After Microsoft’s press event this morning, it was EA’s turn to show off their lineup. Some thoughts on the presentation, quick-hit style:
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â The opening trailer was for Dante’s Inferno, a new game from Visceral Games. It was pre-rendered, so it’s hard to get a feel for what the game is actually like. God of War clone?
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â EA CEO John Riccitiello took the stage and showed a trailer for The Sims 3, out tomorrow. Another useless trailer, really, not really showing off any gameplay.
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Six minutes on games for 9-year-old girls? Times have changed.
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Need for Speed Shift: no idea how it’ll be different from previous middling NFS efforts. Their big announcement? You can win a BMW at a NFS competition at their booth.
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Bioware’s docs took the stage for Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2. Dragon Age looks gory; Mass Effect 2 was just a trailer.
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â EA Sports time: Fight Night 4 looks solid, showing off a fight between Ali and Tyson. Â
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Online stuff looks cool, with Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online being streamed to a browser. Web tools for other games (team builder for NCAA 10) are also a focus.
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Madden 10‘s trailer is actually funny. Hit YouTube and check it out.
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Active for the Wii is EA’s “we’ll get you in shape” brand. Shrug.
–         Grand Slam Tennis for the Wii looks … well, like a Wii sports game. Pete Sampras made a cameo.
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Pandemic showed off a new WWII stealth / open-world title called Saboteur. Stylized graphics look pretty cool.
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â I still don’t get what Brutal Legend is about. It really, really needs to be funny.
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Crytek’s Cevat Yerli announced Crysis 2 for PC, X360 and PS3, using CryEngine 3.
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â David Jones announced his company, Real Time Worlds, will be joining the EA Partners program for APB (All Points Bulletin). It’s sort of a MMO / GTA hybrid, and could be sweet.
–Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Finally: Star Wars: The Old Republic, the Bioware / LucasArts MMO. No gameplay footage, just a lot of hokey guys on stage in Jedi outfits and an OK trailer. The game is actually far more interesting than the trailer shows.
Overall: B.
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