E3 Day One

Nothing like being late for the first E3 appointment -- media was held at bay for about 20 minutes after the doors were supposed to open. Ah, at least I wasn't alone in my lateness.

I stopped by EA, and finally got a good look at EA's "Army of Two," which puts a premium on two-player cooperation (either with a friend or AI/voice controlled partner.) It's not the first game to implement the buddy system, but the execution holds some promise. Your partner carries some authority issues -- he'll tell you to perform an unclean act on yourself if he thinks your voice commands don't make sense. You can work together to take out enemies and negotiate obstacles, but there's also two-man action when you have to revive your partner. One guys does chest compressions, while the other has to run away from a tunnel of light. Made me chuckle.

Also saw "Madden 07" for the Wii. You can pass, kick and stiff arm with the Wii Remote, and the Nunchuk controller serves as the way to juke past tacklers. I imagine the learning curve could be a little steep. On the 360 and PSP, I saw "Madden's" new features in running game. This time, you can become a blocker and help clear a path for the tailback (whom you can control after a block). David Ortiz of EA (not Big Papi of the Red Sox) said it was about "making that 4-yard run fun." I played a little, and running the ball inside did feel a little more intuitive. But it's early.

I also saw a little bit of "Superman Returns." There was flying, there was picking up big objects and hurling them across about 80 square miles of territory. It's not coming out until the fall (when the DVD is released). But I've already decided that it's at least better than past "Superman" games by principle -- people actually want to play this one.

I'll be back in a few hours with more stuff. I have the rest of the EA booth to see, namely "Spore." Then, I truly dive in.