Castle Crashers hitting PC

The Behemonth's beat 'em up coming to Steam with voice chat, achievements, and gamepad support years after original debut; release date TBA.

Castle Crashers is finally storming the PC. Developer The Behemoth announced today at Gamescom that the beat 'em up is coming to Steam, though no release date or price was provided.

Castle Crashers is bursting onto the PC.

Castle Crashers for Steam will feature voice chat, achievements, gamepad and cloud save support, and local and online multiplayer. The game debuted to a warm critical reception in 2008 on Xbox Live, with a subsequent release following in 2010 for PlayStation Network.

A four-player brawler, Castle Crashers places players in the oversized helmets of knights with elemental powers who must quest to regain a stolen idol and a kidnapped princess.

Castle Crashers for PC will be on-hand at next month's Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, Washington, which runs August 31 through September 2. For more on Castle Crashers, check out GameSpot's Xbox Live and PSN reviews.

Source gamespot.com

EA for sale?

Sources says publisher "quietly exploring" sale with private equity firms KKR and Providence Equity reportedly interested; EA shares surge on the report; analyst calls deal "low probability."

Electronic Arts may be for sale. According to unnamed sources speaking to The New York Post, the Mass Effect, FIFA, and Battlefield publisher is "quietly exploring" a sale.

EA sale discussions are reportedly in "early days."

EA has reportedly been approached by private equity firms KKR and Providence Equity Partners, the latter of which owns a partial stake in Bethesda parent company Zenimax. The discussions are supposedly in "early days."

EA shares surged by more than 8 percent this morning to over $14 per share, representing the highest intraday gain since February 2, according to BusinessWeek. One source reportedly familiar with EA said the publisher will "do a deal" when the company's share value rises to $20.

An EA representative told GameSpot, "We don’t comment on rumors and speculation."

Asked about the likelihood of EA being sold, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter told GameSpot, "It’s a low probability. I don’t believe it."

EA is not the only major game publisher that could be sold. Media conglomerate Vivendi is actively interested in selling its stake in World of Warcraft and Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard, though the firm is facing a tough sell.

Source : gamespot[dot]com

DICE talks future of Mirror's Edge, Bad Company

Executive producer Patrick Bach says "we never kill something that is great," but coy on hard details for sequels.

The Mirror's Edge and Bad Company franchises have lain dormant since 2008 and 2010, respectively, with developer DICE remaining coy about the future of both series. Now, DICE executive producer Patrick Bach has confirmed that it remains committed those properties.

Faith and Bad Company have not been abandoned, Bach says.

Speaking to IGN, Bach said, "We never kill something that is great. Mirror's Edge is a game that we of course all love. It was a great game. It had some flaws, of course, like all games. But in general, it's an IP that we love and of course we haven't killed it, because it's too good to kill."

As for a sequel to Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Bach expressed a similar level of adoration for the franchise, but did not lay out any specific plans for the series.

"The Bad Company IP is still something we love," Bach continued. "And it’s very dear to me because I worked on both titles. We have no information with where we are to a sequel to Bad Company."

DICE may already be at work on new entries is both franchises. In May, various LinkedIn resumes included mention of Bad Company 3 and Mirror's Edge 2. Publisher Electronic Arts declined to comment on these rumors.

Source : gamespot[dot]com

EA's Frank Gibeau: "I've seen new consoles from Sony and Microsoft"

President of EA Labels confirms new hardware from major manufacturers; believes free-to-play will become the dominant pricing model for the industry.

The rumour mill regarding new hardware from both Microsoft and Sony has been particularly active of late. On Microsoft's side, general manager Brian Hall name-dropped a "new Xbox" earlier this month, while on Sony's side SCE UK boss Fergal Gara reaffirmed the company's commitment to retail "whenever the next cycle starts".

One key player for both consoles is EA's president of labels Frank Gibeau, whose company has pledged to spend $80 million on next-gen this year. And, during his keynote address at the Gamescom opening ceremony, Gibeau confirmed not only that new machines from both Microsoft and Sony exist, but that he has seen them.

"I've seen both of them", he teased during his speech about the future of the industry as he saw it. "Ten years ago we used to measure our market in terms of 200 million people. Now we are at a billion people playing games and we have a straight line view on 2 billion," he predicted.

Gibeau also reaffirmed EA's commitment to free-to-play, showing off the new Command & Conquer, which is built using developer DICE's Frostbite 2 engine. "Free to play will become the dominant pricing model by the end of the decade," he added.

Source : gamespot[dot]com

Mass Effect 3 Leviathan DLC releases August 28

Single-player campaign addition sets Shepard on hunt for mythical reaper killer, impacts Extended Cut endings.

Commander Shepard's intricate tale will get another wrinkle on August 28 when the Mass Effect 3 Leviathan downloadable content goes on sale. Bioware revealed the release date for the DLC today across PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, though European PS3 owners will need to wait until August 29 for it to appear on PlayStation Network.

Shepard's aquamech. Not pictured: a shark to jump over.

Leviathan's new missions unfold roughly in the middle of the game and see Shepard chasing clues to the existence of a mythical reaper-killing creature, as seen in the GameSpot preview viewable below. The events which unfold thereafter will have an impact on the Extended Cut versions of the game's controversial endings.
The DLC will cost $10 (800 Microsoft points) and is the third to add on to the events of the single-player game, after the day-one release From Ashes and June's Extended Cut.



Source : us.gamespot.com