My fellow Americans! I just wanted to let you know that, yes, there are other countries in the world (WHAT?!), and none of them give a damn about the Madden franchise. EA just revealed that FIFA 10 (which I haven’t played, but that’s OK; I hear it’s good) is the fastest selling sports game of all time! So says a fancy e-mail we just received. Olé-lé, olá-lá, ser del Barça és el millor que hi ha!

EA sold 1.7 million copies of the game since its launch last week, no doubt 100 percent because of that Wayne Rooney commercial. During peak hours, there was more than 150,000 players playing online simultaneously. That’s bigger than the population of SOME CITY!

Maybe this year I should give FIFA a go instead of my beloved Pro Evolution Soccer? I bought last year’s PES and did a season with Barça (undefeated, normal mode!), but I haven’t played FIFA since FIFA 2007, with Ronaldinho on the cover. You know, when Ronaldinho was good, lol! (Man alive, did he fall off the planet or what?)

Here’s the latest movie based on a video game that’s sure to be horrendous: Spore will be turned into a movie, ladies and gentlemen! Only five people will be allowed in the theaters at a time in order to prevent piracy, jkjk!

Right, so 20th Century Fox picked up the rights to make the movie, and Robots director Chris Wedge is currently penciled in to direct. Greg Erb (he wrote Rocketman, which I liked as a youth) and Jason Oremland (who doesn’t seem to have done much of any great import yet) will write the movie. They were also involved with the upcoming Disney movie The Princess and the Frog. I wonder what that’s about…

Nowhere do I see Will Wright, the game’s creator, being involved. That’s not to say that he won’t be involved, but you figure that a man so important as Will Wright would at least get a mention of being involved.

One thing’s for sure: it cannot be any worse than 2012.

Where did this rumor that Microsoft wanted to buy EA start? You know what, it doesn’t matter where it started, because it’s not true. No, Microsoft has no plans to buy EA, so don’t sweat the technique ($1 if you get that reference).

One of Microsoft’s corporate vice-presidents told this to Reuters:

We have no plans to acquire EA. They remain a very important partner to us. No acquisitions

Besides, you know if Microsoft bought EA it’d screw it up, just like when it bought Rare back in the day. How well did that turn out? Not as well as people had hoped, that’s for sure. Plus, I’m sure Sony wouldn’t want to lose Madden and FIFA to Microsoft overnight. Those titles are too big to just let go.

I’m not sure where to even begin. In the months leading up to G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, I made the decision to avoid all trailers for the movie and opt out of all hands on demos of the game. I knew the movie was going to suck, but I had a glimmer of hope that the game might actually turn out OK. Turns out I was wrong. The only Hasbro-licensed video game worth a damn this year is Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Why EA and Hasbro even bothered to release this piece is beyond my comprehension. Tie-ins are plenty these days and make sense, but this was downright atrocious.

Oh, you’re still here?

Really?

All right then – it’s not like I didn’t warn you.

In a feeble attempt at recreating something mildly reminiscent of 3D Contra, Joe falls flat on its face before the first mission even begins.

A poor storyline is never really ever necessary if the gameplay melts your face off, but Joe has nothing to offer in either department. The voice-overs make me want to rip my ears off, but EA felt some pity for us and allows you to skip ahead.

A typical mission goes a little something like this: shoot bad guys, save a trapped Joe. When you rescue said Joe, they make some asinine fist-pumping move as if they’ve been transported to a nightclub and given a license to be a douche and pop their collar (and wear sunglasses at night).

Joe would have been marginally better if the camera system worked at all, which it doesn’t. There’s zero control over the camera so you have no idea what you’re looking at or attempting to shoot 80 percent of the time. It sucks even more when you’re attempting to maneuver a vehicle because the controls scheme changes every time the camera decides to pan in a different direction.

What sucks even more about the game is the lack of a targeting system. Toggling between bad guys, power ups and control towers with the right stick is not very efficient and only pisses me off. You might as well tape down the right trigger and use your free hand to drink a beer or strangle yourself.

Don’t even get me started on the worthless AI partner you have tagging along with you. I’m not even sure my buddy even killed one enemy.

Thank you for further ruining a childhood favorite of mine, EA and Hasbro. Don’t you dare make another shittastic movie or game based on said shittastic movie.

Strap in for a 50-minute thrill ride! Hit the jump for EA’s press conference from earlier today.

Finally! We now know who will be on the cover of EA’s FIFA 10. Well, the European versions, at least. In the UK you’ll find Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney, Chelsea’s Frank Lampard, and Arsenal’s Theo Walcott.

In Germany you’ve got Wayne Rooney and Bayern Munich’s Bastian Schweinsteiger.

And in Spain you’ve got Barça’s Xavi and Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema. Why EA wouldn’t put the most expensive player ever*, Cristiano Ronaldo, on the cover, I have no idea. Presumably it’s a rights/money thing.

I do not know who’ll be on the cover of the U.S. version, since I’m waiting for EA’s little Web site to update. Presumably it’ll have Rooney and an American from the MLS like Alan Gordon or Landon Donovan. Or, if EA really wants to boosts sales of the game here, it should put Lebron James.

