Fast-forwarding the intro with GameSpot – who’s hosting the main event in E3 and the press conferences. With EA not joining E3 but to make their own press conference, called “EA Play”, it’s interesting to see that they’re confident enough to get people hyped with their lineup of games without joining E3.
Starting with an interesting and promising speech from Andrew Wilson — the CEO of Electronic Arts.
Wilson knows that even what they show to the community in the press conference, it’s still the gaming community’s voice is more important than from them. Wilson actually said:
“We want your feedback and we want to know what you think, just as long as take some time to play.”
He introduced what people in the press conference will see in their, and these are: the announcement of Star Wars games, Titanfall 2, Mass Effect Andromeda, and the back-to-World War game Battlefield 1.
And Wilson passed the stage to Respawn Entertainment’s CEO, Vince Zampella. Zampella started with a statement of welcoming PS4 players into the world of Titanfall. It’s exciting to see that the successful Titanfall franchise will be ported to the PlayStation 4 system — specifically the 2nd sequel. Zampella didn’t announce anything regarding about “cross-platform” for consoles, but if this actually happens in post-launch, it would get everything interesting.
Zampella also announced the single-player experience in Titanfall 2. Yes, there wasn’t any single-player campaign in the first Titanfall game. But this time, we see the trailer of the campaign in Titanfall 2 — showing that a Titan can have that “bond” and commitment with their pilots.
Featuring the titan, BT7274, that players might piloting in the campaign and the possible protagonist rifleman Jack Cooper. The campaign trailer did impress me especially how they can narrate or give an interesting plotline in the Titanfall world — showing how messy and chaotic the world is with Titans as their weapon of destruction.
Titanfall 2 will release on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC in October 28, 2016.
Aaryn Flynn, the General Manager of BioWare, introduced what we expect from Mass Effect Andromeda. It brings a different view in the Mass Effect world, this time according to Flynn, you’ll be in an adventure filled with a whole new cast and for the first time it’s now powered by EA’s known engine – Frostbite. The last scene in the trailer shows a woman waking up from some sort of a table or bed saying “We made it”.
With EA supporting indie games developers like what they did for Coldwood Studios and their game about Yarny, UNRAVEL. Now this year, EA is now trying their best to turn the tides of their “bad” reputation… slowly. Patrick Soderlund, the EVP of EA Studios, has announced EA Originals — taking unique and imaginative games, and supporting the developers behind them — to help those aspiring developers who “needs” to be recognized by the community.
Fe (pronounced as “fii”), it’s a game with cute and attractive polygonal aesthetic. The game narrates the relationship between the creatures and nature itself. You, as a young cub, needs to venture in the world of Fe to discover where you came from, witness the unique language spoken by each extraordinary creature. The developer mentioned that this is a not a game where you have to follow an objective, but a game where you have the freedom to discover things and unique secrets by yourself. It’s an interesting adventure game next to Unravel. It’s quite amazing how EA is going to this road of supporting indie developers.
Now, my personal favorite part in the EA Press Conference — EA Star Wars. Greeted with a dull and likely a memorized script by Jade Raymond, the GM of Motive Studios. Raymond announced the game headed by the former creative director of the famous Uncharted series, Amy Hennig, is already on development and will be released by 2018. DICE and MOTIVE is now working together to make Battlefront better, especially the next sequel of Battlefront — campaign and space battles now? Respawn Entertainment is also working on a 3rd-person action adventure game, the video showed that it will involve lightsabers.
I overly spazzed when I saw Hennig and a glimpse of their action-adventure game. It does look similar to Star Wars 1313 but revised in terms about the story and the era. By looking at the early-gameplay footage, it’s going to be in between Star Wars VI and VII or the original trilogy. But the main question is, who’s the man featured in the gameplay footage? We’ll find out soon enough.
The last showcase that EA has saved is Battlefield 1. With the recent events of Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare going to space, people at DICE decided to have their next Battlefield title back to World War, and this time it’s the first World War. They have mentioned that the destruction, dynamic weather, and the variety of weapons makes this new Battlefield more epic. The destruction in Battlefield 1 has been improved in a way that it feels more surreal, especially the dynamic weather affects your approach in each battle as it affects your vision and hearing.
It’s promising to see these new lineup of games and sequel coming. But with EA’s reputation of DLCs and money-making strategies, would this actually make a difference this year for EA? Let’s wait by the end of the year and find out.
The EA Press Conference was not that impacting as it was previously with their Star Wars Battlefront showcase, but it did show some promising plans that EA has got for everyone in the gaming community.
