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A Visual Tour of EA Tiburon during a Superman Returns: The Videogame Event

by Dakota Grabowski

 

Touring EA was almost as fun as playing the game

 

Electronic Arts and Tiburon put together a fantastic community event centering on their upcoming title, Superman Returns.   Day one EA gave us all the sights and sounds of Orlando and it was great, but it paled in comparison to day two.  Day two was when all the hands-on impressions were granted and where I was able to meet up with all the development leads for the project.  Touring EA Tiburon was a pleasure too, not only do they have an interesting set-up inside, but outside too.

 


Outside of EA Tiburon, there’s this gigantic water fountain that is beautiful.  The area surrounding Tiburon is peaceful and you can easily tell that the team can relax while taking in the sights.  Besides, who wouldn’t want Orlando’s gorgeous weather?

 

 

The day started off with splitting the journalists that showed up for the event into two groups – one to tour the building and one to go to the EA Shop to purchase games and shirts.  The group I jumped into toured the building and the few floors they were allowed to show us.  Granted, we weren’t allowed to take too many pictures, but when the opportune times came to snap pictures, they gave us some brilliant shots.

 


This beast right here is one of the servers for EA Tiburon.  The guide mentioned that the technicians that work on it are able to figure out problems easily with a few plugging / unplugging of chords in a matter of minutes.  “They come right in, look at it for a second and are able to address any problems within five minute.”

 

 

This is one of the sound boards and equipment they use for their voice recording.  Outside of voice recording, they’ll bring in bands to capture music and even some sound effects.

 

 

After the tour, it was time to swap with the other group and check out the EA merchandise that they sell at a discount to their employees.  Video games were only at a markup of $19.99.  I was able to pick up two games that would normally be $120 for $40.  Outside of video games, you can pick up an assortment of various other items: coffee mugs, shirts, pens, yo-yos, hats and a ton of other items that would make your friends jealous.

 


Moving on, we had the chance to see where we would finally get the chance to play Superman Returns for ourselves.  Before we could do that, we had to listen to the onslaught of developers telling their job and tasks throughout the project.  Here’s a picture of most of the team.

 

 

The team was well enthused about Superman and its reach to the fans.  They are hoping that fans are able to see a difference from the video game and the movie.  This isn’t a direct adaptation from movie to video game.  A few liberties have been taken, but I’ll address those with my preview of the game.

 


All the journalists had a few different methods of taking notes.  Charlie McCracken, of Joystick Widow, and Howard Brown, of PopCulture Shock, took their notes on their own laptops. 

 

 

As I dig well into the game after the presentations, it became apparent that this wasn’t an attempt to copy Spider-Man the video game from Activision.  Tiburon has a solid game here with Superman Returns and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The common consensus with the game at the event was an overly positive one.

 


Andy Khouri of Comic Book Resources shares his enjoyment with the game.  Andy is a huge DC Comic book fan and if you look close enough, you can see him proudly wearing his Batman shirt

Well, day two wrapped up with dinner and a meeting at the bar of the hotel.  A few of us guys mingled and shared our final thoughts on the game.  I can say that I am not alone with my infatuation with Superman Returns.  Check back tomorrow for my full hands-on impressions.  For now, here’s a few more pictures for your viewing pleasure.