Sarge wrote:DICE who announced that they are working on a BF2 Patch on the 3rd anniversary of the game's release.
An open beta will be available in the "near future" according to DICE. It is supposed to include new maps according to these guys.
Crazy. I expected the next patch to be the one that eliminated connection to the acct server and killed the CD/DVD checks. These guys can't even let a game die properly. 😀
I'm not sure why they are doing this. Is it an attempt to turn back years and years of frustration? While you are at it fellas, how about fixing the Huey's in BFV? That was the only thing wrong with that game.
I think that they are worried about losing their audience to games like COD, Frontlines, and TF2. If they can do something to keep us in the BF universe that doesn't cost them much money, such as a new patch, then they will do it. BF Heroes is a similar attempt but at the same time is trying to open up a new market area (microtransactions).
When you think about it, they are kind of sliding a bit. BFH sounds cool, but I don't imagine it will find the target market the other BF games did. The third person view alone kills that.
Is Bad Company doing very well? I don't remember seeing anything memorable about it.
I'm not sure that it is actually out yet but I think it gets released this week. It uses their new engine (Frostbite) and reviews so far are very good. It does give me hope that BF3 will be another good step forward.
Sarge wrote:I think that they are worried about losing their audience to games like COD, Frontlines, and TF2. If they can do something to keep us in the BF universe that doesn't cost them much money, such as a new patch, then they will do it. BF Heroes is a similar attempt but at the same time is trying to open up a new market area (microtransactions).
That's my opinion anyhow 😛
Did they ever release a Frontlines demo for the PC? They were going to MONTHS ago, but delayed it. I can't seem to find a PC demo to DL, and frontlines.com looks useless.
I think Frontlines wound up being a wash. It had a lot of cool elements, but if you have the vehicles in CoD4, the vehicles in Frontlines would really piss you off. It's kind of funny, but I see a lot of similarities between FFoW and CoD4.
Whilst they are at it, they should drop all extra charges on the ranking system to go with the new patch. Announce it big too. Small groups would probably host more servers if they were the same price as unranked.
Also fully support any and all stats on their dime like Epic does, at least until BF3 comes out.
I'm sure they are only motivated from the success of COD and some other console games and don't want to be forgotten.
lexx wrote:I'm sure they are only motivated from the success of COD and some other console games and don't want to be forgotten.
The only reason I question this remark though is they should have done it a year ago. A patch a year ago would have kept all of us interested in the game for at least a few more months. Instead they tried to stay with the sinking ship of BF2142 (Microsoft take note here).
Had they released patches in a timely manner BF2 would have had some legs, and we wouldn't all be so leary of EA/Battelfield francise.
Lexx, EA never managed the costs of ranked servers. It was all up to the hosting provider. The only cost they required was 1 free ranked server for every 10 sold. The inflated prices were due to the limited number of approved hosts. That kept the smaller guys from competing and driving down the prices. Last I saw, ranked prices were coming down fast.
You know, but I think a few rounds of Karkand would be fun again. I was bored with the game, but it's been long enough that I might actually enjoy it for a few nights.
yeah I got mega bore too. Too bad the mods came out too late. Apocalypse was fun, but Sarge and I may be part of the 5 users besides the devs who ever saw that mod.
Some article wrote:DICE confirms five Battlefield titles in development
At GDC Paris today, Ben Cousins, executive producer at EA's DICE studio, has confirmed that the team is currently working on no less than five titles in its Battlefield franchise.
EA announced at the start of the year its first entry in the free-to-play market would be Battlefield Heroes, and the publisher is set to release Battlefield: Bad Company for home consoles this Friday.
But the team is also at work on three other games based on the series, including a traditional core game aimed at consoles, and a new collaboration with Neowiz specifically for the Korean market.
"Since the start of this year I've been working as executive producer for the entire Battlefield franchise - we've got five titles in development at the moment, which is probably more than you expect," Cousins told the GDC Paris audience during his keynote presentation.
Battlefield publisher Electronic Arts holds a 19 per cent stake in Korean outfit Neowiz â which operates FIFA Online in the region for EA â and the two companies announced last year that they intend to co-develop four more titles for Asia, with Neowiz set to publish two of the projects in Korea and Japan.
Cousens told GamesIndustry.biz recently that the desire to work in the free-to-play market came from a business trip to South Korea and analysis of the region which showed piracy had destroyed the traditional publishing model.
DocJon wrote:Did they ever release a Frontlines demo for the PC? They were going to MONTHS ago, but delayed it. I can't seem to find a PC demo to DL, and frontlines.com looks useless.
This was just announced today:
Kaos Mitch wrote:We will be releasing a PC demo of Frontlines: Fuel of War in the first half of July.
The demo will have the following specifics:
* English language only * It will be current with the 1.1.1 version of the client * Maps: Oilfield and GNAW * No CDKey validation will be needed by players
Watch for more news about the demo in the coming weeks!
Isn't that like 4 months after it went on sale? WTF?
There was a time when games would be down to $19.99 4 months after release, now they're just getting around to releasing the demo 4 months later. The life cycle for games has changed immensely.
Thanks for the info, Sarge. You know, some of these games that had a non-PC release, and a console demo release. . .it's damn hard to get an answer out of Google.
I've read more than once that both UT4 and BF3 will going to be console releases only. So if EA is going to release it for PC's, then this patch must be a way to draw attention back to them.
I only hope all the mistakes they made with 2142 do not show up in BF3. Last week I reinstalled 2142, applied all the new patches, and still it won't save my mouse settings for movements past the current session.
Battlefield heros in 3rd person has absolutely no appeal to me. Being webbased its gotta be packed with ads and perhaps they have a wow type precription planned for it as well.
BFHeroes is definitely an experiment with that type of thing. I don't think that they will implement a subscription game in that one, but it may be coming down the line. I for one will not do a subscription based game.
I see BFHeroes as a diversion for a few weeks. There look to be some very fun aspects to the game, but I don't see it holding my attention long term. Since it is free, that is ok.