On the House, Freebies from EA

Originally published on Kupeesh!

Up for a free game?

Little did we know that last month's "Player Appreciation Month"  for Battlefield 4 players  was just the opening salvo in what appears to be a face saving campaign by EA to win back the affections of disgruntled gamers.

This week found the publisher offering up free copies of the Sci-Fi/ Horror classic "DeadSpace" via its Origin service.  Dead Space is a third person shooter that puts the player in the role of Isaac Clarke as he struggles for survival in a scenario reminiscent of the Alien movies.

Hmm, did anyone else pick up that the protagonist's name is a concatenation of Issac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke? 

My geek is showing...

To the point, this is the first offering in a new promotion EA is calling "On the House."  EA plans to periodically give away free games as well as "expansions and more" via their Origin service. 

EA hasn't announced a schedule for the giveaway but has indicated that this will be an ongoing promotion.  That means the freebies can show up at any time but disappear without notice.  EA isn't exactly screaming about it from the mountaintops either.  A check of the Origin website as well as the "Store" tab of the Origin game client found no mention of On the House. 

A buried treasure only found with the help of a search engine and word of mouth.  Still it's worth the hunt as Dead Space is currently a $20 game on Origin so it's not exactly burnt offerings.

Your best bet is to bookmark the "On the House" page on EA's Origin website and check regularly for updates.  The current URL can be found here.

In this case I suppose money really is no object...

Dice delays latest BF4 DLC for PC and Xbox 1

Originally published on Kupeesh!

More news from the company that brings you launch day failures like no other.

Today, Battlefield 4's latest DLC pack, Naval Strike launched for its Battlefield 4 Premium members...well, kinda.

Game Developer Dice posted the following to the official Battlefield 4 blog...

UPDATE: We wanted to provide more detail about the delay of Battlefield 4 Naval Strike. We have delayed the PC version of Naval Strike because we are concerned that the combination of the pack and planned PC updates would increase performance issues on mid-range to high-end PCs. We are working hard to resolve that issue now. Additionally, we have decided to delay the Xbox One version of Naval Strike because we want to address issues in the animation system that hinder players from engaging targets in set circumstances using popular weapon configurations.

So while Playstation and Xbox 360 owners are gleefully spreading carnage on the waves it seems those with PC's and Xbox 1's aren't so blessed.  Dice assures Premium members that they will still enjoy 2 weeks early access when the game finally gets a launch date.  In other words, everybody is going to have to wait.  No release date has been set as of this writing although Dice indicated that they are "trying to release the update in early April for Xbox One and PC."

Which ultimately leaves affected  Battlefield players either suffering delayed gratification or relief that they might have just dodged another bullet (pun intended).

At least you'll have something to look forward to.  Details about 4 new maps were released last week including:

Lost Islands - Players battle for control of a crashed airliner a midst a small group of islands

Nansha Strike -  Meant for boats and infantry players alike with ample opportunities for each.

Wave Breaker - Featuring a submarine base perfect for Deathmatch play

Operation Mortar - It's got an old fort in the middle offering views of the whole map.  Perfect for well, mortars.

Hang in there soldiers!