E3 2012: EA press conference highlights

After Microsoft, it was EA’s turn to take stage at E3 and here are some of the stories that rocked their conference.

Announcements:
Criterion’s Need for Speed: Most Wanted reboot just became official with some glorious, super fast gameplay. I was a bit bummed out that Criterion are not working on another Burnout game but Most Wanted looks as fast and aggressive as a Burnout title so I’m happy. Most Wanted releases this October.

Developer Visceral Games confirmed they’re also working on Dead Space 3 which honestly speaking looks nothing like Dead Space anymore. It’s like all the horror has been sucked out of the game in favour of run of the mill third person generic action with co-op. Highly disappointing. Dead Space 3 will release February 2013.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

EA has also surprisingly managed to yank the UFC license away from THQ which means EA will now be churning out yearly iterations of UFC games. No games were announced at the conference but this is big industry news no doubt.

It looks like DICE is going the Activision way with their version of a premium service for Battlefield 3. It will set you back by $50 which is basically what you’re paying for five map packs in addition to exclusive weapons and loadouts.

City building fans are in for a real treat as Maxis announced a reboot for SimCity. The game looks like real constructive (see what I did there?) and will even allow players to indulge in some multiplayer. 

Gameplay:
Crytek’s Cevat Yerli came on-stage to showcase Crysis 3 and I’m really not sure how I feel about this game. On one hand it looks good and all but it also looks like Crysis 2. I was hoping the studio would go back to the large open world approach they took with Crysis but no such luck.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter looks surprisingly nice. Sure it’s the same thing you’ve seen in older Battlefield games (or other modern day military shooters) but the campaign looked tight. Plus thanks to the Frostbite 2.0 engine, the game looks and sounds really good. Like Most Wanted, Warfighter releases this October.