E3 Day One Quick Recap

It was six hours that went by incredibly fast and now work has started on providing content out of the first day of E3. Videos are currently being uploaded but the process is a very slow one. I expect some of them to be posted later tonight but by morning is a better bet. (Update) Videos are looking increasingly unlikely due to the internet connection and may have to be held until Thursday evening when I’ll able to effectively upload them.

Until then I’m posting some Madden NFL 12 ‘Player Trait’ images on Twitter and Facebook. I have over 200 of them total to get up in the coming days as player ratings were locked in the build but the new traits were available to check out. Continue on for brief thoughts on time spent with the games today.

Madden NFL 12
Prominently displayed along with FIFA 12 in the EA booth pretty much every version of the game was playable from 360/PS3 to the iPad 2, 3DS, and Facebook offering. Gameplay wise I need more experience with Madden 12 to evaluate it properly and will invest significant time tomorrow. Presentation and graphics are where things really seem to excel this year but the feel of the game is much improved also especially as it pertains to running animations – and just movement and control in general. The defensive lineman also have a wide array of moves and top players like Ndamukong Suh can cause pressure consistently while blitzes actually have the ability to make it home. There have been some sporadic issues noticed but all have been somewhat minor and I’ll go into those in a full writeup later this week.

NCAA Football 12
Stunningly this game was not on the floor at E3 and instead held behind closed doors in a restricted environment. That could raise some concerns about why EA Sports would not want the public to get an unfiltered look at the game which is only a month away from releasing.

UFC Undisputed 3
An extended presentation of UFC 3 was given and the information provided regarding improvements and features were largely encouraging. Graphically the footage looked great and offering a simplified control scheme as an option is a welcome one. We were not fans of the new submission system however. When a submission is attempted a mini-game of sorts pops up on the screen in the shape of an octagon. The two players receive a colored stamina bar on opposite sides and proceed to either pursue or elude the opposing player’s bar. This gives a visual representation of why a submission is successful or unsuccessful but breaks reality and feels out of place.

Other Titles
Not enough time was spent with any other games at the event on day one, or they were held behind closed doors where I choose not to partake in those demonstrations. Look for full writeups on the games in the coming days as well as a Padrecast discussing the events of day one to go up by the morning.