Category: DS

Electronic Arts E3 Press Conference

Electronic Arts’ press conference can be summed up in four words: Casual, Sports, Mature, and Bioware.

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Electronic Arts’ press conference can be summed up in four words: Casual, Sports, Mature, and Bioware.

Electronic Arts split it’s company up into four different divisions in 2007 and 2009 is reaping the rewards for doing just that. Each division of the company had there own games to share and each showed potential to take a firm grasp of the gamer this year and next.

EA Sims started the cavalcade of games with a trailer for the new game that will be out today.  The game looks very polished from the last two and is very much more a city of activity then the former two games.

EA Casual was up next with the announcement of a few girl-focussed games. These included three Littlest Pet Shop coming to DS and one for the Wii. Littlest Pet Shop also will have a toy and online community much like Webkins coming soon. EA Casual also showed off Charm Girls Club games for the Wii and DS. These games are specifically to tween girls.

Next,  EA Games’ division showed off their line up with videos of Dante’s Inferno (Disturbing), Need for Speed: Shift, Crysis 2, APB, The Saboteur and Brutal Legend.

EA Sports came up next with probably their strongest ever lineup of sports games including a new onlie editor for NCAA Football 2010, Franchise Management for Madden 10 (inclucding iPhone apps) and online browser based Tiger Woods PGA Tour.  EA also showed off its fighting game Fight Night Round 4 and its newest franchise, EA Sports MMA.

Bioware finished the show with a huge bang including videos of their next two games, Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins, as well as the continuation of their Knights of the Old Republic series:  Star Wars: The Old Republic. Bioware says the game will be fully voiced with all NPC’s being fully voiced as well as the main charachters and villans

Warner Bros Gets Lord of the Rings

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Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment now has partnered with The Saul Zaentz Company and New Line Productions, for literary and film rights to develop and publish games based on The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Get ready for tons of new merchandise!

The first game is a third-person action adventure title called The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest. It’ll be available on Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 and PSP in Fall 2009.

The game is described as:

In The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest, preparations are underway in Hobbiton for a great party to welcome Aragorn, King of Gondor, and honor Samwise Gamgee for his service during the War of the Ring. The children of the town are eager to learn more of this great man and so Samwise, now Mayor, embarks on a tale of the revered warrior, Strider—as Aragorn is known in his Ranger days—and his most valiant battles. Players assume the role of Aragorn and embark on his greatest quests from The Lord of the Rings trilogy as they wield his sword, bow or spear on foot and on horseback through an action-packed gameplay experience.

On the Wii platform, two-player co-op gameplay featuring Gandalf will allow kids, families and friends to work together in the heart of the action.

Information you need – Edinburgh Interactive Festival

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As events go the Edinburgh Interactive Festival is among the most prestigious for those involved in the gaming industry. It’s been announced that GameStation will be acting as the retail partner for the event again this year. What it means for the everyday man is special discounts at the event when going to purchase games at their on-site store.

There are also a few good points to Gamestations involvement for the Scottish public at large with a one-off pre-festival launch event scheduled at the Gamestation store on Prices Street in Edinburgh in August featuring giveaways and competitions. While full details are still coming the Gamestation website will be updated with full info near the end of July.

In addition a highlight for all at the festival is the public screenings programme. It allows members of the public to preview in person some of the biggest games before they are released in addition to asking those involved questions about the games involved and offers a glimpse into their development. Most screening sessions are around 45-60 minutes long so its not a 30 second gameplay clip in most cases. It’s most of the perks that the press get only without the annoying writing to justify the freebies!

While the screenings are a ticket only affair they are free of charge with the tickets available in any Gamestation branch in Scotland. A download & print version for those outside Scotland can also be found on the Gamestation website from June 10th.

EA Revamps NFS Series, Splits it into 3 Franchises

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EA has decided to hit the restart button and split the franchise into 3 different franchises: ‘core’, ‘casual’ and MMO.
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