Whoo, Spring Break! It's that special time of year when Electronic Arts goes off to sunny San Francisco and shows us everything it's got. Here's what we saw:

Battlefield Heroes Preview: Free and Fun
Nick Breckon checks out the latest entry in DICE's Battlefield series and finds it to be surprisingly reminiscent of World of Warcraft.

Battlefield Heroes Interview
Mad with lust, Breckon chats up producer Aleksander Grondol and asks him about all those Team Fortress 2 comparisons everyone's always making.

BattleForge Impressions
Sometimes, when a customizable card game and a real-time strategy game love each other very, very much...

Skate It Wii, DS Hands-on
Linde and Breckon land some sick tricks with the motion-centric boarding game.

Mass Effect PC Impressions
Maybe not harder, but better, faster, and stronger.

Plus a metric ton of new screenshots, featuring everything from Left 4 Dead (PC, X360) to Warhammer Online (PC).

It's been so long since I've invoked any hostility in defending PC-centric control schemes over console counterparts—I guess Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare changed me, or made me soft, or something.

But with Mass Effect's somewhat limited Xbox 360 control configuration transitioned to its reworked form on the PC, I'm on the cusp of becoming an elitist jerk again.

Sure, Mass Effect certainly looks great on the PC, but veterans and newcomers alike ought to be most interested in how it plays. Utilizing familiar FPS controls, the game allows you to pull up the tactical HUD by holding the space bar at... Read more

At the EA Spring Break press event in San Francisco, we had a chance to give EA Black Box's motion-centric Skate It a test run in both its Wii and Nintendo DS incarnations.

While we were grinding our faces into the pavement, we also managed to chat up the designers on bringing the Skate franchise to Nintendo's systems and the development of the new control schemes.

"It took between a month and a half to two months to reach that 'really, this is the game we want to make' kind of point," said designer Dana Fortier. "Up until that point, we really weren't even sure we wanted to pursue it. Once we hit that point where... Read more

With the game recently announced, Electronic Arts showed the first glimpse of EA Phenomic's RTS-TCG hybrid BattleForge (PC) at its recent Spring Break event.

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Though at first glance appearing to be much like Blizzard's WarCraft III (PC) or any other fantasy RTS title, BattleForge plays very differently. Rather than rely on anchored structures and bases to churn out armies and units, BattleForge uses a deck of up to 20 cards to create units and cast spells free of micromanagement... Read more

Battlefield Heroes was one of the more popular games at Electronic Arts' Spring Break event, held recently in downtown San Francisco.

EA DICE producer Aleksander Grondol was lording over a bank of the popular demo stations when I ran into him. The busy man was kind enough to step away from his duties, allowing me to pick his brain on Battlefield 1942 similarities, Team Fortress 2 comparisons, wing-riding, and more.

Shack: Every time we cover this game, we get a number of comments from people remarking on how it reminds them of Team Fortress 2. How do you guys feel about these comparisons?

Aleksander Grondol: First of all, it's an honor to be compared to a great game like Team Fortress 2, and I think the art style in TF2 is awesome. If they want to keep comparing it to TF2, I think that's perfectly okay. I think once you actually start playing it and see the difference for yourself, then it becomes quite apparent that it's not TF2. We're obviously not trying to take anything from TF2 in terms of gameplay.

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Real battlefield heroes have flashbacks to moments of horrifying combat. Halfway through a round of EA DICE's Battlefield Heroes, I was having flashbacks to World of Warcraft raids. Not quite the same experience, but almost as scary. After shooting my first enemy soldier, strange numbers popped out of his head: -20, -3, -25. There were more clothing options than weapons, more time spent slotting pirate hats than strategizing. People were ditching their medic packs for area effect heals, and waiting longer for sprint cool-downs than for vehicle respawns. And did I get killed by an Ornery Arathi Nazi, or was that just my imagination?

I went into my hands-on time thinking that Heroes was essentially a pared-down version of Battlefield 1942, and in many ways, it is. From the speed of the jeeps, to the slightly sluggish feel of the infantry controls, I was instantly at home, feeling pleased with the game's clear nod to the first--and still my favorite--entry in the ... Read more

Fresh from EA's Spring Break event are a bonanza of screenshots from the publisher's lineup, including Mass Effect PC, Warhammer Online and more.

Be sure to scope out the full post, as there is simply far too much media to contain on the front page, and don't forget to check out the whole of our EA Spring Break coverage.

Left 4 Dead (PC, X360)
Valve, Turtle Rock Studios / November 2008

Battlefield Heroes (PC)
EA DICE / Summer

Battlefield: Bad Company (PS3, X360)
EA DICE / June 23, 2008

... Read more