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EA send word that their game of multi-player laser-swords will soon be featuring free weekends, the page for which is here. It reports that the first free weekend is “Thursday, March 15 at 12:01AM CT through Monday, March 19 at 2:00AM CT.” There are some more details just here, most notable restrictions on chat options to stop you being a big old gold spammer, restrictions to “Origin World, Capital World, the Fleet, all Warzones, and in their first Flashpoint”, and a level cap of 15. Should still be enough to give you a good free taste of the thing, of course.

Battlefield 3 launched on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on in late October of 2011. Approximately a month and a half later, the game's first expansion arrived: "Back to Karkand." Aside from a handful of tweaks since, EA's DICE studio has kept relative radio silence. So much so, in fact, that one prominent Battlefield fan site publicly declared its own silence until DICE spoke up (the developer released a missive the following day).

It is with this recent history -- now four months since Battlefield 3's last content drop, and another three months before "Close Quarters" is set to launch -- that we approached a recent interview with DICE general manager Karl-Magnus Troedsson. In short, what in the world is taking so damn long?

"The reason that we haven't followed up with even more content more quickly, there's a couple of practical reasons," Troedsson told us. "Part of that is that we just need to spend a lot of focus getting the game out. The ambition was to get more packs out earlier, but sometimes you have to prioritize between the base product and what you're doing afterwards." Troedsson also argued that DICE's approach was thematic, not "piecemeal" (Call of Duty's approach), which was a deliberate choice on his studio's part.

"If you prefer to have smaller piecemeal packs every now and then, you can go with that. We prefer to do something bigger that has a specific theme, that has maps, weapons, assignments, persistent upgrades, all this kinda stuff," Troedsson said. Could his studio have gotten out this content earlier? "Probably," he said, but DICE ran into its own limitations. "Sometimes we have limitations to what we can and can't do."

But without any other announced projects, and EA's Danger Close taking responsibility for its own multiplayer section in the coming Medal of Honor game (DICE handled the previous game's multi), it's unclear what other responsibilities are keeping DICE from pushing out Battlefield 3 support content more quickly. We'll just havet to assume the majority of the studio is head down on a super secret sequel to Mirror's Edge. Obviously.

Beyond "Close Quarters," DICE has two more content packs announced for Battlefield 3, including "Armored Kill" in fall and "End Game" in winter. And yes, Call of Duty's Elite DLC drops continue monthly.

Battlefield 3 hears the call of duty and directly responds with the "Close Quarters" map pack, available this June.

As previously announced, the franchise will return to what fans expect from the series this autumn with the "Armored Kill" pack. The fall pack will feature "all-out vehicle warfare on huge maps," with the biggest map in Battlefield history, along with new vehicles, tanks and artillery.

Finally, "End Game" is still under wraps, but should hit this winter. In an interview with DICE execs last week, the aim is to get it out in 2012, but "winter" does give the flexibility of bleeding into next year.

#wut Weekends were made for trademark applications, and Electronic Arts went to the trouble of filing to protect "Full Contact Bingo," reports trademark/domain hawk Fusible. More »

Would you like to get a look at SimCity before anyone else? So would we! But all we've got is these prototype videos shown off during a Maxis panel at GDC 2012 yesterday, which partially feature debug artwork (read: not final!). Also, hey, houses on fire!

During the highly technical SimCity engine talk today at GDC 2012, a trio of Maxis creative leads went into more depth on next year's simulation. Specifically with regards to online play, the game will feature cloud saving which will work continuously in the background as you play online.

SimCity was described as "built from the ground up to support online," which goes beyond the asychronus online play we heard about at last night's event. "Play anywhere" was mentioned, with the idea being that you could play the game across a variety of devices. We're thinking mobile as well as PC and (perhaps) console offerings, but the example given was accessing your games via web browser.

Several videos were also shown off of the game in action, though heavily laced with debug graphics (read: placeholder, and not so attractive). Each of the four demonstrated different aspects of the game's building blocks and we'll hopefully have them up for you shortly. The internet here is ... not so fast.

Battlefield 3: Close Quarters was announced at an EA event last night for this upcoming June, the first major paid piece of DLC for the game since last December's "Back to Karkand." The expansion includes four maps, 10 weapons and no vehicles -- it's about close quarters, after all.

