Gamescom 2011: EA Press Conference

As usual, Electronic Arts knows how to blow the doors (and walls and eardrums) out with its press conferences and the Gamescom 2011 showing was no exception. Here's a look at the entire thing, so sit back, grab some popcorn and a drink and enjoy. Also, feel free to click down to the BioWare LiveStream feed and contribute to the conversation, as there have been some amazing reveals at the show as well as some decent conversation in the live forums there...

EA E3 2011 Press Conference

Yup, it's the whole darn thing warts and all, so pull up a chair and grab a nice cold drink if you haven't seen it yet. I'm buried under news, trailers and assorted updates, but who isn't? Off to NOT raise some hell and look at more games - back later...

Madden NFL 12 NYC Event Gallery

EA kicked off NFL Draft Week here in NYC in a big way with a unique event that brought newly crowned Madden NFL 12 cover athlete (and Cleveland Browns running back) Peyton Hillis to town for a unique LIVE cover shoot for the upcoming release. Hillis beat out (er, no pun intended) Michael Vick (who was the cover star on Madden 04). Despite a brief rainstorm about an hour or so in, the spirits of the enthusiastic crowd that gathered certainly wasn't dampened in the slightest.

SSX: Deadly Descents Divides (The Fanbase) and Conquers (Much of Their Sanity)...

Nice trailer... but, Holy Belfry, Batman! You'd think that EA drove over a an entire block full of little kids carrying baskets of newborn puppies while on the way to a church bake sale after visiting Grandma. Twice. Some of the responses I've seen to the SSX: Deadly Descents game trailer and new direction the formerly goofy and always exuberant fan fave are probably arrest-worthy and yes, completely unnecessary. Game History 105: Radical Entertainment (Prototype 2, among other cool games) and THQ tried out a mix of action movie and snowboarding on consumers "way" back in 2001 with a little game called Dark Summit. While it didn't exactly blow any sales doors off (or gain a huge enough following to warrant a sequel, for that matter), it received mixed (but mainly positive) reviews, was fun to play and manged to get in a bit of humor during the story. Hell, the whole game idea was pretty funny in a "Hey you kids, get off my secret government test area snow-covered lawn!" kinda way.