Battlefield Heroes

EA is pulling the plug on four of its older free-to-play PC titles.

Cartoon free-to-play shooter Battlefield Heroes is three-years-old today.

EA has begun sending emails out to its customers notifying them that their passwords have been reset.

EA has restored service to free-to-play first-person shooter Battlefield Heroes after it was forced offline by retired hacker group LulzSec.

LulzSec has announced it has disbanded – but not without one last hack.

Buccaneer Heroes walks plank this summer.

Battlefield Heroes - the cartoon, free-to-play, web browser MMO - has fired the canons to announce seven million registered users.

EA will donate nearly £6000 to videogame charity Child's Play after the sale of Christmas-themed virtual outfits in free-to-play cartoon shooter Battlefield Heroes raised £3000.

Isaac Clarke moonlights in EA's F2P shooter.

Free-to-play cartoon online shooter Battlefield Heroes has raised £2500 for videogame charity Child's Play through the sale of Christmas-themed virtual outfits.

Xmas treats in store.

Every time someone buys a Santa or Nikolaus outfit for free to play online shooter Battlefield Heroes, EA will make a charitable contribution to the Child's Play charity, the publisher has announced.

As part of a new Christmas event, which begins today, new weapons are available to buy. For the first time the Gunner and Soldier classes will gain access to weapons with functional scopes that actually zoom in, and the Commando class will also get two new sniper rifles.

And, in the spirit of Christmas, EA has released an Advent calendar. Every day a new door will open with new items to purchase.

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War, what is it good for?

New Battlefield Heroes clothing sets based on characters from upcoming Afghanistan shooter Medal of Honor are available to buy now.

EA has put up for sale new virtual Battlefield Heroes items as part of a month long in-game event starting today.

Time for fisticuffs!

DICE's free-to-play deathmatch romp Battlefield Heroes is celebrating a year in active service this week with some free bonuses for players.

A trio of new add-ons have been released for free-to-play combat effort Battlefield Heroes.

DICE has added Battlefield: Bad Company 2 content to Battlefield Heroes, but you'll have to pay to use it.

EA's told the world that Battlefield Heroes has been played by three million different people since launch this summer.

EA's DICE has changed the item pricing structure for its free-to-player shooter Battlefield Heroes, reducing the real-money cost of items while making their cost to rent or buy with in-game currency dramatically more expensive.

EA DICE has released the beefy Heroes of the Fall update for Battlefield Heroes, applying general changes, fixes and significant class alterations.

EA has announced that free-to-play online shooter Battlefield Heroes has two million users, sauntering past the milestone in three months.

EA DICE plans to revitalise Battlefield: Heroes with a significant Heroes of the Fall update. There's no date for the patch yet, but the "Fall" part of the title perhaps offers an autumnal clue.

The changes that have been announced so far including revamping the Gunner class and ranking players so that it's easier to distinguish newcomers from veterans, according to the BF Heroes website.

The Gunner is getting an Explosive Keg, which detonates to not only harm but also daze, confuse and slow anybody caught in the blast. His Frenzy Fire ability will also be able to heal him, a little or a lot depending on the amount of damage caused during the frenzy. Best of all, the Gunner will soon share his protective shield with his allies, providing the Soldiers and Commandos with extra cover.

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EA and DICE have announced that Battlefield Heroes has achieved one million registrations following its late-June public launch.

I get this feeling quite a lot: enjoyment in spite of my better judgement. Ultimately, I know that Battlefield Heroes is an uncomfortable experimental mess of a game, but I can't help enjoy rambling about in its four brightly coloured maps, shooting the dudes, and trying to figure out how best to use the points I've earned to bolster my armoury. It's free via the website too, which skews any critique of value I might be inclined to make.

Anyway, yes, points earned. That's the peculiar conundrum that beats so awkwardly at the heart of Battlefield Heroes: it's a level-based third-person shooter. While the level structure is not one that means that high-level dudes are indestructible, it does mean you're in it for the persistent character, and your early chappy really is at a disadvantage to his better-equipped foes as time goes on.

The more stuff people have been able to unlock, the more versatile they become. It works for some other notable shooters, I guess, but here there's a definite sense of, well, I'm grinding. I'm trying to earn points to spend, and it never seems entirely appropriate. That said, the distraction of getting new toys is often enough to keep you interested, especially when you spot something someone else has, that you don't.

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Electronic Arts is releasing a pair of outfits for Battlefield Heroes apparently designed to resemble Michael Jackson's costumes for "Smooth Criminal" and "Bad".

