EA DICE has issued a press release announcing that enlistment for Bad Company will commence on June 5th for the Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3.

The demo will give new recruits the chance to meet their fellow mismatch comrades in the single player component, in addition to fighting for the precious bounty in Gold Rush on the Oasis multiplayer map.

For all of you thinking about enlisting in North America and Europe, you can join the fight early on May 29th by pre-ordering the game.

Gold Fever Hits an All Time High With the Upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company Single-Player and Multi-Player Demo

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—You’ve been drafted to ‘B’ Company! DICE, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced that a demo for its highly anticipated summer release, Battlefield: Bad Company™ will be available on Xbox LIVE™ Marketplace and PLAYSTATION® Store on June 5. Players will land on the battlefield as part of the ‘B’ or Bad Company, a wayward band of soldiers more interested in the pursuit of gold and personal financial gain than following the rules. Gamers will get a sneak peek at how tactical destruction changes the way shooters are played, both offline and online in the single player and multiplayer demo.

Players can also gain early access to the demo by pre-ordering the game through participating retailers in North America and Europe. More details on this special pre-order campaign can be found at http://www.battlefield.com/badcompany.

Players who missed their opportunity to participate in the closed beta get a second chance to experience the intense multiplayer Gold Rush mode on the Oasis map while the single player portion starts gamers at the beginning of their ‘B’ company career. The single player portion of the demo sets the stage for players as they’re introduced to the humorous and sometimes irreverent set of characters that make up the ‘B’ company. As gamers embark on their quest for gold, they’ll experience the same classic Battlefield gameplay including access to numerous vehicles, weapons and open maps as well as the new tactical destruction that only Battlefield: Bad Company can deliver.

Source: Kotaku

After backpedalling on the plan to charge for weapons, EA is making the deal even sweeter following another internet backlash complaining about the lack of Conquest mode in Battlefield: Bad Company.

Conquest is the series’ defining mode and has been present ever since Battlefield 1942. However, the plan for Bad Company was to drop it and make Gold Rush the new staple.

The premise of Gold Rush is an Attackers vs. Defenders scenario where the player either has to defend crates of gold while the other team tries to destroy them or vice versa.

In an interview EA confirmed their plans to release Conquest mode as free DLC some time after the game ships this summer.

I know EA is often made out to be the big bad wolf, but in this case they really are listening. I take my hat off to you, EA. Just don’t screw it up.

Source: Computer and Video Games

If you’re lucky enough to have a working Xbox 360 in your home, and you’re also a quick responder to the call to arms that is this article, you just might be playing Battlefield: Bad Company multiplayer in a few hours.

Hosted by IGN and GameStop (who else?), the beta is only playable to those of you who suffer through their corporate evil to obtain a code. IGN offers codes through its Insider program; you can go to their underground smut dealership, FilePlanet, and download a key.

The front page states that only European codes remain (as of this writing), but it also claims subscriber keys are still available. Very curious… This is obviously just another attempt for IGN to get you to shell out cash for their stupid VIP club of douchebags (no offense to any VIP club douchebags who may already be “Insiders”).

GameStop, on the other hand, has 5,000 beta keys reserved for the first people to pre-order the game through their website at www.gamestop.com/badcompanybeta. Please note that this is for the Xbox 360 only, as there is no word on a beta test for the PS3.

Karl-Magnus Troedsson, Senior Producer for Battlefield: Bad Company, had this to say:

“We’re really excited about this beta since it gives us a chance to let a wider audience play our new multiplayer game, ‘Gold Rush’. The feedback coming back from something like this is crucial for us as developers and will help us with the final changes and polish in the game. Battlefield and FPS fans get their first glimpse into how tactical destruction can be applied in multiplayer gameplay. We think offering two of the multiplayer maps will give gamers a fantastic experience and some great insight into the game.”

The beta will run from today through April 25th. Battlefield: Bad Company is scheduled for release on June 24th for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

In an apparent lapse of concentration, Surfer Girl (or one of the few Surfer Girls as we presume) previously let the games of GDC ‘08 slip, or at least she made unconfirmed predictions. She has now removed all of her comments from the article, stating in an update:

Note to self: Don’t answer things when half-asleep leaves rooom for error.
Note to self: Don’t type things when half-awake leaves room for errorr.
Note to self: Proofread.
Note to self: Go back to sleep.

As with the nature of these things, any listed titles are of course rumours and Surfer Girl does not act as any sort of confirmation. And yes, we noted the irony in the spelling of “errorr” too. Get some sleep Surfer Girl.

However, nothing has changed from our predictions. The Final Fantasy XIII engine will be presented in a tutorial by Square Enix, and we’re hopeful that there’ll be extensive footage of this previously unseen game.

The Force Unleashed engine will be on show, along with a discussion on Far Cry 2’s procedural storytelling. Pandemic will be presenting Mercenaries 2: World in Flames’ destructible environment, and ID Software’s Rage engine has a high chance of making an appearance.

There will be a walk through of the Frostbite engine (Battlefield: Bad Company), in addition to three big Fable 2 announcements. You can also expect new footage of Sony’s HOME and XNA announcements from Microsoft.

There is a chance that you’ll see the first footage of Resistance 2, since Insomniac will be discussing the improvements they have made with their PS3 engine. However, if we don’t see the game at GDC, I’m certain we’ll see it elsewhere very soon.

It is unknown whether the public will get to see any of this, but at least you’ll hear about it from us.