Went to an EA trade night at Fox Studios, Sydney

[Guest Iron Mary]

My cousin got me into this EA trade night at Fox Studios the other night, and I got to see some cool shit from the EA Christmas lineup as well as some great news on Rugby 2005. I got to play around with NFSU 2 (but wasn't interested), Goldeneye: Rogue Agent (but wasn't interested), The Urbz (looks pretty cool), Medal Of Honour: Pacific Assault (again, cool) and LOTR: Battle For Middle Earth (sweet. first RTS I've wanted in AGES...) and Rugby 2005.

On Rugby 2005, good news. I saw an exclusive movie (game not ready til March next year), and they are photo mapping heads and generally improving graphics drastically. They compared the new Johnny Wilkinson with last years and it was amazing. The crappy body models are also being given the flick for new, realistic ones. A more detailed Create-A-Player is on order, as is more realistic stadiums and crowds. Apparently, most recognisable international players will get photomapped. Also, in an effort to make it play more like Madden, tackling can be controlled by the right analogue stick. The NZ Maori team went to EA's Canada motion capture studio and did some capture work. In it, you can see that cool dangerous spear tackles and clotheslines are now in, as well as, IRB permitting, BIFF (The NZ Maoris did some motion capture biff). Several AI and gameplay clunkiness issues (e.g. the kicking game) are also said to be addressed. In all, they consider this to be the biggest step up in the EA Sports Rugby franchise.

Oh yeah, I got laughed at by everyone in the room because I brought up the TNA deal rumour in the "general Q & A" section and the guy had no idea what I was on about.

Edited October 27, 2004 by Anti-Hero

[SeanDMan]

NFSU 2 (but wasn't interested), Goldeneye: Rogue Agent (but wasn't interested)

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You fucking suck.

[Karizma]

Woah, you mean they didn't pay no attention to the game like they have in the past.Rugby 2004 compared to all the other EA Games fucking sucked ass, atleast they're taking a few seconds to do more work, but I still bet it'd be gay.