Meanwhile, Ronaldinho, a cover athlete from FIFA 09 was last seen partying it up in Barcelona.

I also see that Buraka Som Sistema will be in the game in the form of “Kalemba (Wegue – Wegue).” When I was in Lisbon in February that song was on he radio every two minutes.

Also: why is everyone, save for Benzema, screaming? I smell a meme!

*Actually, I think Real Madrid paid €75 million for Zidane back in 2001, and I’m pretty sure €75 million in 2001 was worth more than £80 million in 2009. Inflation is a pain in the neck.

I’m sure you’ve all heard by now, but just in case: Fedor will not be fighting in the UFC any time soon, as he has signed a contract with rival promotion Strikeforce. So if you’re were hoping, one day, to see him fight Brock Lesnar, well, it looks like you’re out of luck.

The only reason I mention this here, instead of mmacrunch.com, is because Fedor is the marquee signing for EA’s upcoming MMA game. UFC president seemed ready to make an exception to his “if you appear in the EA game, you’ll never fight in UFC” rule, offering Fedor an “assload of money” to fight.

Who exactly Fedor will fight in Strikeforce is still unknown. He said in a press release that “Strikeforce is a top fight promotion that houses some of the greatest fighters in the world,” and that he is prepared to fight “any of them.”

It should be noted that Strikeforce, to quote comedian Patrice Oneal, is the WNBA of mixed martial arts. It’s nice that it exists, sure, but you don’t watch it thinking you’re getting the absolute best, elite fighters.

Dana White has since called Fedor a “joke,” and said that he “feel[s] sorry for the real fight fans. I wanted to make the deal, but it takes two and it is very obvious Fedor doesn’t want to fight the best, and doesn’t give a shit about the fans.”

That Dana, always one with words.

A dream died yesterday, and as a newer fan of UFC I can honestly saw that I saw more than a little bummed out when I first found out about Fedor-Strikeforce.

And that’s probably the last I’ll talk about the story here. If the worlds—MMA and tech—collide again, there I’ll be.

Here’s an update to something I touched on the other day: Does Fedor’s inclusion in EA’s MMA video game preclude him from fighting in the UFC? Apparently not, if you believe what UFC president Dana White said at a press conference yesterday.

The press conference yesterday addressed a number of issues, including the return of Tito Ortiz and a deal with ESPN UK. (ESPN is launching a new channel in the UK, primarily to showcase all the Premiership games it just won the rights to.) But what concerns us here at CrunchGear is that EA MMA game.

Dana White has said in the past that anyone, with the exception of Randy Coture, who signs up to be in the EA game will not fight in the UFC. Fedor looks to be another exception. White said that he offered Fedor an “assload of money,” a deal that he’ll never find anywhere else in mixed martial arts. For whatever reason, Fedor’s people didn’t agree to the deal. (Rumor has it that Fedor’s people want to co-promote any possible UFC fight, presumably against Brock Lesnar, something that UFC doesn’t want to agree to.)

So, reading between the lines, Fedor’s inclusion in the EA game should have no effect on any possible UFC fight(s). Other things may hold up the deal, but it doesn’t look to be the game.

Looks like Fedor Emelianenko will, in fact, be in the upcoming EA MMA video game. Fedor, as he’s known to MMA fans, currently fights in M-1 Global, which is an MMA organization based in Russia. (YouTube helps here.)

This could have consequences further down the road. Pretty much every MMA fan in the world wants to see Fedor fight in the UFC; most of those fans, I would guess, would want him to fight Brock Lesnar, who just gave Frank Mir a thorough talking-to. The only problem is that Dana White, who’s sort of the Vince McMahon of UFC (he’s actually the president of the company, but he also performs a public “look at me!” role like Vince McMahon does/used to), has gone on record, time and again, as sayingthat anyone who appears in the upcoming EA MMA game will never fight in the UFC. (Yes, Randy Coture is the exception to this rule.)

Why is Mr. White resorting to such measures?

I went to EA Sports. Know what EA Sports said? ‘It’s not a sport. This isn’t a sport. We would never get involved in something like this.’ We come out with a video game [UFC Undisputed, the best selling game of the quarter] and now they want to come out with a video game? (Expletive) you.

(Also, Dave Meltzer, the guy whose story that quote comes from, could be the greatest journalist alive today.)

So, in summary, Fedor’s appearance in the EA game complicates matters. Now, because Lesnar vs. Fedor has money written all over it, especially if neither of the two lose any upcoming fights, you’d have to think that Dana White would re-consider his stance.

Fedor isn’t getting any younger, and I’d like to see him and Lesnar go at it before the sun runs out hydrogen.

I can guarantee than maybe 5 percent of you have ever heard of Swindon Town Football Club, but the team’s partnership with EA FIFA 10 should make them a powerhouse in the Manchester City sense sooner rather than later. For this season, and this season only, the team’s players will be running around the pitch with the FIFA 10 logo emblazoned on their chests.

