EA Showcase – Round 2

Didn’t get enough of a fill with Round 1? Good! Because now it’s time for the second round of the EA Showcase which is sure to be filled with blood, death, and tiny little characters running around screaming while on fire. My awesome EA representative by my side, it was finally time for some Battlefield 3, Crysis 3, and SimCity (one of these things is not like the other…) action. These were the three heaviest hitters among the games on show that afternoon and now it is time to unleash them. Fly, my pretties!

Is it 1989 already? My gosh I can’t believe that I’m turning one so soon! My how the time just flies… Wait, what? Oh! You mean SimCity is actually SimCity 5 but Maxis just decided to do that sequel thing where they just randomly begin again like Final Destination, Rocky, and Rambo? Minor title irritations aside, I’m actually extremely excited about this game. I’ve been a fan of the series since Sim Town (if you’re old enough to remember that, or dedicated enough as I am) and this looks, thus far, to be the most incredible Sim-civilisation game I’ve ever seen.

All elements of the game (electricity, pollution, natural resources, happiness, economy, etc.) have real-time data layers which will overlay your city with a single click of a button. Every vehicle in the game has its own goal and destination – which causes traffic, accidents, and means that no random cars suddenly disappear/reappear in your city, and you now have the ability to build curvy roads by simply clicking and dragging the cursor. Fires can now spread rapidly between nearby buildings if proper precautions and fire stations are not made, you can manually upgrade individual buildings and place the upgrades how you see fit as long as they remain attached to the original building, and for multiplayer you will be able to have somewhere between one and twenty (they weren’t 100% sure yet) players whose cities will be able to interact, help, hinder, and overall influence each other depending on each player’s actions.

It looks absolutely beautiful. The drop and drag building placement, the data layers, the toy model style visuals, and the fact they’re keeping some of the classic craziness (the likes of UFO attacks and such) means I’m super pumped about this game. There are a few downsides, though. The big two being that the game is taking too much inspiration from ‘The Sims’ for my liking. I know they’re technically linked by cannon but I like to keep The Sims feel of things and the SimCity feel of things almost completely separate. I don’t want an experience that is basically The Sims only further zoomed out. It appears to be a mostly aesthetic thing so far, and I’m hoping it’s just my paranoia jumping the gun. The second is that there is no Steam support. It’s Origin exclusive. This kills me a bit inside because while I’ve never actively tried to hate Origin, the whole idea and implementation still rubs me the wrong way. Hopefully by 2013 they’ll have streamlined the service a little bit more so it won’t become a massive issue.

Crysis has come a long way since it was once used to test the durability of your computer and see if it would catch fire and commit suicide from the menu screen alone. Crysis 3 is finally coming and it’s bringing a bow and arrow with it. Once again, I must stress that this was a visual presentation only and so all gameplay opinions come from watching them in motion and not experiencing them first-hand. That being said it still looks freakin’ sweet! You’re in New York City, the year is 2047, you are Prophet, aliens are still invading, and Psycho is screaming in your ear as you try to sneak up on enemies. It’s that same glorious Crysis we’ve all come and known to love only it’s bringing even more to the table than before. It’s the same song but with much better instruments. Prophet has new weaponry, the Ceph are fast adapting to the jungle environment that NYC has become, and now you can finally start taking it to their extraterrestrial asses using a taste of their own medicine.

Prophet can now utilise alien weaponry. He has the ability to pick up any gun he sees fit, including any and all human technology, and now even has the skills to hack various pieces of kit. There’s an over-arching story element that explains how and why, which we weren’t allowed to know about yet as it’s a surprise for the finished product. The only hint we got about it was that the idea was very ‘District 9’ – so take from that what you will. My personal favourite weapon they mentioned that features in the game is the ‘Typhoon’ machine gun which fires 500 rounds a second, but what they really wanted to put on show, though, was the bow and arrow. It has multiple ammo/arrow types which can be used for killing, with a ‘killcam’ style killshot if you happen to nail a particularly amazing long range shot, and perhaps most importantly can be used with your cloak activated – the only weapon in the game that won’t affect your cloaking abilities. This is quite a big deal because Crysis, for a while now, has bragged about the choice between stealth and full-on balls-out warfare as ways of completing missions, and the bow and arrow might just be the clincher that makes me opt for ninja over Schwarzenegger.

Having only seen a very brief, obviously heavily planned, playthrough of a section of Crysis 3 I don’t wish to heap too much praise on it as Crytec are renowned for being able to make things looks as gorgeous as possible with very minimal effort. However, these latest additions have definitely helped to peak interest. The fact that the Ceph are adapting to their surroundings and therefore changing shape, tactics, and weapons adds a new flavour to an already well established enemy. Plus, while it’s possible they’re being touted as more than what they are, the bow and arrow combo is going to be a very interesting concept because Crytec are very unashamedly pushing players to consider stealth as more of an option than it ever has before.

I’ve always thoroughly enjoyed all the previous Battlefield games I’ve played, but 3 just left me wanting and frustrated. Close Quarters, though, is exactly the kind of gameplay within Battlefield 3 I sought after. Four new multiplayer maps, all focused on indoor close quarter combat, and with plenty of destructible and damageable scenery. A simple concept but one I’ve been clambering after for many months. I actually got to play this game, but was restricted to only playing a single map – Donya Fortress. If the other three maps are as good as this I will tip my hat and admit that Close Quarters is bloody brilliant.

It’s quite rare in this industry that a huge chunk of real estate on a Showcase floor will be dedicated to a four map DLC pack, and even rarer that out of all the games featured that it would have the strictest embargo thrust upon it, but I can see why EA has done it. Close Quarters is a big deal. This is a map pack that has a very specific gameplay element that hasn’t been truly exploited by BF3 as of yet. I never imagined I would be in a game where there were more shotguns than there were snipers – yet there I was perched upon my EA branded chair experiencing just that. It was amazing because while I still play Call of Duty, and am quite a fan, it was fantastic to be able to have the quicker gameplay pace without the ridiculous craziness which comes with it. This, right here, is a truly awesome map pack.

I won’t waste words on explaining Battlefield 3 gameplay or anything of the sort because if you’ve made it this far then you probably already know what I’m taking about. The action was fast-paced but it was never frantic. The various routes to different capture points meant I actually got to plan strategies, get a few stealthy knife kills in, and, when the time came to it, gun down a third of the opposition using a P90 because they all foolishly wandered into the same corridor without checking their corners beforehand. I can see that for some Battlefield players this may not be what they’re after, but for others this really could be quite the game changer. No vehicles, no snipers (mostly), just you, your team, and your gun and knife. It was a joyous series of games with some of them coming right down to the wire score-wise. Close Quarters is the most fun I’ve had with Battlefield 3 and you are welcome to take that as a shining recommendation or as the ramblings of a madman who took this long to see the light.

That’s all for now, folks! It’s been quite a rollercoaster ride this year, has it not? Chainsaw-wielding clowns, drug addiction comparisons against poker with jewels, all the way to be actually going on a mini-gush about how awesome Battlefield 3 was. It’s been amazing. Thank you for joining me on this momentous journey, and I hope to see you all for the next EA Showcase of epicness.