Remember when we wrote about the awesome Joystick Junkies DICE store? Well they have offered our readers a chance to score the Dog Tags of their choice! These dog tags have DICE on them and the symbol for the position that you love to play most.

Follow the directions below to win the Dog Tags! I have to say that I tend to play Assault. These tags can be purchased at the store for $15.99 each.

DICE is a much loved studio that recently created Battlefield 3. Now gamers can buy posters, tshirts, hoodies and dog tags at the official DICE store created and run by Joystick Junkies.

The dog tags are the latest in the store. A different dog tag is created per user role that you like to play. They are nicely engraved and seem to have the right amount of worn to make it look authentic. The dog tags are listed at $15.99 each. The female section has two t-shirts and a polo shirt, but they have assured me that more will be coming. The Battlefield 3 hoodie is awesome!

Where things tend to differentiate is the fact that…well, not every Xbox 360 console has a hard drive. To get around this, Battlefield 3, out next week, theoretically comes in two modes — the no-install “standard definition” game and the “high-def” upgrade obtainable by installing a texture disc to the console.

Patrick Bach explained it all in an interview with GamerZines:

“It does make a difference, yes, absolutely. The whole engine is based around streaming textures, streaming terrain and a lot of other content.

“The thing with the 360 is that you need to be able to give consumers a game where you don’t have to install it on a hard drive, because there are 360s without a hard drive. So we need to give you the option of installing it, rather than just demanding it. You could call it a ‘standard-def’ version for the 360 if you don’t have a hard-drive.”

So, if you want to play Battlefield 3 and have it look its best…well, you’d better make sure you’ve got the hard drive space.

Yeah… nothing much.  The wait until PAX seemed to drag on as more details trickled out and the secrecy surrounding it grew bigger and stronger.  PAX Prime 2011 was around the corner and I was bursting with excitement as my anticipation for the event grew bigger and bigger.  I wanted to tell someone, I wanted to shout, I wanted to inform the world where I was going and speculate about the wonders I was about to see, but the safety of my fellow soldiers rested in my hands in the form of a dense NDA. I would not betray my brothers and sisters in arms!

Hands on with co-op and multiplayer

The day to travel came and the amazing people of EA/DICE had paid for me to fly into Seattle and stay at the Westin hotel, only a few blocks from the convention center.  Not only that, but they also provided passes for those of us that needed to get into the sold out PAX convention.  Yet the location of where the event was kept secret, until just before the event.  Our fearless leader, Seeson, sent us one last email, telling us the location.  I left PAX Prime and went to our top secret location, to find a room filled with computers and PS3s all with the Battlefield 3 logo.  In the middle of the room was  an array of tables and chairs, and towards the back an amazing buffet of food that made us all very happy.

Not only was the food was delicious, but the company was out of this world.  I finally got to meet in person so many people I have followed on twitter or read their work on their websites.  After a complete re-enactment of “The Lonely Island” videos as they played through the sound system and the laughter that followed, it was time for us to approach the machines in order to give Battlefield 3 a try.  We were one of the few that played the co-op campaign at this exclusive event. Only 32 people were asked to participate and we all worked together in order to beat the co-op demo in front of us.  My partner, Kelly Brown from The Married Gamers, and I moved swiftly through the first objective of the game.

We ran into a building, fill with terrorists, as we attempted to save a hostage inside of it.

Picture from @ Battlefield tweeter feed

We quickly picked up how to move and work as a team.  I would kneel or go prone to cover around a corner, while Kelly moved and headshot any enemy in sight.  We quickly started to say “CLEAR!” as our communication devolved into code words and shorthand.  We moved out of the building, with our hostage in tow, without a scratch, but outside a full on battle was raging that neither of us had seen before.  We found an ammo case, I got a sniper rifle, and Kelly protected my 12 as I took care of our 3 and 4 o’ clock.  YES!  We became a unit!  The game forces you to know how to be as specific and use as much shorthand as you can in order to make this work.  I was in love.  While moving around and killing every enemy in sight, we were pampered by using ASTRO A40 headsets with custom Battlefield 3 tags.  The crispness of the sounds, the footsteps, reloading, shooting, and the accurate sounds of the sniper rifle versus the pistol enveloped me in another world! I did everything I could not to drool and fall into a geek trance.  As we made progress enemies poured out of balconies, windows, alleys, and from behind cover strewn over the streets.  I worried about how the graphics engine would work with all this madness going on, but Frostbite 2 seemed to thrive. Textures, particles, lighting, just everything looked and felt as real as it could be without going into the Uncanny Valley.  As I immersed myself in the game, the more I started to believe that I could smell smoke coming from the flaming car near me.  Kelly and I moved to the next area and were greeted by RPGs firing at us from all angles. The inability to hear from the ear closest to the explosions just added to the game.  Kelly quickly fell as she happened to be too close to an explosion.  I looked for cover and went prone to revive her. My heartbeat racing, I knew I had three enemies at  11 and two RPGs at 3 o’ clock.  I held “X” like my life depended on it… because it did. In that moment… my character froze.

