E3 2012: EA E3 Presentation Live Blog

And here we are, it's now 6:00am here in Queensland and I am buzzed and ready for an EA press conference. What will we learn this time? No doubt more about the Battlefield Premium service - hopefully with some sort of pricing for Australia so I can finish my news article on it. No doubt we will hear more about Medal of Honor and Crysis 3 too - and hopefully something about a non-FPS game also. LET'S DO IT!

EDIT: I've added a wrap up at the bottom with some of my thoughts on the presentation.

6:02am - John Riccitiello takes the stage. Less like the Oscars, more like Sundance... oh dear.

6:03am - Dead Space 3 trailer woop!

6:05am - Dead Space 3 gameplay! I can't see it because the EA live stream is awful.

6:07am - ugh and we're back. They are showing off Dead Space 3's co-op gameplay. It's on a snow-bound planet, looking a lot more actiony than I would hope...

6:09am - They are fighting one massive ass necromorph, which is... cool but incredibly actiony. Isaac's partner is Carver, some guy.

6:11am - Isaac and Carver got swallowed by the giant necromorph. Dead Space 3 hits February 2013.

6:12am - now we see a Madden '13 trailer with Ray Lewis. We have two gamechangers apparently.

6:13am - Infinity engine changes the physics engine - if your arm is hit your balance will change, if you get taken down you can attempt a few more yards.

6:14am - New franchise mode... with a storyline? I don't understand this man.

6:15am - Pick a current person from the NFL or create your own - Player, Coach, whatever.

6:16am - You can manage your league on PC, tablet or phone, there is also a virtual twitter feed to tell you how your player is progressing.

6:18am - Maxis is up, with Lucy Bradshaw here to talk about SimCity. Hopefully we won't end up getting bored to death about the environment.

6:19am - Sim City Social... A Facebook game. NO. I don't care go away. Here in a few weeks SHUT UP.

6:20am - Ok we're on to the real Sim City. You can specialise your city with a stadium and the world's fastest spotlights.

6:21am - Nothing new that I can see. Simulation? Wasn't expecting that! We already knew about the multi-player and the always online request. They finish with a cool trailer.

6:23am - bahaha, he congratulated Jason West and Vince Zampella, who are in the audience. Then I was afraid my speakers were broken, but it's actually Battlefield 3!

6:24am - 1.6 trillion bullets fired since BF3 began. We're about to see Battlefield 3 Premium.

6:25am - Close Quarters, Armored Kill, Aftermath and Endgame are the four expansions incoming.

6:26am - People who sign up with Battlefield 3 premium on the PlayStation 3 today (in the US) will get access to Close Quarters combat immediately, with Xbox 360 and PC to follow next week.

6:28am - After the Battlefield 3 Premium trailer, we are on to Star Wars with Dr Ray Muzyka taking the stage.

6:29am - More PVP Warzones, new difficulty mode 'Nightmare', increased level caps and a new planet and new companion characters and playable species.

6:31am - A trailer for the upcoming content - new species is Cathar, new planet is Makeb, new companion is HK series droid.

6:32am - Medal of Honor is up now, they are playing a live demo set in Somalia.

6:33am - Frostbite 2 engine so destructible environments, it looks very much like BF3 as you'd expect - with HUD changes of course.

6:38am - Well, that was pretty awesome. We should have the trailer up on GameArena later today.

6:39am - They are now outlining the 12 different groups we'll get to play as - including the SASR woop!

6:41am - Andrew Wilson is back for EA, now talking about Madden Online Social SADFACE ANDREW. Start on Facebook, move to your phone. That's cool I guess. They are showing tiny images on a screen, and the feed views the screen from about 50m so god knows what's happening.

6:43am - FIFA. If only somebody who cared could watch this. I'm sure Junglist or Joaby cares, but not me. 11 Million people in Football Club, the club for people who play FIFA.

6:45am - FIFA 12 players will start with their XP and levels in FIFA 13. The FIFA apps on iOS and Android will join Football Club later this year.

6:46am - EA loves Messi. Better AI in FIFA 13 and new dribble moves.

6:47am - The FIFA trailer. Boy sure is a lot of soccer going on.

6:50am - EA has the UFC now. That... seems like bad news.

6:52am - Dana White is going to punch you in the face. UFC IS THE MOST POPULAR GAME IN THE WORLD, DO YOU HEAR ME? He seems incredibly excited to be with EA.

6:53am - Need For Speed Most Wanted is announced, with Prodigy's Firestarter playing in the background. It's awesome. Being made by Criterion.

6:54am - We now get to see the gameplay, which looks awesome.

6:57am - In case you haven't guessed, I'm pretty excited for this game. Open World racing, doing stupid stuff, that's what I loved about the original Most Wanted.

6:58am - October 30th for Need For Speed: Most Wanted - I can't wait. Next up we have Crysis 3.

6:59am - We are seeing a demo of the game - it looks nice?

7:03am - Crysis 3 is out February 2013. John Riccitiello is back, not explaining how that was at all like Sundance.

7:04am - And we're done! Well that was better than Microsoft at least.

So what did we learn? Medal of Honor: Warfighter looks awesome - hopefully it will have a decent single player campaign to set it apart from Battlefield 3 - and I would be surprised if it didn't to be honest. If MOH is primarily multiplayer based EA will be doing little more than cannibalising their BF3 market - and I don't expect them to do that given the release of Battlefield Premium.

I'm worried as hell about Dead Space 3 - as Joaby noted in his review of Dead Space 2 Visceral nailed horror gaming, but they seem to be moving starkly away from it with Dead Space 3. Of course, we'll have to wait for February next year to see how it goes. And UFC... THQ can hardly use more bad news and while this is great news for EA and the UFC, I don't know that it will be good news for the consumer. Those who have played MMA will certainly understand why.

If you read my Microsoft Presentation Live Blog you'll see I was excited by Madden 13 - well that feeling has only grown since the EA event. What can I say, I love me some RPGs. In the less excited corner - I'm interested to see how the new weapons and vehicles work with Battlefield 3. They are billing it as part of their Battlefield Premium service, but if they aren't added with each expansion I can only see it going to hell in a handbasket.

The highlight of the event for me is definitely Need For Speed: Most Wanted. A large open world, created by Criterion, I can't see how this could fail. Of course, now I've said that it will have seven minute load times and every street will be separate DLC or something.