Football and video games have a celebrated history. Who can forget seeing Thierry Henry running up and down the pitch with the Dreamcast logo on his chest when he played for Arsenal?

“Superdepor” also had the Dreamcast logo for a bit.

And MLS fans know that Seattle Sounders is sponsored by Microsoft/Xbox 360.

Now let us never mention yesterday’s Gold Cup loss ever again (even though it was a B team at best).

EA has finally dated Battlefield 1943 and it’s coming to the Xbox 360 Live Marketplace on July 8th with a PlayStation Network launch the following day. The critically acclaimed WWII title will cost $15 on PSN or 1200 MS Points and will only take up 560MB of space. A 24-player online battle royale? Count me in. PC gamers will have to wait until September, though.

We came, we saw, we played.

Sega

Alpha Protocol: We first saw AP at last year’s E3 and things are looking quite good for Sega’s upcoming “modern-day spy RPG”. It’s currently in Alpha and is scheduled for a late Fall launch on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. It plays like a shooter with sprinklings of RPG thrown in to mix it up.

To recap: the main protagonist is Michael Thorton and he’s still out to save the world. As Thorton you can upgrade weapons in the “black market” like you would in Dead Space. Mini games are also in effect throughout the game and they’re akin to the mini games you might find in BioShock. There will be roughly 25 hours and the last mission has various endings depending on which path you choose to take. A “Fury” mode slows down the gameplay that allows Thorton to close in on enemies for hand to hand combat.

Aliens vs Predator: Rebellion makes a comeback on this upcoming Sega title that revisits and improves on their first AVP title that came out in 1999. AVP takes place 30 years after Aliens 3. Behind closed doors I saw a bit of the Marine campaign mode while E3 attendees checked out Predator campaign (or was it Alien?). To be honest it looked like any other FPS, but with Aliens and Predators hunting down your Marine ass. In other words, I liked it. There are three separate campaign modes that let you experience the thrill of the hunt from each side, but they all follow the same narrative story. Rebellion confirmed that AVP will have online multiplayer but failed to divulge any other details during the private demo. It’s set for an early simultaneous 2010 launch for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

The Conduit: Without a doubt, the best FPS for the Wii with amazing graphics that would have you think you’re on an Xbox 360 or PS3. Online multiplayer is fantastic and the weapons in the game are badass. What sets the title apart from other Wii FPS titles is the amount of in-game control you have over controller settings. You can tweak the settings to make them as precise as you want. Just like you would on a PC. But the comparisons end there. It’s a start, though. And a damn good one at that.

EA

NHL10: I’m not a hockey buff or fan, but EA had a compelling demo to make me want to play their upcoming hockey title, NHL 10. I especially enjoyed the first person fighting. If you’re getting whooped on your screen gradually gets darker and darker to indicate that you’re about to lose the fight. If your star player gets hassled then the team’s tough guys come in to protect him. On the board play was also improved and lets players protect the puck like you would in real life. You can kick the puck away; pin an opponent to the glass and AI even comes over to help out. The fans also bang on the glass to replicate a real life hockey game. EA stated that passing was also improved from past releases with a full control passing scheme that lets you control speed and accuracy. The default setting is a hybrid control scheme between full control and assisted control. There have been over 200 improvements that include the ability to shoot from your knees and leg kicks to fake a shot.

FIFA 10: You might not believe it but the US ranks second behind the UK in sales for the FIFA franchise. The FIFA teamed scoured the forums to find out what gamers wanted improvements on for FIFA 10 and the 70 percent of the work went into improving the game based on those criticisms and critiques. Manager Mode features 50 new improvements, but the biggest improvement has to be the 360 degrees of dribbling. You can push the ball anywhere, make small lateral touches, and make minute directional changes. There’s also a bit more contact when going for the ball so it feels authentic!

Dragon Age Origins: Set to launch on October 20th of this year. I’m not big into RPGs like this, but making video game characters do the humpty hump intrigues me. During my private demo, the BioWare devs bedded loner, sorceress, hottie Morrigan pissing off a fine red-headed Irish lass by the name of Leliana. If it’s from BioWare it has to be good, right?

Dante’s Inferno: Video game adaptation of the Divine Comedy (duh). Your goal is to save Beatrice. Your weapons include Death’s scythe and a cross that Beatrice once gave us a gift. As you can imagine, each level is one of the nine Circles of Hell and you begin in Limbo with unbaptized children terrorizing you among other beastly creatures. Graphics were stunning and at 60fps, gameplay is quite smooth. Dante collects souls as currency in the game and has the ability to absolve or punish characters that pop up throughout the game. Reload times in between deaths is amazingly quick. Fun fact: protestors were on hand at the EA booth handing out flyers to get the game banned.

