the-saboteur posts

Electronic Arts' current restructuring, announced during their financial results last week, is going to cause the shutdown of Pandemic Studios. Gamasutra reports they have gotten a hold of an internal EA memo with the details. Under their plan, the founders of Pandemic (Josh Resnick, Andrew Goldman and Greg Borrud) will leave EA with 200 other Pandemic team members. The remainder of the Pandemic team will be moving to EA's Los Angeles studios. The Pandemic brand name will apparently continue and new games based on previous Pandemic franchises are in the works.

Pandemic, centered in Santa Monica, California, was formed in 1998 and started out as a PC only game developer, working on games like Dark Reign II and Battlezone II for Activision. In 2000 they opened an office in Australia. Over the years they created a ton of titles including Mercenaries and its sequel, Full Spectrum Warrior, the first two Star Wars Battlefront games and more. In 2005 Pandemic merged with BioWare to form one big independent game developer. In 2007 BioWare-Pandemic was bought by EA for over $600 million. Pandemic's last game as a separate studio will be The Saboteur due for release on December 8.

With rumors that Pandemic Studios might be one of the facilities shut down by Electronic Arts as part of their cost savings program, Pandemic's upcoming open world WWII game The Saboteur might turn out to be the final game from the developer that brought us Star Wars Battlefront 1 and II, Mercenaries 1 and II and more.. The PC version of The Saboteur is currently due for release on December 8 and now the game's official message board have revealed the minimal and recommended system specs for the game.

As you will see after the jump, the system specs, particularly for the recommended system. are a bit on the beefy side. We will soon seen if the game lived up to its promise in early December.

Games that are coming out soon have a lot of unknowns that the average person might not know. Who is this character inspired by? Is all the talk of volumetric fog or cel-shaded graphics really worthwhile? Do the game mechanics really seem solid, or are they lackluster? In All You Need To Know we provide information to help you fully appreciate what these upcoming games have to offer.

Feed your head after the jump.

Check out our collection of The Saboteur related downloads here on Big Download!

"Inspired by a true story, The Saboteur stars Sean Devlin, a street-tough Irish race car driver trapped behind enemy lines in 1940s Nazi-occupied France. Motivated by personal revenge, Sean fights, climbs, and races through open-world Paris, sneaking into the heart of the Nazi operations and sabotaging their every move. With the help of the French Resistance, the British intelligence, an arsenal of weaponry, street smarts and brawn, players will exact revenge on those who aim to destroy Sean's life. From derailing trains and blowing up zeppelins to scaling famous Parisian landmarks and more, this action hero uses a broad range of weapons, explosives and vehicles to get the job done."

Download HD The Saboteur 'Just Getting Started' Gameplay Trailer (69 MB)
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It's looking like The Saboteur could be the last major PC game release of 2009 (assuming no further delays) and the game's publisher Electronic Arts wants to give folks who pre-order the WWII action game a leg up on the title's virtual Nazis. If you put your money down on the game at GameStop you will get what's pictured above.

Now don't go running to Mom that GameStop is selling knives to its customers. This is an extra in-game weapon that you will get access to in the Pandemic Studios-developed title. Yes by pre-ordering the game you will be able to use the knife to handle a "silent and swift execution maneuver" upon the Nazis who are holding Paris during the war.

In The Saboteur, when players aren't busy doing jobs for the underground resistance to bring down the Nazi occupation, they can spend some time taking in the Parisian night life. This gameplay video shows off one of the highly detailed speakeasies where players can hang out and perhaps pick up new missions.

Download HD The Saboteur 'Belle De Nuit' Trailer (26 MB)
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For the past two days Big Download has been going over the games that are currently scheduled for release in the fall/holiday time period, which is traditionally been the busiest time for the game industry. You can check out Part One and Part Two of our report here.

Today we conclude our series with the third and final part of our preview as we look at games that will be released from mid-November to early December. We also have some games that as of yet do not have a specific release date but are still scheduled to be released sometime this fall. Once again we remind you that release dates can be fluid; we will report on any changes in ship dates as we learn about them.

Click on the image above to continue reading The Big PC Games for Fall 2009 - Part 3

This trailer for The Saboteur asks, "What is an Irishman doing in Paris?" It turns out the answer is pretty simple: drink and hang out with girls at speakeasies when not out fighting for an underground resistance. Touring Paris entails a lot of rooftop hopping, shooting up Nazis and blowing stuff up. Sounds like the perfect vacation. The Saboteur is expected to release in December.

Download HD The Saboteur 'An Irishman in Paris' Trailer (166 MB)
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Electronic Arts may not be making Dante's Inferno for the PC but another multiplatform game is getting a PC port and as of today a release date. The publisher announced that The Saboteur, developed by Pandemic Studios, will be released for the PC and other platforms on December 8.

Once again, if you happen to be heading to the San Diego Comic-Con this week you will be able to play the game at EA's booth. There's also a panel for The Saboteur that will be held on Saturday at the show. The WWII open world action game, set in Nazi-occupied Paris, will likely be one of the last major game releases of 2009.

This trailer for The Saboteur, the next big open-world action game developed by Pandemic Studios, will be featured at E3 2009. In The Saboteur, the player takes the role of Sean Devlin, a "street-tough Irish racing mechanic seeking personal redemption." Players will have to make their way through the seedy underworld of Paris, France in the 1940's while working with the French Resistance to take down the Nazi occupation.

Download HD The Saboteur E3 2009 Trailer (100 MB)