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Dead Space 3 'Awakened' DLC confirmed for March 12
EA reveals Dead Space 3 wakes up to its first DLC expansion on March 12, and it's coming to Xbox 360, PlayStaton 3, and PC for $10/800 MSP. As Visceral Games' Shereif Fattouh told us in our preview, 'Awakened' serves as a continuation of the game's story, providing "the real epilogue of some of the events that took place."
Dead Space 3's Awakened DLC trailer has a screw loose
Visceral Games' Shereif Fattouh says the 'Awakened' DLC provides "continuation" to Dead Space 3's story, and harkens back a bit more to the franchise's "claustrophobic, psychotic" themes. This trailer is less Armageddon and more Alien, that's for sure. Brace yourself and read our preview here.
PSA: SimCity now available, go realize your city-building dreams
Who wants to build a beta city? The final version of EA's long-awaited followup to its city-building classic, SimCity, goes live today in North America for all of you aspiring mayors out there -- well, those of you with a PC at least (the Mac version is still forthcoming at some point this spring). You can download or pick up a physical copy through EA's Origin site right now, to finally get your Robert Moses on (though maybe watch where you stick those highways).
Dead Space 3 price sliced to $32 on PC from GameFly
Despite only arriving on store shelves a month ago, Dead Space 3's price has been dismembered down to just $31.99, thanks to GameFly. Currently marked down to $39.99 on the retailer's site, using the coupon code "GFDMAR20" – which earns you 20% off PC titles – will slice off an additional $8 off at checkout.Because this is a digital PC version, remember that you'll need an EA Origin account and your PC will need to be connected to the Internet as you play. Still, there's no cheaper way to get into the game our reviewer called "an exciting, shocking and mammoth adventure through the ghostly, unvarnished segments of space."
EA reveals 'single identity' cross-platform gaming experience
EA has completed its Origin login service, which means that most of its games going forward (including, presumably, Real Racing 3, which hits the US App Store tomorrow) will use a single company-specific login. Now, all EA games on all platforms will be able to access that login. So, for example, you could transfer your progress on a game of PGA Tour from iOS to your PlayStation 3, or Bejeweled stats on the Xbox 360 might mean something to Plants vs. Zombies 2, once it arrives on the iPad. Unfortunately, the news is less exciting for actual customers. Namely, it's essentially just another login to remember. It's too bad EA can't hook this up to Apple's Game Center system, as that seems to be the best and easiest social identifier to use these days (not to mention that, since it's official, it's baked right into iOS itself). But the company will do what it wants. EA also announced this week that all of its games will feature microtransactions for extra customization or content, another decision that might be less than popular with the gaming community. If EA believes that having its own login to connect game information will increase interest in its titles across platforms, then that's what we'll see in EA games going forward. [via TechHive]
EA preps 'single identity' system to bridge gaming experiences across platforms
Now that EA has gotten Origin for both Windows and Mac under its belt, it's clued GamesBeat into its plans for a cross-platform account system that's taken 1,500 engineers 18 months to build. With the "single identity" solution, gamers can play games tied to their accounts, find friends currently online and join up for multiplayer, message fellow users and access save states across platforms ranging from consoles and smartphones to tablets and social networks. Of course, the business side comes into play too: by keeping tabs on users, Electronic Arts could make better game recommendations and boost its marketing's effectiveness. As of now, there's no word on when the system will find its way into your gaming.
Origin deploys sale on all things Battlefield
Soldiers, sweep your sectors – discounts are creeping in the brush. Select Battlefield games are up to 75% off until February 27 on EA's Origin online store, with discounts applying to both digital and physical products.Highlights include Battlefield 3 for $10 as a download on PC or $20 for a physical copy on all platforms. A Battlefield 3 Premium subscription is also on sale for $30, a discount of $20 – Battlefield 3: Premium Edition physical copies are on sale for $40; $35 for a PC download. Bad Company 2 is also on sale for $5, with its Vietnam expansion's price tag a hot $5 compared to its usual $15 asking price.
Two more Titan-powered PCs emerge, from Digital Storm and Origin
Both Digital Storm and Origin are getting NVIDIA's latest GPU, the GTX Titan, the two boutique PC makers announced this morning. Per Digital Storm's adorable little Bolt PC, a single Titan GPU is replacing the GTX 680 as the most powerful GPU offered, while Origin is offering a variety of setups featuring the Titan (all the way up to four Titans working together in an SLI configuration). Of course, at $1,000 for the Titan video card, you're looking at a ridiculously hefty price tag for that four-way setup (akin to what we saw this morning from Maingear), not to mention the custom liquid cooling Origin's throwing in. Interestingly, Digital Storm's Titan-enabled Bolt and Origin's top of the line setup offer two very different real world examples of how NVIDIA's latest GPU can be put to work. While it scales to the ultraniche, superrich PC gamer, Titan also caters to the more casual PC gamer (albeit one who's still willing to shell out a good amount of cash). Both are set to launch alongside the Titan itself on February 25th.
