Expansions

Fans of Need For Speed Shift have likely been wondering if Electronic Arts would be offering any downloadable extras for the racing sim. Today EA sent the word out that the first such free DLC is on its way. Owners of the PC version will be able to download the DLC on December 1.

The free extras will include the addition of four American classic muscle cars and one import sports car to the game (1967 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 427, 1967 Shelby GT-500, 969 Dodge Charger R/T, 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T, 1998 Toyota Supra Mark). It will also add the Team Racing online gameplay mode where two teams of up to six cars battle it out in stock vehicles.

Cryptic Studios' super hero MMO Champions Online has already had one free content update since its September launch. On Tuesday the game gets a second free update that not only adds new perks and costume sets to the MMO but adds a new lair and adventure as well.

The update is called Nemesis Confrontation and has your noble player characters fighting to get out of an intergalactic prison to deal with their Nemeses, the alien Gladiators and the creature who gathered them together, the super evil Shadow Destroyer. As you can see from the screenshots the Gladiators have some . . . kinky costume styles. If you want to try out the update a little earlier Nemesis Confrontation is currently on Champions Online's test server. In addition to the free update, the entire game will be free to play for any newbies from November 26-30.

Fans of BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins have already been able to download some extra content for the fantasy RPG. Today BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts announced plans to offer up another extra downloadable quest for the game. The DLC, titled Return to Ostagar, is due for release "this holiday season". That most likely means it will be available for download before the end of 2009.

The new quest will return players "to the fateful battleground in Ostagar" where they will "discover King Cailan's top-secret political agenda." Wow. Sounds a little bit like our world has entered into BioWare's fantasy kingdom. The DLC will cost 400 "BioWare points" (about $5) to download. We don't like the idea of purchasing "BioWare points" to download extra content but . . .oh well.

1C Company's WWII RTS game Theatre of War 2 was released earlier this year in the US by Battlefront.com. Today the publisher announced that the first expansion pack for the game, Theatre of War 2 Centauro, is now gone gold and and will be made available for sale and download later this week on their site for $25. They will also have bundle deal with the original game for $50.

The expansion pack will add ten new maps and missions to the original game, which is set in the North Africa campaign of WWII. Look for ten new vehicle units to be added to the main game as well.

When we reviewed Shattered Horizon earlier this month one of the things that we thought would make the $20 price tag more of a bargain was the promise by developer Futuremark Games Studio that they would release new free map packs for their zero-g shooter. Today the developer announced their plans for their first such free map pack which will add four new levels to the title.

That means that players will soon have double the amount of maps that were present in the initial release of the game. Details of the "Moonrise" map pack were not revealed but if you pre-ordered Shattered Horizon you will be able to beta test those maps beginning later this week.

Dragon Age: Origins has already made a mark in terms of its official downloadable content with publisher Electronic Arts stating that the new fantasy RPG has already generated over $1 million in revenue from its current DLC offerings. Now comes word that the new issue of PC Gamer magazine, now on newsstands, has an exclusive Dragon Age: Origins level made by the BioWare team on its magazine DVD.

The mini-campaign is titled A Tale Of Orzammer and according to a post on the game's message boards by BioWare's David Sims, " . . . .this is a short stand-alone adventure, not an expansion of the main game." He added, "It's just something put together in collaboration with the magazine as an example of the kind of content that can be made using the toolset." So don't expect this mini-campaign to have a lot of polish but it's still something fairly unique if you are a Dragon Age: Origins completist.

Electronic Arts needs some good news to offset the word that 1,500 of their team members will be laid off by March 2010. They got it with the release of Dragon Age: Origins, the recently released RPG from their BioWare studio. While the game has only been available for just over a week, it looks like their downloadable content has been popular so far.

Speaking at the BMO Capital Markets 17th Annual Digital Entertainment Conference (the audio replay can be heard at EA's investor site), EA's executive vice president and CFO Eric Brown stated that the game's DLC have generated "well past $1 million" in revenues. BioWare has already stated they have long term plans for more downloadable content for the game.

While City of Heroes players are awaiting more word on the release of the super hero MMO's next commercial expansion pack Going Rogue, the development team at Paragon Studios have whipped up a nice mini-expansion for the game. It's the latest in the game's Super Booster packs that this time focuses on martial arts characters.

