One step further - EA Online Pass required to play online .

Electronics Arts` aggressive promotion campaign, offering customers bonus content when buying shrink-wrapped copies of games like Dragon age: Origins, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 or Mass Effect 2, has proven in recent months to be a success. Due to the facts, the publisher plans to extend that initiative to their sport games business,taking it further with a new Online Pass .


Arriving by way of a packed-in, game-specific registration code, the Online Pass includes all new copies of Xbox 360 and PS3 releases from EA Sports and facilitates access to "online services, features and bonus content." Those who rent or buy a second hand EA Sports title can gain access to the Online Pass through a seven-day trial or buy a registration code right away for only $10.


The Online Pass initiative will debut on June 8 with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11.The publishing label has updated the website with a detailed and easy to understand FAQ about the Online Pass:


"Activate your exclusive Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11 Online pass to unlock the following: Online Team Play…[and] Online multiplayer modes," reads the pass (emphasis added). EA Sports reps later confirmed to GameSpot the pass would be required for any online play, with EA Sports senior vice president Andrew Wilson elaborating in the aforementioned FAQ.

"We've made a significant investment to offer the most immersive online experience available," said the executive. "We want to reserve EA Sports online services for people who pay EA to access them."

Andrew Wilson explained the decision thusly: "First, it's important to be clear that all users have access to premium content. … When we see how many people are playing all of our games online, consumers are telling us that competition is endemic to sports in a way that most people don't get just by playing a game alone on their couch."

Wilson's answer was a bit more slippery when asked about whether or not the move was to combat used game sales. "We actually view the second sale market as an opportunity to develop a direct relationship with our consumers, and with Online Pass everyone has access to the same premium online services and content regardless of how and where you buy the game," he explained.

Wilson continued, "In order to continue to enhance the online experiences that are attracting nearly five million connected game sessions a day, again, we think it's fair to get paid for the services we provide and to reserve these online services for people who pay EA to access them."

Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11 focuses on it`s online modes.Console players (PS3 and Xbox 360) can compete in an online version of the prestigious Ryder Cup tournament. The PS3 and 360 editions of the game (which is also due out on Wii and iPhone) will let up to 24 players play in four-person teams in the biennial tournament`s signature events, which alternates shots, fourballs and singles. The Ps3 edition will also support Sony Move motion-sensing peripheral, due out this fall.

Metro 2033 to be released March 16th .

The whole world lies in ruins. Humanity is almost annihilated. Due to the high-level of radiation cities became unsuitable for living. Outside cities, as rumours say, there are endless burned out deserts and wilds of mutated forests. The survived still remember about the past greatness of human. But the remnants of the civilization gradually become just memories, spin with stories and turn into legends.

Since the last plane took off the land more than twenty year has passed. The corroded railroads lead to nowhere. The air is silent, and the radiomen hear only the cheerless howls while million times tuning in frequencies on which broadcasted New-York, Paris, Tokyo and Buenos Aires before. Only twenty years has passed since IT happened. But human yielded the supremacy on Earth to new species. The mutated by radiation and other consequences of the happened creatures are more adapted to the changed world.

The human epoch elapsed. But they do not want to believe in that. There are only some tens of thousand of them, and they do not know whether somebody else survived, or they are the last people in this world. They live in Moscow metro – the largest anti-nuclear shelter whenever constructed by a human and the last shelter of humanity.

Almost all of them were in metro THIS day, and this fact helped them to survive. The hermetic locks protect them from radiation and monstrous creatures on surface, the worn out filters purify water and air. The assembled by skilled craftsmen dynamos produce electricity, in underground farms champignons are cultivated and pigs are raised, but the poorer people do not bother eating rats.

The central control system collapsed long age, and the stations turned into diminutive states, where people are grouped by ideas, religion and water filter or by the basic necessity to defence from enemies.

The VDNH is the extreme northern populated metro station in its line. It is the northern outpost of humanity and civilization. Here live some hundred of strong, friendly people, who treat the station as their sweet home. It was one of the best in metro while it was safe. But now the station is attacked by hordes of mysterious animals, descending from the top and named “Darkness” by the citizens of VDNH. The citizens, for the moment, succeed in countering the offence, but it becomes more and more difficult If the station is seized, the avalanche may overflow the whole metro.

