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EA Fall 2007 Press Event September 07, 2007 John JCal Callaham |
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Summary: EA's got some amazing games in the pipeline and we give you the scoop on all of them.
 Introduction | Page:: ( 1 / 6 ) |
A couple of quick notes before we get on with our article; Pandemic's open world action game Mercenaries 2 was not shown at the event which would seem to be a big hint that the game will not be coming out this fall (EA PR reps would not officially comment on the release date). Also Spore, a game that was shown in playable form just a couple of weeks ago at the German Game Convention, was also not shown at the event.
Battlefield-Bad Company
The next game in Digital Illusions' first person shooter series won't be for the PC but will be the first game in the series made especially for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles. Battlefield: Bad Company is also the first game in the series that will have an actual single player storyline as opposed to just playing against bots in multiplayer maps. At the EA press event we got a quick demo of the game (sadly we were not allowed to go hands-on with this early build) where we got to see a brief section of the single player game.
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The game centers on a group of four US Army soldiers who go AWOL when they learn that a mercenary has a stash of gold that's just waiting to be taken. The game will have three different armies (the US, Russia and a fictional Middle Eastern faction) and you and your three AI buddies (each with a different loadout and personality) go through Eastern Europe, Russia and the Middle East to find the mercenary and grab the gold. Our demo showed the team going into an Eastern European village to make a surgical strike against the Russian forces.
Battlefield: Bad Company's big feature is the high degree of destructibility in the maps. The demo showed grenades and rocket launchers that took out most of the village's structures (the main foundation walls still remain) and you can even shoot down trees with miniguns or even the well placed sniper shot. The developers want to give a degree of free form gameplay in their design. You don't have to follow a designated path to complete a mission; you can pretty much blast your way through the map on your own.
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At one point an enemy tank appeared at a nearby bridge and began to lob some tank shells at our positions. No problem; you just break out your laser targeter, lock onto the tank from a concealed position and then when the tank is locked in your sights you can call an air-to-ground missle that you personally guide to its target.
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Visually Battlefield: Bad Company looks impressive, thanks to the new in-house Frostbite engine that DICE has developed . It's really impressive in the character models for your three AI friends. The army uniforms are extremely detailed in the game, right down to the seems in the pockets. Unfortunately the folks at DICE arent talking about multiplayer modes at the moment but we should get more info about what Bad Company will have on this front in the months ahead of the game's 2008 release.
| Burnout Paradise | Page:: ( 2 / 6 ) |
As we said Burnout Paradise takes place in an open world enviroment in the fictional Paradise City. The city has pretty much everything you could want; from busy urban city streets with tall skyscrapers as scenery to industrial regions to quick drives to the country where you can see sites like a windmill farm, a telescope observatory and more. As one might expect there is a ton of side streets and paths you can take on in the game. You can even drive on railway bridges that span the entire city. There's lots of things to run over in the game (fences, light sources, etc) as well. If you are used to open world racing games like Need For Speed Most Wanted you shouldn't be disappointed with this game's vast array of locations.
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Of course, Burnout games are all about going fast and smashing other cars. In this respect, Criterion is taking that basic gameplay idea and expanding it to include a ton of new gameplay features, especially in multiplayer. Basically you never leave the game to look for other players; they show up when you call them via your D-Pad and then a few second later you see them on screen. It's completely seemless. Once you collect a group of racers online you proceed to go through what Criterion is calling the Freeburn challenges. Basically you and the rest of online racers team up to perform a series of challenges; for example making a series of barrel rolls with your car without crashing or participating in a drift competition.
Of course the game still has a single player element but this time it's not linear at all. You drive through intersections that you see in the game's map which identify various challenges (pure racing, road rage, etc). Completing races successfully will unlock more and more cars. Again, Criterion is more interested in giving gamers in Burnout Paradise more freedom in driving, selecting races and bringing in buddies. There are even locations that when you drive through them repair your car instantly, refill your boost meter or even give your car a new paint job.
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So is Burnout Paradise as cool to play as previous entries? Oh yeah. The handling of the cars in the game is just as fast and tight as the older editions. You are flying through the city streets, just avoiding traffic and generally feel like you are the greatest driver in the world. Will you crash a lot? Yes, but you won't care because the game will make you want to drive more and more to accomplish challenges, win races or just go for a really, really fast Sunday ride through city streets.
Burnout Paradise's other new feature is tied into the Xbox 360's Vision camera and the PS3's Eyetoy 2 camera. Basically when you take out a fellow online racer and both of you have your cameras ready the camera takes a picture of the other guy who looses. It's a nice taunting feature that should inspire a few....interesting...poses.
