Battlefield: Bad Company 2 PC beta starts early 2010
by Ludwig Kietzmann 
{ 9 minutes ago } 
The PC version of DICE's first-person, military-person shooter will boast full support for DirectX 11, a maximum of 32 active players (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions go up to 24), clans, friend lists and dedicated servers, which is that controversial thing we referenced in the previous paragraph.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will arrive on store shelves in March 2, 2010. It's the one that ups the lone-soldier-walking-towards-you ante with some helicopters, a tank and another soldier that is slightly farther away.
Gallery: Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Square Enix makes cuts to Beautiful studio
by Xav de Matos { 1 hour ago }
According to Develop, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada hinted that shuffling would occur at Eidos' London offices during a keynote at the Montreal International Games Summit last week. It is unclear if Beautiful Game Studios -- which is located at the London office -- is a small piece of a larger restructure plan. Layoffs just before Christmas? Bah, humbug!
Valve: Keep listening to your customers, keep listening to your developers
by Ben Gilbert { 2 hours ago }
He was also quick to point out that, despite the cyclical claims that PC gaming is "dying," Steam has been enjoying strong digital sales for years. During his presentation in Montreal, he noted that Valve's games have doubling sales numbers (or more) when they're put on sale, with Team Fortress 2 sales having jumped by as much as 520 percent when the Sniper vs Spy update was released. With numbers like that to back up his claim, it's starting to make a lot more sense to us why developers were so happy to defend Steam last month.
Interview: BioWare's Greg Zeschuk on Dragon Age, DLC, and more
by Christopher Grant { 3 hours ago } 
Joystiq: Dragon Age is the first PS3 game that BioWare's developed. Can you talk about that process?
Greg Zeschuk: We did partner with Edge of Reality, so we partnered with folks who have had the experience, and that was a good process where we actually had some folks that knew how to do it but also, in general, just worked together with them. A lot of it ended up being like we needed a lot of work to get done and a lot of stuff very fast and everyone was very busy on Dragon Age itself. Collectively, on the console, I would say it was very interesting and challenging to take the richness of the PC game of Dragon Age, with all these different powers and everything else, and actually try to transpose it to the consoles. And the interesting thing about that, or where it worked out really well, is that we literally set ourselves a goal: We didn't want console players to fell like we ripped them off by taking anything away, by minimizing or simplifying. We want them to feel they have all the power at their fingertips, but it's very accessible. It's got the multiple rings that sort of have subsets to them, and you can actually pretty much access any power just a couple little joystick twiddles and button presses. And so with that experience, I think we succeeded there.
Another place where we succeeded on both the PS3 and 360 versions: it feels very different from the PC. Where the PC has got the traditional Baldur's Gate top-down [perspective], the PS3 and 360 are over-the-shoulder and they do have that kind of, very KOTOR feel and that's probably what I play, and that's what I feel most familiar with is KOTOR -- and it actually feels more action-y than the PC does, so I think people will find a very different experience. I recommend both platforms actually, PC and console versions.
Gallery: Dragon Age: Origins
Puzzle Quest sequel revealed
by Alexander Sliwinski { 4 hours ago }
From the image, it seems that Puzzle Quest 2 is being developed for Xbox 360, but if it's anything like its predecessor, the game will eventually release on every console, handheld and electronic device known to man. One can also deduce that purple is now a rune for spells instead of XP. But what purpose do the gloves serve? We're sure to learn more very soon.
Rock Band Network rolls out fully in early 2010
by Alexander Sliwinski { 4 hours ago }
Musicians with ample time and high computer proficiency can begin preparing their tracks now with the creator tools, but the open beta will grant access to the private website where all the RBN community stuff will occur. If you're a musician or programmer (or ... procisian?), let us know what you think about the tools in comments.