Artem, a young guy, who lives in VDNH, is given a task – to reach the heart of the metro, the legendary Polis, in order to warn all people about the terrible danger and to ask for help. In hands of one man appears the destiny of VDNH, the destiny of the whole metro, and may be, the destiny of the whole humanity…

In this world an extremely dynamic gameplay awaits players. They will have to face different political regimes (democracy with market economy, totalitarian sects, military communism, primitive society with proper culture and beliefs); to fight with dangerous enemies and new intelligent life forms, born by catastrophe and mutations; to explore the enigmatic and at the same time quite known world and its laws (groupings and their interrelations, fractions animosity and trade, anomalies and enemies with extraordinary abilities); to handle various types of weapons, as common, as assembled from variety of well-know to modern people types, which posses some properties of their prototypes; to drive unique peoples’ machines in the new world: hand cars assembled in armoured personnel carrier manner etc..

Location – post-apocalyptic Moscow, the life of humanity gleams in metro (subway) tunnels, and the stations turned into small states with different political regimes.

Variety of gameplay styles – possibility to play as a heavy strike fighter, as an inconspicuous killer.

A player, who attentively follows the events in the game world, will find out ways to influence the advance of the plot and may reach the non-standard end. Besides the basic plot, there is a variety of non-obligatory tasks.

In station-cities it is possible to meet as fighters, as peaceful citizens and the station lives its own life independent from player. Children run and play among dwellings, adults are busy with different businesses – women cook meals, sew; men have discussions, clean weapons, drink tea or home-brew, read books; old people seat near tents.

The high-level AI empowered to model the NPC behaviour in close combat similar to real people actions. The enemies may conduct simple and aimed fire, avoid line of fire, hide in covers, ambush and attack suddenly, call for help, and mention a character hidden in shadow.

A number of various anomalies: gravitation distortion, energy clot (looking at some of which the character may perish), intelligent immaterial images, which punish with death for any aggression at their presence and many other, the role of which will be discovered only before the game release.

Ammo-money. Fire off money or be economic, use tactics.

Variety of mini games.

Stimulus Package - Modern Warfare 2 map pack coming.

The map pack will first arrive for Xbox on March 31. The PlayStation Network and PC versions of the pack will arrive later,date yet to be announced.


The Stimulus Package will be available for purchase at the price of 1200 Microsoft Points or $15, that`s $5 more than the map packs released last year for Call of Duty: World at War.


A description of the package was available on Xbox Live Marketplace, but was later on removed:


The Stimulus Package delivers 5 additional action-packed multiplayer maps featuring a variety of locations: "Bailout," a multi-level apartment complex; "Storm," an open industrial park littered with heavy machinery; "Salvage," a snowy junkyard fortified by stacked debris and crushed cars. Two legendary fan favorites from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare return, including "Crash," a war-torn urban environment; and "Overgrown," which features a massive dry creek bed.

Stock up on junk food: Expansion for the best RPG of 2009 almost here.

From the Makers of the Best RPG of 2009, Dragon Age: Origins, comes the first official expansion pack - Awakening:





Release date: March 16th 2010.

For centuries, the Grey Wardens—the ancient order of guardians, sworn to unite and defend the lands—have been battling the darkspawn forces. Legend spoke that slaying the Archdemon would have put an end to the darkspawn threat for centuries to come, but somehow they remain.

You are the Grey Warden Commander and have been entrusted with the duty of rebuilding the order of Grey Wardens and uncovering the secrets of the darkspawn and how they managed to remain.

How you choose to rebuild your order, how you resolve the conflict with "The Architect", and how you determine the fate of the darkspawn will be but some of the many complex choices that await and shape your journey as you venture to the new land of Amaranthine.

A Stunning World Expanded: BioWare's deepest universe to date just got bigger with an all new area of the world to explore, Amaranthine

• Unlock the secrets of the Darkspawn and their true motivations
• 
  
• Rebuild the Grey Warden order and establish their base of operations at Vigil's Keep
• 
  
• All-new Complex Moral Choices: Embark on an epic story that is completely defined and reactive to your play style
• 
  
• Shape your entire experience based on the choices you make and how your handle complex situations
• 
  
• New Ways to Customize your Hero: Experience additional spells, abilities, specializations, and items to further personalize and customize your hero and party
• 
  
• Import your character from Dragon Age: Origins or start anew as a Grey Warden from the neighboring land of Orlais
• 
  
• Encounter five all-new party members and an old favorite from Dragon Age: Origins
• 
  
• Even more Bone-Crushing, Visceral Combat: Battle against a new range of horrific and terrifying creatures
• 
  
• Put your skills to the test against an evolved, intelligent breed of Darkspawn and other menacing creatures including the Inferno Golem and Spectral Dragon!

