For two-player military teamwork that stops just shy of having the main characters make out, nothing quite beats Army of Two, and this Thursday they'll be a bit more landscape for your team to play on as EA announces the free Veteran Map Pack for the Xbox 360 and PS3, sponsored by the fine folks at Pontiac - When you need a car, you might buy a Pontiac.

The pack features two new maps for co-op, a subway station in Kiev controlled by a dangerous militia, and SSC headquarters, where they can finally take down Dalton, the man responsible for framing them, who might possibly make his escape in a Pontiac...your escape from the everyday driving experience. Along with the co-op maps, players can also go 2-on-2 with the China Canal Lock map online, with all four fitting comfortably in most of Pontiac's line of luxury sedans.

Pontiac, Pontiac, Pontiac. Not nearly as funny when we do it, is it? Head for the mountains indeed.

I had been curious about Prototype since I heard the title. For some reason on my various jaunts to game events I had never gotten a chance to see it demoed. So I seized the opportunity to check it out at Sierra's Spring Event.

Prototype takes place in an open world recreation of New York City and you take o the role of Alex Mercer who has awakened with super powers and little memory. New York has been infested by zombie like creatures called the Infected and even the surrounding buildings have been sucked into to their evil. Hives of infected dot the city and more an more appear all the time. Using your super human abilities, you must disover the conspiracy involved that made this happen and attempt to save the city. But just because you are attempting to help out doesn't make you a hero. Alex Mercer is a decided anti-hero, out for himself and whatever he can get. And you don't have just the Infected to worry about either, there is the Army as well who is not only out to stop the infected, but for some unknown reason, out to get you too. Also be on the lookout for the mysterious Black Watch who have a hand in this somewhere as well.

Activision: Army Of Two, R6: Vegas 2 Fail

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is the shit. This is the gist of Activision marketing director David Tyler's recent comments in UK trade mag MCV, where he called out recent EA and Ubisoft shooters for failing to catch the hearts of gamers around the world.

"We're pleased to have Call of Duty 4 leading the way in the FPS genre, with recent launches such as Army of Two and Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 failing to inspire. Call of Duty 4 has been a phenomenal success for us and reflects Activision's commitment to creating truly ground-breaking games."

Activision: Vegas, Army of Two "failing to inspire" [CVG]

Zero Punctuation On Army Of Two

Zero Punctuation on Army of Two [the escapist]

Army of Two Demo Coming April 1st

You think the Army of Two demo is coming April 1st? Hahahaha. Fooled you!

But seriously, the Army of Two demo really is coming April 1st to Xbox 360 (sorry PS3 owners) and it will include both the training tutorial and the entire first level of the game. DLC will follow soon after, including 1 new multiplayer map, 2 new campaign maps and the SSC Challenge obstacle course. (Given that single player only features 6 levels, 2 new maps for single player is quite a bit).

Of course, given that the demo is slated for April 1st, EA could be lying to us in what would be the lamest April Fools' prank of all time. You know, almost as lame as the opening to this post.

DEMO Coming Out & New DLC Info! [EA Forums via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

The Case For Video Game Play Dates

I hang out with other gamers all the time, but it's mostly in multiplayer online play, using headsets. It's social, sure. But as any psychologist will tell you, hanging out in real life allows for even richer styles of communication to emerge. In face-to-face mode, we're better at picking up the little nuances — frustration, glee, sarcasm, subvocalized ranting, body language — that build team cohesion, and allow us to game with a positively Vulcan level of mind meld.

Canadian Arm of EA Raises Ire

While EA's Army of Two has been doing brisk business since it's release last week, the tale of two military contractors has been raising eyebrows and ire for its subject matter. While some have deemed it to be too 'pro-American,' it was developed in EA's Montreal studio. Alain Tascan, the general manager, said: "In Europe for instance, certain places feel the game is very pro-American. But the thing I want to tell them is, 'Do you know it's being done by French Canadians?'" He further went on to address criticism:

... he figures if Army Of Two causes some gamers to Google "private military contractors" or touches off debates about the role of mercenaries in real-world war zones, that's not such a bad thing.

"It's not the goal of the game (to educate people), because it's entertainment," Tascan said. "But if they learn a little bit more about it like we learned about it, it might open their eyes a little bit."

In addition to getting people's hackles up for content, Canada has attracted the wrath of European trade unions for offering supposedly unfair incentives to encourage studios to make the move. Oh, Canada.

