You know, I don't really know what to make of this. Do Subway and Starbucks advertisement show up a lot in Battlefield or EA games, or something?
(http://braid-game.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/bfheroes.jpg)
Original: http://braid-game.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/bfheroes.jpg
I noticed that too -- methinks the photoshopper was trying to make an anti-commercialization statement or something. Like "superfun + megacorp ads = sad".
It's a hard knock at those stupid "targeted" in-game ads that EA has been throwing in to their games like Battlfield 2142. The Heroes game is free to play but will be stacked full of ads. The price values on everything is referring to the micropayments system that allows you to buy in-game visual customization items with real world cash. A similar model comes from games like Puzzle Pirates or Gunbound where the subscription model unlocks fancier items and fun items for purchase (before you ask, yes you can make a ninja pirate).
The game isn't free in the truest sense. It's just a platform for leveraging image. It doesn't help Heroes case that the visual style is uncomfortably close to TF2, and fans of TF2 (on average) are vocal and passionate. From what I've seen 'round other forums the game is still being tarred-and-feathered as frequently as it was when the first few screens were released. Ha!
Thanks for the explanation. Even without knowing what it's really about, I laughed quite hard at this image.
Check out the trailer for the game: http://ve3d.ign.com/videos/22774/PC/Battlefield-Heroes (http://ve3d.ign.com/videos/22774/PC/Battlefield-Heroes)
Still a TF2 rip-off as was posted earlier, but funny trailer.
That trailer was great, at least some people at EA still have a sense of humour.