EA Announces Live Dead Space: Extraction Demo

EA SHIPS AWARD-WINNING Dead Space Extraction

For anyone interesting in checking out Dead Space: Extraction before buying it EA will be hosting a live demo of the game on September 29th at 12:00 pm PST.  This demo, hosted by members of the development team, will last for one hour and they will be inviting fans to do a Q&A session as well.   
Dead Space: Extraction is a prequel to 2008's Xbox 360 game Dead Space and is being called a guided first-person experience featuring co-op play, branching paths, and intuitive controls.  The game releases on September 29th.
 
If you are interested in viewing the demo, head here.

Source: PR Email

EA Ships Dead Space Extraction

EA SHIPS AWARD-WINNING Dead Space Extraction

Players Experience the Panic Before the Terror in Visceral Games’ Critically-Acclaimed Wii-Exclusive Action Horror Prequel

Redwood City, CA – September 25, 2009 – Visceral Games™, an award-winning studio of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) announced today that Dead Space™ Extraction has shipped to retail in Europe and will be shipping in North America on September 29th. Designed exclusively for the Wii™, Dead Space Extraction is the first title to ship under Visceral Games’ new studio name. Dead Space Extraction is the prequel to last year’s critical darling Dead Space, winner of over 70 international critics awards and widely recognized for evolving the action horror genre. Dead Space Extraction is already following in its predecessor’s footsteps, earning a perfect “5-out-of-5” stars from GamePro, whose review said that “Extraction is one hell of a ride… well paced and directed; the story is strong and the gun fights are satisfying.”
“Dead Space Extraction has been such a rewarding project for many different reasons,” said Steve Papoutsis, Executive Producer on Dead Space Extraction. “We have successfully brought Dead Space’s trademark action horror experience to a new platform while maintaining our studio’s high standards for quality and polish. Dead Space Extraction will be one of the defining action horror games for the Wii.”

Telling the story of four space colonists trying to escape a mysterious infection, Dead Space Extraction explores the origins of the necromorph invasion that threatens humanity and the universe. At the center of this group is Lexine, an important new heroine being introduced for the first time to the Dead Space storyline. As the crew continues to fight for their lives, it becomes clear that protecting her is their only hope for survival. Luckily, players are armed with an arsenal of weaponry, an easy-to-use control system built from the ground up for the Wii, and can even recruit a friend to play co-operatively, a first for the Dead Space franchise.

Developed at Visceral Games, Dead Space Extraction is rated M for Mature by the ESRB with descriptors of Blood and Gore, Intense Violence and Strong Language and 18+ for PEGI. Dead Space Extraction will be available for MSRP $49.99 on the Wii. For more information about the game, go to the website at http://www.deadspacegame.com/ .

EA Announced DSi Exclusive Titles

Redwood City, Calif., – September 21, 2009 – DSi owners get ready to download. Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS), today announced MySims™ Camera and SUDOKU are available for download from the Nintendo DSi Shop. LITTLEST PET SHOP and SCRABBLE (in the U.S. and Canada) licensed by Hasbro (NYSE: HAS), along with original EA titles are also in development and will release later this fall.

“EA has fully embraced the Wii and the Nintendo DS, bringing custom-built DSiWare games to the Nintendo consumer is an exciting opportunity for us to reach DSi owners with easy to play games that they can download and play whenever they want,” said Rod Humble, Head of the EA Play Label. “The lineup of games we have in development will appeal across the diverse DSi consumer base so whether players want to showcase their creativity and humor using MySims Camera or sharpen their math and word skills with SUDOKU or SCRABBLE – our first games in the DSi Shop will deliver a quick and fun experience.”

MySims Camera is a camera application that utilizes popular MySims characters. You can take photos and overlay 3D MySims characters to bring them into the real world. The 3D characters can be animated, moved, scaled, rotated and cropped. You can also draw on the photos with the stylus pen or use the stamp tool to add more art and style. Create a unique frame and save the photos to the DSi photo album to share with friends. With MySims Camera, you make picture taking with MySims a fun creative experience for the entire family.