Mass Effect 2: Is Shepherd dead? Well, BioWare made it clear that ME was a trilogy, so you should be able to figure that one out assuming you survived the first game. If you did then you can import your ME game into ME2. So make sure you survive ME2 so you can import it into ME3. Weapon effects, like head shots have been improved and there are now 90 weapons classes to choose from. An “interrupt” option has been implemented in the real time dialogue system that pops up in the bottom left corner of the screen. What I saw during my demo was a confrontation between Shepherd and a mercenary (or something, I don’t remember what he was) that resulted in Shepherd pushing him through a window that he was leaning up against. In this scenario, the player has the option of acting on the “interrupt” whether he/she/it chooses to do so.

So the question remains whether or not Shepherd is dead. BioWare debuted a short cinematic trailer with the Normandy going down and Shepherd trying to save a crewmember. In the process, the ship gets hit one more time and Shepherd is seen floating off into space with very little oxygen. BioWare promises numerous endings based on the team you pick, so you best be picking a strong one.

Lucas Arts

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Three new features were revealed last week at E3 and that includes a new class, cover system and multiplayer dialogue, but I won’t go into the latter since it’s a bit dry and you can probably figure out what happens.

New class: Han Solo-like character that’s a gunrunner for the Republic. Weapons at his disposal include flash bang grenades, pistol, and nut kicking moves, literally.

Cover system: For the first time in an MMO, TOR has a cover system that works much like cover systems you’ll find in console FPS games. However, there are multiple points in one section, behind a boulder for instance, that give players better coverage or a better shot on enemies.

2K

BioShock 2: OMG!!! Multiplayer on the Xbox 360 for BioShock 2 is the new hotness. The demo I saw took place at the Kashmir Restaurant and pitted six players against one another in a deathmatch. Weapons, thus far, aren’t anything new and include a pistol, shotgun and three elemental plasmids (Winter Blast, Incinerate and Electro Bolt). I just started playing through BioShock again and I kind of like the fact that it’s a single player shooter. It’s my hope that 2K reveals a multitude of multiplayer exclusive weapons. But playing as a Big Daddy is pretty damn cool in and of itself. Just be sure to find the suit before anyone else.

WB

Scribblenauts: A quirky DS game that makes you think outside the box. It’s simple, really. You have one simple task each level and that is to obtain a Starite. How you obtain it is up to you. For example, one level might have a Starite dangling from the ceiling so you have to figure out what objects you might need to get it. Type or scribble “ladder” or “lasso” and you just might have yourself a Starite. You can use anything you can think of to get the object of your desire. It’s a simple game, but probably one of the biggest titles to come to the Nintendo handheld this year.

Capcom

Lost Planet 2: More or less the same thing we saw in the first LP. I didn’t notice anything different, but that’s not to say it wasn’t fun to play. I also didn’t play for very long.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles: I can’t really say anything negative about the Darkside Chronicles. It’s a Resident Evil title and it’s good, but any other FPS besides The Conduit is pretty meh at this point.

“I read the poem and thought right away, ‘That could be a video game.’” Oh, god. Here’s a Dante’s Inferno “developers diary.” Try to watch it without laughing.

And while we’re at it, we here at crunch gear dot com can now present, exclusively, the leaked minutes of the meeting where it was decided to make the game. Names have been changed to protect identities.

Setting: An Arby’s. Because why not?

Characters: A middle manager (MM), male, late 30s; a character designer (CD), male, mid 20s; an intern (IT), female, early 20s.

The characters go to Arby’s for lunch, after yet another boring morning not doing anything in particular

MM: So what are you guys gettin’?

CD: I don’t know, something with chicken probably. I don’t want anything too greasy.

IT: Same here. Nothing crazy.

MM: Come on, guys, live a little! It’s not every day that your boss takes you out to a great place like this, AMIRITE?

CD: Eh, maybe I’ll have a coffee for desert, one of those fancies ones with cream or whatever.

IT: Yeah, that sounds good.

MM: Excellent, great. Good. Man, guys, I’ve been thinking…

CD and IT: Thinking what?

MM: Well, quite frankly, I’ve been thinking about picking out of famous book or story or something, you know from the old days, like Shakespeare-type stuff, then turning that into a video game.

CD: That could be neat, sure. What did you have in mind?

MM: It doesn’t really matter; I have a vision. Like, for example, what’s the story with all the circles of hell or whatever? Something Inferno something?

IT: Dante’s Inferno? I just read that for a class last year.

MM: Yeah, that’s it! OK, get this: how about we, I don’t know, turn it into a God of War clone? That game came out of nowhere and now it’s pretty much the last great PS3 exclusive. Man, what a load of junk that system turned out to be. Anyway, we need a piece of the action. We can’t afford another Mirror’s Edge; I got higher-ups demanding a certifiable hit.

IT: Um, I don’t know. I don’t know that Dante’s Inferno can really be turned into an action game. It’s sorta different. The whole poem is called The Divine Comedy, not sure if you’re aware of that.

MM: Oh, bullshit! What does it matter? Do you think the 14-year-old boy who’ll be playing it really gives a damn about “authenticity” or whatever? We just need to make it look cool. You can do that, right?

CD: God of War does have some pretty interesting character designs. I could probably whip something up on the back of this napkin here.

MM: Good, go for it. Service here is terrible anyway, it’ll be a while before we get our food.

