While the 13.8MB patch should fix the ATI issues, Electronic Arts wants you to accept an EULA before you download it. And then, users with quad core CPUs will need to implement a workaround (described here, see "Known Issues & Current Workaround), otherwise they "will possibly have significant streaming issues." This is funny because the game's specs recommend a 2.8GHz Quad Core CPU.

EA says it's aware of the issue and working on a fix for the next patch update. And "while this will decrease the amount of streaming glitches, it is not a fool-proof fix."

So wait a minute, is the damn thing patched or not?

BETA Patch Report/Support Thread [EA Forums via VE3D]

Well, almost.

The game's official boards have been flooded with complaints from users claiming that ATI's 3k, 4k and 5k cards won't run the game in either XP, Vista or Windows 7. In other words, if you bought the game and own an ATI card, you're screwed.

Indeed, things are so bad that online retailer Direct2Drive have placed a notice on their digital shopfront, warning ATI customers of the shortfall. Can't remember the last time I saw something like that happen.

Not the best way for Pandemic to sign off to their fanbase, is it?

ATI Graphic Issues with Windows Vista & Windows 7 64bit/32bit - The Saboteur Issues & Tech Help - The Saboteur: EA Forums [EA]

Anyway, you can see that the bastard-ass difficulty is "feckin' hard" according to that screenshot. You know, if instead of the Paris resistance this game was about Rome's, I'd hope the insane strength would be called "fargin' hard."

The Saboteur - Pandemic's fallen-from-a-dead-man's-hand grenade - drops Dec. 8.

The Saboteur has a "'Feckin' Hard" Setting [VG247]

The new game is in development at EALA, the studio where a core group of Pandemic team members were relocated following last week's closure of Pandemic's offices and departure of its top executives.

EA offered no gameplay detals, release date or platforms for the new game.

The existence of Mercs Inc — which EA refers to as a "working title" — first surfaced yesterday on website Bitmob, which ran a video of the in-development game and referred to the game as a multiplayer project.

The video showed classic shoot-em-up-for-cash Mercenaries paramilitary action, though it did not display much of the environmental destruction that was the original trademark of the series.

"We are very excited to announce a new instalment [sic] in the popular Mercenaries series because it demonstrates our continued commitment to Pandemic's rich catalogue of intellectual properties," EA group general manager Nick Earl said in a statement. Last week, Earl had the less pleasant duty of announcing the fate of Pandemic to EA employees.

Earl noted that a "core creative team is forging new ground and conceptualizing new ideas for this exciting franchise."

The first Mercenaries was released in 2005, developed by Pandemic and published by LucasArts. A sequel, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, was released last year, again developed by Pandemic but published by new studio owners EA.

[UPDATE: EA declined to provide any more details about when the game is coming out our what it will be about. As for whether the company announced Mercs Inc today as a reaction to the leaked video of the game that surfaced online yesterday and started the rumor of its existence, an EA spokesperson said, "We don't comment on rumors." The company has not responded to a follow-up regarding whether anyone who worked at the Pandemic offices as of last week is currently involved in the new project.]

Says Mathew Everett, the Pandemic Community Manager, in a message on Saturday afternoon:

I am very proud to communicate today that The Saboteur has officially gone "GOLD" on all 3 planned platforms (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 & PC). This has been a very difficult week for Pandemic Studios, but does not change the fact that a team of amazing people worked very hard to make The Saboteur a great game that fans will be able to enjoy this holiday season. As planned, The Saboteur will be available across Europe starting December 4 and throughout North America on December 8. Vive La Resistance!

The Saboteur will be released Dec. 8.

It's another batch of screenshots for Pandemic's The Saboteur, featuring protagonist Sean Devlin doing things other than wading through the seedy underbelly of World War II's burlesque scene. Marvel as he blows up a blimp! See him climbing a thing! Behold - he's totally talking to that one guy!

Yes, we've posted a couple of these screens before, with the E3 trailer that first took us outside the Belle De Nuit, and we pointed out that the video was a whole lot tamer than the screens were. EA explained that the ESRB was rather strict about video, which is probably why the women in this little club walkthrough are wearing much more than their screenshot counterparts as well, making it seem less like a seedy dive and more like the bar from Cheers, only in World War II France.

