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Need for Speed: Shift teaser “The Driver’s Experience”

A new teaser trailer for EA’s upcoming Need for Speed: Shift has surfaced, featuring the Formula D and D1 Grand Prix racer Vaughn Gittin Jr.

Need for Speed: Shift will be out in stores September 17th in Europe, the 18th in the United Kingdom, and the 22nd in North America. Check out the track list and car roster listed back in May here.

Keep an eye out for our review of the game soon.

Mass Effect 2 boxart revealed

Electronic Arts has revealed the official boxart of the upcoming action RPG Mass Effect 2. The version you’re seeing above is for the Xbox 360, but the PC art is exactly the same.

Bioware’s Mass Effect 2 will be out in stores sometime early next year.

Spore Hero Arena debut trailer

Spore patch 5 now live, asymmetry available

The new Spore patch is now live, and comes with a number of changes, including asymmetry being implemented into the game. If you already have Spore, you just need to launch the game and the software should patch.

Don’t forget that you need the EA Download Manager to make the patch possible, though. Here’s the full changelog:

Spore Improvements:

• Asymmetry is now available for creatures! Details on new Asymmetry features for Creatures and Vehicles can be found here.
• This patch fixes several crashes in Space Game.
• Many tuning improvements to Space Game, including reduced disaster rates at all levels of difficulty, adjustments to Hard Mode, increased limits on concurrent trade routes, as well as changes to tool unlocks for the Knights.
• Creator Lineage appears correctly for all creation types shared after this patch is installed.
• Cheat is included that permits Creators to export creatures in Collada format for use in Maya. Creators must acknowledge and accept a Tools EULA to perform this operation. An additional cheat has been provided to enable highest quality textures to appear on vehicles, where it is supported by user hardware.
• Fixed a problem where creations would go missing if a user quits the game in any way while downloads are in progress.
• Fixed a bug where achievements were disappearing.
• Fixed a bug where some Sporepedia cards had corrupted backgrounds.
• Fixed a problem in Space where some Grox planets were unreachable.
• YouTube movies now publish as public

Galatic Adventure Improvements:

• This patch must be installed again after installing Galactic Adventures, even if you have installed this patch previously.
• You can now place the avatar, NPCs, and handheld objects on top of air, land, and sea vehicles in the Adventure Creator. Get more info here.
• Improvements are made to the Adventure Creator, including right-click camera behavior, and User Interface enhancements.
• In EP1 open gates were not working correctly when they were disguised
• Some customer-reported crashes in Galactic Adventures have been fixed.

Read (Spore)

Long awaited Battlefield 2 patch finally coming

Despite the patch being announced well over a year ago, and the beta for the patch being released back in April, the preparations are being made for a final release for the 1.5 patch for Battlefield 2. Associate producer Barrie Tingle of Battlefield 2 gives word that the patch will be finalized and released very soon.

“When I get back into the office next week there will be some last minute checks (no more fixes (unless something is broken that I didn’t expect) or changes) and all being well the update 1.50 will be finalized and released officially.” Tingle said.

Changes since the beta started include a black cross hair on the TV guided missles and widescreen FoV on widescreen resolutions.

Read (Electronic Arts UK Community)

Battlefield Heroes launch trailer

EA has revealed a new trailer for the game, this time with a catchy song and full on robot dances. The trailer gives brief, humorous descriptions about the classes in the game and dazzles you with a bunch of bright colors. Anyways, the trailer is pretty entertaining so check it out.

Already with one million players, Battlefield Heroes is looking to be a very popular free-to-play game. Be sure to check out our review on Battlefield Heroes in case FPS veterans are iffy on the cartoony presentation of the game.

FIFA 10 dated for October in UK

EA Sports has revealed that the release date for the upcoming soccer game FIFA 10 will be October 2nd. This release date, however, is only confirmed for the United Kingdom. Release dates for everywhere else are still to be announced.

Improved in this installment of FIFA are ball physics, an updated manager mode, and other gameplay improvements.

FIFA 10 will be released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2, PC, Nintendo DS, PSP, N-Gage, iPhone, iPod Touch, and mobile phones. This will be the last FIFA game for the PlayStation 2.

