EA Gamescom Wrap-Up

There’s a lot of news floating around out there about Electronic Arts’ Gamescom press conference, so we decided to summarize the whole experience in one place for ya. Follow the jump for the complete portrait of EA’s presence this year at Gamescom.

One couldn’t be faulted for thinking EA threw a trailer-fest this year. Need for Speed: The Run advertised its “3,000 mile race from San Francisco to New York”, in addition to its gameplay demo of an avalanche-prone mountain course. One of the more unexpected darlings of this year’s E3,  Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, was also shown off via trailer, as was Funcom’s The Secret World MMO – which dismisses classes for a shared set of 500 skills that can be acquired throughout the game. To top it all off, more Garrus badassery ensued in the latest Mass Effect 3 snippet.

What wasn’t covered in promotional videos was done so in gameplay demonstrations, as Battlefield 3, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Mass Effect 3 showed off some new stuff on the stage. Battlefield showcased a 64-player multiplayer session, as well as a cooperative level with Portal 2-like “Ping” tools that allow players to pinpoint spaces in the environment and direct their partner’s attention. Mass Effect later played up some of the new dynamic events in its combat sequences. By far the most revealing breadth of gameplay was The Old Republic demo, which detailed more about both the game’s conversation system (complete with the patented Bioware convo-wheel) and “Operations” (read: raids).

News also came through on a couple of EA’s sport franchises, FIFA and SSX. FIFA 12 debuted precision dribbling, a “player impact engine”, “tactical defending”, and the in-game social network “EA Football Club” which is featured in FIFA Street. Street is a return to the lesser known little brother franchise, developed by the same team as the mainstream series. The game includes 35 locations to play in around the world, with varying styles of soccer based on different regions. Both FIFA 12 and FIFA Street will also offer exclusive content to “EA Season Ticket” holders. SSX debuted its customizable event system, which allows up to 100,000 players to compete simultaneously. The game’s “Riderlog” system allows for user voting on specific customized runs, and votes/tracking on friend players. The game’s various retail pre-order bonuses were also detailed, which are listed below.

• GameStop – receive legendary SSX character Eddie Wachowski, his Elite snowboard, and a bonus boost
• Origin – receive Elise’s Elite snowboard and a bonus boost
• Amazon – receive Mac’s Elite snowboard and a bonus boost
• Best Buy – receive Zoe’s Elite snowboard and a bonus boost
• Wal-Mart – receive Kaori’s Elite snowboard and a bonus boost

(via GamePro, Joystiq, MCV, Electronic Arts)

Got a lot of game news to mull over here, EGs. Thoughts?