That shot of Sean in his race car is probably the most color I've seen in any one screenshot for Pandemic's The Saboteur. It sort of gives you an idea of what you're fighting for in the game, restoring color and life to Paris by liberating it from Nazi occupation during World War II. Sure, it's still just a next-gen de Blob, but there isn't anything wrong with that.

Saboteur protagonist Sean Devlin may have been inspired by real-life Grand Prix motor racing driver and special agent William Grover-Williams, but Grover-Williams' look didn't quite fit what Pandemic was looking for in terms of a rugged, good-looking main character. Lead designer Tom French and Hunt explored the difficulty they had finding the right look for Sean Devlin during their "Rethinking The WWII Gaming Genre" panel at the San Diego Comic-Con this weekend.

After the original concept of Tom French wailing on an electric guitar was vetoed, the team tried for something a bit more period appropriate. A nice look, but it was a bit too fragile for their liking.

Then, inspiration struck. Chris Hunt found their hero at a concept artist convention, but it wasn't a piece of art that caught his eye. It was this guy:

"Then we ran into this guy. He had the hat, he had the hair...even him walking around...he was the embodiment of what we wanted, so we approached him, got permission to use his likeness, and now we had the hero we were looking for."

The moral of this story? Always wear a kick-ass hat. You never know when you'll be asked to be the main character in a video game.

December is generally a bad month to release video games, but this year could be an exception. With a great many of the big titles we were expecting in the fall being pushed to 2010, The Saboteur's newly-announced December release date shouldn't be much of a problem for the eagerly anticipated title. After all, it does have that lovely colorizing the world game mechanic going for it, as well as its unique tone and setting. Plus, nothing warms you up on a cold winter evening like a visit to a 1940's Paris brothel.

The Saboteur ships worldwide for the Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3 on December 8th. For an early look at the game, stop by EA's San Diego Comic-Con booth this week to put the game through its paces.

Novelty is not a predictor of quality. So, really, who knows how good EA's holiday game The Saboteur will be any good. I haven't played it.

But, until earlier this week, I didn't even understand what The Saboteur was supposed to be.

The game's lead designer from EA's Pandemic Studios, Tom French, remedied that by spending about 20 minutes demonstrating the game in a rented New York City nightclub earlier this week. And while I can't say whether the game will veer toward unusual-good or unusual-bad, I can at least report that The Saboteur is rightly described as not just another World War II game.

The game is open-world. It sits, in terms of graphical quality, somewhere between the GodfatherII/Prototypes of the world and the GTA IV/Infamouses. The hero is Sean Devlin, an Irish, inspired-from-real-life race car driver turned resistance fighter who winds up fighting Nazis throughout France in order to get revenge for a tragedy that befalls him early in the game.

The game isn't just in Paris, stretching its adventure from Germany to the countryside of France, with a good amount of time set up in what French described as a Disneyland-version of the famous city. It's Disney-fied in its scale. The city is shrunken from its real-life counterpart, except for its landmarks, like the Eiffel Tower, which is built to scale.

The game world and Devlin are rendered primarily in black, white and shades of gray, with splashes of red supplied by the Swastika armbands of Nazis. The drained color represents a low will of the locals to resist the Nazis. But some locations in those regions, like the aforementioned Parisian brothel, are rendered in color, a sign that it is there where resistance is brewing. As missions are completed, the game is designed to restore color to regions of Paris and the rest of the game world or to take that color away. When color is restored, the locals will help resist the Nazis, making a quick escape from a black-and-white area to a fully-colored one a dash toward friendly reinforcements.

In the midst of this game are some oddities. The Nazis, for example, aren't authentic Nazis. They are Nazis with bazookas and flamethrowers and anachronistically high-powered machine guns. Also unusual is the inclusion of some car races for Devlin to enter. French said one of these is aggravated by the Nazi's attempt to expose Devlin as a resistance fighter by messing with him while he competes.

Devlin's a good climber, can snap to cover, don disguises and wield lots of guns. So combat or stealth options are varied. He can also duck from his pursuers, French told me, by running to a urinal and using it while his enemies run by. Or.. he can do the same by grabbing a nearby lady and kissing her.

