EA publicist Jino Talens says it better in this email:

Squad Deathmatch is a brand new mode to BFBC2, so we're still testing and building it out to the way we want it in the final game. The PS3 beta out now is a general term used in the industry when a game is released early to the public for testing purposes, but the game overall is still in early Alpha.

Glad we got that cleared up. Now I can get back to lusting after tanks.

During a gameplay demo, game director Patrick Redding explained that players might recognize "echoes" of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory gameplay. However, the experience is more the result of everything Ubisoft learned from the Splinter Cell series — up to and including that little identity crisis the game suffered between 2007 and 2009. Development on the multiplayer began in that time period, approximately two years ago, and what grew out of it is a story-heavy "prologue" meant to be played by two people cooperatively. From there, the rest of the multiplayer just sort of fell into place.

What Is It?
Splinter Cell: Conviction is a stealth action game starring Sam Fisher, a National Security Agency operative who may or may not be on the lam in this installment. Fisher doesn't figure directly into the main multiplayer mode — but two operatives (one from Fisher's agency and one from its Russian counterpart) engage in about six hours' worth of black ops work that sets up the story Fisher follows in the main campaign.

In total, the game has five multiplayer modes, four of which being separate from the main campaign. You can find out more about Prologue mode by reading on below — but here's what we know about the special "deniable ops" multiplayer modes:
—Hunter is for one to two players to go in and stealth kill everybody they find.
—Infiltration is a "pure" stealth mode for one to two players where the second you're spotted, you lose.
—Last Stand is a survival mode where one to two players have to protect a warhead within a level from a group of AI that want to set it off.
—Face Off throws out co-op and pits two players against both each other and a lot of hostile AI within a level.

What We Saw
I teamed up with Jose Sanchez from Electric Playground on a couple of Xbox 360s for my playthrough of the first Prologue level. I think Jose wound up being the Russian while I played the American. On this mission, we were tasked with getting into some facility or another in Siberia (although we were told the campaign isn't set in Siberia because it'd be "weird" for multiplayer participants to encounter Sam Fisher on their mission) — and making this dude open some sort of door. The whole thing went by in about half an hour for me and Jose — but I think we were doing exceptionally well for noobs.

How Far Along Is It?
Still sort of early days. The framework is there, but there are some kinks to work out like this one crazy bug that doesn't let you complete the mission. Also, they apparently were unaware that a placeholder idle animation had been left in the game — so we were treated to a surprise when we came upon idle Russian guards dancing. I hope you'll write in to Ubisoft and plead with them to leave this in on account of it being hilarious.

What Needs Improvement?
Sonar Goggles Aren't Night Vision Goggles: Jose is willing to bet money that Sam Fisher's trademark night vision goggles with make it into the game, yet. But for now, all anybody has seen (and gets to play with) are these sonar goggles that let you see the gameplay environment I guess the way a dolphin would. I'm not a fan because it turns everything gray. This gives me a false sense of security because when you're in cover, the world is sort of gray — and when you're out of cover, everything is in color. So if I'm wearing my goggles, I sometimes forget that that doesn't mean I'm in cover, and then the Russians shoot at me and oy...

Don't Leave Me!: You do not want to play this game with people who can't communicate. Often times, you'll need to coordinate your assassinations or attacks perfectly or else one player will wind up shot to shit while the other player gets stranded in some distant part of the level. For example, there was a choke point on the map where I was supposed to shoot one guard while Jose grabbed the other guard to make him use his keycard to deactivate a security gate. I kind of shot the security guard he was holding and then went through the gate and shot the other guy — which made a bunch of Russians show up to shoot Jose because I was already long gone by the time they got there. I think if Jose had said something ahead of time, none of that would've happened — but it also would have been nice for there to be some kind of non-verbal communication in the game reminding me not to be a jerk.

SPOILER WARNING
Torture Team-Ups: When you get to the guy, you have to beat him up three times to make him cooperate. You can take turns with your partner beating the guy up. This very closely resembles a gang bang and I was pretty uncomfortable — so I let Jose bash the dude's head into a printer and a desk while I watched the door.

