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

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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