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By Michael Charge, 10/07/2010 7:00 am

Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft
Year of Release: 2009
Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360

Tom Clancy is the man for near future military action. Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon are all landmarks in their various genres. H.A.W.X. was an attempt to bring that calibre to the arcade air combat games which had previously been ruled by Ace Combat.

As I mentioned before, H.A.W.X. is a arcade style flight combat game from Ubisoft Romania, those fine fellows who brought us Blazing Angels. This shows as the game handles very similarly. The A button is fire missiles, B is cannon, right trigger is accelerate and left trigger brakes. Oh and entering the Konami code allows you to fire kittens rather than missiles. (just joking. But wouldn’t that be awesome?) However, instead of flying around in old propeller driven monoplanes or biplanes, you instead take to the skies in the latest in military hardware and carrying enough ordinance to turn Leeds city centre into rolling plains. And to fit the near future Tom Clancy thing, these planes appear to have computers that are able to work out the opposing pilots every action and line you up a course on it mean you can fill it with hot rocket powered lead. Similarly, these planes are designed for idiots and so have safety locks on them. By double tapping the triggers and switching to OFF, you can toggle these which allows your jet to do drifts and other such tricks to glide around the sky. These two modes help to spice up the combat and both also look pretty cool.

The story is the usual Tom Clancy military thriller. Guy fighting for USAF is fired (bizarrely mid mission while still carrying a load of bombs) and joins a PMC. Years later, said PMC become involved in battle alongside the US in South America. Deciding that the US are nicking all their money, the PMC (in a twist a blind person could see miles away) invades the States. The player, being the type of person who probably sleeps in the Star Spangled Banner, rejoins the US and beats up every PMC jet who attempts to attack him. Its an alright story (although the obsession with PMCs in all the Clancy games is kind of worrying) and does a good job setting up the missions, but lets say it won’t win any awards. The mission on the other hand are all superb. From bombing African rebel camps, to protecting Air Force One, the varied missions make flying great fun. However, there are one too many escort missions which may drive people insane as they are nowhere near the same level as fun. Similarly, the game can get really annoying when the designers thought it would be funny to jam your plane, limiting your ability to use missiles. Although good fun, when they do it four time, it looses its novelty and instead becomes a pain in the ass. Additionally, the game also bridges the gap between GRAW 2 and Endwar showing some of the political changes that occurred to pit the world power against each other and the rise of Captain Mitchell up to a position of power he held in Endwar.

The other point about H.A.W.X. is the COD4-esque XP system. By levelling up, you unlock more aircraft and weapons packs. This system does add a lot of replayability to the game, as many of the best weapon sets require you to reach level 40ish. Multiplayer is a good way of getting points and is also great fun, although hampered buy a lack of modes. The addition of an attack/defend mode (so beloved in the singleplayer) would provide some much needed variety. A really good point in H.A.W.X.’s favour is the sheer number of aircraft. There are around 50 aircraft ranging from the venerable MIG-21 up to the F22 and beyond including the SR-71 Blackbird. The vast majority of these aircraft have unique cockpits and models, although the variants are often just reskins of the outside with some different weapon choices. The number of aircraft will drive completionists to madness unlocking all of them and their weapon loadouts and skins. Graphics-wise the game is really impressive. The aircraft models have good look to them, with a shine off the cockpits and the wings as its reflects the sunlight. The world also looks good, until you reach less than 100m above the ground where the satellite imagery based textures start to show their limitations. However, most the time you are that low level, the scenery is not really what your concentrating on. The sound is also pretty good with the jets having different sounds for their roaring engines leading to air battles sounding spectacular with the explosions added. It is however let down by the appalling voice acting from your briefing officers, which was almost as bad as the ones from Men of War. The score is also the usual stirring orchestral track which as become a staple of both the Ghost Recon and the Rainbow Six series.

