World of Warcraft has been perched high atop the massively-multiplayer throne for seven years now, but is about to get its first serious dose of competition when the Electronic Arts-published Star Wars: The Old Republic launches. While it’s not really a shock to learn that some folks have already indicated that they’ll be leaving Azeroth for a galaxy far, far away, a new survey indicates that WoW could shed anywhere between 900,000 and 1.6M players when the lightsabers start swinging.

According to Develop, a survey of nearly 400 online WoW customers indicated about 50% of them planned to purchase The Old Republic. In light of those results, Lazard Capital Markets downgraded Activision Blizzard’s stock from ‘buy’ to ‘neutral.’

However, it’s worth noting that the very same survey indicated that 33% of WoW players said they’d re-subscribe to the game upon the release of the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion. People love pandas.

The stock rating downgrade also follows the news that Wow’s subscriber base is down about 800,000 users in recent months, as well as news that majority shareholder Vivendi “shed thirty million of its shares in Activision Blizzard, reducing its stake to 60 per cent,” last week.

All this aside, World of WarCraft still has more than 10 million current subscribers.

Source: Shack News 

Sledgehammer Games’ Glen Schofield has taken to Twitter to ask Call of Duty fans to support Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3on Metacritic.

“I don’t usually do this but, if u like MW3 go 2 Metacritic.com & help our user score,” writes Schofield. “It’s suspiciously low. Be honest but help if u agree.”

Modern Warfare 3 is attracting a torrent of user scores of zero across all three platforms. The current user score (out of 10) is:

2.7 on Xbox 360
2.0 on PS3 and
1.5 on PC.

Ouch.

Blizzard’s World of Warcraft MMO has shed 1.1 million subscribers in the past six months, the developer has announced. As revealed in an investor call earlier today and reported by Massively, player numbers have fallen 10 per cent to 10.3 million compared to 11.4 million in May this year. CEO Mike Morhaime explained that most of that decline was seen in the East.

It’s been a year since the last major expansion, 2010′s Cataclysm, helped boost numbers. The next add-on, Mists of Pandaria, is yet to be dated.

It was good news on a company-wide level, though. Activision Blizzard saw profits for the quarter nearly triple from $51 million this time last year to $148 million.

Source: Eurogamer 

Today, Ubisoft confirmed what many probably already knew. Another Assassin’s Creed title is planned for 2012. Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemot, reassured shareholders there would be plenty of Desmond in our lives.

“There will be another great full-fledged Assassin’s Creed title next year,” Guillemot said. “It will be another major release and we will be communicating more about it in the coming months.”

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations will conclude Ezio and Altair’s story line. Assassin’s Creed 3, which I assume this next title will be, will focus on Desmond and his struggle to defeat the Templars in a modern day setting.

Revelations will be released on November 15th. Ready for more assassination goodness?

Coming straight from Gamespot, we have here a new trailer for Assassins Creed: Revelations set for release this month. The new trailer depicts Ezio and his fellow Assassins defending their base and fighting off the oncoming Templar Knights.

Assassins Creed: Revelations releases on November 15th, 2011 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

We found a new TV spot that is in the form of a live action trailer.

The Elder Scrolls: V Skyrim is set to release worldwide on November 11, 2011 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

Ubisoft has announced that Rocksmith is now available in retail stores across North America with the Standard Edition and the Guitar bundle will be available for purchase. The standard edition will run you at $79.99 and for the first time on consoles include a Rocksmith Real Tone Cable™, a unique 1/4” to USB cable that is the first of its kind, developed exclusively for Rocksmith.  This revolutionary cable turns the guitar’s signal from analog to digital, allowing it to be recognized and played through video game consoles for the first time.

The Epiphone Les Paul Jr. Guitar Bundle will provide a quality entry-level option for people that have always wanted to play but don’t own a guitar. The bundle, available for $199.99, includes an Epiphone Les Paul Jr guitar, along with the Rocksmith Real Tone Cable.  Rocksmith is rated “T” for Teen.

