Electronic Arts Message Board

Are the best things in life free? Are they really? I don’t know, but I do know that giant-robot-related things are pretty darn cool, and those are going to be free from now until the end of time. Well, Titanfall time. Respawn’s laid out its update roadmap, promising more information, regular tweaks and additions, new modes, and free everything – except for map packs. That’s a shame because it fragments the community, which in turn fragments my heart. OK not really, but it is kind of a pain.

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The PC versions of Crysis and Crysis 2 will lose multiplayer functionality when GameSpy's matchmaking services go dark on May 31. The single-player campaigns as well as the multiplayer modes for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of both games will remain playable.

"As of May 31 this year, the multiplayer modes in Crysis and Crysis 2 for PC will no longer be playable," Crytek wrote on its forums. "The conclusion of online multiplayer support comes as a result of GameSpy Technology shutting down all their hosting services. GameSpy have been providing multiplayer functionality for Crysis and Crysis 2 since they launched."

GameSpy announced plans to shut down its middleware servers earlier this month, over a year after it ceased editorial production. The service began as a Quake server search program in 1996 before hosting online multiplayer for hundreds of games. EA said it will shift multiplayer for its older Battlefield games from GameSpy to Origin last week. [Image: Crytek]

“Privacy? Privacy is dead!” say the cynicism-sick portions of the peanut gallery referring to the modern state of surveillance and not really shooty shooty bang bang games about giant robots at all. But if, for the sake of argument, they were upset about the multiplayer-only Titanfall‘s bizarre lack of multiplayer options, they’d now have one less thing to complain about. Titanfall’s latest patch adds in the oft-requested option to break off from the rest of the world and host matches with friends, neighbors, fellow Illuminati members, etc. Take that, everyone else.

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“Doom clones” we called the rush of games which followed in the wake of Doom in the mid-nineties. It’s a daft and dismissive term in retrospect, though less clinical than “first-person shooter,” but, well, weren’t they basically just Doom? In the same vein, until newcomers start properly distinguishing themselves I’ll happily use “Dote ‘em up” and “Doter” for DotA-y games like Dawngate.

You can now have a bash at Waystone Games’ free-to-play Doter by joining the open beta. What makes Dawngate different to the rest? Publisher EA will tell you it has “a flexible Meta that lets you play your way” but what does that collection of words even mean?

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Uncharted Director joins EA and Nintendo's President in trouble. Plus, Blade Runner Director Ridley Scott is working on the new Halo Series and Microsoft Studios suffer layoffs.

I like Titanfall, Alec likes Titanfall, Graham likes Titanfall, and everyone else at RPS does too because Graham is our managing editor and he manages everything, including our opinions. But there is one thing that none of us particularly like, and that is the matchmaking. It’s breezy yet haphazard, selecting teams based on startlingly few skill commonalities and providing almost nothing in the way of options. Now though, it seems that Respawn is finally taking steps in the right direction. Baby steps. Giant robot baby steps, but baby steps nonetheless.

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I do so enjoy it when game developers get creative with their anti-cheat solutions. Related: I would not recommend that you try cheating in shiny new stomp-o-blaster Titanfall. On one truck-sized, pilot-snatching hand, you’ll still be able to play the game, but you’ll find yourself surrounded by some rather… unsavory company. Namely, fellow cheaters. Sounds like a recipe for infuriation, frustration, and humiliation if I’ve ever heard one. Or maybe just sentient aimbots.

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Over the past two decades, Electronic Arts has developed a reputation for buying and "killing" independent video game studios.Read more...

According to a report from internet security firm Netcraft, an Electronic Arts server was recently hacked, and until it was shut down was being used to run a phishing scam that targeted Apple customersRead more...

Can EA take the title three years in a row? The Consumerist's Worst Company In America bracket is live once again, and again the video game publisher Electronic Arts is a contender.Read more...

In a final [humiliating capitulation]/[act of goodwill and community empowerment] Maxis will today release SimCity’s offline mode, freeing city builders everywhere from the terrifying fear that a cleaner at the Origin data center will accidentally unplug the servers as he hoovers up the hopes and dreams of the developers. At the time of writing (lunchtime on Tuesday the 18th), the servers are down as the game prepares for the update that will mean the next time the servers are down, you’ll be able to play.

