F1 25 launched in May 2025, and in the year since release, the developers have delivered numerous patches addressing gameplay, visual quality, and performance and stability issues. EA has now rolled out the game’s largest update yet: the 2026 Season Pack DLC. This paid expansion brings the sweeping 2026 Formula 1 regulation changes into the game, fundamentally reshaping both the cars and the racing experience. With a year of updates behind it and a major overhaul now in place, this is the perfect opportunity to revisit F1 25 and see where performance stands in 2026 with a selection of both Nvidia and AMD GPUs.

The 2026 Season Pack DLC

The 2026 Season Pack DLC

So what exactly is included in the 2026 Season Pack DLC?

The DLC features two new teams – Audi, which took over for Sauber, and Cadillac, which is the first major American car manufacturer in F1. The DLC also brings the latest driver line-ups. Racing Bulls will now have Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson. Isack Hadjar will race alongside Max Verstappen at Oracle Red Bull Racing. Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez team up for Cadillac.

The paid expansion also includes a new circuit: MADRING. This 5.4 km hybrid street and purpose-built track has a mix of high-speed sections and more technical corners. It was specifically designed for the new season, so it can only be driven using 2026 cars.

The cars are lighter and more agile, reflecting their real-life counterparts in 2026. The idea is for the cars to be more nimble and harder to drive at the limit, which will put greater emphasis on driver skill. The cars also have less downforce and less drag, which should make it easier to follow more closely.

Active Aero is also available in the game with the paid DLC. The front and rear wings move in real-time, between straight line and corner mode, to give drivers more speed down the straights and to allow the car to be more responsive in the corners.

The new Overtake Mode provides a boost of nearly 500 horsepower when deployed. This mode replaces the old Drag Reduction System (DRS) Overtake Mode can be deployed when a driver is within one second of the car ahead. It can be used either all at once or spread across a lap.

Boost Mode is an energy deployment tool available through the use of the Energy Recovery System (ERS). This remains in place as it has for many years. The new regulations place a very high dependency on efficient battery management. Just as in real life, some people will enjoy this added strategic depth, while others will hate it.

So, how well are all of these new features implemented?

The cars genuinely feel different to drive – in a good way. The new handling characteristics require a different approach to attacking corners. The battery management might lead to more overtakes, but this is the most controversial aspect of the new regulations. The developers have done a good job of simulating how the battery management works in real-life.

There are two ways to jump into the 2026 F1 season. Existing F1 25 owners can purchase the F1 2026 Season Pack DLC, while new players can pick up F1 25: 2026 Season Edition, which includes the full F1 25 base game alongside all 2026 season content.

With that being said, our main focus today will be on visuals and performance.

Path Tracing vs Ray Tracing vs Rasterization Visuals

Path Tracing vs Ray Tracing vs Rasterization Visuals

F1 25 supported path tracing at launch in May 2025. Over the course of the past year, the game has received some patches to fix some minor issues with the path tracing implementation.

You can see from the images above just how significant the impact of path tracing is, even compared to standard ray tracing. It delivers noticeably more realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections, pushing the presentation closer to photorealism in certain scenes. Night races benefit the most from the upgrade, though under specific weather conditions, daytime races also see meaningful improvements.

We benchmarked the game on 7 different graphics cards. We tested rasterization performance, ray tracing performance, and path tracing performance. We did not use any upscaling. We used TAA. We performed the benchmarks at Monaco, which is one of the more demanding tracks in the game.

Test system

• Ryzen 7 9800X3D
• 64GB (2x32GB) G.SKILL Flare X5 DDR5 @6200 MHz CL30
• Crucial T700 Gen5 SSD
• ASUS ROG STRIX B850-F Gaming WiFi
• Corsair Nautilus 360 RS AIO Cooler
• MSI MPG Ai1600TS PCIE5 PSU
• HAGS enabled
• Windows 11 25H2 (Build 26200.8524)
• NVIDIA driver 610.47

Rasterization Performance

Rasterization Performance

Performance with ray tracing and path tracing disabled is excellent across nearly the entire GPU stack, with the RX 6500 XT being the lone major exception. It's limited 4GB frame buffer, which struggles heavily at max settings, while the RTX 5060 also begins to run into VRAM limitations at 4K with its 8GB allocation. Outside of those cases, however, the game delivers very high frame rates with fully maxed-out rasterized settings on most GPUs tested here.

We did want to see if the game would be playable on the 6500 XT at 1080p with lower settings. We tested the GPU using the Medium and Low presets.

The game is very playable with both presets. Image quality takes a hit, but the game still looks solid at these settings. Keep in mind that this is one of the more demanding circuits. The fact that the GPU can average over 70 FPS with low settings and nearly 60 FPS with medium settings means that it should achieve considerably better performance at other tracks.

Ray Tracing Performance

Ray Tracing Performance

Even with ray tracing enabled, most of the GPUs tested are capable of delivering around 60 FPS or better at 1080p. However, as resolution increases – particularly at native 4K – the RTX 5090 becomes the only GPU where enabling RT consistently makes practical sense without major compromises. Alternatively, players can still target a 4K output by using DLSS or FSR in Performance mode, allowing six of the tested GPUs to deliver playable frame rates with ray tracing enabled.

Path Tracing Performance

Path Tracing Performance

As expected, path tracing is reserved for the very high end of the GPU market. While the feature is genuinely transformative in this game, we would only recommend enabling it on GPUs in the RTX 5090, RTX 5080, or RTX 4090 class. Even with that level of hardware, DLSS Performance mode is still required to maintain consistently playable framerates across all circuits, though some tracks are light enough to allow the use of DLSS Quality mode.

The game runs smooth without any stuttering across all settings and resolutions we tested. Even when the average framerate is low on certain configurations, the frametime graph remains flat.

The Verdict

The Verdict

Codemasters has consistently delivered highly scalable F1 titles over the years, and F1 25: 2026 Season Edition continues that trend. With the right settings for your hardware, most players should have little trouble achieving 60 FPS or higher. Whether you are running an RTX 5090 and looking to push max settings with path tracing enabled, or using a lower-end GPU with limited VRAM, the game remains accessible across a wide range of GPUs.

EA released its 'Javelin' anti-cheat last year to power the multiplayer gameplay in Battlefield 6. Like every other anti-cheat software out there, it runs at the kernel level to spoof out any bad actors or code, and EA has said it's been very successful thus far. So much so that the company is now seemingly looking to port it over to Arm and eventually Linux, according to a new job listing.

Titled "Senior Anti-Cheat Engineer, ARM64," the listing is pretty self-explanatory. The main responsibility endowed upon this engineer would be to "develop a native ARM driver" for the Javelin anti-cheat. Save an official announcement, this confirms that EA wants games like Battlefield to run Arm-based devices soon. Apple Silicon is not EA's interest, and Qualcomm's X-series hasn't been enough of a hit to justify this either.

That leaves us with Nvidia's upcoming N1/N1X chips that are highly rumored to launch this year. The timing for this role aligns with the chips' reported debut. The N1 silicon is said to finally bring Windows-on-Arm to the mainstream, with a focus on gaming that Arm has generally never been known for. After all, there's a 20-core Arm CPU and an RTX 5070-level GPU in there, according to the rumor mill, so it's plenty powerful.

The job description specifically mentions, "development of [our] Windows on ARM support," so there's no ambiguity over what platform we're talking about. Previously, Epic added support for Easy Anti-Cheat on Arm and Linux devices, but its flagship title, Fortnite, still doesn't run on those machines. Microsoft also released the Xbox app on Arm-based Windows 11 devices just a month ago.

Most anti-cheat software is only designed to run on x86-based Windows machines — part of Valve's push for Linux gaming has been held back by this. Similarly, Arm-based devices can't run anti-cheat either, which shuts out a large chunk of the most popular games from the platform. Therefore, getting a native Arm version of Javelin to work on N1-powered machines would be a huge step forward for non-x86 PC gaming.

In fact, the job listing also includes a point that reads: "Chart a path for EA Javelin Anticheat to support additional OS and hardware in the future, such as Linux and Proton." Namedropping Proton is a big deal; it shows clear intent to eventually have support for Javelin on things like the Steam Deck and Steam Machine — another audience EA doesn't want to miss out on, which can influence others like Riot and Epic to follow suit.

Battlefield 6 is shaping up to be one of the biggest AAA game launches this year, but the game’s opening day is far from perfect. Users who purchased the title on the EA App encountered a glitch, with the game indicating that both multiplayer and the single-player campaign are still to be installed, even though both are already present on the user’s PC, as reported by ComputerBase. It took three hours after the game dropped for EA to acknowledge the error, and another three hours to fix the issue.

