E3 2011: EA unveils its E3 lineup, including Mass Effect 3 and Kinect, a mess of Sports news, and an awesome demonstration of Battlefield 3 on PC. Looking HOT.
12:20pm: Well, we're about to kick off with our liveblog attempt at EA's big pre-E3 event. John Ricitiello will be kicking off in about five or so minutes. We've already seen some of EA's plans for this year at the Microsoft event a little while ago, so now we're hoping for more on Mass Effect 3, and a whole mess of Battlefield 3, the EA game for us this year.
We're at the Orpheum Theatre on Broadway, which is a helluva lot nicer than the Galen Center, though it is a smaller event, too...
12:30pm: Wow, not sure if they're kicking off, but they just BLASTED Blur's Song 2... And now a video...
Oh wow. Mass Effect 3 - the Reaper attack on Earth. And I'm in front of some EA bods who just yelled themselves to death!
Casey Hudson, Mass Effect guy: "We're giving our longtime fans the amazinf opportunity they've been waiting for - to see who their choices have played out." Now, demo time.
Nice - Shep can now call in fire support from the Normandy and.. my, that's a big explosion.
Now Shep's on a mouted gun, firing at a live Reaper. Epic, cinematic combat, gut-punching sound effects. Man, I'm hyped for this game, and really sick of the insane yelling behind me...
Back to talking, and now the first gameplay trailer... The Fall of Earth. Man, the game has never looked better.
12:28pm: Ricitiello is making fun of Microsoft for its celebrity whoring. Burn.
Jason DeLong, Need for Speed dude. The name of the new game is Need for Speed: The Run. Looks interesting, as it's a single pursuit from LA to New York, and engaging the AutoLog feature into the campaign play.
Even more interestingly, the game's going to use Frostbite 2, and feature on foot sequences. Now... demo time. As expected, it looks great, especially the lighting.
12.46pm: Oooh... Star Wars: The Old Republic. "The biggest challenge is in communicating what we've done with this game."
The new trailer shows off a lot of the settings, and then gets in to some gritty action, and also outlines the basic Sith vs Republic angle of the game. Also, I just got a little excited when the Duel of the Fates theme kicked in. Best. Star Wars. Music. Ever.
12:50pm: Gee, that's a lot of smoke machines... And all just to introduce SSX, which is looking like the Modern Warfare 3 of snowboarding games.
Peter Moore, EA Sports guy. "Using NASA satellite date to scan the globe, we will allow players to drop into every major mountain range on the planet." And it's going open world, and looks to have a rather... EXTREME campaign.
12:54pm: And now, FIFA time, with Matt Bilbey, EA Sports guy. "we have what we believe to be the most advanced engine in gaming."
FIFA 12 has tactical defending, more ball control with precision dribbling, the stupidly cool looking player impact engine. Hacking the shin has never looked better. It actually looks like a very impressive effort - and I don't even like sports games.
Amusingly, the following video features not only some of the world's best players talking up FIFA, but also L'il Wayne. What was that about celebrities, John?
Also announced is a new service - EA Sports Football Club. It's a live networking system that combines sports news and events, links players to their favourite clubs, and will be integrated across all gaming platforms and Facebook. Live games results are introduced based on recent wins and losses are presented as challenges, too.
1:01pm: Madden 12. Now this is a game that needs that impact engine!
And now some really big men, who now doubt are important footballers. And one of them is carrying what looks like an important trophy... really wish I knew something about American Football now... Ah, thank the Gods for intros - Paton Hillis, Clay Matthews (Superbowl champion) and some other dude. There was a lot of clapping, and I think my ears are scared of these GIANT MEN. Also... their pants are really tight. Also somehow scary.
And yes, it looks like a lot of the FIFA precision stuff and collision engine will be in Madden 12.
1:07pm: John's back, talking up cross-platform gaming and social integration into Facebook. Which segues nicely into... The Sims Social. "It's completely different - it's alive."
It also looks super super scary, taking your real Facebook friends and making them into Sims you can play with... anyone else find that kinda... spooky?
1:09pm: Curt Shilling, 38 Studios guy, talking about Reckoning: Kingdoms of Amalur. "An open world, with hundreds of hours of gameplay," and really, when you combine this with Ken Ralston and Todd McFarlane... it's gonna be good.
I think I just heard the Wilhelm Scream in the gameplay vid... and yeah, it looks kinda epic. But, all that said, the gameplay is not what's going to make or break the game.
1:12pm: Ted Price, Insomniac guy, is on the stage talking up their new franchise... Overstrike. It's a near future setting, following a merc outfit battling against some stock shadowy organisation looking to destroy humanity.
Odd-looking game. The faces are a little exaggerated, not quite cartoony, but a little like Brink. Looks be centered around four player co-op, with some interesting characters.
1:16pm: Stop. Battlefield 3 time. And we're joined by Karl magnus Troedsonn (coolest. name. EVER) from DICE. He seems a nice Norwegian.
So now a tech demo, and man, the animation system looks the business. NO game has ever had movement this fluid or natural. The smoke effects are, well... fuck me, they're just that good. I am Frostbite 2's bitch, officially. And now some multiplayer demo time, set in the center of Paris, no less.
It's not live, but man... this is a whole new level of FS immersion. And, of course, there's a social side. The Battlelog is a social networking service for the game that links players, sets up matches, and - take that Activision - it's free. Even better news, the MP beta is coming in September. Boo-fracking-YAH.
1:21: Live demo, streamed into the theatre... and it's ON PC - YES. It's the singleplayer - tanks and LAVs crossing a desert in Tehran. Man, you can see forever. It's not so much view distance as a true horizon. Wow. Some serious lens flare and cinematic effects. The combat looks like actual gun-camera footage; it's insane.
When sme CAS is called in - Warthogs, awesome - you switch to the pilot of what looks like a UAV, who designates and calls in the strike. Then fluidly back to the tank action as they roll into a missile base.
Okay, show's over - this is the best game I've ever seen. And it's releasing on October 25, stealing a march on Modern Warfare 3.
1:30pm: John's back, talking up the fact that there will be NO paid subscription service for BF3. And we're out!
Say tuned for Ubisoft's conference shortly.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012