Through the Looking Glass: March 2010

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

UDK GDC 2010 Development Trailer

DICE's jibes at Infinity Ward

While Infinity Wars appears to have some premium downloadable maps coming on March 30 for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, DICE, too, is at work on new maps for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 that are set for release on the same day.

DICE has made it no secret that they're out to best MW2, and they've taken shots at Infinity Ward in the past -- after it was revealed that MW2 wouldn't have dedicated servers, DICE released an FAQ that stated, "So rest assured PC players, Battlefield will stay true to its roots offering dedicated servers to all its players and continue the tradition of the ultimate FPS gaming experience!"

With the announcement about the new maps at the end of the month, DICE has once again knocked the competition. In addition to pointing out that releasing the new maps for free helps to prevent segmenting the community, DICE said, "It also plays a vital part in making sure you, the players get proper value for the money you've invested in Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

This is why these map packs are available at no extra cost, contradicting the industry standard and what our direct competitors are doing." If that's not blatant enough for you, they went on to add, "We're dedicated to taking care of this product for a long time -- helping you avoid 'mapathy' without getting nickel-and-dimed."

Funny competition between those two, although I suspect much of Infinity Wards 'bad decisions' were made by Activision rather than themselves.

DICE Takes a Shot at "Mapathy," Free BFBC2 Maps Coming Soon

Demon's Souls sell 0.69m copies, sequel rumors?

According to VGChartz, Demon's Souls has sold 0.69m copies. That's pretty impressive considering the initial shipments of 15,000 copies, and there's still no European publisher for the game.

It's interesting how a project with such small sales forecast could turn out to be the best game I've ever played. But the reason why I'm making this post is actually something else.