EA unveils vast line-up

The mighty Electronic Arts has announced its line-up for this year's E3, and is promising a "robust" suite of titles for all current and next-generation gaming platforms.

As part of its relentless quest for total and utter world domination, the US giant will be giving public airings to all manner of guaranteed future blockbusters that continue its winning formula of sequels, licensed-based efforts and the occasional all-new offering.

And it's on the latter point where we'll be focusing much of our attention next week, with the likes of Criterion's Black getting its debut showing, a game which promises to do for the FPS what Burnout did for the racing genre. Elsewhere, we'll be hoping to get a behind closed doors peek at Will Wright's new project, Spore, while also keen to report back what EA is showing off in its appointment-only 'Next Gen Lab', no doubt housing a bunch of titles that the company can't currently reveal at this stage.

As expected, the usual army of franchised sports titles, annual sequels and movie-based titles will make up the bulk of its output, and out of the enormous number of titles on show, we'll be most keen to bring you our thoughts on the likes of Medal Of Honor: European Assault, Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, The Godfather, Batman Begins, From Russia With Love, Burnout Revenge, and Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects.

Elsewhere the publishing behemoth will be showing off a bunch of titles that already have "No.1 hit" written all over them, such as Need For Speed: Most Wanted, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the multi-format console port of The Sims 2, the latest Sims 2 PC-only expansion pack Nightlife, plus the usual array of multi-format sporting big hitters, including - of course - the new Madden, Tiger Woods, NASCAR (be still my heating heart!), NCAA Football, although there's curiously no mention of the new SSX or the inevitable FIFA, but gamers will get to see a DS port of Rogue Agent, which is an interesting decision given its critical mauling on its pre-Christmas release on home consoles.

Meanwhile, EA's big push into the mobile sector will also be at the event, with FIFA, Madden, Tiger Woods, NFSU 2, The Sims 2, Tri-Peaks Solitaire, Poppit, and Turbo 21 all playable at the show. Somehow we suspect the throngs will have their eyes on other stuff, however.

According to Don Mattrick, EA's President of worldwide studios EA's E3 2005 output is "a culmination of years of innovation, creativity and dedication to making games that consumers want to play."

"The games we have in development across platforms are unprecedented, especially when complimented by our next generation offering – EA's line-up truly is a gamer's dream come true," he added. As ever we’re keen to hear what you have to say about that.

Check back for our E3 coverage next week to find out our first impressions of EA's more interesting titles, and find out what it has up its sleeve for the next gen systems...

Highlights of EA's line-up:

• Next-Generation titles in a "Next-Gen Lab"
• Batman Begins (PS2, Xbox, Cube, GBA)
• Battlefield 2 (PC)
• Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (PS2, Xbox)
• Black (PS2, Xbox, and we reckon Xbox 360 too)
• Burnout Revenge (PSP)
• From Russia With Love (PS2, Xbox, Cube)
• The Godfather (PS2, Xbox, PC, PSP)
• GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (DS)
• Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects (PS2, Xbox, Cube, PSP)
• Medal of Honor: European Assault (PS2, Xbox, Cube)
• Need For Speed: Most Wanted (PS2, Xbox, Cube, PC, PSP, DS)
• Spore (PC)
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 (Multiformat TBC)