E3 2010: Electronic Arts press conference liveblog

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–Opens with a trailer for Criteron’s Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, due November 16th. All pre-rendered, Lambo cops chase Ferrari racers. Helicopters, spike stripes, all the expected goodies. Focus on stat-tracking between friends. Story campaign playable from both sides (racers and cops). Split-screen multiplayer. Sweet cinematic crashes.

–Dead Space 2 hype. Game takes place in a city (“The Sprawl”) this time, as opposed to a derelict ship. Now showing live gameplay of Dead Space 2. Sound design is horrific (in a good way). Giant spider monsters, toddler-sized humanoids that leap at your face. Sound is seriously awesome, although non-stop action throws off the “horror” vibe a bit. Queit moments show off atmospheric city before a giant beast attacks Issac. “If that felt like a cliff-hanger, that’s because it was. Check back for the rest at the Sony show tomorrow.” Crowd gasps!

–Let the Medal of Honor hype begin. Live 24 player demo, on PS3s no less. What’s up with EA’s love for Sony so far? Demo was all too brief. Action looked intense, but no different than any other modern shooter. Multiplayer beta goes live June 21st. Multiplayer trailer shows off lots of particle effects, vehicles. Considering the mp is being handled by DICE, I don’t see how this is going to be different from Battlefield 2.

–EA reveal’s “Gun club,” which allows members early access to betas as well as bonus weapons and the like. Presenter looks very uncomfortable. BF2 VIPs who sign up for the club get access to the MoH beta June 17th.

–EA shows off trailer for Battlefield 2: Vietnam downloadable expansion, due this holiday. Way to compete with Activision, guys! At least the choice of music was good (CCR’s “Fortunate Son”).

–Peter Moore comes out to ramble on about their new Mixed Martial Arts game. Yawn. Moore talks about some “Live Broadcast” feature, “which lets players make their own hype videos to trash talk opponents and compete for prizes in front of an audience, all the while real commentators deliver play-by-play,” (GameSpot).

–Now they’re talking about some fitness game, EA Sports Active 2. Or something like that. Who really cares? It uses motion controls on all systems and a heart rate monitor. I’m going to stop writing about this particular game and go finish my Microsoft news round-up.

–Ooh, Madden! It’s evolving, apparently. 3 vs. 3 online co-op. Games take half the time. WTF? Joe Montana is wasting his time on stage to advertise this game. Really? New “game flow” play-calling system. In an effort to be more authentic, plays are limited to situational packages, 5-10 plays for 1st and 10, 3rd and 5, etc, etc. Players can still audible at the line, but the new system “trims the fat” and makes for a more efficient experience. Theoretically, it makes sense, considering a coach picks plays based on situation. I just hope it isn’t overly restrictive. Oh, and the animations still aren’t fluid enough.

–Talking about The Sims 3. Dude’s talking about how much free-will the new sims have. Says they’re very unpredictable. Game is coming to consoles as well. Que trailer with poppy tween music. “Play With Lif3″ this October, bro!

–Now JR’s talking about the EA Partner’s program. Mentions Insomiac, Respawn, Epic. Gives the stage to Crytek dude who’s going to talk about Crysis 2. “Most intelligent enemies ever in any First Person Shooter.” Lofty promises, my friend. Shows off some very smooth gameplay with all sorts of impressive technical stuff. Gameplay looks pretty standard, despite Crytek’s claims of a “choreographed sandbox” that “doesn’t tell players how to enjoy the game; it just gives them tools like the game’s Nanosuit.” They then go on to show a 3D trailer for the game that’s less impressive than the actual gameplay. Maybe you just have to be there with stupid glasses on your face to appreciate it.

–Cliffy B comes out with some chick from People Can Fly to talk about Bulletstorm, coming out February 22nd, 2011. Chick is talking about a “blood symphony” where the player is a conductor and the weapons are instruments. She says “cool shit” three times in a row. Good God…these people give video games a bad name. LMFAO! The protagonist shouts “You scared the dick off me!” at one point in the gameplay demo. Said demo has a nice visual direction, and there is a lot of “cool shit” going on, combining melee and shooting. Haha, “Giant dick.” At least there’s some interesting weapons to go with this obscenely ridiculous dialogue. Game is completely over-the-top, but I wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking it’s just another juvenile shooter trying to out-do the last blockbuster. The live stream I’m watching is having some difficulties at the moment. Apparently there’s a train escape with some buggy shooting that I missed.

–Now they’re showing the Old Republic cinematic I posted earlier, so it looks like I didn’t miss much while the stream was down.

–And that’s the end of EA’s press conference. Pretty weak in my opinion. No big surprises, too much time spent on casual titles, and the games shown didn’t look terrible original to say the least. I am definitely looking forward to several EA games, but this conference didn’t do anything to knock my socks off.

Author: Cody