Hasta La Gadget!

Depending on who you ask, Battlefield 3 is the game to beat when it comes to military shooters. There’s just one tiny problem: while Activision and Treyarch have really stepped it up with their Modern Warfare 3 DLC offerings, EA and DICE have been falling behind with Battlefield 3‘s. Sure, we’ve got Back to Karkand and Close Quarters, but those didn’t really add anything that plays to the grand scale we know Battlefield is capable of. Enter Armored Kill, which takes the battle from cramped indoor locations and moves it to sprawling outdoor arenas that are perfect for some vehicular combat.

Battlefield 3‘s multiplayer is impressive on its own, but with Armored Kill, it’s all about the vehicles. Battlefield 3: Armored Kill tosses a selection of new vehicles into the mix, including two new tanks, an ATV, and the massive AC130 gunship. Also included on the list of additions are 4 new maps, one of which is being called the biggest Battlefield map ever. If that doesn’t get you excited as a Battlefield veteran, then we’re not sure what will. Some of these new vehicles and maps are showcased in Armored Kill‘s new gameplay trailer, which you can check out below.

Battlefield 3: Armored Kill is scheduled to hit PS3, Xbox 360, and PC sometime in September. If you shelled out $50 to become a Battlefield Premium member, you’ll not only be getting the DLC for free, but you’ll also be gaining access to it two weeks before everyone else. Like Back to Karkand and Close Quarters before it, Armored Kill will cost $15 for everyone who isn’t a Premium member. EA and DICE haven’t shared specific dates for Armored Kill yet, so keep it tuned to SlashGear for that information once it’s made available.

Battlefield 3: Armored Kill gets new gameplay trailer is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Electronic Arts has just released new gameplay footage from Battlefield 3 Armored Kill, an expansion pack for Battlefield 3 which brings new vehicles, gameplay, in-game content and operational theaters. Because the emphasis is on armored vehicle warfare, 5 new vehicles have been added : new tanks, mobile artillery, etc… From the trailer, it looks like players can fight back using air power with the heavily armed Spectre Gunship.

The size of the maps is really impressive, and it makes sense that they are so huge: unlike the classic FPS where players face each other with guns, every vehicles drive or flies relatively fast. On the other hand, a lot of the landscape is computer generated, so the amount of work for the design team is not proportional to the size of the map. This is yet another impressive gameplay powered by the Frostbyte 2 engine.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Battlefield 3 sold 5 million copies in first week, Modded Battlefield 3 Beta servers might end up banned,

We’ve got some bad news coming out of BioWare Austin today, with Gamasutra confirming that Star Wars: The Old Republic executive producer Rich Vogel has resigned from the company. That’s not all though, as additional reports are claiming that the studio suffered more layoffs earlier today. It’s unclear at the moment how many people lost their jobs in this latest round of cutbacks for the Star Wars: The Old Republic team.

It’s likely that these layoffs are a part of Electronic Arts‘ restructuring plan, which was announced back in May. At the time, no one wanted to talk about how many people would be laid off as part of the plan, with BioWare and EA simply telling us that the layoffs would be necessary for the game to continue to grow. Vogel had apparently already left the company by the time today’s layoffs took place.

Vogel served as one of The Old Republic‘s main men throughout the game’s development and after its release in December, and had worked at BioWare Austin for seven years. The circumstances surrounding Vogel’s departure were not revealed to Gamasutra.

Star Wars: The Old Republic launched in December 2011 with an incredible amount of hype behind it. Gamers quickly flocked to the game, but that success was short-lived, with a number of those same players leaving the game behind not long after launch. BioWare and EA have rolled out a number of initiatives to entice old and potential players alike, including the decision to make the game free-to-play for the first 15 levels. Last month, BioWare said that it was considering taking the entire game free-to-play, but such a switch has yet to actually occur. With the announcement of these latest layoffs, however, the change to free-to-play may not be that far off.

SWTOR executive producer resigns, layoffs at BioWare Austin reported is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Like pretty much every big game released these days, Need For Speed: Most Wanted is offering bonuses for early adopters, and it’s offering a lot of them. First and foremost, just pre-ordering the game gets you upgraded to the limited edition, which grants players early access to the Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale and the Porsche 911 Carrera S in the game’s multiplayer mode. It also rewards players with double speed points during their first four hours of Most Wanted‘s multiplayer.

Those “limited edition” bonuses are a little on the slim side, but what else can you expect when you’re not paying anything extra? Alas, pre-ordering the game is the only way to get your hands on the limited edition, so don’t walk into GameStop the day after release with the hope of picking up a spare limited edition of Need For Speed: Most Wanted.

Now onto pre-order bonuses, which come in three varieties: the Speed Pack, Strike Pack, and Power Pack. The Speed Pack adds the Caterham Superlight R500 to the game, along with a track tires mod for better handling while you’re outrunning the cops, and a lightweight chassis mod that gives you the speed you’ll need to get away from them in the first place. The Strike Pack features a Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG Black Series along with a powertrain modification and a re-inflating tires mod, which will respectively provide a boost to torque and make countering easier. Last but not least, the Power Pack places a Ford F-150 SVT Raptor in the game, complete with a reinforced chassis modification for soaking up hits and a nitrous dump mod for making those larger-than-normal jumps or laying waste to those in your way with some devastating hits.

Electronic Arts says that these pre-order bonuses are available now through Origin and “select retailers,” but didn’t actually tell us which retailers those are. The usual suspects likely pop up in there – GameStop, Best Buy, Amazon, so forth – so just think of this as something of a surprise. Need for Speed: Most Wanted is out on October 30, 2012 in the US and November 2, 2012 in Europe.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted pre-order bonuses announced is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Are you in the mood for a whopper of a rumor? Let’s hope, because we’ve got one here for you: anonymous sources tell Game Front that Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello is about to be let go, and that current EA Sports boss Peter Moore will step in to take his place. It goes without saying that you should probably take this with a grain of salt (or five), but if this is true, it could mean huge things for Electronic Arts, which has been experiencing some stock price woes recently.

According to Game Front’s sources, Riccitiello was asked to step down from his position at Electronic Arts after the earnings call that took place on June 30. Apparently, the departure of Riccitiello and subsequent promotion of Moore is “not set in stone” yet, as EA’s board of directors still needs to vote on the change. However, tensions are rising at the Electronic Arts offices as the company’s stock price continues to fall.

John Riccitiello has overseen EA since his return to the company in 2007. It was under him that EA-published games began requiring online passes, and he was in charge when the EA Store was relaunched as Origin last year. Riccitiello is no stranger to controversy, as Electronic Arts was named The Consumerist’s Worst Company in America earlier this year.

The rumor comes just a day after Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter stated that Riccitiello had expressed concerns over being fired from the company. Pachter later followed-up by saying that though he was quoted accurately, he was merely kidding around. Perhaps he wasn’t so far off the mark after all?

[via Game Front]

Peter Moore to replace John Riccitiello as EA CEO? is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.