END SPOILER WARNING

What Should Stay The Same?
Complex Concepts: Sure, I've played co-op with people before; but always in situations where I knew I could carry them if they turned out to be dead weight. Never have I been in a position where I simply can't do it without my buddy. And I'm not talking about getting a game over screen when they die — I really mean that the level would be too hard to go it alone. In particular, the mark-sharing mechanism really reinforces the buddy system. Jose would run ahead, climb a little half wall (because I guess they can't afford real walls in Russia) and mark a bunch of people walking by. I'd wait in a dark corner down the hall and when the marked men got to me, I could activate the quick assassinate mode and then run down the hallway to join Jose. There is also that revival mechanism, but I consider that standard buddy system gameplay.

Branching Paths: There are points where you have to go a certain way in the mission we were playing on — but every so often there would be open areas that presented options for how to progress. For example, there was one place where we didn't have to shoot anybody at all. Jose could go along the ceiling panels and I could cut right and (using his verbal communication) know when the guard in my area was looking elsewhere so I could book it past him without killing him. I wound up doing it anyway, because I accidentally hit the trigger button instead of the slide-into-cover button, but it's nice to have options.

To The Rescue! There's a cool thing where a bad guy can grab your partner in a choke hold. You've got a limited time to reach him and once you do, you have to make the difficult decision about whether or not to shoot the baddie and risk hitting your partner. Or get your partner to throw an elbow and then shoot the baddie as he's doubled over in pain. Decisions, decisions!

Final Thoughts
I wish I could've followed the plot more assiduously, but I spent way too much time trying not to die.

The listing (above) comes from Thursday's Child's Play Charity Auction Dinner in Seattle. Bungie donated not only a crate full of games and studio swag, but also a visit to the studio's "top secret lair" and "access to the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta before it goes live to the public." Winning bidder, and up to seven friends, supply their own travel, Bungie provides the network and food and, of course, the game.

"Valid only between 4/8/2010 and 4/28/2010 - any day within that range is acceptable," says the listing.

April 29, 2010 is a Thursday. Perhaps it could begin then. Most likely, "Spring 2010" now means "May 2010."

You know the drill. I've emailed Bungie. They say anything, it goes here.

Update: A Microsoft spokesperson has replied:

We're excited that there is so much interest and enthusiasm for the "Halo: Reach" multiplayer beta coming this spring. We're not able to confirm any details about the exact timing or content of the beta at this time but we look forward to revealing more details in the future.

Reach MP Beta - Date Narrowed Down? [halo.bungie.org, thanks Kaelen H.]

Eddie Riggs gets three new outfits in the Hammer of Infinite Fate DLC - Black Metal, Zaulia, and Mountain Man - the latter of which sports what we can only imagine is a truly epic beard. Eddie's ride gets four new paint jobs and some interesting new weapon upgrades as well, including the Oculus of the Lost, a GPS that points you towards hidden items you may have missed in your travels.

The Altar of Blood, Coiled Remains, Crucible of the Titans and Amplified Cliffs maps will keep multiplayer battles fresh for those who dabble, while 9 new achievements and trophies will surely drive completionists slightly insane.

Of course, once again, it's all about the beard. Just ask the game's creator.

"I'm excited about the beard, or course, and the new achievements and trophies," said Tim Schafer, President of Double Fine Productions. "But the thing I really can't wait to get my hands on is that Oculus of the Lost. Using it to find the last Bound Serpent isn't cheating, because it looks so cool on my car."

Okay, ignore everything past the first comma. That's what he meant to say.

Hammer of Infinite Fate will be released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on December 17th for 480 Microsoft points or $4.99 respectively.

Given that Crystal Dynamics hasn't done much of anything other than Tomb Raider since 2005, and given that Eidos/Square Enix have telegraphed a "reboot" of the Lara Croft franchise, sounds like it's a good bet that's your prestigious AAA franchise. Unless they're referring to Legacy of Kain, of course.

The ad listing mentions multiplayer maps, which indicates competitive online, not just cooperative campaign support.