Check out the final check list of songs you’ll be able to play with.

•              Best Coast – When I’m With You
•              Blur – Song 2
•              Cream – Sunshine of Your Love
•              Dan Auerbach – I Want Some More
•              David Bowie – Rebel Rebel
•              Eric Clapton – Run Back To Your Side
•              Franz Ferdinand – Take Me Out
•              Incubus – I Miss You
•              Interpol – Slow Hands
•              Jarvis Cocker – Angela
•              Jenny O. – Well OK Honey
•              Kings Of Leon – Use Somebody
•              Lenny Kravitz – Are You Gonna Go My Way
•              Little Barrie – Surf Hell
•              Lynyrd Skynyrd – Sweet Home Alabama
•              Muse – Unnatural Selection
•              Muse – Plug In Baby
•              Nirvana – Breed
•              Nirvana – In Bloom
•              Pixies – Where Is My Mind?
•              Queens Of The Stone Age – Go With The Flow
•              Radiohead – High And Dry
•              Rapscallions – California Brain
•              Red Fang – Number Thirteen
•              Sigur Ros – Gobbledigook
•              Silversun Pickups – Panic Switch
•              Soundgarden – Outshined
•              Spoon – Me And The Bean
•              Stone Temple Pilots – Vasoline
•              Stone Temple Pilots – Between The Lines
•              Taddy Porter – Mean Bitch
•              The Animals – House Of The Rising Sun
•              The Black Keys – Next Girl
•              The Black Keys – I Got Mine
•              The Boxer Rebellion – Step Out Of The Car
•              The Cribs – We Share The Same Skies
•              The Cure – Boys Don’t Cry
•              The Dead Weather – I Can’t Hear You
•              The Horrors – Do You Remember
•              The Rolling Stones – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
•              The Rolling Stones – Play With Fire
•              The Rolling Stones – The Spider and The Fly
•              The Strokes – Under Cover Of Darkness
•              The White Stripes – Icky Thump
•              The XX – Islands
•              Titus Andronicus – A More Perfect Union
•              Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – Good Enough
•              Velvet Revolver – Slither
•              White Denim – Burnished
•              Yellow Moon Band – Chimney

Rocksmith is available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

The Football Manager series has dominated the market. It has become the only real football management sim left (occasionally there is a new one or two from SI Games’ competitors, but it’s becoming increasingly rare). Some say this is a bad thing as it means that SI Games and SEGA don’t need to do much every year to keep their illustrious fanbase. The question is; have they got complacent with this year’s release?

Well, the answer isn’t as black and white as it first appears. All the usual Football Manager elements are here and the UI has been tidied up, with those packing large monitors in for a special treat in the form of mass stat overload. The match engine has also been improved quite considerably, and to our surprise we found that the 3D views work just as advertised on older PC hardware. This was a sore issue for some last year so people running older rigs should be in good spirits. The new director view also contributes to the experience and helps to add to the drama of matches.

On the flip side, match audio is still the same old dull fan noise that has been pre-recorded. It still doesn’t sync up to the game’s matches and it can disrupt what is otherwise a coherent experience. The experience is also broken up by the spotty licensing. SI Games and SEGA have decided to resist going after the Premier League license and instead are satisfied to push an incomplete product for many years now. They have got away with this for far too long and we think it’s something fans should try to demand for. We appreciate that the licensing deals must be expensive, but it’s a fair assumption to suggest that many players of this game will want to manage a Premier League side.

Regardless, the usual array of awe-inspiring stats and up-to-date squads (including the very latest real-life transfers – Arsenal’s desperately cobbled together squad is present) are the main meat and potatoes of the game. The sheer amount of information on offer is fantastic as always and that definitely helped to keep us addicted during the course of this review. All this info intertwines within the gameplay with the new conversational tones and team talks. These vary from being aggressive, passionate or calm amongst others and each one can have a direct affect upon your player’s attitudes on and off the pitch. It’s a surprisingly deep little system, and you will find yourself watching how you talk to the in-game media plus your team in general in order to get the most out of them as possible.

