Battlefield Bad Company 2 may have suffered from one of the rockiest starts in recent memory, but that didn’t stop gamers from flocking to DICE’s latest frag-fest in droves. In fact, the overwhelming weight of millions of players is what crushed Bad Company 2’s servers to begin with.

"In the first 48 hours we had such a tremendous rush to multiplayer gameplay that our servers experienced overwhelming demand," said executive producer Karl Magnus Troedsson. "This is a testament to the massive response players have had worldwide for the extraordinary action experienced in the Battlefield sandbox." 

Better still, if you’ve been waiting on the sidelines to dive in, the coast is now officially clear.

“DICE and EA have brought more servers online," he explained. "We now have enough capacity to handle all BFBC2 connections seamlessly and we continue to monitor online play daily."

Since its release on March 2, Bad Company 2 has moved more than 2.3 million units. And while that’s not quite the “biggest launch in entertainment history,” we think it’s still reason enough for Modern Warfare 2 to start sweating a bit.  

If it’s not one thing, it’s another, they say. But in this case, it’s both one thing and another. First, we found out that we won’t be able to take Splinter Cell Conviction for a test run on the PC, and now comes word that the PC version of Ubisoft’s latest grizzled stealth-shooter needs a couple extra weeks on the grill.

Originally set to launch on April 13, the game will now drop on April 27. Amazon.com originally broke the news, and a Ubisoft rep confirmed its veracity with Big Download. Sorry folks – this one’s set in stone.

As for why Conviction was delayed, Ubisoft wouldn’t say. Generally, these little release hiccups are due to hang-ups in the certification process, so we’re gonna guess it’s just something mundane like that. Sorry, conspiracy theorists, no dice here. Besides, don’t you already have enough evidence to justify that tinfoil hat?

Splinter Cell’s pretty-spry-for-an-old-guy hero Sam Fisher may be a master of tip-toeing about, but when his massive multimedia franchise takes even the slightest step, everyone notices. So when Ubisoft announced that an Xbox 360 Splinter Cell Conviction demo’s quickly closing on its March 18 release date, PC gamers immediately began asking about their slice of the pie. And, for better or for worse, Ubisoft answered.

“Sorry guys, tomorrow’s demo is for X360 only. There are no plans for a PC demo,” tweeted community developer Li Kuo.

On one hand, it’s just a demo. On the other hand, this happened. Whether it’s simply a case of bad timing or a purposeful disregard for PC gamers, Ubisoft’s certainly going to town on that hornets’ nest. We’re thinking it’s only a matter of time before they get stung. 

It's War in Ancient Greece, as Kratos leads the Titans into battle with the Gods of Mount Olympus. After such a long wait though, can Sony's continuing saga of Angry Greek Men really live up to expectation? We take a look to see if this is Sparta or Patrick.

The last machine in this quarter’s System Builder Marathon, Paul’s $750 Gaming PC certainly isn’t least. A triple-core Athlon II X3 didn’t necessarily overclock well, but a fourth-core unlock gives this system a huge efficiency advantage in our suite.

Original post:
System Builder Marathon, March 2010: $750 Gaming PC

The last machine in this quarter’s System Builder Marathon, Paul’s $750 Gaming PC certainly isn’t least. A triple-core Athlon II X3 didn’t necessarily overclock well, but a fourth-core unlock gives this system a huge efficiency advantage in our suite.

Read the original:
System Builder Marathon, March 2010: $750 Gaming PC

This generation of gaming consoles is all about minor hardware revisions. The Sony PS3 has already slimmed down and dropped a few hundred dollars from its price, but now it looks like the Xbox 360 may be up next. A leaked pic of what purports to be a new motherboard for the console was posted to a Chinese forum. The board is significantly smaller which hopefully means a more svelte console.

The board looks much smaller than the current version, and appears to have a CPU/GPU combo chip. There’s also an extra SATA port present. We’re apt to believe the authenticity of this board seeing as Microsoft is currently hiring a Motherboard Design Engineer to “implement and verify the motherboard and other various sub-system boards that make up the XBOX 360 product line.”

We don’t know if this hardware revision will come with a price cut, but don’t bet on it. The Xbox managed to beat out the Wii in monthly sales for the first time last month. The PS3 had no choice but to drop in price to be competitive. Would a smaller, cooler console with a few extra goodies get you to drop some cash for a new 360?

Image via Engadget

Microsoft briefed us on the ways it sees gaming developing, focusing on multi-player, touch-screen gaming and making development easier for small studios and bedroom coders. We take a look at its touch-screen concepts and XNA program.

We never thought we’d declare DRM the least of a game’s problems, but even though Battlefield Bad Company 2 has 99 problems, at least SecuROM DRM ain’t one.

In addition to squashing a number of bugs and shining up the game’s UI, a recent patch stripped Battlefield Bad Company 2’s Steam version of its – most would say – unneeded SecuROM DRM. After all, Steam’s a big PC gaming platform now. It can take of piracy protection itself.

Sadly, if you didn’t acquire your copy of the game from Valve’s storefront, consider yourself stuck in the bad company of SecuROM for the time being. But hey, here’s this nice list of changes and upgrades to take your mind off that depressing reality. Better than nothing, we suppose.   

Well hi giggly hey, Razer, if Ned Flanders were a gamer, this might be the happiest day of his life. That's because Razer just announced the first gaming grade mouse designed specifically for left-handed fraggers - son of a diddly!

"Leftie gamers have long been requesting that we develop a gaming grade mouse that is designed exclusively for the left-handed gaming community and we really value the feedback we receive from our fans," said Robert 'Razerguy' Krakoff, president, Razer USA. "Not many gamers know this, but I am a southpaw myself and feel truly excited to have a mouse that fits perfectly in my left hand. There is really no substitute for gaming with your naturally dominant hand."

Before right-handed gamers cry foul, this isn't an entirely brand new model, but a left-handed version of the popular DeathAdder gaming mouse. As such, lefties get the same benefits of their right-handed brethren, including a 3500dpi 3.5G infrared sensor, 1000Hz ultrapolling, 1ms response, on-the-fly sensitivity adjustments, five programmable buttons (including two on the right side), and everything else you remember about the Death Adder.

Razer has the DeathAdder for lefties on backorder for $60.

Image Credit: Razer