The Battlefield franchise has been around for a while and has a pretty big, loyal following. The games have continued to move forward with each release (I’m talking specifically about the PC games, not the console versions), although some may disagree that the last release, Battlefield: 2142. Well, whether or not you’re a fan of the previous Battlefield PC games, they are continuing the trend of change with their latest entry in the franchise.

Battlefield Heroes not only changes everything by introducing a completely new take, labeled “cartoon shooter”, but they’ve also changed the entire payment structure, offering a completely free-to-play model. If you prefer not to, you’ll never have to drop even a single penny to play this game. The game will instead make it’s money through advertisement. Not even in-game advertisement like you may think. They will be showing ads on the games loading screens, and while you download the game and run it off of your personal computer, you will be required to launch the actual game from their official website at battlefield-heroes.com. That way they ensure not only the loading screen ads, but also any ads on their site as well.

All in all the game has tremendous potential. The look, while many may compare it to the recent hit shooter, Team Fortress 2, is done for maximum accessibility and, according to the developers, just plain fun. The system requirements are also pretty minimal, especially considering most of the latest system hogs like Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3. Look for the game to go live sometime this summer.

Gallery and Trailer after the break. Boom!
More…

The ESRB has tipped Capcom’s hat with a sighting of Lost Planet: Colonies. The ESRB, or Entertainment Software Ratings Board, has revealed the upcoming Xbox 360, PS3, and PC game from Capcom via a rating posted on their site. There are no details on the game right now, other than an ESRB rating of T for Teen. No big surprise, considering the first Lost Planet: Extreme Condition had the same T rating. Thanks to Kotaku for the story tip.

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Via Euro Gamer we’ve got a release date for Vegas 2. March 21st. Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 will start shipping on March 21st this year. For some more info on the new features in the game you can read an article we wrote or pick up the newest issue of GamePro. Check out a video of the game here. Xbox 360 Fanboy also has some more info on the game.

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Fresh off the press from Major Nelson himself:

Blacksite Demo 2
Price: Free
Availability: Not available in India
Dash Text: [ESRB: T (Teen) BLOOD,LANGUAGE,VIOLENCE] Battle against a strange insurgency through the streets and backyards of a small American town crawling with alien life.
Size: 988.11 MB

MX vs. ATV Untamed Demo
Price: Free
Availability: Not available in Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore or Taiwan
Dash Text: [ESRB: E (Everyone) MILD VIOLENCE] The best selling offroad franchise returns! Own the offroad with the official gameplay demo for MX vs. ATV: Untamed!
Size: 911.78 MB

College Hoops 2K8 Demo
Price: Free
Availability: Canada and United States
Dash Text: [ESRB: E (Everyone)] College Hoops 2K8, the #1 selling and #1 rated college basketball videogame franchise, is back for its third season on the Xbox 360. This exclusive demo features Ohio State and UNC. Download now!
Size: 725.78 MB

Enjoy, and…

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That’s right everybody, Ubisoft has revealed they are working on a sequel to one of the best shooter’s of the past few years. Are you ready for this? The sequel is set in none other than Las Vegas Nevada.

“Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas had the effect of a bomb in the world of video gaming in 2006, by introducing in one fell swoop technological advance and innovation in terms gameplay,” said Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. “We are confident that Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 will also pioneer in the field of highly competitive shooters and delight fans of the Rainbow Six brand.”

And they have a release date so we might as well start counting down right? It’s set for March 2008. Since they don’t give a day of the month I’m just going to assume it’s the last day of March.

In other Ubisoft news, they’ve delayed their premiere PS3 shooter Haze. Pushing it back until early next year. As if Sony needed anymore bad news. And they’ve also announced a delay for Sam Fisher’s next mission, Splinter Cell: Conviction, maybe pushed back as far as fall next year.
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Medal of Honor Heroes 2 hasn’t really gotten much press. While it’s a sequal to a game most people never played, let alone never heard of, this game looks to help move the Wii a step closer to the “hardcore” gamers. The game may not look nearly as good as most similar games on the other two consoles, it does boast some of the best control options on the Wii.With the release of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption many Wii gamers have fallen in love with FPS controls on the Wii. MoHH2 looks to improve on the controls provided in Corruption by giving the player extensive customization for pretty much any control scheme you can dream up.

Okay, so the game is still set in WWII, not the “modern combat” setting many gamers are moving into now. I hate to have to preface things like this, but, for a Wii game it looks to really impress. The fact that they are one of the first developers to try real online multiplayer with the Wii. Let alone 32 players at a time.

And if that wasn’t enough, the game also supports the Wii Zapper, woopidy doo. But here’s a cool spot of fun, an Arcade mode, designed for the so-called casual gaming Wii crowd, you know the toddlers and grandparents that can’t handle the difficult controls of a First Person Shooter, but still want to shoot the crap out of Nazis. The Arcade mode is basically an on rails shooter version of the full game, which I’m actually really looking forward to.

Oh yeah, and it’s coming to PSP also, minus the Arcade mode, I think. Don’t quote me on that.

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Looks like the PC gaming community has been starved for a good FPS. Keep in mind this is just the demo, I mean wow. Here’s a link to get the frosty ice level, Frozen Island made by a modder by the name of Renji.

In related Crysis playing news, and general new PC game playing stuff, Firing Squad has posted tells you how to get the most out of a $500 PC upgrade.

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Here’s a screenshot I took of the Crysis demo. The demo size is pretty large at almost 2 gigs. The computer I played it on just barely meets the minimum system requirements, but I have to day it actually still looked good. If you have a descent gaming machine you must download this single player demo. Not only is this game a showpiece of what games can look like, but it actually plays really well. The guys at Crytek have done it again. They sure do love them some tropical islands. Can’t wait for the full game.

Link: Download Crysis Free from FileFront

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Another delay for another big title.  Looks like Army of 2 will not be coming out until early next year. This marks yet another push back for a industry that makes it seem like your doing something wrong if you don’t delay your release at least once. With pretty much all of Sony’s big exclusives being pushed back as well as Nintendo’s we have to wonder why this keeps happening. Is it that the developers are just not given enough time to finish? Do they simply just jump the gun in stating their release dates? Maybe it a good thing maybe it means that they are going the extra mile to make sure these games don’t suck. Of course what do they say if and when it does come out and it still sucks? Army of 2 has created quite a bit of buzz around here at Counter Agent with its made for co-op game-play and we were eager to get our hands on it. If the delay just makes it better then delay away EA. Maybe EA just wanted to push it back because there is going to be a gluttony of games coming out around the same time as their first release date. We’ll just have to wait and see, fortunately we have and will be getting plenty of games in the coming weeks to keep us busy.

Developers of COD4, Infinity Ward, have leaked a couple of new features for the multi-player mode.  First the highest level you can get to in your performance level ups will be 65.  That should keep some of you busy for at least 2 weeks right.  We really like this level up system just from the beta testing.  It was roughly a week to week and a half that we reached the max level up for the beta which was 16.  So it should take a little to reach 65.  Also they talked about prestige mode.  This is for people who reach level 65 max out the level up. Any in prestige mode will first get a “really cool icon so everyone knows your in prestige mode”.  But you will lose all your extras gained and you will start over from scratch.  This could help you to continuously play the multi- player for a long time.  Whether or not this will make it better we’ll see but we can’t wait for this game to drop.