PS3, 360 and PC owners will all be able to experience what DICE have put together so far, next Monday. As I mentioned in a previous post, those who have pre-ordered the game and are Bad Company VIP’s will get access to the beta early – on June 17th.

The beta includes two maps, Hellmand Valley and Kabul City Ruins, and will support up to 24 players in two different game modes, Team Assault and Combat Mission. EA showed off a live demo of the game at the press conference today. The game looks good. Modern Warfare 2 might have a little more competition.

You can find out more at the official Medal Of Honor website. The game will release this October.

The new maps will be set in Vietnam during the infamous war and will include new weapons, vehicles and trophies. Pricing is set to be announced very soon. The trailer is after the jump.

Image Source: Joystiq

The trailer (which you can watch after the jump) shows a solider calling his wife from the warzone, trying to convince her and his daughter that everything’s going to be alright.

Medal Of Honor, is set to be released worldwide in October.

The game was originally set to release this “summer”, but the first modern take on the series is now moving towards the holiday period. With the single player being handled by EA LA and the multiplayer being done by the specialists at DICE, it’s certainly shaping up to be a force to be reckoned with.

If you have an EA account you can view the new trailer here.

With Bad Company 2, DICE have refined a lot of what made the original so good and have smoothed out a lot of the kinks that stopped it being as good as it could’ve been. The first noticeable difference comes in the visuals. As is to be expected with any sequel, they have been improved. In fact, they’ve improved a lot. I know a lot of people had a problem with the lack of realism in the first game. Bad Company didn’t look as ‘gritty’ and realistic as it’s counterpart coming out of Infinity Ward was. It’s safe to say that the majority of those people will be disappointed again. That’s not to say that the game doesn’t look good though. I, for one, really like the visual style DICE have employed. It makes a change from seeing the same boring grey and brown colour palette used in the Call Of Duty’s and MAG’s of the world. Whilst I wouldn’t describe the visuals in Bad Company 2 breathtaking (I don’t think I could even say it looks better than Modern Warfare 2), but it certainly looks great and isn’t going to disappoint any graphics whores out there.

Some might say it’s lacking in the graphics department, but gameplay-wise it’s far superior to any other shooter available on the market today. DICE have managed to strike an almost perfect balance between the ‘point and shoot’ gameplay of Modern Warfare 2 and the more complex style used in a game like MAG. It certainly feels fast paced, but not overly so and it isn’t always a matter of painting a guy with your crosshair and pressing the trigger. I like this, but it’s definitely going to be another point of contention for shooter fans. One thing I particularly enjoy is the implementation of the Coriolis effect. Now this only really applies when it comes to using a sniper rifle, but the feeling you get when you hit a headshot whilst a guy is on the move is pretty damn good. This means sniping feels like it should – I’d assume it’s hard to master. This can be said for all the guns in the game, they all feel as they should. A definite improvement over the previous game.

For many, this game will be purely about the multiplayer and I can certainly see why. However, the campaign mode is one of the best I’ve played in any first person shooter. Sure, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, but that’s what I like about it. When a shooter tries to take on a serious, dramatic story it often doesn’t work. Here the story definitely isn’t to be taken seriously, but the characters are interesting and pretty damn funny at times. Just stopping and listening to the B-Company banter is something anyone playing this game needs to do. The story is incredibly campy and nonesensical at times, but the character’s motivations, however stereotypical they might be (seriously, I expected Sarge to say “I’m too old for this s*** on more than one occasion) were good and I was genuinely rooting for my squad of rejects.

Bad Company 2′s single player experience is great. I really enjoyed my time with it and I’d certainly say it’s one of the best campaign modes to be found in a shooter today. The gameplay is fantastic, the environments really varied and the characters funny and interesting. You wouldn’t be disapointed if you were just wanting to play a good single player first person shooter. That said, the multiplayer is certainly where it’ll be at for many.

9/10

The original Bad Company multiplayer, despite it not having as tight controls as Call Of Duty, it was loads of fun. It included fully destructible environments and vehicles that made World At War’s tanks looks very poor indeed. If all is good, EA may have a COD beater on its hands.

