EA’s E3 Press Conference Summary
In case you missed it, or started watching partway through the Electronic Arts Press Conference, here's the summary of what happened. The show started with a CG trailer for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. The trailer revealed that cop chases would be in the game (yes!), and that there would a be a "Most Wanted" system of players online. A Criterion producer stepped on stage, confirming that a) Criterion would be making a this NFS game b) that it would be taken back to the series's roots and c) it would have 2 full length careers in which you would play as a cop and a racer. NFS: Hot Pursuit was then demoed, showing off the game's online hub and functionality, as well as a quick one on one racer v. cop match. The game was announced to be launched on November 16th, 2010.
John Riccitelo walked on stage, stating that the press conference would be all about talking about 10 games from 10 different developers. One of the executive producers at Visceral Games took Riccitelo's place, and started to play Dead Space 2. The gameplay took place in a church on a space station. Isaac Clarke (the main character), walked forward two feet to be nearly smashed to death by a huge new enemy type. After escaping, Isaac quickly had to start fighting smaller necromorphs resembling the unbaptised babies from Dante's Inferno. The audience was then treated to a panoramic view, where ominous music played. The demo ended with a cliffhanger ending of Isaac dodging bullets from a space vessel, and falling down next to another huge necromorph, this time seeming brawnier. The producer announced the cliffhanger would be resolved at Sony's E3 press conference, so look out for that. The release date for Dead Space 2 is January 25th, 2010. Medal of Honor developers quickly came, and announced a joint partnership between EA and DICE to deliver the Medal of Honor multiplayer. A 24 player live multiplayer demo commenced, showing off experience points, shooting, and melee attacks similar to Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The beta startup date was released for June 21st, 2010, as well as a trailer for the beta. The release date is October 12th, 2010. Speaking of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, a new expansion pack was announced for winter, called Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam. An EA online representative talked about Gun Club, a cross game rewards system that gives early access to demos, betas, breaking news, and weapons in shooters. Peter Moore walks up, and talks about EA Sports MMA, with varied locations, fighting styles, player photo facial modeling, and EA Sports Live Broadcast. This is a system that makes me think of the days of Swordquest on the Atari 2600, with real rewards in real life for playing well in tournaments, as well as getting actual fans and putting up smack talk videos on the internet. EA Sports Active 2 is announced, with it's two biggest new features being multiplatform, and a heartbeat monitor. Finally, the big M is announced, and Madden NFL 11 is shown... with JOE MONTANA! Moore and Montana talk about the new Freeflow play system, which allows for quickly making and changing deeper football plays. Sims 3: Ambitions for PC, and Sims 3 for consoles is discussed, but there are no new details, just recollections of personal experiences with the game, and just lauding it for 20 minutes. We get into the EA partners program, with shoutouts to Ted Price of Insomniac and Vince Zampella and Jason West of Respawn Entertainment (former Infinity Ward). Then Cevat Yerli of Crytek comes on stage to talk about Crysis 2, and showing off a gameplay demo. The demo shows off a very sleek and simplified HUD, which moves just as much as the player's head does. An intense battle in Central Station is being fought, and the demo shows a battle against the Pinger which was teased in the E3 trailer. It takes multiple rockets, mines, C4s, and shots until it goes down. Then the player escapes the station before it collapses, and watches as an entire building collapses on top of the station. All this gameplay was on the Xbox 360, and Cevat adds in at the end that Crysis 2 could work in 3D, on all platforms. Then Cliff Blesinski shows up, jokingly referring to the prior press conference. He comes with 2 other developers, one of which demos Bulletstorm. The game showcases big explosions, swearing, killing with skill, and huge guns. Not much more to say, other than the demo shows the protagonist creatively killing his opponents for larger points, which could be used for more weapons, and therefore more creative kills. The game will launch February 22nd, 2011.The last game of the press conference is shown. It's Knights of The- I mean, Star Wars: The Old Republic! Bioware developers talk about PvP in the game, as well as how each player will have his/her own ship, and how it will represent a rite of passage for the player. Then an incredibly dramatic and epic CG trailer was shown for the game, matching the scope of last year's Bioware CG trailer.
