According to The CutScene blog from Variety the EA Montreal developed co-op third person shooter Army of Two has been optioned for a feature film by Universal. Currently attached to the picture is writer Scott Z. Burns (of The Bourne Ultimatum fame) and producer Scott Stuber (who was once attached to the failed Halo movie). EA is set to produce the film, a first for the publisher who has recently sold rights for a film based on The Sims and Mass Effect.
"The ambiguity of these private military corporations lends weight to an intelligent thriller with relevance to what's going on in the world right now," Burns told Variety. "I told EA right off the bat I wasn't a gamer, and that appealed to them because they didn't want to simply replicate the game."
Isn't a gamer? Well, Burns had better stay true to the fantastic lore that was outlined in the Army of Two game. You know, the blinging out of weapons and ... other things they did in that game. Seriously though, Uwe Boll must be spinning in his grave. Oh, he isn't ... never mind.
It's the week Xbox Live Arcade purchasers have been looking forward to, because Target stores are selling 1600 Microsoft points cards for the oh so nice price of $15. But that's not all, they also have CoD4, Battlefield: Bad Company or Army of Two for $50 and are also giving away $40 gift cards with the purchase of any Xbox 360 console and Madden 09. Best Buy has a similar deal, where if you buy an Xbox 360 console and Madden 09 they'll throw in a free wireless controller. Other than that and Turok for $30, Best Buy's 360 deals are kind of lacking this week. Over at Circuit City, they're selling CoD4 for $40, Gears of War for $30, Juiced for $15, and giving away a free mini football with Madden 09 or a free $5 gift card if you purchase Madden 09 online. Finally, Circuit City is handing out free $30 gift card with the purchase of any Xbox 360 console.
Happy shopping and be sure to stock up on those cheap Microsoft points, because as you're well aware, Castle Crashers is releasing soon!
Eachweek, X3F tips gamers to the tricks of the trade of Achievement hording in Points>Life. Every week a new achievement is unlocked to help you continue your unhealthy obsession with the Xbox 360 meta-game.
Throughout the ages in the world of game design, the idea of collecting random items was developed to artificially extend the life of a game. Why only include a five-hour campaign when you can stuff that length with two hours worth of collecting junk, right? Until the advent of the Xbox 360 such collect-a-thons had no business in our games, but for those of us addicted to Achievement Points it has become a necessary evil in our war to 1000 points.
This week in Points>Life we're taking a look at some recent offenders on the Xbox 360 and attempt to show you where all those knickknacks, trinkets and gems are hidden. Sit back, it's going to be a bumpy and boring ride to Collect-a-Thon city!
European Army of Two owners who were turned bitter last week to learn that they weren't getting the free Veterans Pack DLC right away will be happy to know that the content is now downloadable in all European XBLM territories. The 100% free Veterans Pack features new co-op missions, new co-op fun and even an alternate ending to the game. So, go ahead and give it a download fellow European fanboys, it's free and it's sponsored by the kind folks over at Pontiac. Vroom!
If you live in North America and own a copy of Army of Two, then congratulations! Today you have the option to download the free Army of TwoVeterans Pack from the XBLM. If you live in Europe and own Army of Two, then we apologize. You DO NOT get any free downloads today. So, um ... sorry?
The reason for Europe seeing a delay in getting their free Army of Two DLC isn't clear, but EA has confirmed that delay shouldn't be too long and that Veterans Pack DLC will eventually roll out to European gamers. And now that we look at it, maybe the DLC's Pontiac sponsorship has something to do with its current limited availability. That said, on the PSN, the Veterans Pack's release is actually the opposite and is only being made available to European countries whereas North Americans are seeing the delay. And so the cloud of confusion settles in ...
After testing the paid DLC waters only to find it contaminated with harmful amoebas, EA will be releasing a new pack of Army of Two DLC to the XBLM this Thursday, May 29th. But this time it'll release for free!
The Army of Two "Veterans Pack" will bring with it two new co-op campaign scenarios and an update to the China Canal Lock multiplayer map. The two co-op scenarios will include gang eradication in a Kiev subway station while the other scenario features a bunch of boss and ex-boss killing in Miami. Again, this DLC will be free, so if you are "lucky" enough to own the game, we advise giving it a download come Thursday.
That copy of Army of Two getting a little stale? Well, good news! Major Nelson just dropped word that new content is now available for EA's co-op action-shooter on the Xbox Live Marketplace.
For 600 MS Points ($7.50 US) gamers can add the SSC Challenge Map Pack to their experience. The package includes four two-player co-op maps which allows two teams to compete in the SSC Challenge versus mode for the chance to earn large boatloads of cash. You know, to help purchase that diamond studded shotgun you always wanted. Seriously, we always thought that Private Military corporations were filled with hardcore fighters with tons of baditude, not a bunch of guys who make-believe Pimp My Ride with their killing machines.
But hey, we canceled our subscription to Guns N' Ammo, so what do we know?
This week in the land of sarcastic game reviews with few pauses, Yahtzee targets the recently released Army of Two. Choosing to firmly grasp the obvious humor immediately, the review starts of with the expected bromance jokes, and then moves to the horribly cliched story, the poor AI and the lack of QA. As is custom with Zero Punctuation, there is substance behind the speed, and Yahtzee touches on some important gameplay and genre topics. But hey you don't listen to Zero Punctuation for the quality analysis, but rather the quality humor. As is the case with Zero Punctuation, the video can be found after the break, and is not safe for those of you at work.
