While we may not yet have been graced with any screenshots, new details have emerged concerning EAs upcoming free-to-play game, Battlefield Heroes. At launched the World War Two based game will feature two sides, the Royal Army and the National Army with two to three maps available from the off. EA plans to bring the map numbers up after the game goes live.

We already know that players can chose a character than can level up, it has been revealed that they will gain new OTT abilities as they progress in the ranks. Inflammable ammo and the chance to throw back several grenades at your enemy are among the abilities.

The basics of the Battlefield Conquest game mode seem to be retained with capture points and tickets, though now the game will chose your insertion point. There will also be vehicles, but judging from the game style these will be wildly wrong-sized compared to the players to add to the good natured fun of the game.

[CVG]

Videogamer.com is reporting that a new EU Commission policy is being aimed at Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo concerning high console prices in the UK.

A senior Commission official told the Daily Mail newspaper: “We are screening the markets, taking into account levels of complaints about prices, pricing patterns across Europe and customer satisfaction. We are looking for the kind of retail patterns which raise questions.

“Just exposing the real price of certain goods in different parts of the EU can have the desired effect if undue markups are being placed on items.”

It is reported that if these companies are found guilty of price fixing, they could face fines of 10% of their annual turnover.

More information here.

I am beginning to wonder whether there are some issues with Steam at the moment. I have noticed several thread popping up with people claiming to be experiencing very slow download speed and having downloads stop on them for no obvious reason. Example 1 Example 2 and Example 3. I too am receiving many of the issues that people are complaining about and despite some people in the threads listed trying the age old ‘ClientRegistry.blog’ deleting trick they are still getting the problems.

Valve seem to know that something is up judging by this post.

The fact that downloads sometimes stop/pause is a bug. We are working on identifying the cause and hope to fix it soon.

I will try and keep my eyes on this issue, I hope it gets resolved soon, I am sure Valve will sort this out, time will tell though.

The following article originally featured on hallife2.net in December 2007. It is reproduced here in its original state.

Steam is changing the gaming world. That is what I think, and I think it is doing it for the better. Since it first came into being with the release of Counter Strike 1.4 it has gone through legal proceedings, long periods of downtime and major facelifts. But that is history, I want to talk about how Steam is going to, and is changing the gaming world.

Currently Steam is host to over 13 million accounts (of which I contribute two) and distributes 219 games (as of 3/12/07) numbers which are constantly increasing. As such Steam offers developers a chance to distribute and promote their products to over 13 million users. It is a platform offering developers a great chance to analyze the statistics of users playing their games and the hardware they are currently using. Steam is also an unparalleled online distribution method and is most likely contributing a massive amount to PC game sales.

Read the rest of this entry

The Dallas Morning News columnist Kay Hymowitz has launched a scathing attack on modern 20 something males calling on them to drop the game pad and grow up.

Now meet the 21st-century you, also 26. You’ve finished college and work in a cubicle in a large Chicago financial-services firm. You live in an apartment with a few single guy friends. In your spare time, you play basketball with your buddies, download the latest indie songs from iTunes, have some fun with the Xbox 360, take a leisurely shower, massage some product into your hair and face – and then it’s off to bars and parties, where you meet, and often bed, girls of widely varied hues and sizes. Wife? Kids? House? Are you kidding?

Single young males, or SYMs, by contrast, often seem to hang out in a playground of drinking, hooking up, playing Halo 3 and, in many cases, underachieving. With them, adulthood looks as though it’s receding.

Ignoring the fact that since the 1960s (the era on which she compares current men) many social changes have occurred and the men getting married and having kids later is not just a result of video games and iTunes. Society has changed and she seems to be finding whatever she can to blame the change on. This is yet another example of people not wanting to grow up with the times and blaming anything ‘new’ as being the reason for the change in society. They my friends are the people who need to grow up.

(Thanks to CVG for the info)

A veritable feast of new videos today with two new videos for the upcoming Dawn of War expansion and new gameplay footage for Tiberium.

The videos below show off the ‘Pentinent Engine’ and the new Confessor unit in the Dawn of War expansion pack Soulstorm.

There is also a new extended gameplay montage of the C&C based FPS Tiberium which can be viewed here.

EA have revealed (via my links with the C&C Community manager via my work on cncnation.net) that they are looking for game engineers for their upcoming C&C set FPS, Tiberium.

Read the statement below.

Following recent moves by the Entertainment Software Association to gain political support (link) the Parent Television Council have slammed the ESA for setting up a Political Action Committee. This is part of the PTC statement

“The video game industry continues to fight meaningful accountability for selling inappropriate material to children. The industry has been exposed repeatedly for its reprehensible behavior and now they are looking for ways to buy friends in the government,” said PTC President Tim Winter.

“Let me be clear of our intentions: Any public servant who cashes a check from the video game industry will be exposed by the PTC as taking a stand against families, and his or her actions will be communicated to constituents in his or her congressional district.

They claim that the ESA and the games industry are seeking political support to cover and protect themselves from recent events and to counter efforts being made to further restrict the games industry.

It is sad to see the PTC come up with these claims, and I hope that they lose credibility for making such claims. Read their full statement here.

Thanks to Shacknews.

I haven’t had time to cover this for a few days but there has been a whole heap of new stuff that has come to light regarding the Fox News and Mass Effect debacle. We have had G4TV talk on the issue, Cooper Lawrence retract her statement and now we have the Entertainment Consumer Association weighing in on the issue.

Hal Halpin, president of the ECA has called for Fox News to apologize for the false reporting carried out regarding Mass Effect. Hal has written to the producer of the controversial Fox piece.

Your show’s reporting was irresponsible and incorrect. Your own “expert” Cooper Lawrence has subsequently disclaimed her misstatements… In the future, we ask that you book real gamer and industry experts on your show…

GamesPolitics.

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It has come to my attention that the ever brilliant Christian Cage (TNA wrestler) is now also a game writer! The ‘Instant Classic’ is writing on GameTap in a new blog where he aims to review a game every month.

It ain’t too shabby really, I may not watch wrestling but I do follow it (on 411 Mania, cheap plugs for the win!) and I know that Christian Cage is currently near the top of his game in TNA. I probably won’t keep my eyes on his column, but it is interesting to know that he is doing this.