Gallery: Rock Band Network
EA takes 30 percent off several PC games until Monday
by David Hinkle { 6 hours ago }
Not everything is on sale, however -- some of the newer titles like Left 4 Dead 2 and the Dragon Age Collector's Edition don't qualify (though the regular version of the latter is on sale for $35). If you're determined to get good deals on some of these newer games, we have a feeling you'll be able to find 'em somewhere.
[Via Big Download]
For more Black Friday coverage, check out Black Friday Deals, Cyber Monday Sales,
And other Black Friday 2009 stories today from Walletpop.com
Valve addresses Left 4 Dead 2 server lag on Xbox 360
by Griffin McElroy { 7 hours ago }
Of course, even without the lag, you're still going to die. But at least now you'll be able to see where it's coming from. (Hint: It's probably from those three oncoming tanks.)
Episode five of A LIfe Well Wasted explores 'Help'
by Ben Gilbert { 8 hours ago }
We'd normally suggest you run over and grab an Olly Moss poster for the episode to support future productions, but it turns out that all 200 of them already got snatched up. If you've yet to check out the episode, head over to the website and have a listen.
Steam's Black Friday deals will probably put it out of business
by Griffin McElroy { 9 hours ago }
On top of those two preposterous offers, Steam will be slashing prices on a handful of games every day for the next five days. Today's sales include Batman: Arkham Asylum for $24.99, Far Cry 2 Fortune's Edition for $9.99 and Dragon Age: Origins for $37.49. In short, you should spend as much time downloading things from Steam as you possibly can this weekend -- with prices like these, we're guessing they'll be filing for bankruptcy some time before Christmas.
'Imperial Edition' of Napoleon: Total War not short on goodies
by Alexander Sliwinski { 11 hours ago }
Actually, thinking about it, the Imperial Edition can get off its high horse, it's not all that fantastic. Availability and pricing for the special edition in the States has yet to be announced.
[Via Big Download]
Gallery: Napoleon: Total War
Nintendo: 80 percent of female console gamers prefer Wii
by David Hinkle { 15 hours ago } 
[Source: Kotaku]
Nintendo's resident name jotter-downer and kiester-kicker recently divulged to BMO Capital Markets attendees that the Wii is outperforming its rivals when it comes to female gamers. According to its estimates (via Kotaku), 80 percent of the female console gaming crowd prefers Wii over the alternatives. With an estimated 11.7 million female console gamers in the Americas -- it's important to note this data of Nintendo's doesn't take into account DS owners or PC users -- the figure comes out to roughly nine million ladies waggling their way into the fun zone.Here come some new challengers in this Super Street Fighter IV trailer
by JC Fletcher { 18 hours ago }
In addition to the three new new guys, all the other new Super Street Fighter IV characters are featured as well, so you can hear all the terrible new voice acting so far! And you can also see that, at least upon cursory inspection, everyone plays like they used to. Cody still throws knives, T. Hawk still throws people, and Dee Jay is still annoying.
[Thanks, Kenoji!]
Analyst: Metacritic scores don't drive success
by Richard Mitchell { 19 hours ago }
Creutz notes that scores can be "somewhat predictive" of a game's success, but are "unlikely in and of themselves to drive or undermine the success of a game." He then mentions the industry scuttlebutt that many publishers work very hard to jockey scores, saying that publishers' time would be better spent on development instead of "grade-grubbing."
The major factors in purchasing decisions, according to Creutz, are genre, whether a player liked the previous game in a series and, unsurprisingly, price. So there you have it publishers, to be successful, all you have to do is make a sequel to a popular game in a genre that a lot of people like. And make it cheap. If that's not possible, two out of three ain't bad.
Oh, my car! Capcom porting Final Fight and Magic Sword to XBLA and PSN
by JC Fletcher { 20 hours ago }
Final Fight Double Impact, as the collection is titled, will feature optional graphical filters and a visual mode that makes the games appear as if they're being played on an arcade machine. Most importantly, both games will have drop-in online co-op. Capcom hasn't priced the collection yet, but there's no way the company will charge more than we've already put into Magic Sword machines over the years.
