EA games just wrapped up their annual E3 briefing, which is the first of many events in downtown Los Angeles this week for the 2016 Electronic Entertainment Expo. So what exactly does EA have planned for the next year? Let’s jump in and find out.
First up, EA heavily promoted their EA Play events going on simultaneously this week in Los Angeles and London where players will get a chance to get some hands on time with upcoming games including Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1 as well as FIFA 17 and Madden 17.
Respawn Entertainment then took to the stage to announce that Titanfall 2 would not be a Xbox One exclusive like the original game. This time around, Titanfall 2 will include a single-player campaign and will be coming to Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC on October 28, 2016.
The next game presented during EA’s press conference today was Madden 17 and it was announced that this new version will feature EA’s push to allow everyone to experience competitive gaming. There will be challenges within different categories that players can experience and challenger events will be community driven tournaments that players can create on their own. Also announced were premier events, which will be live events hosted by various partners in the gaming industry where players can compete for prizes. The last challenge revealed was EA Majors, which is where the best players will be playing for big prizes. The presentation also revealed that there will be a Madden 17 Championship Series, which will feature 4 EA Major events and a total of one million dollars in prizes.
Mass Effect: Andromeda was also revealed today, from Bioware. This new game in the Mass Effect series will have a new cast of characters and an original story set apart from the original trilogy. Only a trailer was shown off at this time.
EA then announced their EA Play to Give program that will encourage players to complete in-game challenges which, in turn, relate to real world donations to one of five charities: code.org, code2040, HeforShe, National Center for Women & Information Technology and Special Effect.
Next up was a presentation on FIFA 17 and they discussed how the latest iteration of the game will feature a physical player overhaul, new attack techniques and an “active intelligence system.” Managers will also be included for the first time as well as an interesting single player career mode of sorts. In the mode called “The Journey,” the player will assume control of a character named Alex Hunter and navigate his journey from playing in the streets to playing in the Premier league.
Also announced was a new brand to the EA family, titled EA Originals. Under this new banner, EA will support small game studios that are creating unique experiences, offering funding, security and distribution. All profits of these games will go back to the developers. The first release from EA Originals will be a game called Fe. From Swedish company Zoink Games, Fe follows the story of a small forest creature that lives in a world connected by music. Through independent exploration, the player learns that each creature in the forest has a specific song that is required to learn to speak to them and in turn open up more of the world. Given no direction, the player will be free to explore and play the game as they see fit.
EA then turned its attention to the Star Wars universe, where it was revealed that we’ll be getting new iterations from the current Star Wars franchises, Galaxy of Heroes, Old Republic and Battlefront. In the announcement, they mentioned that Visceral Games is working on a new action-adventure title that will feature a brand new Star Wars story and that Respawn Entertainment is also hard at work on their own third-person action adventure game that takes place in a timeline that has yet to be explored in the Star Wars universe. A lot to look forward to.
Lastly, EA ended their press conference on a high note with a new Battlefield 1 gameplay trailer that was shown, depicting large scale battles with soldiers riding on horseback, enormous airships, tanks and massive 64-player maps. They also mentioned that features like dynamic weather and environment destruction will allow maps to change with each play through. Battlefield 1 will be released for Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC on October 21, 2016.
Check out the Mass Effect: Andromeda, Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1 trailers below, and we've also include the entire EA press conference thanks to Gamespot.
Daily Dead's Official Podcast! Daily Dead's Official Podcast!