This had led to frustration among players, especially with the massive hype for the game. Battlefield 6 boss Vince Zampella was also miffed with what’s happening, going as far as posting on X saying, “I have yelled about ea app people. Any suggestions on next levels of escalation?”

The post is somewhat ironic, given that he’s the Executive Vice President of Electronic Arts. We’re unsure if the EA app is under his department, but it seems that he’s frustrated enough to publicly speak out on it.

One user said that he should buy the Steam version instead to solve the problem, to which Zampella replied, “I am playing on steam”. Another player said that this was unacceptable, to which he said, “Can you refund and buy on steam?”

Steam players aren’t immune to launch-day issues, too, though. Some users who purchased the game from the platform receive a “Game not released” message. To address this issue, Battlefield released a workaround, instructing them to uncheck Battlefield Multiplayer HD and Battlefield Multiplayer DLCs in the game’s properties. Others also report that clearing the download history cache and restarting Steam resolved the issue.

It seems that most of these launch-day issues have since been resolved, though, and those who stuck it out with the EA app were set to receive some goodies from the company as an apology. Affected players will receive 12 Hardware and 12 Career 60-Minute Boosters, as well as full access to a seasonal Battle Pass. Those who already have one through the Phantom Edition will also get Season 2’s full Battle Pass as part of their compensation.

EA has just released the final hardware requirements for Battlefield 6 (BF6), with the initial minimum and recommended specifications remaining largely unchanged. Nevertheless, the game's developers have just released the minimum, recommended, and ultra settings requirements for the game's gear.

You can still play BF6 even if you have ancient hardware, as the minimum requirement for 1080p@30 (Low) is just an Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060, an AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, or an Intel Arc A380 — budget-friendly CPUs and GPUs that are at least three years old by now. It also reduced the minimum storage requirement from 75 GB to 55 GB, primarily due to its fragmented installation feature.

This means that your old gaming PC should be good enough to run it at the lowest settings. Or if the one you have doesn’t cut it anymore, you can find great deals on the used marketplace to upgrade your rig just enough to play BF6.

EA announced that it’s finally shutting down the Origin app on April 17, 2025, after a 14-year run and is asking its users to download the EA app instead. EA said it’s making this move because Microsoft has stopped supporting 32-bit software and that users must download a 64-bit version of Windows 10 or use Windows 11 to use the EA app.

While you can install a 32-bit app on Windows 11, which is 64-bit only, you’ll have to run it through the operating system’s compatibility features. This means you’ll likely encounter issues, especially as games are more complicated than the average app. This move will also be a problem for the average user who doesn’t know they’re running a 32-bit version of Windows 10 and their system does not have TPM 2.0. That’s because Windows 11 officially does not support devices without this security feature, although Microsoft eventually allowed it to be installed on them (but with several caveats).

But if your PC does support Windows 11, your next best option is to finally upgrade to the newer operating system — which you can do for free or less than $15. You can install the EA App, which automatically transfers your account and game titles. Aside from that, you don’t have to transfer your saved files if you’re moving to a new device if you’ve already activated cloud saves. But if not, or if your games do not support this feature, you’ll have to manually transfer them to ensure you do not lose any progress.

Some would say that you should switch to a 32-bit Linux operating system if you don’t want to deal with the hardware requirements for Windows 11. While the old Origin app didn’t natively support Linux, there were ways to install it using Steam and Proton. However, because EA is ending support for the Origin app, you can no longer use it even if you switch to a 32-bit Linux operating system.

Microsoft’s move to end support for Windows 10 will affect millions of users who do not have supported hardware, and now it’s apparent that it will also impact older apps that do not have 64-bit versions. We don’t expect any company to support old software that no longer makes money continuously. However, it’s sad to see that the always-connected nature of these digital distribution platforms means that users who cannot keep up with new hardware requirements will be left out in the dark.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson confirmed the company is considering putting ads in traditional AAA games — titles that players purchase up-front for around $70 apiece. In the Q&A part of EA’s latest earnings call, Eric Sheridan from Goldman Sachs asked Wilson about dynamic ad insertion in traditional AAA games. Wilson said, "…Advertising has an opportunity to be a meaningful driver of growth for us." He then continued, "…we have teams internally in the company right now looking at how we do very thoughtful implementations inside of our game experiences."

In-game ads are a natural progression of advertising, especially as the gaming industry is expected to grow to $583 billion by 2030. Some players deem this a distraction, but others accept it as a fact of life as long as the ads are placed naturally and unobtrusively — not going loudly in your face, blocking in-game content, or interrupting your gameplay just to tell you that you should buy this product or subscribe to this service.

Unfortunately, EA has had a few instances of poor in-game ads. In 2020, the company placed full-screen in-game ads for the TV show The Boys in UFC 4. Its player base poorly received this placement, especially as it disrupted the game. This backlash led to EA removing the ad soon after.

In-game advertising is not new in the gaming industry. In fact, Adventureland, published in 1978, is the first recorded title to have ads baked in-game — although it was for promoting its sequel, Pirate Adventure. In 1983, Anheuser-Busch sponsored the arcade game Tapper, which featured a giant Budweiser logo right in the game and was designed for bars. Root Beer eventually replaced the Budweiser logo in 1984 so it could be placed in arcades where minors could play.

As the market for gaming titles increased in the 90s and 2000s, many companies wanted to tap into its potential — some games, like Zool and Push-Over, heavily featured products that sponsored their titles, like Chupa Chups and Quavers. In contrast, others were blatant advertisements, like Pepsi Man.

EA’s Need for Speed: Underground 2 from 2004 is famously known for its in-game ads placed on billboards all over the open world. Some would argue that EA did that for realism, as the brands in the game featured real-world companies like Best Buy, Burger King, and Cingular.

But it was in 2006 when GameSpot confirmed that EA was going all-in with dynamic ads in its titles, with Need for Speed Carbon and Battlefield 2142 among the first games to try it. In 2008, Burnout Paradise, another popular EA title, featured political ads for then-Senator Barack Obama’s 2008 US Presidential election bid.

More recently, SCS Software, the company behind the American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2 titles, sold ad space to trucking company Schneider National for hiring drivers. However, most of these in-game ads are placed on billboards by the side of the road, where you would naturally see them in real life.

In-game ads are an understandable side-effect of the free-to-play format. However, it leaves a bad taste, especially if the ads are served in a AAA game you’ve paid good money for upfront. While the development cost of AAA titles has skyrocketed, with titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and Star Citizen costing hundreds of millions to make, their developers have also sold plenty of copies.

If EA adds dynamic in-game ads in its titles, let’s hope the company sticks to its promise of "thoughtful implementation" and "community building beyond the bounds of our games." Otherwise, its community might rise in arms and force a change, just like how the uproar over the Helldivers 2 PSN account linking forced Sony to reconsider the requirement.

'Star Wars Jedi: Survivor' has officially been released, but not without some hiccups. Pre-launch users reported serious performance issues that couldn't be alleviated, prompting EA to investigate the issue. The 'Jedi: Survivor' team made an official announcement today on Twitter confirming they are aware of the problems and explained plans are in the works to develop patches to improve performance for PC users.

We covered the 'Jedi: Survivor' VRAM problem yesterday, sharing detailed accounts from the community that break down the optimization issues PC users face. These players reported a myriad of problems, from low frame rates, stuttering, and seriously high VRAM usage. These issues persisted not only for those with mid-range level specs but also for users with high-end gaming PCs using top-of-the-line graphics cards.

Some of the best graphics cards for gaming, including the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 4090, could not reach 60 frames per second. The VRAM usage was also notably high, with averages around 15 GB and occasionally topping 21 GB. Unfortunately, these problems could not be resolved by adjusting in-game settings or performance settings for the hardware outside of 'Jedi: Survivor.'

Because of the persistent complaints, EA has shared an official response to the problem. The 'Jedi: Survivor' team has confirmed they are aware of the significant performance issues affecting some PC users, noting that the impact seems to apply to those using high-end machines with newer graphics cards. The announcement highlights a particular example of users with newer multi-threaded chips designed for Windows 11 having issues running the game with Windows 10 and high-end graphics cards paired with lower-performing processors.

The team is working to devise a solution that will impact as many configurations as possible. They also explain that these patches will require "significant testing" to ensure new problems aren't introduced. It's currently unclear when such patches will be made available or how long testing will take before they can safely be released. The official announcement is public on the official EA Star Wars Twitter profile, where we assume future updates will also be shared.

