Justin drops his first bit of E3 coverage on The Movie Sleuth. Check it.
EA Play Conference
EA has come a long way in the recent past and
made a lot of progress towards community goodwill after years of negativity
from the gaming masses. They had a good showing at their new EA Play
conference, and despite a lot of leaks of their content earlier than
expected, and I think fans will be pleased with what they had to offer.
More
titans, more players, more guns, more action.
The sliced bread Titanfall 2 and Battlefield
1 surrounded a mix of new AAA titles and even some indie titles in the EA
preview sandwich. They started off strong with the new gameplay footage and
announcements about Titanfall 2, complete with a fully-featured single
player campaign and new titans to pilot. The footage was exciting, and as a fan
of the first game that wanted to see more, this preview hit basically every
note that I was hoping. The mobility is continuing to be a priority for the
team at Respawn, and in addition to the wall running and jumping gameplay, a
grappling hook and more equipment has been granted to players outside of the
mech for fast and intense gameplay. More guns, more mechs, and a really
interesting twist on the story left me excited in a way I didn't expect about
the second in what may becoming a long running shooter franchise.
Considering it is supposed to be out within the
next year, there was surprisingly little actual gameplay footage of Mass
Effect Andromeda, though it had its moment in the spotlight. Not much more
was revealed about the newest entry in the series outside of bold claims about
the scope and open nature of the game. Seeing more was exciting, but I wanted
to see more characters or gameplay considering the game is supposed to be in
player’s hands in just a number of months. EA also announced a new indie
platform called EA Originals, which wasn’t explained in detail, but is
purported to be a new project to help fund and publish indie games. Their first
and only announcement so far from Originals was a newly revealed game called Fe
(pronounced ‘Fee’) as a dialog-less exploration game about communing with
nature. I will not pass judgement seeing as very little concrete was revealed,
but I am happy to see Unraveled was a success and EA is supporting the
little guy in a way that they have not in the past.
The Only
footage out of Visceral of the new Star Wars game
Star Wars also made some appearances from EA,
though not in any focused capacity. More work is being done on the recently
rebooted Battlefront franchise, though there were no official
announcements about the scantily revealed ‘2017 Battlefront title’. An update
from Visceral Games and Amy Hennig about their still unnamed action RPG in the
Star Wars universe came in the form of some behind the scenes footage and an
in-game teaser, but there are still a lot of questions left to be answered
about it. Other Star Wars news was announced surrounding their mobile and MMO
games, but nothing really concrete and it seemed more like a public forum to
point out their successes in these markets, and with the Star Wars license as a
whole.
Finishing out the show was Battlefield 1 and
an extensive multiplayer stream. There has been a considerable amount of hype
surrounding this game since its first announcement, especially considering its
uncommon choice of time period. It was good to see extensive amounts of real
gameplay showing off the weapons and vehicles of the period, and the visuals
are gorgeous. Coming off of the amazing presentation of Battlefront last
year, Battlefield 1 is stunning considering the speed and scope of the
action. To be honest, I am a little disappointed with it as a whole, despite
the good looks and neat setting the game just looks like more Battlefield
without that many mechanical changes outside of the vehicles. I hope there is
more to it that we can see before the fall release, but I am not keeping my
hopes up for much more than a new Battlefield game along the same lines
as 3 and 4.
New
dynamic weather effects and vehicles enhance the Battlefield experience
Strong showing overall, and more indie focus
from something as monolithic as EA is a good sign for the industry. I am most
excited about Titanfall 2, but there are several games on this list I am
looking forward to playing. Excited to see more of what's in store in 2017 and
beyond from Electronic Arts.
Bethesda E3 Showcase
Bethesda came to the table with a serious
offering of both new content and continued support for their tent pole
franchises. An Impressive quantity of new releases were announced considering DOOM,
Fallout 4, and multiple DLCs were all released within the last 9 months.
With the wide variety of games all under the umbrella of Bethesda and ZeniMax
games, it’s easy to find something to get excited about.
Heroes
and villains of Quake’s history do battle in Quake Champions.
The show opened with the relatively unexpected
announcement of Quake Champions. A logical progression considering the
recent success of DOOM from Id Software, Champions is a new PC first-person
arena shooter coming from Id Software. No gameplay was shown (promised to be
available at Quakecon in August) but from the description and pre-rendered
footage it seemed most akin to Blizzard’s new multiplayer phenomenon Overwatch.
For the Elder Scrolls fans, I have good news. Skyrim is returning in
remastered fashion on Oct. 28th. It’s unclear the entire extent of the remake,
but at the very least the graphics are completely overhauled, and its
impressive. In other Elder Scrolls news, the Bethesda franchise’s answer to
Hearthstone, Elder Scrolls Legends, is a mobile-focused fantasy card game.
No gameplay was shown but it looked similar to other card games with creatures
and a resource system. Arkane studios revealed a new game as well, and after a
lengthy preview of a near future story of fractured time, it was revealed to be
called Prey, and is an apparent reboot of the 2006 game of the same name.
Rounding out the new games comes Dishonored 2, as announced this time last
year. Dishonored 2 was given a substantial amount of screen time considering
the length of the press conference. I think Arkane needed to show more of the
new systems and gameplay to get fans who lost interest in the first game, and
to show intense spectacle to potential new players with its awe-factor.
Choose
between Corvo or Emily in the new Dishonored
title, taking the franchise to a new city.
The next year will also bring additional content
to Fallout 4, DOOM, and Elder Scrolls Online, showing a
concerted effort to support their after release. The DOOM dlc pack is
disappointingly for the lackluster multiplayer, but the SnapMap creation system
will be receiving its own free content updates for all owners. Elder Scrolls
Online has been having success this year and its dedicated fan base will be
rewarded with new content that finally adds the beloved Dark Brotherhood, a
secret guild of assassins with mysterious origins, to the online world.
Announced alongside the new content was a revamp of the games systems that
allows players of any level to explore the entire game, adding even more
approachability to a traditionally inscrutable genre. Fallout 4 has been
keeping up its DLC schedule, and even more has been revealed including Workshop
Contraptions, a new set of Workshop DLC that allows for moving parts and Rube
Goldberg machines, and another story-based DLC featuring a Nuka Cola themed
theme park called Nuka World. And in a final surprising note, Bethesda
announced its first foray into Virtual Reality with VR versions of both DOOM
and Fallout 4 to be playable on the showfloor at E3 this week.
All in all I am pleased with how the press
conference, and while I would like to hear more about the new franchises
Bethesda is supposedly working on and I am excited about the concept of a Elder
Scrolls 6, I think they are bringing a lot to the table for the coming months.
-Justin Wicker