Even though the game was performing very well, it is still in Alpha stage and some bugs still plague the game.  The unit got reset and we started over.  We moved onto the PC version and this demo was multiplayer.  Two teams were formed and we played against each other.  It took a bit for me to get used to the keyboard, as I mainly play FPS on consoles (don’t worry, I’m working on that☺),  and to get some sort of shorthand going on to tell each other where the enemies were located.  At one point I heard “The enemies are by the trees!”  I looked at the screen and we were in a park filled with trees.  I almost face palmed at that point as I called out, “Which tree!?! We’re in a park!” followed by laughter from my team mates.

From left to right: PAX, my personalized PAX tag, E3 Battlefield 3 demo

We had an amazing time and if it wasn’t enough, we each received a pair of Gunnar glasses, a Razor gaming mouse, a Battlefield Lanyard, an Astro Gaming backpack and a handmade paracord bracelet.  The event met and exceeded any and all expectations I had.  The game made me wish it was about to be released, even with the bugs and crashes.  I was oddly ok with it since when it did run, it just transported me into a full experience, one I have not had since Call of Duty 4.

The goodies were not just for us; if you stood in line (for 4+ hours) and played Battlefield 3, you got to try out Astro A40 headsets and at the end of the demo you got a set of dog tags that you could personalize with your name or gamertag. I think most people put their gamertag on them, including myself.

I want to thank Seeson Mahathavorn, Daniel Matros, Ian Tornay, Matthew Pruitt and everyone that helped them for this amazing opportunity and for working so hard for us. Thanks to the entire Battlefield 3 team for making such a great game, that is guaranteed to give Call of Duty a run for its money. You all know how excited I have been about Battlefield 3 since E3, and this was just the cherry on top!

During the action, Geforce.com’s Kris Rey and DICE Producer Patrick Liu got technical — talking about DirectX 11, tessellation, Frostbite 2, and Kris even tried to get a little more information out of Patrick. But he kept appropriately mum.

Check out their conversation in the video below:

Apparently, this installment is a marked improvement when it comes to graphics, and folks building the game over at DICE are way into the Frostbite 2 engine, which you’d hope would lead to good things game-wise. They’re actually hoping for it to be a Call of Duty-killer, it seems, but who knows how realistic that expectation actually is.

All month, GI should have some interesting things go up, but you can also check out the Battlefield 3 site starting tomorrow to get more information.

I want to go on the record and say it was a little thing that stuck out in my mind at first. True, the game is being heavily regarded as one of the Comeback Kids of next year and with all the reboots of series coming out – how could we not notice Medal of Honor? They knew the fans were panting, grasping at hints of something on the horizon that community forums were putting out but what could they have done? We knew nothing. Yet, it was a deliberate keep of animation that made my heart catch in my chest.

One of the characters in the game, as he was walking up a wooden faux-bridge… stumbled. He stumbled, caught his footing and kept walking so the next person could walk up behind him and that is what had me stuck there. It was that kind of realism that took just another Medal of Honor game and put me in the mode that I was willing to listen. I was willing to learn just what these men did to take an over-washed and faded series and pull it into something that would tell a story. The amazing guys over at EA actually accepted that we were cautious and when they brought us into EA’s offices to tour the facilities and get knee-deep in the mythos of Medal of Honor; they knew what they had in store. Most of us were kind of hesitant to drink the Kool-Aid and even when they threw around flashy words like “Prone” and “Tier 1 Operators”, they knew that work was ahead of them.

The next two days were essentially a cavalcade of terminology; Patrick Liu came out and told us how the guys at DICE had come to terms with the vast majority of the gaming community seeking a Bad Company 2 clone with the Medal of Honor stamp. They refused. Instead, they took the best bits and pieces from Bad Company 2 and they said; “You know what? We can do this better. We can please the fans and still put out a product that we can be proud of.” What we saw was nothing short of intriguing and while it’s still too soon to tell just how we’ll go beyond Multiplayer Beta (Which yes, GamingAngels was invited to participate in thanks to Matthew Pruitt over at EA.). I do know that I’m intrigued to find out more from the lives of a “Tier 1 Operator” and the single-player mission that includes your character Rabbit and just what he must do to get home.