Electronic Arts (EA) has announced the launch of EA AntiCheat (EAAC), a kernel-level system that it says is “absolutely vital” to take on the cheaters who have increasingly sought to utilize this deep computer access mode. To try and nip security and privacy worries in the bud, EA’s Elise Murphy, Senior Director, Game Security & Anti-Cheat, has given various assurances about the scope of EAAC’s operations and published a blog with a lengthy FAQ about the technology. EEAC will make its debut with the release of FIFA 23 at the end of the month.

The introduction of EAAC is concerned with “creating a safe and fair experience for all of our players,” assures EA’s Murphy. Sadly, the PC gaming environment in 2022 means that it is essential to implement kernel-level protections to create a level playing field in competitive games, according to EA. Cheat developers have moved into the kernel to avoid detection by traditional anti-cheat and anti-tampering technologies, so like in a military arms race, EA must change its tactics.

Having gone down this kernel-level path, EA says it is coding its new anti-cheat solution with “full stack ownership of the security & privacy posture, so we can fix security issues as soon as they may arise.” The new anti-cheating system “will only look at what it needs to for anti-cheat purposes,” explains EA, allaying some fears that it might snoop at your PC browsing history, personal files or similar. However, EA admits that if a process on your PC seeks to interact with an EAAC game, it “could see that and respond.”

Other key assurances EA’s FAQ provides, are that EAAC:

• Only runs when an EAAC game runs,
• Won’t degrade game stability or performance,
• Will not be in every game, as it will be implemented on a case-by-case basis as required for fair competitive multiplayer gameplay,
• If you have multiple EAAC games installed, EAAC will be uninstalled when/if you uninstall the last of these games,
• Will be continually tested by EA and independent 3rd party security and privacy advisors for bugs and vulnerabilities.

EA isn’t the first and probably won’t be the last PC games publisher to implement kernel-level anti-cheat and anti-tamper technology into its games. Last year Activision revealed its Ricochet anti-cheating system, which was custom made for one of its biggest online multiplayer games; Call of Duty, and in June this year it published an interesting blog describing the progress made by Ricochet on this iconic-franchise.

DICE tweeted the system requirements for the upcoming Battlefield 2042 earlier today. This announcement comes days before the game's first beta, scheduled for October 6th through October 9th. The open beta, where anyone can actually play, will be two days shorter, running only from October 7th through the 9th. 

The requirements themselves are pretty standard fare for today's AAA releases. On the software side, a 64-bit version of Windows 10 is mandatory. For hardware, the minimum CPU recommendation lists a 6-core Ryzen 5 3600 or a 4-core Core i5-6600K CPU, though we suspect most AMD Zen family CPUs will still suffice. For graphics, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (Pascal) or an AMD Radeon RX 560 (Polaris) are needed. If you are in the market for any of these, check out our best CPU for gaming and best graphics card picks for the best possible experience.

The recommended system requirements bump things up substantially. They include at least an 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 2700X or, strangely, a 4-core Intel Core i5-4790 CPU. DICE recommends an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB GDDR6) or an AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (8 GB). Interestingly, it appears that the original RTX 2060 was excluded on account of its "mere" 6GB of VRAM.

Unfortunately, DICE did not reveal at what game settings these requirements apply to, which excludes some more information we could glean regarding expected optimization level and overall performance. Another telling omission is that the game doesn't offer ray-tracing as a graphical option. DICE elected to skip the feature entirely, despite having already implemented parts of it in Battlefield V. However, both Nvidia Reflex (for lowering latency ratios) and DLSS will be integrated into the game.

Battlefield 2042 will be officially launching on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PS5 platforms on November 19th. The 128-player game mode is exclusive to the PC version of the game.

Hackers who stole FIFA 21 source code from Electronic Arts several weeks ago have released all their data online after failing to blackmail EA and sell the code to 3rd party buyers, according to a report by the Record.

Starting June 10th, these hackers wanted $28 Million for the stolen FIFA 21 source code, amounting to 780GB worth of data. They managed to grab the data by breaching EA's internal slack channel through the use of stolen cookies bought online. These cookies hold login credentials of EA users in the Slack channel, allowing anyone with the cookies to log in to Slack.

Unfortunately for the hackers, their hopes of a large payday were short-lived. The hackers tried to blackmail EA for $28 million to prevent the source code from leaking online, but EA flat out refused to pay because the data held no sensitive data like user credentials.

As a last resort, the hackers tried selling the source code to the black market but met the same problem. Buyers had little interest in purchasing source code as it holds no sensitive information, making the purchase almost worthless for illegal activity.

"Following the incident, we've already made security improvements and do not expect an impact on our games or our business,”  EA told the Record. “We are actively working with law enforcement officials and other experts as part of this ongoing criminal investigation.”

So now the hackers have leaked all the data online for anyone to see and use. People can potentially use the code to play FIFA 21 on their own servers without EA's consent, though if you want to play the game legally, you're better off buying a copy.

EA has officially stated that no user data was accessed, and the company has put in extra security measures to ensure this breach does not happen again.

Getting into the Guinness World Records is usually cause for celebration. Electronic Arts (EA) might think differently about its apparent inclusion in the 2020 edition of the book, however, because the record it set was for the most-downvoted comment on Reddit. The comment in question was made in response to the Star Wars Battlefront II loot box controversy of 2017 and received more than 683,000 downvotes from the platform's outraged players.

For anyone who doesn't remember: Star Wars Battlefront II locked characters like Darth Vader behind an onerous progression system that could be sidestepped by getting lucky after purchasing the game's take on loot boxes. Reddit user "MBBMaverick" started a discussion thread titled "Seriously? I paid 80$ to have Vader locked?" and said they'd be contacting EA for a refund because "this age of 'micro-transactions' has gone WAY too far."

The official "EACommunityTeam" account responded with the following comment:

The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes.As for cost, we selected initial values based upon data from the Open Beta and other adjustments made to milestone rewards before launch. Among other things, we're looking at average per-player credit earn rates on a daily basis, and we'll be making constant adjustments to ensure that players have challenges that are compelling, rewarding, and of course attainable via gameplay.We appreciate the candid feedback, and the passion the community has put forth around the current topics here on Reddit, our forums and across numerous social media outlets.Our team will continue to make changes and monitor community feedback and update everyone as soon and as often as we can.

The comment reached a karma score (which Reddit uses to rank posts) of -667,825 before it was archived 12 months after posting. The score takes both upvotes and downvotes into account. Assuming that some people upvoted the comment, the only way it could have a negative score would be for it to have more than 667,825 downvotes.

But we doubt many people care about how accurate a beer company was in counting downvotes on a social platform in a book of barroom trivia. Our main question is whether or not someone will be able to break EA's record. It's hard to imagine, so hopefully EA can be a good sport about holding this dubious honor for a while.

E3 is officially underway, with the annual EA Play event kicking off here in Los Angeles on Saturday. As such, we're getting an early look at all of the games and DLCs.

DICE’s popular shooter, Battlefield 1, is back this year at EA Play and the developer showed off more content for the game. For instance, you’ll be able to fight in the nighttime with new “Night maps.”

The studio also showed the upcoming In the Name of the Tsar DLC, which comes out in September. New maps and even female characters will come with the new content. The trailer the company showed at the event features the same Battlefield combat, but in the snowy tundra of Russia, and it features the new female soldier.  

A new game mode is also coming to the franchise later this year. However, EA will reveal more details in August.

To no one’s surprise, Battlefield 1 was the star of the EA Play showcase. Fans waited for hours in a long line for a chance to play DICE’s next installment in the popular first-person shooter franchise. The game’s demo featured the St. Quentin Scar, a large location in France that included small towns, demolished buildings and spacious fields. Appropriately, I would be playing Conquest mode, where two teams of 32 players would fight for control over multiple points on the map.

War Never Changes

In terms of preparation, choosing your soldier class and weapons is nearly similar to previous Battlefield titles. I could take on the role of the Assault, Medic, Support or Scout class, all of which had six weapons to choose from on the loadout screen. If I didn’t want to run around the battlefield, I could operate one of the available tanks or fly a biplane.

Even though this new game puts the series in World War I, having some form of familiarity, especially with the loadout screen, is not a bad thing. Veterans of the series are already familiar with it, not to mention that it’s already easy to navigate, which means less time on the menu screen and more time shooting the enemy.

The Grand Battle

At the beginning of the match, I chose the role of scout, or sniper. With my rifle in hand, I followed my comrades to the nearest control point to take it for our side. For the first few minutes of combat, I couldn’t contribute to any kills because of the weather. A thick fog descended on St. Quentin Scar, which made any sort of long-distance shooting nearly impossible. I had to wait for the enemy to come closer. I could hear planes flying overhead while the first shots of the battle came from friendly tanks that saw a glimpse of the enemy.