Other new highlights that deserve a mention include the new contract negotiations. You can now lock certain elements of the negotiations and this also makes a sizeable impact to how you interact with the game. The leagues are also improved, matching their real-live counterparts as closely as possible. These league and team improvements seep into the international management angle of the game. Controlling international sides is much more intuitive, with more hands-on elements so it genuinely feels like less of a tacked-on experience.

Youth squads and the ability to add or remove leagues as you play through the game are also game-changers that complement the management sim well without breaking the game. Rounding up the changes are the new in-depth tutorials for new managers and social network integration for all those sociable folks so you can bombard your friends whilst you bombard your opponents when you play the game.

All these new elements are great, but there doesn’t seem to be any real killer-feature this year and the game feels like it has run out of ideas. Full licensing might help, but there needs to be a better hook for new players going forward or the game might be in danger of appeasing to an ever-decreasing niche. We’re not exactly sure what the answer is. FM2012 had us hugely addicted during our review period and it does feel great, but there’s just no big pay-off for all the hours you will put in anymore outside of your team’s success.

Bottom Line: In a time when our personal lives are being eaten up by a variety of different distractions, FM2012 is just a little slow-paced and slightly unrewarding to compete in a world dominated by more bite-sized distractions. However, this is the best Football Manager since 09 and it has pushed the football management sim genre to the furthest it has ever gone. What comes next very much relies on what SI Games and SEGA want to go with the franchise. For the first time, it could be argued that a football management game is fully feature-complete and if you are a football fan you will immensely enjoy it.

Valve announced today that the new downloadable content that was originally scheduled for the summer release is now available for download.

How much will this DLC cost you? It’s for the absolute low low price of free! It is now ready to download for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and will be automatically downloaded for Steam users on PC and Mac.

In “Peer Review”, you and a friend continue the story of loyal bots P-Body and Atlas as you puzzle your way through a mysterious new co-op test track and once again match wits with GLaDOS. The free DLC also features a single player and co-op Challenge Mode, and leaderboards to compare Challenge Mode scores with friends and the Portal communityTo celebrate the release of the free DLC, Portal 2 is now on sale for 50% off on Steam through Thursday at 4pm PT.

In this video, the Resistance has heard rumors of an Ark surfacing in Jackal Valley, and they need you to search the site for a valuable data decrypter. Finding it won’t be easy as the valley is home to one of the Wastelands most brutal factions, the savage Jackal Clan.

Rage will release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on October 4, 2011. We are currently playing the title for review and will be posting it live on launch day for your convenience.

City of Heroes, a superhero themed MMO, is officially a free-to-play title. Paragon Studio’s had announced the switch back in June and now you can simply go to the City of Heroes official website, sign yourself up, and start saving the day as your own custom hero.

Along with the switch, players are introduced to a new tutorial system that intends to help introduce new players to the extensive content the long-running game has compiled. CoH has also been re-branded, now called City of Heroes: Freedom. In the same fashion as Team Fortress 2, the core game is completely free, but extra goodies will cost you. This includes optional side missions, extra power, costumes and so forth.

Bethesda Softworks today announced the voice cast for the highly anticipated new entry in the Elder Scrolls franchise. Skyrim will feature an ensemble cast of Academy Award nominees, including Christopher Plummer (“The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” “The Insider”), Max Von Sydow (“The Exorcist,” “Minority Report”), and Joan Allen (“The Contender,” “The Bourne Ultimatum”).

Christopher Plummer, a two-time Emmy Award winner, two-time Tony Award winner and Academy Award nominee, takes on the role of Arngeir, a powerful Greybeard elder. An order of philosopher monks who are masters of the Way of the Voice, the Greybeards live in silent isolation atop Skyrim’s largest mountain.

