Early last Thursday morning, BioWare took the big leap and announced the start of pre-orders on their website. Though they avoid to actually nail down a release date, speculation is ranging anywhere from October to December. More after the break.

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.

BioWare certainly is flexing their cinematic muscle with their impressive trailers. Again at E3 they demonstrate the unique story of their upcoming MMO, The Old Republic. The trailer released by BioWare is slated to become the games intro cinematic. Check out the trailer after the break.

This trailer is epic. As soon as I saw it I had to post here for everyone to see. The new iteration of Medal of Honor takes the fight to modern day Afghanistan sometime after the attack on September 11, 2001. The new trailer released by EA is titled “Leave a Message” and rightly so. Along with the release of this trailer, EA announced that the game will be heading to shelves on October 12, 2010. Take a look at the new trailer after the break and let us know what you think.

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…

Its interesting to me to see how much video game companies are investing in advertising. Its obvious why though, so I understand the exploding developments. It really started to hit for me when we saw Valve do their Left 4 Dead advertising, which even reached billboards. That to me is practically a revelation. It seems game companies are interested in more than just gamers, but the general populace. Maybe someone who is a horror film addict sees a Left 4 Dead billboard and is driven to buying the game. Certainly, I would say, new territories, if not a new concept.

Here we have another eschalon of advertising. Now, the YouTube video says that its a world premiere, so I’ll also conclude as much. But I’ve been hearing about Crysis 2 for as long as you have (which is a long time) so this was no surprise to me. Perhaps this is the premiere of this video. Anyway, thats not the point here. The point is that this video was broadcast in Times Square. And even more interesting is you can see that you can get sound via cellphone. Pretty cool.

Check out the video and some more thoughts after the break…