Steam debuts on Mac with Portal 2 .

Valve's press release confirms Steam and Source engine on Mac.


Press release follows:

Valve announced today it will bring Steam, Valve's gaming service on Mac.

Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life are but a few titles available from April.

"As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services."

"Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac," said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. "Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play."

"We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation," said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. "The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360. Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates. Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth. We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients. The first Mac Steam client will be the new generation currently in beta testing on Windows."

Portal 2 will be Valve's first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows. "Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step," said Josh Weier, Portal 2 Project Lead. "We're always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac."

Bad news for girlfriends.Mafia II and Playboy together.

2K announced that it's teamed up with Playboy to include more than 50 "vintage covers and centrefolds" in Mafia II.


2K`s open-world effort will allow players to collect virtual 50s copies of the iconic jazz mag.


"While most mob-inspired games' emphasis is solely on action, Mafia II features a deep and compelling narrative that is embellished with a sophisticated, era-evoking atmosphere," 2K president Christoph Hartmann said of the deal.

"In partnering with Playboy, we are able to add a unique element of authenticity to the game by using vintage images from the magazine that illustrate the power of Playboy's influence on the attitudes and culture of that generation."

So,at the end of this year,when the game is expected for release,we will feast our eyes on the 50s centerfold beauties.As if it wasn`t already hard enough for some girlfriends to get their men off the video games = )

Ubisoft`s anti-piracy system lasted only a few hours.

About 2 weeks ago in a post about Assassin`s Creed 2 i was telling you about Ubisoft`s new anti-piracy system of which they were very proud . Unfortunately for them, their system was "defeated" in a few hours.


Silent Hunter 5 was the victim. The game released 3 days ago requires an internet connection,the system constantly checking with the Ubisoft servers. Within a few hours the system was cracked, so problem solved and the game appeared on all the trackers within a blink of an eye.


Ubisoft issued a press release denying the system was beat down, saying that the cracked game version is incomplete but despite that, those who downloaded Silent Hunter 5 said that it`s "rolling" fine and has no "disadvantages" .

BioShock 2 Multiplayer DLC - March 11

Multiplayer-focused add-on to 2K Games' underwater anti-utopia shooter coming next week on 360, PS3, PC for $5.


Take Two`s fiscal report delivered earlier this week for the first quarter, sustained an already known fact: BioShock 2 being a success - shipping 3 million units across the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Sales like that certainly ensure the publisher that the first expansion of BioShock 2 will be well received . Yesterday, 2K Games said the first add-on, Sinclair Solutions Tester Pack will arrive on all three platforms on the 11th of March for $5 or 400 Microsoft points.


The Sinclair Solutions Tester Pack focuses on multiplayer mode, which was developed by Dark Sector studio Digital Extremes. Players will be able to gain ranks,as far as rank 50 and have the option of doing it as Louie McGraff or Oscar Calraca. The DLC will also add 20 new trials, 5 new masks and a 3rd upgrade for each weapon.


As predicted based on BioShock 2`s success, 2K Games has several more add-on packs planned for the next months, which will expand both single-player and multiplayer mode. They will contain additional narrative,new tools and challenges,designed to increase the dramatic effect of Rapture`s fall.

Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY 3D Edition.

Square Enix London Studios has announced a Game of the Year Edition for Batman: Arkham Asylum.


Available on Xbox 360 and PS3 from March 26 the re-release will come complete, with six extra challenge maps which were previously released as DLC. Maybe the most exciting feature, an innovative technology which enables the option of 3D play on all standard and HD TV sets.


Both the PS3 and Xbox 360 having support for TriOviz 3D and coming with included glasses. By leveraging the depth-of-field while maintaining the original gameplay and color integrity, TriOviz 3D is said to create a far more immersive gaming experience.

