Live blogging the EA press briefing (sort of)

By Richard Mitchell

We're currently sitting in the (blessedly roomy) balcony of the Orpheum theatre in LA for the EA press briefing. We won't be live blogging the whole thing, but stay tuned for 360 related coverage after the break.

3:22 On stage demo of Dead Space. Game looks gorgeous. We've seen strategic dismemberment without any HUD at all. Game hits on October 21 this year. Time for a trailer.
3:24 Trailer set to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Lots of dead bodies, interspersed with flashes of wicked monsters.

3:25: Patrick Soderlund takes stage to show Mirror's Edge (running on PS3).

Parts of the background turn red to highlight the paths that Faith can take. Puzzle: how do you get into the ventilation shaft. Grab a pipe on the wall, jump to on top of the shaft, find a vent. She crawls through to be ambushed and starts running up the stairs while pursued. On to the rooftop. Leap of faith time?

3:29 Faith hands the package to another runner. Makes a rooftop escape. New trailer time. More indoor environments. This game is literally so fast it's impossible to take pictures of it. There will be hands on of the game on the show floor.

3:37 Will Wright is on stage talking about Spore. This is still PC and Mac, so move along. Unless, he decides to tell us it's hitting 360, of course.

3:44 Peter Moore on stage to talk EA Sports. Introducing Bill Walton from the NBA. Talking about NBA Live 08. Bill is talking about how the emotional aspects of sports. "You can't script sports. It's just fresh and live, new every single day."

"This is beyond getting the stats and rosters right," says Moore. Introducing new feature called Dynamic DNA, which uses the actual statistics used by the NBA itself. The game is "made fresh daily."

3:49 Player tendencies: how a player behaves, what kinds of decisions they make. These tendencies will be updated every day for all NBA players. This is based on how the actual tendencies of each player change throughout a season. This is the Player DNA. Team DNA is essentially the same thing applied to team dynamics as they are seen in "real world data and analytics" of the NBA.

3:51 Live demo time. Now Bill is "calling" the game. Cute. Feature: lighting up the "Hot Zones." These show you where a player is more likely to make a shot, again based on real world tendencies of real world players.


3:54 Bill Walton leaves the stage. That dude is funny.

3:55 Peter Moore is now talking about EA Sports All Play, the casual titles for the Wii. So, um, it's probably time for 360 fans to go make a sandwich.

3:57 Ha, Peter takes a swing in Tiger Woods All Play and is glad he managed to make a shot without pausing the game. Oh, Peter, you joker.

4:04 John Pleasants of EA Redwood Shores presents Nanea Reeves of EA Online Games. No 360 talk thus far.

4:06 Sean Fanning takes the stage to talk about Rupture. It's a service that allows players to play and track games across games and platforms. Players can create custom challenges for their friends. Example, challenge your friend to unlock every achievement in Bad Company.

4:08 Travis Boatman of EA Mobile takes the stage. So, it's time to talk about iPhone games. So, bathroom break 360 fans.

4:12 Greg Zeschuk showing us a trailer of Dragon Age Origins. He notes that the franchise will be on consoles in "the future." Currently it's only on PC.

4:14 Trailer shows off huge LOTR style battle. Trolls, archers, the works. That's all we get though. Gabe Newell from Valve takes the stage. Left 4 Dead talk! PowerPoint slides ... ew. Co-op supports split screen. Good.

4:18 Left 4 Dead has an internal "director" like a movie. It alters the difficulty of conflicts based on how well the team is playing. Play bad, and it makes things easier. Play better, and the game gets harder, and offers more drama. Movie time. Big super muscular zombie tosses concrete at the party.

4:20 All characters work together to take him out, peppering him with bullets, grenades, etc.

4:22 Id's John Carmack takes the stage to announce partnership with EA. Showing off Rage. Trailer: desolate world, think Mad Max. Violent, lots of critters that look like mutated humans. No console actually announced.

4:24 That's it. Conference is over.There closing with the same montage video that opened the conference. Lots of games we already know about. FaceBreaker, sports games, Sims, etc. Many of these titles will be on the show floor. Expect coverage throughout the week from X3F.

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