EA is the ‘big guy’ when it comes to game development. They have a string of successful franchises across a range of platforms and genres, and I don’t just mean success in terms of dollar bills - though they have plenty of that. Many of their franchises are routinely held up as ‘great games’ - most notably for me is SimCity and Command & Conquer. I’ve played most incarnations of these two series, and I love them.

So I was delighted to receive an invitation to EA Redwood Shores, CA to attend a Sims Bloggers Day. I would get to see several upcoming Sims game, talk with some designers, meet some other bloggers, and see just what’s it like at the HQ for the biggest name in gaming. I’d also get to spend 22 hours sitting in a plane, but such is the lot of the dedicated blogger.

First impressions count for a lot, and EA makes a good one. The building is huge, modern, and the lobby decorated with arcade machines, and a giant TV screen. There are gardens, a labyrinth, a nearby lagoon, an on site gym, a creche complete with playground, big lounges, and (of course) game rooms. No expense has been spared, which is perhaps not surprising given the furor that arose in 2004 over the work-life balance of EA employees. The developers may still have to work long hours, but at least they can see their children and get some exercise. Certainly none of the people we spoke to seemed to be unhappy, and the passion for the games they were creating came through in their presentations.

Ah yes. The games. As a Sims day, all the games were shown were part of the Sims franchise, but there was quite a wide variety in what we saw. One developer compared the MySims characters to the muppets - able to be plunged into any storyline or genre, whilst still retaining their muppetness (or Simness).

I’ll start at the beginning, with the soon-to-be-released SimCity Creator. In my next few posts I’ll move on to MySims Kingdom, SimAnimals and finish up with MySims PC. Finally I’m going to talk a bit about what the Sims franchise represents for gamers, and explore EA’s corporate culture a bit further. So stay tuned - we’ve got a lot to talk about.
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It’s that time again, dear readers! Meeeeerrry Christmas!

What’s that? It’s summer, you say? Haven’t you ever heard of the time-honored tradition of celebrating Christmas in July? It’s the perfect time for stores to gear up to sell you your Christmas necessities and for everyone to celebrate the holiday season while lounging in the sun sipping on some delicious iced tea.

It’s also the perfect time to take a look at some great releases we’re going to see around the real holiday season this year. Let’s take a look into Santa’s big red bag.

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On June 12th, Playstation 3 owners fled from their houses to the nearest GameStops, Best Buys, and Walmarts to get their hands on Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Well, okay, maybe not all of them—but if you didn’t, you should have.

Fresh from Kojima Productions, MGS4 marks the end of an era. It’s the final installment in the Metal Gear series to star Solid Snake, the suave protagonist fans know and love. As a PS3 exclusive, the game earned itself quite a bit of hype and lives up to every bit.

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We are smack in the era of fantastic MMORPGs. There are a lot of classics like Guild Wars, CoX, Ultima Online, etc. There are also a lot of upcoming games that show a lot of promise. Age of Conan, Warhammer– the list goes on. Promise isn’t everything, of course; a lot of hyped games fall flat on their faces. Aion, for one, is ticking me and others off due to the lack of progress with setting a retail date. Seriously, this is somewhere around the third or fourth beta, and there’s no news. Totally poor management. A general release estimate or something would tide me over, but no, nothing yet. Just more betas. Bad signs don’t bode well in such a competitive business–and MMORPGs are as competitive as they get now.

World of Warcraft, however, putters on without any hint of stopping as its competition races to dethrone it.

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I have a scenario in my head. Turning to my friend I say, “I want to be an engineer like Bulma, that way I can just generally be useless and need to be rescued all the time. Then eventually I’ll somehow have a kid with a guy who seems totally clueless to anything besides standing around going, ‘HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA’.”

He laughs and says, “No, what we need to do is be namekians. You can be Flute, I’ll be Bassoon, and we can form the infamous ‘Woodwind Trio’ with someone else.”

Does this scenario confuse you? Do you feel like you’ve just stepped into a bad anime fanfiction site? What does this have to do with games? Well, I’ll tell you. Dragon Ball. Online. No, I’m not kidding. Just like Hello Kitty, game makers are looking to cash in on another big name anime.

To answer your first question, no you can’t play a Saiyan. QQ.

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There’s a certain sense of inevitability waiting at the end of the corridor. The young man’s parade boots echo sternly on the grated floor as he strides purposefully toward the blast doors. After a theatrical pause, the blast doors fly open and the snap-hiss of a lightsaber ignites the air with a sharp tang of ozone. With a nod, the TIE fighters in the hangar swerve into motion and systematically crush the scrambling stormtroopers clinging to each other for dear life. I’ve dreamed of this before.

Since early childhood I’ve been compelled by the darting lasers of interstellar battle juxtaposed with the serene mysticism of the Force–and I’m certainly not the only one. LucasArts has created a veritable empire, no pun intended, from the interest garnered from a simple desert farm boy’s destiny. Obviously the screaming TIE fighters, Mandalorian armor, wookiees, wry robots and promise of planetary destruction helped too, but since the spawn of Star Wars in the late seventies, we’ve seen three more (admittedly lukewarm) movies, PEZ dispensers, action figures, bed sheets, lunch boxes, over a hundred books, Legos and, more pertinent to this discussion, over seventy five video game titles.

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