I was able to attend a special event here in NYC by EA which they called Hot for the Holidays. It was a pretty fun showcase where they invited press to take a look at what they have in store for us later this year and even into 2011. I had the chance to play quite a few games, some of which I cannot talk about yet but can assure you that there are some fun things coming in the future for casual and more hardcore gamers!

Some of the titles were seen and E3, but since I was unable to make it I enjoyed having the chance to play some of the titles. Some of the games I checked out included EA Sports Active, Monopoly Streets, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, MySims SkyHeroes, Littlest PetShop Online and Sims 3 for XBOX 360. A couple of these titles I can tell you right away I will want to get more in depth with and those are Harry Potter and Monopoly Streets. Deathly Hallows Part 1 is the Harry Potter game that I’ve been waiting for, and Monopoly Streets just brings a lot of great features to a classic game that I still love to play.

I think the one surprise for me was Littlest PetShop Online. As you can assume it’s an online MMORPG but for the little girl set. The whole thing is based on micro transactions where you get special account upgrades and items via buying special pets from stores like Toys R Us which give you codes that unlock premium play. I wouldn’t play something like this myself, but it was one of those games that I could see popular with little girls who want to play a game like that with friends and customize characters. And parents would like all of the special safety precautions that the game takes.

Now I plan to go into more detail about some of these games but all in all I think that EA had a great showing of what’s in store of us later this year. Stay tuned for all of our first looks!