Academy Award nominee, Max Von Sydow, stars as Esbern, a chronicler and agent of the Blades who has survived in hiding. Long obsessed with the foretold return of the dragon Alduin, the World Eater, Esbern will teach you how to confront this epic evil.

Tony Award winner and three-time Academy Award nominee, Joan Allen, will be making her videogame debut as Delphine, one of the last remaining members of the Blades – an ancient warrior society once sworn to protect the Emperor. Like you, Delphine is trying to unravel the mystery of the dragons’ return.

In addition, iconic actress and singer, Lynda Carter (“Wonder Woman”), voices Gormlaith Golden-Hilt, one of the Nord heroes who overthrew the dragons in ancient times.

“It’s been incredible to have all these actors together,” said Todd Howard, Game Director. “When you start a project, you always make your wish-list of actors, and to actually hear them in the game, it’s amazing. We can’t wait for everyone to experience it.”

Skyrim’s cast also includes

·         Michael Hogan (“Battlestar Galactica”), who plays Imperial General Tullius, in charge of crushing the Stormcloak rebellion.

·         Vladimir Kulich (“The 13th Warrior,” “Smoking Aces”) portrays Hogan’s nemesis Ulfric Stormcloak, Jarl of Windhelm and charismatic leader of the Stormcloaks, who aims to make Skyrim independent of the Empire.

·         Claudia Christian (“Babylon 5”) joins the cast as Legate Rikke, General Tullius’s chief lieutenant, a loyal Imperial officer as well as a Nord who firmly believes Skyrim must remain part of the Empire.

·         Diane Louise Salinger (“Carnivale”), Renee Victor (“Weeds”), and Saturday Night Live-alum George Coe (“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”) round out the star-studded cast of more than 70 different voice actors delivering over 60,000 lines of dialogue.

Look for The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim launching on November 11, 2011 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

Small developers are looking to become the forefront of the Steam marketplace. While we will always see big titles with ridiculously good deals flooding the Steam front page, it seems like the Indie developers are beginning to make up the numbers in the background. With that in mind, EDGE is one of the latest games made by a relatively small company (Two Tribes) that has just been released on Steam.

First of all, EDGE looks fantastic. It is surprising for a game that uses so much white, grey and black that it feels so colourful. A very clean yet lively feel predominates the style of the game and this is largely down to your technicolour dream-cube. The player characube is the most interesting thing in the game, but flashes of colour that cling to edges of moving platforms and huge stacks of square make the world feel more alive. The game feels like it takes place some kind of cube Milky Way with small shards of levels floating in the background.

EDGE isn’t just pretty; a solid game lies behind the looks. You must navigate a colourful cube by balancing and tumbling through small puzzles and avoiding obstacles. The familiar smell of ‘arcade game’ wafts through EDGE’s pores and this brings with it both good and bad elements. On the positive, levels are short, often fun and each contained within their own set-piece. However, varying levels of difficulty, frustrating level design and having to collect items to access the last levels are a sour aftertaste in a sweet nostalgia kick. Aside from this, neat touches litter the game such as timers appearing when you balance on the floor or wall and plenty of secret passages.

However, there is one fatal flaw in EDGE that will distract and even put off some players: a poor control system. While, no doubt, some will get to grips with the controls straight away, it feels like the camera angle does not compliment the arrow keys at all. In the beginning, I often had to repeat checkpoint after checkpoint because I pressed what I thought was the correct direction on the keyboard and instead tumbled into the abyss. As time goes on it slowly makes more sense, but even now I make the odd mistake when under pressure.

