This week at retail: Sept. 1 - 5, 2009

This week at retail we’ll see a parade of tiny ninjas, hunters, super heroes, cruise ship personnel and rock gods. Highlights include Champions Online, Gears of War GotY Edition, Guitar Hero 5 for various platforms, and Section 8:

Week of September 1, 2009:

- Battlefield 1943 - PC (EA)

- Cabela’s Outdoor Adventure - Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2 (Activision)

- Champions Online - PC (Atari)

- Champions Online Official Strategy Guide - for PC game (Brady Games)

- Cruise Ship Vacation Games - Wii (Activision)

- Gears of War 2 Game Of The Year Edition - Xbox 360 (Microsoft)

- Guitar Hero 5 Guitar Kit - Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2 (Activision)

- Guitar Hero 5 Standalone - Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2 (Activision)

- IL 2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey - Xbox 360, PS3 (505 Games)

- Mini Ninjas - Wii, DS, Xbox 360, PS3, PC (Eidos)

- Muramasa: The Demon Blade - Wii (Ignition)

- Section 8 - Xbox 360, PS3, PC (SouthPeak)

- Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny - PSP (Namco Bandai Games)

Battlefield 1943 PC pushed to 2010

Are you a PC-only gamer who longs to fight in the South Pacific like you brethren on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network ala Battlefield 1943? Well, you’ll have to wait until 2010, says developer DICE. In a recent interview with G4’s The Feed, DICE Producer Gordon Van Dyke said that the game will take a lot longer for the PC because there’s a lot of work to be done to make things just right for PC gamers. The features still being tweaked include server support, an increase in the number players above and beyond 32 per session, Voice over Internet support, and plenty of other PC specific features.

And on a related note, some sad news for Xbox Live and PlayStation Network players looking for some new maps and other content for the game: nothing is currently in development, according to a report on Joystiq - also quoting DICE Producer Gordon Van Dyke. Apparently a lot of resources are being put into Bad Company 2. DICE is, however, working on the squad-swapping bug, which it hopes can be dealt with by a server side fix.

Halo 3, Battlefield 1943 tops on Xbox Live

Halo 3, Battlefield 1943, Halo 2 and RC-AirSim were the top games on Xbox Live according to the LIVE Activity report from Major Nelson for the week of July 20, 2009. Halo 3, Call of Duty 4 and Call of Duty: world at War continued to take the top three spots for games played online, followed by Gears of War 2 and (my current favorite) Battlefield 1943.

Battlefield 1943 was also the top Xbox Live Arcade game for the week, beating out the physics based Splosion Man, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, Castle Crashers (which just won’t go away), and Worms 2: Armageddon.

Sane sh*t, different day for Xbox Originals: Halo 2 was at the top of the heap, followed by Star Wars: Battlefront 2, Counter-Strike, Fable and Splinter Cell Chaos.

Finally, RC-AirSim made its way back to the top of the Community Games list, beating out Fireworks HD, myFishtank, Kodu Game Lab and Gamerbots:Third-Robot Shooting. The complete list can be found after the break:

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EA prepares for Comic-Con

Electronic Arts revealed the titles that it will showcase at San Diego Comic-Con International from July 23 - 26, 2009. Located at booth #5213 in the San Diego Convention Center, EA will showcase ARMY OF TWO: THE 40th DAY, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Battlefield 1943, Brutal Legend, Dante’s Inferno, Dead Space: Extraction, G.I. JOE The Rise of Cobra, Dragon Age: Origins, Left 4 Dead 2, The Saboteur and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Part of the booth will also contain a retail corner with unique EA merchandise for sale (details on that merchandise can be found at www.easpecials.com).

In addition to its booth, EA will host the ‘EA Gaming Lounge presented by Xbox 360′ at the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter Hotel (401 K Street, San Diego, California 92101) that will run from Thursday July 23 to Sunday July 26. The ‘Gaming Lounge will be open from 2pm - 9pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday 6/25; 12pm - 5pm on Sunday. Show-goers will be able to get hands-on play with Dragon Age: Origins, Battlefield 1943, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Left 4 Dead 2. On July 22nd, EA will also host a press-only preview showcase from 11am - 5pm.

Finally, several EA’s development teams will be participating in the panels as well:

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5 million kills in Battlefield 1943

Despite Battlefield 1943’s horrible connectivity problems during its first week at launch, the game has managed to overcome its problems and players got right to work on racking up the millions kills needed to unlock an additional map. Since launch, according to internal figures the game surpassed 5 million kills worldwide on its first day of availability.

According to DICE, almost “30 years of gameplay” had been completed by noon on Sunday July 12 - and that’s just four days on Xbox Live. It will be interesting to see what the kill numbers and time spent online will tally to by the end of this week. No doubt the game will probably top the Xbox Live usage chart when it is released later this week by Major Nelson.

One of the ways that Electronic Arts dealt with the early connectivity issues was by doubling server capacity for the game less than 24 hours after it went live. If i had not done this, players probably would have been more displeased than just slightly agitated with the connectivity issues. Some people continue to have connectivity issues, with server capacity still a major problem for those that have bought the game and want to play. This is what happens when you make a game that is online only. Hopefully EA will launch more servers for the game soon.

Battlefield 1943 on Xbox Live now, on PSN tomorrow

DICE has released Battlefield 1943 on Xbox LIVE Marketplace today, with its PlayStation Network launching tomorrow - both for a mere $15. Battlefield 1943 is essentially a redux of the popular team-based large-scale warfare game, Battlefield 1942 for home consoles and Windows. The game features all the wonderful combat on foot, in the air and on land of the original, but with streamlined play for Xbox Live and PSN, re-imagined classic maps and overall polish to make it appealing to a modern audience.

Battlefield 1943 also introduces two new modes that allow up to 24 players to compete across four classic WWII Battlefield maps: Wake Island, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Coral Sea. These maps are inspired by the selfsame maps from the Battlefield 1942 game, but have been redesigned and reengineered using the DICE Frostbite engine allowing for more destructive environments and explosive situations. The free trial version will feature Wake Island and give players the freedom to choose from the full arsenal of weapons and vehicles on both sides of the battle, either the US Marines or Imperial Japanese Navy.

Another battleground, the Coral Sea map, will be unlocked as part of a worldwide community challenge, where players will work together to reach 43 million kills on both Xbox LIVE and the PlayStation Network. The official countdown begins on July 10, 2009 at 19:43 GMT.

Download the trial now on Xbox Live and get started or wait for it tomorrow on PSN. More info can be found at www.battlefield1943.com.

Battlefield 1943 to be released next week

DICE and Electronic Arts will release Battlefield 1943 July 8th on Xbox LIVE Marketplace and July 9th on the PlayStation Network. Battlefield 1943 is an all-new download-only action game that brings DICE’s popular World War II-themed vehicular and class-based first-person shooter to gamers for $15, or 1200 MS Points.

Battlefield 1943 introduces two new modes that can be played across four classic Battlefield tropical WWII maps: Wake Island, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Coral Sea. These maps are inspired by Battlefield 1942, but have been redesigned and reengineered using the DICE destructible Frostbite engine which takes down walls, blockades and cover spots, leaving players with almost nowhere to hide.

The Coral Sea map which is included in the game will be unlocked as part of a worldwide community challenge, where players will work together to reach 43M kills on both Xbox LIVE and the PlayStation Network. To help gamers reach that goal, up to 24 players can play together online in at once. They will have the freedom to compete by land, air and sea as either the US Marines or the Imperial Japanese Navy.

For more information on Battlefield 1943 visit www.battlefield.com/1943.. The game will be available on the PC in September.