H.A.W.X is an absolute blast to play, but has a serious length issue. I finished the story in around 5 hours on normal. Admittedly, I only got to level 20 and had tons of aircraft left to unlock but for many people that would be enough. Therefore, if your only interested in the story, this game is more of a rent. For everyone else, the game is worth of a purchase but only if its around going for cheap. It isn’t really worth the RRP, even at launch but pick it up for a bargain and I guarantee you a fun few hours blowing 4 million pound jets out of the sky.

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By Michael Charge, 08/07/2010 6:00 am

Publisher: Blendo Games
Developer: Blendo Games
Year of Release: 2010
Platforms: PC, XBLIG (Xbox Live Indie Games)

My fleet has been travelling through space for two months now when we stumbled on a ship full of Rastafarians fleeing the police. I had a choice – do I help them to flee or hand them in? I obviously chose to help them. Why?

Because these weren’t any Rastafarians fleeing the police. This was a ship of Rastafarian cats, complete with fancy multi-coloured hats.

The setup of Flotilla is very simple – your space captain has been given seven months to live. He goes out on one final journey aiming to travel as far as possible before his time is up.

Each planet has something special about it. It can effectively be one of two things. The first is like the Rastafarian cats. It is a simple choose-your-own-adventure style thing where your decisions lead to a story. You might become karaoke champion of the universe , invent your own cocktail, trade your eye for a fancy bit of space gear or simply stare into the abyss. There are loads of different events like this and they are all really funny or just bizarre as they quite often satire the most common trope of science fiction.

The other type is when someone else is simply a dick and decides to attack you. This then switches over to a turn based combat mode.  The first thing to note is that because your in space there is no ground – the map is entirely in 3D with the player controlling both the planar and vertical motion along with facing as well. This mean you have to concentrate on finding the best way to get into your enemies weak spot by using the advantage of height and flanking. Most of the enemy ships reflect damage at the front and on top, so your ships must frantically get underneath or behind an opponent in order to blow it to pieces and send those Space Deer into the cold vacuum. However, some ship weapons (mainly the close quarter beam weapons) can get through all the armour at certain ranges.

Between battles you can also upgrade your ships with extra parts in order to gain an edge. However this cargo can occasionally be stolen off you by various events or you can trade it for better options. Additionally, some other events can grant you other ships than your standard missile armed destroyer – these range from the close quarter beam gunships up to the dreadnaughts which laugh in the face of adversity. However due to the time limit, it is very rare you will end up being overwhelmed by controlling a massive fleet which is a little bit of a shame

The main campaign is designed to be played over and over again. It numbers each of your adventures and also assigns a score at the end based on your actions and your remaining ships so it turns into a constant score improving adventure. To make it even better you can also play the campaign in splitscreen co-op by using an Xbox 360 controller, with each player controlling one half of  the fleet. It makes it fun just to suddenly decide the choices in campaign mode before switching to fancy tactics and manoeuvres in the battle mode. It makes the game even better as the simple but deep gameplay make it easy to pick up – I’ve had a few games with my Dad which he picked up almost instantly and had a great time.

There is also a two player skirmish mode, allowing you to either go up against the AI or a splitscreen partner with a variety of different ships, from the dreadnaught down to the mini car shaped fighter plane. It is a quite fun mode but it does lack the humour of the campaign.

The graphics for Flotilla are nice and simplistic -  the ships are simply shapes hanging in space in a single colour. Space itself is a pleasing orange colour, dotted with simplistic ship wreckage and asteroids. Even the main menu is simplistic. In the campaign, the drawings of the various is very stylistic with some really funny ones of some of the better events. However the best part of the presentation is the music. In battle, your actions are accompanied to Chopin’s piano music making each one haunting to play through. There are also some really funny sound effects as well from the karaoke soundtrack of that event to the joyful celebration after you down a ship. It is such good fun that you can’t help but feel happy when you play it.

Flotilla is a very simple, very fun game from a studio of indie devs who make really stylistically fun games. It is cheap but offers endless replayability and a constant impulsive desire to play one more quick adventure. It is also great to play over a lunchbreak as each adventure takes a maximum of 20 minutes. For its price, pick it up.

