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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Fans dressed as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles united in Mall of America to break the Guinness World Records’ largest gathering of ninja turtles and celebrate the grand opening of the newest thrill ride at Nickelodeon Universe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shell Shock, the first ever ride of its kind in the United States.

Fans from across the nation traveled to Mall of America to shatter the previous record of 786 with 836 fans dressed as ninja turtles. The Mall welcomed guests with commemorative Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles t-shirts, face masks and free passes to check out the ride.

“The passion of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans blew this record out of the water with 836 fans dressed as ninja turtles,” said Michael Empric, adjudicator with Guinness World Records.

“We’re astounded by the number of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans that showed up today to celebrate the grand opening of the new ride,” says Jennifer Lauerman, Nickelodeon Universe marketing director. “You can feel the adrenaline and excitement in the air from the guests and fans, it’s a great feeling.”

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shell Shock takes riders 70 feet in the air in a matter of seconds reaching up to 25 mph. With 12 single bucket seats at the end of a cantilevered arm that rotates around a central tower, this ride is a thrill-seekers dream.

Each guest controls their seat which can rotate wildly like a plane propeller or a gentle teeter-totter like a see-saw making no two ride experiences the same. The attraction is based on the highly-anticipated all-new CG-animated television series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which will premiere on Nickelodeon later this year.

A second new attraction to Nickelodeon Universe, Dutchman’s Deck Anchor drop stainless steel spiral tube slide system also opened this month. These two intertwining tubes offer quite the thrill for guests from 56 and 35 ft. in the air. One leaves from the third level while the other one leaves from the top of the Flying Dutchman Ghostly Gangplank Adventure Ropes Course.

The attraction is based on the Flying Dutchman character from Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants—the number one animated series with kids for the last 12 consecutive years. Admission to the slides will be included in Ropes Course admission or can be purchased for $2 per person with a wristband purchase or $3 per person without a wristband purchase.

For more information on the new ride visit www.mallofamerica.com or www.nickelodeonuniverse.com.

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