After the impressive work of DICE and EA on Battlefield Bad Company 2, one could only expect a long wait for the next impressive, modern, FPS. DICE has raised the bar on us and are developing one of the most stunning looking games we’ve seen since, well BBC2. Their state-of-the-art visuals and ultra-realistic sound are being maxed out in their upcoming masterpiece, Battlefield 3. Today at E3 the company released this mouth dropping gameplay footage that has left us stunned. This footage shows tank action at its finest, deployed to take out an enemy rocket position. Check out the video after the break.

The patch tomorrow should and is heralding more than just bug fixes (some of which just crashed King and I in tandem after a brief session). Apparently for the Xbox 360 you can get new outfits and camo for some guns, one for each class. Check out the post on the official Bad Company 2 blog:

Recruited strictly from other high-level Special Operations units such as Delta Force and Spetsnaz, the Special Activities groups – SPECACT – are the elite of the elite, used mainly for covert operations and other high-risk missions in areas where conventional troops cannot be used.

With the 4 kit specific unique uniforms and the camouflaged SPECACT personal M16A2, UMP-45, MG3 and M95 SNIPER you have a visual edge on the Battlefield, showing that you’re a force to be reckoned with. The pack also includes 12 new awards and 4 Achievements.

Out of all of those weapons the M16 is really the only one I care about. Of course, people love the M95, but the Magnum is where its at. All that rubbish aside, here’s the rub. For you Aussies and UK’ers out there, the pack will cost you, 160 MS points per kit and 440 MS points for the whole she-bang.

For everyone else, you have to drink Dr. Pepper. That’s right. Old school enough for you? It makes me want to buy Dr. Pepper, believe it or not. Good thing thats ONLY for the Xbox 360. Just hang on if you’re on the PC, it’ll probably just be free. Lets hope we get a new map soon too. Oh, and bug fixes. Oh, and M60 nerfz, plzkthxbai.

Oh man, how overdue is this? A massive patch for Bad Company 2 is coming on Wednesday, just in time for most people to have rage-uninstalled the game from straight-to-desktop crashes and getting insta-killed by the M60 from the next zip code. Check out the full list, as seen on the PC Gamer blog:

* MP – New Server browser
* MP – Added 15 second spawn timer for Conquest/Rush gamemodes at the start of round to prevent high end machines getting the upper hand before other machines load in.
* MP – Crash fixes relating to ALT+TAB at different times throughout the game
* MP – Hang fix when trying to connect to a full server multiple times
* MP – Deletion of soldiers now possible through the account pages in game
* MP – Removed screen flash during loading
* MP – Added support for colour blind players
* MP – Fixed crashes relating to faulty server banners
* MP – Servers closing during connection no longer cause the client to hang
* MP – Auto team swap reflects correctly in the scoreboard
* MP – Fixed scoreboards when switching teams before spawning
* MP – Rush scoreboards fixed
* MP – Veteran ranks no longer display as “12″
* MP – Isla Innocentes MCOM building fixed where knifing the fence would destroy the building
* MP – Logout/Login button correctly reflects the player status
* MP – Added minimum number of players needed to start a round (you can play and take objectives but you will get no score until 4 or more players join the server)
* MP – Isla Inocentes welcome message on the loading screen now fits the text box area
* MP – Reduced the brightness in Russian vehicles
* MP – Medic gadgets now display correctly if the defib is not unlocked
* MP – Server filter options are remembered
* MP – Punkbuster filter now works as intended
* MP – Scroll bar no longer overlays the Join Server button in the friends list panel
* MP – CANCEL server refresh is implemented
* MP – Zooming in on a friendly using the SAIGA no longer causes the crosshair to disappear
* MP – The chat no longer displays the incorrect player name when appearing
* MP – FoV switches to the default value of 55 when entering vehicles to prevent graphical glitches caused by wider FoV settings. The custom FoV returns when exiting vehicles.
* MP – FoV no longer causes the UAV station to rotate
* MP – Fix to correctly display the unlock progression at the end of round
* MP – Chat functionality will no longer freeze after writing a partial message at the end of round
* MP – One account can no longer connect to the same server multiple times
* MP – Squad Death Match is correctly named during loading
* MP – Server browser no longer gets a bad FPS when filtering Conquest
* MP – Server info banners correctly clear between displays
* MP – Setting display settings which the system hardware can not handle no longer makes the game unusable
* MP – Correct camera collision for vehicles’ heavy machine gun
* MP – Game no longer crashes if the player sends a message in the loading screen
* MP – Trying to join a full server no longer causes the game to hang on Please Wait message
* MP – Most server filter options are remembered it doesn’t remember the setting in dropdowns
* MP – Kit/gadget loadout saved between sessions
* SP – Fixed crashes when patching and trying to resume a campaign (there is now a message that you need to re-play the latest mission from the beginning)
* SP – Fixed a crash after the “Upriver” mission end cinematic
* SP – Supply create at “Resupply at Flynn’s create” objective now supplies weapon ammo
* SP – Hang fix when reaching the objective “Destroy Enemy Zu23″
* SP – Fixed hang after “Storm Cockpit” objective
* SP – Changed melee attack raycast to be detailed
* SP – Game no longer crashes when transitioning between SP_03B to SP_04A when installed in Polish
* SP – Game no longer crashes when killed by the first two enemies in the trenches on SP_01 when installed in Italian
* SP – Updating to R7 will invalidate your single player save game. If you update you will need to play your last mission from the start. If you do not update you will not be able to play multiplayer.