Next Tomb Raider has Multiplayer? [CinemaBlend via Joystiq]

For starters, ND says player health "in ALL game types" will be lowered to to 65 percent, the same as the Crushing setting, except boosters still are allowed. The "plunder-only" playlist also will be instituted for the same weekend. It runs from Friday at 10 a.m. U.S. Pacific time to Monday, Dec. 7 at 11 a.m.

More details are on the Naughty Dog blog. They definitely want your feedback, so go visit it to be heard.

Experimental Weekend & Plunder Only [Naughty Dog, thanks Madgame]

Plus, I mean, god damn, look how long it takes for everyone to get in the safe room.

Here's another video. I love the beginning, everyone running one after the other to the weapons table. As awesome as this looks, I bet it's pure hell to play. We're seeing the reason Valve capped this at four to a side, I think.

This is Why Left 4 Dead 2 is Limited to Four Players [Hot Blooded Gaming]

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Jason Kingsley, the CEO, said:

Despite rumours, Rebellion has always been planning to support dedicated servers for Aliens vs Predator PC and we can now officially confirm that this is the case. Rebellion has always appreciated fan support. We're really looking forward to the release of Aliens vs Predator as much as you guys are!

I'm not sure the earlier report was "rumour" as much as it just left a question unanswered. Regardless, you can expect dedicated servers in this game if that's how you roll in multiplayer.

I am wondering, a little, if Rebellion waiting to see how much hell Infinity Ward would catch for its decision to drop dedicated servers in Modern Warfare 2, then DICE cashing in on the controversy by vowing dedicated server support, and decided the latter was their better marketing option.

Dedicated Servers for Aliens vs. Predator [GamesIndustry.biz, thanks Warboy]

But anyway, Spirit Tracks has multiplayer. Boy does it ever have multiplayer, and boy did we ever play it. Here's what we liked:

What Is It?
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks' multiplayer mode is akin to The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures for the GameCube – four people each control one color-coded Link and move around the same map as the other Links. The difference in Spirit Tracks is that instead of trying to help each other, you're racing each other to collect Power Gems and trying to royally screw each other up on the way.

Note: It's local-only.

What We Saw
I played two matches against a developer and two publicists at Nintendo's Redwood City office after finally getting my hands on the singleplayer mode.

How Far Along Is It?
Spirit Tracks it out December 7. I was playing on a normal-sized cartridge that may have been a final version.

What Needs Improvement?
Little Bit Laggy: When dashing around the dungeon map, things start off steady and the Power Gem drops are few and far between. As the match picks up pace, however, and players start falling into traps or getting sliced up the Phantoms, huge amounts of Gems will suddenly spill out onto the map. That plus all four players frantically running to that point to scavenge Gems caused a couple of super-laggy moments in an otherwise smooth experience.

Trap Door Confusion: There are trap doors in every map that are either random or triggered by switches. I honestly couldn't tell you which, though, because sometimes I'd press a switch and a trap door would open and sometimes the door seemed to open and shut in a kind of rhythm. It was confusing – and that much more frustrating when I fell into one because I didn't know if I should blame somebody for it.

What Should Stay The Same?
Spreading The Phantom: Numerous Phantoms – those big guys in helmets from the last Zelda DS game, Phantom Hourglass – wander the maps, prowling for Links. When one spots you, a little icon pops up above your head, indicating that it's got a bead on you. If you fail to run for your life, the Phantom will speed toward you and cut you – costing you precious Power Gems and precious seconds as you scramble to get up and recover them before the other players get there. The fun part about this mechanic is the bit where you can pass the Phantom's bead onto other players you run by – like spreading Chlamydia. It's amusing.

The Invisible Zone: One map we tried out had a patch of water in the center that rendered players invisible when they ran in. You could still see ripples where their feet landed in the water – and if you look closely, the ripples are color coded like the Links – but with all four players running around in there and Phantoms bearing down on one or more of them, it was blind panic. And freaking awesome.

