gamescom 2009 - Cologne, Germany August 19th - 23rd

Some reports about Command & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight:

Singleplayer: http://www.generals-zocker.de/news?id=272 (German)

Multiplayer: http://www.generals-zocker.de/news?id=277 (German)

And I want just to say: Thank you very much EA LA, EA Germany, Apoc and his Community-Management and sponsors http://www.generals-zocker.de/news?id=283

And believe me, no-one is more suprised by the outcome of my hunt for a new game to play... Who'd have thought Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 would be the one?! (continue reading…)

I've just spent three full days at Gamescom 09 in Cologne, Germany. It's the first big games fair that I've attended and to be honest, it blew me away. Every aspect of this show is massive, from the number of people who visit, both games fans, industry and press through to the variety of games and peripherals on display. EA obviously have a big presence at the show and it was great to see such an enthusiastic response from all the people who passed through our stand. Here's a quick rundown of some of the things I saw and learnt over the last few days. (continue reading…)

On Tuesday August 19^th, EA took GamesCom 2009 by storm with its press conference filled with announcements, unveilings, and even celebrity appearances!  Featuring presentations by EA SPORTS President Peter Moore, Double Fine Productions President Tim Schafer, and Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder of BioWare among others, the video presented here is filled with non-stop action!

If you're at the show, the press conference will give you a good taste of what you'll find at EA's booth at the show.  If you're not attending, you can catch the biggest news just by watching the recap!

Check out the rest:

Part 2

Part 3

Which games are you most excited about?

The European community guys have been having a fantastic time at Gamescom with the special event hosted to show off the latest builds of Need for Speed SHIFT. Alexander Albert (Junkie from NFSPlanet) took some photos which I wanted to share with everyone. Clearly the D-Box and Matrox Triplehead setup was a big deal as it appears in nearly every photo I've seen of the event - special thanks again to EA Germany for their fantastic effort and for SMS for integrated the tech so well into the game.

Need for Speed SHIFT is out September 17th in Europe and 15th in North America. To pre-order the game click here.

- NFSDrew

SHIFT wasn't the only game getting the love at the show with Need for Speed Nitro proving very popular with gamer with long waits for people wanting to experience NFS on the Nintendo platforms this year.

Looking at all the photos we've received of the M3 GT2 everyone LOVED the car - it was clearly a good idea to put a barrier around it otherwise there was a good chance someone would try to drive off in it!

Earlier today I had a chance to speak with Jesse Abney about his first day with the European Need for Speed Community.

How’s it going?
Good. Tired but good. All fun & games in Cologne for Gamescom 2009. Today I connected with the European Need for Speed community leaders and have been talking and playing on the 8-way Multiplayer, D-Box motion chair, Matrox TripleHead2Go PC demo stations... now we're @ the pub.

How was the Press Event?
Cool. It was a ton of work to get to the hour we had. SHIFT began in the middle of the lineup, but once everyone saw the game on a 70' screen they bumped us to the end spot to warp up the entire show. Big timing it ;)

We saw some photos of you at the Community Event today; how is that going? What are people saying about the game?
Oh my. The sensation that our first-person driving presents is so fresh & fun, that I think it's apparent how innovative it is. This is reflected in the response of everyone who plays.

What do you think to the triple-head setups the Germans are using?
We pushed for this since the top of the year when I began speaking to Matrox. Stephen Viljoen & I agreed D-Box + TH2Go support was a must for SHIFT, and the spec was outlined, agreed upon, then supported by the EA Germany team. The UK marketing duo of Deverill & McConkey along with D-Box, Stephen & I banged out the tech setup all night prior to the show to see everything got working well. The experience is like noting else I've played. It's a hugely fun demonstration of PC tech dev with off-the-shelf-parts.

Need for Speed SHIFT is out September 17th in Europe and 15th in North America. To pre-order the game click here.

- NFSDrew

We've got a huge community event starting tomorrow so stay tuned for all the latest info about Need for Speed SHIFT but before this starts we wanted to show off some of the latest photos of the event particularly the fantastic setup the German guys have done for SHIFT. D-Box seats with triple-head screens really show off the visual and physical prowess of the game. Each of the seats is built with a webcam to show the face of the drivers as they race against seven other games in the head-to-head online races.