Montreal firm Yanks some chains [Winnipeg Sun]

EA Say Region-Locked Multiplayer Isn't Company Policy

...this decision was taken by the development team for reasons specific to the AOT gameplay, rather than being an indicator for future games.

Army Of Two "Region Lock" Explained

The game works on a deterministic or peer-to-peer network setting. Because we have all these synchronized animations and the players are always doing things together, the only way to support that kind of model right now is to use a deterministic model for networking.

Army of Two Has Region Protected Multiplayer

When Army of Two launched with decent reviews, we thought all was well in the world of mercenary combat simulation. But none of us expected the game to ship with region-locked multiplayer. Apparently, European Xbox 360 owners are unable to play he game with their US friends. Originally outed by gamers, the PAL Xbox 360 manual confirms the rumor:

The online game modes in Army of Two are not cross region compatible and is only supported between PAL discs.

EA's Army of Two has had a rough road to release. A title focused on co-op mercenary missions to extents of borderline innovation, its tongue-in-cheek, adolescent play on private contractor military presence in the current world has been mistaken by many for a poor attempt at humor with no greater punchline than a well-timed fart.

So what did the critics think of Army of Two? Hit the jump for our Frankenreview on the game—what is inarguably the leading meta review system on Kotaku today.

Army Of Two Refused Classification In...Yes, Germany

Army of Two is Electronic Arts' answer to the growing desire for cooperative play, a game that is essentially one giant coop mode, with some flawed single-player strapped on for the lonely and friendless. While the third-person shooter has plenty to say about the privatization of armies and the inherent monetization of war, the real message here is that shooters have gotten stale and Army of Two's bag of new tricks is here to shake things up.

More good than bad, more blue than red, I still found Army of Two to be quite a mixed bag.

I've been spending a lot of time recently playing Army of Two. In fact, I've beaten it and even started playing through a second time on the hardest, "professional" setting. Yesterday I had a chance to spend an hour or so playing coop with some of the game's developers. Fun times.

After a half hour or so I couldn't help but ask what Electronic Arts Montreal is up to, now that their game has shipped. Downloadable content, I was told. When I pressed for more details, all I was told was that there's a ton of it being created for Army of Two. Good thing too, I've managed to buy and upgrade most of the games' weapons and masks. If there's a game that calls out for more DLC, hopefully on the cheap, Army of Two is it.

Word is some will be hitting shortly after the game goes live... which is today.

That's a trailer for Army of Two. Lots of shit exploding and flying around, lots of men running, shooting, etc, but the standout for me isn't the game (especially since there's no "game" in that footage). It's the music! That's Mastodon in the background, warbling out the most metal cover of Three Dog Night's "One" you've ever heard.
[via The PRP]

In addition to the release of Army of Two and Super Smash Bros Brawl there are two baseball game releases to remind us that Spring is just around the corner - at least it is here in Atlanta. Despite the dusting of snow on my deck last week, blooms are appearing around the yard already. And as always there's a handful of quirky DS games to give me pause.

Bully: Scholarship Edition (Wii, X360)
Rockstar's Bully comes to the Wii and 360 with optimized graphics and all new missions.

Let's Ride! Friends Forever (DS)
"Every girl needs a best friend, and yours is your horse! Together, there's nothing you can't do."

Major League Baseball 2K8 (PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, X360)
MLB '08: The Show (PS2, PS3, PSP)
Performance enhancing drugs not included.

Army of Two (PS3, X360)
The third-person shooter with a heavy reliance on partnership hits the streets.

Chicken Hunter (DS)
Shoot the chickens while they run amok.

Imagine: Figure Skater (DS)
Following in the footsteps of Imagine Fashion Designer, Imagine Animal Doctor, Imagine Babyz and Imagine Master Chef.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
You won't have to wait much longer - it's set to be released March 9th, 2008.

Video Games & Violence

On a topic that is close to my heart, another educator is bemoaning what he sees as the ubiquity of violence in video games.

"There is a tremendous lack of imagination on the part of the games industry..."

For those that may not remember, my organization is sponsoring a video game contest in which the goal is to create a video game with a theme of Teen Dating Violence without actually using violence in the game itself. Obviously many games have absolutely no violence whatsoever but there are nonetheless some interesting points to be found in the original article.

Crazy Woody the mercenary shills for Army of Two [Montreal Gazette via GamePolitics.com]