Read (EA Sports)

Madden NFL 2010 demo details

The official EA Sports website reveals some details regarding the upcoming demos for Madden NFL 2010. Fans who reserved the game will be given access to an exclusive demo on July 23rd for Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. This pre-order exclusive demo features a Super Bowl XLIII rematch between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals with 5 minute quarters.

As for everyone else, the free demo will be released exactly one week later on July 30th, which features the Giants vs. Cowboys.

This year’s installment will be introducing cooperative gameplay, which is a breath of fresh air for the Madden series. Madden NFL 2010 will be touching down in stores on August 14th for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Wii, Nintendo DS, and iPhone.

Battlefield 1943 launch trailer

Electronic Arts has supplied us with a nice trailer for their new first-person-shooter Battlefield 1943. The game launched yesterday for the Xbox 360 and today for the PS3 for a reasonable $15 or 1200 MS Points.

If you’re like me and like your FPS served with a keyboard and mouse, the PC version is expected to come out sometime in September.

Check out our review of the game in case you’re wondering if it’s worth your time.

Need for Speed SHIFT car roster, track list revealed

Electronic Arts has unveiled both the extensive car roster and the racetrack list for their upcoming racing game Need for Speed SHIFT. The 65 cars listed are quite diverse, and there are a total of 18 tracks for you to race on.

SHIFT will be hitting North American shores on September 22nd, and in Europe on September 17th for the Xbox 360, PS3, PC and PSP.

• 2006 Aston Martin DBR9
• 2009 Audi R8 LMS
• 2008 Audi R8
• 2008 Audi RS 4

Hit the jump for the rest of the list.
More »

EA Announces Competitive Pricing for Battleforge

Electronic Arts Inc. has released a new competitive pricing for gamers regarding its real-time strategy game Battleforge. For $29.99, gamers can experience the magical realm that comes with four ready-made faction decks based on the four elements in the game – Fire, Frost, Nature and Shadow and 3000 BattleForge points.

The BattleForge Points allow players to buy an additional 12 booster packs bringing the box total to 160 cards. Players can use BattleForge Points to purchase new cards in booster packs. Booster packs contain eight cards – 5 common, 2 un-common, 1 rare or ultra rare, all for just 250 BattleForge points. This dynamic system allows players to customize their RTS experience with content that can be purchased at their own discretion.

“BattleForge is a specialized RTS which has so much more to offer to the players whether they are straight up RTS fans or collectible card gamers. The battles are becoming more epic as the players’ skills are advancing,” said Producer Michael Krach, “There has never been a better time to get into the action on BattleForge.”

(Source) Press

NCAA Football 10 Cover Athletes Bared

10 popular football players lead the pack of marquee names included in Electronic Arts’ exclusive covers of NCAA Football 10. Michael Crabtree, Brian Johnson, Brian Orakpo and Mark Sanchez will be featured on platform exclusive covers of EA SPORTS NCAA Football 10, available in stores July 14th. Each cover athlete led his team on a memorable run toward the BCS National Championship, helping to shape the competitive landscape of college football in 2008.

• Michael Crabtree, formerly of Texas Tech University, graces the NCAA Football 10 Xbox 360 cover. A top 2009 NFL Draft prospect and two-time recipient of the Biletnikoff and Paul Warfield Awards, Crabtree is a highly recognized wide receiver who led Texas Tech in a close race for the BCS National Championship up until the final weeks of the 2008 season. Texas Tech’s victory over Texas in Lubbock is considered one of the defining moments of 2008.
• The PLAYSTATION 3 cover features University of Utah’s former quarterback, Brian Johnson. In 2008, under Johnson’s leadership, the Utah Utes became the only undefeated NCAA Division I team, boasting a 12-0 record heading into the 2009 Sugar Bowl. In that game, #7 Utah upset #4 Alabama to finish the season with a perfect 13-0 record. Johnson was named the Most Outstanding Player in the 2009 Sugar Bowl.
• The PSP (PlayStation Portable) version of NCAA Football 10 will showcase University of Southern California’s former quarterback, Mark Sanchez. In his only season as USC’s starting quarterback, Sanchez led the Trojans to a near perfect 12-1 season, narrowly missing the opportunity to compete for the 2008 BCS National Championship title. Sanchez was named the Most Valuable Offensive Player in the 2009 Rose Bowl.
• University of Texas’ former defensive end, Brian Orakpo, is featured on the PlayStation 2 cover. In 2008, Orakpo was unanimously selected as a first-team All-American and named the Associated Press Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. In his final season with the Longhorns, Orakpo won the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, the Ted Hendricks Award and the Lombardi Award. Under Orakpo’s leadership, the Longhorns were one of the most dominating teams in the college football last year, defeating numerous top 25 teams including eventual Big 12 Champion and BCS National Champion contender Oklahoma in a memorable Cotton Bowl confrontation.

