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    My thoughts on EA's E3 Press Conference

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    Rotweiller

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    Edited By Rotweiller

    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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    wlleiotl

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    That's an awful lot of text just to say you want game companies to base their press conferences around what just you want and like.

    Some people like sports games, and they are very successful. Get over it.

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    Rotweiller

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    #2  Edited By Rotweiller

    @wlleiotl: Did you even read it? I was disappointed that there was a lack of substance in the press conference and they did a poor job presenting the games that i do like. I did mention that i thought the most recent instalment of Madden looking similar to the last, but i didn't say EA should not talk about sport games. Next time read before you criticise.

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    Rebel_Scum

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    It was pretty damn pointless as far as Star Wars and Mass Effect was concerned. They're nowhere near ready to properly demo it, I wonder why bother if that's the case.

    The other thing that bothered me was that EA did a trademark application for the Strike series like two years ago. I'm dying for a new Strike game but alas til next year

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    mems1224

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    Who among us played the original Titanfall and thought to themselves “wow, I need more of this varied and deep gameplay”.

    *raises hand*

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    crithon

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    lets face facts..... EA is six inches away from CAPCOM!!!!!!

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    SpaceInsomniac

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    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.

    Battlefield 1

    Battlefield 1 is the game we wanted to see, and this one didn’t disappoint.

    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.

    I can’t wait for the game to be released.

    I don't mean to blow your mind or anything, but...

    This was perhaps the worst EA conference I can remember, though. Outside of Titanfall and Battlefield, it felt like they had nothing to show.

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    pompouspizza

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    I am thrilled that Titanfall 2 exists! I very rarely play multiplayer games but the first game hooked me for months. I think the sequel looks fantastic and I can't wait for it.

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    Rotweiller

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    #8  Edited By Rotweiller
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    Zevvion

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    It was a bad press conference, but it was certainly better than the one they did last year.

    I'm just excited for Mass Effect Andromeda and I want to play it, not watch it. I'm glad they didn't have more to show because this way they don't get me hyped up too soon.

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    SpaceInsomniac

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    #10  Edited By SpaceInsomniac

    @rotweiller said:

    @spaceinsomniac: ahaha wow, I guess I'm part of the minority

    If it makes you feel any better, I was surprised by those results as well, even if I am looking forward to Titanfall 2 more than Battlefield 1. I guess it's hard to compete with a tethered kick to the face.

    EA also did Battlefield no favors by having crappy, unskilled celebrities playing their game, and not showing Battlefield 1 gameplay during the actual conference. Instead, they decided to show campaign cut-scenes that looked just like the campaign cut-scenes that we'd seen months ago. By comparison, the slickly edited campaign and multiplayer gameplay trailers offered by Titanfall made it hard to compete.

    Welcome to Giant Bomb, btw.

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    deactivated-64162a4f80e83

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    Thought it was fine, everything they showed looked fine.

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    Rotweiller

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    Captain_Insano

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    EA has a pretty awkward presentation (though not as awkward as last year). I'm willing to put money down that Ubisoft will be even more awkward in their attempt to be cool.

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    OurSin_360

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    The fifa thing made me think about how much i want a new fight night and will never get it... :-(

    I feel like Mass effect should have ended with 3 but i'm cautiously optimistic it will be decent.

    Titanfall looks amazing as well as the new battlefield and despite not showing anything i'm hyped for Amy Hennigs new star wars game

    @mems1224 said:

    Who among us played the original Titanfall and thought to themselves “wow, I need more of this varied and deep gameplay”.

    *raises hand*

    *raises hand*

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    wlleiotl

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    @rotweiller: yes and I stand by my comment. Nobody wants more titanfall but we were all waiting for battlefield? as well as the Madden nonsense. Apologies however, you did title it your thoughts about the press conference and I expected far too much.

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    mrcraggle

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    I feel the complete opposite on your views with Titanfall 2 and BF1. The trailers for Titanfall 2 were super hype and full of energy. Great way to start the show but then they threw that momentum away. BF1 on the other hand was so poorly handled. They teased their own trailer that they'd then go on to show just a few minutes later. It was a goddamn mess. I don't know what marketing are thinking with this game. Let's take World War 1 and add rap or inappropriate music over it. I love the old score for BF, why couldn't they go with that? Then they revealed the multiplayer with a bunch of celebrities who had no idea what they were doing. I wanted BF1 to take the series back a little bit. Over the years the game has tried competing with CoD and for the worse in my opinion. They made it far too fast and twitchy and with a WWI setting, I thought that might be the case but nope. People are still just shooting huge machine guns with perfect accuracy and jumping out of planes no problem. I know it's a BF game and they're never going to be realistic but the game seems little more than a skin of BF4 from what I've seen so far.

