Electronic Arts and DICE yesterday released a spectacular 12-minute gameplay trailer for their upcoming Battlefield 3. The military first person shooter (shocking, we know!) is being touted as EA’s answer to Activision’s incredibly popular Call of Duty franchise.

The release comes in response to EA’s campaign to “recruit” over 1 million Likes for its Battlefield Facebook page. The trailer was made available after over 800,000 users became fans of the page.

Battlefield 3 is easily one of the best looking games ever made. Whether those looks hold up across the various platforms the game is being released for is another question entirely. Presently the PC version of Battlefield 3 is the most impressive, featuring the aforementioned visuals, gargantuan maps and 64 player battles. The Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions on the other hand feature reined graphics, smaller map sizes and only support 24 player battles. The aging consoles simply cannot handle the sheer scale of Battlefield 3.

It’s a true return to form for the franchise. If Battlefield 3 is anything like it’s PC predacessors, then I’m in a lot of trouble.

Battlefield 3 is due out November 2, 2011.

There’s going to come a point when a genre simply can’t take it anymore. It’s not exhaustion; that comes much sooner. This is different, and while there’s no fantastic word that I can come up with, the closest I can hit is ‘implode’. After a while it’s like the genre couldn’t handle it, like older role-playing games, where you just get these infinite mirror reflections and what used to be traditions, then tropes, become these malicious and kind of snarky bad habits. It’s not offensive or annoying, it’s just like the elves, knights and archers are constantly winking at the screen as if you’re ‘in on it’. Shooters are going to hit that wall. Maybe Duke Nukem Forever will be the guiding hand, but shooters are going to collide with this unfathomable heap, where there is so little unexploited reasons for guns to shoot people left that the entire concept will just collapse in on itself.

So what is Bulletstorm? Originally hyped up due to the presence of developers Epic and People Can Fly, many folks expected a heinously cheeky, violent slaughterhouse that only a name like Bulletstorm could suggest. But as time went on, evidence started to mount that there was going to be something special about Bulletstorm, once again hard to pin, but unmistakably present. It’s angle and excuses for violence take clear cues and influence from previous shooters, but it’s the way these parts mix together that helps this quirky little thing present some real ingenuity. After all, even tried and true ingredients can be cooked together astonishingly by the right chefs. Beef. Chicken. Soy. Chunk. Mutant.

It’s always good to do something with a clear head. So when taking revenge on the warmonger who framed him and his team, Captain Grayson Hunt would soon regret not doing so while sober. Now his ship is wrecked, his friends mostly dead and the only other survivor is hacked together with a computer system in order to live. To make things a goofy brand of worse, the planet they crash land on is inhabited by crumbling cyber-deco and rabid pseudo-natives. Discourse between characters clearly has familiar bro/jerk origins, but they maul their selectively masculine language to the point of disassociation. Though all is not lost, if by some pinhole of a chance, they can get a hold of the very man they intended to kill, Grey and his now cyborg pal Ishi might be able to make it off this crazy weird world.

There are some obvious inspirations for the style of the game. Under a magnifying glass you can dissect and trace almost every classic FPS element, from something as sophisticated as Bioshock to as blunt as Serious Sam. The world feels massive, with many machines, buildings and monsters big enough to attack Ultraman, it becomes all the more spectacular when each comes a-tumblin’ down. Things you kaboom early in the game have surprising and generally charming repercussions. While the machoisms chucked out by Grayson aren’t too too distant from what you’d hear from any other grizzled space marine, the context that surrounds it, keeping Ishi more human than machine, makes it a touch more endearing. In general, Hunt seems to display emotions cold and unfamiliar to many FPS protagonists, often grieving over losses and mistakes in subtle ways.

What comes next to weird-up Hunt’s adventure and opening the gate for bloggers to unleash e-theses about the ‘genius of a meta-game’ is also the explanation why every screenshot you’ve seen has blazing slang quotes hovering about the gore: The leash. Early on Grayson nabs some new tech from the army of his enemy, discovering they wielded not only a plasma whip but aggressive encouragement. The leash tracks soldiers’ kill records, a sort of ‘game’, tallying up points which can be exchanged for ammo and upgrades from supply pods scattered about the planet, making sure only ‘the good die young’. But as always, killing isn’t enough, and your gun is only as good as you use it (or not use it). Getting creative with your casualties can unveil massive bundles of points and finding ways to merge your leash, your roster of guns, gun modes and ever powerful boot heel you’ll find a slight tug to ask yourself, “Yes, what would happen if I kicked this fanged pulsing pod on to that man’s head and then shot that angry glowing thing next to it whilst surrounded by suicide bombers and cacti?” Each gun has a secondary mode, which can sometimes make the difference between a revolver and a flare gun, though some classics are spruced up even in regular settings, like a sniper rifle that gives you direct control over the bullet. The kick is a titan all of its own, and if you’re strapped for ammunition there’s no shame in using the mighty gesture to launch enemies into spikes, magma, the open air or just into the wall over and over till they become nothing more than a red smear.

It’s strange how far a little push can go. While you’ve never really hesitated to test the variety of shooters that offer it, it’s a whole new experience to have it be the driving force. Bulletstorm is a game that resembles many games you’ve marched in before, and is difficult to call an homage, but it’s much more embracing of these elements. Things aren’t big, they’re titanic. Enemies aren’t violent, they’re rabid. These colours aren’t muddy, they pop radioactive like a sugar cereal box. Things don’t just blow up, they take the planet with them. But despite so many echoes, Bulletstorm isn’t afraid to blaze some new paths. Certain chapters shake with a creative headspace more inventive than ‘snow level’ and ‘fun fun carnival place’, these’ll stick. There’s a lot of legitimate pathos for these rag tag space pirates, and unlike so many other shooters it hits higher echelons than just simple martyrdom. You feel bad for Grayson and Ishi, and you feel bad for Grayson feeling bad about Ishi. With such great mood, setting and pacing, I really felt like I floated through Bulletstorm with a whimsical sense of glee. I don’t think of myself as a violent person, but Bulletstorm makes a great case for violence. Hooray for Violence!

