 25, 2010 - It's not for us to pit Battlefield: Bad Company 2 against Modern Warfare 2 – thankfully that contentious task has already been taken up by John Riccitiello, EA's outspoken CEO making no bones about the fact that DICE's sequel to 2008's gung-ho shooter has Infinity Ward's showstopper in its sights. And Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is certainly shaping up to be a contender: this takes the destructible sandbox of the first Bad Company and polishes it into something that's got the potential to rise to the top of the class of 2010.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2's New Multiplayer Mode

It pays to have friends in DICE's next entry to the hallowed series.

December 18, 2009 - Anyone who has played the Battlefield series before will tell you that the experience is meant for mass hysteria online. You and your pals engaging in some of the greatest skirmishes to ever grace the small screen is why Battlefield has endured so well over the years. So it stands to reason that EA Games is leading the PR charge for Bad Company 2 by feeding members of the press new multiplayer maps and modes bit by bit over the last several months. Yesterday was no different as I made that same drive down US-101 to Electronic Arts' Redwood Shores studio to play a new multiplayer mode and try my hand at two new maps in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, due out March 2 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

EA Going After 'Call of Duty' With Bad Company 2
John Riccitiello is feeling vengeful.

December 9, 2009 - Electronic Arts hopes to dethrone rival Activision and its Call of Duty franchise as king of the first-person shooter genre, and looks to do so with a few of its upcoming titles.

Bad Company 2: Multiplayer Beta Hands-on

We journey to the desert to destroy everything in sight.

November 6, 2009 - PlayStation 3 gamers are in for a special treat on November 19 when the Bad Company 2 multiplayer beta launches exclusively for their favorite system. PC gamers can look for a beta to launch in December, while Xbox 360 users can expect a different demo to launch early next year. I recently got the chance to venture down US-101 to EA's Redwood Shores studio to get my hands on the PS3 version of the multiplayer beta. Players can look forward to a classic Battlefield experience with tons of vehicles and finely tuned geometry that encourages large vehicular skirmishes in the beta map titled Arica Harbor.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Multiplayer Beta For PlayStation 3 System Launches November 19

Experience all-out modern warfare open to all players with demo in early 2010.

November 5, 2009 - Stockholm, Sweden - DICE, an Electronic Arts Inc. studio (NASDAQ: ERTS), today announced the upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company 2 multiplayer beta exclusively on the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system. Starting November 19, PlayStation 3 gamers will be able to experience the unprecedented action, destruction, vehicular warfare, squad play and open sandbox environments that only Battlefield can deliver. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 provides a true all-out war experience like no other modern warfare game. For beta key distribution details go to www.battlefield.com.

The Saboteur Updated Impressions

There's a reason Paris is called The City of Light. It's a beautiful place--home to timeless architecture, unending landmarks, and a rich culture uniquely its own. But as a historical setting, it's not all charming cafes and romantic photographs atop the Eiffel Tower. Paris has a dangerous past, which developer Pandemic is looking to explore in The Saboteur. In this stylish World War II-era sandbox action game, you play Irish racecar driver Sean Devlin on a vengeance quest to topple the Nazi occupation of wartime Paris. Throughout the course of that quest, you'll hide out in brothels, kill and impersonate German officers, and bring color to a world gone gray. After a recent demo courtesy of lead designer Tom French, we can now add dealing in the black market and unlocking (light) skill upgrades to that list.

Though The Saboteur developer Pandemic Studios is losing its 200-person staff, the company's final game has just "gone gold" across Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. In a post on the studio's forums, Community Manager Mathew Everett noted that while "this has been a very difficult week for Pandemic Studios," The Saboteur will still be "available across Europe starting December 4 and throughout North America on December 8."

The Saboteur does everything wrong. It shows a reckless disregard for historical fact, it doesn't think there's anything wrong with bloody shootouts in graveyards or the revered Parisian catacombs, it has an Irish guy as the lynchpin of the French resistance, it's full of seedy titillation, and its lead character ranks amongst entertainment history's least convincing Irish accents: file alongside Officer O'Hara in the '60s Batman TV show. You've probably already seen a video or two and thought "uh-oh." That it's coming out in early December, after the Winter games retail rush, even suggests it's been pushed into a graveyard slot. Oh dear. Except... from the few hours we've spent hands on with Pandemic's open-world World War II shooter, it looks as though there's something rather special hiding underneath this desperate-for-attention surface.