No doubt you’ve already read the big news about EA Partners making friends with Grasshopper Manufacture, Inc. and Epic Games, but that same press conference featured some other interesting bits as well.

Dave McCarthy gave us the lowdown on what’s new this year for NHL 09. They’ve made further improvements even since last year’s award-gilded installment, adding the EA Sports Hockey League mode. Players can create their own character, level up, and play on fully human teams–six on six–with other hockey fans online.

The career tracking is pretty in-depth, and you can be scouted by other players or scout for new talent for your own team. During the game, you get feedback on how well you’re keeping position (also shown in real time as an arrow, if you’re not quite in the right spot), as well as various other attributes, so you’ll know what to work on to become a better team member. NHL 09 will be available September 9th.

Then after experiencing a snippet of the results of The Sims On Stage (a karaoke and poetry create-and-share hub) we were all encouraged to go make our own games at The Sims Carnival which has been in beta for seven weeks and already has more games than all the consoles (with, like, Game Gear) combined. They showed off the professionally designed Magic Pen, which looks pretty much entirely like Crayon Physics Deluxe … but there are also plenty of user-created games that have nothing to do with anything except for maybe washing their dog.

Next, since MySims has sold 3.5 million copies, they are making an even better sequel called MySims Kingdom, which we’ll have a hands-on preview of shortly. Suffice it for the moment to just say, “AWWWWW, HOW CUTE!”

Siblings Nadia (8 going on 9) and Christian (12) got on stage to show us how wizards duel (naturally involving much Wiimote waving and shaking) in the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince game.  This was an even better presentation strategy than the two cute girls enthusiastically demonstrating a selection of the 16 “sickest dance moves” in Boogie Superstar.

EA Casual recently announced Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (working title) for DS, and if I could’ve ran as the crow flies through walls and the Godfather 2 lawn flamingos with Xs for eyes and bullet holes in their sides to get to this demo, I would’ve, but I was still the first or second person to be there. ANTICIPATE, people, that is what I have to say. The preview will be up sometime tonight or early morning.

Operation Mania hit Pogo today, and will be out at retail later on. They provided us with a code, so I’ll let you know how that goes.

Ben Cousins told us a bit about Battlefield: Heroes which he sees as a mash-up of Battlefield and Facebook. Look for a full preview on this free-to-play online shooter coming up probably tomorrow.

Hunter Smith told us about The Godfather 2, and I got a closer look which you’ll definitely have to wait until tomorrow for, since I signed my lips closed.

Then Paul Barnett presented Warhammer Onine: Age of Reckoning (September 18th!) in his typically spirited way. The fantasy with “no crap bits,” he says. Perfect for “English xenophobia” because those aren’t dark elves, they’re “English posh people on drugs.” If WoW is The Beatles, then, “…we’re Led Zepplin,” since if you try to emulate The Beatles you just end up being the Monkees, and they are much cooler and fresher. We all laughed.

That pretty much sums up the announcements that Ripten hasn’t already posted! Do stay tuned for the in-depth previews to come. There was a lot of cool stuff out at Redwood City today.

Tags: EA, EA Studio Showcase 2008

• NHL 09 Demo on PSN Now, XBL Hockey Fans On Ice Till Early September
• Ripten TV: Top 5 Microsoft E308 Press Conference Crowd-Pleasers
• Acclaim Chief Creative Officer Has Some Harsh Words for E3 “Media & Business Summit”
• Lost Planet Movie Confirmed
• E3 “Min-E3″ Conference Schedule Released
• Grand Theft Auto Coming to the DS
• Ripten TV: The Top 5 Crowd Pleasing Moments of the EA Press Conference
• Ripten’s Best of E3 2008

1 Comment »