There was a lot of ground to cover between each capture point, which made it more difficult to find adequate cover. I found this out the hard way as I moved to a nearby village. An enemy sniper was in the area, and I was close enough that he shot me as I was about to approach a vantage point. Then, the fog cleared to give way to a cloudless, sunny sky.

In the short amount of time left in the match, I decided to try my hand at operating a small tank. As fun as it was to blow up some enemy soldiers, I was more impressed with the game’s destruction physics. As I approached one of the small towns, I made my own shortcut by ramming a wall with the tank (similar to the Kool-Aid man bursting through a wall). To my surprise, the wall easily crumbled away as I drove into it at full speed. From my tiny window, I could see bits and pieces of the wall fall apart.

However, I couldn’t celebrate my triumphant entrance for long. The village was infested with soldiers, and an opposing tank was moving in to reinforce their position. I was able to take out five or six soldiers before the tank showed up. By then, I tried to move away from its line of sight, but it was too late.

Reach For The Sky

After my brief time with the tank, I wanted to see if I could do better with a biplane. As it turns out, flying these old planes is actually a difficult feat. The fighter jets of today have more than enough thrust to reach high altitudes and faster speeds. With these biplanes, I needed to use both the engine and gravity to fly through the skies. I tried to climb higher by engine power alone, but the plane stalled and fell into a nosedive. The same goes for turning: I needed some gravitational assistance to get back to the main combat zone, but once again, my plane stalled and turned into a heap of fire and rubble as I crashed to the ground.

However, that isn’t to say that I didn’t have fun flying these planes. It felt authentic, and it meant that I had to learn how to operate the old flying machines. I couldn’t just zip around and make tight turns like in Battlefield 4. I had to account for engine power as I climbed and make sure the plane didn’t stall at the wrong moment.

As the battle continued on both air and land, I realized that our enemy was winning by a large margin. However, the game has a way of allowing the losing team a chance to take the lead by spawning the airship--a massive, yet slow ship that rains bullets from its multiple gun turrets.

When it showed up, I managed to get on board and man one of the turrets. Together with three other players, we were able to clear out some enemy-held control points so that our allies on the ground could take it back. However, there were two downsides to controlling the airship: It was large, so it was an easy target, and it was slow, so it couldn’t avoid enemy fire. My airship comrades and I had our fun for about five minutes, but then the airship started falling to the ground. The gigantic beast groaned as metal made contact with the ground, and then it burst into flames, like the finale of a fireworks show.

A Battle For The Ages

The airship advantage wasn’t enough to get us back in contention. The opposing team was too strong for us, and as the match approached its final seconds, more of our control points fell to the enemy. We lost.

At first, Battlefield 1 felt like playing yet another Battlefield title but in a different setting, but this game had its own unique properties, as well. The changing weather provided some interesting gameplay in the first few minutes, and fans will undoubtedly test their flying skills with the biplanes. The appearance of the airship made for some intense moments near the end, and if you have enough players on it, you can easily change the tide of battle.

The long line for Battlefield 1, then, was well worth the wait. The gameplay was enjoyable, and there were more than enough differences to make it stand out from its predecessors. October 21 can’t come soon enough, but at least DICE had an impressive first showing of Battlefield 1.

Follow Rexly Peñaflorida II @Heirdeux. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Fresh off the initial reveal of Battlefield 1 last month, DICE general manager Patrick Bach introduced a new trailer for the game. As expected, the clip showed off more World War I chaos.

The trailer shows soldiers clashing on the battlefield with melee weapons and rifles, along with some aerial combat. You can use the biplane to take out groups of enemies or a rival pilot, or control the slow, but massive airships to deal more damage to enemies.

Bach also mentioned a few upcoming features for the game, one of which was dynamic weather. When the match starts, you might have a clear sky with the sun shining down on the battlefield, but as the match continues, the weather might take a turn for the worse. You could have a downpour of rain or the fog could roll in on the battlefield, both of which could make it difficult for you to see the enemy.

For EA Play attendees, DICE will have gameplay demos available so that fans can get an idea of what to expect from the game. We'll be back at the venue tomorrow to get some much needed hands-on time with Battlefield 1.

Rexly Peñaflorida II is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware, covering News. Follow him on Twitter.

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This week during GDC 2015, Electronic Arts and Visceral Games announced that a "Premium" membership for Battlefield Hardline will be available when the game launches on March 17, 2015 for the PC, the two Xbox consoles, and the two PlayStation consoles. This membership program will come packed with extra goodies that require a one-time $50 on top of the game's retail cost.

"The game delivers a fresh and stylish new entry to the critically-acclaimed Battlefield franchise as players take to the gritty streets of Los Angeles and Miami in a crime-fueled showdown between cops and criminals," the press release stated. "A new class of weapons, vehicles, and gadgets pushes players to approach the gameplay in entirely new ways."

According to the two companies, members of Battlefield Hardline Premium will receive new themed player masks that provide "unique benefits." Players will also receive a gun bench that allows them customize weapons and track the stats of each. They'll even be able to participate in Premium ladders and tournaments, and replay the entire progression system.

In addition to those features, Premium members will have access to the expansion packs two weeks earlier than standard players. These expansion packs include new multiplayer maps, new vehicles, new game modes and new in-game content. The DLC packs include Criminal Activity, Robbery, Getaway and Betrayal.

Finally, the Premium membership will include twelve Gold Battlepacks and a place at the front of the line during server queues. Also included is access to Premium events like double-XP and in-game sessions, as well as new personalization options such as ammo skins, gun cameos and more.

So what will PC gamers need to run Battlefield Hardline? The minimum list includes an AMD Athlon II / Phenom II clocked at 2.8 GHz or an Intel Core i3 or i5 clocked at 2.4 GHz. They'll also need an AMD Radeon HD 5770 (1 GB VRAM) or an Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 (896 MB) GPU. Other minimum requirements include DirectX 11, 60 GB of free space on the hard drive, 4 GB of RAM and the 64-bit of Windows Vista SP2 at the very least.

As for the recommended specifications, PC gamers will need an Intel-based quad-core CPU or an AMD-based six-core CPU. They will also need an AMD Radeon R9 290 or an Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 GPU with 3 GB of VRAM, 8 GB of RAM, DirectX 11, 60 GB of free space on the hard drive and a 64-bit copy of Windows 8.1.

Given that the game's launch isn't that far away, gamers may want to pre-purchase Battlefield Hardline. The base game costs $59.99, but for $10 more, PC gamers can get the Digital Deluxe version that includes ten Gold Battlepacks, a Suppression Battlepack, a Precision Battlepack and a Versatility Battlepack.

EA is also throwing in a guarantee: don't like Battlefield Frontline? Just return it!

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With E3 2014 just about upon us, we're getting rather excited about the lineup of new games we'll see next week. With the console releases out of the way, game publishers and the three console heads will be pushing AAA content such as Halo 5, Uncharted 4 and Super Smash Bros. Wii U. On the PC side, we'll have plenty to chew on like Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Battlecry, Star Wars: Battlefront and loads more.

What we've done below is piece together a list of PC games and a few console titles, some of which are confirmed and some of which are rumored to make an appearance next week. We threw a few console titles in there because some of us actually have consoles despite rooting for Team PC (traitors we know).

In addition to this list, we expect a few surprises coming from the publishers as well, especially Electronic Arts who will be revealing six new titles during its media briefing on Monday. In the meantime, have a look at the long list:

2K GAMES
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Civilization: Beyond Earth
Evolve

ACTIVISION
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Destiny (console only)

BETHESDA
Battlecry
Dishonored II
The Evil Within

CAPCOM
Resident Evil 7
Ultra Street Fighter IV

ELECTRONIC ARTS
Battlefield: Hardline
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Mass Effect 4
Mirror's Edge 2
Star Wars: Battlefront
The Sims 4

MICROSOFT
Halo 5: Guardians (Xbox One only)

NAMCO BANDAI
Lords of the Fallen

NINTENDO
Super Smash Bros. Wii U
The Legend of Zelda Wii U

SEGA
Alien: Isolation

SQUARE ENIX
Kingdom Hearts 3 (console only)

SONY
Uncharted 4 (PS4 only)

UBISOFT
Assassin's Creed Unity
Far Cry 4
The Crew
Tom Clancy's The Division

WARNER BROS
Batman Arkham Knight
Mad Maxx
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt

If you're interested in watching the four press events on Monday, here are the times and locations:

MICROSOFT
Pre-show: 9 AM PDT
Briefing: 9:30 AM PDT
Post-show is immediately after Twitch.tv.
The media briefing will be shown on Xbox.com, on the Xbox consoles, on Spike TV and on the Windows Phone app.