One other game design quirk worth noting: French promised a persistence to the player's interactions with the game's open-world that is still rare for this genre. Paris contains several sniper towers and anti-aircraft gun emplacements. These can be destroyed and treated as collectibles. But some are set up in locations where missions occur. Taking them out prior to those missions will register with the game and make those missions easier. I saw this in effect during a mission that tasked Devlin with destroying a big cannon that was set near the rooftops in one Parisian district. A sniper tower nearby was an aggravation that would have been absent had it been destroyed before the mission began. (One other Saboteur quirk: while that mission was timed as a race against the Nazis firing the cannon, the timer was eliminated when French sniped the scientist trying to fire the cannon. Then, he had all the time in the world to blow up the cannon and make his escape. That's an optional wrinkle, not a required way to play it).

The Saboteur is one of those games that is full of elements that make it different than the norm. As I wrote above, it's hard to say whether it will come together to be special in terms of quality. But what I saw looked enjoyable and imaginative, a game that deserves attention rather than eyerolls by those who are sick of killing virtual Nazis.

The Saboteur is slated for a PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 release this holiday season.

Pandemic's Thomas French says "...we don't even really think of our game as a WWII game, it's the backdrop to our game which gives us arguably the best real world bad guys of all time".

Slightly silly, maybe, but also perfectly understandable from a marketing standpoint. I think people are just...done with the Second World War. We've been hit with too much of it over the past ten years, and even with fancy colour design and boobs, it's hard getting psyched for another game where you're killing Nazis in the 40's.

Pandemic tells us about The Saboteur's setting [Destructoid]

As you watch the trailer, you'll notice two things. First, the game is looking pretty damn fine. Second, there's blur all over the place. It's most noticeable when they pull away from the bar as Sean Devlin makes his exit. Not only do they blur out the artistic side-boob, they even give the statue atop the building a little smudge so we don't accidentally glimpse statue crotch.

We found an uncensored screenshot of the bar in the official fansite kit of all places, and as you can see, it really isn't a big deal.

In fact, we probably wouldn't have thought twice about the imagery had they not felt that it needed to be blurred in the first place. It's even more ridiculous when you look at the actual nudity that appears in the game itself, as see in this screen shot from Polish gaming site Gamikaze. Did you see how many fish I had to use in that image? It's like a mini-aquarium.

Come on, EA. We're all adults here, and even those of us who aren't can tune into television most days and see far worse than naked statues.

Oh, and Gamikaze has the uncensored image, if that's your thing, though clicking that link is definitely a work no-no.

Update: Ea dropped us a line to let us know that the ESRB made them blur out the bits, which just goes to show you that our game ratings are in the hands of people who don't appreciate naked statues.

It's been quite awhile since we've seen anything new from Pandemic's free-roaming World War II adventure game, which is quite obviously looking rather lovely, and I'm not just talking about that top shot. I love the visual style, and don't mind the fact that the game's restoring color to Paris by liberating it from an oppressive regime and giving the citizens hope mechanic makes it a grown-up version of THQ's de Blob for the Nintendo Wii. Besides, you'd never find anything even remotely resembling the scene in the concept art above in de Blob.

So upon seeing the rather substantial downloadable content pack announced today - which adds a number of the biggest/baddest heroes and villains from the books/movies, along with some new levels - we can't help but wonder whether this is the kind of stuff that should have been included on the disc, instead of nickel-and-dimed out a month after release?

Who knows. Just saying, it may have padded out the original product and made it slightly more tolerable, instead of hitting a digital marketplace and trying to appeal to customers who have long since abandoned the troubled game.

Those sticking with it, though, will be thrilled to see that this pack includes three new playable heroes (Arwen, Boromir and Gothmog) as well as two new levels (Amon Hen & Battle of the Last Alliance). The pack will be out this Thursday, and will cost 800 MS Points/$10.

Lord of the Rings: Conquest DLC Revealed [IGN]

The first clip up here shows a rooftop chase. Batman could be...either of them, really, but we're thinking the latter, because he does that neat slide. And why would Batman be running away?

