BATTLEFIELD™ HARDLINE

 BATTLEFIELD 

             HARDLINE 

Battlefield : Hardline is an upcoming first-person shooter video game developed by Visceral Games in collaboration with EA Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts. It is due for release on October 21, 2014.

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Gameplay

Battlefield: Hardline features a whole new variety of gameplay that breaks away from the traditional Battlefield game modes. The focus of the game has been shifted to police and the "war on crime", breaking away from the military background that has spanned the series up to now. As such, the main factions in Hardline are the police Special Response Units and the criminals. Players will have access to various military-grade weapons and vehicles, as well as having police equipment such as tasers and handcuffs.

Hardline also uses the Levolution mechanic from Battlefield 4. For example, in the map "High Tension", players can send a construction crane crashing into the center of the map, ripping down debris from the central buildings in downtown Los Angeles.

The new game modes are Heist, Rescue, Hotwire Mode and Blood Money.

• Heist: The criminals must break packages out of armored trucks by blowing the doors off, then moving the package to an extraction point; the police must stop them. If the Criminals manage to escape by bringing all the packages to the extraction points they win.
• Blood Money: Both factions must retrieve money from an open crate in the center of the map, then move it back to their respective sides' armored truck. Players can also steal money from the opposing team's truck. The Team which firstly deposits 5 million into their own truck wins.
• Hotwire Mode: Police chase down criminals at high speeds across expansive environments.
• Rescue: Police officers attempt to save hostages from the criminals.

Plot

The plot revolves around Nick Mendoza, a SWAT officer who is seeking vengeance across the United States. For the first time, in Battlefield: Hardline, players can complete their objective in various different ways and paths, either silently or violently. A new gadget, called the Police Scanner, can be used to find enemies, important objects and evidences, and mark them.

Development

Battlefield: Hardline was revealed on an EA blog post by Vice President and General Manager of Visceral Games, Steve Papoutsis. The game was due for announcement during E3 2014, but information was leaked early. Unlike other games in the Battlefield franchise that feature military warfare, Hardline features a "cops and robbers" gameplay style. The leaked trailer refers to the game as Omaha. "Visceral started work on Battlefield: Hardline about a year before Dead Space 3 shipped," creative director Ian Milham has revealed, suggesting that the game may have entered development in early 2012.

As of June 9, 2014, the Battlefield: Hardline beta has gone public on their official website, coming after an official announcement at the 2014 Electronics Entertainment Expo that the beta would be coming to PC and PlayStation 4.

Call of Duty®: Advanced Warfare

Call of Duty®: Advanced Warfare

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is an upcoming first-person shooter video game developed by Sledgehammer Games. Published by Activision, it is the eleventh primary installment in the Call of Duty series and the first developed primarily by Sledgehammer Games. The game is set to be released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on November 4, 2014.

Plot

In 2054, most developed countries including the United States have suffered attacks on their military infrastructures around the world. The largest military force in the world isn't a country, but powerful, private military corporations. Mitchell (Troy Baker), a former U.S. Marine private, joins Jonathan Irons (Kevin Spacey), the CEO and founder of Atlas, the largest private military company with the most advanced technologies in the world, composing clandestine operations around the world. Irons begins his war with America over his beliefs that the U.S. has failed numerous attempts to install democracies all over the world for over a century, and to change the global balance of powers.

Development

Before being switched to become the co-developers of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Sledgehammer Games were already working on a Call of Duty game. This game was announced before Modern Warfare 3 and after Black Ops, however, no details were released. The game was said to be an action-adventure third-person shooter computer/video game. A Call of Duty massively multiplayer online game was also rumored to be in development.  Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg later stated that Modern Warfare 3 was not the same title as Sledgehammer Games' action-adventure Call of Duty game. When asked if the action-adventure game was also in development, Hirshberg then stated that the Sledgehammer team was fully focused on Modern Warfare 3 and that their own title had been put on hold.

A new game in the Call of Duty series will be released in November 2014. It was officially unveiled on May 1, 2014.

In an EDGE magazine interview, Michael Condrey confirmed that the majority of Advanced Warfare's engine has been built from scratch. He stated that although there are lines of the old code left, there is new rendering, animation, physics and audio systems. This is the first Call of Duty since Call of Duty 2 that has used a new engine. Call of Duty Ghosts was said to have a new engine, however, it turned out to be an upgraded version of the IW engine. It is currently unknown and unconfirmed what the name of the new Advanced Warfare engine is.

With the new in-house engine of Advanced Warfare, the audio has been made from scratch. Don Veca, among the many of Sledgehammer Games that has left Visceral Games, is working on Advanced Warfare. "It goes through your body, into your bones, and your skull. You hear it in your ear, and it sounds completely different,” Veca says in EDGE magazine, talking in-detail about the aftermath from firing a gun in-game. “No matter where you put the microphones, you’re not going to capture that sound, so we've tried to emulate that feeling.” Saying that audio doesn't come last as it did in previous titles, Glen Schofield says "We make sure that audio is just as important as anything else and Don’s in there from the start with us."

On the June 6th issue of MCV Online Magazine, it was confirmed that High Moon Studios, the team behind Deadpool video game and Transformers games, is working on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Advanced Warfare, while Sledgehammer Games is focussing on the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the title.

Marketing and release

Reveal

In May 2014, the official Call of Duty website was updated with a scrambled image that was due to be revealed on May 4, 2014. However, the trailer was leaked ahead of schedule on May 1 and then officially released soon after. The trailer revealed actor Kevin Spacey as portraying a character in the game.^[5] The trailer contained a variety of futuristic technologies, including cloaking aircraft, twin-rotor drones, hover bikes, "spider" tanks, specialized weapons, powered exoskeletons, scan-tron grenades and gloves that allow their wearer to climb up walls.

