At EA’s Press Conference from E3 2012 on Tuesday June 5^th, they announced several games, mostly involving their sports department, EA Sports. EA offered three first-person shooters, a third-person shooter, a Sim game, a massive multiplayer online (MMO) expansion, a racing game, and four sports titles. Part one will cover from EA’s first-person shooters to their racing game.

The first-person shooters that EA announced were Battlefield 3 Premium, Medal of Honor Warfighter, and Crysis 3. Battlefield 3 Premium is a special network system that incorporates early access to future downloadable content (DLC) along with special customization for characters and dog tags. It also includes new weapons and vehicles. Four new DLC game maps will be available, including Close Quarters (a special infantry-only map), Armor Kill (A special vehicle focus map, which is one of the largest game maps to date), Aftermath (A game map that takes place at a city struck by an earthquake), and End Game (which introduces motorcycle combat vehicles). Battlefield 3 Premium is currently out for $49.99, along with the Close Quarters DLC.

The next first-person shooter EA announced was Medal of Honor Warfighter. After the failure of the reboot, simply known as Medal of Honor, this is another attempt by EA’s to revive the Medal of Honor series. However, the only selling points EA expressed for this series revival were the game’s use of the Frostbite engine, and, according to the promo video, the ability to choose which side you want to be on. Will this truly be the revival of the classic series or will it fade off like its previous title?

The last first-person shooter that EA announced was Crysis 3. Using its self-titled “Crysis Engine”, Crysis 3 seems to be a fresh light into the futuristic first-person shooter. Complete with beautiful details and cinematics, Crysis 3 brings intense first person action to this futuristic sandbox shooter.

The third-person shooter EA announced was Dead Space 3. Dead Space 3 seemed to take the survival horror out of third-person survival horror. With amazing action and beautiful direction, Dead Space 3 at first appeared to be a nice continuation of the Dead Space series. Yet this game completely ignores the basis of the Dead Space series. There was a lack in the survival horror aspect as well as the space aspect. With the press conference putting a heavy focus on the drop-in/drop-out multiplayer aspect, will Dead Space 3 be another Resident Evil 5, or will Dead Space break the boundaries between survival horror and action shooter?

EA also announced a return of the Sim builder series with SimCity. SimCity worked to push the limits of what the series was known for, and with the use of the Blast Box Innovation Engine, SimCity hopes to revolutionize the city building genre and bring the series back from its continuous slump. Some features of the New Sim City include trading with neighboring cities, global market trading, city specialization (which will influence the look of the city), as well as many multiplayer features including a shared city, trading with online neighboring cities, and controlling different cities in an open online region. Many of these features were not detailed during the EA Press Conference, but more details will can be found here.

Bioware, owned by EA, also came up to the stage to announce new expansions to their MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. Bioware announced that there will be new Player versus Player (PvP) warzone maps, ranked PvP character transfers, new available companions, a new playable species, and a new planet to explore. Bioware also announced that there will be a higher level cap, new challenges including a nightmare difficulty, and lastly, starting in July, Old Republic will be free to play up to level 15. Bioware promises to keep Old Republic fresh and up to date for their hardcore fans.

In the field of racing games, EA announced the new addition to the Need for Speed (NFS) series with Need for Speed Most Wanted. With the accepted reboot of Hot Pursuit and the failures that were Shift 2 and The Run, the Need for Speed series hopes to make another comeback with a reboot of Most Wanted. NFS hopes to continue with the more than acceptable success of Hot Pursuit by bringing back the autolog system and making it even more integrated than before, so that there would be a more in-depth competition between fellow online players as they compete to become the most wanted in this open world driving adventure.

The overall presentation of EA’s new games was a bit lackluster this year. But with a few highly anticipated games like Dead Space 3 and Crysis 3, EA hopes to bring its title out of the slump it had gotten itself into. Part 2 will continue with EA Sports’ game releases.

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Funimation held an extended panel this year at Anime Boston in order to include some stories of how anime had affected fans’ lives and helped them pull through hard times. They also used the time to announce several new streaming and DVD-release titles, as well as reiterate their social networking committment and online streaming presence.

The two Funimation panelists began by talking about their online presence on social networks and talking about all the places you can find Funimation online: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, Xbox Live, and Nikiniko Douga’s English website.

