EA Press Conference What We Saw

So EA just finished their E3 2011 Press Conference and what conference it was. There was plenty of talk about interacting with friends and how they wanted to make games even more of a social experience.

EA kicked off their time at E3 with a showing of Mass Effect 3. The demo shown had Shepard battling hoards of enemies, eventually hopping onto a turret which he then used to fight off a giant screen filling reaper. The demo closed off with us getting a new date for Mass Effect 3, March 6 2012 for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

After Mass Effect left the stage we got to see EA Black Box show off the next entry in the Need for Speed franchise. Need for Speed: The Run looked as gorgeous and smooth as Hot Pursuit with high speed car chases and crashes. The Autolog feature from Hot Pursuit will also be making a return, but with a much bigger role by "having Autolog integrated into the entire career." One new addition that has never been seen in a Need for Speed game before is the addition of on foot sequences which played out in a series of quick-time-events. Think Heavy Rain and add fast cars, it didn't look all that interesting but it's still early.

The next big game on stage was the long awaited Star Wars: The Old Republic, we got a great looking trailer, and that's about it, no release date was announced.

Peter Moore then stepped out to show off next years line-up of EA Sports games. SSX was first up, and in addition to a brand new trailer which showed off Helicopters and a massive Avalanche, we also got word on three different gameplay types that will be in the game. Race mode, Trick mode, and Survive mode, all of them are pretty self explanatory, but they also all sound really cool (especially Survive mode). A January 2012 release window was given. FIFA was next to step up, being hailed as "the best FIFA game yet" we heard about the improved emphasis on defense, and the new player impact feature which will cause players to react in an incredibly lifelike fashion. EA Football Club is basically Autolog for the FIFA games, giving access to new stories and updates that will rollout throughout the games lifespan, as well as connectivity to friends across FIFA on consoles, PC, iPad, iPhone, and Facebook. Football Club will be free to all players.

The next iteration of Madden showed up next in all its bone-crushing glory. Football all-stars Ray Lewis, Peyton Hillis, and Clay Matthews all showed up to represent new fine-tuned areas of Madden 12; Dynamic Player Performance, New Defensive play, and a rehauled Dynasty mode.

Keeping with the social dynamic of social experiences, EA showed off The Sims Social. A Facebook version of the Sims which will play like classic Sim's games with all the added features of Facebook games.

Next we had baseball all-star turned game studio founder Kurt Schilling come out on the EA stage to show off more of his studios debut game Hunter: The Reckoning. We got a cool trailer that showed off a lot of the magical combat in all of it's gory goodness.

What was perhaps the show stealer was the debut of Insomniac Games (the guys behind the Ratchet & Clank, and Resistance games) new IP Overstrike. We got an outrageously funny trailer that introduced a fun cast of characters. The game will have a big emphasis on weapons and gadgets much like Insomniac's other games. It will be the first multi-platform game from Insomniac, and although it wasn't announced yet it would be insane if this game didn't feature four-player co-op.

Finally, we got a look at the incredible looking Battlefield 3. The Frostbite 2.0 engine was shown off, buildings crumbling, environments being bombarded, and enemies falling to waves of your bullets. We then got the announcement that Battlefield 3 will feature "Battlelog." This Call of Duty esq service will allow players to create squads, get stats, and communicate with friends, once again for the low low price of... free. The conference closed off with us getting eight minutes of Battlefield 3 gameplay, it took place in the desert and showed off driving a tank.

Overall EA had a great conference with a lot of great games that were shown off. What are you most looking forward to?