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By Michael Charge, 26/06/2010 7:00 am

Publisher: Activision
Developer: Infinity Ward
Year of Release: 2009
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3

I feel sorry for developers who make hit games. Not only do you get some fat cat in a suit meowing out orders that a sequel must be made but you also must deal with the pressure from the general internet using public, one of the most powerful and annoying forces on the planet. So it’s for this reason I salute Infinity Ward, the makers of 2007’s hit game Call of Duty 4 in making a game that pleases nearly everyone, from corporate overlord down to the man on the street. Well, apart from certain PC users but nothing is perfect.

Modern Warfare 2 is set five years after the events of COD4 and the world is slowly going to hell in a handcart. Not only did the Ultranationalists eventually take over Russia despite your activities the first time round, but they also are quite pissed at everyone who killed Imran Zakhaev at the conclusion of the first game. More worrying for the west is that Zakhaev right hand man, a madman by the name of Makarov has gone on a spree of terrorist activities, one of which you get to take part in and results in the Russians being mightily pissed off with the USA. Eventually, the war which up until this point had been “over there” for the US people is suddenly on their door step, wrecking their fast food restaurants and turning D.C. into a living hell. The plot is a little bit predictable up until a point. However, more important is the fact that the plot becomes batshit crazy at several points, including one sequence that had me on the floor laughing my head off at how completely ridiculous it was. Unlike the subtle and plausible plot of COD 4, the plotline in the sequel is a bit closer to a Tom Clancy novel, with the US being invaded and everyone important being double crossed at some point in the proceedings. I honestly think Infinity Ward sat down and thought of ways they could kill off as many playable characters as possible in the nastiest ways possible. Every level almost always ends or revolves around one or more set pieces, be it escaping on snowmobiles or attempting to re-enact Nicolas Cage’s flare scene from the Rock on the roof of Whiskey Hotel.

However, the story is rather short, with the plot being spread over 18 missions. This is more than the original game, but each mission is more intense than any in the first game as well as being shorter. Therefore the campaign takes about 5 hours to finish on regular, with veteran being slightly easier than in previous Call of Duty games but still posing a challenge especially in the later stages.. The missions also take place in a variety of locales and styles. In one mission you could be in Brazil fighting through the favela in a chase sequence while in the next you could be infiltrating an oil rig in the frozen ocean off Russia alongside the US Navy SEALS. Through all of the missions you play as various members of either the US Army Rangers or as part as the fictional multinational Taskforce 141, allowing the developers to mix up the British voices with Australians and New Zealanders.

Nearly nothing in terms of gameplay has changed since COD4 – you are still running and gunning while knifing people with the right stick. Nearly every mission is a set path between objectives, normally littered with enemy troops wishing to ventilate your brain as well as cover to hide behind to avoid said ventilation. The levels seem a bit more open this time, with multiple routes available to objectives in several areas. Additionally, nearly all the maps are littered with enough guns and ammo to make Dick Cheney blush, even before the killing starts. This slight increase in the number of pathways does mean there are a few less levels that will become sticking points in a playthrough as there is normally a way around most problems, but it also leads to a few cases of confusion. Similarly, with the introduction vehicles sections as well as several parts that use different control schemes, the game can be changing how it is played rather rapidly. It also seems that IW has done a few little tweaks in the overall gameplay, such as allowing grenades to roll. However, in all other respects if you were a king of COD4, than there is a good chance you will be pretty good at the latest version.

