EA Play Conference – E3 2017
The first show for E3 2017 has been and gone and while EA Play is technically not a part of E3 we figure close enough is good enough. Here is our wrap up of what made it to the show.
– Madden kicked things off with the announcement of a story mode called Longshot. Not much else was shown of Madden except for some graphical improvements that will be evident on Project Scorpio. A story mode is certainly a welcome addition though
– Battlefield 1 got some show time with a couple of new map announcements. There will be two new night maps coming very soon as well as a much more substantial DLC pack based on the Eastern Front conflict. Called In the Name of the Tsar, it will include 6 new maps, new classes and units.
– FIFA then hit the stage in a cringe-worthy way. Two British comedians were on stage to talk about Soccer to the quietest crowd on the planet. I felt for them. In among the cringing, it was announced that The Journey will return for FIFA 18 and it will be a sequel to last year’s story.
– Need for Speed Payback’s debut was quite impressive, with some exciting gameplay on show. Big open world, heists, plans, takedowns and criminals. It is like The Crew and Burnout had an illegitimate child. It looked great and I really hope the final product lives up to this tease. It has been a long time since a Need for Speed game has had me excited, so this a nice feeling.
– What followed was something truly exciting. A new EA originals game called The Way Out. It is being developed by the creators of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and is a co-op only game. It has been designed with split-screen as the primary mode of play and it tells the tale of two prisoners in their quest to get out of jail. Think Prison Break the game. It looks amazing and it is heartening to see EA bring out this sort of title.
– Another big announcement was Bioware’s new IP called Anthem. It was only a very little tease, with EA saying there will be more at the Microsoft conference. The game gave off a bit of an Avatar/The Surge feeling in the environments it showed but it is hard to say anything more than that. Hopefully, this is Bioware’s redemption after the misfire of ME: Andromeda.
– Now it was NBA Live 18’s turn. What they showed looked pretty good, but based on the past few titles there will need to be some serious work done to get even close to NBA 2k. There is, once again, a story mode and it actually looks like something that I could get down with. I hope this is a winner, if only to push the NBA 2k guys into improving further.
– Finally, the show ended with a tonne of Battlefield 2 content. A singleplayer trailer, confirmation that DLC will be free (ala Titanfall 2) and a host of chit chat about what has improved. The show then ended with a 30mintue multiplayer game set on Naboo with one side playing the droids and the other the Clones. It all looked very good to be honest, and it looks like the game that the first current gen Battlefront probably should have been. There was sadly no footage of Jar Jar getting shot in the face though.
So that’s a wrap on EA Play. I get the feeling there will be quite a bit more EA content in the Sony and Microsoft shows but as of now I am a little disappointed. There were some true highlights here with A Way Out being the clear winner but overall it was another by-the-numbers show from EA.
