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Spend 48 hours torturing loved ones for free in The Sims 4
- EA's latest addition to its Origin Game Time vault is The Sims 4, meaning you can download it now and enjoy a free 48 hours of playing God. To do just that, get your godly ass to Origin. Those 48 hours are real-time rather than in-game, so unless you're planning an unadvised binge you won't get the full two days of free-ness. You can start the free time whenever you want, however, as the 48-hour countdown only begins after you launch the game for the first time. Also, if you later buy The Sims 4 then your Game Time progress does transfer over.
Litter-bomb warning! Theme Hospital is free on Origin
Theme Park may be the Bullfrog game that led to many a follow-up, but for my money Theme Hospital is just as good if not better. It's not just the amusing illnesses - such as Slack Tongue, Bloaty Head and Baldness - or its proficiency at filling up your hospitals with patient barf. The 1997 classic is also an excellently balanced management sim, and it still stands out as unique. How many other hospital management games are there? Luckily, my money isn't on the line, nor is anyone else's. For a limited time Theme Hospital is free to download and keep via EA's PC portal Origin, as part of its On the House program. If you've never tried the game, we'd recommend checking in with this page - doctor's orders. [Image: EA]
Origin slims down its chunkiest gaming laptops
If you'd waved a tape measure at Origin's brawny EOS-17X gaming laptop last year, your fingers would fall at the 2.15-inch mark. Sufficiently shamed by that statistic, the company has put the hardware on a diet, slimming down the hardware to a much more svelte 1.52 inches. Of course, that's not the only change, since Origin has also upgraded the internals to include Intel's Z97 chipset, as well as add the ability to overclock the hardware.
Origin New Year's sale: Dragon Age: Inquisition, The Sims 4
Though all of the calendars here at Joystiq HQ still read "2014" digital retailer Origin is already ringing in the new year with discounts of up to 75 percent off a number of EA's recent and not so recent games. The highlights of Origin's New Year's Sale include epic roleplaying adventure Dragon Age: Inquisition at $40, virtual life hit The Sims 4 at $30 and Battlefield 4 Premium Edition - that's the military shooter plus all of its downloadable additions - at $30. If you'd prefer to rifle through EA's back catalogue, you can find the Mass Effect Trilogy at $15 and the massive Command & Conquer Ultimate Collection, which includes 17 real-time strategy games, at $10. You'll find a full list of current discounts on the sale's Origin page. If anything there catches your eye, you should probably buy it quickly. All of the discounts included in Origin's New Year's Sale disappear on December 27, at 8AM Pacific Time. [Image: EA]
There's a swingin' game I know called SimCity 2000, and it's free
You can reticulate splines like it's 1995 by grabbing the truly classic SimCity 2000 for free, thanks to Origin. EA's PC portal is offering the normally $5 special edition as the latest On the House freebie, but only for a limited time. Once you download it, it's permanently yours to play whenever you want [insert always online gag here]. Everyone had their go-to names for SimCity 2000 creations. Mine were always hints at the egocentric, self-infatuated Sinan lurking beneath. Atrocities like Sinville, Sintown, and the incredibly culturally ignorant SinCity. For real. So, how did you christen your cities? Feel free to name and shame in the comments. [Image: EA]
EA Black Friday: Up to 75 percent off 300 games, DLC
Like GameStop, Walmart and Microsoft, EA's digital distribution service Origin will celebrate Black Friday with big discounts on a wide number of items. Though very recent PC games like Dragon Age: Inquisition maintain their $60 launch prices, slightly older games like The Sims 4 and FIFA 15 are available at $40. Likewise discounted is Titanfall, which can be purchased for $15. The biggest discounts are seen on EA's classic games. The normally $15 Mass Effect is now available at $3.74 while Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 and SimCity 4 are each available for $10. A full rundown of the discounts can be found on Origin. Though Origin's Black Friday sale is available until December 1, you should keep a close eye on the event once Black Friday rolls around. EA won't commit to anything just yet, but the Origin news feed suggests that even bigger discounts will come on November 28. [Image: EA]
Ubisoft pulls 'Far Cry 4' from Steam, then puts it back (update)
What happened not too long ago with Electronic Arts and its Origin platform appears to be happening with Ubisoft too. As Kotaku has noticed, Ubisoft's trio of tentpole releases for this fall -- Assassin's Creed Unity, Far Cry 4 and The Crew -- are no longer available on Valve's game store, seemingly disappearing overnight. Curiously, older entries in each respective franchise are still available (and reasonably priced) on Gabe Newell's one-stop PC-gaming shop. Even weirder yet? VG247 has spotted that ACU and FC4 are now listed on Origin. No, it doesn't make a lot of sense especially considering Ubisoft has its own digital storefront. We've pinged the outfit's PR team for details about what's up and will update this post should we hear back. Update: As many in the comments have pointed out, all three games are in fact available on Steam once again. What was behind their removal? For now at least, Ubisoft isn't saying.