… [visit site to read more]

This gameplay trailer for 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil bleeds red, blue, green, white, orange, yellow and potentially other national colors we missed. The soccer game that celebrates the global sporting event launches April 15 for Xbox 360 and PS3, and includes six core modes.

Titanfall is a first-person shooter with a story but no singleplayer mode. That means that if you play its nine campaign maps through, no NPC ever calls you by name as they remind you to reload, no dastardly villain ever traps you in a small container and takes away your weapons, and no scripted sidekick ever makes an awkward joke about why you never speak. Its story and its characters play out as radio plays, picture-in-picture talking heads, and brief pre- and post-mission cutscenes, but in each you’re treated as just another anonymous soldier. You exist only to be shoved out of a dropship in order to fight in brief, 15-minute matches of what are, essentially, dressed-up versions of six vs. six team deathmatch and capture-and-hold modes. … [visit site to read more]

If you’re wondering why we don’t have a review of Titanfall yet – or why, to their credit, so many of the write-ups out there don’t yet have scores attached – it’s because review events hosted by EA are a poor way of experiencing EA games. It’s far more useful to wait for them to hit general release, so we can see how Origin and EA’s servers perform under the weight of new players.

The answer is, so far, not so great. Players currently trying to connect to Titanfall’s servers, myself included, are getting an error. “Lost Connection To Server Disconnect: ORIGIN error retrieving player data from storage – code 503.” … [visit site to read more]

Have you purchased Titanfall? Are you attempting to install it right this very second? Did you read that previous sentence and think, “Pfft, right this very second? More like, ‘right this very nine hours’”? Then you are probably aware that Titanfall – much like the lumbering mechanical monstrosities that inhabit it – is GIANT. 49 GB, to be precise. I just assumed it was a matter of poor compression, and apparently I was not wrong. Turns out, however, that Respawn choice to let Titanfall’s girth frolic free for a reason.

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Sometimes I take a story because it matters – because I’m all rip-roaring and fired up about change and subtext and gravel-voiced men yammering at each other for reasons. Videogame reasons. Other times, it’s for the headline gag. This one is absolutely the latter. Star Wars: The Old Republic – which I haven’t played since The Old Republic was still a A New-ish (And Not Yet Free-To-Play) Republic – is adding player housing. That’s kind of exciting… I guess? Trailer in the Rancor pit beneath these words.

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This week’s Humble Weekly sale is a PopCap bundle, but with an added twist: EA are giving 100% of their cut to charity. Two charities, in fact, between which you can choose your split: the V Foundation for Cancer Research, and The Melanoma Research Alliance which specifically fights skin cancer.

Pay more than $1 and you’ll get a copy of Peggle (download size: one Peggle), zen-like match three puzzler Bejeweled 3, word puzzler Bookworm Deluxe, and two other games. Pay more than $6 and you’ll also get Plants vs. Zombies, Zuma’s Revenge and Peggle Nights. You’ll even get Origin and Steam keys for each one.

Maybe this is Kindness Week and we only just realised? … [visit site to read more]

EA's quadrennial FIFA World Cup sub-series comes around as often as the global sporting event does, but this year's version will still include some familiar modes. EA Sports announced six core modes for 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil this week, each celebrating the cherished soccer event in different ways.

First up is the game's Road to the FIFA World Cup mode, which allows players to take one of the 203 international teams through the World Cup competition starting in the qualifying rounds. That's separate from the game's "authentic" 2014 FIFA World Cup mode, which begins with the teams that qualified for the group stages and can be played online or locally.

The game also includes the Road to Rio de Janeiro mode, which has players competing online at each of the 12 Brazilian World Cup venues, similar to FIFA 14's Online Seasons mode. 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil also includes two historic modes: Story of Finals follows this summer's competition and issues challenges based on the results of each real-life match while Story of Qualifying features over 60 matches from the two-and-a-half year qualifying cycle for the upcoming World Cup event. The latter mode also features challenges specific to the outcomes of those historic games as well, such as scoring two goals as a 10-man France team against Spain in 11 minutes to qualify for the event.