According to Dead Rising 2 producer and Capcom head of R&D Keiji Inafune, it very well may be.

The legendary producer recently spoke with NowGamer and commented that Canada is “getting very important now…they’ve got potential to be at the epicenter of videogame development.”

Inafune recently collaborated with Canadian studio Blue Castle Games on the sequel to Dead Rising.

Inafune believes that there are numerous reasons for this, including government policies and tax-relief, but from a developers point of view, he mentioned that compared to big cities in the U.S., like Los Angeles, it’s a little bit cheaper and as a result there is a lot of potential for video game development here. Adding, “but compared to Americans, Canadians are a bit… more serious…if you like”.

Earlier this year it was reported that despite gaming industries across the globe being hit hard from the global recession, Canada’s game development sector showed no signs of slowing down.

According to a report released back in March by the Electronic Software Association of Canada (ESAC), there are more than 14,000 people who are now directly employed by more than 247 Canadian video-game companies. And that’s not including jobs in retail and transportation.

Much like Inafune, the ESAC also agrees that the contributing factor to Canada’s success is because of generous tax incentives, which help to attract large scale investments from companies like Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and Eidos.

The ESAC report also claimed that most jobs in the video-game industry are high-paying software development jobs. Going off the most recent stats from Statistics Canada, 138,000 people were employed as computer programmers and interactive media developers in Canada in 2008. Compare that to the ESAC numbers and it shows that as many as 10% of Canada’s software jobs are in the video game industry.

Up to 29 percent more video game jobs are expected in Canada by 2011, and with Ubisoft in the process of opening up shop in Toronto, they are now suggesting that their headcount in Canada will nearly double to 3,000 employees by 2013.

This past weekend the Dork Shelf team attended Fan Expo Canada, during which we sat in on a panel discussion about The Current State of the Local Video Game Industry. The panel was moderated by Jason MacIsaac of Electric Playground and formerly the small Niagara Ontario game studio Cerebral Vortex Games. Joining him were the guests Philippe McNally from Longbow Digital Arts, Ryan MacLean, formerly of Pseudo Interactive and co-founder of Drinkbox Studios, Leslie Phord-Toy, a producer at the new Ubisoft Toronto Studio, Ian Kelso, head of Interactive Ontario, and finally, the always entertaining and outspoken Ryan Henson Creighton, founder of Untold Entertainment Inc.

Inafune’s sentiments echo those mentioned during the panel last week. At one point the question was submitted to the guests: “Why choose Toronto to develop video games?”

Interactive Ontario’s President Ian Kelso answered the question by recalling a conversation he had had with a developer from France the previous week at GamesCon in Germany. During their talk the Parisian developer called Toronto, “the Hollywood of the gaming industry.”

A bold claim, but clearly our video game industry is an exciting and thriving one to be in right now. Hopefully with studios like Ubisoft opening their new office in Toronto and the continued support of the Canadian government, it will open the door for other big studios opening in Canada. This will not only be beneficial to the Canadian economy and the gaming industry, but it will eschew the likelihood of local homegrown talent flocking to other countries in search of employment opportunities.

For more news and shenanigans in 140 characters or less, be sure to follow me on Twitter @The_GeekJock

In this fourth podcast, Jeff tells us about the super important summer event that’s been keeping him busy (is it X-Men Origins: Wolverine?), Will explains how Fallout is like Metal Gear, and Lucas drinks from the precious “I ♥ Jim” mug. The dorks talk about new TV shows, bemoan the shallow ethnic diversity in superhero troupes, and debate the state of computer gaming. Prepare to be informed, amused, and offended.

Download: Dork Shelf Podcast 4 (54 MB, MP3, 78:50)
Subscribe: Dork Shelf Podcast RSS Feed
Listen:

Programme:

• 0:00 — “Vision of Art (feat. Company Flow)” by DJ Krush
• 7:00 — On movie ratings
• 17:00 — The Pirate Bay trial and piracy
• 28:00 — EA, and the dorks do Frank Caliendo doing John Madden
• 34:30 — [Unknown Song] by The Meters
• 40:00 — The Flash is so white
• 51:30 — Will on the state of PC gaming
• 74:00 — Xbox Live’s attitude toward women
• 78:00 — “Bad Luck Blues” by DJ Nu-Mark & Pomo

Discussed:

• GTA: Chinatown Wars, Henry Hatsworth, Bionic Commando, Fallout 3 DLC, BioShock
• Parks and Recreation, Dollhouse, Minoriteam
• Batman: Battle for the Cowl, The Flash: Rebirth, Preacher
• Terminator Salvation, This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Wild Things, Taboo
• McG, John Madden, The Comedy Network, The Pirate Bay

The fine folks at Borne Games, creators of the popular flash game World 2, have collaborated with Electronic Arts to create a 2D side-scrolling version of the free-running action game Mirror’s Edge.

The game features all the same free-running acrobatics that made the 3D version so exhilarating to play, in a perfectly executed 2D format.  The game also features a similar time-trial mode and is being updated by the developers constantly.

Definitely a fun way to spend 30 minutes, so give it a try. Mirror’s Edge 2D