Developed in Orlando, Florida by EA Tiburon, and licensed by The Collegiate Licensing Company, NCAA Football 10 will be available on the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system, the PlayStation 2 and PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment systems and the PSP (PlayStation Portable).

(Source) Press

EA Unveils MySim Agents for the Sleuth Gamers

Gamers have their share of people wanting to play investigators or some socialite adventure and with Electronic Arts new game, MySim Agents, expect a lot of plot twisting tales to come forth. EA Play Label of Electronic Arts Inc. today announced MySims Agents, an original IP, mystery-solving adventure game for the Wii and Nintendo DS where players are the heroic agents who must stop a sinister plot that threatens the fate of an entire city.

“We’re thrilled to bring you MySims Agents, the next game from MySims, and something completely different than any MySims game before,” said Tim LeTourneau, General Manager of the MySims franchise. “Its mystery-meets-adventure theme allows players to hone their problem-solving skills while still enjoying all of the beloved MySims charm; characters, customization and humor.”

• In MySims Agents players take on the role of a special agent hired to foil the sinister plans of Morcubus, lord of the criminal underworld. By recruiting different MySims, each with their own special characteristics, players can build up their very own crime-busting dream team. From tracking footprints and using forensics to picking locks, hacking into computers, following leads and collecting clues, players must rely on their wits, skills and trusty gadgets to piece together the clues to solve the mystery. Jump aboard the jet to reach an ancient temple, a spooky mansion or an icy mountaintop chalet in search of clues that lead players closer to the sinister Morcubus. Return from the adventure with cool treasures that players can use to construct and customize their headquarters and make it their own.
• In MySims Agents on the Nintendo DS players are agents assigned by their agency to help the mayor stop a notorious thief from stealing an ancient treasure. By searching for clues, solving intricate puzzles and matching wits with the thief, gamers can protect the treasure and the town! Along the way they can talk to their favorite MySims, sharpen their agent skills with 10 different mini-games, and search through underground caverns for clues to the thief’s undoing!

(Source) Press

Skate II Game Review–Great If You’re A Skater, Still Good If You’re Not

I’ve never really understood the attraction to skating games.  You basically spend all your time rolling around on a wheeled board and trying desperately not to launch into super-special amateur tricks like the one-eighty leg breaker, the three-sixty you’ll never walk again and of course, my personal favorite, the five-forty ultra ollie kickflip into a premature death by broken neck.

And so I approached Skate 2 on my Xbox 360 with a little bit of trepidation, as I knew it was going to involve a lot of rolling around on wheeled boards and trying desperately not to kill myself.

Skate 2 takes place about five years after a series of horrible catastrophes in Skate left your home city in ruins and apparently also sent you to jail (whoa, so much for “skateboarding is not a crime”, huh guys?).  Now you’re out, but the city you left behind is not the same—five years will make a lot of changes to any town, especially one that’s just been hit by several disasters in a row.  The evil corporation (and you know that there’s got to be one in a game about skateboarders somewhere, right?) MongoCorp has taken over the revitalization effort of the ruined city, converting it into the almost-recognizable New San Vanelona, often referred to throughout the game as New San Van.  MongoCorp is willing to shell out these vast sums of cash to rebuild the city apparently so that it can institute a kind of martial law specifically targeting skateboarders, adding blocks to rails so they can’t be ground, and so on.