Upon our last day though, they set us loose on the multiplayer and we all branched off into our own loud-mouthed teams to form an immediate alliance. We were solid in our critiques and while every single one of us enjoyed ourselves; we were staunch at letting the team know our complaints. What made this experience even better was the actual Roundtable we shared with Greg and Patrick and let them know where the problems rested. They confirmed if they were known and then they would nod and usher some words between each other when a good idea came out. Honestly, this is how these community events should be done. Listen to us, guys. We know what we’re talking about.

I’m excited to see how the multiplayer evolves past the two levels we played were. Maps were absolutely immersive and beautiful, the flaws were documented and even though we were just playing beta – we still gleaned pleasure from it all. That’s the truth right there. We weren’t bought into them because they paid our way to come see their toys; we bought into them because they came to us with hat-in-hand and admitted that they knew they messed up but they’re here to tell the story now. They’re back to bring Medal of Honor to the honest roots it began at and nobody can fault them for their newly brandished humility.

The genre of wargames is nothing new. We’re human beings that, as gamers, sometimes we feel useless and powerless in our own Countries wars. We fight, we play hero and sometimes even that act alone is mocked. However… if nothing else, how nice is it going to feel to finally play a war-based FPS that focuses on protecting a life and getting it back to his family?

Take a look at the Medal of Honor: “Leave a Message” trailer and some of our other included media. Keep tuned into GamingAngels to find out more as we continue forward.

You’ve been playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 and maybe you rule the map. Well now it’s time to show your skills against the developers. This Wednesday there will be 10 developers to play against. All you have to do is between 7-10pm eastern, find the gamertags below and send a friend request or invite.

Look for the following Gamertags and send off an invite or friend request:
* easoulsurfer
* EA Pruitt
* EA Echo7
* EAGamers1
* eagamers2
* eagamers3
* eagamers4
* eagamers5
* eagamers6
* eagamers7

If you haven’t purchased Battlefield Bad Company 2 yet, you have until midnight tonight to purchase it at Amazon.com for 20% off. Console versions (PS3/X360) are $46.49 and the PC version is $36.49. But it’s only for today!

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will be in stores on March 2, 2010 in North America.

Indie Game Challenge

The winners of the inaugural Indie Game Challenge were announced during the D.I.C.E conference last week. The awards were hosted by Adam Sessler.

The winners are:
Non-professional $100,000 Grand Prize Winner: Gear

* Gear was submitted by: Joshua Maiche, team lead; Mike Halbrooke, level designer; Ben Frazier, level designer; Brian Lee, designer, graphics, art and music; and Andrew Hill, level designer. The team members are students at the Digipen Institute of Technology in Redmond, Wash. Gear is a 2D puzzle platformer in which the player controls a robot with the ability to change its hand into a gear. The player has to swing around sockets, ride on rails, swim and even rotate the world in order to get through 10 unique levels and beat the “boss.”

Professional $100,000 Grand Prize Winner: Cogs

* Cogs was submitted by San Francisco-based Lazy 8 Studios and the three-person team consisting of: Rob Jagnow, team leader; Brendan Mauro, artist; and Luke Gilbert, sound and music. Cogs is a puzzle game in which players build machines from sliding tiles. Players can choose from 50 levels and three gameplay modes. New puzzles are unlocked by building contraptions quickly and efficiently.

Category winners include:

* Technical Achievement ($2,500): Altitude, submitted by professional team Nimbly Games headed by life-long friends and Las Cruces, N.M., neighbors Erik Measure and Karl Sabo
* Achievement in Art Direction ($2,500): Cogs
* Achievement in Gameplay ($2,500): Cogs
* Gamer’s Choice Award ($10,000): Altitude

“On behalf of the three sponsors, we couldn’t be happier with the quality and quantity of entries into the first-ever Indie Game Challenge,” said Olin. “No doubt, the partnership between AIAS, GameStop and SMU helped drive wide-spread awareness for the Challenge as evidenced by the more than 250 entries we received. The Challenge went a long way toward unlocking, cultivating and supporting the potential of independent game developers, which are essential for the future success of our industry.”

You can find these games and information on the teams IndieGameChallenge.com.