Battlefield 3 is Free Through Origin

Users can keep the game forever once it has been downloaded.

Electronic Arts is offering Origin users a free copy of Battlefield 3 as a part of the "On the House" program. The game is available to download free of cost until June 3. Once users have downloaded a copy it is theirs to keep.

The "On the House" program launched in March this year with 2008's horror-action game Dead Space. As part of the program, EA will offer up DLC and full games for free. The program is also currently offering users Plants vs. Zombies Game of the Year Edition until June 17.

Battlefield 3 was released in 2011 to positive reception. EA recently revealed a new entry to the shooter series called Battlefield Hardline, which is scheduled to launch this Fall.

Zorine Te is an associate editor at GameSpot, and you can follow her on Twitter @ztharli
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com


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Hitman Xbox One won't be at E3, is "making great progress" - first level artwork

One building is larger than any location in Hitman Absolution


IO Interactive's first Hitman game for Xbox One won't be at E3 this year, but the developer assures us that it's steaming along nicely. To illustrate that, here's a concept artwork of a building in the game that's "larger than any location in Hitman Absolution".

O revealed the new Hitman in January. It doesn't have a title yet, and is described as a game for Hitman diehards rather than new converts to the franchise, which aims to "create living, breathing and believable levels which will allow gamers to play around with the AI to create those unique moments every fan of the Hitman franchise loves".

"Since we posted our open letter back in January, we've had our heads down working on our next Hitman game," observes another post, published today. "So you'll have noticed that we have been pretty quiet, but we wanted to give you a short update about a few things.

"First up, we've seen a lot of people talking about what we might be bringing to E3 this year. We know the worst thing is to hope for something that doesn't turn up; so we wanted to let you know that our next Hitman is going to be under wraps for a bit longer. We're focusing all of our time and efforts into creating the best possible Hitman game. That's our number one priority and we don't want to divert valuable resources to show something before it's ready.


"The good news is we're making great progress with building exotic and expansive locations for the new game. To give you an idea of what we're aiming for, here's the first piece of concept art from the game. This location is set in Central Europe and you'll be able to explore the entire building you see in the image, inside and out."

It'll release on Xbox One, PS4 and PC. A release date is TBC.

Nate Wells, Lead Artist on The Last Of Us, Has Left Naughty Dog?

Nate Wells, who was the lead artist on The Last of Us, has left Naughty Dog for Giant Sparrow where he works as an art director (according to his Twitter page). However, he hasn’t yet updated his LinkedIn profile , where it says he’s a lead artist at Naughty Dog. Considering he was recently active on Twitter, we believe we are to trust what his Twitter page says.

Before working on The Last of Us with Naughty Dog, he worked as an art director at (now former) Irrational Games. He moved from Irrational Games to Naughty Dog in 2012.

During his carrer, he worked on shipping titles such as: Thief: The Dark Project, Thief II: The Metal Age, System Shock 2 and BioShock.

http://www.worldsfactory.net/

Dragon Age: Inquisition's water is a "key" next gen feature - new details

Why would you buy Dragon Age: Inquisition for Xbox One, as opposed to your trusty old Xbox 360? Seemingly, because you'll get better water. Posting over on the BioWare blog, environment artists Andrew Farrell and Ben McGrath have said a little more about the game's technical make-up, using the Exalted Plains region as a case in point.

The area doesn't sound terribly exalted. It's a giant, swampy wilderness that was recently the site of a civil war. Stalemate now prevails thanks to an inconvenient and unexplained eruption of the living dead - doubtless, getting to the bottom of that will come high on your Inquisitorial to-do list. There are also Dalish Elves in the area, who may or may not take kindly to your presence.
"The first thing we [did] was try to portray the civil war and the impact it's having on the environment and the people of that region," Farrell told the site. "In these spaces, we try to provide opportunities for the Inquisition to come in and make its mark on the area. Then the people there rally around that."

In addition to the usual running, hacking, looting and magicking, Inquisition features a strategic meta-game whereby you establish keeps to unlock missions and opportunities in each area. This sounds a bit dry on paper, but it's actually tightly woven into the game's storyline - read my first look for more.

BioWare is particularly proud of the area's water features. "Interactive water is one of the key things we've added to next-gen," McGrath explained. "It's got realistic reflections, and also realistically ripples and splashes as you walk through it."

This is possible thanks to a process known as "displacement mapping", which (crudely summarised) makes textures look like they're 3D. "Displacement mapping adds a new level of realism to the environment," McGrath went on. "Normal maps [in previous-gen technology] brought great detail to surfaces, but displacement mapping actually pushes those details out so you can see them in the silhouette.

"The place where it's probably the most noticeable is on terrain. Pebbles, sand ripples, cobblestones, and other details all pop out from the terrain and make it far more detailed than ever before." Be sure to take a good, long look at the rocks when you visit the Exalted Plains, Xbox One owners.

Besides the warring armies and the living dead, the area is home to "halla" (horned deer), various birds and wolves (presumably the kind that carry forks and jewels in their stomachs). Head to the relatively claustrophobic Crow Fens, and you may also run into drakes, dragonlings and dragonkin.
"Get off the beaten path!" Farrell urged readers. "Just like exploring in real life, look under all the rocks, under all the bridges, and in all dark corners of the map. Take the path less-traveled and you might something interesting... or surprising."

Alternatively, burn through your main objectives and come back later - Inquisition's world is yours to explore at any point in the story. "You won't be locked out of an area. We've got a lot of space, so you definitely don't need to try and see everything on your first playthrough."

http://www.totalxbox.com/

"My dream is to make everyone love games," says Journey dev

thatgamecompany (Journey, Flower) cofounder and president Jenova Chen is upset with the idea that as people grow up they abandon video games. He dreams of a future where "everyone loves games" and they are a "respected" medium like film or music.

