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New SSC Challenge DLC hits Live for Army of Two
That copy of Army of Two getting a little stale? Well, good news! Major Nelson just dropped word that new content is now available for EA's co-op action-shooter on the Xbox Live Marketplace.For 600 MS Points ($7.50 US) gamers can add the SSC Challenge Map Pack to their experience. The package includes four two-player co-op maps which allows two teams to compete in the SSC Challenge versus mode for the chance to earn large boatloads of cash. You know, to help purchase that diamond studded shotgun you always wanted. Seriously, we always thought that Private Military corporations were filled with hardcore fighters with tons of baditude, not a bunch of guys who make-believe Pimp My Ride with their killing machines.But hey, we canceled our subscription to Guns N' Ammo, so what do we know?[Thanks, ZEBRA NINER]
New competitive Army of Two maps due out next week
You know you've wanted them, so we're going to tell you about the new Army of Two maps. You and your colleague have mastered the game, you say? Well, time to team up again and conquer the SSC challenge mode -- that's Security and Strategy Corporation for the acronymically-challenged. This new mode offers four brand-new co-op maps to play on that involve two teams rushing to complete a rigorous obstacle course in order to join the SSC. Alan Tascain, VP and General Manager of EA Montreal noted that "We want to support our fans with new content that delivers on the two-man gameplay but with a unique twist." Hopefully it delivers on the unique twist promise. This new pack will be available in the US on April 24th for $7.99 and sometime in May for Europe at GPB 3.80. Sorry again, Europe, for the arbitrary delay on your end.
Army of Two gets SSC Challenge pack April 24
We were a little lukewarm on Army of Two as a complete package, but the best part of the game was easily playing through with a friend. (And at-will fist pounding.) Now, EA's building on that strength with the "SSC Challenge Pack," four co-op maps that pit a pair of two-man teams against each other as they try to earn the most cash and join the SSC, AoT's private military group. We should mention, in the interest of full disclosure, that the maps (to our knowledge) include no new fists pounds or air guitar solos. Sorry. The SSC Challenge Pack, which will hit Xbox Live Marketplace and PSN on April 24, will run you $7.50 or 600 MS points, if you prefer imaginary currency.
March NPD: Wii, Smash Bros. on top, software sales surge
If this is how Nintendo does before the predicted Wii Fit-exacerbated shortages, we're a little scared for what the future will hold. As predicted, Nintendo dominated the March NPD sales report, selling over 720,000 Wiis and 698,000 DS units. The DS and Wii represented 58 percent of hardware sales for March, leapfrogging over one another to swap positions from the February numbers.Further down the list, the Xbox 360 regained an extremely slight sales lead over the PS3, mainly due to a slight dip in Sony's system sales. We predict the systems will likely continue trading slight leads like a couple of fading horses in the home stretch of a marathon-length race, until one inevitably dies just short of the finish line. And speaking of dead horses, the perpetual PS2 finally showed some signs of weakening this month, plummeting down nearly 63 percent from February's sales.- Wii: 721K 289K (40%) - DS: 698K 110.4K (15.8%) [Update: Fixed typo in growth number] - PSP: 297K 53.9K (18.1%) - Xbox 360: 262K 7.4K (2.8%) - PS3: 257K 23.8K (9.3%)- PS2: 216K 135.8K (62.9%)
More than 5 new EA titles to have Unreal Engine 3 under the hood
Electronic Arts likes what it has seen from Unreal Engine 3, so much so that the company has extended its relationship with Epic, giving EA the rights to incorporate the popular middleware solution into more than five upcoming titles. As to what games this impacts EA won't say, only noting that each of the games are currently in development. The company first inked an agreement with Epic in 2006 to use the technology, which has since made its way into such recent titles as Medal of Honor Airborne and last month's fist-pounding Army of Two, proving once and for all that even great technology doesn't make the game.
Zero Punctuation is an army of one in Army of Two
The normally solitary Yahtzee (he is a PC snob after all) takes on Army of Two this week, a game designed to be played co-op -- so we already know this is going to end badly. After becoming frustrated with his computer partner's AI, he decides to invite a friend over and proceeds to become frustrated with his human companion's abilities as well. Like any listener of the Joystiq Podcast already knows, Army of Two has a lot of issues, the least of which is forgetting that for a co-op action shooter it sort of missed the boat on creating an enjoyable co-op experience. This week's NSFW review of Army of Two can be found after the break. Watch it with a friend, or if you're a PC gamer your favorite plant.* *Oh, calm down ... this is coming from the blogger who can spend days playing Civilization IV and Sins of a Solar Empire.