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    chumley_marchbanks

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    @oursin_360 said:
    @mems1224 said:

    Who among us played the original Titanfall and thought to themselves “wow, I need more of this varied and deep gameplay”.

    *raises hand*

    *raises hand*

    *raises hand*

    @rotweiller: It seems rather unfair to complain that Titanfall 2 "looks like more of the first game" when Battlefield 1 looks like more Battlefield 3 & 4 with an early 20th century aesthetic.

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    Ashwyn

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    #19  Edited By Ashwyn

    Being from the UK, the fifa stuff was pretty cool and looked at least like they're trying. So again the sports suff is pretty cool and shouldn't be written off.

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    ThePanzini

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    Agree 1000% EA are the masters speaking alot without saying much and man they do love buzzwords. Titanfall 2 looks perfect for folks bored with COD and I'm pumped for BF1 a nice refresh for Battlefielders with tons of improvements.

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    Musai

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    I thought Titanfall 2 looked pretty ace. Singleplayer can go very bad or very good, depending. I liked the premise that I saw, and the gameplay looked fantastic.

    I thought Fe looked pretty neat, and was impressed by the fact that EA is taking a role as an indie publisher without taking a huge cut of the profits.

    Battlefield 1 looked....Like a Battlefield game. The true "high"lights for me, though, were the stream of celebs they got on camera. Seeing Zac Efron and Jamie Foxx blazed out of their skulls, and Snoop with a lit joint in his mouth is pretty peak E3 for me. Now here's to hoping Ubisoft is cringey and awkward so I can have my full E3 experience this year.

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    Evilbill

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    Could be just the type of game player I am, but I agree with most of the sentiments of the OP. I did not understand the point of a second Titanfall (apparently I am in the minority, which is fine). The first game, for an FPS, had a very short shelf life. Released in 2014 on the Xbox One. Just a bit over two years later we have a second iteration. It's going into direct competition with a lot of other FPS like Battlefield, COD etc etc. I didn't feel personally that there was this massive groundswell behind a second game. That said the game looked nice and had lots of action. But I am wondering again how long the game will hold people's attention. When you consider there are FPS games for PC that are a decade old that are still widely played and the surprise success of Overwatch, the idea that EA feels the need to pump out "new" FPS' over and over again is not a sign they have confidence they really nailed the genre. Instead it appears to be a cash call for a rehashed IP. I will openly admit I am biased against EA to begin with and that probably plays a part in my opinions on their products, but what was the last really great EA game that totally changed the the video game landscape? I will guarantee you it's not a sequel to a game, it's an original. This sequel crap has to come to an end at some point.

    I also know people were a bit excited by their "originals" campaign and how they are going to support indie devs like the ones who made "Fe". But I didn't walk away from that with a good feeling. EA has a track record of burning major studios to the ground after buying them. Although in this instance they would merely be partners, and I assume get a percentage of sales as the publisher, something tells me there's gonna be a moment where EA partners with an indie then suddenly cuts funding for some reason and thereby kills the project and the company in one swoop. This is opposed to the current model of pre-order or crowd funding for the indies where they are in control of their own destiny.

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    blackichigo

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    I disagree. As a man that never got play titanfall, I thought titanfall 2 looked hype as hell.

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    JesusHammer

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    Titanfall 2 looked hype as fuck. The rest of the conference was a shit show unless you care about FIFA and Madden e-sports. That Madden e-sports thing was some of the worst garbage I've ever had to sit through. I'm not saying there aren't people out there that care, but is there enough of them to base a large chunk of your conference around? It felt like they didn't want to show Madden because they had nothing new or interesting to show, but they needed to buy time somehow. I have no idea what they were thinking with doing the Star Wars and Mass Effect concept art/behind the scenes stuff AGAIN. How am I supposed to believe Mass Effect is out in March or April of next year when we haven't even gotten one gameplay demo? It was a pretty big shitshow, but Titanfall 2 looked really cool.

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