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Electronic Arts TGS 2010 liveblog

Christopher Grant
Updated ·5 min read

We're at the Keio Plaza Hotel in lovely Shinjuku, Tokyo for Electronic Arts' 2010 TGS press conference. Things are getting underway, we've taken our seats in a small, but well attended ballroom. Join us just past the break for all the news, live from Tokyo.










5:58PM Wow, apologies everyone. A rude combination of our CMS keeling over and the internet connection being, well, terrible really brought that liveblog down. Let's try again at Capcom, starting in about two hours. Off to Roppongi!


5:41PM Mikami says that both he and Suda thought only one person could do the music for this game, and they asked Akira Yamaoka, who is now taking the stage. Akira Yamaoka is best known for designing audio and music for the Silent Hill series. They're not ready to say much more, aside from the fact that it's launching in 2011. A trailer of Shadows of the Damned brings the presentation to an end. We see plenty of third-person shooting, snarling monstrosities and ... door kicking. Doors are going down in this game. The punkish rock sounds unmistakably like Akira Yamaoka's work. We'll get you this trailer as soon as we can!


5:39PM Suda says there's a punk rock vibe to the game, as to be expected. He says it's a very dark game and "one of the greatest games I've worked on in my lifetime." Hearing Suda say "SHADOWS. OF. THE. DAMNED." is a real treat. "Of course the setting is in Hell, so it can't be easy." In the game, demon hunter Garcia vows to enter hell and retrieve his beloved Paula. It's ... Garcia's Inferno.



5:35PM The title of the new game is "Shadows of the Damned." (Suda 51 says it with the deepest, scariest voice he can muster)


5:32PM And now, Grasshopper Manufature's Suda 51 and Shinki Mikami are on stage! They're finally ready to show off whatever their big mystery project is. It was announced as a "horror franchise" way back in August 2008.


5:31PM McGee says that "every enemy is a puzzle" in Madness Returns. There are three new weapons in addition to the original's vorpal blade: the teapot, the hobby horse, and the pepper grinder. The game starts in Victorian England, shortly before Alice is dragged down the rabbit hole -- taking her madness with her into Wonderland.



5:28PM Schappert is back on stage, ready to show off some EA Partners titles. The first game is Alice: Madness Returns, and American McGee details some of the work done by his Shanghai-based studio, Spicy Horse.


5:27PM The second player is using a DualShock and, as you can imagine, he's not able to match the accuracy of the Move player.

5:25PM We've got the same on rails action, with the occasional free look segment. He's asking a second player on stage to show off the ease of drop-in, drop-out co-op gameplay. "You do not need the Move controller to play Dead Space Extraction, you can actually play with the Sixaxis or the Dual Shock 3," says Visceral Games' Matt Bendett. If that's the case, will we see this on Xbox 360 one day?



5:22PM The PS3 version Extraction features Trophy support, drop-in co-op gameplay and HD visuals -- though they don't appear to have been significantly enhanced beyond that. Of course, it already benefited from great lighting, even on the Wii. (And need we mention Dead Space Girl?)

5:21PM Schappert moves on to Dead Space, "an action horror story unlike anything we've ever done.They're going to show off the PlayStation Move-enabled Dead Space Extraction, which is included with Dead Space 2's Limited Edition on PS3.


5:19PM Fighter Hidehiko Yoshida is out now to promote EA Sports MMA, or EA "Sogo Kakutogi" as it's known here. They keep mentioning that. Note: we haven't been able to update as much as we'd like due to Internet difficulties. EA showed a FIFA 11 trailer after Create, and then moved onto MMA -- of which we're seeing live gameplay now.



5:12PM Phil Katz, producter for EA Salt Lake, gives us a brief explanation of "My Garden" for the Nintendo 3DS. He notes the team is very excited to work "on such powerful new hardware." In My Garden, you nurture and grow your own garden, which attracts more friendly critters. The game is "hosted" by Tanooki, a cuddly bear (thing?) that will gradually earn new abilities and "stylish and fun costumes." As you progress, you and Tanooki improve the garden with 300 different plants, take pictures (they can be shared with friends) and complete specific game challenges. When the garden becomes dense, you can shake the 3DS to startle animals, or whistle into its microphone to attract birds. The game will launch alongside the 3DS next year.

We're also given a brief tour of EA's Create by designer Emily Newton Dunn. She reiterates the game's "what if" philosophy, which sees players solve puzzles in an open and undirected way. Think The Incredible Machine, and your halfway there. In one sequence, we're shown how a car can be moved across a stage and over a finish line either by pushing it down slopes, carry it via balloons (pushed by several fans) or sent bouncing to the goal with a good kick from a boot on a stick (Emily's favorite object, apparently You'll be able to share your creations on PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and Mac via the game system or the official website.


5:11PM Wow, we're having serious technical difficulties. EA's WiFi has completely buckled, and our three (THREE!) 3G cards and a WiMax hotspot are all failing as well. It's like EA selected a concrete bunker for its press conference. We're gonna keep trying.


4:45PM We see EA's COO John Schappert in the front row, along with Jeff Brown in corp comm. There's a lot of hand-shaking going on, while we sit here, covered in laptops and cameras. It's a look we're going for.