On June 9, 2014, E3 was opened with a new gameplay trailer for Advanced Warfare that showcased features such as swarms of drones resembling birds and infrared enemy identifiers. During the presentation, Xbox head Phil Spencer said that downloadable content for Advanced Warfare will be released first on Xbox Live.

Pre-order Bonus

Pre-ordering Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare gives players an Advanced Warfare-themed personalization pack for usage in Call Of Duty: Ghosts and Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2.

Another pre-order bonus was announced entitled ‘Advanced Arsenal’ which consisted of a Custom Exoskeleton & EM1 Quantum Weapon, usable in campaign, multiplayer and co-op modes.

E3 2014: Highlights of Day 1

E3 2014

This year's E3 has been all about the games. As Mashable spent the first day covering the slew off press conferences, it was easy to see software was this conference's focus.

We've rounded up a few highlights from each of the four press conferences, so if you're just catching up you can see it all here.

Microsoft: All Games, No Hardware

Microsoft pulled out the big guns, literally, for its E3 press conference. The company started its game-centric, 90-minute presentation with an extended gameplay demo of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, giving gamers a long look at how the annual military franchise will run on Xbox One.

This lead off the first half of the presentation, which focused on titles we already had seen that are being released this year. We got more information on Forza Horizon 2, as well as trailers for third-party titles Evolve, EA’s Dragon Age: Origins, and Ubisoft’s The Division.

One of the biggest pieces of news from the press conference was a new Tomb Raider game, called Rise of the Tomb Raider. This is the second game of the rebooted, darker franchise thatcame out in 2013. The new game is slated for 2015.

Probably the most anticipated announcement, and worst-kept secret of E3, was Halo: Master Chief Collection, which combines the four numbered Halo games, along with the upcoming movie directed by Ridley Scott, all in one package for Xbox One. That wasn’t all the Halo news, as the first trailer for Halo 5: Guardians was also shown, with hints of a new character in pursuit of Master Chief.

One of the biggest things to note from the Microsoft press conference was the absence of any discussion of hardware. There were no new updates, and certainly nothing about the Kinect. That accessory had originally been billed as an integral part of the next-generation console, and now has been removed from the lower-priced bundles of the console. Despite bringing Harmonix, a company that has recently specialized in motion-controlled games, up on stage, there was no word on the device’s future.

Electronic Arts presents its upcoming slate of games at 2014 E3 in Los Angeles.

Electronic Arts: From Casual to Core

Electronic Arts' hour-long press conference split its focus between titles out this year, and things that are barely a glimmer in their developers’ eyes.

The biggest news was that shooter Battlefield Hardline would be available as a closed beta starting on Monday. The game pits police and criminals in modern combat in up to 32-person battles. The beta will be available on PC and PlayStation 4.

EA also spent time talking about the newest Sims game: Sims 4. The company promises these Sims will be smarter, more emotional characters who can have more fun, engaging interactions with each other. The game also boasts a more robust character creator and home building tools.The Sims 4 will be out Sept. 2, 2014.

Mirror's Edge fans were finally treated to new footage for the stylish free-running game, which is coming out sometime in 2015. Also in the far future: DICE’s brand new take on the mega-popularStar Wars: Battlefront franchise, which EA said it will have more details on next year.

Ubisoft Scares Us Just a Little

Ubisoft’s E3 press conference, hosted by comedian Aisha Tyler, used cinematic finesse to show off many new games, including a big surprise.

While we had been teased about Far Cry 4 in an earnings call, there was very little information about the open-world shooter. Now we get a glimpse of the game’s villain, Pagan, Min, who looked pretty nasty in the game’s first four minutes.

The big reveal of the press conference was Rainbow Six: Siege, a title fans had been hoping to see since the last Rainbow Six game six years ago. The violent teaser showed a group of four SWAT-type soldiers helicoptering in to a house to stop a hostage situation. The game is due out next year.

On the lighter side of things, Ubisoft revealed Just Dance Now, which takes the popular dancing franchise far beyond onsets. Just Dance Now allows players to use any smartphone as the controller and connect to a PC, tablet or Smart TV to play. A group of smartphone-welding dancers demonstrated the game on stage to Lady Gaga’s “Applause”.

Sony presents PlayStation Now at E3 2014.

Sony delivers a hardware and software crush

Sony showed off an array of games from the whimsical to the dark and twisted at its late evening press conference, the last of the first day of E3. The company also spent time highlighted new hardware, and improvements to its PlayStation platform.

Some of Sony's biggest announcements were games exclusive to the PlayStation 4. They included the light-hearted LittleBigPlanet 3, a next-generation update to the popular platformer that adds new characters to the LBP world. The games are made by Media Molecule, a Sony studio known for creative, unique titles.

Sony's Naughty Dog also revealed footage from its newest Uncharted, the fourth and possibly last in the series Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. We also saw footage from the next-gen port of 2013 Game of the Year The Last of Us, out for PS4 on July 29.

An impressive indie game making its console debut on PS4 was No Man's Sky, an open space-exploration game where every character is given their own procedurally generated, unique planet. It made its debut at the Spike VGX last year with a creative trailer, and fans were excited to see more of Hello Games unique indie title.

Sony also spent a good chunk of time talking about hardware and software updates. PlayStation Now, its streaming service that gives players access to previous-generation games, will come to open beta on July 31 for PS4 owners, and will soon come to the Vita handheld. It also displayed the PlayStation TV, previously announced for only a Japanese release, but would come out later this year for the rest of the world. The set-top box would retail for $99, and can stream PlayStation Now titles as well as games from the Vita and Sony's entertainment services.

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