The first big gaming event of the year, E3, will be running throughout the week, and numerous game companies will be holding their respective press conference throughout the next three days. Kicking off the festivities is Electronic Arts, and they have a rather stacked deck for this year’s E3 with Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2 and Mass Effect: Andromeda being showcased at the event.
Seeing as writing about each game individually would take up too much time, we’ll be going through a summary of what was shown off on stage as well as the trailers that were released for the presentation. Without further ado, let’s get right into EA’s press conference.
Titanfall 2
It’s been two years since the original Titanfall was first released. This year, on the 28th of October, Respawn Entertainment will be releasing the follow-up to their first new IP. Much like the original, Titanfall 2 will see players fight against each other either on foot, or inside the cockpit of a Titan. As far as multiplayer goes, the trailer reveals some new abilities/equipment in the game, such as what seems to be a black hole grenade that sucks anyone in the vicinity into a single spot. The biggest addition to multiplayer though is the grappling hook. With this hook, you can now grapple your way to out of reach buildings, allowing for more maneuverability. Buildings aren’t the only thing you can grapple on to as the trailer reveals that you can grapple on to Titans. You can even launch the grappling hook at your enemies, dragging them over to your so you can finish them off with a melee attack.
What is new to Titanfall 2 is the Single Player Mode. The game will now feature a proper, full-length campaign. Seeing as Respawn Entertainment is made up of ex-Infinity Ward employees, you can probably expect the Single Player campaign to be a set-piece heavy affair.
Battlefield 1
The other big shooter from EA for 2016, Battlefield 1 has been steadily building up hype as both DICE and EA have been drip feeding footage of the game through Twitter and other social media locations. Today, EA has finally revealed the first Gameplay trailer for Battlefield 1, and man does it look pretty. As expected from a game that runs on the Frostbite engine, Battlefield 1 looks stunning to say the least. Much like other Battlefield games, Battlefield 1 sounds exquisite as well, as DICE doesn’t joke around with sound design in their Battlefield games.
Perhaps the only disappointing thing that can be said about Battlefield 1 is the historical accuracy. Judging from the gameplay trailers, automatic weapons will be featured prominently in Battlefield 1. Considering that the guns used in World War I are mostly bolt-action-based, we’re going to go ahead and say that history buffs are probably not going to be happy about DICE playing loose with history. But then again, seeing as this is a Battlefield game, its probably no surprise that the game isn’t 100% historically accurate.
Star Wars
There’s really isn’t a dedicated Star Wars game announced at EA’s E3 conference this year, but EA has given us a look as to what to expect from them. For starters, there’s the upcoming DLCs for Battlefront, which will culminate in the Death Star pack in December.
New IPs are also in the works as the video confirms that both Visceral Games (Dead Space) and Respawn Entertainment (Titanfall) are working on new games that are set in the Star Wars universe. Most importantly, these games will be featuring all new stories. Perhaps the most interesting reveal is that EA may be working on a new X-Wing game for the PlayStation VR. Of course, it could just be the fact that Battlefront may be implementing PSVR support, but the thought of EA remaking the X-Wing series for the modern day is something worth dreaming about. Considering the fact that VR is now real, a VR-capable X-Wing vs TIE Fighter would probably make Star Wars fans jump for joy.
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Mass Effect: Andromeda won’t be coming out this year. Bioware has confirmed that the game has been pushed back to 2017. As such, the Andromeda presentation is relatively light on details as to the story of the game. While Bioware did not reveal much about the story, the Andromeda presentation did reveal some of the new locales, species, and perhaps even the female main character for the game.
EA Originals
EA Originals is a new program that the company announced on stage at E3 earlier today. In essence, EA Originals will pretty much be EA’s indie-funding division. The program aims to give small developers the support needed to bring their games to the market. Studios who join the program will get assistance in the form of advertising, developing and marketing their games. When the game is released, all of the profits from the finish product will go back into the developers’ hands.
The first game that will come out of EA’s indie intiative will be Fe, an atmospheric adventure game from Swedish developer Zoink. We can’t quite make out how Fe works, but we do know that the game will be dominated by the colours purple and red.
FIFA 17
Rounding up the EA announcement is the EA Sports line, or more specifically for Malaysians, FIFA 17. As expected of the FIFA series, FIFA 17 will sport improvements in the A.I. and player models.
New to FIFA 17 though is something called ‘The Journey.’ Essentially a story mode, this mode will put you into the shoes of a Premier League upcomer called Alex Hunter as he climbs the ranks of a fresh young signee, to a footballing superstar a la Messi or Ronaldo. If you’ve watch the 2005 football movie called Goal!, The Journey is basically that movie made into a game.