ELECTRONIC ARTS
12:00 PM PDT / 3:00 PM EDT
Stream the show from www.ea.com/e3 and www.twitch.tv.

UBISOFT
3:00 PM PDT / 6:00 PM EDT
Stream the show from Ubisoft's YouTube page and www.twitch.tv.

SONY
6:00 PM PDT / 9:00 PM PDT
Stream the show from PlayStation.blog, PlayStation.com and Ustream.tv/playstation. The event will also be shown in more than 40 movie theaters across the country.

NINTENDO
Tuesday @ 9:00 AM PDT / 12:00 PM EDT
Stream the show from e3.nintendo.com/.

Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment and publisher Electronic Arts have launched a page on EA's website dedicated to troubleshooting issues with the new game. This site is broken into four components: installation, connectivity, crashing and hardware, and covers topics such as installing the game on a 32-bit platform to installing a special beta graphics driver.

According to the site, if the installation fails at 20 percent, then there may be an issue with the gamer's installation of DirectX. If the installation fails at 31 percent, then there may be a problem encountered while downloading Titanfall's audio file. For the former, reinstall DirectX or contact Microsoft if the problem persists. For the latter, open Origin, hit the My Games tab, right-click on Titanfall and select "repair."

"Some players are reporting installation issues with Titanfall when using a hard drive formatted FAT32," reads the guide. "Due to file-size restrictions inherent to FAT32 systems, some of the larger files within the Titanfall installation are unable to be managed by these hard drives. To successfully install Titanfall, make sure your hard drive is formatted NTFS. You can find instructions on how to convert a hard drive partition to NTFS straight from Microsoft."

The guide reports that "exceedingly" slow Internet connections may cause an error message when joining a server or playing the game. Some players may even find themselves stuck in an infinite loop when trying to connect. To solve this issue, the guide suggests that players unplug their routers from their electrical source for 15 seconds, and then plug it back in.

"PC players with specific Intel processors, specifically those with Intel Graphics, must download and install a special beta graphics driver to ensure their game runs properly," reads the guide. "You can find this driver, along with a full list of what Intel processors the driver is compatible with, straight from Intel."

Not listed on the new Titanfall troubleshooting guide is the problem some PC gamers are having with multi-GPU setups. Respawn said in a tweet that they are aware of the issue and will fix the problem with an upcoming patch.

Are you having problems with Titanfall?

Gaming accessories company Mad Catz today announced a new partnership with Electronic Arts that will see the peripheral company produce a range of Titanfall-branded products. Mad Catz didn't go into too much detail on the Titanfall product line, but the company did say that we can expect the product range to include Tritton gaming headsets, R.A.T. mice, S.T.R.I.K.E. keyboards, F.R.E.Q. gaming headsets and G.L.I.D.E. gaming surfaces.

"Titanfall has earned critical acclaim and won numerous awards, including Best of Show, Best Original Game, and Best Online Multiplayer at this year's E3 conference," said Darren Richardson, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Mad Catz. "Mad Catz is excited to bring a range of cutting-edge, innovative, Titanfall-branded products to gamers in connection with one of the most anticipated game launches in recent history. The Titanfall license builds on Mad Catz' strategy to align our product portfolio with AAA content that appeals to passionate gamers."

FPS Titanfall is due out early next year, so you won't be able to get your hands on these new peripherals until then (at the earliest). You'll also have to wait a while on pricing or images. We'll keep you posted!

Follow Jane McEntegart @JaneMcEntegart. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Though Microsoft revealed the Xbox One as its next-generation console, gamers who tuned into the announcement were probably a little disappointed. Microsoft made it pretty clear in the first half hour that the announcement was going to be all about the One's other entertainment features. Anything about gaming would be banished to the company's E3 conference in a few weeks.

Still, Microsoft made the wise move to not entirely neglect a hardcore gaming audience. In between discussing the new TV deals that would be coming to the Xbox, it sneaked in a few glimpses of games. EA Sports's Andrew Wilson took to the stage to briefly show off the new FIFA, Madden, NBA Live, and UFC games, taking particular care to announce that there would be FIFA 14 Ultimate Team content exclusive to the Xbox One.

Microsoft's Phil Spencer of Microsoft Studios followed up EA Sports with the announcement of Forza Motorsports V and a new Remedy Entertainment (the developer behind Max Payne and Alan Wake) exclusive. Quantum Break, an exclusive launch title, featured a trailer that was a confusing blend of live action and gameplay footage that featured a ship crashing into a bridge. Of course, no explanation was provided.

The rest of the reveal neglected to mention any videogames beyond a Call of Duty: Ghosts trailer and the tangentially-related Halo-Steven Spielberg TV deal.

For gamers, the reveal was a little underwhelming. Where were the 15 exclusives (eight of which are to be original IP) that Microsoft promised? Or better yet, where are Microsoft's priorities with the launch of its new "gaming" console?

NEC has expanded its high-end MultiSync EA series of monitors with the EA234WMi, which features a 23-inch LED backlit AH-IPS panel with a native resolution of 1920 x 1080. As with other IPS panels, the EA234WMi features a brightness of 250 cd/m², viewing angles of 178° / 178°, and a dynamic contrast ratio of 25,000:1.

The monitor also features a DisplayPort, DVI-D, D-Sub, HDMI and VGA inputs with NEC’s ControlSync technology that allows users to control up to six EA234WMi displays in a multi-monitor configuration through a single "master" monitor. The EA234WMi is mounted on an ergonomic adjustable stand with 130 mm height adjustment, tilt, swivel and pivot. Additionally, it includes a four-port USB 2.0 hub, integrated speakers (2 x 1W) and a headphone jack.

"We are excited to add the MultiSync EA234WMi to our portfolio. This model offers a robust feature set to meet the needs of the most demanding users," said Kevin Christopherson, Director of Product Marketing for Desktop Displays at NEC Display Solutions.

"Not only will customers get exceptional performance, but this display also has received the highest levels of environmental certifications."

The NEC MultiSync EA234WMi will be available in May 2013 for $269 with a three year limited parts and labor warranty.

ECS (Elitegroup Computer Systems) and EA (Eternal Asia) have finalized their work on two whitebox tablets that are now offered to vendors across the world. Expect these devices to become available in the U.S. in July or August.

The first tablet is the ECS Sunny Hill TM105A model, a 10-inch Android tablet based on the Z2460 Medfield processor running at 1.6 GHz. The device comes with Android 4.0.4 and a screen resolution of 1280 x 800 (5-point multi touch). The tablet aims at the mass market with 1 GB memory, 16 GB flash storage, a 2 MP rear camera and a 0.3 MP front camera. According to ECS, the 6600 mAh battery lasts up to seven hours of continuous video playback.

Those specs aren't overly impressive, but ECS is selling this tablet for $186 to Channel Partners, which should result in a $299 or $329 retail price, given that the typical retailer asks for a 25 percent cut of the retail price.

EA is offering an 11.6-inch Windows 8 tablet based on Intel's Celeron 1007u/NM70 processor with an Ivy Bridge core. While we do not know how heavy the ECS tablet is, the EA tablet weighs a hefty 950 g, which compares to 652 g for the iPad. The device delivers a somewhat underwhelming feature set with 1366 x 768 pixels screen resolution (10-point multi touch), as well as a 2 MP rear camera and a 1 MP front camera. However, it appears that the industry is now targeting at least 4 GB of system memory and 64 GB of flash storage for mass market Windows 8 tablets, which this device includes.

The channel price for the EA tablet is $353, which has a retail price of at least $599, since the $353 channel price does not even include the licensing fee for Windows 8. This may look like a good deal for a 64 GB tablet, but it is a lot of money for a mass market tablet with a screen resolution that we could describe as average at best.

Even if Windows 8 is a much better OS for tablets than it is for PCs, it will be tough for Microsoft to make a huge dent into the market if the company does not find a way to bring the Windows 8 tablet pricing down.

Last night in San Francisco, the press and game industry professionals got to view the “Fishing in Baku” 17- minute gameplay demo on the big screen at the 2013 Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. The theater was packed- the only reason it wasn’t standing room only is they carefully counted how many people got in. The gameplay demo can be seen in its entirety below.

Besides being smooth and slick (and taking a few seconds to adjust to on a 28-foot movie screen) EA stresses the more interactive nature of the game. While the game is still ‘directed’, as they put it, it is designed to be less ‘on rails’ and to allow the player to choose their own route. They promise destructible environments, specifically in ways that make you able to change the route to the destination by, for instance, blowing out a wall.

While the footage we’ve been show does look good indeed, no information about the specifications for the system used to create the demo were given.

