EA's E3 lineup: leaves room for 'Rock Band 3,' secret 'Need for Speed,' Valve announcement

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Electronic Arts have formally announced their lineup of video games for the Electronic Entertainment Expo, and while the 11pm BST / 2pm PDT media briefing on June 14 will include news and demonstrations of Medal of Honor, Need for Speed, Dead Space 2 and EA Sports Active 2, it is remarkably vague regarding other highly anticipated properties.

Medal of Honor is a re-boot of the influential series that has lain dormant since 2007. The new game, due out October 2010, does not take place during World War II like the others did, but instead explores modern-day Afghanistan.

It's not clear whether the Need For Speed title is Need For Speed: World, a browser-based web version of the high velocity street racing series due out on July 20, or another entry crafted by British studio Criterion Games, about which little is known.

Criterion's history with the Burnout series means that expectations are high, and it could well be that EA is intending to show both.

The Sims 3 for console is also due to debut during the presentation, as are the annual updates to EA Sports titles (soccer, American football, basketball, ice hockey etc.).

Also referred to are "titles from EA Partners, Crytek and Epic." Developers currently signed up to the EA Partners program include Harmonix, which is working on Rock Band 3, Hothead Games, which has the gleeful Deathspank on the go, and Valve.

Valve has been teasing its fans with nuggets of information regarding a "surprise" that it has in store for the Expo, and current speculation ranges from a sequel to the funny puzzle game Portal right up to a breathtaking reveal of the next Half-Life game.

Insomniac Games ( Ratchet & Clank) and Respawn Entertainment are the newest EA Partners but Respawn, which was only formed in April 2010, is not thought to be planning anything for E3.

EA's E3 presentation will be broadcast live at http://www.ea.com/e3, while G4TV, GameTrailers, and GameSpot are among the video game websites also supplying footage of this and other high-profile press conferences.