While not a major issue, lag seems to attack randomly and at one point slowed my cube to a near halt when a lot was happening in the background. In addition, while most of the levels are challenging, some amount to no more then: ‘press this button, watch a clever cube trick, walk to the finish’. This just seems strange in a game that prides itself on its puzzle elements. Speaking of the puzzles, by level 40 the designers seem to realise there is only so much you can do with moving platforms, pits and bumpers and the levels begin to feel repetitive. However, there is a lot of charm in EDGE and Two Tribes should be applauded for creating something fresh that homage’s the retro games of old.

Bottom Line: EDGE is a fun, short game that manages to feel retro and nostalgic but at the same time is something new and fresh. Frustrating and repetitive levels stop this game from being truly great, but at just over £5 it is a worthy contender in the Steam game library.

With the beta for Battlefield 3 drawing closer and closer, EA wanted to clue you in on some system requirements you’ll have to keep in mind for your PCs. Will you need a smart PC to play the beta? Read on to find out.

Minimum System Requirements

OS: Windows Vista (Service Pack 2) 32-bit
Processor: 2 GHz Dual Core (Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or Athlon X2 2.7 GHz)
Memory: 2 GB
Hard Drive: 20 GB
Graphics Card (AMD): DirectX 10.1 Compatible with 512 MB RAM (ATI Radeon 3000, 4000, 5000 or 6000 SERIES, with ATI RADEON 3870 or higher performance)
Graphics Card (Nvidia): DirectX 10.0 compatible with 512 MB RAM (Nvidia Geforce 8, 9, 200, 300, 400 or 500 series with Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT or higher performance)
Sound Card: DirectX compatible
Keyboard and Mouse
DVD-ROM Drive

Recommended System Requirements

OS: Windows 7 64-bit
Processor: Quad-core CPU
Memory: 4 GB
Hard Drive: 20 GB
Graphics Card: DirectX 11 compatible with 1024 MB RAM (Nvidia Geforce GTX 560 or ATI Radeon 6950)
Sound Card: DirectX compatible
Keyboard and Mouse
DVD-ROM Drive

Via Joystiq

Firstly, I’d like to say sorry for how late this review is! My reviews from now on will be much timelier, I promise. Things have just been a wee bit hectic around these parts!

I’ve been waiting years for Dead Island. I waited and waited as patiently as I could through the game’s on-again, off-again status. The moment I had the game in my possession, I felt my heart flutter just a little. A fun fact about me is that I love zombies- anything and everything to do with them. From books to movies, video games to collectibles. Did Dead Island live up to my high expectations?

The story begins with a bang. You wake in a hotel on Banoi Island after a night of binge drinking and pill popping. A voice over a radio is promising escape (Bioshock, anyone?). You need to find the source of the voice, but there are some other issues you might want to be aware of. Most everyone died overnight. Did the stay dead? Nope. Fast forward. Turns out you’re immune to the infection and now it’s up to you to clear out the nearby lifeguard tower for the small handful of survivors you’ve encountered. Welcome to Dead Island- it’s gonna be a rough stay.

The bare bones version of the story is that you’re trying to get from one safehouse to another around the island. In a style vaguely reminiscent of Oblivion or Fallout, there’s a main quest to follow, but *plenty* of side quests to keep you busy. My only warning is that the quests can be extremely ridiculous. There’s some that make perfect sense such as going out to get gasoline. And then there’s me having to fight for my life to get someone their damn teddy bear so they can sleep. REALLY?! Since you’re immune to the infection, these people will use and abuse you to get sh*t done. On the bright side- The more you do, the more EXP you learn. That bring me to..

What makes Dead Island truly different is the leveling system. It gives the action packed survival game an RPG feel. There are four characters to choose from, each who possess a different specialty (sharp weapons, blunt weapons, firearms or throwing weapons), and each have three different skill trees you can use to unlock new moves and “buffs” to up your characters stamina.

You get to the really good stuff once you step foot out of the resort; this is where you really need to try and survive. There’s countless routes to your objectives and you can decide to take safer, and quieter routes, or brave the packed alleyways and open streets. Zombies remain a threat, but now there’s humans who don’t take so kindly to your presence. Beware of bites and bullets, my friends.