This is, of course, as ridiculous as stories get from a narrative sense—next month, watch for the Jenny Craig corporation to nuke and rebuild Brussels to make Belgian chocolate illegal—but the story isn’t exactly what we’re here for.

Now, I will freely admit that if you’re looking for a rail-grinding, box-crunching, trick-landing, air-grabbing good time, then indeed, Skate 2 is EXACTLY what you want.  Even I had a good deal of fun riding around on my skateboard, finding places to do tricks, and soaring into randomness.  I liked that the game put on a pretty nice simulation of speed and open-air movement on the board–I remember one crash where I’d apparently reached twenty-five miles an hour.  I liked the whole “annals of meat” system that rewarded me for doing stuff that wouldn’t even make it to MTV’s Scarred for being too graphic.  I liked the wide array of customization, and no doubt, those who enjoy skateboarding games are going to have a TOTAL blast with this game.

And if you liked the original, then you’re going to have a positive field day with the sequel.  Most of the original stuff has been kept—you’ll recognize a lot of the tricks and gestures and boards and clothes and whatnot.  The stuff that has been altered—mostly city landmarks—have been removed and replaced as would be expected according to the storyline.  In fact, some of those landmarks have been left in place, but noticeably altered.  I’ll admit, from a narrative sense their storyline is the worst kind of limping scrod but they stuck with it come hell or high water.

So basically, yes, if you’re a skater buff then you will go nuts over this game.  Frankly, even if you’re not you’ll likely still get at least a little entertainment out of this, which is great.  But if you’re not a skate buff, don’t expect much more than a rental’s worth of fun out of it.

Trivial Pursuit Game Review–I Think EA Needs To Get Out More

The partnership between EA and Hasbro, probably instituted for the sake of grabbing as much green out of our wallet as possible before the world collapses in on itself, continues unabated with the recent release of Trivial Pursuit, now currently released for Xbox 360, Playstation 2, Playstation 3 and PC.

You might think that, once again, I’m wasting time covering a game like this.  After all, you’d think, everyone knows how to play Trivial Pursuit.  And again I say, that not only is this for the benefit of those two or three random people out there who’ve never seen a copy of Trivial Pursuit–and you’d be surprised; they probably do exist– but also because entirely new game modes have been added to this game, and those require discussion.

Of course, the standard mode is fully available to play right from the beginning, in which you and a collection of friends go forth to see who knows the most about the least relevant stuff in a series of different subclasses of knowledge including Arts & Literature, Games and Leisure, and of course, Entertainment.  Your primary goal is to collect six scoring wedges in your round playing piece with six notches capable of holding the wedges. Those of you who refer to the wedges as “pieces of pie” are not alone.

However, there is a new game mode available called “clear the board”.  Designed for the single player, you’re basically out to get as many scoring wedges as possible, and when you collect a wedge, all questions in that category are removed from the board.  Your goal therefore is to do exactly as the game mode is entitled and clear the board.  For each question you get right in a category, the number is added to a multiplier which in turn gives you a higher score for collecting that scoring wedge.  However, time is also a factor, and the faster you clear the board the better.

Once again I find myself bemoaning the lack of online capability with a game like this because it’s entire point is to be played with people.  And there aren’t always people around, so it’s good to have online capability so that you can find people to play with.  While the single player mode is not without its charms, it’s clear that this was meant to be a party game.  And if there is no party, or a party cannot be assembled around it, than the game’s value becomes somewhat limited.

This isn’t, however, to say that there isn’t fun to be had here– it’s just that the fun is somewhat limited when the game is not being used as is clearly intended.  Make no mistake, this is a party game.

There is plenty to like here; the graphics are fun and even single player gameplay is entertaining, plus the purchase price is a downright bargain especially if you’re the kind of gamer who loves to get together for a game.  Especially considering how easy it is to add questions to the game– one downloadable pack is already available full of movie trivia– it’s definitely the kind of game worth talking about if you’re the party gaming sort.

If you don’t get out of the house, however, this is one game that you won’t want to take out of the box.