One thing we were all looking forward to this year at E3 was SimCity. We’ve been following it for a while and got to listen in on a Producer Broadcast with SimCity lead producer Kip Katsarelis. We got to hear 30 minutes of questions and answers, along with insight on several aspects of the game, including the sim engine, look and feel and some gameplay aspects.
One of the first questions Kip was asked was, “Why did Maxis and EA bring back SimCity?” He said that with this game, they wanted to bring back the possibilities of creating a world on PCs that can now handle the engine they wanted to create. The new game is a complete reboot of the franchise and Maxis looked at every feature from top to bottom to reinvent the game to make it the best ever. There is a new simulation engine in place, which we knew about, called the GlassBox engine. With GlassBox, every Sim has a place to live, work and shop.
Glassbox is huge and is the foundation for the simulation. It allows everything you see in the world to be simulated. Crime happens in realtime, traffic is amazing, every Sim is actively tracked and managed. If work is close, they will walk or take rail or bus stops, or they may even drive. You can then act on that (those problems) and see the impact of the changes you make.
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Another EA press event means another Need for Speed game. This time, developer studio Criterion takes a shot at progressing the series from the ground-breaking addition of Autolog found in Hot Pursuit with Need for Speed: Most Wanted. EA says you can now “outdrive your friends, outrace your rivals and take down a city full of cops” in the most intense edition of the game to date.
Seemingly everyone on the planet knows who the Navy Seals are but did you know that most militarized nations have a “tier 1” elite squad? If you had no idea, then Medal of Honor: Warfighter is here to enlighten you. Danger Close, the studio behind this new title, will be bringing together the best of the best – 12 elite squadrons from 10 nations, to play in a modern, realistic shooter.
EA SPORTS Madden 13 Senior Designer Josh Looman took the stage at ADEA’ss press event to tell us something very profound:
With the things we saw at the E3 2011 EA press event with 
One of the highlights of EA’s presser this year was the announcement of Dead Space 3. This is a franchise that has had lots of controversy, including the “your mom hates this game” ad campaign. Controversy leads to sales and sales usually translates into likes, especially when the games are as good as these. Getting to see gameplay from the next installment is enough to get anyone excited.
This year at E3, EA and DICE announced an expansion to Battlefield 3. When I say expansion, I mean they decided to stick with the game that brought them to the dance and enhance it like never before. Plus, it’s not just another map pack with 
What do Sony and books have to do with each other? No, they’re not releasing another eReader. Instead, Sony brought to the stage of their press event something that felt a little rushed. The company has teamed up with J.K. Rowling to produce Book of Spells, which is a game based on the Wonderbook platform that they also announced at the event.
This week during LA gaming week 2012 Sony announced a new single-player game, Beyond: Two Souls. We are excited for this game which is estimated to be released in Spring 2013 for the PS3. The main character, Jodie Holmes, who is a young female with supernatural powers and a link with an invisible entity, will be played in a “unique way” by Ellen Page. “{She} is the most incredible Jodie Holmes I could dream of,” says David Gage from Quantic Dream.
The