EA announces Dead Space 3, Sim City Social

Electronic Arts brought out several new titles from internal studios and partner developers at E3, including a new entry for its popular survival horror series Dead Space, and Sim City Social for Facebook. EA Visceral began the publisher's press conference by unveiling Dead Space 3, which will release in February 2013. The new game features co-op multiplayer, and will take players outside of the usual space station environments for a change, bringing them to outdoor locations. EA Sports then took the stage to discuss key additions to Madden NFL 13 (releasing August 2012), such as the new Infinity Engine, which implements run-time physics that consider a player's mass, speed, and momentum to affect every collision. Madden NFL 13 will offer a Connected Careers mode that brings together multiple modes into one option, an enhanced story engine, and even a fake virtual Twitter feed that features commentary for players' characters and teams. The developer will also put out a Madden NFL social game, which will launch this fall. The title will be playable on both Facebook and mobile phones, allowing players to pause on one platform and pick up where they left off on another. Lucy Bradshaw, SVP of EA Maxis, introduced new trailers for the studio's previously announced SimCity (February 2013) game for Windows, but it also surprised attendees with a Sim City Social, a Facebook entry coming out in a few weeks. Bradshaw said Maxis is looking to gain back its "crown as the king of city builders," referring to copycat social games from other developers on Facebook -- Zynga's CityVille is currently the most popular game on the social network. The publisher's CEO John Riccitiello took the stage next and congratulated Ex-Infinity Ward co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella, who were in attendance and recently won a settlement in their lawsuit against ex-employer Activision. He made way for DICE to discuss the Battlefield Premium subscription service launching today, BioWare to announce upcoming content and a free-to-play trial option (up to level 15) for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Danger Close to show off new footage of Medal of Honor: Warfighter (October 2012). EA Sports returned to make several announcements concerning FIFA 13 (September 2012), like enhancements to the Football Club social network, iOS and Android editions for the new entry, and a special iPhone app offering access to auctions, friends lists, and other features. The studio then announced an exclusive multi-year, multi-product partnership with mixed martial arts league Ultimate Fighting Championship, taking over a license that had been previously held by rival publisher THQ. Criterion Games came out to show off a new open-world Need for Speed: Most Wanted coming October 30, which was followed by the final gameplay presentation for the show, Crytek's Crysis 3 (February 2013).