6/14/2010

E3 2010: EA

Time for EA! And don't forget to check out the Microsoft post from earlier today. EA was boring mostly. Lots of FPS games followed by lots of sport games followed by...super sexy new trailer for Old Republic. Just too bad there wasn't any game play footage. Anywhere, here is the EA conference:

EA in half an hour. Should see some Old Republic stuff, maybe new Mass Effect info. Probably a bunch of EA Sports crap, which I’m (not) sorry to say I don’t give a shit about, except that it helps pay for games I actually want to play. So please buy the slightly updated version of the exact same game next year so I can play more Dragon Age.

You know, I really don’t like G4, but Adam is hilarious to watch throughout the week. He gets really hyped up on caffeine and he’s totally wired. Oh, Morgan was upset by the representation of women in Microsoft’s conference. They’re repeating my own thoughts, (everyone seems to have these thoughts) about how the whole presentation just looked like the Wii.

Apparently they are passing 3D glasses around in there. *sigh* So it begins. I really hate this whole 3D fad and I wish the video game people wouldn’t try to push it too. G4 was talking about some of the best of E3 earlier, now they’re talking about the worst. It’s kind of funny. And sad…sad reminder of Nintendo’s massive casual game showing a couple years ago that made everyone want to cry.

They’re running a little late here, but should be starting soon…please…I don’t want to be up all night. :( Ah finally, 4:08 PM CT.

Trailer for…Need for Speed Hot Pursuit in November. Gorgeous cinematic, but the whole thing was just cinematics. Craig Sullivan Creative Director. Talking about Autolog, which shows you what your friends do in the game. Craig and Matt are gonna play together. One is a cop, the other the driver. View is from behind your car. It’s really pretty, but is otherwise kind of boring looking.

John Riccitiello from EA. He just compared EA to Sundance as compared to the Academy Awards. And introduced….

Dead Space 2. The producer is going to demo. Straight into a nasty boss fight. Looks good. Big mob battle here. Blood everywhere. Sorry…Dead Space is not a game I know much about. Monsters popping out everywhere, sufficiently creepy, good atmosphere. And he goes up an elevator, they show off some of the scenery, and a HUGE monster attacks. More at the Sony conference (so, to be cont.). January.

John is back. Talking about shooters. An updated out of commission franchise. DICE and EALA. Sean Decker for Medal of Honor. This one is going to the war in Afghanistan. Live, 24-player (wow) on stage. And they’re all out there. It’s called Team Assault. They’ve got multiple screens up on the big screen so you can watch several of them playing. And then the stupid camera keeps cutting down to their hands on the controllers, because, you know, THAT’S what I want to see. …. So it was just a jumbled battle. October. Beta in June. Then some fancy trailer action to showcase locals and combat. MoH uses real world locals and operations, by the way.

Katrina Senior Director at EA. Gun Club, a rewards club for gamers. Lol, Gun Club? Geez…. Weapon unlocks, early Beta and emo access, etc. So like, if you pre-order the new game, you get early Beta access.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam trailer. Uh…more like 5 second blurb that shows absolutely nothing. It’s an expansion pack.

Peter Moore for EA Sports. It’s time for a nap. MMA with Strikeforce. International mixed martial arts game. EA Sports Live Broadcast. Sounds like it will let you upload your fights in your game so other people can watch. It’s arranged online matches that air live, you can use your own face, and real commentators will comment on the fights. You can earn real world prizes. October.

Interactive Fitness. Andrew Wilson head of development for EA sports. Active 2. This is their fitness game that’s like a polished up version of Wii Fit. Multi-platform, online, and wireless, he says. First video shows the Wii, finally a use for the heart rate monitor it looks like. Track your progress online with your PC. November. They’re gonna demo with Kinect. Oh, the heart rate monitor is EA’s. Wii uses the remotes to bike ride, PS3 girl is lifting little weights, and the guy is boxing with Kinect. Serious lag on the PS3 demo. Still a tiny lag on the Kinect.

Peter is wrapping up with Madden of course. It’s Madden. Do I really need to pay attention? No? OK. Oh? Simpler, quicker, deeper. They’re saying they’re (finally?) evolving the game. Streamlining everything and making it much quicker. Oh, look, it’s Joe Montana.

Zzzzz…Huh? Rod Humble talking about free will and fate…Sims 3. He’s comparing it to Greek gods. Mentions the newest expansion, Ambitions, which put in more jobs. It’s just static pictures of stuff he’s done in the game. Like a slide show of Sim life. It’s kind of dull actually. Need some Old Republic to wake me back up. Unpredictability of the system, Sims with free will. Neuroscience…. It’s like I’m in a high school biology class. Or Psych 101 may be more appropriate. Sims 3 to consoles. Talking about putting more of the Sims world onto the consoles than before. In the past they’ve been pretty linear and constricted for a Sims game.

John is back talking about EA Partners. 2 brand new partners – Ted Price from Insomniac and the Respawn guys. Also mentions Epic. 2 games to announce, one is an FPS – Crysis 2. It’s going to the consoles now, if you hadn’t heard., so people might actually be able to play it now. Sandbox play experience. Most intelligent enemies in any shooter. I think he said it takes place in New York? Full freedom of experience. Gameplay now. Big battle in um…Central Station I think he said. Very tight graphics, very detailed. Heat vision is cool. Lots of explosions and huge enemies. Entire fucking skyscraper just got blown to bits and tumbled down. Pretty cool. Now 3D glasses. Oh man, it would be these fucking guys to do this. 3D on all platforms, but you can play it without too. They’re showing a 3D trailer, which I’m obviously not able to see the effects of. I don’t know that a 3D trailer will be offered up at some point or not.

Epic Games. Cliff is back (from MS) with Adrian from People Can Fly and Tanya from Epic. Bulletstorm. It’s an “over the top” FPS, Cliff’s words. February 2011. It’s uh…pretty over the top all right. Kicking enemies into generators where they get electrocuted, stuff like that. Lots of crazy looking stuff. Looks like time slows down a bit when you shoot enemies.

FINALLY. Fucking Star Wars. I’m awake now. Mary Bihr and Grez from Lucas Arts. Old Republic time. Every player gets a starship. Gonna talk about PVP, and show a new trailer. And here it goes, “Hope.” Oh wow. That was sexy. Go watch it. Right now. I’ll wait.

And they ended with a bang.

Ubisoft is next.

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