Mario Kart-style Pick-ups: Occasionally, an orb with a question mark on it will fall from the sky. Players that snag this pick-up are treated to several things like a random Gem drop, invisibility or a lightning strike that you can inflict on other players. It keeps things interesting and can be the salve to the wound of a player who just went from 51 Gems to two after a string of Phantom infections.

Single Cartridge Play: I am so happy that it doesn't require four people to actually buy the game to enjoy this mode.

Final Thoughts
The multiplayer mode in Spirit Tracks certainly isn't the main attractions of the game – but it's a solid addition that deserves to be played if you can tear yourself away from trains and princesses for a little while.

Though one is obviously dwarfed by the comparison, both figures are impressive in their own right. And both speak to the health of their form of multiplayer gaming. For console games like Modern Warfare 2, multiplayer's meteoric growth is commonly understood. But for LAN parties, still playing games like Counter-Strike, their resilience and persistence are most frequently seen among college-age gamers on campus.

"If anything, I think it's growing" says Nathan Etzell, a senior at Oregon State University, whose 300-member OSU Gaming organization has a prewired, 30-person LAN room at the bottom of a dormitory where at least two large parties are held per term. In January, his club will meet the University of Oregon in the second "Civil War LAN," a gaming tournament named after the schools' football rivalry.

But there is a sense that the PC LAN party — like fraternity parties, all-nighters, streaking, whatever — are something whose time and place comes on a college campus. Out in the cold hard world, PC LAN and direct server support in new titles is dwindling in favor of console multiplayer and proprietary hosting services. Most notably, StarCraft II will not support LAN gaming as it shifts to Blizzard's Battle.net. And dedicated servers are out under Modern Warfare 2, which is now running multiplayer with a combination of Steam and the recently created IW.net for Modern Warfare 2. Both sequels' predecessors had a strong history in dedicated servers and LAN gaming, leaving some gamers feeling betrayed, and some LAN enthusiasts feeling marginalized.

LAN gaming is not gone from the off-campus civilian world. But annual convention hall events with big budgets, entry fees, prizes and sponsorships are different creatures from six people linking up to play Warcraft III. While the former will definitely still happen after you graduate, the latter is less likely. Those six-people sessions are most likely made among fellow gamers, who are likely to find each other in a class, or perusing a bulletin board in a student union.

"Their age group usually involves a lot of what PC gamers are," says Keegan Gormley, whose Big City Gaming in downtown Eugene, Ore. offers constant system-linked gaming and monthly tournaments. "They're mostly college-age students who, in their spare time, enjoy playing a game like Counter-Strike, or another game they've played for a long time."

The players in his $5-an-hour "stadium," — eight consoles connected to high definition, Major League Gaming-standard panel monitors - are largely middle- and high-schoolers, Gormley said. Younger kids are less likely to LAN, he said, because of the accessibility of consoles and the desirability of their most current games.

"There's much more deep-rooting in PC gaming," Gormley said. "Someone who gets into a game on the PC can end up playing it for years," he said. "On consoles, I've seen people drop Halo for Call of Duty, then drop Call of Duty for Flashpoint. For PC gamers, mostly, it's whatever they originally clicked on and killed with."

And that helps explain the persistence of LAN gaming. The standbys of a LAN party are usually real-time strategy games such as StarCraft, or WarCraft III, then shooters such as Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2 and Unreal Tournament. TF2 is the most recent of these, releasing in 2007, with others having roots going back to the late 1990s. There's a reason for this.

"It's what people are good at," said Patrick Chinn, one of the University of Oregon organizers for the Civil War LAN, which will be held Jan. 22-23. "One reason people want to play an older game like Counter-Strike is because they've played it a long time and they've gotten good at it. We've done tournaments for games that are brand new, and there'll be some attendance, but they're not as well played."

Plus, by this point, the support histories for the games have either controlled for or patched out of existence most means of cheating. "The tactics in a game like Counter Strike have become so refined that there's no real dick move you can pull," says Dylan Leeds, a senior majoring in digital art at Oregon. And for whatever in-game legislation doesn't cover, LAN gaming offers another control: Being physically in the presence of your opponent. It cuts down on ragequits and unsporting behavior.