EA has finally launched Battlefield Heroes, the free-to-play, ad-supported, cartoon online shooter.

EA and DICE have announced the reopening of the closed beta for their free-to-play shooter, Battlefield Heroes. Servers will be back online at some point today.

The game shut up shop in November last year to undergo some extensive work on its website, character progression and balance. Now DICE is ready to let players see what it's been up to.

A recent email to beta testers promised: an overhauled website; redesigned systems for virtual currency, in-game rewards and character customisation; improved hit detection and class balance; and some new content too, in the form of costume items and maps.

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Developer DICE has re-opened beta sign-ups for promising online war game Battlefield Heroes.

Log in to or register an EA account then fill out the sign-up form on the official website to take part. DICE won't say when the next beta phase starts, but promises more information in the "coming weeks".

People who signed up for the previous bout of testing will be given preference, by the way, and when a slot opens for you a notification email will be sent through. DICE plans to add more testers as the beta progresses.

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After indie and esoterica, sports and music, MMOs and RPGs, fighting and strategy and action and adventure, we conclude our look at what's coming this year with two fields which tend to put refinement ahead of innovation. Can shooters and racing shake themselves up in 2009?

EA and DICE's free-to-play PC online shooter Battlefield Heroes has opted to close its beta test and delay itself into next year.

Let's be clear about one thing, because there's only one thing we can be clear about. Battlefield Heroes is outrageously, deliciously, hilariously pretty. DICE's knockabout multiplayer shooter single-handedly destroys the reputation of free-to-play casual PC gaming for low production values. This is one of 2008's best-looking games, hands-down - and what's more, it will run on an old laptop from the office.

DICE bigwig Ben Cousins has said there will be no big release for Battlefield Heroes, but rather a closed beta to expand so much that "every hardcore gamer in the world will probably be able to get a key if they want to".

EA has pushed back the release of Battlefield Heroes and Command & Conquer FPS Tiberium.

DICE exec Ben Cousins has confirmed that the team is currently working on no less than five titles in its Battlefield franchise, according to GamesIndustry.biz.

You know that it's going to be free. You know that it's a stripped-down, knockabout deathmatch shooter built on Battlefield's sturdy chassis. You know that it looks terrific, like an animated propaganda poster for a war in a fancy-dress shop. You know that it's not evil. But did you know that Battlefield Heroes is secretly an MMO and almost an RPG?

DICE has begun taking names for the Battlefield: Heroes closed beta test.

Scoot over to the official sign-up page to put your name down. There are some terms and conditions to read and a forum to register for, presumably so you can report your bugs and what not.

Battlefield: Heroes is the ad-driven, free-to-play spin-off in the popular online shooter series aimed at almost everyone with a desktop computer - the system requirements have been cut down to suit the masses.

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EA has revealed that Battlefield Heroes will begin beta testing on 6th May.

Sign-ups will be handled over on the official site once it's ready, and the full game is set to launch in the third-quarter of this year.

Battlefield Heroes is a free-to-play cartoon spin-off in the online shooter series. Ads fund the operation but will not appear in-game, only on the game website.

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Battlefield Heroes developer DICE believes the suggestion that the PC market is in disarray is "a crazy idea".

EA has extended its in-game advertising partnership with Microsoft subsidiary Massive Inc. in a deal which will affect the majority of its 360 and PC titles for two years.

First things first: it is free to download, and it is free to play. We know you know this, but it's worth re-stating. Particularly since this is EA, so obviously we're suspicious. EA, of course, makes DVD cases out of murdered kittens, bathes in the blood of nuns, and squats inside a hollowed-out National Trust volcano, eating babies.

Works on rubbish PCs, looks ace.

Contrary to popular belief, Worms and Lemmings are not the only games Team 17 makes. Now it does Leisure Suit Larry, starring the Ron Jeremy-like adventure hero who swans around in a Carry On world of porn gags and cheap tarts. Or is it the other way on. The new outing is called Box Office Bust and is coming to 360, PS3 and PC this autumn.

Bust will be a bit different though, as Team 17 plans to erect sorry sorry an open world for you to explore and do smutty things in. Carmen Electra and that one from American Pie are in it, too.

While love may be on the back-burner there, Total Overdose developer Deadline Games is using it as a focal point in its new PC, PS3 and 360 shooter. You see, Faith and a .45 is all about two outlaw lovers and their story, so it has lots of co-operative elements as well as a healthy dose of storytelling. Oh, and some armoured vehicles and lots of explosions.

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EA has announced it will be releasing a free Battlefield Heroes game in the summer.