Battlefield Heroes - Heroes of the Fall update released

Recently DICE released the Heroes of the Fall update to Battlefield Heroes, adding a bunch of fixes, tweaks and even some new content. The new content includes a new map called Riverside Rush, new items and new bundles. Changes and tweaks include the ability to get a title at level 10, an end of round screen with more information, and tweaks to the keg, hero shield, frenzy and other skills work.

A full accounting of all the new stuff and the fixes (there are a lot of them) after the break:

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Battlefield Heroes - two million strong and growing

Battlefield Heroes, EA and DICE’s “Play4Free” third-person shooter has managed to attract two million registered players. Battlefield Heroes is EA’s latest web-based free to download and play title which generates revenue through advertising and in-game item sales. To celebrate this milestone, on September 30, EA will release a free Heroes of the Fall update for the game, including a brand new map.

Starting today, EA is accepting names from fans for the new map at www.battlefieldheroes.com. Players can submit a proposed name for the soon-to-be released map, which could be selected by the Battlefield Heroes development team.

If you haven’t experienced Battlefield Heroes first-hand, I encourage you to, because it’s a pretty fun little game. Battlefield Heroes is rated “T” by the ESRB and “16+” by PEGI.

1 Million Battlefield Heroes players

Electronic Arts announced that Battlefield Heroes has already recruited one million players to sign up for the game since its launch. Developed by wholly-owned studios DICE, Battlefield Heroes is a free to play third-person shooter based on the popular Battlefield series of action games.

The web-based game features gameplay that satisfies both hardcore and casual players by offering easy to understand controls and a matchmaking service that puts players against other players of similar skills. Players can now quickly download and easily launch the game from www.battlefieldheroes.com..

Like id Software’s free to play Quake Live game, Battlefield Heroes goes out of its way to cater to and match up players so that playing is simple, fair and fun. Unlike Quake Live, Battlefield Heroes features a class-based system so players can create and use a hero that best suits their style. Character customization items are available for Valor Points (points earned by playing the game) or with Battlefunds (a fictional currency bought with a credit card or PayPal) so players can update or change their hero’s style at any time.

Battlefield Heroes is rated “T” by the ESRB and “16+” by PEGI and is playable now from the web site listed above.

Battlefield 3, Criterion-developed NFS revealed

During his presentation at the William Blair Growth Stock Conference, Electronic Arts COO John Pleasants revealed that new games in the Need For Speed and Battlefield series are in the works. Pleasants said that Criterion Games is working on a Need For speed game. Criterion is better known for the Burnout series of games and has spent a good portion of its time over the last couple of years working on a continuous stream of downloadable content for Burnout Paradise. No further details on the new Need For Speed title were revealed.

“We’ve taken the Burnout team and combined it with our Need For Speed franchise,” he said. “So we now have that in our favor because that Burnout team is probably one of the more online-centric and notably high-quality game developers that we have out at Criterion.”

Pleasants also revealed that Sweden-based developer DICE is working hard on the third installment of the Battlefield series. Battlefield 3 has been in development alongside other Battlefield games like Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Battlefield Heroes and Battlefield 1943.

“I’ve had the luxury of looking at Battlefield 3 over at DICE in Sweden and was highly impressed by the way the team is working on that product,” he said. “Of course, that’s not [coming out] in the fiscal year, but that is a product that is looking very good.”

Source: G4TV.com and G4TV.com.

The Rundown: Jan. 23, 2009

So long New York! Today’s Rundown was written mostly on a train headed for upstate New York. The lady next to me got train sick and proceeded to cup her mouth for most of the trip. Not exatly the best way to end what was overall a wonderful trip to the Crispy offices, but hey we roll with the punches. On to the news after the break.

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Battlefield: Heroes Pushed to 2009

Battlefield Heroes, EA’s free-to-play online action game, has been pushed to 2009, according to the game’s senior producer, James Salt. In a post on the official site for the game, Salt explains what the team is working on and where the beta is headed.

The short answer on that is that it will soon be shutting down. Salt goes on to say that the development team has enough feedback from closed beta players to move onto the next phase of development. The game will launch a new closed beta in early 2009. Salt’s full statement to the community follows, after the break:

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EA’s Player Tracking Technology

Electronic Arts quietly announced a new initiative this week to identify and track players across multiple platforms. The initiative has been codenamed “nucleus,” and what it does, in layman’s terms, is store a gamer’s profile (likes, dislikes, friends and achievements). this information, your game identity, follows the user across games and platforms creating a reputation system, kind of like a gamer’s passport.

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