The main reason why most people play Call of Duty is not the single player, but is instead the crazily addictive multiplayer. Well, it’s obvious that this was the main focus this time, and I have to say I much prefer the new multiplayer over the version present in COD4. The first thing to know is that there have been no real overhauls, only the introduction of a few new features and some balancing of others. The most obvious is the increase in the number of levels, now up to level 70. This is in part due to the sheer number of weapons, perks, challenges and attachments to unlock. The game has also added some more character customisation options. Gone are the days of boring loadouts always featuring frag grenades – now that slot is also home to such coolness as a mobile spawn point, claymores or one of my favourites the throwing knife. This adds quite a few new tactics, but not as much as another tweak to the create a class system. Instead of being stuck with a good weapon and some crap pistol, several new weapon types (such as machine pistols, handguns, shotguns and launchers) can be used in your secondary slot. So yes, if you want to carry a handheld grenade launcher and an assault rifle with an M203, you can! (As well as being called a n00btuber). Many of the new launchers can also be used to knock out several of the new killstreaks, such as the AC130, one of the many new choppers and finally the UAV. The customisable killstreaks is one of my new favourite features as it means you can focus where you get rewards. Choose all low level killstreaks such as the UAV, care package or predator and you’ll get a lot of each but you won’t affect the battle in a major way. However, if you are a better player than I, you can start adding 11 or higher killstreak rewards, granting you access to the game changing items which culminate in the ungodly majesty of the tactical nuke, which requires you to get a kill streak of 25 in order to call in. When someone gets one of these, they become a figure of both awe and annoyance.

A better thing for anyone who maybe isn’t so good at first person shooters is the introduction of the new deathstreaks. If you end up dying repeatedly with no kills, you will eventually end up with a bonus to assist in getting you back in the game. This is the new home of the two most annoying of perks, Juggernaut which has been reincarnated as a health bonus for only 10 seconds after respawn, and Martyrdom. In addition there are new XP bonuses for a whole load of things such as coming back from a deathstreak, killing an enemy who has previously killed you, headshots, rescuing a teammate… The list goes on and on. These bonuses are just one part of making you feel like ever engagement is worth it as opposed to a multiplayer game just being wasted if you get into a bad frame. COD has also been inspired by two other big games on XBL such as Halo 3 and Street Fighter IV. From Halo, COD has taken the accolade system which is very similar to the medals. Meanwhile from Street Fighter, Infinity Ward has implemented the callsigns, which is a unique card that can identify you when you do something special such as downing the UAV or planting the bomb in sabotage. It is a quick and easy way to remember a certain player as opposed to just a name.

Now all these changes don’t matter if the game types are all rubbish. Well, MW2 has all the modes from COD4 as well as a few new ones. This includes the variants as well such as Hardcore and the new Third Person mode. IW has also added a new mode called Demolition to add to an already considerable roster. I have to say that this is the definitive version of online multiplayer. If you enjoyed Call of Duty 4’s online mode, this feels like an evolution, not a revolution.

But that’s not all! In response to the community’s thoughts on the level Mile High Club in COD4, Infinity Ward has made an entirely new game mode based on the concept of short modes designed to be played when you don’t have time to get into multiplayer. The whole setup is brilliant, designed to be played in co op with another player but still able to be a challenge for one. It’s based on a stars system, ranging from 1 to 3. Each mission varies in its objectives, but as a guideline the faster something is done, the more stars you receive. This mode has some really good missions, with my favourite being a two player one where one person takes control of a soldier on the ground fleeing enemy spec ops while the other player takes up position in the control terminal of an AC130 gunship raining fire down upon pursuing forces. These missions are really short and limited to only 2 players but are great fun to play, by yourself or with a buddy.

The game also looks really good. It is running a version of the COD4 engine, but with a few major tweaks. Several scenes are jaw dropping, with the mission that takes place in a blizzard being a perfect example of brilliant art design mixed with actual gameplay use, an idea Infinity Ward use in nearly everything they do. The levels that take place in DC are also spectacular, with the mixture between pitch darkness with the burning buildings whose smoke clogs up the sky. The models and animations for the characters also look a lot better, with a greater range of facial animation rather than either shooting or in pain. All the gun and equipment models look excellent as well, even if the reloading animation for the FN FAL is cringeful (you try reloading by knocking the half empty magazine out with another magazine). The care also can be seen in the sound design. The general FX is pretty good, but the voice acting is excellent. Kevin McKidd almost manages to depose Billy Murray’s Captain Price as coolest voice ever with his portrayal of McTavish, your character from the first game. The voice of Gaz also returns as Ghost while the voice actor of your new CO General Sheppard (which is Lance Hendriksen of Aliens and Terminator fame) really suits the character. The true star is the voice of Makarov, who oozes menace the few times he appears. He actually is someone you may come to really dislike.