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Burnout Paradise looks to be the ultimate version of the racing series and we can't wait to play the final version. Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are currently targeted for Jaunuary 2008 and while we are disappointed the game won't be under our Christmas tree it still won't be that long of a way to go burning again.
| The Twos | Page:: ( 3 / 6 ) |
We played on a remake of the classic Team Fortress map 2Forts (it now looks like a cross between a farm and a high-tech spy facility. Instead of capturing a flag each team has to capture and bring back an "intelligence" suitcase (there will be other multiplayer modes). Team Fortress 2 has nine character classes, separated into offensive, defensive and support roles. The offensive roles are the scout (much faster and good for capturing suitcases), the pyro (with a massive flamethrower) and the soldier (with his rocket launcher). Defensive roles are the Heavy Weapons Guy (slow moving but with the huge mini-gun), the demoman (with grenades) and the sniper (self explanatory). The support roles are the engineer (whipping out the self powered turrets), the medic (healing teammates and even making one invulnerable for a short period) and the spy (with his Predator style cloak and his ability to disguise as any one of the enemy team's classes).
Our brief gameplay session with the Xbox 360 version brough back a lot of memories of playing the original Quake mod and the Team Fortress Classic version in Half-Life 1. All of the character classes seem to be very well balanced. The scout can move fast but doesn't have a lot of health and has low firepower from his scattergun. The engineer is a lot of fun to play if you like knowing your turrets can keep an entire enemy team at bay with a well place structure. The spy is our favorite at this point; you can effectively sneak into the enemy base to steal the intelligence suitcase without anyone knowing; however once you have the case you can't use your abilities anymore.
Team Fortress 2 played well on the Xbox 360 and looked terrific during our sesson. We think the PC version will look even better. We were told that more maps for the game are already in the works for release sometime after The Orange Box ships to stores (they will be free for PC users but it's still not decided if the Xbox 360 or PS3 extra maps will involve a charge). Team Fortress 2 looks to be the most popular of all the games in The Orange Box and we think both new players and old time TF fans will be pleased.
Army of Two
EA's Montreal studio is busy putting the finishing touches on this two player co-op based shooter that's based in part on real mercenary teams. We got to see the game at E3 a couple of months ago but at the EA press event we got a look at a couple more levels, including a section of the game that takes place in a flooded Miami (thanks to a hurricane) where your two mercs pilot a hovercraft through the water filled streets and then later take out a series of RPG armed enemies while riding on a rail tram car.
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Army of Two's two player game design is looking to be pretty unique as each is dependent on the other to work. There's no cowboy-lone wolf stuff here; the two player motif is paramount as you attack foes while your buddy (either human or AI) sneaks around unseen to take out enemies or accomplish other goals. It goes without saying that reviving each other when the other team member is shot down is also important. The game uses the Unreal Engine 3 tech and Army of Two's tough and gritty character models for the two team members are highly detailed and just plain mean looking.
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Army of Two is aiming to be the ultimate co-op game and it looks like EA Montreal is poised to accomplish this. Look for the game to be released for the Xbox 360, PC and PS3 this fall.
| Command and Conquer of Honor | Page:: ( 4 / 6 ) |
While Kane's Wrath won't add an all new faction for C&C 3's trio of armies (GDI, NOD and the alien Scrin), it will add two new sub-factions for each of the three main ones that will help out which should expand on the types of armies that you can raise. All three main factions will also get some new units, from some new ground-to-air GDI tanks to NOD cyborg units to the weird alien looks of the new Scrin forces. We got to see a live demo of the PC version of the game that showed off some of its new units, including a GDI sonic tank that was pretty devastating when going up against fixed structure.
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While the Xbox 360 version of Kane's Wrath was not shown we got to see a mockup of the console's new radial interface which should allow a player to use the controller to build units and structures more quickly than in earlier RTS games. Kane's Wrath will be a stand alone game for the Xbox 360 version when it is release in early 2008; the PC version will require the original C&C3 game to be installed.
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Medal of Honor Heroes 2
While Medal of Honor Airborne is now out in stores, EA's next WWII shooter is aiming to be a bit less serious, thanks in part to the fact that it not only is being made for Nintendo's Wii console but it also supports the upcoming Wii Zapper enclosure for the Wiimote. We played through the game's arcade mode with the Wii Zapper and found it to be a terrific experience. Basically the arcade mode is a rail shooter similar to Time Crisis where you are guided to shoot a massive selection of Nazis. You can duck for cover but otherwise you are moved by the game to each of its objectives. The Wii Zapper not only helps with pointing and shooting it also helps in reloading your weapon (you move your Zapper up and down quickly to get a new clip). While the game will have a standard single player campaign as well the arcade mode should be popular with casual gamers.
While we didn't get to see multiplayer on the Wii version we were told that the game will have online support for (get ready) 32 players in Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag modes. That's a lot of online players for a console that has very few online multiplayer games currently on the market. We will have to see if the Medal of Honors Heroes 2 will be the Wii shooter we have been awaiting when it comes out later this fall (its also due out for the PSP).
| Need for Hellgate London | Page:: ( 5 / 6 ) |
There's no more open world in ProStreet; instead the game will have fixed races across a number of locations around the world (some real like Tokyo and others that are fictional) that you compete in. There's another big difference in this game; you can completely total your ride if you slip up. In addition to driving through the game's single player events you can also create your own custom events set up and even set up a ghost racer online that others can compete against.