They also addressed their TV channel’s exclusion from Verizon Fios, and voiced their thanks to the fans for ‘trolling’ Verizon on their behalf to get them included back in the programming.

They announced that they have acquired the rights to simulcast some shows on their Nikiniko channel, and if you have a subscription to their streaming service, you will get access to shows before their street-release date.

Their mobile app for iOS and Android platforms was released on the first day of the con, and allows for access to their entire online catalog. The free app includes commercials and banner ads, the paid app has no banner ads, and the paid up with the monthly streaming subscription of $8 has no advertising.

They also awarded prizes to fans who wrote in or came up on stage to tell their stories of how anime helped them or touched their lives. For one girl, the con, rather than high school, was her main source of friends. When she had a breakdown one year, con-goers–strangers–descended on her with hugs and support. Another girl, meek and depressive, learned to be strong from tenacious anime characters.

Many of the stories carried the gist that anime brought together kids who could not fit in with the normal crowd, and provided a community of support and shared hobbies and interests. From there, the Funimation panelists segued into their new dub release schedule, starting with Princess Jellyfish, about a girl learning to accept herself.

Next up was Heaven’s Lost Property, about a high-schooler who finds a wish-granting servant girl who falls from the sky; following that was Legendary Heroes, Black Butler, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Second Star of Milos (a new film), Cat Planet Cuties, about a race of cat-girl aliens who come to Earth to have fun, and then the creepy and mysterious Shiki.

They also spoke about Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker, which is Funimation’s first creation of their own. Funimation generally licenses, dubs, and adapts Japanese titles for the Western market, but in this case, they worked closely with BioWare to create a prequel story to Dragon Age II. The art style is almost three-dimensional, and looks quite a lot like a cel-shaded video game. It will have a worldwide release (another first for Funimation, who generally keep to North America) on May 29 for $35.

They briefly spoke about their Mass Effect project as well, another project done in cooperation with BioWare. They announced that The Future Diary will be getting a release in physical format, as it had only been available streaming until now. KenIchi, Shangrila, Sankarea, and Jormungand were also announced for streaming.

Funimation will also be handling the North American distribution of the second season of Kore ha Zombie Desu ka?, the excellent series that lampoons all of the tropes and trends in modern anime. There will also be new content in the Lupin III series, the first new story in 20 years.

Judging from the fan feedback in the room (which could be described as enthusiastic bordering on psychotic) while the panelists were presenting the new releases, Funimation can look forward to a lot of support from the anime fan base. Based on their lineup of titles as well as their foray into original content, we can expect Funimation to expand their customer base and international name recognition in the year ahead.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.animeboston.com

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Dark Horse Comics has announced an all-new digital comic series based on BioWare’s dark, fantasy RPG series, Dragon Age™. Written by Dragon Age Lead Writer, David Gaider, and featuring original art by Chad Hardin (Stan Lee’s The Traveler, Web of Spider-Man, The Spirit), the deep and fascinating lore surrounding the Dragon Age universe will unfold, as new adventures will come to light in the comic series.

The thrilling, six-part series will feature a riveting story that takes fans of the critically-acclaimed Dragon Age franchise deeper into the RPG’s mythology. Readers will follow Alistair, Isabela, and Varric, three important heroes from Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II, as they travel to Antiva, a nation ruled by deadly assassins.

The comic series’ heroes will embark on an epic journey to uncover one of the greatest secrets in the history of Thedas while encountering a dangerous prison break and the mysterious and feared Witch of the Wilds. Dark Horse Comics will release the six-part comic series exclusively at www.digital.darkhorse.com for $0.99 each starting February 22, 2012.

This news coincides with Dark Horse announcing that more series, including Trigun and Old Boy, will be added to the digital lineup. Manga has official arrived to your ereader! The Dark Horse Digital store now offers a full and ongoing Manga selection featuring Trigun, Crying Freeman, Hellsing, Lady Snowblood, Old Boy and Path of the Assassin.

Not only are these titles available digitally, but also the latest version of the Dark Horse Digital app lets you read them in the way Manga was meant to be read — right to left!

If you don’t have the App yet, you can download it for free.

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