EA says Battlefield 4 will ship during EA’s fiscal year 2014, which means any time up until March 2013.

_{Contact Us for News Tips, Corrections and Feedback}

For the past week, Maxis and EA have been dealing with the PR and technical fiasco that was SimCity's launch. Since the game requires an online connection to play, players have had to deal with server issues. Many accused EA of forcing SimCity to be always-online for DRM purposes. However, both the developer and publisher have gone on record to say that the always-online was necessary for in-game calculations that had to be performed by the servers.oio

According to an unnamed Maxis employee that spoke to Rock Paper Shotgun, this is apparently a lie. Allegedly, the servers are not performing any of the claimed calculations, and that taking SimCity offline would be a relatively easy feat.

“The servers are not handling any of the computation done to simulate the city you are playing," said the inside source. "They are still acting as servers, doing some amount of computation to route messages of various types between both players and cities. As well, they’re doing cloud storage of save games, interfacing with Origin, and all of that. But for the game itself? No, they’re not doing anything. I have no idea why they’re claiming otherwise. It’s possible that Bradshaw misunderstood or was misinformed, but otherwise I’m clueless.”

Both Kotaku and Mojang's Notch claim to have been able to play the game offline. According to Kotaku's Stephen Totilo, he was able to turn off his Internet connection while playing and continue playing the game for about twenty minutes before he was notified that his game was no longer connected to the Internet. When he reconnected to the Internet, his game was able to successfully synchronize to the servers without a hitch.

The Maxis source explained that while the servers aren't handling any computations, they are doing something. They're processing any data between players and checking to make sure that players aren't cheating: “Because of the way Glassbox was designed, simulation data had to go through a different pathway. The game would regularly pass updates to the server, and then the server would stick those messages in a huge queue along with the messages from everyone else playing. The server pulls messages off the queue, farms them out to other servers to be processed and then those servers send you a package of updates back. The amount of time it could take for you to get a server update responding to something you’ve just done in the game could be as long as a few minutes. This is why they disabled Cheetah mode, by the way, to reduce by half the number of updates coming into the queue.”

RPS's inside source's final verdict on the difficulty of taking SimCity offline? "It wouldn’t take very much engineering to give you a limited single-player game without all the nifty region stuff," he stated.

_{Contact Us for News Tips, Corrections and Feedback}

Mojang is the perfect definition of "indie." The studio came out of nowhere and produced a PC game that's become so popular, that it's help reinvigorate the stagnant platform. Minecraft is not only innovative, but it's extremely "lite" and can be enjoyed by gamers of all ages. Even more, it's a pure independent title, meaning there's no publisher involved to steer the game towards a more lucrative route.

That said, it's understandable why Minecraft creator and Mojang founder Markus "Notch" Persson gets a little annoyed when big publishers use the "indie" term. Notch, along with many other developers, is currently lashing out at "publicly-held mega-publisher" Electronic Arts for launching a bundle of games called the "EA Indie Bundle" on Valve's Steam platform.

"EA releases an 'indie bundle'? That's not how that works, EA," Notch complained via Twitter. "Stop attempting to ruin everything, you bunch of cynical bastards. Indies are saving gaming. EA is methodically destroying it. The games in the bundle are good, I'm not questioning them. I'm questioning EA."

Other developers claim that EA is trying to cash in on a grassroots term given how independent games have turned the PC gaming industry around. However the bundle itself does contain titles from independent studios whose games have been published by the company including DeathSpank and DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue from Hothead Games, Gatling Gears from Vanguard Games, Shank and Shank 2 from Klei Entertainment and Warp from Trapdoor Inc.

So then what's the big deal? With huge publishers like EA using the "indie" label, it lowers the meaning behind the term -- at least, that's what developers seemingly think. "We're simply going to have to come up with a NEW word for 'indie.' One that's clearly-defined and THE MAN can't take away from us," mused Size Five's Dan Marshall. "Let's gather some indies together for a quick 'AAA Bundle,' then we're square."

Still, many developers don't see a problem with the EA "indie" bundle. They point out that the titles are developed by independent studios, but just published by the EA Partners label. But given that Mojang saw success without the help of a publisher, their view of "indie" may be a bit more down to earth than EA, hence the hostility.

EA’s do

wnload distribution service, Origin, essentially a makeover for the old EA Store, launched the summer of last year. Although EA assured that the service wasn’t meant to be a competitor for Valve’s Steam, curiously, various EA titles became “Origin” exclusive or disappeared off of Steam’s virtual shelves. EA pointed an accusing finger at Steam, blaming Steam’s download policies for EA’s title’s removal. In all but words, EA is going for a bout of fisticuffs with Valve.

Valve head Gabe Newell had some interesting things to say about Origin. When asked on the Seven Day Cooldown podcast about his thoughts on the Origin service, Newell stated, “I don’t think they’re [Origin] doing anything super-well yet.” He believes that Origin, since it’s still relatively new to the market as a digital distribution service, is at a disadvantage because “they’re still playing catch up” and as a result, they’ve yet to really build anything that’s “useful to software developers or gamers.”

However, Newell did have some positive comments about EA as well. He stated that Valve would still want EA’s games on Steam’s virtual shelves, but if “EA wants to take their shot at their own alternative to Steam, and if they’re successful at that and their customers like that then that’s great.” He hopes that EA will listen to Valve’s advice that bringing EA games to Steam would please Valve customers, after all, “Tim Sweeney [Epic Games founder] doesn't look at Steam and say 'we shouldn't support that because that will hurt long term sales of the Unreal Engine'. He's like, 'that's pretty cool, that's pretty useful'. So hopefully EA get their head to the same place.”

EA and Origin have been facing a lot of criticism from fans, mostly due to bad customer support. However, it seems that EA’s been taking steps to turn Origin’s image around, recently introducing an update to Origin’s account policies that allow banned players to continue to access their games. Although it’s highly unlikely, maybe EA will continue to listen to their fans’ pleas to bring EA games back to Steam.

Although Crysis 3 is expected to be formally announced in the Swedish edition of Game Reactor magazine, that hasn't stopped an Electronic Arts employee from hitting the "publish" button and exposing the details prematurely on Origin. Naturally the error was caught and the info removed, but not before a quick-draw NeoGAF user took a screenshot and posted it online for all Crysis fans to behold.

The only real news so far is that there will be Limited Edition versions for the Xbox 360 (box), Windows PC (box) and Windows PC (direct download). The listing had the price set to $49.99 -- even the direct download version -- but did not provide an ESRB rating (pending). Unfortunately, that's all we got.

Notice the game is slated for the Xbox 360, and not the next-gen version, meaning Crysis 3 could be available before 4Q13. What's also missing from the listing is a version for the PlayStation 3. Accidental?

Based on the product box art, it's assumed that Crysis 3 may see more of a New York landscape and less jungle action as seen with Crysis 2. The image also depicts the main protagonist (presumably Alcatraz) holding a science-fiction themed bow. Little else is shown in the product image, and the front covers of Game Reactor April 2012 editions also shows very little save for what looks like a smoke-covered Manhattan landscape.

Crytek has indirectly confirmed development of the third installment for some time now. The German developer initially tossed out a hint back in January, saying that it knew where the story would progress. Then in February a job listing appeared suggesting that the studio was working on a new project with Crysis 2 publisher EA. Another hint appeared just last month, as Crytek said it would reveal a "spectacular" console/PC game in April.

Up until now, it was presumably Crysis 3. And while it could still be another IP entirely, EA's Origin may have pulled the rabbit out of the magician's hat a bit too early, spoiling the surprise.

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Looking for a new router for your home network? Cisco unveiled on Thursday a new line of Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Routers with app-enabled capabilities, the EA Series (EA4500, EA3500 and EA2700). Priced from $99 to $199, all three promise exceptional wireless performance and maximum throughput, as well as support for Cisco Connect Cloud which provides simple anytime, anywhere management of multiple home networks.

"Users can give guests Internet access, set parental controls, and add devices to their network from anywhere at any time through Cisco Connect Cloud's easy-to-use password-protected site," the company said. "New apps coming from Cisco and partners will deliver additional capabilities for connected devices, so that consumers can benefit from improved home network experiences right away and for years to come."

The new EA Series will help usher in the Connected Home experience, as Cisco is currently working with Whirlpool and more than two dozen other companies, app developers and service providers who are pushing towards network-connected "smart" appliances. "The next generation of Cisco home Smart Wi-Fi Routers together with our smart appliances will allow consumers to effortlessly control their devices in or away from their home," said Warwick Stirling, Global director of Energy and sustainability for Whirlpool.

