Tag Archives: Visceral

E3 2016 – Electronic Arts Press Conference

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ELECTRONIC ARTS E3 2016:

Starting of E3 first – well, before E3 officially begins – EA is jump starting the festivities by hosting their own event: EA PLAY, at their own venue in Los Angeles, and also hosting an event simultaneously in London. Using this simul-event to announce their upcoming annual sports games like Madden and FIFA, discuss Star Wars, and Battlefield 1.

TITANFALL 2

After kicking off the show, Vince Zampella from Respawn Entertainment is introduced and happily acknowledges the leak from earlier in the morning: Titanfall 2 Story Mode:

Telling the tale of the connection between Pilot and Titan. They also showed off a very exciting Multiplayer trailer highlighting some of the new Titans and their abilities, as well as the new Pilot abilities.

Next up, we move over to the London crown where Peter Moore discusses Madden 2017, and EA’s focus on competitive gaming, and ESports. They want all players to feel like pro players with multiple tiers of competitive gaming events as well as Premiere and Major competitive global events. They finish that segment off with a video package of the best Madden players and the Madden major event, and the top 8 players are brought to the stage to get their spotlight.

MASS EFFECT ANDROMEDA

Like last year, not a lot of news, but they do show a behind the scenes look at the making of this next huge arc in the story. No new gameplay, but they’re promising bigger worlds and a bigger story. And the game is now on the Frostbite engine. Frostbite was the big story of the day as FIFA 17 is also now on the Frostbite engine.

FIFA 17

The next version of the largest sports franchise in the world, FIFA, now on Frostbite also has a new mode called The Journey, which is a single player career mode where you play as a young up and coming star, Alex Hunter, and work your way up through the ranks to premiere, and deal with all the club, coaches, management, and fame along the way.

Peter Moore also announces that Premiere Managers will also play  part in the upcoming game.

EA Originals

Patrick Soderlund is back on stage in LA and reminds us about last year where we saw Unravel. Soderlund announces EA Originals, which is the studio’s focus on working with smaller innovative studios and helping them bringing their ideas to light. EA Originals first game is called FE, from a Swedish Studio call Zoink.

A very pretty, unique exploration title which boasts that no helpful hints will be given to the player. They are just asked to explore and interact with the forest and the creatures.

STAR WARS

Next up, Jade Raymond hits the stage and talks about everything Star Wars, and a look ahead at what the many studios under EA are working on. No real gameplay, but a reminder that teams at DICE are working on Battlefront, and Visceral is working on a title coming out in 2018, and even Respawn Entertainment is working on a Star Wars title.

BATTLEFIELD 1

Last up in today’s press conference is Battlefield 1.

A very intense gameplay trailer is shown. They announce that it’ll be playable on the floor this week at their event, and remind us that it has horses, and trench wars, and airships, and tanks, and 64 player online combat.

Overall, EA‘s showing was just OK. No surprises. Nothing new was announced. The Titanfall 2 game has me the most excited, but that had already been announced, as well as Battlefield 1. The gameplay for Titanfall 2 has me excited, as well as the release expected later this year. Battlefield 1 was announced a few weeks ago as well, so all they showed was a more robust gameplay trailer which didn’t show and real gameplay. But they did have a 1 hour gameplay reveal following the show and available on the demo floor. Star Wars news left us actually wanting something tangible, as well as the nothing-to-show Mass Effect talk. The simultaneous broadcast in both LA and London was a unique idea.

Overall, it left me wanting more.

Hopefully Bethesda has something more in store. On at 7pm later tonight.

-iRogan

E3 2014 – Electronic Arts Press Conference

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Next up is EA’s Press Conference. Expecting a lot of sports titles here, but hopefully we’ll get an update on Star Wars Battlefront.

EAPress

So, immediately starting things off we hear the famous Star Wars music and we get a developer documentary from DICE showcasing the research that has gone into making Star Wars Battlefront, and we get some footage of the in-engine visuals, but no gameplay. So just a small glimpse of what’s to come, wetting the appetite further.