Just as it was announced last week, a brand spanking new Army of Twodemo is available on the Xbox Live Marketplace to all Live subscribers except those in Germany. After downloading this 1.32GB multiplayer demo you and a friend will be able to experience Army of Two co-op battle tactics, co-op camaraderie and lots of co-op killing. Grab the demo if your Army of Two interest is piqued and be sure to bring a friend along for the ride. Death and destruction is always more enjoyable in pairs.
It's strange. Games releasing on 360 with no demo, when there is in fact a demo waiting to go live, is getting more and more common nowadays. Having been released for a while now (and having been hugely delayed) Army of Two is now getting a demo on XBLM. On what will soon be the dev blog of the game, Assistant Producer Matt Turner revealed that April 1 (har!) will see the release of the Army of Two demo, and that players should look forward to their upcoming DLC. The Demo will contain the training tutorial and the game's first level, and the DLC will have several components, a single multiplayer map, two new campaign maps, and a new mercs obstacle course called SSC Challenge. No price or release date was given for the DLC at this time, though with the coming-soon status of the EA Montreal dev blog, we can expect more news relatively quickly.
Not long after its release, it was discovered that Army of Two featured a regional lockout that prevented from playing with other parts of the world. In other words, players in North America, Europe, and Asia, have to be content to play with themselves. Hard-nosed problem solvers that they are, the fine folks at Joystiq got to the bottom of the issue by sticking the question to EA directly. The response from Reid Schneider, senior producer of Army of Two: the regional lockout was implemented to prevent slow connections. It seems that Army of Two requires comparable connection speeds from all users in order to properly sync up gameplay animations. As a result, someone with a slow connection can "bring down" the rest of a group, causing less than desirable play. Thus, the lockout was born. In an interesting note, the Asian version of the game is region locked for an entirely different reason: it doesn't allow players to shoot corpses. Attempting to make this feature compatible with the other versions over over Xbox Live caused the game to "fail."
So there you have it. There is a dim glow of hope at the end of the tunnel though, as EA is "actively looking into" finding a way to allow cross regional play while still eliminating slow connections.
"NOTE: The online game modes in Army of Two are not cross region compatible and is only supported between PAL discs." So says page six of the European Army of Two manual, as reported by Sarcastic Gamer. Or, to put it a different way, Europeans and Americans won't be playing any Army of Two together. it's unclear if the European version is still cross region compatible with other countries that use the PAL standard, such as Australia. We join in Sarcastic Gamer's belief that this is really the kind of information that should be listed on the box. We also wonder along with them whether or not this is something we should come to expect from future EA titles. Let's hope not.
Update: Some readers are letting us know that Army of Two servers are rolling back online now, but some are still experiencing connection drops and laggy gameplay experiences.
Email is flying in and message boards are lit like the eternal flame about Army of Two. Gamers are livid because EA servers are having multiple issues including the standard lag found in most online games all the way to not functioning at all. In some cases gamers are reporting that the only multiplayer modes currently working are local games, so no online co-op for you.
Message board posters are seem to be having different experiences with the newly released EA third-person shooter, but most agree the overall online experience is not functioning properly. PlayStation users aren't out of the wood either as messages confirm these issues are across the board, not surprising since EA uses their own server farm and does not subscribe to Xbox Live's peer-to-peer method of hosting.
At the time of this story three of our own soldiers of the X3F Army have expressed experiences with all available online multiplayer modes within the game.
The Xbox 360 plays host to three new games this week. We're not quite sure which one tops the list honestly. Army of Two is probably the most talked about recently. Given its rocky development cycle and the fact that there aren't any major reviews up yet, we're remaining cautious. Bully: Scholarship Edition also releases this week, marking the first time that Microsoft console owners will get a chance to try it out (now with achievements!). And then there's Major League Baseball 2K8, about which we haven't the foggiest. Anyone out there longing to pick up one of these this week?
Continuing the Army of Two news on X3F, we have the full list of Achievements for the game. The list consists of a total thirty-seven Achievements with six of those being secret Achievements. The balance (between online/offline, co-op/1p, hardcore/easy, etc) is rather well done compared to some other shooters, and movie and pop culture references abound. With Achievement name inspiration ranging from Predator (see above), to Army of Darkness, to Scarface, we expect these ones to be particularly popular.
Not only do we have the Achievement list, but Brian from Geekpulpz sent us the link to their impressions of the game from a hands on preview they were given. If you've been following the game or even if you were just wondering about the details, the video is well worth watching.
It's the week Xbox Live Arcade purchasers have been looking forward to, because Target stores are selling 1600 Microsoft points cards for the oh so nice price of $15. But that's not all, they also have CoD4, Battlefield: Bad Company or Army of Two for $50 and are also giving away $40 gift cards with the purchase of any Xbox 360 console and Madden 09. Best Buy has a similar deal, where if you buy an Xbox 360 console and Madden 09 they'll throw in a free wireless controller. Other than that and Turok for $30, Best Buy's 360 deals are kind of lacking this week. Over at Circuit City, they're selling CoD4 for $40, Gears of War for $30, Juiced for $15, and giving away a free mini football with Madden 09 or a free $5 gift card if you purchase Madden 09 online. Finally, Circuit City is handing out free $30 gift card with the purchase of any Xbox 360 console.
It's strange. Games releasing on 360 with no demo, when there is in fact a demo waiting to go live, is getting more and more 
