In an effort to keep up with Call of Duty and its Elite service, EA has shifted Battlefield 3 in a whole new paid-content direction with the announcement of a Premium service, one that offers map packs and various weapon and XP boosts for around $50.  A decent price, but one that’s really set aside for the dedicated fans.  They’re out there, as the pack has sold 800,000 units so far, and climbing.  The first real map pack to come with the service, Close Quarters, offers some extensive combat situations that will test even the most frivolous of players.  However, the way it does it may not be what most Battlefield fans are used to.

And you thought 2011 was the year of the sequel.  Well, get ready for another round, because 2012 is already going to bring several new entries in familiar series, including Transformers, Spider-Man, Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed.  And now, thanks to the UK retailer GAME, it looks like two more are on the way from Electronic Arts.

For every "best of" 2011 list that is out there, there's an equally atrocious "worst of" list.  We've already run down the movies that really stunk this year, and now it's the game industry's turn.  And while we were a bit surprised that neither Brink nor Duke Nukem Forever made the list, there was still plenty of stink to go around.  So, without further ado, here are the ten games that really blew chunks...

Electronic Arts’ $100 million marketing budget seems to be paying off. After Medal of Honor was obliterated by Call of Duty: Black Ops last Christmas, Battlefield 3 is on its way to selling the 10 million copies worldwide that EA shipped to retailers. Gamers who play the new DICE game like it. Battlefield 3 videos have been viewed more than 132 million times, Twitter followers near a quarter of a million, and the Battlefield 3 Facebook community is on the verge of cresting 3 million “likes”. And now the game is on sale with Black Friday deals across the country and Cyber Monday deals coming soon.

Electronic Arts is hoping to lure gamers away from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 with its Battlefield 3 “Says Thanks” Sweepstakes weekend. Gamers who enlist for online duty in the new DICE game from Friday, November 11th through Sunday, November 13th will have a chance to win one of three amazing prizes. The Grand Prize is a round-trip visit to DICE in Stockholm, Sweden for one player and three of their squad mates for three nights. Included in the visit is a tour of the state-of-the-art studio and an introduction to the development team behind the award-winning game. The second prize is $5,000 U.S. cash, or equivalent local currency, with the third place winner taking home a brand new game system with a full catalogue of Battlefield games.

Electronic Arts has sold through 5 million copies of Battlefield 3 worldwide in its first week according to internal numbers, making the sequel one of the big games of 2011. That makes the new shooter from DICE the fastest-selling game in the history of EA. The outstanding retail performance is driven by critic’s reviews averaging above 85 on console and above 90 on PC. Word-of-mouth from gamers is also driving sales – Battlefield 3 now has more than 2.5 million “likes” on Facebook and 200,000 followers on Twitter.

Okay, Battlefield 3 fanboys, you got me. It is a little unfair. Battlefield 3 has no split-screen gaming. Does it mean that it won't be a great title? Absolutely not. I get pumped up every time I hear Jay-Z's "99 Problems" mixed in with the awesome "in-game" footage in the commercial. It's unavoidable while watching any football game on Sunday. And positive reviews are pouring in. Like most of you, I already have my copy pre-ordered. And I'm excited--but, a little less excited than I am about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

So there's no question that the Modern Warfare 3-favored article I wrote yesterday turned a few heads -- and angered a few fanboys.  A lot of people felt that what I posted wasn't "the work of a journalist" (that one had me snickering) and that Battlefield would weather the storm.  Well, surprise, guys, today we have a few reasons why Battlefield could, in fact, weather the storm and turn out to be a pretty good shooter when it releases this week.

Electronic Arts raised a lot of questions over the past couple of days when they explained how the game would require an install to a game system's hard drive in order to get high-definition visuals.  Now some information has surfaced on said install, and what kind of space will be required.  But the questions?  They still remain.

With Battlefield 3 pre-orders already topping a couple million copies with another week out, anticipation is building for developer DICE’s new game. Over 8 million people took part in the Battlefield 3 Beta, which resulted in some serious stats (see chart below the video). Battlefield 3 Producer Patrick Liu talks about Battlefield 3 in the exclusive video interview below.

NVIDIA CEO and president Jen-Hsun Huang joined up with game industry visionary and Battlefield 3 visual architect Johan Andersson to kick off the season’s hottest gaming event, GeForce LAN 6. The event took place October 14-16, 2011 on the Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet, in Alameda, California. The event featured 48 hours of non-stop PC gaming, fun contests, amazing prizes, and special stage presentations. 

Activision had its Call of Duty XP for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. And EA partnered with NVIDIA for its Battlefield 3 LAN. PC gamers got a first look at three multiplayer maps from Battlefield 3. The event, which included speakers from NVIDIA, Electronic Arts and developer DICE, took place aboard the USS Hornet Aircraft Carrier in Alameda, California. Check out highlights from the first day of the festivities in the video below.