Thoughts of : EA Press Conference E3 2018

This is going to be one of the new series of content on my blog called “Thoughts of : ...” where I put my opinion regarding what happened within the world of video games, I have so many subjects I want to tackle with this series but I also have to be in the know about the subjects to tackle that I will discuss so this might not be a frequent thing within my blog. And with that out of the way, let us start.

Hoshi31’s thoughts of EA Press Conference E3 2018.

To be honest I have almost to no expectations of EA ever since the Battlefront 2 outrage that I must say is completely justified, that being said there are few moments where I am actually interested to look forward to. One thing I must say about the entirety of the press conference is the presentation of most of its contents are for me at best cringe inducing and at worst almost put me to sleep at the time of watching. Let’s look at the announced games.

1. Battlefield V 

I am not a fan of FPS but there are some words that caught my interest, and that is “customizations for gameplay and looks”. I could have misheard that particular sentence but I need to emphasize on the word “gameplay”, we all know this game have no lootboxes and no “premium pass” or “season pass” in other name but hearing that word somehow rubbed me off the wrong way. The model for the microtransactions is definitely “straight-buy” without randomized chances, as for customization for looks this is actually great but customizations for gameplay? I only hope it is only the pre-game setting like how many players or what weapons to use or something like that. 

The visuals are as usual, interesting enough especially when you consider you can use tanks to ram a building and crushing everything in the middle of the road. Operations mode is where the meat is if I must say so myself as it also educated players about the area involved in the war just like Battlefield 1. War stories on the other hand, somehow has a different air compared to the previous game. Those who want historical accuracy is going to be highly pissed especially after the previous reveal trailer. 

Battlefield V is getting a “Royale” mode competing with CoD Black Ops 4 as a AAA battle royale, yes that is true and I am not making this up. This is obviously a cash grab of the battle royale sub-genre while the gold rush is still happening, to be honest I was expecting a battle royale from EA since businesses want to exploit the gold rush until it totally dried but not in Battlefield V. This is my only gripe with Battlefield V so far.

2. EA Sports Games (FIFA 19, NBA Live 19, Madden 19)

(don't mind the date on the picture, it is the date of the presentation)

While some updates are interesting enough to warrant an “oh” by me in the end it is simply another sports game with updated roster while the core gameplay has not changed that much. That being said I am interested in the fate of NBA Live 19 after the problem with NBA 2K18 getting brushed off as aggressively pay to win game, maybe NBA Live will overtake the competition? We shall see.

FIFA 2019 is getting a release date of September 28^th, 2018.

While NBA Live 19 will be released on September 7^th, 2018.

3. Star Wars games (Battlefront 2, Jedi Fallen Order)

This comes as a bit of a surprise but EA admitted their fault although with a  flavor of company speech, seriously they could have been more sincere since there are risks that SWBF2 will die completely if handled poorly in the future especially after the rumors that SWBF2 not getting another support but that rumor is proven false for now. Clone Wars update is interesting enough since there are additions to the hero pools that I like namely General Grievous and my number one jedi Obi Wan Kenobi although it could be better but for SWBF2 that went over very a rocky start this will do for now at least for me.

Jedi Fallen Order on the other hand is what I am interested in, after the Visceral Studio shut down debacle I kind of lost hope for the Star Wars games for the future since the one Visceral was developing is changed into a “live service” game but I forgot Respawn was developing another Star Wars game. The only thing we all know about Jedi Fallen Order is the setting which is between Episode 3 and Episode 4, the title alone makes it obvious that this game takes place after Order 66. Honestly though I wish the setting was in the old republic era since there was a time when the Jedi is also hunted down for bounty and other reasons but at least this doesn’t take place in the new trilogy and that is great news for me personally.

The release of Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order is expected to be holiday 2019.

4. Unravel Two

Finally some warm hearted games! Although first impression of the game rubs me in a way lesser than the first one. The sequel introduces a new mechanic which two yarn dolls or Yarnys are connected to each other and you have to use both of them together to progress, the big difference is that this games seems more fast paced rather than the relaxed tone of the first game. The way they show the memory gimmick in game is quite different from the real life photo used in game to 3D animated humans which in my personal opinion is less endearing since the first game nailed it so well.

The quick play done by the developers are better than the scripted gameplay of most game reveals. Just saying.

What’s baffling of the presentation to me is the developers said that this is a quick look to the game so I assume it’s still in the making but after showing some trailers for the game, Patrick Soderlund who is a higher up at EA said the game is out now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Why not just say it's already out from the start?

5. EA Originals “Sea of Solitude”

A video game that explores the idea of human loneliness as the developers said, while I like the idea of video games exploring many hidden aspects of human life that we took for granted but these type of games can be a hit or miss from the idea the game wished to explore due to poor executions.

Nevertheless the game will be out early 2019 and it’s worth looking forward to in my opinion.

6. Command and Conquer Rivals

Seriously? After the franchise disappeared for a very long time its return will be on mobile? and it plays like Clash Royale? Yeah thanks but no thanks, simple enough.

7. Anthem

This is probably going to sting some fans but if you are a casual gamer that watches the press conference you might know that there is little to no difference in the number of known information about this game. Even I have a difficulty of wrapping up info that I get from the interview EA did with the developers, they said it’s a game you can enjoy solo or with friends in a shared world but the lack of information is so easy to spot all I can do is speculate.

First things first, the way they integrate single player and multiplayer according to me personally kind of looked like Monster Hunter World where you can summon your friends in the middle of the mission via what I call the SOS flare and it is linked to my second speculation that this game will have what looked to be like an instanced mission system with a shared world as some sort of social HUB. So far so Destiny with a dash of MHW friend summoning if I may say so myself. As for the story I cannot say anything due to the lack of concrete information, I apologize of many expected more information on the game.

Secondly, THANK GOD NO LOOTBOXES! You can buy the customization and vanity items directly from the microtransaction system and it is not Pay to Win. You finally learned after the SWBF2 controversy coupled with the outrage of players forced you to change a little of your ways.

Also scripted gameplay is scripted and it still tells me almost nothing of informative value about the upcoming game.

The release date for Anthem is 22 February 2019.

That is all for the games but during the press conference there is definitely something that caught my attention namely the thing I call “Andrew Wilson Session” in EA’s E3 conference. Andrew Wilson said that there will be a subscription service akin to the Xbox Game Pass called Origin Access Premier. My personal opinion on that subscription service can be summed up in one sentence : “Not worth my money” but I think some people will have different opinions about it. Overall the presentation could be a lot better but it is still bland and cringey so i think i will give it a 5/10

Thank you for reading, if you have any opinions of your own or spot any typos or feedbacks for future blog content then don’t hesitate and just leave it in the comments section as I always appreciate them all!