Server changelist

o Punkbuster is required ON for ranked servers
o Ranked servers cannot be started with a password
o Autobalance message goes to text-chat instead of in the middle of the screen
o Added weapon balance tweaks to a number of weapons – we are eagerly awaiting feedback!

All I have to say is hell yes.

Ok guys, get ready for a rant. This just might have to turn into a bona fide section of the website. First, before I hit the rant switch, I’ll offer a tip I found after looking for the solution to one of my problems while playing Battlefield Bad Company 2. After the latest patch, if you hit resume, your game dies and crashes to the desktop. Apparently the only way to get into the single player right now is going to “My campaign” and clicking on your chapter and restarting that chapter. Actually, this is a great way to get into my rant, which is sprinkled with game design tool tips

I’ve been on a sort of single player kick the last couple of days, playing through the first two episodes of Half Life 2. So I wanted to finish off the Bad Company 2 single player, since its kind of a thing of mine to want to “get it done” so to speak. So I’m like, cool, I’ll just play a little of the single player campaign, whatever. I was already dreading it before getting into the game, however, since I had just gotten past the damn mortar sequence where you die on a whim. Really.

So yeah, I click on single player, resume, and you may be able to guess what happened…

So you could say that I’m a pretty hardcore fan of Mirror’s Edge, despite the hailstorm of crap the title got. Oddly enough I never got the game for Xbox, but I got it for PC, which made a huge difference. It just happened to be one of those games that was a coalescence of everything I’m interested. I use tracks from the soundtrack for my alarms in the morning…

Anyway, though I’ll probably miss the iPad version of Mirrors Edge, it does mean one significant thing for the series…

The new Medal of Honor was announced via trailer on Spike TV December 12, 2009. This is yet another game that seemed to slip under my radar. EA is creating a refresh of the old game, stepping away from World War II and placing it in modern times in war torn Afghanistan. The new game is being created in cooperation by both EA’s Los Angeles studio and Swedish based developer DICE. DICE was the company that created the popular Battlefield Bad Company series and also Mirror’s Edge. Check out the latest trailer at their website here.

EA is setting themselves up nicely to compete with Activision’s Modern Warfare series. The new Medal of Honor places you with elite Tier 1 operative soldiers in the U.S. led NATO war against Al Qaeda. When asked in a recent interview with Kotaku on why they chose Afghanistan, Medal of Honor executive producer Greg Goodrich said,

Afghanistan sort of chose us. We had a story we wanted to tell and it was about a certain group of individuals.

When asked if he was using this setting as an attempt to grab audiences from current events Goodrich said the following:

We have a story to tell: Our story, our characters and the quality level at which we’re telling our story will engage people whether it’s there or anywhere else. The backdrop is just that. It’s a historical backdrop that has rich history. It all adds to that recipe that goes into making a great storytelling experience, beyond the locale, beyond the time of day, beyond the audio or music.

This is something that I feel the Medal of Honor series will play into their latest game: real life historical events. The Modern Warfare series places you into a fictional war and storyline. Here Medal of Honor will thrill us with real people in historical events, all of which took place during the first part of the Afghanistan War. All I can remember was the feeling I had playing Allied Assault for PC when I played the D-Day landing. I true sense of get the hell off the boat and find some cover before I died. It brought the first attempts at blending cinematic storyline and gameplay together. I hope to expect the same things with this iteration of Medal of Honor. Expect to see this game for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 this summer.