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I’ve been sucked into the daily routine of Draw Something. Although I’m noticing that the central conceit of the game is escaping some of the randoms I’ve played against. One drew the word “Luke” and the secret word, unsurprisingly, turned out to be “Luke.” Hey, creatures of the Internet, it’s not called Do Me A Favor And Tell This Person This Word For Me.
News Blips:
The Humble Indie Bundle for Android 2 is available now under the familiar pay-what-you-want model. The titles that fill out this package include Canabalt HD, Zen Bound 2, Cogs, Avadon: The Black Fortress, and — for those who pay more than the average amount — Swords & Soldiers. As with the previous Android bundle, the games are additionally compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux. For convenience, the team at Humble Bundle has developed a native Android app that will facilitate the installation process. I just loaded it up and installed Canabalt on my Asus Transformer Prime. I’m delighted to see that I am still a turd at that game. You can head to Humblebundle.com to learn more about this deal.
Electronic Arts is shutting down the multiplayer servers for 14 titles. On April 13, Internet-related service for the following games will be deactivated:
Boom Blox Bash Party (Wii)
Burnout Revenge (Xbox 360)
EA Create (PC/PlayStation 3/Wii/Xbox 360)
EA Sports Active 2.0 (PlayStation 3/Wii/Xbox 360)
EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp (Wii)
FIFA 10 (PSP/Wii)
The Godfather 2 (PC/PlayStation 3/Xbox 360)
Need for Speed ProStreet (PlayStation 3/Xbox 360)
The Saboteur (PlayStation 3/Xbox 360)
Spare Parts (PlayStation 3/Xbox 360)
In addition to the 13 titles above, EA Sports MMA is also losing online play. MMA is different because it required an online pass. That means that someone could have just purchased the mixed-martial-arts game used (because it’s probably difficult to find new) at a discounted price and then paid the full fee to access the multiplayer modes. Unlike a game’s retail value, the price of the online pass doesn't fluctuate based on the amount of time the servers will be available. Since nearly all Internet-enabled titles will eventually see an end to that aspect of their functionality, it would seem that the cost should either be set to a sliding scale or customers should be warned of the earliest potential shut-off date.
EA says that it is looking into a subscription service for Battlefield similar to Call of Duty Elite. Activision has accumulated a huge sum from the supplementary Elite, and now its biggest rival is looking to get on that money train. While many COD fans likely bought into the $50 add-on for early access to new maps, that's probably not what EA is looking to recreate. Other developers provided a similar feature to get all of the DLC for one price with so-called “season passes.” So when EA says it’s looking into something similar to Elite, the publisher is probably referring to the in-depth stat tracking and organized competitions. So far I’ve only used my Elite Premium subscription to make drunken changes to my Modern Warfare 3 character loadouts while at the bar. It’s horrifying to come home and find all my classes renamed “Cutter McStabeverybody” and seemingly designed for running around and melee attacking everyone like an idiot. Drunk Jeff would probably love that though. [VentureBeat]
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