CD: Sure thing.

The character designer takes one of the crayons, provided by the restaurant to keep children busy, and starts drawing away

IT: Again, not to talk out of turn or anything, but I’m really not sure that we’d be able to make an action game out of the Divine Comedy. It’s sorta… it’s just not what it is.

MM: Oh Jesus H. Christ, no one cares! Don’t you see! All we need to do is take a few characters from the story, throw together some cool-looking Hell-world, and we’re all set. It’ll sell, believe me.

IT: Oh I don’t doubt that it’ll sell, but I’m just concerned that people could see the game as a crass exploitation of a treasured work of art, created soly for our own benefit.

MM: Well duh, what else do you expect? We’re EA! Why do you think we keep pumping out Madden every year? Because of our integrity?! I’m telling you, we make sure the game has a bunch of quick time events and those idiots out there will eat it up.

IT: I don’t know…

MM: Look, if you’re not OK with us trampling all over the story for a quick buck, there’s the door. You’re just an intern, what do you know?

IT: I do know that Dante doesn’t sashay around Hell like Ryu fucking Hayabusa. Do you even know who that is?

MM: Of course, he’s the guy from Street Fighter.

IT: Holy mother of God, you’re ridiculous.

MM: Look, kid, don’t bother coming back to the office after we’re done here. In fact, now you’re paying for your own meal.

IT: Fine. Have fun defending the game on X-Play in front of hundreds of people.

MM: Shut up. So how’s the character design coming along? Let me see.

The middle manager swipes the napkin away from the character designer

CD: Yeah, I just sorta took every monster from God of War and put my own spin on it.

MM: Hey man, this looks pretty great. Oh, do you think we could make the horns a little spikier?

CD: Absolutely.

MM: Excellent.

fin.

“I like the Natal,” he says. “That’s cool. It’s an interesting device, so I’m truly impressed by Xbox. It’s my personal favourite console… I think Microsoft is on a roll right now. They’re doing really well. If I was Sony, I would have a headache, to be honest.”

And then he sort of changes his mind.

“Sony has a lot of good games this year. If you go to their booth, there’s a very consistent, high quality product line-up and that will help them. I do think that we’ll see developers inside the organisation getting to understand the PS3 better and I think that we’re getting more power out of PS3 right now… I think that we’ve maxed out the 360 but we haven’t maxed out the PS3.”

via OXM UK

Why can’t the movies be like the Star Wars games?

