Within the walls of EA DICE

So I thought it was about time to post a little update about what's known to be going around within the walls of EA DICE. For starters, they're working on Battlefield: Bad Company for PS3, 360, PSP and PC. It's supposed to show that they're able to make single player games aswell, and it looks very intresting due to the power of the Frostbite engine, featuring destructible environments.

Next up we have the just recently announced Mirror's Edge that's going to be a console exclusive (PS3 and 360) shooter, that they hope will shake up the genre a bit. Soo far little is known about this other than the quotes below (from ComputerAndVideoGames.com):

"The only image we've seen from the game shows a young Asian female dressed like some kind of futuristic punk. And she's crouching holding a pistol down between her legs.

Weird, circuit-board-looking tattoos run down the outside of her right arm from the shoulder, and black bobbed hair frames a face that's covered in white foundation. Surrounding her right eye is crazy black make-up shaped in a star.

It reminds us of the movie Nikita in a way, and gives the impression of a futuristic setting."

This strongly suggest a cyberpunk theme, and that she's crouching in the image, holding nothing but a small firearm, suggest that it will feature stealth of some sort. The circuit-board-looking tattoos brings the thoughts to hacking or technology focus such as nano technology.

Of course, being a strong fan of cyberpunk, stealth, hacking and technology might influence my deductions ;)

Other than this, EA DICE seems to be willing to develop new IPs (other than Battlefield), and Mirror's Edge points at that aswell. They also got a third unnamed console project in the works, that would suprise me if it turned out to be another game based on the Battlefield franchise, especially since their strength lies on the PC platform rather than on consoles.

I don't know if there's anymore I may talk about, but the guys over at DICE seems well fed and what I've heard about their office, it seems to be equiped with most things, even a gym.

Although being such a big company means that there won't be the same feeling as being a group of friends, and to maintain the number of employees it needs proper structure and organization, which might go out over the creative freedom of some people.

But don't take my second hand guessing too seriously. EA acquisition of DICE seems to only have had a positive effect on the company, and its said the workers don't feel like EA is constantly peeking over their shoulders, but instead have proper trust in their work. But they still need to go through all reviewing by EA, as they would have with any other publisher.

Oh, and in the next issue of Edge, they'll be more information about Mirror's Edge.

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