Cisco's Linksys EA4500 will be the flagship of the three, costing $199 and providing dual-band Wireless N connectivity up to 900 Mbps. Features include four Gigabit Ethernet ports, one USB port, a DNLA server, basic parental controls, guest access and support for IPv6. This model will be ideal for large, multi-room homes and home theaters, and for faster HD video streaming on tablets, TVs and mobile devices.

Next on the list is the Linksys EA3500, costing $139. This version provides dual-band Wireless N connectivity up to 750 Gbps. Like the previous model, this router has four Gigabit Ethernet ports, one USB port, a DNLA media server, basic parental controls, guest access and support for IPv6. Cisco says this model is ideal for active online households and home theaters, and for streaming HD video and music plus multiplayer gaming.

Finally Cisco's Linkysys EA2700 rounds out the trio, costing a mere $99 and providing dual-band Wireless N connectivity up to 600 Mbps. What's missing from this model is the USB port, otherwise it sports the same features as its other two EA Series brothers. This one is ideal for networking larger households and home offices, and for basic Web use like browsing, emailing and printing wirelessly.

The Linksys EA Series is now available at major retailers including Amazon.com, Best Buy, NewEgg, Target and Walmart, as well as the Linksys online store. The new Cisco Connect Cloud Web-based software is planned for availability worldwide at no additional cost in June. New apps and partner solutions that take advantage of the Cisco home network platform are also planned for availability in June.

On Wednesday during GDC 2012, three Maxis creative leads went into greater detail about the multiplayer aspect of SimCity (2013), reporting that the game will have a cloud saving feature which will work continuously in the background as the gamer plays online. A further list of specs reveal that the game will support a 16-player multiplayer scenario -- likely the "region" as described in the official announcement.

On Wednesday Maxis said that SimCity was "built from the ground up to support online" gameplay. The team also mentioned "play anywhere," meaning that gamers can play SimCity across a variety of different devices. This is interesting given the PC-focused announcement released early Wednesday morning. However there's speculation that the game will be playable on devices with a web browser, although the fully-featured version will likely reside as an installed application on the PC.

During the event Maxis also revealed that SimCity was designed to support mods. "We're huge fans of our modding community," creative director Ocean Quigley told the audience. "We've designed all this stuff to be moddable."

"We know modding is hugely important to our community," Quigley added. "We know the reason why people are still playing SimCity 4 ten years later is because the modding community has kept it alive. GlassBox is built to be moddable, but beyond that we haven't announced anything"

Maxis will be using the same package format The Sims and SimCity 4 used, he said. This should make it easier for SimCity 4 modders to make the jump to the new GlassBox engine.

Now for the system requirements. Electronic Arts has posted a single list via Origin, as follows:

Processor:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ or better
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.0 GHz or better

Operating System:
Windows XP/Vista/7

RAM:
Windows XP: 1.5GB
Windows Vista and Windows 7: 2GB
PCs using a built-in graphical chipset are recommended to have 2 GB RAM

Graphics Card:
ATI X1800 or better*
nVidia 7800 or better*
Intel 4100 Integrated Graphics or better*

DVD-ROM:
8x or better

*Minimum of 256 MB of on-board RAM and Shader 3.0 or better support.

EA is already teasing a $79.99 Digital Deluxe Edition and a $59.99 Limited Edition. The latter LE edition sounds awesome, packing super hero and evil villain lairs, characters, crime waves, and associated items. The Deluxe Edition sounds quite different, containing British, French, and German city sets which include popular landmarks like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, London's famous double-decker bus and more.

Electronic Arts and Aeria Games have jointly announced the launch of Lord of Ultima, a new addition to the Ultima franchise that can be played within a browser.

Following the successful launch of Battlefield Heroes and Need for Speed World, Lord of Ultima is the latest, and third, title Aeria Games has released from its multi-game deal for EA’s portfolio of Play4Free games.

"Set in the legendary Ultima universe, the game transports players to the new world of Caledonia where players aim to grow their capital on the path to glory," reads the description. "By exploring new continents and forging a vast empire, players will master the art of diplomacy and trade as well as the military activities of spying, plundering, and conquering enemy cities. Players can mark their place in history by attaining the mighty and feared status as Lord of Ultima."

As indicated, Lord of Ultima is a browser-based massively multiplayer online real-time simulation game that includes 30 diverse buildings and 18 powerful combat units. Players can choose to become either a peaceful merchant or a feared conqueror, whatever strikes their fancy. The game's social ingredients include an advanced trading system, alliance features, and online chat. EA and Aeria also claim that Lord of Ultima is "easy to learn but difficult to master."

EA says there is no registration required to play, and the game was designed "to be fun for everyone." But given that Lord of Ultima is a free-to-play title, the new MMORTS depends on the micro transaction model to survive. That means creating an account and purchasing virtual funds with real-world cash to build an empire at an accelerated rate.

Lord of Ultima is available to play now on Aeria Games’ network in all supported languages, including English, German, Turkish, Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

If you're looking for something interesting but cheap to play on your sparkling new hardware, Amazon has kicked-off a huge one-day sale on downloadable PC games. While Amazon isn't exactly community-driven like Steam, the online retailer retains the purchase within the cloud, allowing customers to download their game now or later. This definitely comes in handy when hard drives give up the ghost.

Amazon's sale consists of 21 titles ranging from the original Dead Space to Crysis 2. Prices range from $5.00 USD to $34.99 USD. The cheapest games you'll find here are Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, Dead Space and Duke Nukem Forever for Mac. Here's the complete list:

Alice: Madness Returns ($7.49)ANNO 2070
($34.99)Battlefield Bad Company 2
($7.99)Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam - Expansion [Online Game Code]
($7.99)Bulletstorm
($7.99)Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box
($5.00)Civilization IV and V - Pack
($17.98)Crysis Maximum Edition
($8.99)Crysis 2
($9.99)Dead Space
($5.00)Dead Space 2
($7.99)Darkspore
($7.99)Dragon Age Pack
($11.99)Dragon Age Pack [Mac]
($11.99)Duke Nukem Forever [Mac
] ($5.00)Medal of Honor
($7.99)Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
($7.99)Sid Meiers Civilization IV: The Complete Edition
($8.99)Sid Meier's Civilization V
($8.99)Spore
($7.99)Spore [Mac]
($7.99)

Also, here's a list of instructions regarding game keys and re-downloading:

If your product requires keys or codes you can retrieve them from Your Game Library by following these instructions:
1. Finish downloading your game
2. Visit Your Game Library at www.Amazon.com/YourGameLibrary/
3. Find your game in the list
4. Click on the "View Product Key" button.

You will also be able to re-download your game again whenever you want from Your Game Library by clicking on the "Download" button.

If you need more information, please visit Amazon Game Downloads Help:
www.Amazon.com/Help/GameDownloads/

Generals 2 is promised to deliver "cutting-edge visuals, sound, and destruction that will bring a new level of fidelity to strategy games." The release date is sometime in 2013.

The story of Command & Conquer Generals 2 puts users in the scenario of terrorist attacks that disrupt a world peace treaty, kill all leading politicians and put the globe's military powers in control. The player assumes military control to defeat terrorism. EA said that gamers will direct "three unique factions in a thrilling single-player campaign, and with friends online in cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes."

“For the last eight years, Command & Conquer fans have been begging for a return to the Generals universe,” said Jon Van Caneghem, Executive Producer of Command & Conquer Generals 2. “With Generals 2, we are bringing the Command & Conquer franchise back to its roots, blending strategic gameplay with fast-paced action -- all set in visually stunning theaters of war powered by Frostbite 2.”

The original Command & Conquer game was released in 1995. More than 30 million copies of the series have been sold since then.

In an interview with Eurogamer, Richard Garriott said that his current project dubbed as Ultimate RPG could theoretically become Ultima Online 2. Nothing is set in stone as of this writing, but he admitted that he and EA were on speaking terms and may work together again in the near future.

"We've actually talked to Electronic Arts about [Garriott leading Ultima Online again]," he said. "I would love to have access to the Ultima property. We've had discussions at very high levels with Electronic Arts about access to the property. We're in discussions with Electronic Arts even now about a possible marketing and distribution relationships and things of this nature."

He said there's a split within EA about a possible collaboration: one side that's all thumbs up over the idea, and one half that's resistant because some people have their own ideas about future Ultima projects, and some that seem to have their own ideas about Garriott's possible involvement. Regardless, he's open to the idea of a collaboration, but the Ultima "spiritual successor" wouldn't be a clear, direct sequel.

"If you look back at Ultimas 1, 2, 3 - they weren't related to the rest [of the games]," he said. "Five of the later six games were all in literally the exact same world with the exact same characters and cities I actually think it's time to move on from that regardless, so even if we were to have access to the properties of my historical work, I don't think I would change my current plans. I'm very confident of the current plans as the right way to evolve my creation, regardless."

