Electronic Arts have been criticized heavily by almost everyone for being the Microsoft of the gaming industry.The fact is though that EA have been the torch carriers for a number of key gaming issues that have been left in the dust by the new, upcoming developers and publishers.
One example of this is the long running idea of full motion video (aka cutscenes) in games. If you take a look at any of the big games from the last few years published by companies other than EA chances are you won’t find any FMV sequences as it’s all gone the way of CGI’d efforts. While CGI can display more and depending on the way it’s produced is cheaper there is a lot to be said in favor of the old style Command & Conquer efforts made famous by the game series. If you take the last few years of Need for Speed, all but Pro Street included FMV and while not to be taken seriously the games probably made sales just based in the inclusion of real actors over CGI efforts and voice-overs.
Electronic Arts is not the bad guy or the corporate monster it’s made out to be, it’s just a company that has been catering the most users without taking risks for decades. Some would consider that a bad thing but on occasion it’s nice to know that when you pick up a racing game it’s not going to have any hidden surprises. FMV should continue being used long into the future and if EA decide not to use it in C&C or NFS in the future a long running example of quality will no longer exist. Image from Need for Speed: Most Wanted.
After EA’s witchhunt and banning of Spore Porn, you’d think Will Wright would think the same. Looks like he doesn’t. Will is not only unoffended by Spore Porn (as tastefully pictured above), but also appreciated how accurately the creators hit what they were aiming for (pun? Must investigate).
“When you give players creative control, you have to expect they’re going to do the unexpected,” says the Procedural Generation lord. Not surprising. I mean, you give an easy-to-use content creation application to Internet inhabitants: you’d have to be whacked not to expect porn.
“It’s amazingly explicit, especially when those creations are animated. We just have to make sure those people aren’t messing up the experience for others.” he says, confirming some things perverts had in mind. The game will have a system now that will allow you to ban certain species from your universe, apparently. Also expect EA to bring in the BANHAMMER whenever you upload an image or video of your porntastic creature.
Wright also hints at a sequel for Spore there, saying that he’s looking at Spore as a brand. He says, however, that it will only happen after they’ve analysed crowd reaction. And besides, it would be too early to start charting out a sequel to what already is a semi-experimental game.
Our coverage of Red Alert 3 thus far includes sexy women in skin tight leather with big guns. Now it includes Tim Curry and a bunch of other “well known” actors. The latest trailer for Command & Conquer Red Alert 3, looks to be like a high budget hilarious B movie! Time travel, Soviets vs. Allies, Albert Einstein - what more could you be asking for?!
This is pure awesomeness at its best. I’m so thrilled that EA seems to understand the Command & Conquer series for once! C&C Generals was a lame. C&C 3 brought the series back to its roots. C&C Red Alert 3 will explode into the glorious game of the year tier.
Epic, impressed by their work on the Gears of War PC port, bought People Can Fly not very long ago. Now’s the time for action. Epic has announced that their Poland-based PCF studio will be working on a whole new IP to be released for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, all by EA. About time.
And we just got you excited on that, then sorry, we don’t have much else to report. That’s pretty much all that has been released upto now. No title, no hint of story, nothing. Still, being the keen industry analysts that we are, we’re guessing it will be a sci-fi first person shooter, involving either a dystopia or an alien invasion.
Epic seems to have been on a roll recently. While they have always prospered by selling their uber Unreal Engine to other devs, they took a walk out of the tent with Gears of War and are working on its sequel as we speak. They’re also doing great licensing Unreal Engine 3 and have a 4th version in the works.
Their flagship product, Unreal Tournament 3 didn’t do so well, however. This has left the franchise abandoned for the while, as no more news has been announced regarding it yet. Still, in an informal chat conducted by BeyondUnreal, an Epic employee (hehe) had said that Unreal Tournament will last as long as Epic does.
E3’s right around the corner now and in the big show, we’re going to be seeing a lot of awesome games filled with win. EA will be bringing in the biggest lot, from what I can tell. In this post, we check out which games are worth getting excited for. And there is, of course, the entire EA Line-Up right below:
• Dead Space
• FaceBreaker
• Hasbro Family Game Night
• Littlest Pet Shop
• Madden NFL 09
• Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
• Mirror’s Edge
• iPhone/iPod Touch Games from EA Mobile
• The Sims 2 Apartment Pets
• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09 for the PSP
• Zubo
• MySims (PC)
• MySims Kingdom (Wii, DS)
• Spore
• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09
• Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
• Command & Conquer Red Alert 3
• Crysis Warhead
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• The Lord of the Rings: Conquest
• SimCity Creator (Wii)
• NBA Live 09
• NCAA® Football 09
• Skate It
• Rock Band™ 2
• Left 4 Dead