Second chance for a week-long free Battlefield 4 trip on Origin
If you missed it the first time, EA PC portal Origin is offering a week's worth of free Battlefield 4 game time once more. EA didn't say how long this second-time-around offer will be available for, just as the publisher didn't for Titanfall back in August. For the record, you can still test-drive Respawn's mechs for 48 hours - the offer's not gone away - so read into that what you will. If you claimed your Game Time the first go around, sorry, there are no do-overs. As before, your 7 days or 168 hours or 10,080 minutes or 604,800 sec... sorry, got a bit carried away there. So, your week of Battlefielding won't start until the moment you launch the game. Just remember, it's not a week of in-game time, but of real-world time. So once you start the game, 7 days later or 168 hours later or... Let's just end this here by noting EA's extra incentive is double XP between November 6-10 for everybody, including Game Time newbies. Also, your XP and all your other progress carries over into the full game if you choose to buy it. [Image: EA]
Dragon Age: Origins now free on Origin, naturally
EA's digital distribution platform Origin now offers users a free download of the publisher's flagship fantasy roleplaying series, Dragon Age: Origins. You may recall Dragon Age: Origins as the expansive, complex roleplaying game that gave everyone hope that developer BioWare could still do high fantasy akin to its excellent Dungeons & Dragons games of the 1990s. Plus, it introduced the world to Ser Pouncealot, the finest combat kitty this side of Eternia. Our review awarded Origins five stars while describing it as "a glowing example of the RPG genre done very right." Normally the game is priced at $20 on Origin, but "utterly free" is an undeniably better price for such a captivating adventure. There's only one major caveat attached to this deal: You must have a valid Origin membership. Fortunately, acquiring a membership is both free and relatively quick, so if you're interested in a gratis copy of Dragon Age: Origins, visit the digital distribution platform and sign up. [Image: EA]
FIFA 15 demo starts rolling out today
Like Lionel Messi or an overexcited baby, FIFA 15 is dribbling all over the place this week thanks to the arrival of its demo. Xbox Live Gold members can already take out EA's sim for a kickabout on Xbox One and Xbox 360 (free members can join in starting September 16) and it's also confirmed to be hitting PC later today. Going by PSN tradition, the demo should reach digital stores on PS4 and PS3 later today too. As ever, Euro PS owners have to wait until tomorrow. The demo itself lets up to two players trial with eight club teams, including Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona, Boca Juniors, Napoli and Paris St. Germain. It also features a FIFA Ultimate Team demo for those who dream of dream teams.
Get a free mech-over, Titanfall back on Origin Game Time
Titanfall returns to Origin Game Time, meaning PC users who missed the promotion the first time round can now take Respawn's mech-stuffed shooter for a 48-hour test drive. EA doesn't say how long the offer will be available for, but the good news is your 48 hours of free shootin' only become active when you launch the game for the first time. Those 48-hours are real-time and not in-game. So if you start midday on Saturday your game time runs out midday on Monday, no matter how you've spent it. Still, you can't argue with free. Well, you can, but there are better things to argue with, like paper cuts and the necessity of shaving. Finally, if you did take up the first Game Time offer back in June, you won't be able to take part this time. The news follows EA's unveiling of the third DLC pack, IMC Rising, which drops sometime this fall. We haven't yet decided if IMC Rising sounds more like a bank or a hip-hop group. [Image: EA]
EA offers 72 free hours of Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare
Inexplicable yet surprisingly competent third-person shooter Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare is the latest addition to EA's Origin Game Time service, a promotion that grants players free access to full games for a limited time. Here's how it works: If you pay a visit to the Game Time website, you'll find a list of relatively recent EA games. At the top of this list is Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare. If you have a valid Origin account, you'll be able to download the PC shooter at no charge. From the moment you start playing the game, Origin will start a countdown and once 72 hours have elapsed, the game will cease to function. Think of this as yet another timed demo from a publisher that is growing increasingly fond of the trend. On the positive side, those who dip their toes into the world of vegetable-on-corpse violence via this promotion will be playing the latest version of the shooter, with all the DLC maps and characters that have been released for the game to date. And, if you'd like to continue gunning down sunflowers and the walking dead after your 72-hour trial has ended, you can purchase Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare from Origin for $30. [Image: EA]
Play Battlefield 4 free through Origin for one week
Origin is offering Battlefield 4 for free on a limited basis as part of its Game Time program. Players who want to dive into the PC game have until next Thursday, August 14 to add it to their libraries on the game distribution platform. The one-week, full game trial won't begin until players download the game for the first time, so there's no rush to play it immediately before next Thursday. EA first announced the Origin Game Time program in June. It kicked the free trial service off with Titanfall, which was free to play for 48 hours. Battlefield 4 isn't the only game that's free for Origin users, as Wing Commander 3 is free for players to download until September 2. Unlike Battlefield 4, the space combat game is the latest in Origin's "On the House" games that stay in your library at no extra cost. [Image: EA]
Wing Commander 3 free to fly on Origin
Wing Commander 3 is currently free to download through Origin as the latest "On the House" freebie for the platform. The game is free until September 2, at which point it will reapply its usual $4.99 price tag. The third game in the Wing Commander series, which dates back to 1990, first launched for PC and Mac in 1994. The space combat series was devised by Chris Roberts, who returned to the games industry in September 2012. Roberts crowdfunded his next initiative, Star Citizen, reaching $6.2 million in November 2012. Not that Star Citizen stopped earning big bucks; as of July the game has racked up $48 million in pledges from fans. [Image: EA]
Get 'The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection' for free this month
It seems as if this week is a good one to get stuff on the cheap or even for free. First, Marvel announced a promo yesterday which gave access to its Unlimited comics service for 99 cents, and now EA has quietly revealed that it's giving away copies of The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection. You'll need to have Origin, EA's software distribution platform, installed on your machine to take advantage of this deal, but it's as easy as entering a code for old and new users alike. Just don't expect EA to keep supporting the classic game after you install it, since the publisher brought closure to that a few days ago. The Windows download on Origin will be available until July 31st at 1:00AM ET, which means there's plenty of time to let it all sink in and cancel whatever you had planned for the weekend.
