E3 Conferences : Electronic Arts

Far too often I’ve been burned. Far too often, I’ve allowed myself to hope. To feel, let’s say it frankly, the Hype. And this year, like all years before, during the E3 season, I’ve felt it.

I guess it’s because it’s the “raison d’être” of the biggest gathering of Video Game Studios of the year. Still.

For those of you that are not part of the strange species called Geek by the common mortals, E3 is the world’s largest gathering of video game studios and companies where they present their upcoming titles, build a hype and a relationship directly with the customers and more importantly the press. The conferences, accessible only by the media, are the pre-show of the convention, and it’s usually there that the biggest games are presented in exclusivity.

Let’s review the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017.

Let’s start chronologically with the Electronic arts conference:

The conference starts with American Football players playing on set with drums to introduce the Madden NFL Long Shot for the upcoming Madden NFL 18. It seems to be a new FrostBite engine and a new adventure mode. In the game we’ll incarnate Devin Wade, a quarterback, played by the actor Mahershala Ali.

You can see the trailer here

Then about Battlefield 1, we witness a lot of self-congratulations about the success of the game and the reach it had worldwide. A video is showing some streamers praising the game and the battlefield community and overreacting. All of that to introduce “new maps”. They talk about a “revolution!“. Those new maps take you to the eastern front of the First World War. New game modes are also added to the game, at the demand of a lot, and I mean a lot, of players. During the presentation the presenter keeps talking about revolution, I don’t see how or why. Maybe because of the “women battalion”, that could make sense, women in a war game are not very common. The extension is named “In the name of the Tsar”.

It will be released in September 2017 and you can see the trailer here :

They say they want to bring more competition to the game, but they’ll not say anything about it until Gamescon in August so, screw you I guess?

After what seemed like a lack of transition, an accolade to FIFA 17. A lot of new competitors in E-sport. The good and bad things about the competition. A big inspirational message “this could be you”. The 2 most annoying presenters I’ve ever seen, talk about FIFA and football. The studio seems to have lost its mind treating a character from the FIFA game as a real person. All of that to introduce the new FIFA 18.

You can see the trailer here

Need for Speed Payback is then presented by a shy Youtuber.

More about bringing “brand new” experience, I don’t think EA knows what “new” means anymore. The game will have 3 characters with 3 different playstyles, in the most divers open world of the franchise. Customization of the vehicles, the possibility to customize classic vehicles. It also introduces the vehicle heist, as in the infamous Fast and Furious franchise, with the same amount of unrealistic physics and slow motion.

Trailer accessible here

Then a short speach about new pitches and introducing A way out, a game from the developer of Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons. A co-op adventure about two guys escaping jail to see their families. The game seems to mix a whole range of different gameplays, going from the adventure 3D platformer action game as Tomb Raider to the combat madness of GTA; all of that in a split screen environment.

Definitely the most intriguing thing presented during this conference.

They then go on to talk about a new Division inside EA, Seed, aimed to help develop original games at the top of technology, with a short preview of Anthem, a new IP of Bioware, that will be developed further and presented during the Microsoft conference.

A Trailer is accessible here

NBA Live 18.

NBA on court and on street in multi player. Apart from that, nothing new, I guess, don’t know the previous games.

If everything goes ok, the game will be released in Autumn 2017 on Xbox One, PS4, iOS and Android.

Then Battlefront II, a storm trooper gets on stage, the actress who plays someone in the game announces more content, more lasers, more personalization, a solo mode, free DLCs, co-op on the same screen. Yay.

The game is due for the 17^th of November 2017 on PS4, Xbox One and Pc.

Conclusion

As ever with the EA conferences, nothing really unpredictable, a new game of each of their sport’s game license, some DLC and extensions. I think they relied too much on the streaming community and lacked far too much of transitions but you can’t say they lack seriousness in their presentation.

I didn’t hope for anything from their studio and was left a bit intrigued with their upcoming game A way out. So it’s a win I guess.