What the fuck was that: is probably what you were thinking after watching EA’s E3 press conference, that’s what I was thinking.
After making the bold move of kicking the press conferences off, we were expecting big things. A new Star Wars game? Perhaps some gameplay of the long-awaited Mass Effect Andromeda.
Well it was neither, instead, it was a huge waste of 60 minutes. Now, I don’t usually expect a lot from EA but at least their press conferences have been something to look forward to. Flashy CG trailers (that never represent the game they’re advertising but all the while entertaining) and new games which show potential (but very rarely utilise that). This year there was none of that (aside from Battlefield 1). They delivered on none of the hype and only fed us the same information in a different form, they also once again tried to force their shitty EA online capitalistic bullshit down our throats. But hey, they confirmed that there will be another Fifa game this year.
It really makes us wonder, what the fuck has EA been doing this past year? We still feel no closer to Mass Effect Andromeda and it still looks like they are squandering the Star Wars licence.
But without further ado, let’s get into EA’s 2016 press conference.
Titanfall 2
Who among us played the original Titanfall and thought to themselves “wow, I need more of this varied and deep gameplay”. I for one didn’t and it makes me wonder, what the fuck is EA doing? You are supposed to kick off the conference with something that will get people hyped, not a sequel that no one asked for. I personally hoped that Titanfall would die its slow and painful death and be forever doomed to the bargain bin, but hey that’s just me. Maybe there are people out there who loved Titanfall and sees something in its Call Of duty reminiscent gameplay.
I honestly didn’t see this sequel coming and amazingly, nothing in its reveal blew me away. It looks like more of the first game. The multiplayer looks basically the same and there isn’t really too much to comment on in terms of innovation. The titans look like they play about the same as in the original albeit with a larger and flashier arsenal. In the bits of gameplay that we were shown, we could see a Spartan laser type weapon, additionally on-foot you are now given a grapple hook to play around with.
Respawn Entertainment then announced that they were listening to fans and they heard the biggest criticism on the original game. They will be adding single-player into the mix with a full-fledged story this time around.
After watching the single-player trailer, I honestly wasn’t impressed. I can guarantee you that this won’t end by up being what they build it up to be. From what I Can tell, they’re trying. They’re really trying to appease fans and make an enjoyable single-player experience. But based off what I can see and past experiences, I can tell this will just be another Call of Duty-esque campaign. I’m going to go ahead and predict the future in saying that characters won’t be memorable in the slightest and the plot will be generic much like similar FPS’s in the genre.
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Holly shit, I was excited for this one. After sitting through the announcement of the next addition to the Madden series: Madden 17 (which looked identical and unidentifiable from their last game), we got our first glimpse of Andromeda this year.
But alas, it was no more than a teaser.
What we were given was basically a more fleshed-out look at the trailer we were given last year. This was a huge disappointment and an even bigger missed opportunity. Instead of introducing the characters we will see in the upcoming game as they did with Drago Age: Inquisition, they gave us distant shots of the types of worlds and landscapes we can come to expect with this game. And that was basically it, a slow pan of a lush green world, three seconds of gameplay (literally) and a shot of our main protagonist.
Now after a year between this year’s E3 and last year’s E3, this is all they could come up with? There was no substance to this ‘reveal’. It just showed us what we already knew about Mass Effect: Andromeda.
Every aspect of this presentation was disappointing. The presenter merely just restated facts and gave us the plot of the game once again. As we know: will be following the escapades of a group trying to find a new home for humanity. This sounds cool but last year this was news, this is now a year old and if they want to use this as a main part of the presentation they need to back it up with new plot developments. The rest of the presentation involved them talking about talking how they created “a universe that you will lose yourself in” and how “everything is new”, to me this just sounded like generic video game marketing speak.
It seems like Bioware half-assed it this year. This presentation was nothing more than a show-filler.
Star Wars
By this point, I was fucking dead. I had reached the halfway point of the conference and still nothing. But hey maybe Star Wars could save it. Maybe this would be the saving grace of the conference. Much to my surprise, I was let down. They talked about 4 of their main Star Wars projects and how they’re keeping the series alive. However, 3 of the 4 projects have existed for a long time.
The first of which was Battlefront, they try to get their greedy mitts on our hard-earned cash once again as they try to sell us content that should have been in the base game. We get a brief look at the DLC they’re working on, which seems to be something involving cloud city and the death star.
Next came Galaxy of heroes (a fucking mobile game), then they went on to mention The Old Republic. There isn’t much to note on these two, they showed a snippet of the most recent Old Republic DLC and the mobile game looks like aids and I refuse to talk about it.
Finally, the first bit of NEW content was announced regarding Star Wars. They teased a new action/adventure being developed by Respawn. However, it was only teased and in its current state it’s barely worth noting. All we got out of this is the knowledge that we will be getting a Star Wars game in the future but not any time soon.
Just like the Mass Effect presentation, this felt like a filler and nothing more. They merely stated that the games that have been out for years will continue to be worked on. I’m really starting to sense a pattern here and I think it would have benefitted EA if they chose to not do a press conference this year.
Battlefield 1
Battlefield 1 is the game we wanted to see, and this one didn’t disappoint. Unfortunately I won’t be going in depth and analysing what we have seen as that will make an article of its own and I need to get onto reporting Bethesda’s conference. Suffice to say, it looks like a lot of fun. The CG trailer did its job perfectly in getting me hyped for the game, because I am HYPED.
The gameplay from what we have seen looks solid and natural and if it is any indication on what the game is going to be like I’m in. The tanks, the planes (holly shit), the guns and most importantly the WW1 look and feel.
I can’t wait for the game to be released. EA better not fuck it up.
Closing thoughts
The conference was honestly a huge waste of time, the information from the conference could be summed up into a 5 minute video, so do yourself a favour and don’t bother. This was one of EA’s weakest attempts at E3 and hopefully Bethesda, Microsoft and Sony deliver something new and make me forget about this disappointment.
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