"You're more likely to respect someone if you know you're going to see interact with them after the game," he said.

And that speaks to another quality of LAN gaming that, unlike its numbers, can't be replicated or really improved: the human contact of it all.

"If you're playing online by yourself, the hype's really not there," said Josh Bothun, an Oregon senior majoring in computer science and music technology. "It's like you have to intentionally create it for yourself, but you get a completely different experience when people are around you."

LAN parties have an anecdotal culture that just can't be replicated by solitary multiplayer gaming. Often stretching 24 hours or more, they're salted with tales of inside jokes and hyper-caffeination. At major tournaments in the civilian world, bragging about casemods and your rig are their own sideshow, similar to a custom-car show.

"It's more about community," says Gormley, the game store owner. "It's being able to shoulder-shove the person you just killed. It's less about yelling at someone over a mic, and more about actually giving that person the evil eye.

"It gets so elitist online, sometimes," he continued. "It seems like a lot of people don't want to play online console games because they don't get the game in its first week, don't level up their character in time, and then they feel like they can't compete."

It might be easy to assume that anything other than gaming over the Internet, as opposed to a LAN or WAN, is redundant, a relic, or headed for obscurity. But system-linked games bring something to the room that proprietary multiplayer services can't: One's friends.

To use an apt college metaphor: "It's like drinking online versus drinking with friends," Chinn said. "Drinking a couple of beers and IMing with friends is not nearly as much fun as actually drinking with your friends."

A tipster to Joystiq pointed out the advertisement for a "Senior Online Level Designer," and it's set off alarms all over that you'll be doing some strategic dismemberin' with and/or of your friends in Dead Space 2.

The person hired for this job must "own the level design for the online game [and] be able to work collaboratively with Creative Director and Online Producer to create extremely fun, satisfying and polished multiplayer levels," according to the ad.

For those of you not qualified for this job (like me), the rest of the listing gives up some details on where the game stands as of now.

The game is in the later stages of pre-production, ready for production in the next few months, with many of the navigational and combat mechanics in place. We have complete autonomy and creative control over our own decisions. The Games Label at EA is 100% committed to this IP, and has already worked on IP extensions such as comic, animated features, and action figures.

EA Job Listing Hints at Online Multiplayer for Dead Space 2 [Joystiq via VG247]

Community guru Major Nelson tweeted the news about noon U.S. Pacific time, with operations manager Eric ("e") Neustadter following with word of his own an hour later.

No specific reason was given for the record traffic but it's unimaginable Modern Warfare 2 is not a strong factor in this. No word on what the previous record was.

Xbox Live Breaks Records [Hot Blooded Gaming]

"Right now don't not buy it on the 360 because you think it's coming out on the PS3 - it's not going to," Chet Faliszek said. "Right? It's coming out on the PC and 360. It's going to be exclusive for that."

Faliszek also said that Left 4 Dead 2 is "all about playing with your friends," and that "in hooking up with your friends and the community aspects, I think the Xbox 360 is head and shoulders above the PS3. The 360 and PC are on par, right?"

Let's see, dissed PS3, and equated a console with PC, thus starting a good-old three-way let's-you-and-him-fight. Check, check and check. All in a day's work, Chet!

Valve: 360 Community "Head and Shoulders Above PS3" [CVG]

In the middle of last month, ex-Midway producer John Vignocchi was a guest on the Giant Bomb podcast, managing to share some wild tales about his adventures at Midway. I just caught up to listening to it today.

Past stories of sending porn to NBA stars and before a story of people hitting on the sister of a famous music producer, comes this bit from Vignocchi about the value of multiplayer modes in games that might otherwise be single-player games.

You can find this at about the 1 hour, 22 minute, 51 second mark of the October 13 Giant Bombcast:

We were having this battle all the time, talking about, "OK, is a totally amazing single-player experience, the most important thing? Or should it be an 80% single-player experience and then a pretty cool multiplayer. Stranglehold when through that exact same problem. I think if you ask every single person that worked on Stranglehold whether or not multiplayer was a necessity for that product, they would all say, 'I wish we never did it.' It was the worst part of the game, and it was something that executive management had said, 'This has to be in the game.' And no one wanted it, and it turned out the way it turned out. That's something every game developer goes through.