We’re live at EA’s press conference here at E3 in Los Angeles…

• 4:42 PM: Devin Coldewey Yo. We’re Live at EA’s press conf. Still a while before it goes live. Looped animations, Clif bars and an asset drive full of stuff we’ve already seen. Get ready for some Mass Effect 2 footage though, we’ll get it up as fast as is humanly possible.
• 4:42 PM: Devin Coldewey
• 4:50 PM: ThePeterHa Devin, any power outlets in there?
• 4:50 PM: ThePeterHa ROFL
• 5:02 PM: Devin Coldewey Damn, this wifi is spotty as hell
• 5:04 PM: Devin Coldewey Lights are dimming. I’m so excited! And I just can’t hide it!
• 5:05 PM: Devin Coldewey starting right off with a trailer. Looks like Dragon Age: Origins.
• 5:05 PM: ThePeterHa test
• 5:06 PM: Devin Coldewey Neeeever mind. Dante’s Inferno.
• 5:06 PM: ThePeterHa EA and Visceral want us to “Go to Hell”
• 5:07 PM: Devin Coldewey Can’t get any sense of gameplay. Cinematic trailer. John Riccitiello is talking about the people here, etc…
• 5:07 PM: ThePeterHa Didn’t Sims 3 get leaked the other week?
• 5:08 PM: Devin Coldewey John is EA’s CEO. Showing Sims 3 now, which of course leaked onto torrent sites last week
• 5:08 PM: ThePeterHa I think NA downloaded it
• 5:08 PM: ThePeterHa 12 games will be showcased today from EA.
• 5:09 PM: ThePeterHa “The Wii is a spectacular platform.”
• 5:09 PM: ThePeterHa Chip Lang from Hasbro is on stage
• 5:09 PM: ThePeterHa *from the Hasbro division
• 5:10 PM: ThePeterHa Littlest Pet Shop. Over 2 million girls played the previous title. Three new adventures are coming: Country, City, Beach.
• 5:10 PM: Devin Coldewey
• 5:10 PM: ThePeterHa Coming to the Wii and DS.
• 5:11 PM: ThePeterHa Devin, wake me up when this press conf gets exciting.
• 5:11 PM: Devin Coldewey Got a daughter? Want her to spend all her time with a pretend plush dog? This is the game for you.
• 5:11 PM: Devin Coldewey
• 5:12 PM: Devin Coldewey You too, reader, can make friends in Littlest Pet Shop Online. Fall 2009. twee!
• 5:12 PM: ThePeterHa Charm Girls Club
• 5:12 PM: ThePeterHa BFFs
• 5:13 PM: ThePeterHa Are we at the right press conference?
• 5:13 PM: ThePeterHa “EA Girl”
• 5:14 PM: Devin Coldewey Speed hair teasing! on the wii!
• 5:15 PM: ThePeterHa Is this Sweet Valley High?
• 5:15 PM: ThePeterHa LOL
• 5:15 PM: ThePeterHa Now onto Need for Speed Shift
• 5:15 PM: ThePeterHa 3 things to remember from this presentation
• 5:16 PM: ThePeterHa Cockpit view completely redefines the driving experience
• 5:16 PM: ThePeterHa New driver profile in Shift
• 5:16 PM: Devin Coldewey BFF games – Charm Girls Club being previewed so the girls they brought can clear out before the Dead Space expansion trailer.
• 5:16 PM: Devin Coldewey Are we at the EA press conference Peter, or Toys R Us
• 5:17 PM: ThePeterHa Video died and they’re restarting
• 5:18 PM: Devin Coldewey No matter what you stay in the race. Nobody loses!
• 5:19 PM: ThePeterHa Demo with an M3 from the cockpit view
• 5:19 PM: ThePeterHa Is this bumper cars or street racing?
• 5:20 PM: ThePeterHa The gentleman playing just crashed into a railing
• 5:20 PM: Devin Coldewey Nice framerate… looks good. Better than Prostreet anyhow.
• 5:20 PM: ThePeterHa Oh jeez. EA is giving away a BMW M3.
• 5:20 PM: ThePeterHa Now we’re onto Dragon Age Origins
• 5:21 PM: ThePeterHa Violence, lust, betrayal are what we can expect from DAO
• 5:21 PM: ThePeterHa New in-game footage coming up
• 5:23 PM: ThePeterHa Sex scenes
• 5:23 PM: ThePeterHa How naughty
• 5:23 PM: ThePeterHa We’ll have video coming up
• 5:23 PM: ThePeterHa October 20th launch date
• 5:23 PM: ThePeterHa Mass Effect 2 is coming up
• 5:24 PM: ThePeterHa Shepherd is a “kickass hero”
• 5:25 PM: ThePeterHa ME2 is coming early next year
• 5:25 PM: ThePeterHa New trailer is being shown now.
• 5:25 PM: ThePeterHa “chances of survival are slim.”
• 5:26 PM: ThePeterHa The soundtrack sounds pretty righteous
• 5:26 PM: ThePeterHa This looks like a cleaned up version of what was leaked at GDC
• 5:27 PM: ThePeterHa Now onto EA’s bread and butter
• 5:27 PM: ThePeterHa football, tennis, golf, basketball
• 5:27 PM: ThePeterHa and hockey
• 5:27 PM: ThePeterHa and boxing
• 5:27 PM: ThePeterHa and soccer
• 5:27 PM: ThePeterHa Peter Moore now on stage
• 5:28 PM: ThePeterHa applause
• 5:28 PM: ThePeterHa cheers
• 5:28 PM: ThePeterHa The most diverse product portfolio is coming up
• 5:28 PM: ThePeterHa To start things off is Fight Night Round 4
• 5:29 PM: ThePeterHa Visuals and gameplay have been updated
• 5:29 PM: ThePeterHa Demo on the Xbox 360 coming up
• 5:29 PM: ThePeterHa Moore says his dream fight would be Tyson vs Ali
• 5:29 PM: ThePeterHa 60fps as opposed to 30fps from FNR3
• 5:30 PM: ThePeterHa updated physics engine
• 5:30 PM: ThePeterHa Ali just knocked out Tyson
• 5:31 PM: ThePeterHa Reach and height make a big difference in FNR4 because of the new physics engine
• 5:31 PM: ThePeterHa everything is “dynamically driven”
• 5:31 PM: ThePeterHa “sweat, blood spray, muscle contractions”
• 5:31 PM: ThePeterHa demo over
• 5:32 PM: ThePeterHa FNR4 is coming a week earlyu
• 5:32 PM: ThePeterHa launching June 25
• 5:32 PM: ThePeterHa EA is coming to MMA
• 5:32 PM: ThePeterHa Coming in 2010. Well under development at Tiburon.
• 5:33 PM: ThePeterHa
• 5:34 PM: ThePeterHa
• 5:34 PM: ThePeterHa FIFA 09 Ultimate Team had 1.3 million downloads