There will be two more expansions for the game following the June expansion -- one called "Armored Kill," which will focus on weapons and larger maps, with new drivable vehicles. The second pack, entitled "End Game," which EA isn't sharing hardly any details on, does feature cover art with some crazy tripping lunatic holding a knife on it.

The news of this expansion couldn't come soon enough. Frustrations in the Battlefield 3 community had been bubbling into potential action, as EA maintained radio silence as long as possible about any expansion plans after the "Back to Karkand" maps launched in mid-December.

Yup, the M’dal orf Hrnnnr MANWARFIGHT trailer does that thing where there’s a portentous, dark opening with stealthy soldiers before scenes from the game get all piled-up at the end. You need to be a hummingbird to watch the damn thing properly. So here to fill you in with more details is guest hummingbird correspondent, Hummingway. sdfskfjhgasdfiuefliasdflaisdhf””dda=–3. Erm, right: so that’s what happens when you invite a hummingbird to the keyboard. My mistake, I should have seen that one coming. I’ll take that on the chin. I’ve managed to find out some information, so you can watch the vide and read that while I pick chunks of bird out of my beard.(more…)

So while we all already knew, SimCity is back, and it’s being spelt like that. No number, no space. It’s going to be in 3D, resources are going to be finite, and technology pays a significant part. And it’s being made by Maxis, and it’s only on PC. More details, and a trailer below.

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The permits are all set for a new SimCity to begin building the next great metropolis, EA and Maxis announced this evening at GDC 2012. It's coming to PC in 2013, and going back to Maxis.

The official word follows a string of leaked screens and a prematurely outed trailer that seemed intended for GDC. The game will run on the GlassBox engine, which EA plans to describe in more detail at tomorrow's "Inside the GlassBox" presentation at GDC. So far, we've confirmed that it'll have curvy roads!

A lot of the Mass Effect 3 reviews are focusing on the bleakness of Bioware’s story, and quite a few are shocked at the game’s darkness is regard to the choices they made. Some guy called Tom Francis over at whatever the heck PC Gamer is, has figured out exactly why, and it’s a bit of a cheap trick that BioWare have pulled. I’ll go into details after the jump, as I’m aware some people view even the words Mass Effect 3 as some sort of spoiler. As long as no-one spoils the ending of Se7en in the comments: I’ve had it on pause for on my VHS for about 16 years. I keep intending to return, but it’s just so tense!(more…)

I have avoided any plot-specific spoilers in this review, and reading it will not reveal any details about how the story unfolds or concludes. Clearly if you want to avoid knowing anything at all about the game, or seeing images from it, then look away now. Otherwise…

It’s done. Commander Shepard has taken the final steps in the grand science fiction tale of the Mass Effects. Now there is only the aftermath, the discussion, the opinions, the DLC, and the inevitable retrospectives. Here’s Wot I Think.(more…)

#simcity There are so many "leaked" trailers that have survived multiple days on YouTube, it's hard to believe this isn't deliberate. Whatever the case, this silent slideshow of SimCity 5 concept art is alleged to be source material for a GDC announcement, and the game will release in 2013. More »

This may be our first up-close and personal look at the still-rumored SimCity 5, or at least its debut trailer. Pre-visualization trailers like this serve as rendered storyboards, hence its distinct lack of actual motion, and are used by directors as a cinematic roadmap.

It also gives us a glimpse of the game's roadmap, both literally and figuratively, by showcasing the layout of a simulated city and placing SimCity 5's release date in 2013. It's worth noting that the number five is mysteriously lacking from the title's logo, which may indicate a series reboot, rather than a sequel, should this end up being legitimate.

Thankfully, we'll only have to wait a couple of days to find out if this trailer is The Real Deal with Bill McNeal, as EA and Maxis' GDC event takes place this Tuesday.

The iOS spinoff Battlefield 3: Aftershock was abruptly removed from the App Store last month, when EA decided to "re-evaluate" the app following complaints about its quality. It has since been re-evaluated to death.

An EA spokesperson told Vox Games that the game will not be returning to the App Store. "In the interest of bringing consumers only the highest level of quality mobile entertainment," EA said, "EA Mobile has decided to suspend development and support of Battlefield 3: Aftershock and refocus its resources on other titles."

The servers will remain active through March 31, for those of you who want to enjoy the game as long as possible. Of course, the relatively small number of people enjoying Aftershock is the whole issue.

