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Battlefront II Reducing Hero Prices, Keeping Loot Box Based Progression

A little over 24 hours after its community team scored the worst received comment in Reddit history, EA and DICE have responded to the criticism of the cash-grabbing practices in Star Wars: Battlefront II by announcing changes to the pricing of the unlockable hero characters in the game.

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Battlefield 1 Open Beta Impressions: Back to the Future

battlefield-1-bannerThe fifth entry in the main Battlefield franchise and the thirteenth full game with the Battlefield name is the World War I themed Battlefield 1. While the name is confusing, DICE is moving forward with the franchise by going back in time and using lessons from Battlefront and Battlefield 4 & Hardline to improve their latest effort.

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Battlefield Hardline Review: SWAT and Robbers

battlefield-hardline-headerBattlefield Hardline came out only 15 months ago and yet I was able to buy a copy from EA’s own Origin store for only $5 just a few weeks ago. It’s amazing that a spin-off of one of EA’s flagship franchise could be discounted to basically free in just over a year from its release. It’s as if EA admitted that they missed the mark with their take on cops & robbers. The question is if the deserves its apparent lack commercial support is because gamers are burnt out in Battlefield or if Battlefield just doesn’t make for a good law enforcement game.

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Star Wars: Battlefront Beta Impressions: Pray I Alter It Further

star-wars-battlefront-headerSo we have a new Star Wars trailer and many, many people have tickets to an early showing of The Force Awakens. Exactly a month before the earliest showings of Episode VII, the next chapter in the Star Wars video game franchise will hit shelves.

Both the announcement of J.J. Abrams as director of Episode VII and the appointment of Electronic Arts as the publisher of Star Wars games were met with excitement. While EA did cause a bit of trepidation, the appointment of DICE, BioWare and Visceral, three of EA’s top guns, to develop the games got gamers excited. First up for EA and LucasFilm is DICE with their take on Battlefront. The early results aren’t exactly awe-inspiring.

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E3 2015: EA Expected to Bring the Franchises in their Keynote

ea-e3-2015-announcementWhile we’re all still digesting what went down at the Microsoft press conference (at least I assume something went down and I don’t have to completely overhaul this preview), we quickly move on to Electronic Arts conference. As you would expect from EA, they’ll have a lot of sequels and franchises on display. Still, they could have a surprise or two up their sleeve.

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Battlefield Hardline Open Beta Impressions: Arrested Development

battlefield-hardline-bannerIt’s been about seven months since we last seen Battlefield Hardline. Back in June, EA tried to capitalize on the post-E3 hype of the BFH reveal by almost immediately launching an early beta of two game modes and one map for the upcoming game. At that point in time, the game was due for an October 2014 release.

In the time following that beta, EA, DICE and Visceral announced that the game would be pushed back five months to March 2015. As February began, EA took Hardline back to beta one more time in order to get a last big batch of feedback before it is launched in March. It looks like some lessons from the first beta were learned by Visceral has many more to take into account over the next month.

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Battlefield Hardline Beta Impressions: $60 of an Expansion Pack

battlefield-hardline-headerI know that it’s been a few weeks since the Battlefield Hardline beta has wrapped up but I think I’ve documented (either here or on The Lowdown) how busy I was during the month of June. Now that I’ve finally got a little bit of free time, I’m going to start pumping out reviews and other long-form pieces with a bit more frequency.

So let’s start with the beta for Battlefield Hardline. It was launched with great fanfare at the end of EA’s E3 keynote and was so popular that the Battlefield website crashed as people tried to get into the Beta. With all that hype, it would be hard for BF Hardline to live up to it. And, wouldn’t you know it, Hardline didn’t live up to the hype.

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E3 2014: EA Press Conference Trailer Roundup

As I’ve been doing this whole way along, it’s time to follow-up the press conference post with some of the videos shown at the press conference. And just like how EA front-loaded their media briefing with all the cool news and videos, all the cool trailers start this post off. So it’s DICE and BioWare upfront with all the bog standard EA crap following. Maybe they’ll pull a Microsoft and learn their lesson for 2015… Nah.

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E3 2014: You Can’t Teach an EA Dog New Tricks

ea-e3-2014-headerIn between Monday’s press conferences for Microsoft and Sony, the usual publishers got their work in. Electronic Arts, twice named the Worst Company in America, was the first to show off their new wares at E3. Actually, no, they didn’t show off much new. In fact, apart from some new trailers, I don’t think the word new should be used anywhere near this media briefing.

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Yet Another Battlefield 4 Bug is Discovered. Will This Game Ever be Fixed?

battlefailed-4-headerIn news that should surprise absolutely no one, another bug has been discovered in Battlefield 4. Whether this bug has existed since launch and never been documented with proof until now or was inadvertently created with another patch isn’t known.

What I can tell you is that you shouldn’t shoot in the vicinity of downed soldiers. The new “Death Shield” bug will make you pay by launching projectiles you fire toward a downed soldier back at you and killing you.

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