Lastly, players will be able to guide an individual athlete, either real or created, through the World Cup process in Captain Your Country mode. While a similar mode from 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa allowed players to use their created footballers from FIFA 10 in the mode, it's unclear if 2014 FIFA World Cup maintains the same compatibility with FIFA 14. The game will also feature standard online and local friendly matches in addition to 50 new skill games. 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil launches April 15 in North America and April 17 in Europe on Xbox 360 and PS3. [Image: EA Sports]

I like our medium’s rapid growth into more mature subject matter as much as anyone, but that doesn’t mean I can’t also enjoy man-shoot and robot-biff. In fact, I liked Titanfall quite a bit when I played it during its beta a few weeks back. Now the game is on the verge of being released next Tuesday – sorry, I’m supposed to say it’s about to drop from orbit, but it’s too trite – and that means the requisite launch trailers have been set loose. They’re below. They’re marketing. They’ve got stompy robots in and so I’m powerless to resist. … [visit site to read more]

Beneath a mess of half-baked systems and massively detrimental online requirements, SimCity actually had some pretty cool ideas. Simulation of individual people and entities? Community options for those who want them? Curved roads? All interesting stuff on paper. Unfortunately, the reality of Maxis’ latest city builder failed (rather miserably) to live up to those promises, and Maxis has been struggling to build something workable from the pieces ever since. Enter Citybound. Its goal? To construct a city sim from the ground-up with a focus on single-player, out-of-the-not-a-box moddability, and simulating a truly sizable geographical region – not an itsy bitsy ant hill town. Also curved roads. Always curved roads.

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Man, giant robots are such a hassle. They break everything, have no regard for my pristine white polar bear rug, and – oh yeah – they’re really goddamn big. Too big to fit in closets, on airplanes, or, apparently, on hard drives. That’s the only explanation I can muster for Titanfall‘s whopping 48 gigabyte hard drive requirement, given that it’s multiplayer-only, not exactly the nexest of “next-gen” games from a graphical standpoint, and isn’t utterly ridden with cut-scenes like, say, Max Payne 3. But then, maybe I’m jumping the sedan-sized gun on this one. After all, the exact nuts and bolts of Titanfall’s multiplayer story are still shrouded in mystery. Which is to say, a giant robot is standing in front of them, and it won’t get out of the way.

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There are a lot of different ways to make videogame fights meaningful. Singleplayer games do it by couching your shotgun blasts and pistol whips in the context of a story. Multiplayer games do it by emphasising competition via scoreboards, and by layering XP bonuses and equipment progression on top as rewards for each kill. Titanfall aims to do it with a mixture of all of the above, and based on its limited beta, finds mixed success.

Titanfall is a sci-fi multiplayer shooter in which you play as a futuristic foot soldier able to regularly summon a mech from orbit. The robot crashes to earth and then you can jump inside, piloting it alongside fellow mechs and ground troops like so many anime characters, across team deathmatch (“Attrition”) and capture and hold (“Hardpoint”) modes. I’ve been playing it since the beta launched late last week. … [visit site to read more]

The Second Assault DLC for Battlefield 4 is now available on PC via Origin as well as PS4 and PS3 for Premium members, and should arrive tomorrow on Xbox 360. The DLC first launched with the game on Xbox One, and is free with the $50 Premium service.

Second Assault includes four new maps for the game: Caspian Border, Operation Metro, Operation Firestorm and Gulf of Oman. Each map is a "fan-favorite" from Battlefield 3, re-imagined in the Frostbyte 3 engine. The DLC will arrive on all consoles for non-Premium subscribers on March 4, as revealed last week.

There’s a mobile version of Dungeon Keeper now. Excited about the prospect of playing Bullfrog’s legendary evildoing opus anywhere you please? Well, don’t be! It’s a terrible, slow-churning “social” experience that subsists on grimy mouthfuls of your time and money. Even Peter Molyneux himself thinks it’s “ridiculous.” By and large, EA’s defended its dubious decisions in a fashion that should not be at all surprising to anyone who’s followed the industry for more than four seconds, but now it appears to have sort of turned a corner on the matter. As mentioned in the Bargain Bucket, this weekend, the original Dungeon Keeper is free on GOG while Dungeon Keeper 2 is only $1.49. That all comes courtesy of EA, so maybe it’s their way of saying sorry? Kinda? But hey, even if you tear EA’s apology bouquet to pieces, light the pieces on fire, and sue said pieces for your self-inflicted burn wounds, GOG is having a full Valentine’s sale of its own.

