Posts Tagged ‘EA’

Need for Speed™ Undercover

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

Need for Speed - UndercoverAfter a long silence from EA on the Need for Speed™ franchise, they have finally announced the next game of the series. Need for Speed™ Undercover

After the last Need for Speed™ game - Pro Street - came out, it left me disappointed and bored. I missed the high speed police chases and live action story. The menu’s seemed confusing and the game took forever to load. I found myself shelving the game early on.

Need for Speed™ Undercover takes the brand back to its brilliance with, as they call it, “intense action racing.” You will be sent undercover, racing through speedways, dodging cops and chasing rivals.

“Need for Speed Undercover puts you at the centre of a big-budget Hollywood movie with all of the drama, action and dazzling chase scenes, right on your gaming console. The unique Heroic Driving Engine will give you ultimate control over the hottest cars and push you to use every ounce of skill to outrun the law and take down criminal adversaries,” said Executive Producer Bill Harrison.

I think the twist is brilliant. EA was said to have moved towards Pro Street because it didn’t want to promote illegal driving. Now you are essentially the good guy, undercover as a street racer.

The new ‘Heroic Driving Engine’ is being shown off as, “a unique technology that generates incredible high-performance moves at 180 miles per hour during breathtaking highway battles.” We will see about that, but if it’s true I can’t wait.

The game is set for a November launch which means we should all be racing away on Christmas day around the Tri-City Bay Area. It seems Burnout: Paradise has set some new standards that Need for Speed™ will be following. The city’s open-world environment is said to feature over 80 miles of road, including an enormous highway system. Damage has also been brought back, along with our favourite cars including the Audi R8, BMW M6 and Lexus IS-F.

The game is being launched on almost every platform: Xbox 360®, PLAYSTATION®3, Wii™, PlayStation®2, Nintendo DS™, PSP®, PC and mobile.

Red Alert 3

Monday, September 8th, 2008

Red Alert 3The Command and Conquer series is back with their third instalment of the Red Alert series. The series started out in World War II were Einstein had changed history causing the Soviets to be the major force bent on world domination. The series then moved to psychic warfare. Yuri, the new Soviet Premier’s right hand man, controls the new Premier’s mind and gets him to attack the USA. At the end, the allies defeated the Soviets again, but Yuri was still a fugitive. An expansion was launched for Red Alert 2 where Yuri re-emerges with a large army. The Allies go back in time to ensure he doesn’t win. The new release, due in November 2008, is born from time machine troubles again.

From EA: “The Soviet leaders meet to devise one final plan or surrender. It is now that their top scientist reveals to them his secret experimental time machine. They immediately use it to go back in time and remove the one man from history who is most responsible for the Allies’ technological superiority: Albert Einstein. This plan goes without a hitch, and when they return to their original timeline, the Allies are indeed weakened and at the mercy of the Soviet military. But before they can truly celebrate, they learn that their actions have unintended consequences. They have spawned a new threat and global superpower: the Empire of the Rising Sun. With the Allies weakened, Imperial Japan was left to expand unchecked over the decades. And now they are invading the Soviet Union!”

The cast for the live action scenes is amazing: Gemma Atkinson (the UK’s Hollyoaks), Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Hunt for Red October), Andrew Divoff (LOST), Kelly Hu (X2, The Scorpion King), Jenny McCarthy (Scream 3, former Playboy Playmate of the Year),Ivana Milicevic (Casino Royale), Jonathan Pryce (Pirates of the Caribbean), J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man, Juno), Autumn Reeser (The OC), Peter Stormare(Prison Break, Armageddon), George Takei (Star Trek, Heroes), and two of the most recognizable names in competitive mixed martial arts Randy “The Natural” Couture (former UFC Heavyweight champion) and Gina “Conviction” Carano (Undefeated Elite XC fighter, American Gladiators).

“This is by far the most exciting cast we have in over 13 years of shooting live-action movies for Command & Conquer,” said Chris Corry, executive producer at EALA. “The caliber of the performances we received, both individually and collectively, have really raised the storytelling bar for the franchise. We are really excited that we will be delivering such a high quality production that is on par with movies and television shows.” “I wasn’t sure what to expect when I came in to work on a video game,” said Jenny McCarthy from the set of Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 while playing Tanya, Allied commando and the most beloved heroine in the history of the Command & Conquer universe. “What I realized is Red Alert 3 is not just a video game, it’s absolutely an interactive movie. This is where the people at home get to move the story forward, and where seeing the plot thicken is a reward for a job well done. And that’s really cool.”