17 Aug

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?

4 thoughts on “EA Gamescom Wrap-Up”

  1. I want Kaori’s board, but don’t want to buy at Wal-Mart. Heck I think all retailer specific pre-order bonuses are stupid and should be done away with. We should get the chance to have all the items and missions available no matter what.

    Well I am still going to get SSX, but I guess I will have to settle with Mac’s stuff. I am very interested in the competitions that can have 100k people playing simultaneously.

  2. The ME3 stuff was cool, as was SSX – probably the first sports game in over 10 years I’ve been looking forward to. Although the specific pre-order bonuses, while understandably necessary, are really starting to annoy me.

    Once again the Old Republic stuff just looks disappointing… but ah well, what can ya do?

  3. Pretty good gamescom. Even the stories outside of gamescom were good. I mean, Valve holds a $1 Million tourny for DOTA2, then Riot shows off Domination and announced a $5 Million prize pool for season two. This is madness.

    Now Kojima is teasing Zone of the Enders 3DS. I’m kinda happy, but mostly angry.

  4. EA is completely obsessed with pre-order bonus junk. Honestly, I get the whole thing about trying to get people to buy a product before they know if it’s good or not. It just irks me.

    I just pre-ordered BF3 for the map pack that I’d otherwise have to buy later on. Now granted I know BF3 is going to be amazing…others have bit me in the ass (Dragon Age2).

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