The $9.99 expansion pack adds a ton of martial arts costume pieces that will allow players to make the ninja or samurai warrior of their dreams in the game. It also comes with new character emotes and even a new power, Ninja Run, that lets you move faster and jump higher than normal. Time to do some slicing and dicing.

Ever since the fairly disastrous release of the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV last year, we have heard rumblings that the game's downloadable expansion packs might be released for the PC as well. Publisher Rockstar Games has previously said that the two GTA IV episodes (The Lost and The Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony) would be Xbox 360 exclusives.

Now fan site GTAIV.net claims that a new update to Microsoft's Games For Windows Live client has added PC achievements for The Lost and The Damned. They include a screenshot (presumably taken from the PC GTA IV port) that shows the new achievements with the "TLAD" acronym beside them. So far Rockstar has yet to confirm anything about the expansion moving to the PC so this is definitely in the "rumor" column for now.

[Via Computer and Video Games]

It looks like PC owners of the Gearbox Software first person shooter Borderlands will have to wait an unknown amount of time to access the game's first downloadable expansion. The game's publisher 2K Games announced that the The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned expansion will be released on November 24 for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles. The Gearbox message boards have posted word from the game's community manager that " . . . this IS coming to the PC as well. No release date, but it was just confirmed for PC by 2K."

Just as a reminder, the expansion will give players a chance to "work alongside Dr. Ned as they embark on a quest to cure the inhabitants of Jakobs Cove." In this case "cure" likely means shooting up a lot of zombies.

If you happened to get a copy of BioWare's original Neverwinter Nights RPG and wanted to check out some of their extra downloadable modules for the game, you are out of luck at least for now. BioWare is no longer selling or supporting the many downloadable modules (Kingmaker, ShadowGuard, Witch's Wake, Pirates of the Sword Coast, Infinite Dungeons and Wyvern Crown of Cormyr) they have created for the game. In fact they have not been doing so since the end of August.

What happened? According to BioWare's own message boards, the game's publisher Atari, " . . . has asked us to stop selling the modules through our store. All support for NwN products is now handled directly by Atari through their customer support channels." Atari currently owns the rights to the game but at the moment they are not selling the original Neverwinter Night title or any of the downloadable modules on their online store. People who have already purchased and installed the downloadable modules can still play them on their PC.

[Via Blue's News]

If you have been wondering when Sacred 2: Ice and Blood would be released in the US, wonder no more. The expansion pack to the 2008 released action-RPG and the last game from its developer Ascaron Entertainment before its shut down earlier this year, will be heading to the US via Steam on November 13. Pricing for the expansion has yet to be revealed.

According to the Steam pre-order page, Sacred 2 Ice and Blood will add over 30 hours of gameplay to the original game with two new regions to explore along with new monsters, items and a new playable character called The Dragon Mage.

This patch for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising installs the Skirmish pack DLC expansion and addresses a number of gameplay issues. Content includes four multiplayer maps and two Fire Team Engagements. A full list of changes along with information about for the Skirmish pack DLC can be seen after the jump.

Download Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising 'Skirmish DLC' Patch (232 MB)
Download HD Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising DLC Trailer (91 MB)
Check out all Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising downloads

While BioWare's just released RPG Dragon Age: Origins is getting great reviews on its own, the same cannot be said of how the game has handled its promised downloadable content. People who bought the game were promised three bits of DLC for the game's release; a new quest, a new character for your party and a new suit of armor. But the process of obtaining said downloads has proven frustrating for at least some owners of the game.

The main issue is that players have to have an account for BioWare's new social networking web site and a separate account for the game's publisher Electronic Arts. Many owners of the game have reported via various message boards that they have encountered issues getting their DLC download codes to work with these accounts with some even having issues signing in with the accounts themselves. A message board post on BioWare's social site has some unofficial workarounds and troubleshooting solutions for these issues. However it's pretty clear that BioWare and EA are making lots of people upset with the number of hoops they need to go through to get the downloadable content they paid for.

Monte Cristo Games' city simulation title Cities XL has fulfilled its promise on delivering new downloadable content and today owners of the game can now automatically grab the first such content pack via the game's launcher. Every owner of the game will gain access to three new buildings; a high school, a small family farm and an official Ford car dealership (shown above) where your city's citizens can buy and drive several Ford vehicles.

If you are a subscriber to Cities XL's Planet Offer service you can get even more extra content including a set of Old England style buildings, three new maps and three new mega structures (including the Alcatraz prison). You can get more info on that content at the game's official web site.