18 June 2016
EA
E3 kicked off even earlier than last year with EA opening proceedings at 1pm LA time on the Sunday. They had two live studios connected with one in LA and one in London, and the transitions between the two worked surprisingly well. First off was Titanfall 2 campaign and multiplayer gameplay, and it seems everyone is relieved it now has a campaign and it's coming to PS4. Two no-brainer decisions really after the original. The gameplay in the trailers looks awesome however I can't believe how similar it looks to Black Ops 3. I know Call of Duty took ideas from the original Titanfall with wall running and boost movement but it looks almost identical to the latest COD title with the obvious exception of the Titans. It does annoy me when most critics can't wait for Titanfall 2 and yet wouldn't go near Black Ops 3.
We saw a snippet of Mass Effect Andromeda. There was a trailer but it was one of those "look how hard we're working on this game" trailers, which literally shows some of the developers at work. Basically this tells me the game is still well over a year away, Fall 2017 at the earliest.
FIFA 17 was officially revealed and the big new feature was "The Journey". Which looks to be the closest thing to a true single player story in a sports game. The other big inclusion is that Premier League managers are finally in the game. It's a surprise this hasn't been noticed before, much like with women's teams finally introduced in FIFA 16. The setup leading to José Mourinho walking on stage was actually very well done, definitely a highlight of EA's shows over the years.
EA Originals was also announced. Inspired by last year's Unravel, this is a new scheme focused on supporting indie developers to produce more great, unique games. No gamer can say this is a bad idea. The first game to be part of the program is Fe. This looks like an intriguing exploration game. No dialogue at all but a nice colourful yet monotone art style makes this game stand out.
News on Star Wars games was next. No official game titles just very long term plans. Visceral are working on a new Star Wars narrative for 2018, no doubt exciting Star Wars fans immensely. More interestingly Titanfall developer Respawn is working on a new third person game set in a new era. Is this Star Wars with wall running mech suits? Surely this is a futuristic game rather than a historic game. And also sad news for me, Criterion are helping out on these Star Wars games too. Which surely means their first person stunt game revealed at E3 2014 is no longer in development.
To close EA's conference it had to be Battlefield 1, especially after the massive success of the launch trailer over Call of Duty Infinite Warfare. The latest CGI trailer on stage was epic although minimal actual gameplay shown. But EA made up for this by hosting a 64 player one hour livestream immediately after the conference, with a bunch of celebrities and YouTube stars taking part. In fact the cringe moment of this year's E3 (once again at EA) was Jamie Foxx and Zac Efron saying just how excited they were to play. Some of the worst acting ever, it was noticed by everyone.
Anyway on finally seeing Battlefield 1, it does look as epic as the CGI trailers make out. The map is laden with destructions and vehicles, the guns are heavy and kick back like mules. But the most impressive feature is the match ending behemoths. When the Zeppelin is shot down it is a true spectacle. Flying in a bi-plane as the fiery wreck falls from the sky is an awesome sight. A couple of things did strongly remind me of Star Wars Battlefront. One being the behemoths resembling the AT-ATs, and the other being the HUD for kills and objectives which looks almost identical. Still, regardless of being a Battlefield fan or not, this game is a fantastic watch and is the best re-enactment of a World War.
Bethesda
Bethesda stole the show for me last year and to be honest it was a surprise to learn they'd be back this year and probably many more to come. There was plenty of reminiscing to begin their conference with Fallout 4 and Doom given slightly too much stage time for two games already out.
The focus this year was Dishonored 2, and this game is really grabbing my attention. After seeing some more CGI trailers, there were two gameplay demos. The first showing the core stealth combat with cool tricks thrown in like the Domino ability. The second showed one of the coolest in-game gadgets I've ever seen. A timepiece device worn on the character's forearm that is effectively a window into the past or present day. Somehow you have the ability to time travel back and forth instantly, and the beauty of the device is being able to see a guard in the present, for example, walk around him in the past, then time travel back to the present to stab him in the back. It adds a super cool dimension to stealth gameplay.
The big reveal from Bethesda was Quake Champions. Clearly following the successful re-launch of the Doom series. However there does look to be a much closer focus on online multiplayer here. So hopefully for Quake fans this is a proper arena shooter which takes on all aspects on the original games. Most unlike the new Doom's multiplayer which clearly has Call of Duty elements thrown in there with custom classes, the progression system, and the freebie demon killstreak.
Bethesda also revealed a re-imagined Prey, another game I wish had a trailing number or at least a subtitle to distinguish it (I'll let Doom off the hook because the original came out in a different century). The trailer for this actually looked quite cool but as a horror game it's not for me. A Skyrim remaster for current consoles was official, which fans of the series will love, and a card game based on The Elder Scrolls Online was also shown off.