This Is Your Mirror's Edge Writer

Developer DICE and Electronic Arts bring word that writer and story designer Rhianna Pratchett will be writing and story designin' the upcoming Mirror's Edge. Prachette previously worked on Heavenly Sword and Overlord — her website also points out that she has even written some short stories. DICE's Mirror's Edge follows main character Faith in a highly monitored urban cityscape as her sister is framed for a murder she did not commit. Says Pratchett:

It was a great experience working with the team at DICE to help breathe life into Faith; her world, relationships and backstory. My heroines and heroes have always been the ones who were ordinary, but through the events of a story, became extraordinary. Faith is skilled, but she's certainly not a superhero. She has her flaws, like all of us. In short: she's real. That's her appeal.

Mirror's Edge drops this winter. Full press release after the jump.

The Magical Disappearing Battlefield: Bad Company Stats

Battlefield: Bad Company players around the world just about had a heart attack last night as they logged onto the game to discover their ranks, unlocks, and medals had all been completely reset. Purchasers of the Gold Edition of the game even found that their five very special guns they got for paying an extra $10 had disappeared. Oh no! What are we to do when our stats are erased!?

In the words of the greatest literary mind of our time, don't panic.

My stats were down last night as well, and when I logged into the game just a half hour ago, everything was back to normal. This was an issue that occured on a regular basis with Battlefield 2, and we can probably assume that it will happen on and off with Bad Company as well. The servers go down, and when they come back up it takes time for all of the stats to return. You didn't really think EA DICE would screw up that big, did you?

I've always been of two minds regarding EA DICE's Battlefield series. While I've enjoyed countless hours finding creative ways to destroy my fellow players in gigantic military conflicts, overall the games lacked a certain charisma. The sort of personality and immersion that can only come from having experienced a compelling backstory to the conflict you're involved in. Just like the Metal Gear Online experience is enhanced by playing through MGS4, Battlefield needed a story mode to add a little life to the party.

Battlefield: Bad Company addresses just that issue, adding a full single-player experience to the Battlefield series, complete with colorful characters and questionable moral choices on top of the usual multiplayer mayhem. It's uncharted waters for EA DICE – lets see if they sink or swim.

EA DICE's Battlefield series has been providing PC gamers (and eventually console owners) with solid, entertaining online multiplayer battles for a good six years now. Now that they've proven they can deliver the multiplayer goods they've taken on the single player experience with Battlefield: Bad Company, seeking to provide an offline story mode that is every bit as compelling to the solo-player as the massive multiplayer battles are to the more competitive gamer.

Has EA DICE managed to provide a combination of solo and multiplayer experiences worthy of your gaming dollar, or has the mixed focus resulted in mix review scores? The critics arm themselves after the jump.

Yeah, there are two Battlefield games on the way. that we know of. Battlefield Heroes and Battlefield Bad Company. So that's enough, right? EA's and DICE's whistles are well and truly wet, right? No. No, no, not even close. Speaking at GDC paris yesterday, DICE's Ben Cousens has said that the company are working on a further three Battlefield titles. One is a "core game" for consoles. One is a secret. The other is a collaboration with Korean company Neowiz, targeted at the region's online market. That's, you know. Five Battlefield games in development. Never let it be said EA don't know how to make the most of a franchise.

DICE confirms five Battlefield titles in development [GI.biz]

netGameRadio's Inside Battlefield show spoke to
John Hargelid of Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment (the developer behind Battlefield 2), and he dropped word that a new Battlefield 2 patch is coming, and it will include a new map pack with the update. An official announcement is set for Monday.

It's a lengthy podcast. The comment It's at timestamp 37:22 if you want to hear it for yourself. netGameRadio is suspender-popping proud at all the attention this has earned, but all that attention has put a whammy on its servers.

The entire podcast can be retrieved from TotalGamingNetwork, too.

The Inside Battlefield Show [netGameRadio via TotalGamingNetwork

Mirror's Edge Trailer Analyzed

Yes! We have all seen this before. But here it is again — with details like "birds" pointed out. Thank goodness, because we really missed those damn birds the first time around.

