E3 2012 – EA Press Conference Summary

Hot on the heels of the Microsoft Press Conference, EA took the stage to showcase the latest games from some of its biggest franchises. EA sees games not as things that we buy but places that we go.

Dead Space 3 – Isaac Clarke continues his attack on the Necromorphs after crash landing on the frozen planet of Tau Volantis but this time he’s got help in the form of a merciless soldier called John Carver. Play alone or co-op online, Dead Space 3 looks to be the most brutal game in the series with new harsh, icy environments and even deadlier Necromorphs. This is going to be scary.

Dead Space 3 will be released sometime in 2013.

Sim City Social – This looks like a horrendous time sink. It’s Sim City on Facebook with huge amounts of social integration so your friends can get involved in building your city.

The promo video also featured a nice little jibe at Zynga’s CityVille Facebook game saying that Sim City Social is “more city, less ville.” The game will be available to play on Facebook in a few weeks.

Sim City – This new Sim City game looks better and better every time I see it. From the beautiful graphics showing everything from different type of weather like heavy industrial smog, watching each one of your buildings under construction and see as your population goes about its day to day activities, Sim City is jam packed full of detail; and a giant Godzilla monster.

Sim City is due for release in Feb 2013.

Star Wars: The Old Republic – Bioware are pumping out a ton of new content and updates to SWTOR over the coming months, including:

• More PVP warzones
• New companion characters, like the HK-51 Assault Droid
• A new planet with stories involving the evil HUTT cartel
• New space missions

Also from July 2012, SWTOR will be free-to-play up until your character reaches level 15.

Battlefield Premium – The new subscription service for Battlefield, costing £39.99 or 4000 Microsoft Points (about £34) will be exclusive to the PlayStation 3 from now until 12th June when it launches on Xbox 360 and PC. The service gives players access to unique events, new vehicles, weapons and maps and 2-weeks early access to the 4 new DLC packs:

• Close Quarters – Out now for PlayStation Plus subscribers
• Armored Kill – Released 2012
• Aftermath – Released Dec 2012
• End Game – Released Mar 2012

If you don’t have the Back to Karkland DLC pack you’ll get that too.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter – The latest Medal of Honor game is going global this year with every mission having a link to an actual event or world hotspot. The live demo featured an attack on pirates in Somalia that actually took place in 2009 and some beautiful lighting effects when beautiful looking lighting effects when exploring the ruins of a partially destroyed building.

The multiplayer component will also be playable for the first time on the EA stand at E3 so we’ll try to get some hands-on time later on this week.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter is due for release on the 23rd Oct 2012.

UFC – Dan White, the President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship popped on stage to tell us in a very shouty voice that EA had snaffled the UFC license. So expect lots of brutal UFC games very soon.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted – Criterion Games announced their installment in the Need for Speed franchise – Need For Speed: Most Wanted. Looking like the awesome offspring of Burnout Paradise and Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, the game features some fabulous looking open-world racing involving serious amounts of car porn and a 2nd generation Autolog to make it even more apparent just how rubbish you are compared to your mates across a range of metrics like top speed, race time etc.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted is due for release on the 30th Oct 2012.

Crysis 3 – Crytek were on hand to show off the jaw-droppingly beautiful “urban rainforest” environments from Crysis 3 and a ridiculous amount of destruction with practically everything either exploding or collapsing before your very eyes. There was also a fair bit of mental bending thanks to your snazzy Nanosuit. I bet even Bender Bending Rodríguez (aka Bender from Futurama) would be impressed.

Crysis 3 is due for release in Feb 2013.

Summary:

This was an interesting if somewhat unsurprising showcase of games from EA with many of their massive franchises experiencing their usual yearly update. Time will tell if the influx of new content to Star Wars: The Old Republic and the free-to-play offering will halt the recent decline in its subscriber numbers.

Dead Space 3, Sim City and Need For Speed: Most Wanted were my pick of the bunch, each of them looking and sounding incredible and sporting new features like co-op or better social integration.

Sadly, there was no mention of Mirror’s Edge 2. The wait goes on.

Catch up on all our E3 2012 coverage here.