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On May 27, Electronic Arts revealed the games it will present at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles this week and the press release was so long it pretty much broke my inbox. There’s quite a variety of games coming from the Redwood City, California publisher, and I’ve freshened up the list with some quick thoughts on all 20-something games. There’s so much software here it’s going to take two blogs to reveal it all. This is part one.

Army of Two: The 40th Day
The hook with this Army of Two sequel is enhanced co-op. This game will live or die on its innovative use of two-player co-op mechanics throughout its campaign. Look for unique strategies like having one player feign surrender while the other player flanks to surprise the enemy. If the innovative ideas are plentiful, obvious and easy to control, this game could be a slam dunk for two-player sessions.

Platforms – Xbox 360, PS3, PSP
Ship Date – Winter

Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Fresh off the critical success of Mirror’s Edge, developer DICE is producing this online combat experience to focus on modern vehicular assaults that span land, air and sea. It’s always a tough prospect to mix up these different forms of combat so DICE has its work cut out for it. Hopefully E3 will reveal whether or not the developer is on the right track.

Platforms – Xbox 360, PS3
Ship Date – Early 2010

This one has cool-geek-factor to spare, so hopefully the gameplay can match up.

Brütal Legend
Here’s an action game with untold potential. Jack Black stars as roadie Eddie Riggs in this colorful, third-person action game from Tim Schafer and Double Fine Productions. The game will be playable at E3 and hopefully Eddie’s guitar weapon and death metal-infused, fantasy environments gel into a fun and sometimes funny experience.

Platforms – Xbox 360, PS3
Ship Date – October 13

Dante’s Inferno
For this third-person action-adventure, the developers are mining Dante Alighierei’s poem “The Divine Comedy” for source material as they challenge gamers to battle through nine circles of hell with levels based on limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery. The game will probably borrow from other genre staples like Devil May Cry or God of War as it aims to please blood-thirsty action fans with a macabre setting and buckets of violence.

Platforms – Xbox 360, PS3, PSP
Ship Date – Early 2010

Dead Space Extraction
This Wii prequel will add to the Dead Space storyline for an audience that probably didn’t get to experience the original. EA is promising a cinematic, action-horror experience tailored specifically to the Wii’s capabilities. It’s going to be tough to get passed the system’s limitation and deliver some quality scares, but Resident Evil shows us it’s possible. We’ll see how this one is coming along in a few days at E3.

Platforms – Wii
Ship Date – Fall 2009

Dragon Age: Origins
Bioware is calling Dragon Age: Origins its deepest RPG to date. The company will reveal one of the game’s deadliest bad guys at E3, as well as the role romance will play in significantly impacting the storyline. So far, that storyline seems to focus on slaying evil dragons and saving the world. In the capable hands of Bioware, this one should be high on the list for every RPG fan.

Platforms – Xbox 360, PS3
Ship Date – Fall 2009

EA Sports Active
Already available for Wii, EA will continue to promote its aerobics-focused exercise game at E3. The game uses the Wii Balance Board and brings up the heart rare more effectively than Wii Fit. Think of it as a Western answer to the Eastern fitness philosophy highlighted by Nintendo’s title.

Platforms – Wii
Shipped – May 19, 2009

EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis
Coming first to Wii and then later in the year for other systems, Grand Slam Tennis looks to score big for Nintendo as EA not only focuses on delivering an all-encompassing tennis sim that accurately features real-life players (like John McEnroe, Serena Williams, Roger Federer and more) and real life stadiums and tournaments, but also takes advantage of the Wii MotionPlus accessory to give players full racket control. The game is looking awesome, but the controls are going to be what makes this Wii title a success or failure. Hopefully it’ll be playable at E3 and we’ll find out the fate of this one.

Platforms – Wii, additional platforms later in the year
Ship Date – June 8, 2009

FIFA 10 
EA Canada is hoping to build a better soccer game this year as it tweaks the control and addresses the concerns of series fans. Soccer is a trick sport to recreate, but E3 should give us a glimpse at this game’s progress.

Platforms – Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, Nintendo DS, PSP
Ship Date – October 2009

Fight Night Round 4
Hello! Building on the gi-normous success of the previous Fight Night games, this title adds more stars and a more refined storyline to the mix while stripping out nonsense like the Burger King. Players will control fighters like Tyson and Ali as they battle more realistically than ever before. Close range battles will affect the strength of punches. Glancing shots won’t do much damage. And players won’t be able to spam the block button. This one will be visually stunning with gameplay to match.

Platforms – Xbox 360, PS3
Ship Date – June 30, 2009

G.I. JOE The Rise of Cobra
This movie tie-in will have a lot of work to do to make a splash and overcome the bad, movie-license game stigma that brings down games like this like the plague. Single-screen co-op should help things, but so far this game is a cool license and a big question mark.

Platforms – Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, Nintendo DS, PSP
Ship Date – August 2009

Still with me? There’s still plenty more from EA at E3. Look for more impressions in my next blog update on games including Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Madden NFL 10 and Mass Effect 2.

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