EA's E3 Conference

Mass Effect 3. The game looks great, from what I could see all of the minor graphical problems and annoyances from the previous games, are gone. The new engine also brings, better textures, lighting, and effects showing a nice step up in therm of graphics. Mass Effect 3 also seems to be MUCH more action based, but they have to show these segments to keep the audience entertained, so we’ll have to determine that when it gets closer to launching. As I suspected when Mass Effect 3 was first announced (regardless of what EA or Bioware said) Mass Effect 3 won’t be launching until March 6, 2012, so you can finish the trilogy next year.

EA takes a stab at Everyone (particularly MS and Ubisoft) “At EA we do it a little different. We don’t build elaborate stages, and invite random celebrities for guest appearances. We like to keep it simple.”

Need for Speed: The Run. A country wide Racer, where you have to race across the US from San Francisco (YEAH) to New York (yeah). The game tracks your race times so you can compare how long it took you to reach NY (that’s cool). You can now get out of the cars and free run it (I wonder if you can run from San Fran to NY). The game is running on Frostbite 2 (aka Battlefield 3’s engine) and looks mixed. Mixed because the car model look like any other racing game that’s come out within the last year or two, but the city and rain effects look next gen, yes that good. Frostbite 2 is showing all developers that it’s time to upgrade to a new engine, because it’s making every 3rd party game look average. Moving on to free running gameplay, from what I can tell, it’s just a QTE (so much for running to NY), but the sequences look like Alan Wake/Heavy Rain, which helicopters shooting at you, police officers chasing you, and once you get in a car the game goes back into the normal racing gameplay, but the chase never lets up (you have to see it). It was all running on the PS3 which means Battlefield 3 may look almost as good as the PC version we’ve been seeing. I haven’t bought a Need for Speed Game since the PS2, but this one looks like it may be a Day 1 for me which was a huge surprise.

Star Wars the Old Republic. Once again the trailer was epic (not as good as the last one, but still good) if only it was gameplay. Nevertheless Star Wars and Bioware fans unite, and pick it up whenever it’s ready.

SSX. To be honest my favorite and the only one I played was SSX Tricky. The trailer was a little over the top for me, but I know a lot of people will be looking forward to this January 2012.

Fifa 12 I don’t care, Madden 12 I don’t care, Peter Moore trying to flex his Microsoft muscle by announcing Kinect integration I DON’T CARE.

Sims Social. Sims on Facebook next. Once again EA takes a jab at the competition saying, “There’s alot of fans waiting for this one, including a lot of fans tired of playing robotic games based on agriculture.” For the slower ones out there that’s a jab at farmville. After watching the trailer, kids can now have sex without having it, which is a good thing....maybe.....kind of.

Microsoft and Sony heads sitting side by side, nice sight to calm the fanboys.

38 Studios shows Kingdoms of Alamur: The Reckoning. The game looks like it has potential, kind of a more action based Oblivion/Demon’s Souls. It looks like it has a way to go, and with a 2012 release date it will hopefully get better.

Overstrike. Insomniacs first multiplatform game looks like great fun. It’s Ratchet and Clank with a Mature rating, sort of. The characters are completely over the top, and ooze personality, and the weapons are just as over the top. I’m praying this is Left 4 Dead meets Ratchet and Clank, which sounds terrible, but looking at the trailer looks to be so kick@$$.

Finally the show is wrapped up with Battlefield 3........WOW. I’m not a WW2/ Pseudo WW3 kind of gamer, but this looks EPIC. Again Frostbite 2 is incredible. The level of destruction in Red Faction levels, the Scale is perfect, you actually look like you’re in a city, and audio was highlighted, but hard to determine as of now, especially since Music and voice acting are what I rate most when thinking of sound, then sound effects. There’s open beat in September, for PC, PS3, and 360 so get ready.

One funny moment that wasn’t suppose to be, was when the presenter said keep your thumbs crossed. LOL.

Anyway Battlefield 3 was demoned on PC, and the game basically shows us what we can expect to be playing on the Xbox 720 and PS4. The game just blows everything away, THERE IS NO GAME OUT RIGHT NOW THAT CAN COMPETE WITH BATTLEFIELD 3 GRAPHICALLY. I will say that the demo wasn’t the best thing to show since it was very slow (tank battle), but the game truly impresses on all front, front runner for FPS GOTY.

That wraps things up, but EA takes a one more jab at the competition this time at Activision with Battlefield 3. “We have the best game, on the best engine, with no subscription fee for online gaming servie”. But come on EA if we buy BF3 used, do we have to pay for online.

EA ‘s Conference Grade: B

EA had a great show. The only downside I would say was that they didn’t have enough games to me, they showed 9 games, which is great, but 3 of them are scheduled for 2012, and more than likely Star Wars and Overstrike will also be seeing a 2012 release, which mean only 4 of the games we saw will be available this year. The show was still great through. They got to the point with everything, show great footage of known and unknown games, and kept things moving. One thing they did that no one else really nails, was being funny without trying or failing. EA did an excellent job, and has nearly distanced themselves from every other 3rd party developer, and standout as the one of if not the best among them. Take that Activision.

I wanted to give them an A- so bad, but.