"Video games have always been a part of my life," Chen told Mashable in a new interview. "I always played games with my friends, but as I got older, my friends stopped playing."

"People still read novels, watched movies, listened to music. The fact most of my friends are abandoning games makes me feel sad," he added. "How can I help video games not just be for kids, and respected from people of all ages and genders? My dream is to make everyone love video games."
Chen went on to say that video games too often only cater to genres that are most appealing to a young male audience instead of tapping into categories that can appeal to wider audiences. In order for video games, as a medium, to become "healthy" and "respected," developers need to expand into new genres, Chen argued.

"Look at the genres women like: a romantic comedy game doesn't exist. Few examples of a documentary game exist," Chen said. "What is the equivalent of a real drama game? They don't exist. Emotion with that complexity for a more mature, older audience are necessary to make medium like video games healthy, so it can be highly respected like the film industry."

For Chen, video games can be so much more than a simple distraction from the struggles of your daily life. In fact, he argues that video games, when appropriately designed, can help people cope with loss or even help expand their minds.

"These games have more meaning than just pleasure, or just a moment of escape," Chen said. "There is more power in these games when you are doing it right. I think certain types of feelings can heal and change people, can make their lives better. We want to make positive change to the human psyche worldwide, even if you just think it's just entertainment."

thatgamecompany is currently working on an unannounced game that it will self-publish. A release date for this project and details about platforms are TBA.

http://www.gamespot.com/

BioShock movie could be back in development

BioShock movie domain name registrations have been discovered.

After being shut down altogether several years ago, the BioShock movie may again be moving forward, as evidenced by several domain names registered last month by Sony Pictures.

The domain names, as found by Kotaku, include bioshock-movie.com, bioshock-movie.net, and bio-shock.net. All three list Sony Pictures in their registration information. Sony was never publicly involved with previous attempts to develop a BioShock film, but these registrations suggest it may now be looking to do so.

Back in 2008, Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski was set to direct a BioShock film being financed by Universal Pictures. A year later, reports circulated that Verbinski was thinking of backing out, which he did after production was halted due to concerns regarding the budget and the R rating Verbinski wanted. 28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo was then tapped to direct, but the movie again fell apart, with BioShock creative director Ken Levine stating last year that he was responsible for ultimately axing the project.

"And so they brought another director in, and I didn't really see the match there," Levine said. "Take-Two is one of those companies that gives a lot of trust to their creative people, and so they said to me, 'If you want to kill it Ken, kill it.' And I killed it."

"Which was weird, having been a screenwriter going around begging to rewrite any script to being in a position where you're killing a movie that you worked so much on," he added. "It was saying, 'You know what? I don't need to compromise.' I had the [BioShock] world, and I didn't what to see it done in a way I didn't think was right."

Kotaku raises the possibility that Levine himself could be involved with writing a script for the movie. He is currently working on a script for the new Logan's Run movie, and he has said he would consider working on a BioShock screenplay following the completion of BioShock Infinite.

The studio Levine founded, Irrational Games--developer of the original BioShock and BioShock Infinite--was shut down in February. Levine and a select number of employees planned to start a "new venture" under the 2K Games umbrella that "focus[ed] entirely on replayable narrative." The BioShock property, meanwhile, remains in the hands of 2K.

Earlier this year, concept artist Jim Martin published concept art he had created for the BioShock movie, providing us with some sense of what had been envisioned when Universal was involved with the movie's production.

http://www.gamespot.com/

World of Warcraft's next expansion won't make you buy a new computer...probably

Blizzard says "you shouldn't be worried about any big drop in performance" as a result of the new character models and features coming to the MMO.

One of the most interesting features for the next World of Warcraft expansion, Warlords of Draenor, is that it will include dramatic character model updates for the original eight races (and the Draenei and Blood Elves), as well as various texture improvements. But ever since this was announced last year, players have wondered if the visual upgrades will make the game--known to be playable on even low-end rigs--too taxing to look good on their existing computer.

Some have asked if they'll need to buy a new computer to play Warlords of Draenor, and now Blizzard has finally responded. "That's a hard question to answer," Blizzard community manager Taepsilum said on the game's forums recently. "I'd say that you shouldn't be worried about any big drop in performance; things will most likely remain very close to what you are experiencing right now. So if you're satisfied with what you have right now, then there shouldn't be any need to change anything."

For raids specifically, Taepsilum said though more detailed character models and expanded surrounding geometry will require more processing power, the developer is also overhauling the way in which on-screen information is presented as a means to boost performance.

"We are also applying a squish to anything related to stats; this means that in certain situations, there might be some performance improvements, especially when it comes to add-ons that process combat data," Taepsilum said. "More importantly, we are reducing the amount of visual clutter that currently fills every fight where a lot of players are involved. Less sparkly stuff flying around means better video performance for everyone."

"Client performance is something we care about a lot. It doesn't matter how well-designed an encounter is: you aren't going to have fun raiding at 8 FPS," Taepsilum added. "We want everyone to be able to enjoy playing with the new models, and our dev team is working hard making sure that WoW is as resource efficient as possible in order for that to happen."

Warlords of Draenor is World of Warcraft's fifth expansion, following The Burning Crusade (2007), Wrath of the Lich King (2008), Cataclysm (2010), and Mists of Pandaria (2012). It launches later this fall and every copy includes one immediate character level boost to 90. World of Warcraft, which is now in its 10th year of continued operation as a paid game, ended 2013 with 7.8 million subscribers.

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