The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection free through Origin this week
After recently ending official support for the PC version of 2004's The Sims 2, Electronic Arts is now offering all Origin users a copy of The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection for free, through the end of the month. Users can redeem the expansion-bundled freebie by entering the code "I-LOVE-THE-SIMS" after choosing "Redeem Product Code" from the Games tab after firing up the Origin front-end. Downloads will remain available through July 31st at 10 a.m. PDT, so act fast if you want to add the classic human-torment simulator to your Origin library. [Image: EA Maxis]
Star Wars Galaxies lead designer passes away
Massively is saddened by the news that veteran MMO designer Ben Hanson has passed away, according to a recent tweet by friend and fellow designer Raph Koster. Koster and Hanson worked together on Star Wars Galaxies's Jump to Lightspeed expansion, on which Hanson was the lead content designer. In addition to working at SOE, Hanson worked with Simutronics, Origin, ArenaNet, and Digital Anvil during his long career. Our deepest condolences go out to Ben Hanson's family and friends.
Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare crops up on PC
As promised, PopCap's formerly Xbox exclusive, third-person shooter Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare is now available on PC. According to publisher EA, the PC incarnation of Garden Warfare boasts a new co-operative and multiplayer map dubbed "Jewel Junction," alongside the numerous free updates issued to the console version of the game since it first debuted in February. These include eight additional playable characters, "over 200" customization items and a handful of additional maps which pit hordes of malevolent undead against cheerily militant produce. Despite its outlandish premise, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare is a surprisingly compelling, entertaining shooter. Our review awarded the game 4 of 5 stars, while stating that Garden Warfare "oozes charm" and simultaneously "adopts and lampoons established shooter ideas." If your interest is piqued, you can buy Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare via Origin in either Standard or Digital Deluxe Editions. [Image: EA]
Raph Koster on Origin's Privateer Online
Raph Koster's thrown up a fairly fascinating blog post detailing one of his Origin projects that never saw the light of day. It was originally codenamed Star Settlers and it featured procedurally generated planets, exploration, resource management, and more. Koster's executive bosses "blew up a huge portion of the design" in favor of fitting the fledgling game into Origin's Wing Commander IP, several online versions of which were already in the works. "Some of them had gotten pretty far -- piles of artwork, design work, and even some tech," Koster writes. Finally a Privateer Online team was assembled, and it cranked out a prototype featuring "radically different" procedural planets, multiplayer space dogfighting, fractal ship customization, modular planetary settlement capabilities, and "a huge pile of lore" written by Wing Commander vets. Though Privateer Online was cancelled in favor of Earth & Beyond and its design docs were burned in a bonfire at Origin's shut-down party, Koster says that many of the developers went on to make Star Wars Galaxies which contained some of the same ideas.
Origin offers free time-limited access to games, starting with Titanfall
Titanfall will be free to download and play for 48 hours this weekend as part of Origin's new Game Time service. Unlike Steam's Free Weekend program, Origin is making select games free for a set period of time that starts once you begin playing. Just to note, that's real-time rather than game time, so the free mech-mashing ends after 48 of your Earth hours. EA also says progress during free access is saved, so if you choose to purchase the game afterward you can pick up where you left off. Game Time is the latest of a few recent initiatives to bolster Origin. EA introduced On the House to the portal earlier this year, with the service offering permanent freebies that have included Peggle, Dead Space, Battlefield 3 and Plants vs. Zombies. [Image: EA]
