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

Looks like Kat was right. Since its Japanese release on March 28, Monster Hunter Freedom 2G has sold more than a million units in just under a week. A day under a week to be exact.

Capcom and the development team behind Monster Hunter are most assuredly pleased at the result, especially when this brings the total sales of the Monster Hunter series to 6.3 million. That is an insane number.

And what blows me away further is that I’ve never really heard of it. Is it a Japanese thing? I’ve heard the title brought up on message boards and podcasts, but I’ve never really heard a ton of praise for it. Anybody wanna explain exactly what this is all about?

Press release:

Capcom is pleased to announce that “Monster Hunter Freedom 2G” for the PlayStation®Portable (PSP®) has shipped over 1 million units in Japan.

The “Monster Hunter” series is a hunting action game centered on epic battles with giant monsters in the grandeur of the great outdoors. Since the release of the first Monster Hunter title in 2004 for the PlayStation®2, the series has sold a total of 6.3 million units (as of April 1, 2008) and is one of our most valued titles.

“Monster Hunter Freedom 2G”, the long awaited sequel to the ‘#1-selling game for the PSP®’, was released in Japan on March 27, 2008. The overwhelming success and popularity of the Monster Hunter franchise together with a renewed focus on co-operative play has gained this title tremendous support.

Also, in addition to new regions and monsters, the introduction of the Felyne Comrade System along with the ability to transfer data over from “Monster Hunter Freedom 2″ has been very well-received. This has resulted in more a million units being moved in only 6 days since the game’s release. We anticipate that this title will be a long-seller, as have all of the games in the Monster Hunter franchise.

As always, we at Capcom will continue to strive to develop new and original games that appeal to a broad audience around the world while expanding our properties for multiple platforms. We believe that by bringing the “Monster Hunter” series to multiple platforms, it will help the franchise reach an even greater number of users eager for its unique gameplay.

Indie developer Silverlode Interactive accosted me outside the press room at GDC to show me their new MMORTS (Massively Multiplayer Online Real-Time Strategy) game, SAGA. The game looks interesting enough, and given the fact that it’s essentially free, it very well may be worth your time. I checked out the beta yesterday, and I have to say that I have no idea what I’m doing. There seemed to be plenty of people who did, however, so maybe I just missed something.

Either way, SAGA has just entered open beta for the public, so you can give the game a shot for yourself. Full press release after you click the link at the end of this sentence… wait for it… okay, now!

SAGA Enters Open Beta

Silverlode Interactive opened its servers to all players for SAGA– the persistent world MMORTS.

Provo, UT – February 26, 2008

The World’s First Collectible MMORTS entered Open Beta testing on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008. All players who sign up at www.playsaga.com will receive accounts, allowing them to create nations on the Beta servers. For the duration of the Beta test, all game features will be unlocked and available to testers. At release, a full unlocked copy of SAGA will cost $19.95; however, promotions will be available during the open beta period to purchase the full version of SAGA at a reduced price.

During the stress test conducted on Saturday, February 23rd, the servers performed excellently, with no crashes or other server issues. The SAGA servers are expected to support up to 20,000 players per realm with thousands of simultaneous users. Should a greater-than-expected number of players attempt to login to the world at the same time, a login queue will be implemented and additional realms will be brought online.

Go now to www.playsaga.com to check out SAGA Open Beta!

About SAGA – SAGA is a persistent world RTS in an epic fantasy setting. Players collect troops, build armies, conquer new lands and build up kingdoms, complete with resource collection, city building and peasant management. SAGA’s features include massive armies, multiplayer questing, guild wars, espionage, and an auction house for trading troops and spells.

SAGA has no subscription fees. Players pay as little or as much as they decide, by purchasing ‘booster packs’ of random troops and spells, which are traded and customized to create the strategic army of choice for each player. Visit www.playsaga.com

SAGA Screenshots

22 Photos

 

What a shocker! </sarcasm> I mean really, who didn’t see this coming? I had almost forgotten that Turtle Rock wasn’t already assimilated into Valve, especially considering that most, if not all, of their games have been made under the wings of Valve.

Doug Lombardi, Valve’s VP of marketing, stated “Left 4 Dead fills a long-standing demand gamers have had for a co-op first-person action experience, and it will also help Valve’s expansion into the console market.”

From what I’ve seen and heard so far, Left 4 Dead seems to be shaping up to be the co-op experience it hopes to be.

I wouldn’t be in too much of a rush to purchase one if you’re one of our Japanese brethren. I’m fairly certain that there are probably still plenty in the channel, along with the final shipment that should be on its way now.

Further in the press release SCEI goes on to mention that they will continue to “vigorously promote the expansion of the PS3 platform by further concentrating on the 40GB HDD model.”

Great, they’re boning consumers with a complete lack of backwards compatibility, smooth move SCEI. Though this move has worked in Europe, it still feels like a step backwards.

One would think that going forward Sony might want to provide the most feature full product for their consumers, to maximize their chances in the market. Especially when the Nintendo Wii is kicking the living be-jesus out of the PS3 and Xbox 360 in Japan.

Ironically enough, the press release ends with “SCEI will continue to further expand the PS3 platform and create a new world of computer entertainment.”

Sure, this must mean more and “better” SKU’s in the future.

Source: SCEI

A predictable outcome for Ubisoft; a company that doesn’t like to keep all its eggs in one basket, as was seen in Assassin’s Creed reaching both consoles – and soon to be PC.

Whether the console iterations of Far Cry 2 will be as solid and impressive as the PC version that we’ve always been expecting, we’ll have to wait and see.

Here’s the press release, which is regrettably in French. Nothing against the language, but it’ll be foreign to the majority of you.

Ubisoft annonce aujourd’hui que Far Cry® 2 est actuellement en développement sur Xbox 360® de Microsoft et PLAYSTATION®3 de Sony. Far Cry 2 est un jeu de tir à la première personne développé par le studio d’Ubisoft Montréal.

Plus qu’une performance visuelle et technologique, Far Cry 2 constitue pour le joueur une expérience de jeu inédite, basée sur un moteur de jeu conçu spécifiquement pour l’occasion. Les joueurs seront plongés dans un univers de jeu totalement ouvert, au sein de somptueux paysages africains, grâce à la haute définition et à la technologie next-gen.

La sortie de Far Cry 2 est prévue pour l’année fiscale 2008-2009.

In way of a translation: Far Cry 2 is being developed for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, which will be released in the fiscal year 2008-09. Or there abouts.