SUDOKU offers hundreds of number-crunching puzzles that will stretch your brain to the limit! Play the exclusive Newspaper Mode, adding puzzles from your favorite black & white and starting your own collection! SUDOKU features a host of grid designs, stat tracking and an in-game timer to test your reaction time. Play on 5 different levels from Easy to Insane. This engaging game has been polished to perfection and renders a sleek design that’s easy on the eyes.

LITTLEST PET SHOP allows you to experience your favorite LITTLEST PET SHOP pets in a whole new way! Collect lots of pets, each with unique personalities and new, super cute animations. Interact with your pets and watch their adorable reactions to their favorite toys and activities and dress them up in fun accessories. You can also throw a dance party for your pets and watch them groove to a cool song.

SCRABBLE comes to DSi with several unique gameplay experiences such as SCRABBLE Classic, which is the original crossword game that fans know and love as well as SCRABBLE Tools, which helps players hone their skills by strengthening their vocabulary, pattern recognition, and score strategies through fun and interactive training exercises. Each version will be sold separately.

Additional EA titles in development including: Downtown Texas Hold’em and unannounced original titles will be available later this fall. Pricing has not yet been announced.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 Review

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 is the latest iteration on the franchise from EA Sports. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 was the first to appear on Wii and took advantage of the motion controls for the first time. The one thing since the start that many people would talk about was the motion control aspect of the game and how it wasn't quite 1 to 1 motion and didn't feel like you were playing golf. That aspect has been refined each year and more and more you began to feel like what you did translated to an actual real result on screen. This years version of the game comes shipped with the new Motion Plus peripheral, which gives you more precise motion and better control over your on screen actions. As a result for the first time you really feel like what you are doing is making an impact in the game. If you naturally rotate your hands to the left your shot will have a bit of hook to it. If you tilt to the right you are going to slice the ball. This can also be used to take advantage of shots where that type of movement on the ball is required. The more you twist your hands one direction the more the ball will hook or slice in that direction. It makes for the most accurate golf simulation to date for a home console.

Visually the game looks stunning. Each of the game's 27 courses, seven of them new to the series, are rendered in amazing detail. The water effects on lakes and oceans is quite breathtaking. The level of detail each year continues to go up and become more amazing to behold each time. The differences in the courses areas of fairway, rough and water appear much as you would expect them if you were actually visiting the courses in reality. On the other hand the golfers themselves still suffer a bit from the lack power on Nintendo's system. While each golfer is easily identifiable and there is a large amount of customization available they still appear jagged and rough. Hair on each of the golfer's, especially the female's, is quite stiff and doesn't look natural. It's the one area where the graphical capabilities of the Wii really show their age. It's easy to look past those flaws though because you are focused more on the courses and what actions you are taking and not looking at the golfer's themselves.

In terms of audio quality, the ambient sounds and noises that you would expect are all there. Wildlife sounds are present in every course with bird's chirping, waves crashing and even some rustling of the vegetation was noticed during play. If you are looking for a laid back, relaxing atmosphere there aren't many better places to look than a golf simulator. You can also add to the feel and get the sensation of participating in tournaments by turning the crowd on and getting the noise you would expect to hear during a golf tournament on TV. The announcer's in the game seem to have gotten a bit of an upgrade from previous years and don't get as annoying as they have in the past. Also, it was noticed that they were not as insulting as they've appeared to be in the past, which is a plus, especially if you have younger kids who enjoy playing.


Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 featured a much improved online system this year. It's still built off the EA Nation system which is integrated over all the Electronic Arts games. The systems are all very similar and if you've played on EA game online then you know exactly what to expect. You have a friends list that you can use to invite friends to play a round of golf with you and if you randomly play someone online you then have the option to add them to your friends list afterwards. The same messaging system is in place as well. New for the game this year is the inclusion of tournaments. You can now participate against people worldwide in daily tournaments, weekly tournaments and even against the pros. All you have to do is log onto to the live tournaments section of the online system and click on the current tournament. It will tell you the course and settings that in place for that tournament and you play a round of golf and submit the score to the server. It's all very seamless and can be quite addicting. Playing against the pros is an interesting experience. If there is an event live that week that is located at one of the courses on the game, the pro players scores from the actual tournament are uploaded and you can compete against the pros to see how you stack up. Random matches against up to four players are almost as quick as single player events; all the participants play simultaneously.