Vignocchi segued his story into some talk about our own Michael McWhertor's story about the diminishing presence of single-player-only games. And there's more. Check out a particularly juicy episode of the ever-entertaining Giant Bombcast.

Giant Bombcast: 10/13/09

Nuke Your Opponents in Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer [Spoilers] [Hot Blooded Gaming]

The Tears of the Hextadon map pack consists of two new maps for Brutal Legend's completely non-real-time strategy online multiplayer mode. The Circle of Tears map is completely surrounded by water, while the Death's Fjord map takes place in an icy mountain path, where players must brave wide open spaces in order to reach the fan geysers needed to generate units.

Double fine's Tim Schafer explains the map names.

"I play Brütal Legend online every night," said Tim Schafer, President of Double Fine Productions. "And I need more maps! Circle of Tears is named after the crying of my vanquished foes on the battlefield, and Death's Fjord is obviously a tribute to my Nordic ancestors, and their love of fan geysers and… Well, actually I just thought the name was cool. See you online!"

He doesn't explain, however, why the PlayStation 3 version of the downloadable content is free from the November 5th release until November the 19th, while the Xbox 360 pack costs 400 Microsoft points as soon as it hits Xbox Live on November 3rd. Perhaps EA is trying to drum up more PS3 business? We've contacted EA about the reasoning and will update as soon as we hear back.

Rather, you get your standard multiplayer modes like Control (which is more or less capture the flag) and a special mode called Extraction. Extraction mixes elements of Gears of War 2's Horde Mode with Left 4 Dead's constant location changing for a somewhat different experience than what the default multiplayer modes offer.

There is a catch, though. Extraction is available exclusively to GameStop any retailer's pre-order customers for the first month. After 30 days, though, all Army of Two customers will get their shot at the bonus mode.

What Is It?
Army of Two: The 40th Day is a third-person shooter the relies heavily on cooperative play between two people or one person and an AI-controller partner. EA Montreal Creative Director Alex Hutchinson says that the game is trying to tell a story about saving yourself (and your partner) as opposed to one about saving the world. So expect a lot of running and gunning and be prepared for the co-op strategies to get more complex.

What We Saw
A flamethrower character was briefly demoed for games journalists. Then they turned us loose on the multiplayer modes. I played two matches of Team Deathmatch in the Temple map, two matches of Control in the Aftermath and Crossroads maps and one round of Extraction in the Zoo map.

How Far Along Is It?
The game is due out January 8, 2010.

What Needs Improvement?
Polish, polish, polish! Seeing a tidbit of singleplayer totally ruined me for the Unreal engine's performance in multiplayer. Whereas the fight with the flamethrower guy was pretty and vibrant, the multiplayer models and environments looked a little rough and dull by comparison. Also, there were significant frame rate issues with the host player's gameplay and one or two connection issues. These are all things that solid polish will fix – but after seeing what happened with the Borderlands hiccups, I think it's important developers get this stuff under control before launch, not after.

I Can Get There By Myself: Extraction mode drops players in a map and then sends increasingly difficult wave after wave of enemies at them. Once they've "cleared" a set of waves, they're sent to a new location to face the next batch. The problem I have with this is that the game doesn't let you walk or run to your new location – it just teleports you there and says "hold this position." Like the game doesn't trust me to get there all by myself, or is afraid to challenge me with the difficult concept of "hurry up, but don't ditch your buddy," which drives the other multiplayer modes.

What Should Stay The Same?
Buddy Love: You can, of course, ditch your buddy and hope for the best in all the multiplayer modes. However, the game feels way more fun when you're working with somebody. Having that second player's icon appear on your screen at all times helps you focus on gameplay objectives and can inspire you with neat strategies. Also, going it together means you're rarely ever surprised and you get Achievements for busting up someone else's partnership with a well-aimed shotgun blast.