• 5:34 PM: ThePeterHa Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online coming this fall
• 5:34 PM: ThePeterHa no disc needed
• 5:35 PM: ThePeterHa EA Sports World launched today to track stats
• 5:35 PM: ThePeterHa “Connected Features”
• 5:35 PM: ThePeterHa Lots of user generated content
• 5:35 PM: ThePeterHa All from your desktop
• 5:36 PM: ThePeterHa customize stadiums, uniforms, etc.
• 5:36 PM: ThePeterHa “Team Builder”
• 5:36 PM: ThePeterHa for NCAA Football 10
• 5:37 PM: ThePeterHa Get started now so you can have you custom team ready to go when the game launches next month
• 5:37 PM: ThePeterHa Madden 10 online franchise
• 5:37 PM: ThePeterHa iPhone App for Madden 10
• 5:38 PM: ThePeterHa And now onto the Wii
• 5:38 PM: ThePeterHa Active was launched two weeks ago
• 5:39 PM: ThePeterHa Moore is extremely proud of EA Sports Active.
• 5:41 PM: ThePeterHa Allison Sween or whatever her name from Biggest Loser is now on stage to talk about EA’s “new platform”
• 5:41 PM: ThePeterHa She’s now a size 4
• 5:41 PM: ThePeterHa She’s thanking EA Sports Active for that
• 5:42 PM: ThePeterHa Moore and Sweeney are chatting about nonsense now
• 5:42 PM: ThePeterHa EA moved 600k units of Active
• 5:42 PM: ThePeterHa This coming holiday is the first DLC for Active
• 5:43 PM: ThePeterHa 13 new exercises and activities
• 5:43 PM: ThePeterHa currently in development
• 5:43 PM: ThePeterHa Paddle boarding
• 5:43 PM: ThePeterHa squash
• 5:43 PM: ThePeterHa
• 5:43 PM: ThePeterHa
• 5:44 PM: ThePeterHa Grand Slam Tennis launches next week
• 5:44 PM: ThePeterHa I played GST a few weeks back
• 5:44 PM: ThePeterHa And it works great with WiiMotion Plus
• 5:44 PM: ThePeterHa You can slice your shots
• 5:44 PM: ThePeterHa Throw up a lob
• 5:45 PM: ThePeterHa Pete Sampras is walking on stage
• 5:45 PM: ThePeterHa Pete is standing behind Moore
• 5:45 PM: ThePeterHa Moore doesn’t know he’s there
• 5:45 PM: ThePeterHa And now Moore sees him
• 5:46 PM: ThePeterHa Sampras is now strapping in and playing against the GST producer
• 5:46 PM: ThePeterHa Wimbledon is in GST, which is a first
• 5:47 PM: ThePeterHa Moore asks Sampras how this compares to the real thing
• 5:47 PM: ThePeterHa Pete says, “it’s easier.”
• 5:48 PM: ThePeterHa
• 5:48 PM: ThePeterHa Now onto The Saboteur
• 5:48 PM: ThePeterHa
• 5:48 PM: ThePeterHa
• 5:50 PM: ThePeterHa WWII game from Pandemic in case you don’t know what’s goin on
• 5:50 PM: ThePeterHa The particular demo we’re seeing takes place in Paris
• 5:51 PM: ThePeterHa There’s a vast world that Pandemic built for this game
• 5:51 PM: ThePeterHa It’s mostly black and white with spots of color
• 5:51 PM: ThePeterHa We’ll have video later tonight
• 5:52 PM: ThePeterHa The objective in this demo is to blow up a gas depot of some sort
• 5:52 PM: ThePeterHa there are various hiding spots, like the redlight district
• 5:53 PM: ThePeterHa Coming this holiday season
• 5:54 PM: ThePeterHa Tim Schafer from Double Fine productions is now on stage to talk about Brutal Legend
• 5:55 PM: ThePeterHa Tim’s talking about all the rock legends that he wanted to see in this game
• 5:56 PM: ThePeterHa Lenny Kilmister’s character is being shown
• 5:56 PM: ThePeterHa he’s a Killmaster
• 5:57 PM: ThePeterHa Ozzy is the “Guardian of Metal”
• 5:58 PM: ThePeterHa
• 5:58 PM: ThePeterHa
• 5:59 PM: ThePeterHa *Lemmy Kilmister. may bad.
• 5:59 PM: ThePeterHa Lita Ford will also be in the game
• 5:59 PM: ThePeterHa Jack Black is the voice of Eddie Riggs
• 6:00 PM: ThePeterHa Brutal Legends comes out on October 13
• 6:02 PM: ThePeterHa Cevat Yerli from Crytek is now on stage
• 6:02 PM: ThePeterHa Crytek is working with EA on Crysis 2
• 6:02 PM: ThePeterHa Crysis 2 will be coming to the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3
• 6:03 PM: ThePeterHa All thanks to CryEngine 3
• 6:03 PM: ThePeterHa More details to come later this year
• 6:03 PM: ThePeterHa No demo or video of C2
• 6:04 PM: ThePeterHa EA has inked a new partnership with Realtime Worlds
• 6:04 PM: ThePeterHa All Points Bulletin is the new title
• 6:04 PM: ThePeterHa “online city full of life, streets full of vehicles, thousands of pedestrians”
• 6:05 PM: ThePeterHa Customizable characters
• 6:05 PM: ThePeterHa This is an MMO
• 6:05 PM: ThePeterHa
• 6:05 PM: ThePeterHa
• 6:06 PM: ThePeterHa
• 6:06 PM: ThePeterHa
• 6:07 PM: ThePeterHa Trailer for APB being shown
• 6:07 PM: ThePeterHa We’ll upload this video as well soon
• 6:07 PM: ThePeterHa Star Wars!!!
• 6:07 PM: ThePeterHa WHoa
• 6:07 PM: ThePeterHa Lots of Jedis on stage
• 6:08 PM: ThePeterHa With varying lightsabers
• 6:08 PM: ThePeterHa Two jedis are walking down the aisle to the stage
• 6:08 PM: ThePeterHa Bioware and Lucas are showing off Star Wars The Old Republic
• 6:09 PM: ThePeterHa PC MMO
• 6:10 PM: ThePeterHa TOR will be the first fully voiced MMO
• 6:10 PM: ThePeterHa Thousands of lines of dialogue
• 6:11 PM: ThePeterHa The first cinematic trailer is now being shown
• 6:12 PM: ThePeterHa There’s a lady boba fett
• 6:12 PM: ThePeterHa bounty hunter, i mean
• 6:14 PM: ThePeterHa Wow
• 6:14 PM: ThePeterHa The Jedis just got pwned
• 6:15 PM: ThePeterHa And that’s a wrap
• 6:16 PM: ThePeterHa We’ll be back in two hours from the Ubi press conf
• 6:16 PM: ThePeterHa Devin and I will be uploading video in the meantime