Gaming: How expensive vs How rewarding

One of the most expensive components is without doubt the video card. Only the "extreme" processors are more expensive. At the moment, investing in a top noch video card can bring a 850$ gap in your pockets, whilst a processor costs about 1170$. Out of one shot,we already have 2000$ gone , to which we add the cost of a motherboard, memory and other components (HDD/SSD, optical unit, case + power source, peripherals). Total costs can reach 3500$. What do we gain compared to a quarter priced configuration? Posibility to run games on high res and maximum details, but on a limited period of time.

Evolution with the speed of light.

Who can keep up with chip developers? Only the ones with a lot of money. Year by year, new generations of processors and video cards come out, everytime with big promises (incredible performance, outstanding graphics etc.), but in the end,it`s all about software. Game developers don`t keep up with the PC components evolution anymore,well maybe just with sequels, even more, i dare to say they lost interest in the PC platform,it not being profitable anymore. Games are not optimized good enough and consumers complain that even though they invested in their PC configuration, they don`t get the expected results.

"Fools rush in."

We already know how many producers focus on sequels, which,as time goes by,remain just with the title. NFS alternates in between mediocre - decent (being indulgent), FIFA who only update club and player database. Call of Duty is still appreciated, but has already ran thru all the wars in the last century. "Lucky" us, wars will never dissapear. Another well known series - Grand Theft Auto. The last release, GTA IV, was harshly criticised for bad optimization, due to which the game ran heavy even on ultra-performant configurations. Also, Crysis proven to be "a big resource eater",only Warhead managing to fix it a little. Fallout 3 is a great game, but was released on the rush (season asociated with the game title was to be respected for the release - "Fall") and had numerous bugs from the beginning.

I have mentioned only a few well known titles which deserve to be "carried" to the finish (except FIFA, it`s enough to play the demo). On the other side, numerous obscure games suffering on gameplay on which you practicly waste money,being bored of them after a few hours. DirectX 10, 11 graphics is not a guarantee for the value of a title. I will anytime, take on a classic (Heroes III, even V, NFS Porsche or, why not, ol` Starcraft), instead of a "new" sketched on the lap,during a bus trip to work.

Amongst the last standing,who show commitment and passion for quality is Blizzard. Unfortunately, they delayed Starcraft 2 too much. Concerning Diablo 3, we will see that baby,in 2011 at best i think. Is it better this way? I dont know. Certainly, Blizzard has immense success with World of Warcraft. In fact, about the only titles who still cash big are MMORPGs. They have a lot of monthly subscribers who pay to develop their "loved" heroes. Otherwise, as you well know it, gaming piracy "owns the seas".

The influence of piracy.

The problem with PC gaming piracy (and of software in general) don`t determine the quality of applications offered to us by developers.My opinion is that things have to move further,higher because,after all,we live in a consumer society.Big companies know that and the only "optimum" thing is the fast rate of product update.

As a parenthesis, this is what happens in the auto industry also (you see the new Y automobile, which is in fact the old X but with a bit modified design and a few optionals).

Back to gaming, i can`t look by and not see the alternative offered by consoles. In the context in which PC piracy almost reached it`s peak (and we don`t have motives to distort the situation), consoles are considered less performant products and dedicated to gaming, which initially costs a lot less, but in time buying game after game dries you out. If hypothetically piracy didn`t exist, i`m well convinced that every each and one of us would have chosen a console for gaming, not a PC. In reality,the situation is exactly the opposite and calculations are made likewise.

PC - indispensable, console is an option.

If you are the type of gamer which focuses on a few titles yearly (maximum 5 let`s say, and those are not RTS`), then a console is the thing for you. If,instead,you are trying out all the releases and what sounds interesting, invest in a PC but don`t pick out the last generation stuff only if you afford them but bare in mind you will have to constantly upgrade if you want to be "top dog".

Consume, Consume, Consume.

Although no company will officially admit, there is a deal inbetween hardware and softare developers,to stimulate the market. Software is developed in such manner that needs resources so you can constantly upgrade your PC. Hardware manufacturers brag with products and technologies that grant you that awesome multimedia experience, gaming, business etc. The final product is delivered to us with a bundle of promises, but like any other thing done with haste,sooner or later,it`s weaknesses will be revealed.