The second clip, below, is a character test for what must have been one of the game's villains. Not much on show here, either, but you can at least get a feel for the tone the game was shooting for. The dark, murderous tone.

Both clips come courtesy of the online portfolio of artist Travis Ramsdale, who worked on Batman's animation for the game at Pandemic Brisbane until it was recently canned.

[Thanks Superannuation!]

It sounds like such a sure thing, doesn't it? Epic fantasy battles recreating moments from the beloved fantasy books and movies. All EA and Pandemic had to do was make sure it was at least an average title and they would have captured a significant portion of the millions of Tolkien fans worldwide. As easy as dropping a ring into a volcano.

Did they succeed in their quest, or will the hordes of gaming critics bring them to their knees?

X360 Magazine
There’s a commonly held belief among gamers that when a publisher releases a bad game, they aren’t aware of its poor quality. That it must just be a mistake in that the company simply has a different idea as to what exactly constitutes an enjoyable experience than we do. Sadly, the reasons for the appearance of tripe like Conquest in its raw, unpolished, buggy, mirthless form are those of business. Of deadlining to fit a specific window, to be included in the financial year or to pay the way of an ongoing license agreement that the publisher is unwilling to relinquish. We can’t be sure that this is the case with Conquest, but call it an educated guess.

Official Xbox Magazine
A capture-the-rally-points and do-other-lovely-chores snoozer that’s extremely reminiscent of the Star Wars: Battlefront series, Lord of the Rings: Conquest is full of frustrating moments like this. Though you’re given a generous number of lives with which to complete each campaign mission, many scenarios cause missions to end instantly. The most common one is being killed when you’re protecting a key location: the time it takes to choose your character and respawn means that the positions are often overrun before you have a chance to fight back.

Eurogamer
...there is also a lightness to the combat that's unsatisfying. Through a combination of sound design and animation, strikes don't connect with the weight and power one expects of this universe. Jump or fall from a 25-foot wall and your character won't so much as buckle at the knee, giving the game a weightless, videogamey feel that's at odds with the supposed grand scale and gravity of the universe.

VideoGamer.com
Most of the character models look like reasonable gaming equivalents to their cinematic counterparts, while the larger beasties like Balrogs and Trolls are relatively impressive in their movement and appearance. Other animations fare less well: orc swordsmen have a peculiar way of waddling into battle, while running one horse into another can result in a bizarre glitch that sees your nag sliding about on its nose. Pathfinding can also be an issue in levels that feature narrow ledges: there are quite a few chuckles to be had from watching suicidal elves hurling themselves off cliffs in the Mines of Moria.

IGN
The Lord of the Rings: Conquest is a straightforward affair with very little that will pleasantly surprise anyone who played Star Wars: Battlefront. Its combat and general mission structure is by-the-books and the lack of expandability and feeling of redundancy are felt instantly. Withstanding all of that, Conquest still somehow manages to earn merit on its expert use of The Lord of the Rings license. The environments feel like they're straight from the silver screen and Howard Shore's multiple orchestral pieces are great to fight alongside.

Kotaku
If you're looking for another take on the deliciously addictive fun of Star Wars: Battlefront, but with a fantasy setting, you may want to look somewhere else. Too much of this game feels phoned in to be able to recommend it.
Well that was relatively painful.

The idea seemed like a good one: Give the people who made Star Wars: Battlefront the license to create a similar game using The Lord of the Rings characters. Add to that the ability to play both sides of the epic fantasy tale and you're sure to have a winner in The Lord of the Rings: Conquest.

Right? Right?

Loved
Classes and Weapons: Conquest gives you a nice cross-section of classes to choose from. There's the straightforward warrior, the distance attack archer and mage, and the stealthy scout. Each have some pretty interesting weapons and attacks, like the ability to deliver instant-kill backstabs, heal others and drop clouds of poison into a mass of troops by arrow. They also supplement one another nicely.

Graphics: The game's graphics range from mildly interesting to amazing. The graphics deliver most often while helping to capture the essence of famous battles in the story like the Battle of Osgiliath and the Mines of Moria.

