EA Montreal General Manager Alain Tascan revealed today that they are having problems with some groups of people who are rather affected by the subject matter Army of Two (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) tackles. He said, however, that they are not trying to make any political statements. The rest of the story after the jump!

Ready for more action courtesy of partners Salem and Rios? We've got another batch of EA Montreal's Army of Two (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) videos right here featuring gameplay and a cinematic. Click the link below to check out the videos.

Missed Rios and Salem of EA Montreal's Army of Two (PlayStation 3 and  Xbox 360)? Well, they're back in a trailer that shows the three C's: Combat, Camaraderie, and Cash. Check out the video in the full article.

With today's shooters offering more of the tried-and-true formula of action through the eyes of your own character, it's no surprise that developers are looking to change it up a bit. Such is the case with EA Montreal's third-person shooter for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, Army of Two, where players are forced to cooperate with each other or get shot up into swiss cheese.

We get more info about the co-op mechanics of the game, as well as the Aggro element, in this developer interview video with Chris Ferriera, Lead Designer of Army of Two.

For those of us who are unfamiliar of the term, "aggro" is MMORPG-speak for aggression - which describes what happens when you've attracted the attention of AI-controlled enemies. Aggro is present in Army of Two as the counter that indicates just how much enemy attention you've managed to attract.

The higher your aggro rating, the more you'll find yourself being heavily pounded by enemy gunfire. This is of course is a bad thing. So, to remedy this, your partner will have to generate aggro on his own - which subsequently lessens your aggro, and gives you time to recover. It's a very neat mechanic, and keeps both players on their toes and watching out for each other.

More info in the video embed below. Enjoy!

Buy: [Army of Two (PS3)]
Buy: [Army of Two (Xbox 360)]

There will be no pre-release demo for Electronic Arts upcoming title Army of Two (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360). This seems to be the final word on the matter, as Army of Two lead designer Chris Ferriera said it himself in a recent interview with Eurogamer.

"I don't know if there'll be something later," said Ferriera, "but the thing is given our release date and where we're at, we'd rather focus on this rather than taking engineers off and having them do a demo." Army of Two is currently slated for a November 15 release for PS3 and Xbox 360 in the U.S. and Europe.

Eurogamer also asked Ferriera whether there are any plans for additional multiplayer support apart from the game's two-player co-op mode. Ferriera responded by saying that he "can't talk about any expandability beyond the two-player co-op" for now, but he did also note that two-player co-op is "an easy entry point" for EA Montreal's co-op approach.

The Game Developers Conference in San Francisco is set to begin next month but even this early, interesting details are slowly popping up. Giant game developer and publisher Electronic Arts just announced the games it will be showing off at the said conference.

And we're telling you, it's a well-selected list:

• Crysis
• Hellgate: London
• Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (360 and PS3)
  
• Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (360, PS3, PC)
  
• Portal (360, PS3, PC)
• Team Fortress 2 (360, PS3, PC)

EA clarified that these games will not be displayed on the show floor. According to Eurogamer, they will be showcased in a reception running parallel to GDC. However, it is worth mentioning that EA will be a part of the main conference; EA is scheduled to discuss important topics such as creating believable AI athletes in sports games and EA Montreal's plans for new IPs.

The company is also a part of a Maxis session that will talk about how The Sims would be making its way to Wii.

This comes a bit weird after we mentioned yesterday that industry veteran Ian Livingstone has been pushing developers and publishers to focus on gameplay and new IPs. Gaming giant Electronic Arts seems to have been listening, as the company just admitted that game franchises could only take them for so far.

EA is known for annually making various sports game, which when you really think about it, are all quite the same. They came up with Superman Returns for the Xbox 360, yes, but it is still based on a well established pop culture icon. EA Montreal General Manager Alain Tascan acknowledged this and then mentioned that its time to take bigger risks:

We think this is something that people are going to react well to, because EA is not known for this. I mean, if you look at the comments of people on some of the things I've said and they say 'How can you dare talk about innovation?' And that's what we want to prove that as a company we can do it.

Currently, EA has various upcoming titles for different consoles over at the Montreal Studio. Some of these include SSX Blur for the Wii, Army of Two for X360 and PS3 as well as one unannounced new IP.

Gamasutra has an in-depth feature on Alain Tascan, the EA Montreal General Manager who is most famous for having said that Gears of War brought "nothing in terms of innovation to the shooter... Like, zero,"

Yes, comments about innovation from an executive of EA, a huge company known for annual sports titles. It's very much an understatement to say that some people got a bit miffed about what Tascan said. Judging from the Gamasutra feature, it's probably safe to say that he knows it. Here's Tascan's words:

We are around 300 people now including EA mobile upstairs, and there is space to grow. We are working right now on three things: Army of Two, the new IP which better be good, otherwise people are going to kill me after my comments about Gears of War; SSX on the Wii, which is due in March; and another new IP which I’m not able to talk about.

The feature goes on to emphasize that EA has heard the complaints, and that it has realized that in order to say on top they really have to start betting on original IP. The feature also goes on to explain why the EA original IP move is set in Montreal. Tascan says that there's just this energy about Montreal. There's this air of creativity in the area. Here's how Tascan explains it:

It couldn’t be done in Portland or somewhere like that. But at the same time it couldn't have been done in Dusseldorf or Paris; it’s this understanding of the North American culture, and at the same time this little twist that makes it special. And that’s why we’re here. That’s why Ubisoft are here, A2M are here, all of the animation companies are here; this energy that is understandable at a worldwide level but at the same time with a little twist.

Oh, and speaking of Ubisoft, crazy rabid, acrobatic prince, killer assassin Ubisoft, here's Tascan's take on Ubisoft Montreal vs. EA Montreal:

We're both big companies for different reasons, I guess. You have a family based French company, started by five brothers, against an American company who belongs to nobody. Ubisoft was until recently completely owned by the people who started it, and I think they still own about 90% of it. Compare that to a company that is about 95% public. So while in EA everyone has to report to somebody, at Ubisoft, there is a level where if they want to do it they could do it, and nobody can tell them different, so sometimes they’ve reacted differently to the market than EA would.

The interesting thing that I notice is that now Ubisoft sounds like it’s trying to be more like EA, to be more aware of the market, while EA is trying to do more original things, like Ubisoft.

For more on the feature, feel free to use our read-link below.

No doubt, people spend a lot of money on games. Making ultra-awesome replicas of reality, or fun, innovative games don't come cheap, and that's not the end of it. You got marketing rackets to worry about, and other financial matters to think of to make your head spin.

So you know general manager of EA Montreal Alain Tascan wasn't kidding when he said that "the cost of making games is 'crazy.'" He adds that things will turn out differently due to the "booming budgets" for games.

But that doesn't mean larger budgets always have to equate large teams. He adds that the teams over at EA Montreal are composed of around 35-85 members. After all, "bigger budgets don't necessarily mean that smaller games companies are left struggling."