But the game will keep its isometric presentation whether it's Ultima Online 2 or Ultimate RPG, yet Garriott's team has created a toolset that will allow the game to be either isometric or an actual non-flat 3D presentation. It will also be free-to-play and have the ability to perform on any major platform (notably PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Android, etc).

"We are platform agnostic," Garriott explained. "We will do social media, we will do downloadable executable, we will do web browser and we will do mobile, iPhone, iPad, Android. Our intention is to do the same game across all those. I don't want to do the game where it plays on everything except your iPhone and we'll do some miniature trading game or some hamstrung version. That's not my interest."

To read the full interview, head here.

Battlefield 3 goes on sale in less than a month, and EA finally opened the beta yesterday for press and those who already pre-ordered. There's no doubting that BF3 is one of the most hotly-anticipated titles of 2011, especially if you're a PC gamer. Chances are you've seen all the trailers, TV spots and videos (this one is my favorite), and now you're looking for something a little more substantial...

I've logged about five hours in the beta so far, and if I was unemployed, that number would probably be 2-3 times that. Before going into any more detail, it's important to note that this is a beta, so some things are intentionally rough and incomplete.

Starting with Origin; the service is pretty intuitive, simple, and didn't make me pull my hair out and/or smash my keyboard against the wall. EA has made several attempts at digital downloads - outside of Steam - in the past (EA Download Manager, EA Link), and all of those services were downright awful. While making purchases on Steam was simple and effective, I would intentionally avoid EADM/Link and buy my EA games on Steam or at Best Buy (shudder). Thankfully, EA has pulled its head out of you-know-where, and the end result of that and putting together a solid dev and QA team is Origin.

I've had an Origin account for a while (thanks to Crysis 2 and my BF3 Alpha invite a few months back), so I already had the client installed when the beta started yesterday. Updating the client is a breeze, and no restart is required for such an event. I got an email from EA with my beta code, and I redeemed it like you would any other code on Origin. Less than 90 minutes later, and BF3 was ready to play...almost.

What immediately separates BF3 from its predecessors is Battlelog, a new browser-based service from EA that acts like the server browser you would normally find embedded in the game itself. Why did EA and DICE decide to separate this service out from the game itself? For starters, it makes updating the server browser and its various components much easier, since you don't have to release it in/with a patch for the rest of the game. Updates are done quickly and efficiently, too. Furthermore, Battlelog is more than just a server browser; it also acts as a chat client, stats board, forums, and clan page. Everything that the Battlefield community would do outside of the game has now been brought in-house...not to say that external stats pages and boards aren't necessary, but it's nice having a solid community portal baked into the BF experience by the company making the game.

There are some glitches, however, but hopefully these will be ironed out by the time the beta is complete. Your friends list in Origin is not seamlessly imported to your Battlelog friends list.  The Party function, which allows you and your friends to all join a server at once, doesn't always work, either. Once everything is working as it should, the experience will be nearly as good as playing a game through Steam.

So what about the game? For now, the beta focuses on the same map and mode as the Alpha: Rush on Operation Metro. Plenty of tweaks have been made since the alpha. Blowing up M-COM stations is no longer possible, so it's classic "arm and defuse" for now. M-COM locations have also changed in some of the zones, but only by a few feet. Ultimately, if you've played Rush mode in Bad Company 2, you'll be right at home in in BF3. That said, this game mode tends to favor the team on defense; If you're attacking (trying to blow up the M-COM stations), you're in for a bit of a grind.

Gun control has seen a significant change, as the kick you experience when firing an M16A3 is enough to warrant some serious mouse-dragging when emptying a clip. Rockets have a different feel as well; When using an RPG or SMAW, you need to factor in for distance and gravity way more than in previous titles. Also, the TOW missiles aren't as responsive to movement as I'd like them to be, as there seems to be some significant lag between cursor movement and missile movement. As for weapon damage, there aren't any changes immediately discernible when compared to the Alpha. Compared to Bad Company 2, the food chain (Support machine guns > Assault/Medic assault rifles > Engineer rifles and SMGs) is the same, but Sniper/Recon weapons are very different. Gone are the days where one or two shots are a guaranteed kill. A headshot is necessary to put someone down that fast with the M14, and snipers will be working harder for their kills. All in all, the infantry combat feels more like Medal of Honor than it does Bad Company 2, which makes sense if you factor which engine is used in each game (plus, DICE did the MP work on MoH).

The class design in BF3 harkens back to the days of BF2, as it gives medpacks and defibrillators back to the Assault class, and the ammo packs to the MG-hauling Support. Engineer is the same as it was in Bad Company 2, although your weapon options are a bit beefier (M4, anyone?).

But what about vehicles?! Sadly, there are no vehicles on Operation Metro while playing Rush. The APC that was present in the Alpha is gone, so it's strictly an infantry war. There's supposedly a build of Caspian Border being played on several password-locked servers, complete with several kinds of vehicles. Unfortunately, that is not open to the public, or me, so there isn't much to write about on the front...yet. Based on previous Battlefield games, you can probably guess what vehicles are going to be included in BF3. My hope is that another map is added to the beta at some point in the near future, because I know players are clamoring for a Conquest map with vehicle play. Rush caters more to the Counter-Strike and Call of Duty crowd. Is that an important constituency to lock down? Absolutely, but EA and DICE risk alienating the hardcore Battlefield fanbase by not including a Conquest map.

Graphics: What can be said that hasn't been already? The game is gorgeous, thanks to the new Frostbite 2 engine. Like most betas, you're limited in what can be changed (like motion blur doesn't always turn off, and playing in a window is a bit buggy). My rig (Core i7-860, AMD Radeon 6970, 8 GB DDR3-1600, 300 GB VelociRaptor) handled the game while it was (supposedly) on Ultra settings...but since this is a beta, it's hard to tell when certain setting actually kick in and when they don't.

Thus far, Battlefield 3 has met all of my expectations: The weaponry is diverse and easy to control/manipulate, while the Rush game mode is the same as it is in Bad Company 2, take it or leave it. I've been a devout BF player for years, so I won't be satisfied until I get more time in on a Conquest map (or rather, time that I can actually talk about). Most of the glitches in the game, like the headaches that go with trying to switch squads, will (hopefully) be fixed in the coming weeks.

If I missed anything, or if you have any questions about BF3, leave 'em in the comments and I'll answer them in order. Also, I'll be talking about BF on Twitter, so feel free to hit me up there as well (@devinconnors).

PS

If you're in the beta now, or starting tomorrow, look for me in the servers! (mcdoomington)

Earlier this year when Dead Space 2 was announced, the platform missing from the list that the first game graced was the PC. At the time, EA said that a PC SKU wasn't in the plan.

Then PC gamers spoke out, and EA then changed its tune saying that a PC version was under consideration.

Thankfully, the considering is over and EA confirmed the PC version for release and the official Dead Space Twitter tweeted: "Dead Space PC lovers can relax! Dead Space 2 is officially coming to PC."

Like a proud daddy, EA announced Thursday that its lovechild with developer Maxis has finally turned a big ten-years-old. EA's original The Sims PC game hit the streets on February 4, 2000, and became an unstoppable beast for the next decade. Now in its third installment, the entire franchise has sold has sold more than 125 million units worldwide, racking in more than $2.4 billion in revenue.

"The success of The Sims is something gamers and the gaming business as a whole can be proud of," said Rod Humble, Head of the EA Play label. "With its charming and quirky style, lovely emergent game mechanics and user created creativity that delights every day, The Sims is a game that can be enjoyed by everybody and reflects what you put into it. The future of The Sims is going to be a lot of fun; it is rare for an entertainment franchise to be gaining momentum a decade after release, so this is a particularly pleasant moment for everyone who has worked on the games."

The original Sims PC game is available in 60 countries and 22 languages. By March 22, 2002, the game had sold more than 6.3 million copies, making it the best-selling PC game of all time. On February 7, 2005, more than 16 million copies of The Sims had shipped worldwide. EA and Maxis also churned out seven expansion packs including Livin' Large, Vacation, and Superstar.

The Sims 3, released in June 2009, has sold more than 4.5 million units worldwide to date, and currently holds the #1 spot as the best-selling PC game in 2009 for North America and Europe. The iPhone and iPod Touch version has also become one of the top-selling games on the App Store in 2009, and has even reached the #1 paid Apps spot in nearly 40 countries.

Currently there's no indication that The Sims mammoth will ever stop. We're not too sure how to say "happy birthday" in Simlish, however here's a bit of Klingon: qoSlIj DatIvjaj