Tuesday 16 June 2015

E3 2015: EA's Conference [Events]

EA started with a sci-fi series and ended on one. And while they showed less of what I wanted, it was all good with what I wanted. I'll still be covering it all, as it happened.
They showed Mass Effect off straight away with a slide of different environments, before adding in some action. Mass Effect Andromeda will be coming soon.
The return of Need For Speed was shown with a trailer at first, showing the night-time setting and the police versus street racer action. The map is said to be twice as big as the one in Rivals, and said to have the richest customisation ever for a Need For Speed game. There is also a story within the game, it has been said. Gameplay of how customisation works, before getting into some driving. The action cam looks a bit heavy on the drifts, but it worked fine.
Star Wars The Old Republic's next expansion is taking the game to Bioware of old. A true moral choice story, Knights of the Fallen Empire releases October 23rd and is free to all subscribers.
Unravel is a small game with a small character. Yarnie is made of yarn. He unravels as you move across the puzzle platformer world. Its said to be the bonds of love touching the world. Gameplay clips are shown.

Continuing from their appearance at Microsoft's conference, Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare 2 has the plants on the attack for the first time as the zombies have now built a home base. Gameplay showing off the new classes. It is then confirmed that all modes are playable solo. Players of the original can transfer most of their content over to the new game when it launches Spring 2016. It will also be getting plenty of free content updates after launch.
Onto the sports and NHL 16 gets a trailer first, before it is confirmed that PGA Tour 16 will be the first game running on Frostbite. All Ultimate Teams will have double the content of the previous seasons. All sports games will cater to the new and veteran gamers of the series by having a training mode and on screen hints. An app is announced to put your face in the game of NBA Live 16. What follows is a trailer for NBA Live 16.
To mobile, and Need For Speed No Limits, Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes and Minions Paradise get shown off, with Minions getting the most focus. Its the usual free to play building game. It will also include minigames.
FIFA 16 started with an interview with Pelé which didn't have anything on the game itself. After the interview, they talk about new innovations within the game, and show off motion capture with players to get better movement of the players. FIFA 15 Ultimate Team players will get a special Pelé card. A trailer is then shown.

Mirrors Edge: Catalyst is a game about the origins of Faith. Built on the latest Frostbite engine, the world now look better than ever. The game will give you the freedom of choice within the world, as there are no set levels. You are free to choose what you want to do. It is true free-roaming and parkour with no loading screens and a true open world. Available February 23rd.
Shown off next was Madden NFL 16's new Draft Champions Fantasy mode. Creating teams, you can play them on single player or online. A trailer followed this.
Then. The big one. EA knew what they were doing with this. First, it was nothing but reiterating what we already knew. Fans of Star Wars making the best Star Wars game. Getting the most out of Frostbite for true gameplay. The access they have had from the LucasFilm Archives. And then, gameplay. For Star Wars Battlefront. Showing Walker Assault mode on Hoth, it showcased everything. Rebels, Empire, snowspeeders, X-Wing's and TIE Fighter's, AT-AT's. Even orbital bombardment. Everything looked action packed, and then Vader comes along. Then Luke Skywalker, who gives us our first look at how heroes will play. The gameplay ends with Vader and Skywalker locking blades.

Out of everything shown, I am most excited for Star Wars Battlefront. I am glad I pre-ordered when I did, as that gameplay just strengthened how I feel about this game. Mirrors Edge also looks like it will be a great game come release. While Need For Speed is looking good, I'm waiting for a bit longer to see how it will fully play out. The driving should be good, but it's the rest that worries me. Unravel was also a good game to look into, but everything else I wasn't interested in and some parts even had me losing interest. If there is one thing I feel that could be improved with EA's conferences, it's compressing the sports into one small section. When they ran through it at the start, I thought that was it, but no. Apart from that, all was good.