Ditching the subtitles, EA have promised to make this reboot an authentic war experience. So, for an authentic experience, where best to set it but Afganistan. That’s right, the game’s WWII roots seem to have been put behind it in order to try and wrestle the modern warfare crown from Infinity Ward.

EA are promising a “best-in-class single player campaign” that’ll be developed by EA LA, whilst it’ll be, Scandanavian developer, DICE handling the multiplayer content.

It certainly sounds promising. The debut trailer is set to be aired during the Spike VGA’s on December 12rh.

To be honest, I was expecting this one. The original Bad Company didn’t exactly sell a ton, and with competition from Call Of Duty it’d have a hard time gaining some kind of community. I don’t see this as a bad thing, and I look forward to March.

The sequel to highly praised and award winning Battlefield 1942 is here, in downloadable form. DICE and EA have released Battlefield 1943, for a mere 15$. Its usually believed that you get what you pay for, but is this the case with the newest installment to the Battlefield franchise?

Battlefield 1943, obviously taking place a year after the original, brings you to the pacific front. It’s the Americans against the Japanese in a 12 on 12 battle, using anything and everything to win. Be that planes, tanks, jeeps, boats, and more. There are three classes: Infantry, Riflemen, and Scout. Infantry use a machine gun for basic combat and a Bazooka for attacking vehicles. For Riflemen, its a rifle and grenades that launch out of the rifle. Scouts have a sniper, and remote detonated bombs. Although the size of the battles are scaled back from 1942, they’re just as frantic and fun. The original battlefield formula is still here mostly, and it works great. If you’re new to it, well, you’ve got a little learning to do; especially if you’re looking to fly planes. With matches lasting around 20 minutes a pop, its easy to lose yourself in it for hours on end.

Graphically, Battlefield 1943 impresses on all ends. Given that its a downloadable title, this looks better than a lot of retail games. Everything looks relatively smooth and runs great. It runs on a refined version of the “Frostbite” engine, also used on Battlefield: Bad Company. What this means other than the game looking great, is that some of the environment is destructible. Parts of buildings can be blown wide open, trees can be knocked down, and more. As cool as it is, some stuff isn’t destructible. A tree could be knocked down, but the one next to it might not be able to. Why this is, I don’t know. While I’m completely blowing this out of proportion, it might as well have been said. Gunshots, plane motors, explosions….a Battlefield title would be incomplete without them. They’re all here, and they sound excellent. Loud and realistic, it only adds to the experience. Some of the yells let out by dying soldiers are obscenely loud, and are sort of funny.

Gameplay is what made the original battlefield so revolutionary. The battles were always a blast, and that still holds true here. Although as mentioned before the number of players is scaled back, matches can still be very intense. Its very similar to domination from Call Of Duty 4. There are 5 capture points on each map, and each team battles to get control of as many as possible. It’s very fun, but its a shame there aren’t more game modes. It controls like every first person shooter, and vehicles all control easily….except for the planes. Planes are something of wonder if you get good at it. It’s going to take a good while to master it, but you’ll command the game once you’ve got it.

Everything about Battlefield 1943 works well together, making it more than recommendable. For $15, not downloading this would be a sin. I wouldn’t really call this a true sequel to Battlefield 1942, as its not even close to living up to the standards and impact of the original. Still, I can recommend this to anyone, and we’ll see you on the battlefield (see what I did there?).

8.7/10

Only Europeans may apply, sorry.

Our frenemies over at TSA picked up on this yesterday, nice of them really. Apparently EA have decided to be extra cool and give those of us in Europe (hey, that’s me!) the ability to download the Mirrors Edge time trials maps, that previously cost £8, for absolutely nothing.

I’m afriaid that, unless you own a European copy of the game, those outside of Europe still have to pay. Hey, it’s nice for the PAL territories to get something pretty cool. That said, my guess is, it wasn’t selling in the first place, so why not just give it away? Smart move EA.

[Via TheSixthAxis]