Electronic Arts has officially announced that as of today, Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances is playable. At first the game was only available to beta testers, but now Phenomic™, which is the EA studio in charge for the game, is proud to announce that everyone can play it now. Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances is a web browser game and what’s awesome about it is that you can play it from work or your home office without the requirement of  a high end PC. If you speak another language you can probably play this as it supports 11 languages. Below, we have some screenshots and the link to where you can get started for free.

[Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances signup page]

Electronic Arts recently revealed how many copies of Battlefield 3 its sold shipped so far, while also praising the game’s accomplishment against Modern Warfare 3.

During an earnings call earlier this week, EA said that 15 million copies of BF 3 were shipped to retailers since launch, reports MP1st. The number of units actually sold was not mentioned, but in February, EA said they sold 10 million copies of its military first-person shooter. In comparison, BF 3’s main competitor MW 3 managed to sell 9.3 million copies worldwide on just its first day, according to VGChartz.

EA’s CEO John Riccitiello also took the time to mention how BF 3 accomplished its mission against MW 3 (*rolls eyes*). “We did what we said we’d do with Battlefield. Battlefield 3 took [a] very significant share from the leading competitor on its way to being one of the biggest selling titles in EA history,” said Riccitiello, adding “There will be exciting new developments for the Battlefield brand as FY13 progresses.”

Another Medal of Honor game is in the works (surprise!) and it’s titled Medal of Honor: Warfighter, reveals Official Xbox Magazine.

The MoH (2010) sequel, as Game Informer (via Destructoid) reports, is being developed by Danger Close and is due out on October. The game will center around Tier 1 Operators and will include multiplayer that’s being made in-house and not by DICE. Also, Warfighter, like with Battlefield 3, will be powered by the Frostbite 2.0 engine.

Below is Warfighter’s first image as seen on MoH’s official website. More details about the game can be seen in OXM’s April issue. (more…)

More and more games these days are locking out certain content and online multiplayer access to those that buy used games and don’t purchase a $10 digital Online Pass. Electronic Art’s upcoming SSX reboot will be employing said Online Pass, but you actually won’t need one in order to play online.

In a statement given to Game Informer, EA said that while new copies of their snowboarding game will include an Online Pass, you’ll still be able to play SSX’s Explore and Global Events’ online game modes without one. The catch? You won’t be awarded with in-game credits from Global Events; instead, they’ll be stored away. When you buy an Online Pass, though, you’ll be rewarded with all of your accrued credits, which, according to GI, lets you unlock more character gear.

Additionally, “Economy balance makes it possible to unlock all available content and allows you to participate in all event drops across both Explore and Global Events, with credits earned solely in Explore,“ EA told GI.

Online Passes may be the bane for used game buyers, but what EA’s doing with SSX is much better than the alternative: not being able to play multiplayer at all.

SSX’s Online Pass Doesn’t Sound Too Bad [Game Informer, via Destructoid]

They're like the A-Team but in space. And some are hot aliens.

When people think of February, specifically the 14th, one thought usually comes to mind: Valentine’s Day. Images of flowers, chocolates, cards, and romanticism fill the head, for better or for worse. This year though, Bioware is adding some new thoughts to people’s heads: gunning down hostiles, mass invasion of Earth, and blue-skinned alien boobs.

Bioware’s popular space RPG/FPS hybrid has the third installment coming out on March 6th, but if you’re either too impatient to wait until then or aren’t sure if you want to get in on the adventures of Commander Shepard and his spunky bunch of companions from across the galaxy, then you’ll be delighted to see the demo of Mass Effect 3 appear on Valentine’s Day. The demo shows off both single-player and multi-player gameplay, although if you didn’t get Battlefield 3 you’ll be having to wait until the 17th to dive into the multi-player portion, allowing players to get a taste of both types of play before the game is available on shelves. You’ll also gain access to additional content if you played the Kingdoms of Alamur demo that debuted a few days ago.

In a time when video games are being bought more on a trust basis than if you tried a demo and enjoyed it, it’s nice to see EA and Bioware bringing in a demo to both reassure gamers that their money will be well spent and whet their appetite for more Mass Effect goodness. I’m sure it will also help after the massive backlash that happened when multi-player was first confirmed to be included in the game as well. As for me, you’ll probably find me on my PC playing the demo on V-Day, then immediately running out to Gamestop to throw a wad of cash in their face to pay off the cool Collector’s Edition of the game.

Mass Effect 3 is rated M and will be available on X-Box 360, Playstation 3, and PC.

Even with limited early access to the game for around a week, it seems players of the hotly-anticipated Star Wars: The Old Republic are having to deal with long wait times for access to the game’s servers.

CVG reports that server wait times are ranging from 45 minutes, which seems to be the most common, to as long as two hours, despite Bioware’s efforts for a smooth game launch by letting pre-order customers gain early access to their MMORPG on a wave-by-wave basis.

“In order to ensure that the service would be smooth and stable, we staged how we brought people into the Early Game Access program, adding people in waves,” wrote Bioware’s Live Services executive producer Jeff Hickman on The Old Republic’s official forums. “As you know, there are a lot of folks who want to play the game right now and we want to make sure they have lots of people to play with. Balancing this with figuring out when to bring new servers online to help alleviate the size of the queues is part art and part science.”

“On one hand, you do not want people to wait too long – on the other hand, you want to make sure that people have a dynamic, engaging community to play with for long after launch. Either way, we have one clear objective – to make sure folks have fun.”

Continuing, Hickman added, “While we can’t promise that there won’t ever be queues, we can promise you that we are taking this matter seriously and constantly reviewing them to make sure that they are manageable and reasonable.”

That’s reassuring to hear, but if server wait times are this long during the early access period, I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like tomorrow when the game is available to all customers. Yikes!