Heroes: Playing through the campaigns as grunts can get a little old at times. Fortunately, the game mixes things up by letting you occasionally take on the roles of heroes and larger than life creatures. Aragorn, Sauron, Balrog and Gandalf are just some of the playable heroes in the game.

Split Screen Multiplayer: The Lord of the Rings: Conquest works best when it is played together with a friend in the same room. The characters are so nicely supplemental that they naturally encourage team play and make battle much more exciting.

Hated
Broken Artificial Intelligence: The heavy reliance on cross-class support, means that if a mage or archer or scout doesn't have your back throughout the game, you're pretty likely to fail. Unfortunately, the game's artificial intelligence almost never does. As bad as the enemy-driven AI is, the friendly seems worse and playing without the support of the army around you often makes the single player experience an exercise in frustration.

Glitchy: There are lots of little bugs that make this already wobbly game worse. Getting up after being knocked down, for instance, obligates you to roll around the ground for a second. If you're near any sort of ledge, expect to fall to your death. Riding a mount, something that could have been a highlight of the game, is unmanageable and bereft of any combat benefit.

Confusing Objectives: The game uses arrows for objects. But instead of using them like GPS direction, they just sit on top of your objective pointing at the ground. In other words, if you're in a maze-like mine, it's up to you to figure out how to get to that transparent arrow.

EA Online Account Required: Really EA? Really? You're really going to force me to sign up for your online service when I'm on Xbox Live to play online? You're really expecting me to use a virtual keypad to register before I can actually play a game I purchased online? Obnoxious and absurd.

Trudging Single Player Experience:Even ignoring all of the faults of the single player experience — issues with AI, lack of virtual teamwork, small bugs — the single player experience still feels like what it is: A bunch of set pieces with inevitable endings. The campaign just doesn't play like a full-on single player experience.

I played through half of the game on my own and it was an incredibly frustrating, tedious experience. But once I sat down with another player, the game felt a bit more fun. Too bad Electronic Arts decided to hobble the best part of the game (multiplayer) by forcing gamers to use their online service.

If you're looking for another take on the deliciously addictive fun of Star Wars: Battlefront, but with a fantasy setting, you may want to look somewhere else. Too much of this game feels phoned in to be able to recommend it.

Lord of the Rings: Conquest was developed by Pandemic Studios and published by Electronic Arts, released on January 13 for DS, PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Retails for $59.99 USD. Played through The War of the Ring campaign alone and The Rise of Sauron campaign in split screen on Xbox 360. Tested online multiplayer.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

New Kotaku AU editor David Wildgoose brings us the story of how the Batman game Pandemic Brisbane were working on not only knocked a giant hole in EA's account books, but ultimately brought about the end of the studio.

Speaking with a number of Pandemic employees, Wildgoose finds that the game - which ended up being a complete disaster - crashed in on itself due to a combination of the following:

- Pandemic worked out a deal with Warner/DC and EA to make a Batman game. So Pandemic spent six months on pre-production of a Batman game. Then EA came in and said it had to be a Dark Knight game, so most of that six months' work was thrown out.

- EA were forced to rush the project, as their ownership of the Batman rights would expire in December 2008. The game was actually coming along, albeit with major delays, but once December 2008 came and went, that was it.

- Pandemic thought an open-world game would suit the property best. But few, if any staff at Pandemic Brisbane had experience making open-world games.

- The decision was made to use the same engine being used for Pandemic's upcoming WWII action title Saboteur. It's a pretty engine, but was never built for the kind of open-world game Batman was supposed to be, and this caused a ton of serious technical issues.

So as you can see, it was a combination of cock-ups, from both EA and Pandemic. As for what happens now, that's also explained. A few years back, Pandemic Brisbane was split into two teams; Alpha team got to work on a Wii game with the code name "The Next Big Thing", while Bravo team worked on Batman.

Bravo team are no more, but at least some of Alpha team remain, and as we reported the other day, retain the rights (at least in some form) to "The Next Big Thing". Only time will tell whether another publisher takes a risk on it.

The full story - and it's really a gripping read for inside baseball fans - below.

How Pandemic's Dark Knight Turned Into A Nightmare [Kotaku AU]