dice-summit posts

The founders of one of the most successful game developers of all time will be getting a big honor in 2011. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has announced that BioWare's co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk will be the latest game developers inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame. It will be the first time in the award's history that it will be given to two people in the same year. The award will officially be presented during the AIAS's annual DICE Summit on February 10 in Las Vegas.

After getting their medical degrees, Drs. Muzyka and Zeschuk founded BioWare and since then have given us some of the best PC and console games ever made. Titles like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect,and Dragon Age Origins have cemented the developer's reputation as one of the best, if not the best, RPG maker in the industry. At the moment the developer has three games scheduled for release in 2011: Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3 and the long awaited MMO Star Wars The Old Republic.

[Via email press release]

The console-PC game organization The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has a new leader today. The group, which sponsors the annual DICE Summit and the Interactive Achievement Awards has announced that its long time president Joseph Olin has decided to leave the AIAS "to pursue new opportunities". Olin has been the head of the organization since 2004.

The AIAS has already announced Olin's replacement with Martin Rae taking over the president's position. He had held a number of executive and CEO positions at various game and game-related companies. Prior to his new gig Rae was the CEO of Sunleaf Studios. Olin will work with Rae and the rest of the AIAS's board through the end of the year.

In related news registration for the 2011 DICE Summit has now started. This year's summit will be held once again in Las Vega on February 9-11.

Last summer Electronic Arts offered some gamers a chance to try out the multplayer portion of Medal of Honor via a closed beta test. Now EA has revealed that PC gamers will get one more free shot with the upcoming modern military shooter before it ships out on October 12. An open multiplayer beta test for the game will be held on October 4-7. This will be a true open beta; anyone will be able to download and play with only a free EA account needed.

The open beta will contain two multiplayer maps (Shahikot Mountains and Kunar Base) two gameplay modes (the objective-based Combat Mission and the domination-based Sector Control) and a number of different weapons. The main goal of the open beta is to test EA's multiplayer servers with a full player load. You can check out the recommended system specs for the open beta after thee jump:

The long, long promised PC release of Battlefield 1943 is still MIA and now people who ask for refunds for their long standing pre-orders for the downloadable multiplayer shooter are having them granted, according to a report on the Examiner web site. VG247.com got a statement from publisher Electronic Arts who said, "All pre-orders can be canceled with refund at anytime and we do not have any further information at this time about a release date for the PC version of Battlefield 1943."

Battlefield 1943 was released well over a year ago for the consoles but got delayed for the PC. Officially the delays were for developer Digital Illusions to make changes to the game that were specific for the PC such as 32 player support. You may remember that the last time Big Download asked EA about the status of Battlefield 1943 for the PC we were told there would be news about its release "shortly." That was in late March. We have emailed EA's PR reps for the game yet again to get some kind of new status report.

Fans of Battlefield Bad Company 2 are now able to grab the latest VIP map pack for Digital Illusions' recent first person shooter. The fifth such map pack adds Rush Mode to the White Pass level while the Nelson Bay map can now support the Conquest gameplay mode. It should be an automatic free download for players of the PC version.

In addition to the map pack the development team at DICE are currently in the middle of an event where players can play on servers with several Battlefield Bad Company 2 team members. You can check out more info about the event at the blog site.

Gallery: Battlefield Bad Company 2 Screenshots

Well it looks like even the best media sites can get things wrong sometimes. Earlier this week the PC Gamer web site reported that developer Digital Illusions was bringing the Onslaught co-op gameplay mode for Battlefield Bad Company 2 to PC owners of the first person shooter. Now it appears that news may have been premature.

According to the Twitter page of DICE's Community Manager, "The article published by PC-Gamer is not accurate. We are currently researching if Onslaught will be available for PC. No release date." In addition the post on the PC Gamer web site that announced the news originally has now been removed with no correction or explanation. So it looks like PC gamers will still have to wait a bit longer to see of Onslaught will become available after all.

With E3 2010 now well underway, the game industry concentrates this week on the near future and the upcoming game releases for the next year or so. But what about beyond the usual sales year. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has sponsored or co-sponsored a number of events and awards designed to broaden the scope of the industry.

This week the AIAS co-sponsored the Into The Pixel game art exhibit at E3. It is the primary organizer of the annual DICE Summit and its related Interactive Achievement Awards. It also is a co-sponsor of the Indie Games Challenge competition that gave $100,000 each to two development teams in its first year.. Overseeing all of this is the AIAS's president Joseph Olin. Big Download got a chance to ask Olin some questions about all the AIAS's efforts and other topics.

Digital Illusions' free-to-play third person multiplayer shooter Battlefield Heroes is doing something this weekend it has never done before. Starting on Friday at 11 am Eastern time the game will let players get double the normal amount of experience points while playing the game. That's something that Activision has done occasionally with the Call of Duty games.

The double XP feature is not automatic. You will have enter the following code into the game's redeem web page to get the extra experience points boost: 5RH4-G9WR-MVV2-Q4E7. The double XP time period will end at 5:59 pm Eastern time on Sunday.

In Battlefield Bad Company 2's upcoming Onslaught mode, four players can come together to work cooperatively and complete mission objectives battling against an "onslaught" of enemy AI. The maps to support the new mode will be Valparaiso, Atacama Desert, Isla Inocentes, and Nelson Bay - each updated with new lighting, effects and additional vehicles.

Download HD Battlefield Bad Company 2 'Onslaught' Teaser Trailer (68 MB)
Check out all Battlefield Bad Company 2 downloads

Many of you are enjoying Battlefield Bad Company 2 lately but sometimes its hard to really see the entire scope of all the huge outdoor maps in the recent first person shooter. Now developer Digital Illusions is hoping to help out with a new download that has top down views of all of the maps in the game.

As you can see from the above example (the Port Valdez map) these views offer any clans or teams a way to spot any places on the map where the enemy might try to approach from or hide out. The maps are all in very high resolutions. You can download the Map Kit at the game's official download site.

[Via Blue's News]