E3 2012: Dead Space 3 and Battlefield steal EA's show
EA's E3 press conference today saw the launch of Battlefield Premium, a release date for Dead Space 3, a spectacular showing for Medal of Honor: Warfighter and a premiere for Criterion's Need for Speed: Most Wanted.
EA's conference kicked off with John Riccitiello saying the publisher's event is "less like the Oscars, more like Sundance".
Dead Space 3 was first up. A full trailer was shown of Isaac searching a snowy world for his partner, being attacked up large monsters and, as has already been seen, teaming up with a co-op partner.
John Carver is the co-op character. A co-op demo was shown live, with Isaac and Carver working together on the new, frozen planet.
A giant, spinning drill presented a substantial problem, and general chatter between the two characters included several "f**ks". It was more reminiscent of Gears of War than Dead Space, in actuality. An outside section showed cover shooting and a huge enemy, much like the Microsoft action staple.
Isaac was sucked into the giant necromorph's guts. This may or may not have looked a little like a "worm".
While it looked to be something of a departure from Dead Space 2, however, it looked hot. It's out February 2013 for 360, PS3 and PC.
Madden was up next. More realism, more physics: more everything.
"No two plays will look or feel the same," we were assured. The game is based on EA's Infinity engine.
The new version of the seminal football game allows you to create leagues with up to 32 other people. You can "be" John Madden, and the game has a "virtual Twitter feed". You'll be able to connect to the game through tablet, PC and mobile.
Maxis confirmed SimCity Social for Facebook release in the coming weeks. A new trailer of SimCity, the next major update in the franchise, was shown. It's to have multiplayer, airports and more, and Maxis head Lucy Bradshaw promised the game would be "revolutionary".
SimCity will release in February 2013.
Jason West and Vince Zampella were shown in the audience. Just in case you'd forgotten they existed.
At a premium
Peter Moore and Patrick Bach came out to talk Battlefield 3. Moore said 15 million people are playing it worldwide, before Bach went on to announce Battlefield Premium, which launches today.
Subscribing for $49.99 gives early access to four expansions, including Aftermath, Close Quarters, and End Game, which introduces motorcycles.
The service is available now. It's 4,000 Microsoft Points on 360 and £39.99 on PS3.
BioWare's Ray Muzyka came out to talk about upcomiong updates to Star Wars: The Old Republic. There's to be a new playable species, a new level cap, a new warzone and a new world. You'll be able to play up to level 15 for free in July.
Medal of Honor: Warfighter was next. A gameplay demo showed Tier One operatives on a mission in Somalia. The game was running on Frostbite 2, and looked as good as you'd expect, with soldiers stumbling and walls crumbling.
A new circular menu system was shown during a breach sequence, in which you can select tools to open doors and the like. Lighting effects in a sewer section were spectacular.
The game's Global Warfighters multiplayer section is playable at the show this week. A multiplayer trailer was seen, showing special ops forces from all over the world.
FIFA came up with some astonishing stats. When Man City beat QPR on the last day of the season, the game was played over 5 million times in FIFA 12 that day.
All players will carry XP into FIFA 13 via Football Club, which is coming to tablet and mobile. A new FIFA iPhone app is also launching. Messi was shown on the screen on the FIFA 13 cover. Improvements were outlined in dribbling, attacking, defending and much more. The first gameplay trailer was shown.
EA announced a new deal with the UFC. Dana White came out on stage. Both parties seemed extremely pleased with the agreement.
Criterion's take on Need for Speed: Most Wanted looked fantastic. Creative director Craig Sullivan played the game after a trailer detailed the premise: it's Hot Pursuit 2, basically, with the played action taking place in a city. The Hot Pursuit map has been reworked, bins explode as you smash them on the sidewalk and everything is competitively interlinked in the second generation of Criterion's Autolog system.
Single-player and multiplayer demos are playable at the show. It's out October 30.
Finally came Crysis 3. Crytek's Cevat Yerli introduced a demo that featured endless shooting, talking about "deadly swamps" and "an urban rainforest". The player had to "locate the over-rides and shut this thing down," the "thing" bring a machine of some sort. CryEngine looked as good as ever. We saw swimming, shooting helicopters with a bow and arrow and sliding down the obligatory zipline.
Crysis 3 is out in February next year.