E3 2012: EA

God damn it EA.  I want to hate you for so many things, ruining Bioware, Origin, and all the rest, but how can I hate you when the first thing you do is show an action-packed trailer for Dead Space 3 and tell me it now has drop-in/drop-out co-op along with enemies that fire guns?  That's just not fair.  I can only salivate and wait until February 2013.  Blast it.

Madden 13 is going to have a new engine that factors in things like player weight and athleticism into every single collision, and allows for the possibility to escape tackles.  On top of that, with their new career mode, Madden is turning into an RPG.  No, I'm not kidding.  You have certain goals throughout the season, and if you complete them, you gain XP, which you can then spend on upgrading your abilities on the field.  Not sure how well that's going to gel, but with the RPGification going on with so many other games I can't say I'm surprised it's there.

For some reason everyone is excited for the next SimCity, as well as SimCity Social for facebook.  Like, really excited.  You would've thought from the audience reactions they were showing off Mass Effect 4.  It's got a new engine, multiplayer, and...well that seemed about it really.  It's been 5 years since the last title, which could explain the hype, but not being a fan myself I guess I just don't get the buzz.  Look for this one next February.

When Modern Warfare 3 announced their elite service, wherein you pay extra money for access to all expansion packs plus stats and other features, I think people were a bit wary of how it might fare.  However, it has been a highly successful service.  As such, it was kind of surprising that Battlefield 3, having thrown the gauntlet at MW3, didn't have a similar service.  Well that all changes with Premium, which costs $50 and grabs you 5 map packs along with tons of weapons, vehicles, skins, etc.  Considering the amount of content you get, plus 2 week early access to the packs, plus the success of elite, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a pretty big uptick in revenue for these guys.

Next up is a showcase of all the new content being added to Star Wars: The Old Republic, including a new race, a new planet with a new storyline, new abilities, new companions, and much more.  Also included, the ability to play for free up to level 15 coming in July.  Sweet.

The Medal of Honor reboot came out last year and was met with a nearly universal "meh".  Basically despite some solid multiplayer, it resembled Battlefield: Bad Company 2 far too much and had nothing to distinguish itself.  So now the sequel, Warfighter...looks exactly the same as Battlefield 3.  Except you get to maneuver a little tank robot.  There were also no mentions of them trying to distinguish themselves by "realism" this time, I'm assuming because of the backlash they received for having the opportunity to play the Taliban in multiplayer, but I also like to think it's because THERE IS STILL NOTHING REAL ABOUT IT.  In the opening moments you get hit by a sniper.  Dead?  Nope, get right back up like you didn't feel a thing and keep going about your business.  *sigh*

Basically every EA Sport is getting more social with facebook apps, as well as simply increased connectivity.  Most are also getting a facelift with a new engine.  The big surprise, however, is that there's another sport joining the mix: UFC.  It was especially surprising for me because I thought UFC already had games, but to everyone there this was a big freakin deal.  Perhaps it's just because they'll have a giant budget behind them now.

Following their success with Need for Speed: Hot Pursiut, Criterion is back at it again with Most Wanted.  Now Zach, you may say, wasn't there already a Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted several years ago?  Yes, yes there were anonymous person, it simply appears it's too hard to come up with new names and those ones were at least 7 years ago so what the hell just steal the name and call it a "reboot".  2 years ago Hot Pursuit made a splash with its new innovative features.  Now, Most Wanted looks to...add nothing to that.  Except trying to become "Most Wanted" among your friends.  But can you really blame them for sticking to something that worked so well?

Crysis 3 is too god damn pretty.  They briefly showed off the new crossbow weapon, but otherwise it all looks like the same old Crysis, though the same old Crysis still looks like a ton of fun.  And with such amazing graphics, it's hard to complain about lack of innovation.  Along with apparently every other game in development, Crysis 3 will be out February of next year.

With that, EA's conference is at an end.  The trudge continues!