It seems EA has set their sites on creating an European Development group. First, they announced they were buying 90% of DICE, but that didnt work out. Then they started purchasing shares of Ubisoft, in what some have termed as an unwanted partnership. Now, they have waived all requirements for the percentage of stock they must buy in DICE and are simply focusing on purchasing as many shares as possible.

I had really hoped the little guy would hold out, but it seems EA is too big and powerful and will stop at nothing to get what they want. I can only hope it doesnt ruin our beloved Battlefield series.

Read More for the full Press Release regarding this situation. Continue reading EA Not Giving Up On Acquisition of DICE →

Well, at least everything they have told us so far.

Fizban30 w/ help from king0rism have assembled all publicly known information regarding BF2 in a single location. This includes basic information, map info, weapon and vehicle details, videos and screenshots. Here is a portion of the information under “Basic Info”

Basic Info

* Release Date: 03/24/2005
* Demo possible in Feb., not confirmed
* 64 players max, 30 vehicles, 11 maps, 7 classes
* U.S. vs Chinese, vs Middle East Coalition
* New gameplay engine, realistic physics and dynamic lighting, Material penetration feature, destructible environments
* Maps scales to number of players (16, 32 or 64 players) and provides ideal vehicle-to-player ratio
* Native PunkBuster support
* CTF undecided
* SP is beefed up
* Requirements will be around – 1.4GHz, 512MB RAM, shadermodel 1.4 supporting gfx card
* Ingame Squads –
o Squad leader can use T key to issue commands
o Squad leader in a vehicle becomes a mobile spawn point for squad members
o Can be password protected
o Max of 6 players and leader
o Squad leader can set waypoints
o Temporary spawn points can be made

The site can be found here and is “under construction”, but is pretty cool.

The Forgotten Hope Mod has released the .66 version this morning.

The list of mirrors hosting the 295MB incremental patch are here

A listing of all of the changes to the mod is at .65 to .66 Change Log

There is also a very useful FH instructional page at Forgotten Hope School which highlights some of the major changes in play between the mod and Vanilla BF42. I learned a few things here, and you could too.

Lets go play!

Battlegroup42 released the 1.1 version of their mod today.

Get the full scoop along with screenshots of a few new maps and download mirrors at the Official Battlegroup42 Website.

Server info and TeamSpeak info are available just above the news. Frag you later……

It seems Electronic Arts (EA) is intent on buying Swedish games developer Digital Illusions (DICE). EAs recent offer required them to purchase 90% of the companies stock, but 2 major investors held 28% of DICEs stock and did not want to sell. That offer was set to expire on December 16th. That time has passed and EA has made a new offer. From the article:

…extended the acceptance period until January 20th 2005 in a move that demonstrates the publishers determination to acquire the firm

However, EAs latest move conditions the offer upon a lower acceptance level of more than 50 per cent of the total number of shares…

Get the full scoop here.

In a suprise twist of events, 2 groups of shareholders representing 28% ownership of Digital Illusions (DICE) have declined the offer by Electronic Arts (EA) to buy Digital Illusions.

From the article at GameIndustry.biz:

…enough to prevent the acquisition from happening, according to Swedish financial news site di.se, which explains that 90 per cent of shares must vote in favour of the deal for it to be passed.

The shareholders who oppose the deal believe that the developers performance and future prospects are strong enough to make remaining independent into a more attractive option, in particular given the planned launch of Battlefield 2 on the PC and Battlefield: Modern Combat on current and next-gen consoles next year.