Other Teammates Can Revive You: In Team Deathmatch and Extraction, anybody on your team can revive you when you're downed as opposed to having to wait for your own buddy. This is a little confusing because there's no icon to tell you when another teammate has gone down – just the icon for your own buddy. However, it's convenient because you will get separated from your buddy every so often and sometimes shot up in the process.

Cover System: Holding down the A Button makes you run while pushing the analog stick, but it also triggers automatic cover when you get close enough to a wall or an object. However, you're not stuck to cover – you can easily hop over or move around whatever you're in cover behind by mashing A one or two more times. Also, if you happen to be running toward cover, you can let go of A and then mash on it again to slide into cover – which looks way cool and is very convenient for avoiding sniper fire.

You Can Turn User-Created Content On Or Off: I can't wait to customize me some pink shoulder pads and an Aggro-happy shotgun. I only hope I'm playing with a host who allows them.

Final Thoughts
What makes or breaks Army of Two is the partner you play the game with. I got stuck with some bum buddies throughout my multiplayer experience and they made everything sucky and frustrating. Having the right partner who knew what they were doing or at least took instructions, on the other hand, made everything awesome and totally fun. Choose wisely.

Bowling, the Infinity Ward community manager, said IWNet makes multiplayer more accessible to the PC community on Modern Warfare 2, replacing the need for dedicated servers that are hosted and managed by players. But the hardcore PC crowd to whom he was talking, on BASHandSlash.com's webcast, did not take the news in a completely positive light.

"The silence you hear is because we've got a community right now structured in such a way that it relied on having dedicated servers," one of BASHandSlash's moderators told Bowling.

"You're definitely reshaping the way the community has been set up," another said later.

"Definitely," Bowling acknowledged.

Here's the score: by building up its own matchmaking service riding shotgun with Steam, "you can get in and play with players your same rank," Bowling said. However, "You're completely reliant on IWNet and there is no dedicated server or server list. You rely on IW Net for matchmaking and your games, but you still have your private matches."

The level of control over those matches allows players to set a wide array of parameters and rules for the game. But community features such as clans, and the high level of customization available in hosting a modded game or custom map on one's own dedicated server, face an uncertain future, if not their end outright.

"Custom content, after the fact, keeps the game alive for us a lot longer," one of Bowling's questioners said.

"This is the first time we've ever done something like this, obviously," Bowling said, "and I know the team has huge plans for what IWNet develops into, and this is just the beginning. It's hard for me to speak personally towward IWNet, because that is a code heavy project."

Bowling reminded that this method of multiplayer delivery also allows Infinity Ward "a lot more control and structure for the PC version. From a development standpoint, it's very good on how we can access and update the PC community."

But before this is taken as the definitive end of modding and custom maps, Bowling clearly said "I don't have those answers yet," when asked further about how IWNet would affect that aspect of PC Modern Warfare play.

The entire conversation is archived here, and Bowling comes in at the 1:39:00 mark (that's one hour, 39 minutes). If this matters to you I definitely encourage listening to all of what he has to say before reacting.

But the news is not being taken well. The BASHandSlash guys referred to the vehemence in the chatlog running concurrent with the program, and terms such as "Black Saturday" and "a day of infamy" are being thrown around. "They've made Jesus cry," is another reaction, particularly from the competitive PC community whose future also is affected. "The server community is what's made us. It's what defined us," says Josh Pickler of planetmedalofhonor.com "IW.NET is getting the PC community to turn into consoles. You're trying to re-write our history."

Bowling was steadfast in telling BASHandSlash that, for the whole of the community, IWNet will be a benefit.

"It's definitely going to be a change. It's going to be a very different setup than what we're previously used to in the Call of Duty franchise for the PC," In the long term it's going to help the community. It changes the way and how we're able to update and support the PC version."

It definitely bears watching, and keep in mind the story could change as Infinity Ward releases more information on IWNet.

MW2: Our Game Has Changed Forever [BASHandSlash.com, thanks to all who tipped this]

"We did it early on; that's what Spec Ops started out as, as co-op through story," Bowling told VG247. "But it really broke the cinematic experience, took the immersion out of it, out of the story and the pacing and everything we'd spent so long crafting. It just ruined the experience we were aiming for, so we took it out, kept the single-player for that one player intact and polished it.