EA is going the online-only route this year for the computer version of the Tiger Woods golf franchise, called Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online. That’s good in the sense that it’ll be Mac compatible too, updates should be automatic, and you’ll be able to play from any computer.

It’s bad in the sense that you’ll need to be connected to the internet to play the game. While EA doesn’t come right out and say it, this is almost surely to prevent piracy. Expect other game developers to keep a close eye on how well this online-only thing works for EA. If it works, it may reinvigorate the PC gaming market somewhat in the face of certain developers going console-only and it’ll certainly make for a decent Mac game.

The graphics look okay, although it’ll be interesting to see how many visual corners are cut in order to deliver a browser-based experience. Pricing hasn’t been set yet, either, but don’t expect to pay $19.99 and be done with it, as EA says that the game “will be offered through a multi-tiered subscription in fall of 2009.”

Translation: This is the last Tiger Woods game we’re making for the computer and we’ll just keep updating it constantly. That’s actually not a bad idea, as many people have complained that some of EA’s other sports titles seem to merely feature incremental tweaks and roster updates year after year. Those subscription prices will need to be low, though, as we’re all used to paying $20 to $40 per year for PC versions of EA Sports’ boxed games. I love the Tiger Woods games but I’d be a hard sell to even pay $5 per month for an online version. I might go for $2.99 per month. Might.

Full press release:

EA Revolutionalizes Sports Gaming with Ground-Breaking Tiger Woods PGA TOUR(R) Online

Authentic Golf Simulation Streamed Directly to Your Browser

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., May 29, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Electronic Arts Inc., (NASDAQ: ERTS) announced today that EA Tiburon, the development studio of the best-selling* golf simulation Tiger Woods PGA TOUR(R) franchise, is introducing an innovative and ground-breaking new product – Tiger Woods PGA TOUR(R) Online. Available this fall, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online is an authentic golf simulation experience that is dynamically streamed to a web browser and requires no game installation, no disc, and no additional peripherals. This game is easily accessible and available anywhere, via a web browser and an internet connection.

“Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online is for anyone who loves golf and is on-the-go,” said Executive Producer Mike Taramykin. “Whether you have ten minutes on your PC in the office, or hours on your Mac at home, this is a golf game that makes time for you. With Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online, golf lovers can satisfy their golf fix anytime.”

Stuck at the airport waiting for a flight? If you have an internet connection, just open up your computer and fire up Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online! The game is literally just a click away and has high resolution 3D graphics, delivers a feature rich experience and will be regularly updated with new features.

At launch, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online will include several world class championship courses, such as Pebble Beach, TPC Sawgrass and St. Andrews, while additional new courses will be available on a regular basis. In addition, a fully stocked schedule of tournaments and multiple community features, allowing fans to connect and compete with friends, makes Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online a community for all golf fans. This community will help shape the game’s evolution, including features such as new course additions, pro shop items, and even tournament conditions.

Your time is at a premium and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online is designed to work around your schedule – suspend play and resume from the exact same point at a later time. Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online will be the most accessible and feature-rich golf video game experience available on any personal computer.

Tiger Woods PGA TOUR Online will be offered through a multi-tiered subscription in fall of 2009.

[via Joystiq]

Ahead of E3, EA announced earlier today that Dead Space Extraction for the Wii will ship to retailers on September 29 in North America and on October 2 in Europe. If it’s anything like the original Dead Space then I’ll be waiting in line to get Extraction for the Wii.

Developed at EA’s award-winning Visceral Games studio, Dead Space Extraction tells the story of a handful of space colonists desperately struggling to escape from a horrific infection on the Aegis VII mining colony deep in the furthest regions of space. The game introduces Lexine, an important new heroine, to the Dead Space universe. Players will play as the crew who falls victim to a mysterious contagion aboard the ship, with it quickly becoming clear that protecting Lexine will be their only hope for survival.