E3 2011 Press Conference Live Blog
ltucker
2011-06-06
If you missed EA's E3 press conference today, don't worry, we've got you covered. We live blogged the entire event so you can know exactly what happened. A video of the press conference will be posted later this afternoon.
12:10 The press conference is starting in about 20 minutes.
12:11 Press is filing in.
12:11 It's being held at the beautiful Orpheum theater in downtown LA.
12:13 The theater is really filling up.
12:14 We'll be taking photos of the event as well, so look forward to those directly after the conference.
12:15 Check out our facebook and twitter, too. We'll have E3 coverage there as well.
12:16 We just got our 15 minute reminder. Not too long now.
12:21 The theater is truly beautiful. There's detail on the balconies and the seating is comfortable too.
12:24 Only a few more minutes.
12:26 A few people are still coming in.
12:29 The few minute warning just came over the speakers.
12:31 Playing some Blur on the speakers before the show starts.
12:31 And we're starting
12:31 The conference starts with video feed from "news sites." There's live coverage of an attack against Earth.
12:31 The various channel feeds become just one, ANN Live. The battle for Earth has begun.
12:31 Proximity warnings on screen.
12:32 Mass Effect 3
12:32 Casey Hudson is on stage taking about the features of Mass Effect 3.
12:32 It is a full-scale galactic war and players are in the middle of the fight for Earth's survival.
12:33 The images of Shepard are crystal clear.
12:33 Hudson cues the live demo.
12:33 Shepard's at a Reaper base.
12:33 Male Shepard is calling in heavy firepower and the sky is fading into twilight.
12:33 You see him use the Omi-Blade.
12:33 The Normandy is flying overhead and combat turns to Shepard versus a Reaper.
12:34 Love that N7 gear.
12:34 Got a shot of Shepard's support.
12:35 More enemies drop in on Shepard, and then you hear the Reaper.
12:35 The Reaper base is actually a live Reaper.
12:35 The fight continues and you can feel the intense tension as the Reaper closes in.
12:36 Shepard is firing at it from a mobile turret, his crew giving him support.
12:36 The demo ends and Hudson continues to describe the different moments players will experience: emotional impact with action.
12:36 The release date is revealed 03/06/12
12:36 For more on Mass Effect 3, head to Origin.com
12:37 Now playing the first gameplay trailer.
12:37 The Reapers are on Earth and the war is in full force. As Shepard, you decide how it ends.
12:37 The fate of the Earth and all worlds after that, rests in Shepard's hands.
12:37 The trailer displays various class powers, weapons, and allies.
12:38 The Omni-Blade is shown and Shepard uses it against an enemy.
12:38 John Riccitiello, CEO of EA is reviewing the concept of the conference.
12:39 Next up is Need For Speed: The Run
12:39 Jason DeLong is on stage.
12:39 Need For Speed: The Run has you racing across the country.
12:40 Battle drives from SF to NYC.
12:40 The opposition will do anything they can to stop you.
12:40 Autolog has revolutionized how people compete and is now in the game's story.
12:40 Every race in your career counts and is track in Autolog.
12:40 There's action out of the car.
12:40 They use the Frostbite 2 engine.
12:41 And here is a live demo to show us gameplay in and out of your ride.
12:41 The demo starts with you jumping right into a race.
12:41 The city of Chicago at night comes alive.
12:41 Turning through the streets now.
12:42 You got into a crash and are now on the run.
12:42 Climbing to rooftops and leaping off buildings, you pass a helicopter.
12:42 The helicopter now joins the chase.
12:42 You work your way back to the ground and the police are on your tail.
12:43 You confront them and engage in a context sensitive fight.
12:43 You take out the cops and hop in their car. The chase continues.
12:43 You're flying down the streets of the city. The cops hot behind you.
12:44 They are firing heavy.
12:44 There's only .8 more miles until you're out of the city.
12:44 .4 miles
12:44 A tanker explodes in front of you.
12:44 The chase ends with a crash.
12:45 You wake up stuck in the car, and discover you're on train tracks.
12:45 You work desperately to get out of the car and make in just in time.
12:45 The live demo ends.
12:45 Star Wars music!
12:45 BioWare takes the stage.
12:46 Dr. Greg Zeschuck talks about the company's games.