Origin officially launches on Mac
Origin has had an alpha client on Mac since back in September, and today the service officially launches. Origin features on Mac are pretty much the same as on PC – you can upload saves to the cloud, interact with friends and the community through Origin's social feeds and, uh, play games.Select EA games that are compatible on both Mac and PC will also support cross-platform play – if you purchased a game on PC and it's also compatible with Mac, you also get access to that. Sound familiar?EA launched its digital distribution platform Origin in the summer of 2011. During its first year, the service garnered 12 million downloads and signed 50 publishing partners. As of October 2012, Origin has accrued 30 million registered players, 4.4 million of whom have forked over cash for content.
EA posts finished Origin for Mac, widens gamers' worlds
EA moves faster than we thought. Origin for Mac was in alpha just two weeks ago, and yet it's already launching to the public. The completed gaming portal gives Mac users their software library, socialization and the online store in an interface that will be mostly familiar to Windows players. While the selection of Mac-native titles is currently narrow -- we hope you really like Batman and Dragon Age 2 -- there's also a Steam Play-like level of cross-platform support, where a game bought for the Mac or Windows will be free to download for the other OS. Origin is currently too small to directly challenge the Mac App Store or Steam, but it's a step forward for computer gamers wanting platform parity -- and when it's free to download, it won't hurt to have a look.
PSA: Crysis 3 multiplayer open beta suits up today
Make way, because the Crysis 3 open beta super-speeds onto Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC today. The beta went live earlier this morning on Origin and Xbox Live Marketplace (for Gold subscribers only), and should arrive on PSN later today (tomorrow in Europe).Crysis 3 producer Mike Read gets into the nitty-gritty of the beta's two multiplayer modes in this video. Hunter features cloaked assassins taking out CELL soldiers with bows, while Crash Site has teams vying to capture and hold pod locations dropped across the map.The beta runs until February 12, and the game proper hits a week later on February 19.
Origin for Mac enters open Alpha, testers gifted with free copy of Bookworm
Is your MacBook Pro pulling double duty as a gaming machine? EA wants your attention -- it's launching the Mac Alpha of Origin, its digital distribution service. EA is hoping to have the service ready by March, when it will release SimCity for PC and Mac, successively. For now, though, the client is limited -- barring testers from visiting the Origin store, and instead inviting them to launch Bookworm from the client, a puzzle game that's free for users who install the Alpha. The company promises a more complete catalog of EA and partner games when the client officially launches, but didn't drop any specific titles. The service still has some catching up to do, compared to its closest competitor -- but better late than never, right?
Limited Origin for Mac alpha client launches, includes free copy of Bookworm
EA has announced an alpha version of the Origin client for Mac is available for testing to a limited number of users in the US and UK. Origin for Mac will eventually evolve, offering a similar experience for Mac users as already seen on PC. In its current form, however, the Mac client does not include the ability to stream gameplay directly to Twitch or purchase software. According to the Origin FAQ, those features will be added soon.Origin for Mac requires OS X 10.6.8 or newer, with an Intel Core Duo 2 processor or better.As a reward for those willing to test the client, EA is giving away a copy of Popcap's Bookworm to all downloaders, so log in and download it while you can. Spaces are limited.
EA launches Origin for Mac alpha, includes free Bookworm
Electronic Arts announced today that it's bringing its Origin service to Mac, and that an alpha version of it is now available for download. According to EA, the alpha is being opened up to "a few thousand" users in North America and Europe. You can get the client from the Origin web store's demos page. Since this is an early release meant for tire-kicking, the actual Origin Store isn't yet available from within the app. Those who download the alpha, however, will be gifted with a free copy of PopCap's word-forming puzzle game Bookworm in the My Games library. It will remain there after the final release of the Origin client goes live. Responding to questions about today's release, EA remarked that it hopes the existence of an Origin client for Mac will serve as a motivation for more of the company's games to appear on the platform. That being the case, which ones would you like to see that aren't already announced?
Origin and CUPP wed x86 and ARM in 11-inch gaming laptop, we go hands-on (video)
Well, Origin and CUPP dropped a bit of a surprise at CES this year -- a supercharged 11.6-inch gaming laptop that runs Android 2.3.4 and Windows 7 simultaneously. On the Windows side, the machine is powered by a 2.7GHz Core i7 CPU with 4GB of RAM, a beefy GeForce GT 650M GPU with 2GB of dedicated RAM and a 128GB SSD. On the Android end you'll find a single core 1GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 3730 processor with 512MB RAM, an integrated WiFi radio, and an unspecified amount of shared storage -- nothing too exciting in this day and age, but perfectly adequate for Gingerbread. We got an exclusive first look at the machine. It's a bit bulky and heavy considering the tiny screen size, something to be expected considering the sheer amount of hardware crammed inside. There's no shortage of ports however, with the left side playing host to an Ethernet connector, VGA and HDMI outputs, headphone and mic jacks, as well as a pair of USB 3.0 ports. On the right edge is the power input, a pedestrian USB 2.0 port and a Kensington lock. We like the styling, with its lightly textured platform and soft touch lid. Even the slightly recessed hinge lends the laptop an air of aggression that we kinda dig in a gaming rig. Having full ARM and x86 systems in the same machine opens up a whole bunch of new possibilities. You can do some CPU-intensive image editing in Photoshop, put Windows to sleep, press [Fn] + [Shift] to switch over to Android (and back), then upload that edited picture to Flickr using Chrome while sipping only a trickle of power. Or you can render a video in Windows in the background while checking on your social networks on Android. It's a pretty ideal setup for editors like us. Both systems share the same 11.6-inch 1366x768 display, keyboard and trackpad. If this all seems awfully familiar that's because it is. The x86 laptop is based on Origin's EON11-S and the ARM module is CUPP's PunkThis board, which the company's already demoed for us on a Macbook Pro, a netbook and an x86 tablet. Until now all these devices have been one-off prototypes, but CUPP's partnering with Origin to make the PunkThis board available as an option on the EON11-S. The machine we played with was a pre-production unit using CUPP's single core ARM module running Gingerbread, but the company is working on a multi-core version with Jelly Bean. Origin, on its end, plans to add a touchscreen to the laptop for a better user experience in both Android and Windows 8. Want to know more? Check out the gallery below and hit the break for our hands-on video and the full PR after the break.