Zero Punctuation: Army of Two is ripped a new one
This week in the land of sarcastic game reviews with few pauses, Yahtzee targets the recently released Army of Two. Choosing to firmly grasp the obvious humor immediately, the review starts of with the expected bromance jokes, and then moves to the horribly cliched story, the poor AI and the lack of QA. As is custom with Zero Punctuation, there is substance behind the speed, and Yahtzee touches on some important gameplay and genre topics. But hey you don't listen to Zero Punctuation for the quality analysis, but rather the quality humor. As is the case with Zero Punctuation, the video can be found after the break, and is not safe for those of you at work.
Reminder: Army of Two demo now available
Finally, the game that created such a kerfuffle on the Joystiq Podcast (and a couple of great Photoshops on our Facebook group) is now available for you to try for free with the Army of Two demo on Xbox Live. Are your knuckles lubed and ready for pounding? Let's hope so.But be aware, as we learned from our listeners, if you play the demo, which includes training and the first level, you will not know if you like it. Even if you go on to play the next few levels after that, trust us, you won't know if it's good or not. You had better just take their word for it.
Army of Two demo makes its way to the XBLM
Just as it was announced last week, a brand spanking new Army of Two demo is available on the Xbox Live Marketplace to all Live subscribers except those in Germany. After downloading this 1.32GB multiplayer demo you and a friend will be able to experience Army of Two co-op battle tactics, co-op camaraderie and lots of co-op killing. Grab the demo if your Army of Two interest is piqued and be sure to bring a friend along for the ride. Death and destruction is always more enjoyable in pairs.
Army of Two demo coming to 360 tomorrow, some DLC info dropped
After you've finished covering your toilet in plastic wrap before a loved one uses it (always hilarious), you can do some April Fool's Day unwinding tomorrow with a demo for Army of Two hitting Xbox Live. According to producer Matt Turner, the demo will include the training area of the game as well as the first level, which should should give you plenty of time to fist pound to your heart's content.For those of you who've already picked up the game, Turner details some of the forthcoming DLC, saying, "1 new multiplayer map arriving as well as 2 new campaign maps in the not too distant future." Sounds great ... now, how about that little regional lockout problem?[Via Gamespot]
Army of Two: Demo on April 1, DLC on the way
It's strange. Games releasing on 360 with no demo, when there is in fact a demo waiting to go live, is getting more and more common nowadays. Having been released for a while now (and having been hugely delayed) Army of Two is now getting a demo on XBLM. On what will soon be the dev blog of the game, Assistant Producer Matt Turner revealed that April 1 (har!) will see the release of the Army of Two demo, and that players should look forward to their upcoming DLC. The Demo will contain the training tutorial and the game's first level, and the DLC will have several components, a single multiplayer map, two new campaign maps, and a new mercs obstacle course called SSC Challenge. No price or release date was given for the DLC at this time, though with the coming-soon status of the EA Montreal dev blog, we can expect more news relatively quickly.
Army of Two region lockout explained
Not long after its release, it was discovered that Army of Two featured a regional lockout that prevented from playing with other parts of the world. In other words, players in North America, Europe, and Asia, have to be content to play with themselves. Hard-nosed problem solvers that they are, the fine folks at Joystiq got to the bottom of the issue by sticking the question to EA directly. The response from Reid Schneider, senior producer of Army of Two: the regional lockout was implemented to prevent slow connections. It seems that Army of Two requires comparable connection speeds from all users in order to properly sync up gameplay animations. As a result, someone with a slow connection can "bring down" the rest of a group, causing less than desirable play. Thus, the lockout was born. In an interesting note, the Asian version of the game is region locked for an entirely different reason: it doesn't allow players to shoot corpses. Attempting to make this feature compatible with the other versions over over Xbox Live caused the game to "fail."So there you have it. There is a dim glow of hope at the end of the tunnel though, as EA is "actively looking into" finding a way to allow cross regional play while still eliminating slow connections.
EA explains Army of Two's regional lockout
Though reviews haven't been consistently kind, most critics seem to label Army of Two's cooperative, fist-pounding gameplay as the best reason to start shooting. The promise of leaving a bloody terrorist trail with a buddy-in-arms does come with one caveat though: The members of your army can't have an ocean between them. Army of Two's online modes are restricted according to region, with the US, European and Asian versions unable to exchange so much as a salutation, let alone a barrage of bullets. Consequently, we spoke to EA Montreal's Reid Schneider, senior producer on Army of Two, in the hopes of learning more about the decision to introduce a territorial lockout across Xbox Live and PSN. While the explanation is unlikely to dissolve your disappointment (not to mention that of Claus, your Swedish best friend), it does spring from EA's belief to do what was best for its game. We don't believe it was the best decision for modern, borderless gamers, but Schneider assured us that the developer is "actively looking into" retooling the game in the future. "We are looking to find a way where we can do it," said Schneider," and not expose users to super slow connections..."
