Not too long after the rumors and leaks of The Old Republic Collector’s Edition, BioWare has made the news official. Right now, three editions of Star Wars: The Old Republic are available for pre-order. The standard edition is your basic copy of the game with software, game time, and pretty cover.

The Digital Deluxe Edition, which is only on Origin, comes with special in-game items. A Flare Gun, Training Droid, HoloDancer, HoloCam, and a STAP (Single Trooper Aerial Platform if you aren’t a Star Wars buff) are all included.

The biggest set is the actual Collector’s Edition of The Old Republic. The massive set contains all of the in-game items from the DDE along with The Journal of Master Gnost-Dural, a Darth Malgus statue, The Old Republic Galaxy Map, Security Authentication Key Fob, a Music of Star Wars: The Old Republic CD, the game in a metal collector’s case, an exclusive in-game Mouse Droid, and access to a Collector’s Edition in-game store which I assume is better than other stores.

Also, those who pre-order the game will get Early Access to the game. Sounds great for big Star Wars fans and gamers but what about that release date, BioWare?

Regardless of what EA decides to tell the public about their Origin service, we all know that it’s out there to compete with one program. Steam. Steam, for those of you who have never touched a PC, allows gamers to purchase games and download them on the same service, allows a gamer to get achievements, chat in-game or out of game, launch all games on their computer compatible or not, and much more. It’s probably one of the most popular PC platforms that can be download, free of charge to the player.

To compete with this, EA has now come up with Origin. Origin is a service painfully similar to steam which allows you to download many of their newer and popular titles, chat with friends, and claims you can import contacts from Xbox Live or PSN. However when trying to find friends on Xbox Live the following, buggy notice pops up. “Sorry, we couldn’t find any of your friends that also user Origin.” Well there’s a reason for that. It’s because it’s crap.

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It seems the Korean Ratings Board is at it again as they have recently published details on Crysis being ported to the Xbox 360.  Crysis was origonally released in November of 2007 exclusivly to PC and is known for pushing the envelope in visual quality for games at the time.

I’m interested in how the game will look on the 360 considering that I still cant get the game to run well on my PC.

Fans of Shift 2 Unleashed on Xbox 360 and PS3 have already gotten some DLC love with both the Legends and Speedhunters DLC packs, however; PC owners have been left high and dry since the games launch in late March of this year.  That all changes this Thursday though as EA has announced that both DLC packs will be hitting the PC version this thursday for free.  The packs will include “27 new cars, five new tracks, and two new game modes”.  Good on EA for throwing the PC userbase a bone.  More details on the packs themselves after the jump. read the entry »

It would appear that the trend of hacking  game companies is nowhere near its end as EA joins the ranks those that have suffered data breaches this year.  All effected EA accounts were sent an e-mail regarding the attack which explains that the hackers gained enrty into the EA database through an old Bioware server for Neverwinter Nights.  According to EA no credit card information was stolen but passwords, e-mail addresses, mailing addresses, names, phone numbers, CD Keys, and birth dates are all at risk.  EA has since reset everyone’s EA account password and put up a faq on their support page regarding the breach.

EA revealed today during the 2011 NHL Awards that Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning will be featured on the cover of the upcoming NHL 12.  Stamkos was the number one draft pick in 2008 and was also the leader in goals during the NHL’s 2010 season. Stamkos stated that he was “very excited to be part of illustrious group of guys” who appear on the NHL games.

Its a good thing the Madden curse doesn’t extend itself to other EA sports games as I would hate to see Stamkos suffer through another slap-shot to the face like he did during the playoffs this year.

In a bizarre turn of events Walmart and cloud game service Gaikai have partnered to offer streaming game demo’s on Walmart’s website. Currently you can play demo’s of either Mass Effect 2 or Dead Space 2 by going to Walmart’s gamecenter page.  Much like Onlive the service requires that you have a fast internet connection, otherwise the option to play the demo’s will not be available. CEO of Gaikai David Perry promised support for more games in the near future.

“Over the next 12 months, when people see a video game on TV and want to try it out, they can be sure the fastest way will be on Walmart’s website,” ”It’s an exciting time and you’ll see more sites around the world doing these stealth launches with us.”

The idea of streaming games online is nothing new but it certainly has allot of potential.  I already use Onlive for demo’s when I can but partnering with Walmart is likely to get allot of public attention.

Rumors have been popping up on the internet saying that Mass Effect 3 could be shipping with cooperative multiplayer.  So far there is speculation that it is being developed at Bioware’s Montreal studio and that it will be a separate mode that will not effect the quality of the single player campaign.  An unnamed source stated the following.

“Mainstream penetration is a major goal for Mass Effect 3 and those high up feel online co-op is the answer they’re looking for,”

There has been no official statement from either Bioware or EA at this time suggesting that these rumors are true, however; seeing as how Bioware Montreal took on a large amount of new staff last September it is hard to just dismiss them.

Personally when I think Mass Effect cooperative multiplayer is the last thing on my mind but so long as it’s fun and does not effect the quality of the single player campaign I’m totally fine with the rumors being true.

Earlier this week both Crysis 2 and Alice the Madness Returns disappeared from the Steam store which, according to EA was due to Crytek’s agreement with an unnamed competing service. There has been some speculation that the removal was in retaliation to EA launching a similar service named Origin this month but neither company has alluded to that being the case . There has been no official statement by Steam on this matter as of yet nor has there been any explanation on why Alice the Madness Returns disappeared from the service.

Earlier today though Alice returned to the store and EA released the following statement.

“EA Partners and Spicy Horse Games appreciate Steam’s decision to sell Alice: Madness Returns,” “The game is also available on several other download services including Amazon, Gamestop and Origin.com.”

So if you were looking forward to playing Alice on PC and have a preference for Steam then your in luck, however; Crysis 2 is still absent and looks like it may not return.

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