Faith Is A Vampire [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Mirror's Edge In Motion

Battlefield: Bad Company Official Ship Date

The Gold Edition pack features exclusive content with behind-the-scenes action and strategy videos giving Battlefield: Bad Company players tricks and tips on how to own the battlefield. The Gold Edition also gives gamers early access to five unique weapons that players can take into battle. These weapons can also be unlocked after the launch of the game by ranking up to the highest level in multiplayer mode.

Bad Company Drops Weapon Charges

All guns are available to everyone. However, we want to give some exclusivity to those who buy the Gold Edition. They will get the five Gold Edition weapons from Day One when they put the disc in. People that don't buy the Gold Edition can get the five additional weapons by getting to the final rank in the game.

I'd been playing around with the Bad Company beta for a few days when McWhertor asked me what I thought of it.

"It's OK," I said. "Hey, is this the one that's free, or that other one?"

McWhertor tells me I'm confusing it with Battlefield Heroes.

"How much are they charging for it?"

"$60"

"WTF! That's insane, it's fun, but $60?"

But ten minutes later I'm back on the game and I can't seem to stop playing it. I even sneak in a piddly five minutes of playing between the time I put the Lemon Chicken in the stove and I need to come back up to check on it.

It's an addiction!

Battlefield Heroes: Enjoy Your Two Maps!

DICE's casual stab at Battlefield may be free, but that doesn't take away our right to complain, outlined in the gamer Constitution. Sure, Battlefield Heroes looks cute and looks to feature the same well known gameplay at zero cost, but two maps? Surely, you can't be serious. They are, as producer Ben Cousins explains to Gamasutra that in typical Battlefield development cycle "we bust our asses making 50 maps, and then within six months of the game being released, everyone's playing two maps. The two best maps. So, we just decided to make just the two best maps, and not the other kind of maps."

I suppose that makes sense. Still, we're not much for microtransactions and the ability to buy your way into experience with time-limited multipliers that cost real money. It just makes us want to wash the pain away.

EA Goes Free-To-Play: Battlefield Heroes' Producer Speaks [Gamasutra]

Battlefield Bad Company Beta Leaked?

Remember how you could download the Guitar Hero III beta and play it on your 360? Well the same demo participation may be working with the Battlefield Bad Company beta...in a less than official manner. Reports are coming in that the beta software has been uploaded to the web—a version that is DVD-R burnable and will play on a modded 360.

It's a bit too much work/questionable legality for our tastes, but let us know if you've a friend's cousin's roommate has had any success with stealing the otherwise free product. Oh, and if you're really interested in Bad Company, be sure to check out our impressions. We used the more traditional game art for that post.

Battlefield Bad Company beta leaked, playable? [Xbox360Fanboy]

Battlefield Heroes Screens, Pretty And Such

Here are a slew of screens from EA's upcoming free web game Battlefield Heroes. To catch the promo video if you missed it, be sure to hit up our impressions of the game. Oh, and while you're at it, don't miss our eyes-on of Mirror's Edge, either. Seriously, that's a game you need to mentally bookmark. Yes, we just said "mentally bookmark." And if you have a problem with that, you can take it up with LeVar Burton.

Let me get something straight. I'm excited about EA's upcoming title Mirror's Edge, but I'm a little embarrassed to say that. Because this is a game that wants you to know that it's Important. From the Epic Score to the Dramatic Monologues, Mirror's Edge is not a game to be taken Lightly. It stinks of that heavy-handedness you see from Hollywood when the studio starts thinking "Oscar." But the fact of the matter is, in the dark recesses of a movie theater or the lonely recesses of your living room, nobody has to know that you are celebrating the melodrama.

Battlefield Heroes Impressions

You may think of EA's cartoon-influenced Battlefield Heroes as a poor man's Team Fortress 2. The thing is, you'd be fairly right to do so. The game will actually be free to play for anyone with a web browser and, yes, in person it looks just as much like TF2 as you'd think—but that's not a bad thing, necessarily.

At last week's GDC, I had the difficult assignment of attending EA's DICE studio event. There, hanging out at some hipster nightclub, I was forced to drink free cocktails while grabbing whatever bite-sized gourmet morsels that were passing by on silver trays. While you'll hear more about the night as embargoes lift (Battlefield: Heroes and Mirror's Edge), I first want to tell you about some time I spent playing Battlefield: Bad Company multiplayer on the Xbox 360. You know, it's that Battlefield game coming for consoles that features the oft-fabled destructible environments.

How was it? Fun, but not revolutionary.