that is really lame

...Tsk! Nonsense!

Uhhh... What? This makes no sense at all. Couple this with no system link play, and it's starting to look like EA really dropped the ball on multiplayer for this title.

Uh oh, Witzy ain't gonna be happy. Why do companies continue to do this? Is there really that much difference between PAL and NTSC versions of the games?

that sucks, i guess we cant do a brits vs americans game, on the 360 that is. not that i could in the first place after i moved to italy and got a crappy ADSL connection monopoly. and not that i could have since i never had a 360 either.

Seems like an interesting idea to implement by EA. Reduces lag for both a lot of people. I've played with people from Europe before and the lag can get pretty bad if their host or if I'm hosting I can hear them complaining about the lag.

While this might an annoyance, I see nothing wrong as including this as an option in future games. Like screen games that are only in the USA/Europe/Asia.

Annoyance? Many UK gamers have been asking to stop being connected to US servers for years! Nothing against the Americans but for the sake of lag it's sometimes annoying to get crappy trans atlantic matches all the time.

For some of us, the wish has come true!

The game sucks. The AI sucks. EA sucks. Now this. Sucks FTW!

Another piece of evidence that supports the short sightedness of EA.

Isnt it possible for a developer to let us choose what region we wanna play with/against?

Army of Two looks like the usual EA shite anyway. They can just fuck off. Most of my Live friends are in the States :(

I guess they figured their servers were crappy enough without having to connect overseas. Srsly why does it keep dcing me and my partner. :( Can't even connect to a versus match half the time either. Nothing to do with my connection or his cause we're still in private chat talking when it dcs us from EA servers.

Hey, I'm that Linus!

I got the game so I could play with a friend of mine in the US. I can understand there being a problem with hosting a 16 player game cross continent, but the problems should be significantly reduced in a 2 vs. 2 game, I'd have thought. EA didn't actually announce the problem, largely because of them being cunts.

If there is a problem with lag, then let me experience it, and I'll make the choice whether I want to put up with it. EA taking the choice out of my hands really sucks. They could show ping rates or whatever.

@2NinjasTapedTogether: No I already knew about this a few days before.

Its rather odd that they chose to do this instead of just going P2P like most other games. Since its just 2 vs 2 + AI.

Granted I can see the gameplay being REAL fucked up if your partner is lagging like hell or the other way around if you are connected to a host far away.

Still yet though its an odd decision regardless.

Im more pissed off about how they region locked all versions. Granted they were / are being released only a week or two from eachother.

I HATE having the goddamned "asian" version thats why.

Im seriously going to buy a US 360 now, but I really dont want to have to take chances with another 360 possibly RRODing on me even more so when its not in the proper "country" of sale if you know what I mean.

not a real big whoop, is finding people for multiplayer that bad? the game is pretty new and decently received, so there will be people on, unless you have a friend across the puddle

not able to play with american?

wow I gotta give this game a go.

Thats pretty lame. Just throw it on the pile of disappointment that is Army of Two. The single player is fun [while playing with a friend] but far too short, and the multi-player is just plain weak.

@Von Linus: Yeah I hear you on that one man.

Granted Im just playing MP for the APs though. Even more so ever since I found out it will be pointless to try and play with friends overseas.

I wonder if this will effect friends who are on US bases within the same country, since its considered American soil and all that. Somehow I doubt they thought that far into the "problem" they created.

Its kinda funny how they want to lockdown their new IP so much.

wow

this is surprising...

any pc can have good international online gaming...

i had lots of fun playing Gears of War co-op with my friend back in Georgia while i'm in Japan...beaten all 3 difficulty levels...

if Epic can pull off international co-op, i don't see why EA can't do the same...yes the occasional lag did bother but even with hardest difficulty, my friend and i did finish the game...

This means that it'll be even harder to get an online game that it usually is. This game's multiplayer will be dead for people in the UK in a few months (who knows, it might of been dead in a few months either way).

"to play he game"
You should change that.
Mmmm... Is this game really that bad?

@Gadgetron: Actually I found MP to be quite amusing since it beats the usual formula which is hold this point and kill the other team. Or just plain ol kill the other team.

Plus how the AI is thrown into the mix too is an interesting feature, along with just having to make more $$$ than the other team.

Granted theres not enough maps, plus it would have been interesting to see 3 or 4 2man team VS matches going down.

I thought like Army of Two looked boring before, this just makes me even less interested.

"An EA developer on the official EA forum speculates that the choice was made to reduce server loads"

Well that worked. You have 1 less person using your internets.

Yeah a co-worker of mine bought it and was going to play with his buddy back home in the UK and found out that he couldn't due to regional lockout.

Man was he ever pissed!

He went on a huge rant and swore he'd never buy another EA game as this was just retarded because there are other games out there that support US, UK multiplayer.

Way to drop the ball EA.