Rumors are pointing to an official reveal for SimCity 5 at next week's Game Developers Conference (GDC), with a launch sometime in 2013.

The rumor katamari began earlier this week when AllGamesBeta posted alleged concept art of the upcoming city planning program, then things really got rolling as Gamespot reported on a translation of a German magazine article that all but confirms next year's launch details.

VG247 has also been gathering details from all over, noting the "Inside the GlassBox" talk at next week's GDC, which introduces the "Glassbox" engine as "next-generation technology that is built from the ground up to power the next entry in one of their most beloved franchises."

The EA and Maxis event will be held next Tuesday, March 6.

One of the many problems with games publishers continuing to give exclusive early game reveals to magazines is that the vast majority of the world’s gaming populace ends up basing its initial opinions of the game on hurried summaries and blurry scanned screenshots on forums. The lure of the free advertising in newsagents that a game magazine cover constitutes, even in this day of catastrophically low print sales, is too hard to resist, I guess.

So here we are hearing, via forumy types sharing info from the latest edition of German mag Gamestar, that Sim City 5 is happening at long last, and is presumably the Maxis game set to be revealed at GDC next week.(more…)

The news beacon of Electronic Arts has been lit, signalling the approach of a large story-driven DLC for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. The expansion, called The Legend Of Dead Kel, takes place on the island of Gallow’s End, where you can “claim ownership of a vast personal estate” and also kill new monsters with new and interesting weapons. There’s been lots of work put into the player-housing stuff, and EA explain that “Gravehal Keep is more than just player housing, it’s a massive estate with multiple buildings and a full retinue of retainers, each with their own back stories, side quests, perks and quirks.” So that told us. We thought it was just player housing. Stupid.

The Legend Of Dead Kel will appear on March 20th.

Oof. High-street retailer GAME’s troubles are deepening, with reports that Electronic Arts will not be supplying them with games, including Mass Effect 3. Pre-orders the store has already taken for the title will only be refunded in store credit. While both EA and GAME have yet to confirm, the official Mass Effect 3 website has updated informing anyone that has pre-ordered ME3 to reorder the game from Amazon.co.uk, Play.com, Zavvi.com and ShopTo.net.

It’s not looking good.(more…)

Much like one of my favorite games of 2011, Saints Row: The Third, the franchise reboot of SSX kicks off with a leap out of an airplane. And as in Saints Row, the section of Twilight Zone-esque endless sky serves as a tutorial to a variety of gameplay mechanics. When complete, you deploy a damn wingsuit and fly off, presumably to do something else equally awesome.

Soon after, you're quickly mastering one of three control variants (or all three), before jumping directly in to the world of mountains and snow and, uh, wingsuits (did I mention there are wingsuits?). I was doing 1080 Switch Tailgrabs in under five minutes!

But before I go on, let me first take you back to SSX's original name -- SSX: Deadly Descents. Aside from sounding like a brand of violent deodorant, that subtitle is a nod to the nine major mountain ranges featured in SSX, each with its own "Deadly Descent" (essentially a boss battle, but, ya know, on a snowboard). They are supposed to punctuate a particular gameplay hook for each range of mountains. And they almost ruin the game.

After spending some time with The Illuminati, I escaped from The Secret World to speak to lead designer Ragnar Tørnquist about overcoming the challenges inherent in building a story-based MMO. We talked about creating coherence in a vast and varied world, the confused and confusing role of the hero in an MMO, and how it’s possible to reinvent and deconstruct a genre.

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I’ve been playing EA and Starbreeze’s contentious FPS reboot of the legendary Syndicate. I’ve only done a little dabbling in co-op, a report on which I will present very soon (so far: better than singleplayer, but very much in the unlock/ranking modern multiplayer idiom), so for now these are my thoughts on the campaign mode, and the tale of the hysterically-named Eurocorp Agent MILES KILO.

CHOOSE YOUR REVIEW

1) Whether Syndicate is a decent first-person shooter or not.

2) Whether 2012 is anything like Syndicate 1993.

3) The coffee I’m currently drinking.(more…)

I’ve spent the last couple of months searching the streets for signs of conspiracy, perhaps a Toynbee Tile or two bills from separate electricity companies who are clearly trying to con me out of every last penny. To resolve the troubled contents of my mind, I took another trip into The Secret World, where my every delusional thought seems quite ordinary in comparison to the oddities around me.