Another new feature that is a welcome feature is the dynamic weather system. You have the option of using actual weather conditions at the courses with information from the Wii's Weather Channel. So if it's raining at St. Andrews today when you load the game and play a round of golf at St. Andrews it will be raining in the game as well. It's just one more feature that brings a small bit of reality to the game and immerses you that much more into the experience. You also have the ability to purchase additional clothing not available through regular play at the online clubhouse. Also new to the game for the first time in the franchise is the ability to play at Bethpage Black, the U.S. Open, the USGA Championship and the USGA's Rules of Golf which you can view between holes to learn the smaller details of golf you might not have known.

All the mini games from previous events are included and are much like they've been in the past. Get up to four people together in your living room and have a golf party. You can compete in challenges such as target practice, playing a round with rings suspended in the air, a game of T-I-G-E-R and more. They're a fun little diversion if you aren't in the mood for a full round of golf. Also included this year is a new disc golf game. Like the name implies, you play a round of golf with discs rather than the usual club and ball. The Motion Plus peripheral adds amazing depth and feel to the movements and it's as simple as throwing a frisbee. You have three discs to choose from for your shot; long range, approach, and a putter. You can play a round of disc golf on any of the available courses, but you will be playing from a shorter distance than you would normally. All in all this feels more like a proof of concept to see how well a frisbee golf game would work and how well players react to it. It's a quality version of the game and you may find yourself more attracted to this than the actual golf game itself.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 is by far the best experience in the franchise and the Wii version stands head and shoulders above the rest for the immersion factor alone. Fans of golf should not pass up the experience. The new courses, better motion control, online experience and simple fun of the game of golf shouldn't be passed up. If you have friends or family who are intimidated by the game, the All-Play feature from last year is still available, but they may find they really like the disc golf game and it would be a simple introduction to the game and you can ease them into the full experience from there.

Final Score: 5/5

EA Sports Active: Fact Sheet

People around the world have experienced the revolution in interactive fitness with EA SPORTS Active™ Personal Trainer – the highest rated Wii™ fitness product to date*. Developed in collaboration with fitness experts, EA SPORTS Active has proven to be the preferred fitness program for Wii owners, providing an effective, inexpensive way to burn calories, get fit and have fun from the comfort of home.

EA SPORTS Active now introduces More Workouts to provide new challenge and variety. It features over 35 new exercises to create unlimited combinations of customizable exercise routines that target the upper and lower body, as well as cardio.

New to the EA SPORTS Active franchise will be an emphasis on abdominal exercises including curl ups, crunch and punches, as well as a warm up/cool down feature. An all-new presentation will bring users to the tropics and will immerse them in warm weather activities like waterskiing and paddle surfing. The product will also feature the Six-Week Challenge – another step in the journey towards better health and fitness with new daily workouts that ramp up in intensity each week.


EA SPORTS Active™ More Workouts gives users the benefit of a personal trainer in a box and will help them to stay on track to reach their fitness goals. Get inspired, get motivated and get active!
Key Features
• Benefit of a Personal Trainer in a Box— Similar to a personal trainer, the program provides clear instruction, feedback on technique and encouragement, while also providing calories burned in real time.

• Six-Week Challenge—This personalized full body challenge will give users a new customizable weekly schedule and a weekly check-in with the virtual trainer to track calorie, weight and workout goals.

• Full Body Circuit Workout Routines— The specially designed leg strap holds the Nunchuk™ and the Wii Remote is held in hand to track upper and lower body movements. A resistance band increases the intensity of exercises such as bicep curls**.

• Warm up and Cool down— Eight all-new warm up and cool down exercises that stretch muscles before and after workouts to help prevent aches and injury.

• Abdominal Exercises—All-new detectable abdominal exercises help tone abs and strengthen the mid-section of the body.

• Personal Trainer to More Workouts—Profiles and results achieved in Personal Trainer can be transferred to More Workouts.
• Track Your Journey—To encourage overall wellness, there is a journal that allows user to set goals and track progress – accounting for activities both in and outside of software – while also providing all-new nutrition and fitness tips.

