EA’s press conferences are usually a muted affair with the publisher normally showing a bunch of standard high selling IPs, and maybe one or two news ones. No Mirror’s Edge 2 though, we all know that doesn’t exist? So why even bother expecting that? And EA didn’t deliver again, which left me a sad panda.
First up was Dead Space 3. The game was leaked before the conference like a broken tap, with almost everything known before EA even showed the damn game. It had co-op, it had Necromorphs with guns, and it had a lot of actions. All three are quite, well, undesirable considering how well the franchise began, but when demoed, the game looked pretty good and will easy pass off as another shooter that no one cares about.
I loved Medal of Honor, which was quite a good game, and its sequel running on the latest Frostbite 2 engine showed a lot of promise as well. As expected, Medal of Honor: Warfighter looked fantastic and crisp and much better than Black Ops 2 that was shown at Microsoft’s conference. The game will be released this year, so get ready to blow up some sand in lot of faces. Warfighter’s multiplayer is quite decent, too, as you can see in this video interview here.
Then, we had Crysis 3, which was ignored by the press for some reason, or maybe because it looks unremarkable and no one cares about the franchise anymore? You can check out the gameplay video and make up your minds. Crytek have promised a lot of improvements here, which wasn’t apparent when EA demoed the game because it looked largely like Crysis 2.
EA buys the UFC license, and I feel so bad for THQ. Dana White president of UFC came on stage and what he said was something quite hilarious considering in 2009 he lashed out at EA. However, now, EA will make all the UFC games and that’s a boon in blessing because EA Sports rocks. Then we had FIFA 13 and Madden 13, with both getting Kinect support, and at this point, everyone was going through the motions and knew what to expect.
Bioware came to the stage and revealed how Star Wars: The Old Republic was a fantastic game and there’s nothing wrong with it. They were planning to release new content which would surely retain the subscriber base forever. The game would go free-to-play in July and that’s usually a sign that no one cares. It remains to be seen if that will be profitable for them but I doubt it.
Criterion stole the show with Need for Speed: Most Wanted which also leaked before the conference, and damn, it looks like Burnout Paradise which is a good thing, of course. The demo blew me away and the game was undoubtedly the star of EA’s conference. And why isn’t it called Most Wanted 2? It’s because Criterion doesn’t do sequel to other people’s games apparently. Yes, they said that themselves.
Overall it was a good conference, nothing major shown like Ubisoft did, and it was pretty safe. What do I say now? Ubisoft does what EA don’t? Or EA doing what it does best? I guess it’s the latter. Good conference if people care about Criterion, otherwise, EA just showed its face at E3 and said “hi”.
The Bad: Nothing spectacular, EA just showed its face
The Good: Criterion, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, EA getting UFC license
Final Verdict: What do I say now? Ubisoft does what EA don’t? Or EA doing what it does best? I guess it’s the latter. Good conference if people care about Criterion, otherwise, EA just showed its face at E3 and said “hi”.
Score: 4.5/10
Read our reviews of the Nintendo, Microsoft, Ubisoft and Sony conferences through the links!