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The humble .nfo file is a business card, instruction manual, and score-setting rap song in ascii form. They’re the files that the piracy scene drops into their releases to claim bragging rights for that particular chunk of nefarious code. So why the hell did Syndicate Developers Starbreeze stick one in the legitimate release of their first-person shooter? Redditor MikkelManDK spotted the file in the game’s directory: it’s there to partly to mock the scene a little — the install notes resd: ’1) Insert disc 2) Play ;)’ — and partly to bring the Warez groups into the games industry: Starbreeze’s .nfo asks them to apply for jobs.

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If there’s a surprise in the announcement that there’s to be another game in EA’s modern reboot of the Medal of Honor series, it’s that the subtitle “Warfighter” survived basic training: no-one in the development studio giggled, no-one in marketing made this face >:(, John Riccitiello didn’t suddenly come to his senses on the toilet and tell them to ‘drop it and call it “2″‘? Not only is it a redundant mess of a name, but it’s not even a unique redundant mess. I expect Tom Clancy to hold a mock funeral, just so he can commence grave-spinning. So yes, there is a man, he’ll be fighting in a war. Other details are somewhat missing in action.(more…)

With frustrations in the Battlefield 3 community bubbling into possible action, DICE has released a Homeric list of "confirmed fixes and tweaks" that the developer has been working on. The released list of planned changes, which does not currently have an estimated time of arrival, covers Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

The fixes cover long-standing complaints like fall damage from short distances and an increase to spawn protection. The list is pretty massive, so check it out after the break.

Updates and further details about Battlefield 3 have been lacking ever since the Back to Karkand maps launched in mid-December. New Battlefield 3 content plans are expected to be announced at GDC in a couple weeks.

EA Tiburon vets Volga Aksoy and Jerry Phaneuf have established new studio PixelFoundry down in Orlando, Florida. The two-man team is currently working on a PC title called BlackSpace, which they plan to launch on digital distribution platforms "as soon as possible."

"I personally am a huge fan of games like the Wing Commander series. I also am one of the few that still think RTS when someone mentions Warcraft. If it's done properly, many elements of those two games can be melded," Phaneuf told Joystiq. "We see this as a great opportunity to make the game that we can't wait to play. So we're pretty excited about getting it done soon, but also growing it over time as well."

At its core, BlackSpace is a real-time strategy game, with action elements and an emphasis on economic and "defensive efficiency within the context of a intergalactic mining operation." Players control surface and orbital operations on an asteroid through a low-gravity support vehicle.

"The game has been a long standing project of mostly various tests and snips of art cobbled together with bits of code. We decided to wipe the project clean, get serious, and start working on it full time at the beginning of this year," Aksoy explained when asked how long they'd been working on BlackSpace.

They plan to launch the game, receive "insights on the experience from the community" and build on the core game to make it generally more expansive. "Story line, the macro game, and social portal connectivity" are all targeted for expansion after the initial release.

A cause of occasional, but rather fervent ire of recent times has been day one DLC. Why do people get pissed off? Because times were you’d buy a game, and get a game. Now, the perception is you buy a portion of the game, and are then asked to buy the rest in premium lumps over the next few months. And when one of those premium portions appears the same day as the game – well, it looks like the publishers are taking the piss. “Here’s most of our game! Now pay more to complete it.” So it is likely with these arguments in mind that BioWare are making it clear that Mass Effect’s day one DLC, From Ashes, was developed after the core game was completed. But does that change anything for the player?

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Battlefield 3: Aftershock is MIA from the iOS App Store due to a lack of quality. IGN got a hold of a communique from EA, in which the publisher stated it is committed to delivering quality mobile entertainment and, therefore, decided to remove the game.

An EA spokesperson said the company is "currently re-evaluating the app" in response to the consumer feedback. Sounds like the 2.5 star rated app, which suffered complaints about its controls and multiplayer, may not return to the app arena any time soon.

The Simpsons are going to your phone! Again! Cnet reports that EA is planning to release a free-to-play Simpsons game called The Simpsons: Tapped Out. The free iOS game focuses on rebuilding Springfield after Homer blows it up. Unlockable characters (voiced by the show's actors) will give you quests as you work on your version of the city.

Of course, your progress will be limited every day, unless you purchase virtual currency, in the denomination of "donuts." You'll also be able to find them in town.

Tapped Out is due on iOS in the next few weeks. An Android version will follow a few months later.