Before I wrap up, I need to make a point. A major story that appeared in the media around Modern Warfare 2’s release was the leak about its mission, No Russian. For anyone who doesn’t know, this is a level where you play as a character alongside the supreme bad guy. In this mission, you enter a Russian Airport packed with civilians when you proceed to open fire on them with a machine gun. It’s a little disturbing, especially if you turn rounds and notice the injured dragging themselves out of the way. However, it is no worse than many scenes in film or on TV. The big outcry was that it was a game portraying this and games are still linked to being children’s material. Modern Warfare 2 in the UK carries a big fat 18 rating on the front of the box and for good reason. This may be a point where a parent should maybe actually look at what they are buying their child.

Modern Warfare 2 was the biggest game of 2009 and deservedly so. Although it doesn’t change the core formula of Call of Duty 4, why fix what isn’t broke, this game is one of the best this year. It is essential that everyone at least tries the game, even if it’s just to see how ridiculous the singleplayer get and to see how much fun the multiplayer can be.

In the months after release, some of this enjoyment has been slightly brought down. At various points, the multiplayer has suffered several major glitches which led to periods where the matches were dominated by certain weapons or tactics. This seems to have balanced out now thanks to multiple patches. The other major thing is the 1500 Microsoft points map packs. Most players I know haven’t bought them based on the price and the fact only 3 of the 5 maps are new (the others are remakes from COD 4 such as Overgrown or Crash). I think it is going to set a dangerous trend with map packs at 1500 points instead of the more usual 800 or 1200 points mark. That said though, the multiplayer is still one of the best available today and still gets millions of players even 7 months after release.

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By Michael Charge, 15/06/2010 9:09 pm

Ubisoft was the last press conference of the 14th and was a little bit bizarre. In part this was due to the presence of the announcer, Joel McHale who spent most it the time alternating between gushing praise for gaming and making sarcastic comments about the games being shown. And also some of the stuff they showed was mental.

Take, for example, the opening game Child of Eden from the maker of Rez. Its a trippy music inspired game where blocks are exploded in time to the music. The game was being controlled via Kinect and so the player was simply swiping their hands around in midair to hit the blocks. It seems like more of a challenge than the first party games at the Microsoft Press Conference and also more fun, backing up my idea that it will be the 3rd party games that will use it the best. The designer also came on stage and his description that the game was all about using most of your senses to play actually didn’t sound as pretentious as it normally does.

After this it was business as usual with the reveal of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. After a pre-rendered trailer, an actual game play demo of what seems to be the start of the game was shown off. Starting off with Ezio relaxing in bed with Caterina Sforzia (the lady of Forli in AC2), they are rudely interrupted by a stone ball crashing through the wall. The Assassin’s villa is under attack by the Borgia and you must fight to defend the town. After a brief horse ride to the walls through crumbling streets (while the narrating developer promised much improved horse combat), Ezio climbs up the wall and mans the cannons to bring down two siege towers. However, others have broken through and their are enemies on the walls which allowed the developer to show off the much faster combat system which is a fix to my major problem with last game. The demo ended with your new nemesis revealed and both Enzio and Mario shot repeatedly before the view shifts to a load of assassins climbing up the coliseum in Rome. It has the potential to be REALLY good.