It’s easy to see that Dead Island was designed to be a co-op dependent game, but part of me enjoyed it more as a single player experience. When I played alone I really felt damn alone. With friends the game was a bit of a goofy, campy joy ride (sometimes literally, but most of my friends can’t drive for sh*t in game). The major benefit to co-op play is item swapping. In the beginning, your weapons are… well, they’re crap. It takes little more than a handful of hits before they break on you. Luckily, when you level up, your weapons also become more resilient. Very much like Dead Rising 2, you’re able to put things you’ve found together to craft mods for weapons. Trust me when I say that electrocuting zombies never gets old. And Dead Island is pretty huge, so you’ll have a lot of time to challenge that statement. The island is a colourful and fun mix of locations to explore. Taking a straight shot through the main story will still leave you with, probably, 20 – 30 hours of game play.

Sadly, Dead Island does have problems. I find the graphics to be dated, which was a letdown considering how absolutely gorgeous the amazing (and freekin’ heartbreaking) trailer was. The gameplay can feel rather stiff at times which can grow on the nerves when you’re surrounded by the undead looking for your brains. And I hate, hate, hate, HATE the mechanics of breaking down a door. So, yes, Dead Island is a rough around the edges. I can’t even deny that fact. Does it ruin the experience? I wouldn’t say so.

Undoubtedly the goriest game you’ll play this year, Dead Island is a fantastic recipe for a zombie themed game. The nitty-grrity end of the world backdrop seems goes hand in hand with the campy zombie movie feel. Despite the comedic aspects of the game there were a good handful of scares and moments of high blood pressure to keep the survival horror lover in my satisfied. Dead Island isn’t a perfect game, but all the things it does right overshadows the minor grievances.

Men of War: Vietnam is a real time strategy game where you micro manage small groups of soldiers against overwhelming odds. There are two campaigns: Russian and American. The first sees you controlling a four men team of Vietcong and Russian special-forces trying to escape to the border. The second puts you deep in Vietcong territory as an American special-forces squad. The campaign missions are varied, ranging from defending bases, to hunting for snipers, to setting up ambushes.

So far, so average. It’s when you begin to play that you realise how different Men of War: Vietnam truly is compared to other Vietnam games. I have never seen a real time strategy game with so much detail (and I play R.U.S.E). As an example of how detailed this game is, it lets you take the helmet off a dead unit and place it on one of your own units’ heads to add a miniscule of extra protection. Smoke grenades, mortars, claymores, flame throwers and revolvers, along with the more usual weapons, have been lovingly re-created as well as 12 vehicles that were present during the war. From the beginning you can see this is a game made with passion.

However, you will also notice when you first play Men of War: Vietnam that you die, a lot. With no tutorial, your dropped straight into the action and I often died minutes after starting a level. This game is brutal, with one or two bullets killing a unit and missions that throw set back after set back. For example, in the opening mission you are ambushed: your orders are to destroy a small camp, then destroy a few helicopters in another camp, then escape, then realise the escape car doesn’t work, then find a boat, then realise the boat also doesn’t work, then run to get fuel, then get ambushed again and then escape. While the scripted events keep you on your toes it sometimes feels ridiculous that your squad encounters so much bad luck.

The enemy A.I. is temperamental, sometimes managing to perform flanking manoeuvres and genuinely fooling you to carrying on with its patrol as its buddies are being slaughtered. Luckily for the A.I., it is helped by the dense vegetation seen in every mission. It is near impossible at times to see where your units are or more importantly where the enemy is under the mass of trees and shrubs that cloud your view. While at times frustrating, it has to be forgiven because, intentional or not, it really captures the feel of the Vietnam War. Keeping your soldiers alive while trying to spot shooters in the foliage can be a nail biting experience and constantly makes you second guess that swaying shrub.