Readers pick best webcomic: Our Crucial Pamphlet
We're not previewing the strip because we don't want to give it away. Penny Arcade's "Our Crucial Pamphlet" narrowly beat out VG Cats' "Communication Degree" to be voted the week's best game-related webcomic.Third place went to GamerPALs. Thanks to everyone who voted, and be sure to let us know of any gaming comics you stumble upon this week!
No EU-US play for Army of Two
"NOTE: The online game modes in Army of Two are not cross region compatible and is only supported between PAL discs." So says page six of the European Army of Two manual, as reported by Sarcastic Gamer. Or, to put it a different way, Europeans and Americans won't be playing any Army of Two together. it's unclear if the European version is still cross region compatible with other countries that use the PAL standard, such as Australia. We join in Sarcastic Gamer's belief that this is really the kind of information that should be listed on the box. We also wonder along with them whether or not this is something we should come to expect from future EA titles. Let's hope not.
Metareview: Army of Two
It's been a while since we did an actual Metareview, hasn't it? If memory serves, our last time was with Mortal Kombat II way back when the site was still blossoming. Well, we've all been fairly swamped and couldn't dish out a proper review for a few games that still deserve attention, so we're bringing the Metareview back for games we want to review, but couldn't get around to playing enough to be confident in our opinions. Today we're covering Army of Two. So how did the game stack up? Take the jump and find out. %Gallery-12566%
This Week in Review: A Smashing Start
Welcome to This Week in Review (formerly This Week in DLC), where we round up all the hands-on impressions and game reviews (including Metareviews) from the Joystiq Network. This week's megaton title should come as no surprise whatsoever.Nintendo Wii First impressions: Super Smash Bros. Brawl Metareview: Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii Fanboy takes Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wi-Fi for a test drive VC Monday Madness: Super Turrican
Army of Two experiencing server issues [Update]
Update: Some readers are letting us know that Army of Two servers are rolling back online now, but some are still experiencing connection drops and laggy gameplay experiences. Email is flying in and message boards are lit like the eternal flame about Army of Two. Gamers are livid because EA servers are having multiple issues including the standard lag found in most online games all the way to not functioning at all. In some cases gamers are reporting that the only multiplayer modes currently working are local games, so no online co-op for you. Message board posters are seem to be having different experiences with the newly released EA third-person shooter, but most agree the overall online experience is not functioning properly. PlayStation users aren't out of the wood either as messages confirm these issues are across the board, not surprising since EA uses their own server farm and does not subscribe to Xbox Live's peer-to-peer method of hosting. At the time of this story three of our own soldiers of the X3F Army have expressed experiences with all available online multiplayer modes within the game. EA has yet to comment on the issues.
Metareview -- Army of Two (Xbox 360, PS3)
Despite a suspicious silence accompanying its (delayed) arrival, EA's smack-talkin' shooter seems to have mostly delivered on its promise of consistently cooperative violence. Unsurprisingly, most reviewers seem to agree that a one-macho-man army is at a disadvantage in Army of Two, with the lone experience highlighting some of the game's flaws and unremarkable design. It might be worth a look if you and your BFF have already blasted everything in Halo 3, Crackdown and Gears of War. IGN (79/100): "As a single player experience, Army of Two is a fine game -– one that manages to provide a fun, engaging time despite its length, AI issues and elements that don't seem fully implemented. However, it's really co-op play and multiplayer where the game stands out, and these two modes will most likely keep you playing for a long time." Game Informer (75/100): "Like dysfunctional characters in a buddy flick, Army of Two has some annoying problems, but if you just want a fun cooperative experience, it gets the job done and delivers sizeable thrills you won't find anywhere else." Eurogamer (70/100): "Any level of the current co-op king, Halo 3, has more spectacle and incident packed into it than the entirety of Army of Two; more that you'll want to relive in company over and over again. Bearing the strong Vs. mode in mind, it would be wrong not to warmly recommend this as a smart twist on a stupid shooter, but perhaps it should have taken itself a little more seriously after all."
Five Army of Two videos to get your blood pumping
So Army of Two is already out in stores. Haven't picked it up yet? Perhaps these five videos can persuade you otherwise, and get you into the mood for blowing stuff up. Just remember though, make sure you play with a buddy. Why? As if "Army of Two" wasn't enough of a hint. In the videos, you'll get to see the skull-masked duo tear it up merc-stlye on a train, on the highway, in the jungle, or just about anywhere these vagrants are getting paid to go to. The co-op gameplay is a welcomed spin on the usual shooter experience, and we can't say we don't love all the funny remarks shared between these two characters. Check out the rest of the clips right after the break.