Next up was Shaun White Skateboarding. After a little bit of banter between the MC and Shaun White, they went on to reveal the new game mode. Rather than the realistic approach of skate, it instead focuses on bring back life to an authoritarian world. By skateboarding. As you perform tricks, it brings colour back to the surroundings as well as changing the terrain. One example is the fact that fulfilling an objective changes a fountain into a half pipe. The trick system also looks pretty solid but the main change is the new mechanism. You can also make grind rails extend out to gain access to new areas which seems to be a time limited ability as well as requiring you to retain momentum so no vertical rides. I’ll take a look but it does depend on what else the game does.

And then they started playing Quasar. Seriously. Go and watch the live stream. Its for a product called Battle Tag. It features guns you can reload, the usual jackets with the sensors on and a set of blocks. These sensor blocks can then be used to form little games, such as a race which was shown. It also has a PC connector which can be used to upload your stats from your games to share online. Now, I can be a cynical man but I can honestly not think of any other way to make me any less interested unless it actually stabbed me. It is a bit strange for Ubisoft to invest in this.

The oddity was brought up a notch by the Innergy, a game that uses a heartbeat sensor to help you become both fitter and less stressed out. The thing they showed was a breathing exercised that ask you to keep you timing of your breathes in line with a path on the screen. This was then followed up with a repeat of the Your Shape demo from the Microsoft Press Event (it still looks dumb). The Rabbids then made their appearance in a Wii exclusive focused on time travelling which looks alright although I wish they would bring a game featuring them to the Xbox 360 as they are brilliant characters.

The next game was Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. I love GRAW and this looks pretty good. As well as a short trailer, they also had a gameplay demo that looked quite interesting as well. They have made a few changes, the biggest being the new optical camouflage that makes it more like a stealth game than the previous. It also included a new cross com that highlighted all the bad guys allowing the player to avoid the bad guys. It look really slick and when the guns came out it was a pretty solid first/third person shooter. I like the idea of some of the new stuff like the drones and I’m looking forward to the beta this summer.

They also announced a few other things. Driver is coming back in a new game set in San Francisco which harks back to the original. Also you can switch cars because the main character is in a coma. After that was the mysterious Project Dust which is about controlling a tribe by manipulating the weather. It actually looks quite interesting so I’ll be keeping my eye on it. Rayman Origins, a co-op platformer featuring everyone favourite ‘armless guy and his brother was unveiled as part of the description of a  new toolkit coming from Ubisoft. In the same vein, they mentioned what the Trackmania guys have been up to which is a social creation platform featuring Trackmania, Shootmania and Questmania which focus on driving, first person shooting and RPGs respectively. The final thing was a Michael Jackson dancing game but nothing was shown and at that point, everyone in the audience was just wishing that the horror would end.

You may notice I sound rather down at the end. In part this was due to the fact I was still watching this at about 2 in the morning but the other thing was just how much of the announcements were just games for the motion devices. After the big hitter of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood at the start and Ghost Recon near the end the rest were just disappointing. Now admittedly someone somewhere is very excited about Battle Tag, but for journalists and the vast majority of gamers we just don’t give a shit. However, the stuff shown at the very end such as Rayman and the new Nadeo stuff look interesting but should have received more time. Overall, it was better last year where James Cameron bored us with Avatar talk.

I’m not doing conference write ups for Sony or Nintendo but will mention both in a wrap up at the end of the week

(Gametrailers will be having all the trailers and gameplay from the live events up all week and eventually the complete streams later if you want to watch. Thanks to Joystiq, Destructoid and IGN for most of the pictures and Giant Bomb for the reference live blog)

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By Michael Charge, 15/06/2010 7:00 am

Both Ubisoft and EA are big enough to have their own press conference alongside the Big Three and seem to use them better than the console manufacturers. There is very little talking in them and a big focus on the games and developers. Which is good.

EA started theirs with a trailer for the new Need for Speed. After the rather bad previous games in the series, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is being made by Criterion, the team most well known for the Burnout Series. As well as the a new social network setup, the team also showed off a two player mode between a cop and a criminal. It looks pretty good and the cop chase mode could potentially be brilliant to play online.