"But then there were moments that were really fun with two players, so we took those moments and put them in Spec Ops," he added.

The resulting Spec Ops, in Modern Warfare 2, is a mission-based co-op section playable online or locally in split screen, separate from the main campaign. "So you can play moments directly taken from the single-player, in Spec Ops, but it's polished towards those two players so the experience is pure. You really get the best of both worlds: you get the moments that were fun, but the moments that were sh—-y we took out."

IW Dropped Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Co-Op as it "Ruined the Experience" [VG247 via Blue's News]

But the final answer is yes. Yes, Elite Squadron can handle all 16 players leaping from space combat to ground battles and back again almost at once. Yes, it can get hectic and confusing. And yes, you will totally love it.

What Is It?
Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron is the latest in the cross-platform Battlefront series. This installment on PSP and Nintendo DS keeps level with the series' theme of dropping players into "everyman" Star Wars characters with some special chances to play as "hero/villain" characters in certain levels.

What We Saw
I played six multiplayer Conquest Mode matches with an assortment of other games journalists and QA testers who totally owned our collective face. The worlds we saw are: Tatooine, some Clone Wars planet I didn't recognize, Hoth, Kashyyyk, Dantooine and Mustafar. Conquest matches, for those of you unfamiliar with the series, involve capturing command points and destroying enemy spacecraft in a certain amount of time.

How Far Along Is It?
The game is out November 3.

What Needs Improvement?
Hey! I Didn't Want To Go Planetside! If you're flying a spacecraft, the game sometimes takes liberties with your locations. For example, you can hop in an X-Wing on the ground and try to jet up to space by flying skyward and pressing up on the D-pad – but the game doesn't think you should be up there quite yet and so it either doesn't send you right away, or it doesn't send you at all. This same thing happens in the space-side of levels as well, which gets really annoying if you're flying close to the planet while trying to shoot somebody and the game decides to send you planetside even though you didn't press the D-pad.

Tough To Change Targets: You can lock on to enemies both in space and on the ground – but I was having a heck of a time figuring out how to change targets if I didn't want keep shooting at something. This really became a problem if I happened to be targeting a turret on a Star Destroyer because my ship would automatically angle toward it even as I tried to jet away from the ship so I wouldn't crash directly into it.

My Kingdom For A Melee Button! It seemed like you'd automatically melee-attack somebody when pressing the shoot button if they got close enough, however it didn't happen all the time. I know there are some weapons that are automatically melee-only (e.g. lightsabers) – but if everybody has the potential to melee with their guns, I'd really like a separate button for it. I'm a huge fan of the pistol-whip.

What Should Stay The Same?
Space Combat: Loved it. Loved it so much, I actually started to avoid going planetside.

Escape Pods: A big part of the battle phase is destroying the enemy's command ship that's hovering above the planet. You accomplish this by bringing down the enemy shields (with the ion cannon that's planetside) and then boarding the craft with your ship (easier said than done). Once inside the ship, combat changes to the ground format where you're running around as a trooper, a droid or a special character. You've got to get to the reactor core station inside the ship and wreck it, whereupon it triggers a timed explosion. You've got about two minutes tops to either fight your way back to the ship you boarded with (assuming it wasn't shot up) – but the best option is to grab an escape pod which sends you right back down to the planet.

It's What Multiplayer Was Meant To Be: If you've ever gotten together a bunch of gamers to take a crack at any multiplayer mode, you know when things are going well. People enjoy themselves and really get into the rivalries. When a big event happens – like a command ship exploding – there's a cry from the victim team and a cheer from the aggressor team. When somebody morphs into a Jedi at a random point in battle (depending on how well you're doing), there are squawks of disbelief to see a lightsaber on the field. And when the match ends, there's a collective groan because it felt like it ended too soon.

Final Thoughts
I'm buying it. I really hope my PSP-owning friends do, too, so I can gun them down in space.