We get a bigger insight into Dragon Age Inquisition. Switching between our parties characters. The art and design looks amazing, such detail in the environments. The opening trailer bat this conference is actually presented with a live chelloist up front. A nice touch.

Next up we get a brief blurb about Mass Effect 4 stating that EA’s Montreal studio is working on it, new setting is confirmed but we get some brief glimpses of some familiar races. Original ME team is working on a new IP. Also announced is that the original ME trilogy is coming to the PS4 as a complete package.

Sims 4 is up next. Its a thing, it’s getting released to the world.

EA Canada’s UFC game is on the docket, showcasing their audacity of putting Bruce Lee in a UFC game. We get to see Bruce Lee vs. BJ Penn in the octagon. Standing, striking and some ground submissions are shown. Very different style ground gameplay than previously seen with THQ’s fighting/wrestling games. Fighters show real damage as the fight progresses through the rounds. Get some glimpse of the how the fighters can utilize the cage for leverage.

NHL 15 is the 2nd of what I’m assuming is many sports franchises to be discussed. Finally a next-gen hockey game utilizing EA’s new shared code base structure. All 12 players have their own physics, as well as the puck. Player’s uniforms have mesh physics. Cool stuff. More detailed arenas, players and game presentation. Only a quick montage video. #wantmoar!

Criterion is up next. First words out their British mouths is “we’re moving beyond cars”. WHAT! Don’t do that. Their next game focuses on more than cars: Helicopters, Boats, ATVs, Jet Skis, Parachuting. Only conceptual footage shown, inspired by Youtube’s extreme sport’s nuts. Not really a lot shown, but essentially saying “hey, we’re working on stuff”. I wouldn’t be surprised if this game got called: Redbull Presents: GoPro – The Game. GUH!

Next sports title: PGA Tour 2015. It’s utilizing the Frostbite 3 engine, their tag: Golf Without Limits. Real courses and Fantasy Courses. No loading. Sending things off with a clip of a guy golfing off a tall cliff while a huge military battleship crashes into the islands. Pretty nuts.

More Sports – Madden 15. Making football defense fun again. They focused specifically on the defense half of the game. New context tackles, new camera angles to make it more exciting. Finishes off with a quick montage trailer. Only NBA (maybe) and def FIFA for the remaining sports titles. Whats next though?

Dawngate. Another MOBA game. With the popularity of League, this makes sense, from a financial perspective. Next.

DICE studio is up next with Mirror’s Edge! Is this a reboot or a sequel though? Focuses on Faith. Focused on fluidity of movement, seamless, and stylized. They want to focus on the story of the messengers. We get to see some conceptual footage, not true gameplay, but they reiterate with a quick developer diary of how focused and stylized the game will be, and how it’ll be a little more open for navigation, for different player skill sets. Loved the first title, excited for this new model. #dont_mess_with_faith

Nearing the end here…Quick montage of FIFA 15. Highlighting agility and control of the player, new player physics, and ball physics. The stadium is more alive, the pitch takes damage from wear and tear. New push and agility mechanics for the players. Football fans rejoice!

Last but not least: Battlefield: Hardline. EA and Visceral (DeadSpace) are out to showcase Hardline multiplayer. Its Battlefield Cops and Robbers, might as well be directed by Michael Bay. Added destruction, but its scripted. Level-ution is what COD called it in Ghosts. In this showcase the robbers take out an armored van, and need to escape from the cops. Tons of collateral damage. Looks very pretty, very much Battlefield’s engine. Highlight was the end of the fight where they blow up a crane which takes out the sides of two skyscrapers and acts as a bridge between the two. Definitely seems like a large map.

Hardline small beta announced today for PC and PS4. Available to play.

EA’s conference is done. 14 games mentioned. No mention of NBA. No Battlefront Footage, but they’re working on it. Nothing from Crytek.

Ubisoft is up next.