Sadly, while the scenery looks beautiful and needs a high-end computer to take full advantage of it, this level of polish is not seen anywhere else. The user interface is bland and at times clunky, the cut scenes and voice acting are hilariously bad (look out for an emotionless John Travolta sound-a-like) and the music varies from bland to annoying. It feels like 1C  Company have spent all their time and effort into re-creating the terrain and statistics of the weapons and added everything else as an afterthought. However, when it does come down to the bare bones of game play and statistics, this is one of the most realistic Vietnam games around, for better or worse.

Bottom Line: There are sometimes small sparks of brilliance in Men of War: Vietnam where it is possible to have an incredible amount of fun. However, these sparks are too short, too sparse and weighed down by a lack of polish and a ridiculously steep learning curve. To their credit, when it comes to game play 1C Company have managed to create a game that captures the essence of the Vietnam War better then most. Unfortunately, much like the Vietnam War, this game is too brutal, unforgiving and should have been planned better.

EA Games has revealed the heavily anticipated Battlefield 3 Beta will be incoming on September 29th, 2011.

The beta will be multiplayer only and will be running on Xbox 360 and PlayStation consoles. Gamers who pre-order the digital PC version of the game at Origin (powered by EA) will be granted early access to the beta starting on September 27, 2011.

The beta is set in Paris on the Operation Metro map, where players work their way from lush parks on the outskirts of the city to a dark, bombed-out metro station, to the vibrant streets around the Paris stock exchange. Two elite tactical units square off in the series’popular Rush Mode. One side takes the offensive by attacking M-COM stations while the opposing squad defends and protects. For more information about the beta, players should visit www.battlefield.com/beta or follow @Battlefield on Twitter. In addition, all customers that pre-ordered a Limited Edition of Medal of Honor™ will also receive early access to the beta starting on September 27, 2011.

Gamers in the beta can also log onto Battlelog, the game’s free social media network that allows gamers to communicate and compete with friends, track their stats and share their progress. Battlelog extends the in-game experience to be accessible anywhere, whether on a PC, console or handheld device.
Players are also invited to join the EA Gun Club for the latest shooter news, and to receive in-game benefits including access to the M1911 pistol and distinct badges in Battlefield 3. The M1911 pistol will also be available to registered Battlefield veterans.

“When we launched DC Universe Online, we introduced a very different brand of massive online game driven by fast action combat to PC and PS3™gamers and with that, we discovered a new type of online gamer,” said John Smedley, President, Sony Online Entertainment. “We’ve listened to our community, and we’ve determined that the free-to-play model is the best fit for DC Universe Online.”

      Free: New players will now have access to the current gameplay in DC Universe Online (including Gotham City, Metropolis, and all current raids and alerts), with the ability to create two characters, join a league and many other benefits. Free level players will be able to purchase downloadable game packs/updates, additional character slots, powers and more through microtransactions.

·         Premium: Any player who has spent at least $5 USD (including former paid subscribers and new players who have purchased $5 of in-game items) will qualify for the Premium access level. Premium level players will have more benefits available to them than the Free level player, including additional character slots, additional inventory slots, and higher cash limits. Downloadable adventure packs, additional character slots, and more can be purchased in-game.

·         Legendary: Maximum features and benefits are included at this level. Loaded with enhanced additional features, Legendary access will be available for a $14.99 USD monthly fee and includes all DLC packs at no cost, more than 15 character slots, more than 80 inventory slots, the ability to form unrestricted-sized leagues, and many other benefits.

The Green Lantern Corps DLC is now available as well, so you should definitely check it out once you are comfortable at your playing level.

After technical difficulties a-plenty, here’s Part 2 of my Dead Island gameplay! I’m going to try my best to have a new Let’s Play up every two or three days. I have a few other games up my sleeve, as well. This time around, co-op play brings on some awkward moments. Do I play nice with others? Check it out!