It would be great to get a video feed from the webcams to see everyone's faces as they try out the "True Driver's Experience"

Jesse and Stephen in front of the world's game media yesterday during the EA Press Conference.

Always good to see a man enjoying playing his own game.

Need for Speed SHIFT is out September 17th in Europe and 15th in North America. To pre-order the game click here.

- NFSDrew

Wherever I've turned over the last few days I've spotted my colleagues from EA Football World engaged in some kind of FIFA 10 related activity. I saw them interviewing Peter Moore on the Press Day. I saw Romily being beaten by a journalist (at FIFA!) in the EA Business Area, and I'm fairly sure that I saw a couple of the guys hogging one of the consoles, sorry, I mean "showcasing the game to some fans" on the stand  all morning today!

If you want to find out more about FIFA 10 and what's been happening during their time in Cologne follow EAROM on Twitter or visit http://www.eafootballworld.com

Greetings, Earthlings!  I write to you live from Games Com in Cologne, Germany, where I am spending most of my day, except right now, demoing MySims Agents for the throngs of European press.   And if that sounds even remotely glamorous to you, I promise that it's not.  Not that I'm complaining.  Okay, well maybe I am a little.  Because the thing is that we are stuck in a tiny room for 9 hours, doing the same 1/2 hour demo over and over, rather than, say, walking the show floor, or, even better,  sitting in a beer garden outside.   Of course,  we're here to work, so one must keep one's perspective, even though that's a boring, adult thing to do.  Hrmpf.

Anyhoo, here is the view from where I sit all day:

EA had a good showing at the sunrise of GamesCom. Many of the teams were up till 2am setting up stands, kicking terminals and trying to upload press videos to the websites... but it all paid off with a brilliant showing for the press today.

The EA stand was bustling with activity and a cacophony of sounds... roaring engines, Beatles music rocking, gunshots pinging around whooping rotor-blades of helicopters.

The journos got a chance to race Maseratis around Spa for a chance to win a all-white, fully-kitted BMW (natch, but you know you want it for a day). The realism and gritty power of NFS SHIFT is a real show-stealer - an experience that makes your pulse race, your hair stand to attention and there was affair bit of gurning trying to keep that much horse-power on the racing line. It definitely showed and drove better than its more-sedate "cruising" rivals.

Star Wars The Old Republic had R2D2 herding future Jedi into the temple for an insight into the hi-def GC trailer - awe-inspiring Lucas Arts at it's finest with EA's Bioware magic intertwined.

FIFA10 draws crowds of passionate fans with some sweeping upgrades including workable set-pieces, 360-degree dribbling and some Rooney-powered strength shielding the ball from weaker opposition. You even get a free Bernabau Stadium with every purchase... check out the trailer at www.fifa.easports.com.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 ain't bad. It is a brilliant game with fantastic graphics and gameplay that only DICE can weave together. Then they added total & tactical destruction (take out hidden enemies with a falling pylon... or just drop the building around them). And then they give you vehicles and a company of 3 of your mates. "How shall we take you out? Let me count the ways".

There were some surprising other highlights - check out motorcycle wheelie-man in the car park (video coming soon hopefully!); Playstation Pet is surprisingly addictive candy; COD will raise (raze?) a few bars (though the demo was aimed more at winter sports fans - ice-climbing, skidooers to be precise); and Cologne plays a fine host to the most popular Games celebration in Europe.

I wouldn't say I'm a "hardcore" gamer - some weeks I only manage a few hours in front of the 360 - but when i look back I can see that I definitely have two favourite genres.

Basically, if it involves frantic action, guns (or lasers) and explosions or fast cars and screaming rubber I'll play it. (continue reading…)

I have a short time to reflect on all the things we saw at the press conference and I thought I'd flesh out the sentiments behind some of my earlier tweets.

It's difficult not to sound too gushing or overly positive in 140 characters, but I genuinely thought that some of the stuff that was shown looked amazing. Some of it changed my opinion, some of it baffled me and some of it just hyped me up even more for stuff that I'm already really looking forward to. (continue reading…)

So, It's our final day in the office before our trip to Gamescom in Cologne and we're trying to find some time to work out what we're going to cover for this blog. We've just received the official press release from our PR department and to be honest the scale of what we're trying to achieve has just hit us!

Take a look at this line-up of games that are being demoed in the EA Business Zone, across the 4 days of Gamescom:
(continue reading…)