As for Dragon Age, EA is talking about bringing multiplayer to the mix. It is unclear whether or not this will be part of Dragon Age 3 or if it will be a downloadable game. What we do know is that it will run on DICE’s Frostbite 2 engine and will feature arena-type battles with PvE and PvP combat. Oh, you can fight dragons also, which is probably the biggest headache in the series. Maybe they should focus on creating a better single-player experience before they try to tackle multiplayer. What are your thought on this?

Source: Kotaku 1, 2

In the epic struggle for shooty-man dominance, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has banned over 1600 cheaters. This taking place in the wake of Battlefield 3 banning “hundreds” of players last week. Both Infinity Ward and DICE have proclaimed a zero tolerance policy for cheating, but Modern Warfare 3 takes the cake again on this one. And if there’s any correlation at all between the number of cheaters playing, and the number of copies sold, then we are in for a world of ‘invincible under the map dude’ induced pain.

Source: PCR-Online

Intro: Battle Ready – Otep

Outro: Beautiful Loser – Bob Seger

Spoiler Section: 03:00 – 11:21

So apparently cheating is frowned upon by those fascist hounds at EA. This morning, the official Battlefield 3 twitter account announced that they are banning and stats-wiping “hundreds” of those a who decided to roll the ..DICE and cheat. The controversial glitches allow players to become invincible and rack up tens of thousands of points in a single round.

EA has also announced that they are still on the hunt and have a “zero tolerance policy for cheating.” I’m sure you’ve all seen Dog the Bounty Hunter, so I think I’ll leave it by reminding you; you have been warned.

In addition to these leaked files, a private beta of the game accidentally made itself available to people participating in the Dashboard preview program. There was also a 13 minute video to go along with it that contain some things that could be consider spoilers, even though it’s information that you would pretty much already know if you’ve been following the game closely. That video did make its way to the internet (as most things do), but it has since been taken down by the original uploader. It may still exist out there in some form, so if you do run across it, consider this to be a warning. Also, keep in mind that it’s not the final build, so the end product should be much better.

Source: Joystiq

Keeping with the latest trend in the industry, EA has given the latest entry in the Mass Effect series the online pass treatment. Each new copy of the game will come with a redeemable code which unlocks the previously mentioned co-op multiplayer experience. Used game purchasers will have to spend $9.99 to join in on the multiplayer mayhem.

Based on the description it will be an optional mission based experience that is not required for single-player, but has a direct impact on the campaign events. Shepard and friends remain exclusive to single-player with co-op offering a variety of classes and races to play as. More details as well as an FAQ can be found here.

What do you think? Will this be another tacked on effort to try and thwart used game sales or a legitimate reason to purchase brand new?

Source: Bioware

Similar tweets from both Casey Hudson and the official BioWare account have revealed that Mass Effect 3 will support co-op multiplayer. I’m sure we’ll get more details soon, but these tweets are likely just rumor control due to Australian gaming magazine PC Powerplay (pictured above) spilling the galactic beans on ME3‘s multiplayer earlier than BioWare wanted.

We don’t really know much more than that this game mode exists at this point, so you’ll have to use the old imagination machine to think about all of the possibilities.I know a lot of people are excited about co-op as it will help speed up the flow of combat as there is one less character to direct. I know I would have loved to have another human involved in combat instead of relying on AI and wheel menus. I do wonder, though, about how this will work with Kinect integration, if at all. Would talking to your partner over XBL confuse the Kinect, or has squad member name integration limited the chances of that happening?

Gaming news savants are tying this development to the game’s delayed release date of March 6th, 2012. Is multiplayer worth the wait or do you feel this is completely unnecessary?

picture courtesy of gnews

• Fixed occasional client crash when reviving.
• Fixed killcam showing glitched area under map if your killer is dead.
• Issue with spawning on dead squad mates fixed.
• Fixed a bug where shooting at a moving enemy could cause more than the intended amount of damage.
• Crosshairs for shotguns have been replaced with a new, thinner, art.
• A subtle low health screen effect has been added.
• Tweaked scores of Medals and Service Stars.
• Tweaked the Rank progression.
• Pushing prone on console will not play the animation twice.
• Fixed loss of Squad Leader after EOR at some times.
• Framerate stability fixes.
• The 3D spotting icons has been tweaked to better match the target’s visibility. Icons will show frequently less on mostly obscured targets.
• Fixed issue with crosshair disappearing after round transition.
• Fixed issue with crosshair disappearing after trying to deploy while the countdown timer still active.
• Squad list now shows specializations chosen, VOIP activity and dead squad mates.
• Non working options in squad menu fixed: “Private” flag and “Switch Teams”.

Now, these are by no means the only problems they have addressed, and it won’t be the last of them. You can keep checking back at the battlelog to see all the other tweaks that they have made and will make.

Hopefully they can take care of almost all the issues before the game’s release on October 25th. If not, well I guess that’s what patches are for. Have fun with those!

Source: Battlefield 3 website

Syndicate, from 1993, was a popular real-time tactic game for the PC. Syndicate that has a scheduled release for 2/21/12 is not that at all. The new trailer for the Starbreeze Studios developed game has shown us that it has swapped out a third-person isometric view for a first-person perspective, and replaced the slow tactical feel for something that looks similar to a Michael Bay movie. There are a lot of guns, explosions, and tackling, and it looks incredibly awesome. Well, that’s my opinion at least. Watch the trailer for yourself, and tell us what you think.

Source: Joystiq

Madden 12 sold a lot of copies. As in 1.4 million copies. While this may seem like a given, it’s a big bounce back for EA after past lackluster first week sales for Madden 10 and 11. The 10% boost may have come from the new franchise mode additions, yes. I  just cant help but think that those pesky Steelers fans are buying as many copies of the games as they can in order to trigger the fabled  “Madden curse” in an effort to stop cover athlete Peyton Hillis from running all over them.

Another interesting tidbit announced among all this was that over 4 million gameplay minutes were logged during the early access period that was made available through the new Season Pass. That’s certainly an excellent way to..kick off.. their new subscription service.

Source: USA Today