ea-la posts

If you have a code to join the beta of the multiplayer test for Medal of Honor your time is running out. Tomorrow, July 31 is the last day that PC owners will be able to participate in the beta test for Electronic Arts' upcoming military shooter that's due for release on October 12.

While the PC beta is ending on Saturday, the game's official web site states that the test has provided a lot of feedback that will be incorporated into the final game. That includes breath control for all player classes, improved hit detection, showing all weapons stats in the spawn menu and more. If you happen to own one of those Xbox 360 consoles the beta continues until August 6.

Yet another multiplayer beta that was scheduled to end today was the one for Medal of Honor, the upcoming revival of Electronic Arts' military shooter series. The beta began in early June but this week the game's official web site has announced that the scheduled July 18 end date for the beta has been extended.

If you got a beta key via pre-ordering Medal of Honor or some other means, you can still go to the game's beta site to redeem it and start playing the beta. There's no word yet on when the beta will actually end. Part of the reason for that may be due to issues for the Xbox 360 beta version which has yet to be released for users of that game console.

While last night's Video Game Awards on Spike TV showed off trailers for a lot of upcoming games, a large amount of them were CGI teasers that didn't show actual in-engine gameplay (Batman: Arkham Asylum sequel, we are looking at you). That was not the case for the trailer for Medal of Honor which showed off a little of the gameplay we can expect from the revival of the EA shooter brand.

As promised the new game takes place in modern day Afghanistan. Along with first person shooting the game will have your driving ATVs and even flying and firing from an Apache helicopter. You can check out the trailer after the jump. The game itself is due in the fall of 2010.

In what has to be regarded as a very quick turnaround, Electronic Arts has come on out and admitted that Mercs Inc is indeed in development at its Los Angeles development studios. The game, also known as Mercenaries Inc, will be the third game in the action series that was originally developed by the now shuttered Pandemic Studios. The official word came just a few hours after a leaked trailer showing off gameplay hit the internet.

EA's press release on the game has little info on the title itself, nor any word on the game's platforms or release date. It did hint strongly that the Pandemic name would be used in the branding of the game when it is released even though the team of former Pandemic developers is working out of EALA now.

The shut down last week of Pandemic Studios' Santa Monica offices is not supposed to be the end of Pandemic itself or the original brands that the developer, through Electronic Arts, still owns. Which is why the above and supposedly leaked video might actually be made into a full game one day.

Web site Bitmob states that the above video, supposedly showing off a multiplayer-oriented entry in Pandemic's Mercenaries series called Mercenaries Inc, is real. Their anonymous sources says the trailer itself was made a few months ago at Pandemic. As for the game itself, the site claims that the title is still in pre-production at EA's Los Angeles studio and being made by the few ex-Pandemic staffers that made the transition to their new EALA offices. Even if all of the above is true it will likely be some time before the game itself is released.

While rumors are still hitting the Internet about the fate of the Command and Conquer series after the release of Command and Conquer 4, publisher Electronic Arts is keeping its chip up, at least publicly, about the upcoming and latest game in the long running RTS series. Today EA announced that the game will ship to stores in the US on March 16. Europeans get the game a few days later on March 19.

People who pre-order the game now will be getting some extra bonuses such as access to the game's upcoming multiplayer beta test. They will also get the game's soundtrack, an extra single player mission that serves as a prequel to the game and perhaps coolest of all a signed autographed photo of Kane himself actor Joe Kucan.

Gamespot has posted up the first interview about the just announced Command and Conquer 4 and the chat with the game's campaign lead Samuel Bass of EA LA has some interesting bits of news about the RTS sequel. GameSpot has also posted up the first official screenshot from the game (shown above) that shows off the so-called mobile base feature.

Bass confirms that the game will have some sort of sub-title and that fans will be able to send in their suggestions for C&C 4 official title to EA. He also confirms that they will use live-action cut scenes once again and yes, Joe Kucan is back as Nod leader Kane. Finally Bass states, " . . . since C&C4 requires players to be online all the time in order to prevent cheating, we'll be shipping without any form of DRM." Which is odd because we think that making people be online to play the game is a form of DRM in itself. But that's just us.

Earlier today we received an email from Electronic Arts asking us to take part in a survey dealing with the Command and Conquer game franchise. During the survey we were given a discription (shown above) for a possible Command and Conquer 4 and asked questions about how we felt about the idea around the game. Here is the full statement:

Command & Conquer 4 allows C&C fans to finally experience the epic conclusion to the 15-year Tiberium saga with innovative RPG-like player progression, persistent in both single player and Multiplayer modes, co-op play, and new stylized, live-action cinematics.

Other parts of the survey asked how we felt about proposed features for the game including things like a large mobile base unit, MMORPG features and others. So far EA has not yet officially announced plans for a C&C 4 project.