The Video Game Spectrum presents E3 2008 – EA Press Conference by Will (Editorial Manager)
The Sims Universe
Presented by Rod Humble, The Sims Studio
SimAnimals was announced today to start off the show. The game will allow players to create groups of animals and their environment. The trailer displayed the interactions between different kinds of wildlife – foxes, bears, and beavers – and how the player can adversely affect the habitat and animals by removing terrain, such as trees, as well as saving animals, as the player can save a bear cub from drowning. The game will be coming exclsuively to the Nintendo Wii and DS in 2009.
The Sims 3 was detailed, coming in 2009, as the next step up from its previous iteration Sims 2. The Sims 3 will allow the player to create complex personality traits and characteristics that will affect interactions with people met in the world.
Dead Space
Presented by Glen Schofield, EA Redwood Shores
Dead Space revolves around the character of Issac Clark, a systems engineer who is sent to perform maintanence in a deep space mining colony. However, when he arrives he finds the crew onboard missing and a strange epidemic taking place. The game infuses horror elements to make the experience terrifying in the environment. The core gameplay mechanic will involve strategic dismemberment, which requires players to tear enemies apart limb by limb. An additional unique feature to this game is that the game features no HUD. Everything is in-game, meaning the inventory system and the health bar is utilized directly through the player. Dead Space is coming to PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on October 21st.
Mirror’s Edge
Presented by Patrick Soderlund, EA Games European Studios
Developed by EA Stockholm, Mirrors Edge features a heroine named Faith who is a runner in a world where telecommunications is heavily monitored. The result brings to you a first person action platform game in a vertical landscape. Intense combat and challenging puzzles are integral components of Mirror’s Edge. Faith will navigate the landscape through Runner Vision, in which certain objects are colored red for navigational purposes. The player will have access to reaction times, which slows down gameplay in order to defy gravity by making a big leap or take on opponents in more advanced combat. Mirror’s Edge will allow players to approach its gameplay in a variety of different ways and it is therein unique.
Spore
Presented by Will Wright, Maxis Studio
Spore as detailed by Will Wright represents a mix of science and creativity coming together. The Spore Character Creator which came out a few weeks ago represents the collaboration of community coming together to bring creativity and hopefully generate into interest in science. This has been done in partnership with National Geographic to make a documentary of how Spore relates to modern cell evolution and biology as well as research with the SETI Institute. With the idea behind releasing the Character Creator being to populate the in-game universe for Spore’s launch in September, it exceed expectations by becoming the number one PC game sold for June. About 85,000 YouTube videos are currently up concerning Spore and even some celebrities have been making Spore creatures. While Will Wright remains cautious to not say any outrageous remarks by quoting “The plural of ancedote is not DATA.” Previews of Spore have stated a generality of positive feedback upon the accessbility and difficulty of use for people who are not gamers can play the game with ease. Spore comes to PC September 7, 2008.
EA Sports Division
Presented by Peter Moore, EA Sports
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Madden NFL series and coupled with a sports lineup of NCAA Football 2009 which is releasing this week, and upcoming NBA Live 2009 expectations are high for EA to deliver a fresh new look for the sports genre. And it is exactly what Peter Moore promises.
Beginning with the NBA Live 2009 demonstration, Peter invites former Celtics player, Bill Walton onto the stage to have a lighthearted commentary about Spore before being interrupted by Moore who told him “I need to sell.” This year’s NBA Live 2009 feature revolves around Dynamic DNA and the essence of Dynamic DNA involves real world data and analytic information from the NBA integrated in-game. Or as Bill Walton says, “Keeping the game fresh daily.” What that means is that the game is moving forward beyond stat and roster updates into a daily update, all season long, dynamic game. This is exemplified by the three features of Dynamic DNA which include Player Tendancies – unique to the player and how they make their decisions in real-time, Player DNA – player positions and actions will change to reflect their new role, such as the effect of a mid-season trade, and Team DNA – determines how a team functions as a cohesive unit or not.
Wii will be getting special treatment this year with the All-Play series of sports titles developed exclusively ground-up for the platform. The label will involve five of its major sports franchises. Moore today demonstrate one of the most popular sports franchises for the Wii, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2009 using the All-Play feature – which completely takes out wind, club selection, and complicated mechanics are taken out of play – in order to make the game more accessible to the casual audience
EA Online Division
Presented by John Pleasants, EA Redwood Shores and Nanea Reeves, EA Online Group
EA Online presented Nucleus, which is a a gamer profile which includes friends, achievements across different games and even different platforms. A reputation based system will be utilized for matchmaking to people with similar abilities and interests. Microtransactions are being integrated for titles such as upcoming Battlefield Heroes and the recently launched The Sims 2 Store Beta. The Nucleus system will soon be on a global scale as it will be placed into more than 25 EA titles each with innovative commuity features.
Rupture was also demonstrated in EA’s eagerness for an open-source platform initative by creating a custom achievement system which can be subscribed to and tracked by friends. The term social achievements allows friends to challenge each other by creating their own achievements. The Rupture API will be open for developers to create, script, and export.
EA Mobile Games Division
Presented by Travis Boatman, EA Mobile
A bevy of iPhone titles were displayed utililzing mechanics such as touch control, the accelerometer, WIFI, and 3D capabilities. With the launch of the new iPhone 3G, the App Store allows gamers to access EA’s mobile games which are available for download now.
Dragon Age Origins
Presented by Greg Zeschuk, Bioware
A long anticipated title by many PC gamers, Dragon Age Origins, is a dark heroic fantasy game following the classic Bioware formula and a successor to Baldurs Gate. Players will be able to make choices either good, bad, or neutral that adversely affect how the world percieves you. You can become a hero, a martyr, or a tyrant in regards to how you approach the game. Dragon Age Origins will be coming to PC and afterwards to consoles in 2009.
Left 4 Dead
Presented by Gabe Newell, Valve
Left 4 Dead, Valve’s first person co-op horror game as descirbed by Gabe Newell, allows players to involve themselves in a “scary action movie with your friends.” The game is developed through a dynamic shared narrative that is achieved through character performance, pacing, lighting, and music. 1-4 players will the the amount of players in this game, including modes such as two-person split screen play in addition to four-player online co-op play. Newell states that the games previously delivered from Valve contain unique qualities such as narrative and emotional impact combined with social features and co-op gameplay have culminated into a new gameplay experience and Left 4 Dead represents it. The game is exemplified and amplifies the survival horror action genre by making the game dynamic and is played differently each time, the functionality and random qualities of the A.I. also reinforces this concept, and the drama is thus created in real time. Game difficulty is described as changing depending on your team’s performances, well off teams will face tougher challenges with better payoff than teams that aren’t. Left 4 Dead will ship to retailers November 4 for PC and Xbox 360.
EA Partners – id’s Initiative
The concept of EA partners revolves around working with independent video game developers and allowing them a publishing label without fear of compromising their product. And the announcement today revolves around an new forged partership with an iconic and legendary developer, and its id software.
John Carmack of id software under the publishing label of EA demonstrates the latest game, RAGE, coming to Playstation 3, PC, and Xbox 360 as an example of bringing the game to a global and blockbuster stage. Details were sparse but the game will feature action, exploration, and driving coupled with interaction with its respective environment.
“The RAGE publishing deal is the epitome of EA Partners’ mission: Provide the world’s best developers with access to the world’s best publishing resources,”
“The team at id Software is one of the best development studios in the world. We’re excited to work with id Software to give RAGE a blockbuster launch on the global stage.” – EA Partners general manager David DeMartini.
