There comes a time when we as a studio have to choose where to best put our efforts. At DICE we’re dedicated to taking care of our products after launch, and also hell bent on building new, innovative and high quality games.
In my day to day work, I look at our release schedule and the studio’s capacity, weighing them against our wild ambitions to create awesomeness. I often need to make hard calls regarding where we put the studio’s focus. Part of the challenge is to balance work on the new against the already shipped, prioritizing the amount of energy spent on the known franchises and the time spent on developing something entirely new.
This is one of those cross roads where I need to make a hard decision. While we’ll continue supporting Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and previous games, it’s time to look ahead to the next giant leap for DICE – the release of Battlefield 3, powered by the mighty Frostbite 2 engine. Our goal is crystal clear: we’re going to build the best Battlefield game ever, and we’ll do whatever it takes to make this the biggest launch in DICE’s history.
We know some of you eagerly have been awaiting Battlefield 1943 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Onslaught on PC. I’m sad to say that these two titles are now officially cancelled. Instead, our talented teams will focus on delivering the greatest possible gaming experience in our next behemoth release. We’re confident this will lead to an even better experience in Battlefield 3, not only on PC, but on all platforms.
For an idea of what that means, watch this space for some exciting news I think you’ll like.
Best regards, Karl Magnus Troedsson General Manager, DICE
First Strike: Pack 1 Available first for Xbox 360® on Feb 1. More details to come for PS3TM and PC. First Strike contains 5 incredibly diverse maps spanning the globe; featuring 4 multiplayer maps and a new Zombie experience.
The latest patch for the PC version of Black Ops has just been released by Treyarch. Patch 1.05 addresses a number of problems including stability and exploit fixes. The full list of fixes included in patch 1.05 can be found below, as well as a long list of “in progress” fixes.
LIVE FIXES 1/20/11 PC Patch 1.05
• MP Audio stuttering on certain systems. • Playercards sometimes not showing properly. • Added three Private Match Server Settings: Team Change, Team-Up Period, and Keep Balanced Teams. • Added Alternate Color Scheme for accessibility: Settings / Multiplayer / Player Name Indicator. • Changed Team-Up Period countdown interval to 10 seconds. • Combat Training sessions are no longer counted in Server Browser Unranked tab. • Friends on your team will now show as blue on your minimap. • Prevention of various exploits. • Objective markers localized for all languages. • Various stability improvements
In a post about updating the ongoing Beta: 'We have now enabled PunkBuster on all of our servers and we will be keeping a close eye on the battlefield to make sure it stays as cheater free as possible.'
Dick Winters, a decorated Army officer whose World War II service was recounted in the best-selling book and HBO mini-series "Band of Brothers," died Jan. 2. News reports listed his age at 92.
Based on the 1992 book by historian Stephen E. Ambrose, the HBO mini-series came out in 2001 and was produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.
The story follows the tragedies and triumphs of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 2nd Battalion, E Company.
To Mr. Winters, these citizen-soldiers came to be known as the men of Easy Company -- paratroopers who jumped into combat on June 6, 1944 above Normandy, France.
According to Ambrose's account, Easy Company suffered 150 percent casualties throughout the war.
One of the soldiers who served in Easy Company, David Webster, once wrote that among his colleagues the Purple Heart "was not a decoration but a badge of office."
Mr. Winters, who separated from the Army at the rank of major, and his men fought together through D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge and later occupied Adolf Hitler's mountainside retreat, the Eagle's Nest, near Berchtesgaden.
A charismatic officer who led by example, Mr. Winters received the Distinguished Service Cross, the country's second highest decoration for valor, while conducting combat operations on D-Day.
Mr. Winters led a small group of men on a raid of German cannon emplacements near Utah beach on Normandy's coastline.
While taking out the heavily fortified bunker, Mr. Winters and his men killed 15 German soldiers and took 12 more hostage, helping to save countless American lives from the withering cannon fire.
Later in the war, one of Mr. Winters's soldiers, Floyd Talbert, wrote a letter to the officer from a hospital in Indiana expressing gratitude for his loyalty and leadership.
"You are loved and will never be forgotten by any soldier that ever served under you," Talbert wrote to Mr. Winters in 1945. "I would follow you into hell."
For Mr. Winters, his soldiers were his Band of Brothers and their experiences together in the war "created a bond between the men of E company that will last forever." More info about Major Dick Winters
DICE rendering architect Johan Andersson has laid down the law regarding Battlefield 3’s system requirements, and those final pockets of Windows XP resistance are faced with an ultimatum: upgrade, or forget about playing one of the biggest shooters of the decade.
According to Andersson, the series’s new engine is heavily reliant on newer tech.
“Frostbite 2 is primarily developed for DX11. XP & DX9 is _not_ supported, 64-bit OS is recommended,” he tweeted.
This bald statement of fact confirms rumours from way back in 2007, when the prospect of dropping XP seemed much more onerous.
Battlefield 3 is expected whenever the notoriously perfectionist DICE think its finished with it, although EA is aiming for the third or fourth quarter this year.
Congratulations PC players for being the first platform to unlock Operation Hastings for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam. It only took 9 days, counting from the 21st of December to reach 69 millions combined team actions.