• Workout Your Way—For optimal personalization, circuits can be customized based on interests and fitness level and there is complete flexibility for the duration and intensity level.
Product Specifications
Publisher: Electronic Arts Inc.
Developer: EA Canada
Street Date: Nov 17 (N Am) & 20 (EU)
Rating: RP

Almost Complete Set List for The Beatles: Rock Band

EA and Harmonix have released the set list for their upcoming games The Beatles: Rock Band. If you haven't heard of this game yet, it's Rock Band with the Beatles. It will chronicle their career from the beginning to the end and will feature 45 songs. The set list below has 44 of those 45 songs:


I Saw Her Standing There
Boys
Do You Want To Know A Secret
Twist And Shout
I Wanna Be Your Man
I Want to Hold Your Hand
A Hard Day’s Night
Can’t Buy Me Love
I Feel Fine
Eight Days A Week
Ticket To Ride
Day Tripper
Drive My Car
I’m Looking Through You
If I Needed Someone
Paperback Writer
Taxman
Yellow Submarine
And Your Bird Can Sing
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
With a Little Help from My Friends
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Getting Better
Good Morning Good Morning
I Am The Walrus
Hello Goodbye
Revolution
Back In The U.S.S.R.
Dear Prudence
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Birthday
Helter Skelter
Hey Bulldog
Don’t Let Me Down
Come Together
Something
Octopus’s Garden
I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
Here Comes The Sun
Dig A Pony
I Me Mine
I’ve Got A Feeling
Get Back
Within You Without You / Tomorrow Never Knows

One song that is curiously missing from that list is "Hey Jude". Is this the song that is missing from the list and will be announced at some point? Will they hold it until the game is released? Or is there another song altogether that will appear in the game? It seems to make sense that if you're going to have a game featuring the Beatles that "Hey Jude" would have to be included, but you never really know, now do ya'?

I'm really looking forward to this game. I will be picking up the game only. I have instruments, but I don't have $250 to spend on replicas of the actual instruments the guys played. Get your friends together and work on those harmonies because we're not that far away from the September 9th release of The Beatles: Rock Band.

EA Staffers Thought About Quitting Due to Wii

“The dynamics changed with the launch of the Wii–play and fun was coming back in, the demographic was changing enormously, and the amount of time to play was being compressed. [They (the staff)] couldn’t take the change of pace. It was hard. A lot of people at that time thought they would move on from our studios–they wanted to chase the core consumer.” - EA’s Peter Moore

Source: Tomsguide.com

This is a quote that really gets to me, and a sentiment that's been heard WAY too often in the last three years. Not only are people who play games bashing the Wii, the developers are as well. I can get behind a man like Peter Moore who has shown how much he really likes the Wii and the ideas that Wii brings to the table. I can't get behind people who say the Wii isn't for gamers. Too many times people say how much graphics are the most important thing they look at in a game. Shouldn't games be about the gameplay? Eye candy is a bonus, not a necessity for a good game and I think Wii has proven that over and over again. Games like Boom Blox, or Shaun White Snowboarding, or Nintendo's own Wii Sports show you that if a game is fun, you'll come back to it again and again.

I've said I'm tired of defending Wii because I shouldn't have to. The experienced gamers say they'll stick to the system that has good games on it, i.e. the 360. Well that's true, it does have good games on it. I can look at my library of Nintendo games that has grown to over 40 titles and point to 40 games that I own that are fun to play. There has only been one game I regretted owning this generation and that was a downloadable NES title that I had never played.

I will fully throw my support behind developers who understand that games are about fun, more than anything. Developers like Peter Moore, the guys at High Voltage Software, Nintendo, Ubisoft and the Rabbids. Too many gamers today are interested in the hyper realistic, gore fests that Gears of War, or Killzone 2, or Prototype offer. While those are all good games in their own right, you can't discount the sheer fun of games like Wii Sports Resort or New Super Mario Bros. Wii will offer. Good art style trumps hyper realism any day. That's why games like the Shaun White series or Ghostbusters: The Video Game got more attention on Wii than they did their counterparts. They were simply more fun to play.