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I am hoping to kick off a more regular streaming schedule (with RPS staffers who are not me sometimes, no less!) soon, but for now, BOOM CRASH WHAM: random Titanfall stream while many of you are, in all likelihood, asleep. It’s still Valentine’s Day here in the good ol’ US of That One Place I Claim To Be From, and both I and Hayden Dingman of PCWorld are painfully alone. Thus, what better way to spend an otherwise existentially uncomfortable evening than by drowning our sorrows in some sensual mechanized massacre? Don’t answer that. Anyway, on with the show. We’ll be kicking off at 10 PM PT/6 AM GMT. We would’ve started far sooner, but Titanfall’s servers have been down pretty much all day. Better in beta than after, I suppose.

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Dungeon Keeper Gold is available for free on GOG.com this weekend. The 1997 PC strategy game that includes the Deeper Dungeons expansion joins 29 more games on the distribution service's Valentine's Day sale, with Dungeon Keeper 2 discounted to $1.49.

Those looking to redeem the freebie offer will need to click the deal banner on GOG.com's home page by 5:59 a.m. EST on Sunday, as the game's landing page still lists it at $5.99. Among the other deals on GOG.com this weekend, players can pick up System Shock 2 for $1.49, Guacamelee Gold Edition for $3.74, PixelJunk Monsters HD for $1.59 and PixelJunk Shooter for $2.69.

The free copy of the original Dungeon Keeper surely beats the mobile, free-to-play version EA launched this year, which was deemed "ridiculous" by Peter Molyneux for its heavy reliance on microtransactions. Dungeon Keeper was also criticized for diverting in-app ratings that were fewer than five stars on Android. [Image: Electronic Arts]

Titanfall is great. There is no getting around that, much like there is no getting around a giant robot’s titanic rhino-SUV foot cuff when it is stomping on you. But Respawn’s largely treated Titanfall like an Xbox game, preferring to let the PC version live in its all-too-proprietary shadow. So far, we know that our titans will unfortunately be tethered to Origin and… yep, that’s pretty much it. So I sat down with game director Steve Fukuda to find all about PC bonuses, configurations, balance issues that might arise from different control schemes, modding possibilities (probably don’t get your hopes up early on), and Respawn’s dislike of EA/Activision-style DLC cycles. It’s all below.

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Titanfall‘s beta is officially kicking off on February 14th and lasting for, um, not very many days. Seems kind of odd in the year 2014 ADEA (Anno Domini Earlyaei Accessus), but oh well. Promotional beta or not, Titanfall continues to be worthy of a blinding, blip-blip-blipping spot on your radar. I got the chance to go hands-on with a very close to beta version for a couple hours, and not even an army of giant robots could stop me from recording a bunch of footage and word-vomiting insight all over it. The long and short of it? Titanfall continues to clomp along quite nicely, but I do have a number of balance/longevity concerns. Also, while NPCs add a new dynamic to battles, I’m not sure if they’re the perfect solution to the 6v6 issue. Check out the video below to see what I think (but not Wot I Think, obviously).

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Two of EA's biggest games had rough launches last year, and although SimCity seems to be in a stable place right now, the Battlefield 4 issues (and patches) continue—to the point where EA won't work on downloadable content for their shooter until everything is fixed.Read more...

EA's received hefty doses of criticism following the launch of its free-to-play mobile version of Dungeon Keeper, thanks in particular to the game's reliance on microtransactions. One person voicing displeasure with the game recently is Dungeon Keeper's original creator, Lionhead Studios co-founder and current 22 Cans head, Peter Molyneux.

"I felt myself turning round saying, 'What? This is ridiculous. I just want to make a dungeon. I don't want to schedule it on my alarm clock for six days to come back for a block to be chipped,'" Molyneux told the BBC. "I don't think they got it quite right, the balance between keeping it familiar to the fans that were out there but fresh enough and understandable enough for this much bigger mobile audience."

EA quietly safeguarded itself against poor reviews for Dungeon Keeper on Android in particular, as it was revealed last week that anything less than a five-star review was diverted to a feedback form within the app. Given Molyneux's penchant for the, shall we say, unconventional, if he's calling you 'ridiculous', something somewhere has gone terribly wrong. [Image: Electronic Arts]