Daily Blogs from the EA Stand at i35.
Posted 01-11-2008 at 10:48 AM by garethj
Day One - i35 - Setup.
We arrived on site bright and early on Thursday morning to begin setting up.
After building two walls with embedded screens, 6 PlayStation® 3s and 6 Xbox360™s as well as a central desk containing 8 PCs and two large plasma screens on a central column we took a break for lunch.
After lunch we tested and installed software and blasted out some Rock Band tunes over the PA system and tried to find places for the four huge beanbags we bought with us.
With all the consoles set up and the PCs busy installing updates we set up Left 4 Dead on 4-player co-op and we were all blown away by the quality of the game, suddenly hundreds of people began to stream into the exhibition hall with computers, screens, chairs and pot noodles so Left 4 Dead had to be turned off and we made our way home.
We arrived on site bright and early on Thursday morning to begin setting up.
After building two walls with embedded screens, 6 PlayStation® 3s and 6 Xbox360™s as well as a central desk containing 8 PCs and two large plasma screens on a central column we took a break for lunch.
After lunch we tested and installed software and blasted out some Rock Band tunes over the PA system and tried to find places for the four huge beanbags we bought with us.
With all the consoles set up and the PCs busy installing updates we set up Left 4 Dead on 4-player co-op and we were all blown away by the quality of the game, suddenly hundreds of people began to stream into the exhibition hall with computers, screens, chairs and pot noodles so Left 4 Dead had to be turned off and we made our way home.
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Day Two - i35 - EA Takes the stage.
The Day started with Left 4 Dead and continued that way until the late afternoon with smatterings of Command & Conquer™ Red Alert™ 3, Mirror's Edge™ and Need for Speed™ Undercover before Rock Band took over for the evening.
We Turned on Left 4 Dead, inviting gamers to bring three friends to enjoy the co-op shooter but initially only one or two people were brave enough to pick up the pad and take on the Zombie hoardes. With the CPU automatically taking control of idle players and our staff available to fill in and help people get to grips with the game we were soon exploring the No Mercy area.
Left 4 Dead didn't require a great deal of assistance from the staff as everything the player needs is highlighted on the HUD, including your team mates health and which of them are holding health pickups and projectiles.
While Left 4 Dead was wowing visitors with its terrifying survival horror action some gamers preferred the less frightening experiences offered by Mirror's Edge and Need for Speed Undercover. Both titles were impressing visitors, some commenting that the latest Need for Speed title is "like Most Wanted" and others feeling that "it really feels like you are going fast".
Mirror's Edge had many people looking on in awe at its unique graphical style and fluid game play. While some found the non-traditional first person controls scheme tricky at first most got to grips with it quickly and were soon navigating across the rooftops with ease.
While all this was going on the PC desks were taken up with Red Alert 3 with some gamers taking on a campaign while others teamed up to take on the CPU in a 6 way battle.
Many were impressed and were asking if we were selling the game on our stand.
Later in the day we turned off the PCs and consoles and out came Rock Band 2. After playing a few songs on bass I was coerced into singing a few tunes while Baker011 took up the Bass and some of our visitors took turns on drums and a girl who had painted her fingernails to match the frets took over the guitar and wowed onlookers with her abilities, which was a welcome distraction from my pained warbling as Baker011 tasked me with songs far out of my pop/punk confort zone.
I was about to be made much more uncomfortable however as myself, Baker, Omni and another of our staff were encouraged to get up on stage and take part in an i35 Vs EA Battle of the Bands.
Myself being a novice Rock Band player took up Bass while Baker expertly sang Snow by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, backed up by Omni on Drums.
We picked up a score of 960,000, a few points off our score in our one practise run through but it was enough to see off the challenge from i35 and put us through as winners.
I'd like to say congratulations to those who took part, its not easy to "perform" on stage while trying to concentrate on hitting the notes on the screen, particularly if you face the wrath of Baker should you lose!
The wrath of Baker was felt by many as the evening progressed with the EA Dead Space Halloween Costume Competition.