Speculation: Probably the old 50/60Hz bug again. Don't set your Xbox to PAL-60 if you want to play Burnout 2 (I think it was) against someone playing at 50Hz.

The original Project Gotham wouldn't let you load your profile at one refresh rate if you'd created it at the other one!

Well that pretty much seals it. I was wavering but if EA are going to pull bollocks like this so I can't play with people in the US (Who make up a majority of my friends list), I'm not going to get the game. And I'm going to be very cautious about future EA games I might want to play online.

awww you mean I have to rely upon the game to provide inane whooping, hollering, smacktalk and whining?

@Huxleyhobbes: Id have to agree with you there.

Totally a bad move on EAs part, not a good way to "launch" a new IP I say.

I was thinking about picking this game up just to co-op with a buddy of mine. That said, couldnt this be fixed pretty easy with a patch if EA were inclined to do so?

I find this strange since I wasn't aware EA servers played an important role hear. LIVE itself wouldn't have this problem (this is the first time I heard developers even worried about server load on an XBL game) since games usually only depend on XBL Servers for stats and match making. Also, the last EA game I played was Burnout Paradise which required me to register but I was playing with people all over the world. Color me confused. I definitely second the sentiment of not wanting this to become a trend. Region locked online gaming... seriously(!)... it sounds like the brain child of some censorship board!

If you ever wanted to play Gears of War on the PS3 this is as close as it comes... which isn't really a bad thing but I just hope this is for Xbox360 players.

Woooow.

That's really retarded, lol.

@-EDGE-: I say they fucking better if its possible, since all this is going to generate is bad press period.

Frankly, for a publisher as big as EA this is no excuse.

@Witzbold: Soon they will cost pennies so you can stock-up. I'm hoping they will start selling 360s in six-packs :) I'm in the same boat as you. I've been waiting to buy a second 360 to get the HDMI and cooler chipset (even though my near launch 360 hasn't RRODed on me yet) when the price falls (..at which time, I may buy an arcade then and use my current HD).
...
US being the hotbed for 360s, I do see your concern as well though I wonder if you wont be blocked at the Japanese LIVE network level :\

@okenny :): Thats weird since you would think Burnout Paradise would be more net intensive than AOT eh?

Wouldn't there be to much lag to play decently? I guess this is at max 4 players so that is more manageable. I wish they would have region locked Call of Duty 4, that's for sure.

@okenny :): No Im not blocked on live since my J 360 has a US acct. It just blocks me on movie DLs and such. Also certian demos since it still reads the IP.

@Zeouterlimits: Seriously eh? You would think they would want to promote the new IP as much as possible, even more so for online play considering how they hyped it up so much as the ultimate co-op game.

@Witzbold: Yeah the multi-player is quite different than anything I have played before, I guess I was expecting something more refined [sorry its the only word that fits to me].
There are not a ton of maps, the weapon selection is really small, and the single player is just way too short.
Army of Two gave me some good times, for a short while however I think I would have felt different if I did not purchase it. To me this game is not 60.00 worth of fun, it is the poster child for a rental.

@okenny :):
I believe EA use their own servers. If I am not mistaken. This was one of their huge fundamental issues with "Live" support back in the day.

That and no system link. So much for a game that is designed around multiplayer.

Idiots.

@niall077: A bit xenophobic, are we?

I find it hilariously ironic that this game makes so many embarassing mistakes with online play, when all of the pre-release hype was telling us how this was going to be God's gift to co-op gaming.

Game is still a fun co-op experience regardless. I only know a few EU gamers so this doesn't bother me at all. My buddy and I are having a blast.

Yeah I just bought mine and I think I'm going to return it. I have friends in London and Brussels that I play with constantly. If I can't play this with them I really have no reason to own it.

Hmm if they ever make a "The Killer" game I sure as hell hope they leave in the multiplayer so I can cover my new asian brother's back from across the world. Then again I wouldn't want EA to get their grubby hands on it.. not after what they have done with Army of Two.

Meh. Usually if I play online games that aren't in their prime, there are 5-10 people online TOTAL. This only fractions those once this isn't brand-new anymore.

I'm actually really disappointed when I'm in an MMO or something and they split it off into regional servers. I used to play Ragnarok - when I started there were Filipinos, Thais, Indonesians and Europeans in addition to all my fellow North Americans. Korea and Japan were already taken. When I quit it was just North Americans and a few stragglers who didn't move to the Europe server when it opened. While still quite varied, it became much more homogenous than it was.

One of the neatest things about playing Diablo 1 was meeting people from all over the world at different times of day. If any filter will be imposed without options, how about just a minimum ping to join a game ot ensure it works properly?

I find it very amusing that so few people have bought the PS3 version that no one has been able to test the transcontinental ability of that version. I wonder how much has to do with this game appealing to the 360 crowd, live's superiority to psn, or the fact that people are wary of EA's PS3 games. (I'm guessing its a combination but mostly due to live)