E3 '12: EA conference

EA's E3 Conference 2012

Wubwubwubwubwubwubwubwubwubwubwubwub and a video. There, now you know how the conference started.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have EA's conference for e3 of 2012. Is it any good? Or is it lackluster, like it was last year? Let's find out together!

John Riccitielo came on to the stage and gives us a friendly warning that this year's conference will be quite different from before. Now, it will be more like … The Oscars and Sundance? Okay, I'll bite.

The man speeches straight in to a Dead Space 3 trailer, that looked visually detailed but lacked any sort of color.

A Dead Space 3 rep comes on and says that the game will be bigger, better and that it will include Co-Op play! This is immediately followed by a Co-Op demo, that showcases some very interesting stuff. For one, color has returned! Though the colors are rather dull or from a bright light, they are still there. The Co-Op wasn't shown in splitscreen, which is kind of a downer. Including the gameplay, which looks to be way more action orriented, completely dropping the horror side of the franchise. A sentiment made even clearer with the Co-Op, that just ruins any kind of potential in regards to horror.

Sorry to say, but this isn't Dead Space. It's RE5's equivalent of Dead Space. So yeah, the Dead Space many have come to know and love is, for all intents and purposes, Dead.

Up next is a video of a Madden player hyping the game up for the people. It does a good job of it too, as I would have loved nothing more than to go out and watch Remember the Titans.

Cam Webber comes on to talk more about this game. “Oh god no”, you might think. But, actually, it's the most interesting game of the show, bar one. Anyways, using the new Infinity Engine, Madden is able to make the visuals AND the game more real and more organic. For the first time, Madden is really moving forward. For example, smaller players won't be able to blow through bigger players. Or hurt legs will cause people to trip and fall.

Michael Irvin comes on stage and talks about how the game will feel a lot more real to the gamers. It has a lot more RPG elements by using a Story Engine. Like how, now, there is a Virtual Twitter where important people tweet about your achievements and everything you did in a game.

Lucy Bradshaw enters the fray and is here to talk about SimCity. SimCity Social is now coming to Facebook. And, not only that, there's a brand spanking new PC game on the way! It's going to be bigger and better on all grounds.

Not so subtle Lucy then asks people to Text to a number and submit a name for a burger joint in game. Smooth. Begging for money, much?

Johnny Boy is back, saying hi to the people they managed to smooch away from Infinity Ward. After which, he introduces Peter Moore and Patrick Bach for Battlefield 3. Nothing of importance was said here, besides the official introduction of Battlefield Elite. I mean Call of Duty Premium. I MEAN BATTLEFIELD PREMIUM. Yeah, it's exactly what you think it is.

I wonder if this means that EA is getting rid of Online Passes, or at least reimburses people that bought Premium.

Enter Greg Goodrich, here to present to us more about Medal of Honor: Warfighter. The game is more in tune with real life, as it takes real life events or hotspots in the story of the game as locations. Now this, I like.

Following this is a Demo for the game. It uses the Frostbite engine, and it does absolutely nothing impressive with it. Yeah, it looks stunning, but it's just another generic First Person Shooter with generic gameplay. Nothing special. Though, the sound is amazing.

Yay?

Moving on to EA Sports! … Faaaaaaaahk. Some guy comes on stage to talk more about social interaction between gamer and game and gamer and gamer. The new features will allow you to transfer everything from Fifa 12 to Fifa 13, for example, so that you start as strong as you ended! That, and a new iPhone App to keep you up to date!

Ending this segment with a Fifa 13 gameplay trailer.

It's a GO for UFC, as the president is called on stage to talk about a multi year contract between UFC and EA.

Back to basics with Need For Speed: Most Wanted, as the makers from Burnout hand out a trailer and a demo for their take on the NFS franchise. Visually, the game is absolutely stunning. Even having a slightly stylised touch to it, to really make it stand out from games like Forza, that go for ultra-realism.

Gameplaywise, the crashcam is very impressive. And it's very good to see that they're using checkpoints on the road instead of GIANT flashing arrows. The checkpoints are basically in the air and visible, though not that obvious.

Very good segment with a very interesting game. Will release October 30^th.

CryTek time with a demo of the new Crysis. Yup, that's another shooter alright. Whilst it is more impressive and well made than Crysis 2, that's unfortunately not saying much. When this video came around, it's quite obvious that we're not going to see a new Timesplitters like shooter.

Johnny comes back on and says the conference is over. Overall, a long and boring conference. It was leagues better than Microsoft's, simply because of that fact that it showed games.