12:46 Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic is in another class. It's huge.
12:46 It's a project with a large team of talent.
12:47 BioWare is making a world of dreams, emotion, and characters. It's bigger than anything they've done before.
12:47 They're going to show raids, boss battles, landscapes, and more.
12:47 The demo begins.
12:47 *trailer begins
12:48 It starts with beautiful landscape shots.
12:48 The Sith appear with their ships and action begins.
12:48 The Empire attacks without mercy.
12:48 It's fast combat on a small scale, and now an epic scale.
12:48 Massive fights on different worlds.
12:49 Ships are crashing, you see the force being used, cities crumble, it's intense.
12:49 All the while, there are voiceovers of both Sith and Jedi saying that they will take the day.
12:49 There are grand scale battles with countless races, classes, and allegiances. It's truly a Star Wars universe.
12:50 It's smooth too.
12:50 The trailer for Knights of the Old Republic ends and fog pours out of the balconies.
12:50 There's another video on screen with images of snowcapped mountains.
12:50 There's a crashed plane.
12:51 Snowboarders come into view doing tricks off the plane.
12:51 The camera zooms out to show locations on the globe.
12:51 Then travels to show snowboarding destinations.
12:51 It's global.
12:52 They out run natural disasters. Leap off cliffs. Fly through the air.
12:52 The release date is 01/2012
12:52 Peter Moore of EA SPORTS is now on stage.
12:53 He's talking about the revival of SSX and satellite data used to scan the globe and gain amazing detail.
12:53 There are three gameplay experiences.
12:53 Race It, Trick It, and Survival.
12:53 Moore mentions the characters. Go to Origin.com for more info on those guys.
12:54 There will be a new character of the SSX facebook page by the end of E3.
12:54 *on the SSX facebook page.
12:54 Moore moves onto FIFA, it's the most critically acclaimed game of this generation of consoles.
12:54 51 awards, 1.3 Billion online games, and 42 million players.
12:55 Matt Bilbey for EA SPORTS is now on stage.
12:55 Bilbey says FIFA 12 the most authentic FIFA ever and begins going over the gameplay features.
12:55 New tactical defending and positioning is more important.
12:55 New precision dribbling as well. More control of the pace of the game.
12:56 The Player Impact Engine is introduces as well. It gives players real world physicality on the pitch.
12:56 A trailer is now played with various celebrities and soccer pros talking about their love of FIFA.
12:57 In the trailer it is said FIFA helps players improve their real world gameplay.
12:57 It helps you see various skills and techniques that you can bring to your own pitch.
12:57 The trailer gives the game a sense of community with everyone playing.
12:58 Lil Wayne and Drake are just a few celebs shown in the trailer.
12:58 Bilbey introduces the EA SPORTS Football Club.
12:59 It's four big things. A heartbeat of the game.
12:59 The site has challenges and storylines taken right from the past week of play.
12:59 It's social. Fans can connect and compete.
12:59 It deepens a connection to your favorite club.
12:59 It's free.
1:00 In the Football Club you choose your club team and everything you do earns XP.
1:00 You can see your progress on the Leaderboards as well as your friends' progress.
1:00 They show a sample challenge.
1:00 If everyone who chooses to play as your club does well, the team gets pushed up to the top of the overall rankings.
1:01 Bilbey says to look out for more info later this year. Check out Origin.com for more details.
1:01 Madden 12 is up next with a trailer.
1:01 The trailer features Lombardi talking over various gameplay.
1:02 You hear the cheers and you see the impacts.
1:02 There's a shot with teams playing on a snowy field and you feel the game coming alive.
1:02 True to Victory, True to the Game.
1:03 They have football players appearing on stage.
1:03 Ravens' Ray Lewis
1:03 Browns' Peyton Hillis
1:03 Packers' Clay Mathews
1:04 With the Super Bowl trophy.
1:04 They're talking about the emotion of the sports.
1:04 They are huge in real life!
1:05 Talks about improved defense AI with Ray Lewis.
1:05 Talks about dynamic player performance with Peyton Hillis.
1:05 Talks about improved Dynasty mode with Clay Mathews.
1:06 Build by the fans, for the fans.
1:06 Look for it 08/30/11.
1:07 John Riccitiello is back and is talking about the connection focus for EA games.