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We played with the drift and drag race portions of ProStreet where we got to see the game's impressive smoke effects. The game's drag racing portion makes you perform a pre-race burnout that not only generates a ton of smoke but also affects how tightly your wheels grip against the road when you race. Then you switch gears quickly as you drive down the quarter mile track. The drift portion also generates a lot of smoke that can even obsure your vision at times as you generate points for a good clean drift. Visually the Xbox 360 version is looking great with some impressive looking car model and, as we said, some great particle effects for the smoke. The Wii version was also shown and as with other Wii racing games the Wiimote drives cars by holding it sideways and moving it as you would a steering wheel. Visuals are about as good as you might expect for the Wii but there will be no online multiplayer for that console (the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 will have online multiplayer).
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So will the switch from open world to fixed but customizable racing events help or hurt the Need for Speed franchise. We should learn for ourselves when the game is released later this fall.
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Hellgate London
Flagship Studios's long awaited action-RPG is less than two months away from release. The first person oriented game has been previewed to death (and we should be able to go into more detail when we get our hands on the promised beta version) but Flagship's head Bill Roper still managed to surprise us with a couple of cool upcoming features. One was footage of a massive boss battle with a character that is 30 stories tall and looks like Godzilla with massive stone piledrivers for legs. You have to defeat the boss by leading it to fixed turrets that shrink the monster down to (almost) your size but then he fires fireballs and generates small minion creatures at you as well.
Roper also showed us a mini-game in Hellgate London that basically turns the first person action-RPG into a third person top down action-RTS title for one mission. You control AI teammates from up above to take out hords of enemies in a unique perspective that should please fans of tactical strategy games. There's no word on how many of these mini-games will be in the final version.
Hellgate London is set for release on Halloween (and Flagship will hold what promises to be a massive launch party on Halloween night in San Fransisco that will be co-sponsored by Vibe magazine) but of course people can sign onto the $9.95 monthly service to get more content that they will not be able to access while playing the game just out of the box. We hope to get more hands-on time with the beta version very shortly.
| Warhammer and the Rest | Page:: ( 6 / 6 ) |
We got to see a few simple quests in the game; basically an orc that takes out enemies in various locations. One cool thing is that you can go up to an NPC and tell him or her that you have slain, say, 20 monsters and the NPC will reward you with more experience points and extra on top of the experience points you already accumulated while slaying the enemies. There are also "public quests" that will require a group of people to accomplish. We got to see one where we had to get a 20 foot giant drunk with a series of alcohol filled barrels. Once he gets nice and drunk he then proceeded to pick up a nearby mine, move it to the entrence to a fort we wanted to enter and then he died as the mine blew up. Oh well.
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Warhammer Online is still set for release sometime in the first quarter of 2008 which means there are still several months before the game is due out which also means we should have more opportunities to see and play the game before it launches.
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SimCity Societies
The newest version of the long running city sim series gets an all new makeover thanks to developer Tilted Mill. During the EA press event we got to see a brief demo of the game which not only lets you build a city but also lets you build entire social groups of the city's Sims in the game.
The game's tutorial guides you through the new game's features, letting you build roads, set up power stations, create placed to live and work and even put down items like murals and ice cream parlors to please your Sims. Each sim has a name and personality that you can track at any time with a mouse click. The tutorial was centered around making a "Fun City", which has the themed of a circus or amusement park but other types of cities will be made available in the full version of the game.
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Having a city simulator that isn't just a straight down the line title is something that's new in the game series. It looks like SimCity Societies is one that will be much lighter in tone than the somewhat super serious previous games in the series and we hope to get more hands-on time with the game before its release this fall.
The Simpsons Game
EA's Redwood Shores team is close to releasing this parody of video games via the longest running animated TV series of all time. The game has the Simpsons family in situations that are supposed to mirror game series, from Pokemon to Final Fantasy to Medal of Honor to Black and White. Out personal favorite is Grand Theft Strachy. No it's not an open world crime section; it takes on the anti-video game activists who want to see games like the GTA series removed from stores. Marge Simpsons is mad that such games are being sold to children in Springfield (we see a child highjack a car while also holding a Grand Theft Strachy) and she uses her megaphone to entice Springfield citizens to destory ads for the game and fight off people who want to play the game.
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The Simpsons Game looks to be the rare media tie-in game that will be as good as the license that inspired it and we can't wait to play the full version later this fall.
Rock Band
What else can be said of perhaps the most anticipated console game of 2007 (save perhaps for Halo 3)? EA showed off the ambitious Harmonix-developed music game Rock Band at their press event as reporters got up closed with the game's guitar, drums, and microphone as they sang and played (or just made a good attempt) through a series of songs from a variety of artists.
Whether or not you care about music games or not, it's still a title that you have to admire for its sheer scope. Being able to time your guitar/bass, drum and even your voice actions to music tracks all at the same time is something we haven't see in a game before. With major rock bands offering their master songs for Rock Band there's no question that the folks who enjoyed Guitar Hero will have a new obsession to check out. The reporters who played the game during the press event had to be pulled away from the instruments after their sessions. The game is still set for release for the PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles this holiday.