Next up is a sequel I’m looking forward to – Dead Space 2. The first game was one of the scariest games I have ever played and combined it with a good story and solid mechanics. The second looks like it is taking further being set on the Sprawl, a huge city. The demo levels are set in a gothic cathedral and the necromorphs are back. The shooting/statis looks pretty similar but also fun and the new bad guys look great to fight with. The setting still looks as grim as ever, but with some stunning architecture. And it still has the scary “just walking but oh shit something bad is about to happen” sections.

After that was the new Medal of Honour (or Honor to you Americans). Set in Afghanistan, the main focus of the presentation was the 24 player multiplayer made by the genius minds behind the Battlefield games at DICE. They actually showed a live 24 player team deathmatch set in Kabul, with all 24 people on stage. It looks a lot like Battlefield Bad Company 2 to the point where I am actually thinking it runs a modded version of the Frostbite engine which makes it vital that the unlocks are very different from those of Bad Company 2. For those interested in preordering Medal of Honour and already own Bad Company 2, then if you put it into the new EA Gunclub (a cross platform unlock system similar to Uplay) and you can be playing the two map beta on the 17th while the rest of the world waits until approximately the 21st. It looks rather good.

Even better for me is the news that Bad Company 2 is getting an expansion – we are going back to Vietnam in Battlefield Bad Company 2: Vietnam. They didn’t show much apart from a huey flying over some jungle but the Hanoi Rose propaganda over shows they are going for a pretty good atmosphere. If its even half as a fun as Battlefield 1943 (the last game of a similar size), then it will be money well spent.

And then Peter Moore came out and I went to sleep and it went on to EA Sports. I’m not a fan of the sports genre but EA always do something crazy with each game so I actually watched this bit. EA MMA was there (it featured men grappling) as was EA Sports Active 2 on the HD consoles as well as the Wii. Worryingly for some, it also dumps the information up onto the net. Also there was Madden 11 which was labelled as being the simplest, quickest and deepest game in the series so far. The mode I’m most intrigued by is the new 3 on 3 mode, previously seen in NHL. It looked good but in my lack of knowledge on American Football I didn’t have a clue what’s going on.

After  a brief showing of The Sims 3 console version, EA moved onto the partner program. Jason West and Frank Zampella were brought out to say they are working on something before shuffling off stage to bring on Cevat Yerli of Crytek to show the brand new Crysis 2. It takes place in Grand Central Station in New York and focuses on a boss battle against one of the new aliens. I’m really excited about the next game in the Crysis series and based on previous previews from PC Gamer it looks to be a really good change. It seemed to look really good as well and it is available to be played in 3D.

Mr Cliffy B was brought back to the stage to show off Bulletstorm, a new game from the brilliantly named People Can Fly studios. This game looks absolutely bonkers. Like Bizarre Creations’ The Club, the game is not just about killing people but killing people with style to gain points. It looks much brighter with all the alien flora than most other Epic games but still has the look of meaty men scrapping. It also a game for men with some of the filthiest dialogue I’ve in games for a long time (“you scared the dick off me” was an actual line) as well as fart jokes which will probably go down in gaming history. But it looks pretty good and People Can Fly are makers of some of the most competent first person shooters. I’m looking forward to this.

Finally EA came to one of the most eagerly awaited games of the year – The next Star Wars MMO, Knights Of The Old Republic. Very little was talked about, but it was mentioned that every player would have their own ship and the first PvP battlezone is Alderan. But the most impressive part was the new CG trailer for the game. If you interested go find it on Gametrailers and enjoy it as its rather good.

EA has a pretty strong line up for the next year, with a big focus on the mainstream despite the increase in motion controls. In fact, only EA Active really uses the new accessories for the consoles, with the rest all using the normal control setup. I get the feeling EA will be the sanest publisher at this E3.

(Gametrailers will be having all the trailers and gameplay from the live events up all week and eventually the complete streams later if you want to watch. Thanks to Joystiq, Destructoid and IGN for most of the pictures and Giant Bomb for the reference live blog)