14 DAY TRIAL // I have a feeling that E3 2012 has managed to be even more popular with both the gaming industry and the press this year when compared to 2011 and that makes it more interesting to attend and more difficult to survive without major scars.
This first E3 day only has a six-hour schedule, and at least one full hour is consumed by the significant cues that one needs to navigate through in order to get into the expo halls in the first place.
Today was occupied by video games from publisher Electronic Arts, with a number of solid titles set to arrive in the coming year in a range of genres.
I saw Need for Speed: Most Wanted, the reboot of the very popular racing concept coming from Criterion, and was impressed with how rich the races seemed and how well-proportioned the driving model was.
I also had a look at Battlefield Premium, the competitor that DICE and Electronic Arts have delivered for their own flagship first-person shooter in order to rival Elite: Call of Duty from Activision.
Shooters and racing need to be counterbalanced by something a little more cerebral, so I then headed over to the Maxis demo booth in order to see how SimCity, a city builder, is shaping up, with its impressive Glassbox engine and its controversial multiplayer elements.
Medal of Honor: Warfighter was another interesting title from Electronic Arts, with a multiplayer experience that is built around a new concept called Fire Teams, which will change interactions between pairs of players inside the bigger game modes.
FIFA 13 also got a Hands-On and I was surprised to see how much a solid development team like that at EA Sports Vancouver can change to make a game that seemed very close to perfection even better.