Electronic Arts has just let loose their PR army to tell the gaming world that the Battlefield 2142: Northern Strike booster pack is now available for download.

Emphasizing close-quarters combat, Battlefield 2142: Northern Strike drops gamers deep into a desperate conflict for control of Earth’s last scraps of inhabitable land following the onset of a cataclysmic new ice age.

The booster pack features three new maps - Port Bavaria, Bridge at Remagen and Liberation of Leipzig - as well as two new vehicle types: the EU's heavily armed IFV Goliath and the PAC's hovering light IFV Hachimoto.

"This is the additional content that Battlefield 2142 fans have been asking for," said Kristoffer Bergqvist, the booster pack's producer. "We’ve added deep new maps, weapons and vehicles to keep the action fresh and exciting on the Battlefield for months to come."

 

Autodesk Inc. – the folks known for their 3D design software like Maya and AutoCAD, has announced that they will debut the latest 3D rendering products at this year's Game Developers Conference. The software includes: Autodesk Maya 8.5, and Autodesk 3ds Max 9 Extension 1: Productivity booster.

At GDC 2007, They will also be holding demonstrations of their Autodesk MotionBuilder character animation software at their booth. They will also present Autodesk's Location Services, which is set to allow game developers to create mobile games that will take advantage of the Global Positioning System (GPS) capabilities of mobile platforms.

They also announce that Harmonix Games, Insomniac Games, Relic Entertainment, TikGames, and Ubisoft will be at their booth to reveal development secrets behind their masterpieces.

Why is this bit of news relevant to you gamers? Well, considering that a lot of the stages in Final Fantasy XIII are built in Maya...

 

Ice-age FPS-meets-strategy game, Battlefield 2142: Northern Strike became an achievement to both Digital Illusions Computer Entertainment and Electronic Arts after a successful Battlefield 2142 installment. Firing Squad has Kristoffer Bergqvist, the producer behind the Northern Strike booster pack, to look back on BF2142 and foretell the path the title will take.

Despite critics pointing out that BF2142 was perfectly Battlefield 2 with a futuristic, "cold war" apocalypse setting, DICE and EA wanted to differentiate the two games from each other. Bergqvist believes that they hit that goal, he being more inclined to play BF2142 despite also loving BF2.

Infantry was sorely lacking in the Battlefield series, often being stomped on by the many vehicles available in the games. The plan for Northern Strike was to allow the infantry specific advantages, highlighting scenarios where infantry could easily traverse through. Vehicles on the other hand, would have to pass through set paths, creating opportunities for soldiers to ambush convoys.

With three new maps placed in gorgeous, icy urban ruins and two new vehicles, the Northern Strike expansion highlights a development to the Pan Asian Coalition and European Union's conflict around habitable territories. This time around, the PAC take advantage of the EU's strategic reinforcements to the south and strike the EU from the north - the Alps.

The game will sport ten unlockable things in the game, including a weapon that will be useful in weeding out hiding places for snipers.