Zagg Origin is two speakers in one (video)
Here's a cool little surprise from the Pepcom floor: the Zagg Origin is a two-in-one speaker system. The smaller of the two fits in the palm of your hand, communicating with your tablet or smartphone via Bluetooth. It's got some physical buttons on top and an auxiliary port, power button and mini-USB slot on its rear. It also vibrates like crazy when it plays. Drop into the larger dock desktop speaker and the music starts playing through that via the aforementioned vibes. Pretty cool, really. It's gonna run you around $250 when it launches in roughly seven weeks. Watch video of the origin in action after the break.
EA's Play4Free becomes Origin Free to Play
EA has announced that it's consolidating its free-to-play Play4Free brand into Origin. Henceforth, all Play4Free titles, which include the likes of Battlefield Heroes, Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances and others, will exist under the umbrella of Origin Free to Play. According to EA, the only thing that will be different for existing players is that the Play4Free.com URL will officially change to Origin.com/free. Later this week, Play4Free.com will automatically redirect users to the new URL.The reason for the move? "Convenience for players," says Play4Free vice president Sean Decker, as "Origin now becomes your single destination for paid downloadable PC games and free-to-play games alike." Thus far, the available games seem unchanged, though we wouldn't be surprised to see future EA free-to-play games requiring the Origin client to play. Either way, the move isn't too surprising, given EA's continued push to expand its Origin service.
EA Christmas sale offers cheap Origin games every day in Europe
Starting on December 1 and running until December 25, European consumers can take advantage of exclusive daily deals on Origin, including "pre-order bonuses, discounts on top new titles and franchises, partner promotions and many more."The sale will end on Christmas day with a 50% off deal on the entire Origin catalog. Other highlights include up to 50% off select Battlefield 3 items on December 5, £40 worth of voucher codes when you pre-order Crysis 3 on December 12 and a "buy one, get more" deal on December 22 – buy one game, get 20% off; buy two games, get 30% off; buy three or more and get half-off.
Origin Black Friday sales include cheap Medal of Honor, Need for Speed, Command & Conquer
As a retailer, EA's Origin service is also obligated to participate in Black Friday craziness. If you have any money left, you could spend it on a selection of cheap EA games.For example, Battlefield 3 is $12 to download on PC or $20 physically (on PC, Xbox, or 360). Need for Speed Most Wanted is discounted a bunch ($25 on PC, $30 on PS3 or Xbox, $20 on Vita). Medal of Honor Warfighter is $30 on PC, Xbox, and PS3. The gigantic Command & Conquer Ultimate Edition is just $25. Browse all the deals here.Origin is also offering Black Friday deals in Europe, where the company felt it necessary to explain the concept of Black Friday: "Black Friday is a relatively new concept in Europe. It traditionally refers to the beginning of the Christmas shopping period and falls on the day after the American Thanksgiving day. On Black Friday, US retailers tend to open incredibly early and offer amazing sales deals for a limited time only."
Rumor: Origin hacked, EA denies intrusion [Updated]
If you have created an EA Origin account for any reason, such as for Star Wars: The Old Republic or Ultima Online, we advise you to change your password posthaste. Numerous sites are reporting that hackers have breached Origin's security and are potentially modifying account information and stealing it. Allegedly affected players claim that the hackers are changing the log-in emails associated with their accounts and that the new email addresses have a Russian suffix. In response to a question about whether any accounts were compromised by hacking, an EA spokesperson made the following statement: "At this point, we have no reason to believe there has been any intrusion into our Origin database." EA has updated us with its full security statement: Anytime a player has a question about the security of his or her account or personal data, we take it very seriously and take all possible steps to help. For any customer who cannot access their Origin account for any reason, we ask them to please contact Origin Help or EA's customer experience group at help.ea.com. The robust security measures in place to protect Origin users accounts are constantly being expanded and upgraded, and we also strongly recommend customers take the protective steps of using strong passwords and changing passwords often.
