While the online FPS game market is currently stronger than ever, there is usually little room in most games for the casual player. Those that are only able to get a few rounds in on the weekends can rarely ever compete with the hardcore players that spend hours honing their skills. Now EA and DICE are setting out to create the first true casual online shooter known as Battlefield: Heroes, a completely new style of game within the franchise that aims to appeal to the not so hardcore crowd.

Part of the casual aspect of Heroes is getting into the game itself, which you will be able to acquire free of charge from the game’s website. EA has explained that they will be able to offer the game for free by selling advertising on Heroes’ website, and also through micro payments, which have not yet been fully revealed. If the idea of using advertising makes some of you worry about seeing Pepsi adds while you’re playing, fear not as DICE made it clear during our demonstration that the only ads will be on the website. After hitting the big “Play Now” button on the site’s homepage, users will be taken to a simple registration form that can be filled out just as quickly as any ordinary forum registration procedure.

After that you will be given the option to play as either the National or Royal Army. This will be a permanent choice as DICE wants to create a persistent territorial conflict meta game, that will keep track of territories held by the opposing factions. Upon starting up the game it’s clear that it has a very WWII kind of look, however the armies and conflict are fictional, and we were told that the war has erupted over a debacle concerning the next Olympic games. This bizarre reason for war is part of the game’s humorous presentation as it possesses graphics not unlike Team Fortress 2 that are friendly and inviting to casual players, but at the same time do look impressive for a free online game. We were also told that you won’t need a beast of a PC to run Heroes either, as the game only requires a 1Ghz CPU, 512 MB Ram, and a 64 MB video card.

Next during the presentation we were shown the player dropped into an empty map known as “Olive Grove” a simple European farming village, with fields on the outer areas of the map. The developers showed off how the game will control from the third person, in order to help appeal to the casual audience that sometimes has trouble with the first person point of view. DICE was adamant about an emphasis on character construction, which we think could possibly be where micro payments may come in the form of buying new cosmetic additions to your character. They also made clear their devotion to the matchmaking system, which will ensure that you play people of your own skill level and never have to worry about getting destroyed by advanced players.