Gadgets and Video Games

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to hear that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is already in the hands of almost 2½ million gamers, and it hasn’t even shipped yet.” That statement from Patrick Bach, Senior Producer on EA and DICE’s eagerly awaited shooter, is doubly impressive when you realize that he’s not talking about the PC version — he’s talking about the demo that was recently shared with Xbox Live and PlayStation Network users. Having reached over two million downloads within a span of five days, the Bad Company 2 teaser is “on pace to become the fastest downloaded demo in EA history,” at least according to the Big Company behind it. With the PC beta netting “hundreds of thousands” of sign-ups too, it seems the overt confidence isn’t misplaced. But come March 2nd, will all those downloads translate to an impressive, post-Modern impact

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Battlefield: Bad Company 2 demo downloaded over 2 million times

While things around the track have been quiet, Capcom is finally spilling the oil regarding DLC for its upcoming racer MotoGP 09/10 . At this week’s Silverstone event , Capcom revealed that two free DLC packages will be released for the motocross title “shortly” after the game’s release. Before the MotoGP 09/10 turns the final corner onto store shelves, Capcom will release an Xbox 360 and PS3 demo “about a month” prior to the game’s launch

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MotoGP 09/10 free DLC and demo info revealed

Though Windows 7 fever hasn’t yet overwhelmed the PC community, Steam users seem to be getting on board with the latest Bill Gates-approved operating system. A recent Steam survey has revealed that a little over 23 percent of the platform’s regular users have upgraded to Windows 7 — a stark difference from the 6 percent of the total operating system market which Windows 7 currently represents. What we found more interesting about this survey is that so many people are still using Windows XP.

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Steam users adopting Windows 7 at breakneck speeds

Much like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves demonstrated in 2009, Halo: Reach will be expected to deliver an experience that not only speaks highly of its developer, but also of the technological capabilities and commercial identity of its home platform. Whereas Halo 3: ODST was built upon Bungie’s 2007 space hoop outing (has it already been that long?), the developer tells Edge that its next shooter is already “bending the Xbox as far as it’ll bend.” Surely that voids the warranty? “We are… taking every advantage of everything on the CPU and GPU, and every bit of memory in order to produce the look of Reach beyond anything of Halo 3 , ” creative director Marcus Lehto noted, attributing the evolution — which also benefits the size of environments and complexity of the AI — to increased understanding of the hardware.

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Halo: Reach ‘bending the Xbox as far as it’ll bend,’ Bungie assures

Japanese retail blogger Oosaka King has compiled a list of what he believes are the games that did worst for stores in 2009. These aren’t just poor sellers, they’re also games with low margins or other problems that kept retailers from profiting.

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Japanese retailer names underperforming games of 2009

It’s fairly unlikely that you, dear reader, have done voice acting in video games, or are a card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild or the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. While this news might not directly apply to you, we thought we’d take a moment to celebrate the contracts these two unions recently negotiated with video game publishers to get better wages for their respective voice-acting members. The contracts will bump SAG members’ wages up 3 percent upon ratification, bringing SAG wage hikes into parity of those offered by the AFTRA.

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AFTRA, SAG negotiate new contracts for video game voice actors

Artificial Mind and Movement, better known to those in the gaming world as A2M, seems to be in the business of inappropriate euphemism name mashups. Starting with the company’s own name’s abbreviation, moving into the recently published Wet , and recently filing a trademark (spotted by Superannuation ) for a new game titled “Naughty Bear,” it appears as though the developer is on a mission to bring devilish grimaces to the faces of 13-year-old boys everywhere (ours included). Oh, and just in case you were thinking about quickly snatching up the merchandising or film trademarks to such an impressive sounding name, A2M covered its bases and nabbed those too.

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A2M trademarks ‘Naughty Bear,’ no one shocked

Ubisoft has a released a video of new Assassin’s Creed II gameplay. The video is essentially the same demonstration given at the Penny Arcade Expo , though a few things shown at the expo have been omitted. Specifically, the video doesn’t show the ability to throw money on the ground — which will cause peasants to scramble after it — or the ability to blend in with any crowd — not just groups of monks and citizens on benches

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Video: New Assassin’s Creed II gameplay walkthrough

Because we like for you to have options , we would like to present you with two ways to enjoy Street Fighter IV at half-off: Take half off the title and play Street Fighter II Take half off the price and buy Street FIghter IV from Steam this weekend Chances are you can do the former without any expenditure. Look around your house — you probably have a few copies of Street Fighter IV lying about.

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Street Fighter IV half off on Steam this weekend

At long last, there’s an answer to the following timeless riddle — how many publishers does it take to port a Japanese-centric franchise to North America on two different systems? Okay, fine , that’s not so much a timeless riddle as it is a question we just made up, but it’s been answered regardless: In the case of Way of the Samurai 3 , the answer is two.

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Way of the Samurai 3 coming to North America via two publishers