EA Conference Recap - E3 2010

Monday before E3 was a day filled with various conferences and presentations by the game publishers and developers that are headlining the show. Each involved standing in line for a rather long time, before being seated in a fabulous theater and watching the biggest and best upcoming titles come to life. For 2010, the day was headlined by events from Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and Activision. Here is the overview of the Electronic Arts press conference.

Starting the EA conference was a brand new Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit trailer, revealing that the game is shipping this November. The new developer Criterion has brought the franchise back to its roots, and the trailer showed some great visuals, speed and thrill of the chase. Following next was Dead Space 2, which showcased a brand new gameplay demo that allowed the audience to see some of the new enemies and combat in the game. Things kept moving with a presentation for Medal of Honor, which included an awe-inspiring live 24 player demo on stage. The game’s multiplayer is being developed by DICE, and the gameplay decisively reflected that in its similarities to Bad Company 2. Speaking of BC2, next up was the announcement trailer for BC2: Vietnam, an expansion for the popular online shooter.

Next in the show was a presentation by EA Sports, which got things started with the new MMA title. The game was claimed to have fast paced action, easy to learn controls (addressing a popular criticism of the current lot of fighting titles), and famous characters. The Live Broadcast feature encourages players to record taunt videos, which will then be selected by EA Staff for special fight nights that will be broadcast across all those who own the game. These fights will be for prizes as well as internet fame. The Madden 11 title also made an appearance, and promised simpler, deeper and quicker gameplay. Joe Montana himself made an appearance for the presentation.

The conference continued by a speech about the Sims, and how the game’s engine continues to be unpredictable even by the development team, highlighting the brilliance of the AI that the series is best known for. A short shout-out was made to the latest independent developers to partner with EA, including Respawn Entertainment and Insomniac Games. The show continued with Crysis 2, which now features a tactical suit mode. The game is said to have an emotional connection with NYC, as you are the person who can save the city. A live gameplay demo was shown of a battle in a train station, with the title running on Xbox 360. The second part of the game’s show required everyone to put on their 3D Glasses and witness a video from the game running in 3D. The visuals were impressive, but the video was a pre-rendered cutscene, so we have yet to see how the actual game looks in the third dimension.

A presentation for Bulletstorm was up next, with Cliff Bleszinski taking the stage. This first person shooter is said to be over the top, and it knows it. Set to release on February 22 2011, a live gameplay demo of the game was shown. Taken from the first few levels of the game, the demo featured some high intensity combat, slapstick humor and tons of somewhat tasteless cursing. The game almost looked like Gears of War on speed, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for some fans. Concluding the presentation was Star Wars: The Old Republic. It was revealed that every player in the game will receive their own starship, which will serve as your base of operations as you travel through the galaxy. In terms of PvP, the battles will take place in so-called war zones, where players and teams have grind it out. A new, lengthy trailer for the game was shown, though it was more like a lengthy animated feature that revealed some background to the story.

And thus, the conference concluded. There were not many huge announcements, but some solid news and release dates were given. The time spent in the theater was enjoyable and things got started on time as scheduled. Perhaps the only complaint is that the sound during video was extremely loud, prompting some folks to even use ear plugs. It looks to be a busy rest of the year for EA, and we look forward to all their new titles.