Pirates, Team Fortress Characters and even a rollerskating Buzz Lightyear were given low scores and much scorn from the man some say is "worse than Simon Cowell" but eventually winners were chosen, including a kitten (who knew kittens wore skirts that short?), A Silent Hill inspired Nurse and the overall winner, a Zombie Doctor.Posted 01-11-2008 at 11:32 AM by garethj
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Day Four - i35 - Crysis Wars Final - Draft Report
Dignitas Vs Good Luck Have Fun (GLHF)
Before the final I took my position near the front where I had the oportunity to speak to Dignitas member and Command & Conquer Champion Apollo who was holding two cans of strongbow which he informed me were to be handed to Dogbert "When he won". What he would be doing should they lose remains a mystery however as Dignitas won the final in the second round after a difficult first round which was taken by GLHF.
The game was Team Deathmatch, 3 points for a frag, -1 for a suicide, 20minutes per round, first to 300 points.
Dignitas needed a single round to win the final while GLHF needed to win two rounds.
The first round was played on Peak, a large cliff with a wooden shack at the summit. Dignitas drew first blood and pulled into the lead early on, gaining a 30 point lead after four minutes, hunting the GLHF players in pairs.
GLHF began to pull back, pushing on and taking the high ground and cutting the lead to 20 points with 5 minutes gone. As the crowd shout "Come on" GLHF level the scores on 6 minutes to rapturous applause and continue to take kills, pushing into the lead with 12 minutes remaining in the round.
GLHF leave two on top of the peak while they pick off the spawning Dignitas players before they can regroup. This allows Dignitas to overturn GLHF, taking their position on the high ground and bringing the scores closer together.
GLHF wait and mount a charge on the peak with three men but Dignitas manage to hold on, coming out of the battle with their position intact but losing frags in the process, then at the second attempt GLHF force Dignitas from the hill, leaving them trailing behind with 8 minutes left to play.
GLHF make good use of their position, pushing to a 30 point lead as Dignitas rush up the hill one by one to their deaths.
Dignitas finally take the hill while GLHF regroup in a cave, launching another assault on the peak as Dignitas split up into their pairs to come looking for their enemies, desperate for frags with only 5 minutes remaining. Dignitas cling on but a triple kill from one player hands control to GLHF as the game heads into the final few minutes.
GLHF find the remaining 7 frags they need to win the round and the crowd goes wild.Posted 02-11-2008 at 05:49 PM by garethj
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Day Four - i35 - Crysis Wars Final - Draft Report
Round two.
Round two was played on Stranded, an open beach level with a downed plane broken into pieces and leaning on a cliff.
GLHF take the lead 15-9 early on but the game is reset after a hardware failure on the Dignitas team.
The game re-starts and Dignitas take the first kill, zaccubus and dogbert taking on and destroying the entire GLHF team with zaccubus getting a triple kill.
Dignitas take the high ground and a 15 point lead with 2 minutes played. GLHF take their revenge on Zaccubus and Dogbert as they attempt to take control of the hight ground at the top of the plane only for Dignitas to kill them off and extend their lead to 25 points.
Dignitas continue to pull away from GLHF taking their lead to 40 points but the crowd cheer GLHF on to get 10 points back and take control of the high ground with five minutes played.
Zaccubus dominates the plane area, beating everyone in the game on frags until he is taken down by GLHF who narrow Dignitas' lead to 20 points by approaching from a different angle.
With 8 minutes played the scores are level on 120 points a piece when Dignitas pick off two GLHF players hiding inside the plane to go 6 points ahead. The teams go nearly kill for kill but Dignitas again pull ahead, gaining a 20 point advantage with 8 minutes left to play and extending the lead to 30 points within the next minute of play.
Dignitas exploit the high ground to pick off the advancing GLHF players, much the same way as GLHF gained ground in the first round. With 3 minutes remaining on the clock and 40 points needed to win the match for Dignitas GLHF fall behind by 50 points and decide to change tactics, opting to snipe from distance, pulling back 3 frags with two minutes remaining and cutting the Dignitas lead to 30 points by taking the cliff area from them.
Dignitas sit back and try to hold on for the last minute, they need 4 kills in 30 seconds to hit 300 and get them in the dying seconds.
Speaking to Dignitas after the game they felt that they had been distracted by the crowd in the first round but upped the volume on their headsets to concentrate on the second, which they had to win.
Zaccubus thought that Crysis Wars could do with a power up such as a quad power to encourage teams into the open rather than allowing them to camp in the high ground.
Dogbert, drinking his celebratory cider recognised that the problem in the first round was the team becoming split up and mounting the hill alone and getting picked off by the numbers of the GLHF team but felt that head to head they had the edge across the two games.Posted 02-11-2008 at 06:09 PM by garethj
