Battlefield-Heroes posts

Like everyone else we were shocked and sad to hear about the premature death of Michael Jackson at the age of 50 last week. The news of his death was apparently enough to bring down parts of the Internet as tons of users hit news web sites reporting on his demise.

Since then the media has been paying tributes to Jackson's life with retrospectives, specials and the like. Those tributes are now extending to games. The just launched Battlefield Heroes free-to-play shooter from Digital Illusions and Electronic Arts is offering folks a chance to purchase some new in-game outfits for their characters. As you can see on the the right, those suits look an awful lot like Jackson's costumes in his 1980's music videos. The suits are just available for the month of July.

With little to no fanfare, the "closed beta' test for Battlefield Heroes ended today, marking the official launch of the free-to-play shooter from developer Digital Illusions and publisher Electronic Arts. The game, which is set in a cartoon-style alternate universe where WWII apparently never ended, was supposed to be released last fall but the team delayed its release until today.

As we have reported before the game contains two playable sides, each with four character classes, along with four playable maps. While you can play the game completely for free you can also purchase "Battlefunds" that will allow you to add special clothing items for your character along with ways to level up your character faster.

Fans of the Battlefield shooter franchise already have three upcoming games that will be released for the PC; the web browser-based free-to-play game Battlefield Heroes (currently in beta), the downloadable title Battlefield 1943 (due out in September and shown above) and the single-player themed shooter Battlefield Bad Company 2 (due out in the first quarter of 2010)

But fans of the franchise need not worry; all of these side projects doesn't mean that developer Digital Illusions and publisher EA haven't forgotten about the core series. In a presentation today at the William Blair 29th Annual Growth Stock Conference (a repeat can be heard on the EA Investors web site), EA's chief operating officer John Pleasants stated, "I've had the luxury of looking at Battlefield 3 over at DICE in Sweden and was highly impressed by the way the team is working on that product." Yep, Battlefield 3 is in development. While the game is not coming out soon, Pleasants added, " . . that is a product that is looking very good."

As Battlefield Heroes' creative team at developer Digital Illusions continues to send out keys for the currently closed beta test of their free-to-play shooter they are also working on new content for the game. This week the game's official web site posted up the first look at an upcoming new map that will soon be added to the game's current three map line up.

While the map is not yet ready for release, the development team let players suggest names for the level based on the image that you can see above this post. The final verdict? Coastal Clash, a name that certainly fits with the three current map titles (Seaside Skirmish, Victory Village and Buccaneer Bay). At the moment there's no word when the map will be released nor when Battlefield Heroes itself will be coming out of its closed beta stage other than "summer".

In the past year or so the free-to-play shooter genre has grown quite a bit. A number of games are already out (War Rock, Combat Arms and as of today Cross Fire) and more are in the works (Parabellum, Huxley). Earlier this year id Software launched Quake Live, a modified version of Quake III Arena that allows anyone to play the game (both online against humans and against bots) for free.

Perhaps the most talked about new entry in this suddenly popular genre is Battlefield Heroes. Officially announced back in January 2008, the third person game takes the Battlefield style of gameplay (outdoor levels, character classes and vehicles) and puts it in a smaller package for easy browser-based gameplay. Developer Digital Illusions and publisher Electronic Arts have been in a closed beta test for some time on the game but today they allowed Big Download to play and then write about what we have experienced in our own play tests.

Well it's looking like the official launch of Digital Illusions' long awaited Battlefield Heroes won't make its planned date of before the end of March. Indeed the game is still in a closed beta state with no word on when even the open beta for the game will launch. However if you haven't been picked for the closed beta test there's still a way to play a version of the game.

The game's official web site has recently launched a Flash based arcade game where you get to rack up points by shooting at Nationals who pop up at various spots. It's not what we have been wanting to play but it should keep us occupied until we finally get invited to the beta test.

We all know that the PC gaming industry is full of women developers as well as men but for some reason it's always something special when a development team focuses on their female members. Such is the case for the Battlefield Heroes team at Digital Illusions as their web site has posted up some Q&As with three members of their staff.

One of them is Bernadet Bomoni (pictured here) who serves as the team's Business Development Manager. Her job? " I work mostly on partnerships with other companies trying to promote Heroes the best way possible." One of the other ladies on the team with an interview is Service Operations Manager Tina Wellner. The third and finale female team member who gets some quotes is Åsa Carlsson, the Development Director on the team.

If you are expecting some kind of Playboy letter-style chat you will be disappointed but the three team members go talk about their work and their opinions on women in the game industry. When asked if they have had any dealings with sexism in the workplace, Bernadet states, " I have never experienced anything in this field. The people here are not a bunch of kids and they know what is appropriate and what is not."

Even though Battlefield Heroes is still in a closed beta test, the development team at Digital Illusions is looking to the future in terms of the game's final public release. This week the free-to-play FPS' web site announced plans to offer players a way to own their own dedicated servers for the game.

The site revealed a number of different companies that will be offering ways for players to purchase and run dedicated servers for the game. Those companies are currently offering a limited number of beta keys as well in various contest giveaways. Some are already offering special pre-order discount deals on their servers. There's still no word on when Battlefield Heroes will officially launch.

If you signed up some time last year to beta test Battlefield Heroes you most likely got some good news today. The game's official web site has posted up word that they have finally issued invites to all of the people who were put on the waiting list last year for testing out the upcoming free-to-play FPS title.

The development team at Digital Illusions admit, "Yep, that took a while; it was a long list." However now that those players have been taken care of the team will soon start sending out invites to the folks who signed up to beta test the game since it restarted on January 21. There's no word yet on how long it will take to get all those invites out.

It's been a few month since Digital Illusions has let anyone outside their team play the game but on Wednesday the developer flips the switch once again on the closed beta for Battlefield Heroes. The upcoming free-to-play shooter game with the cartoony art style is ready once again for beta testers.

Anyone selected for the last closed beta round is automatically entered in the new beta test and the developer will be bringing in new people to the test over time. Recently the game's publisher Electronic Arts revealed a first quarter 2009 launch of the game in some recent financial forms but as we know release dates can and have change for Battlefield Heroes.