1:07 He's talking about The Sims Social (just announced) for facebook.
1:07 It's a game for people who are tired of farming on facebook.
1:07 You play with your friends and play with life.
1:08 There's a trailer for the game.
1:08 It shows how you can have your facebook world become your Sim's world.
1:08 Interact with your friends and others more deeply with The Sims Social.
1:09 Check out www.facebook.com/TheSimsSocial for more.
1:09 Next are two new games with EA partners.
1:09 Highlights Respawn and Insomniac.
1:09 Boston Red Sox fans unite!
1:10 Respawn studios is up first. Curt Schilling is on stage as founder of 38 studios.
1:10 Schilling is talking about their game, Reckoning.
1:11 38 studios* not Respawn.
1:11 You're in an epic war within a huge open world.
1:11 It's filled with wonder, magic, and danger.
1:11 Ken Rolston, Todd McFarlane, and R.A. Salvatore are all involved with the game.
1:11 They are showing a trailer now.
1:11 It's a large world with mythical creatures.
1:12 There is combat between armored knights, displays of magic spells, hand combat, and there is a large variety of weapons, armor, and combat styles.
1:12 Insomniac is up next.
1:12 Ted Price, founder and CEO of Insomniac speaks about a new multi platform franchise.
1:13 Overstrike is the title.
1:13 Overstrike is set in the near future and focuses on four members of a covert organization called Overstrike 9.
1:13 The members are diverse, two males and two females.
1:14 They're the black sheep of the organization.
1:14 They are showing the trailer now.
1:14 One of the members in talking in a high-tech office to a faceless voice.
1:14 He is asked to describe himself and gameplay of him follows.
1:15 He speaks about the other team members and gameplay for each person is shown.
1:16 The team is shown fighting a robot/human.
1:16 They're using high-tech weapons and comedy is throughout.
1:16 A new trailer is up, it's Battlefield 3!
1:17 It has small pieces of combat shown through what looks like security cameras and various CCTVs.
1:17 There's some sort of night vision as well.
1:17 Karl Magnus Troedsson, GM for Battlefield 3 is on stage to talk about the game.
1:18 He shares a video of their engine, Frostbite 2.
1:18 There are samples of animation, destruction, scale, rendering, and audio.
1:18 The animation test is impressive. Smooth movements.
1:18 Destruction is next. Who doesn't love those massive falling buildings.
1:19 Then it's scale and rendering.
1:19 And finally audio, which is strongly felt here in the theater.
1:19 The game comes alive with the sights, sounds, and immersion.
1:19 They begin a video of multiplayer.
1:19 The map is in the center of Paris.
1:20 There is massive scale fighting on subways.
1:20 There are collapsing buildings, melee, armored vehicles, and more.
1:20 Troedsson announces Battle Log, where gamers can connect, communicate, have real-time stats, and more.
1:20 It's all for free.
1:21 The multiplayer open beta is 09/11.
1:21 See the multiplayer trailer on Origin.com
1:21 They are now going to show a live demo of battle in the Tehran desert.
1:22 There is air support flying overhead as you head into battle in tanks.
1:22 It's Halloween 2014.
1:22 The music is pulsing and powerful.
1:22 There's smoke plumes in the distance.
1:22 There's communication between the tanks.
1:23 You slip in and take control of the tank.
1:23 There's AAs firing in the distance.
1:23 Incoming fire, and you start attacking enemy tanks.
1:24 They're closing in as you fire.
1:24 More incoming fire after the first wave is destroyed.
1:25 You switch to thermal camera and hunt down the remaining enemies.
1:25 You return to your standard camera.
1:25 There's an objective marker in the distance and more incoming fire.
1:25 You are forced to stop.
1:26 You switch to a video link and you see a view of the area.
1:26 You mark the enemy's main base for an airstrike.
1:27 You see allies fall under fire as you continue toward the next objective.
1:27 You see air support firing and launch an all out attack on the enemy base.
1:28 You continue with the attack.
1:28 The base is barren, fires littering the ground.
1:28 You shoot down all enemies in sight.
1:29 As you move out of the base you see a wall of fire and destruction.
1:30 The live demo ends.
1:30 The release is 10/25/11
1:30 John Riccitiello is back to wrap up.
1:30 Thanks for joining us and look forward to more content here at EA.com.
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