First up, it's the wonderful cuddlebugs of EA to dazzle us with various sports games, and also other less important regular games. EA get a lot of shit for being the "evil" games company, a corporate powerhouse churning out franchise after franchise with no thoughts in their mind other than profits and cocaine. It's probably a bit unfair to put it like that, but hey, you've got 90 minutes to change my mind EA. Show me what you've...
Oh. Never mind then.
Madden 18
Oddly enough, the existence of a drum line did not tell us anything about the new Madden, but a short story trailer did. Following in the footsteps of FIFA’s “The Journey” campaign mode, Madden comes to the fray with something of a similar kind. Entitled “Long Shot”, you fill the shoes of football hopeful Devin Wade, taking him through a story that sees you going from amateur to pro, complete with a full story that will undoubtedly be full of drama and sadness from athletes that earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a week.
Okay, that was pretty harsh. If I’m honest, I actually like the idea of sports games having a more dramatic campaign style deely rather than just handing you a career mode. The move to the super shiny Frostbite means that the cutscenes will almost certainly be very well crafted, and throwing in the familiar (and exceptionally talented) face of Mahershala Ali will be a great boon for the endeavour. I always wonder, however, how talented the “writing” team is at EA Sports, since they generally don’t have much to do with their time.
Having said that, sports can make good drama. Go watch Friday Night Lights and see for yourself. It’s good to see sports games trying a little harder with stuff like this. It will definitely take the sting out of buying the “same game” every year.
Battlefield 1
After another effort to push the “community” aspect of their video games with a cute little montage of some big plays, Battlefield 1 took center-stage with the announcement of a new expansion, titled In The Name Of The Tsar. Expanding the game’s current roster to include the Russian Federation as a brand new faction, as well as new maps, a new character class, a new game mode, and new weapons, gadgets and vehicles. And the ability to play as female soldiers! Woo, progressive! There also seemed to be hints of a more class-focused change to player progression involving specializing your playstyle, as well as the announcement of a “tighter, more competitively focused” game mode to be announced soon.
I can’t speak much for Battlefield, but it’s still looking damn good. They’ve really pushed the Frostbite engine to the limits on this one, and the snowy landscapes of Russia are going to look bloody lovely. It’s interesting that the idea of a more competitive gametype is in the work though. Battlefield is a game known for it’s grand war landscapes, and condensing that into some kind of small team scenario probably won’t play to its strengths.
eSports seemed to be on EAs mind overall, frankly, with lots of footage of pro Madden and FIFA tournaments being displayed, as well as teases of some new competitive system where average joes like us could play our way to the top. Logic kind of dictates that games based on actual sports would make for good eSports, and I like the fact that companies are starting to push it. Yeah, I like eSports, wanna fight about it? Because we can! In competitive video games!
FIFA 18
And then two weirdos in blazers popped up on stage to talk about the other kind of football. FIFA 18, unsurprisingly, is indeed a thing, propped up on the idea that it’s “powered by Ronaldo”, showing him in a mocap suit recreating his ever-so-slightly-different-movements-than-everyone-else playstyle. Mocapping actual players isn’t new but...powered by Ronaldo? Are they trying to convince us that Ronaldo is channeling his footballing expertise to make the game better some how? Or is he just running on a big hamster wheel in the EA server room to provide lag detection?
Either way, FIFA followed Madden’s lead an announced their own story-based campaign mode, subtly titled “The Journey - Hunter Returns” (cute move for the trailer to feature actual footballers waxing lyrical about a fictional one, EA). Titular star Alex Hunter returns for a sequel to last years “The Journey”, with his youth days over as he now evolves into a fully fledged player.
Go read what I said about Madden and copypasta it here, I guess. Another push for more story-driven elements in games, which I’m all for. Not sure about sticking with the same guy, however, but it’s nice to see EA are trying to make an actual character out of him. Other than that, it’s a FIFA game. You will get to play football. It’s not exactly FFVII Remake, is it?
Need for Speed: Payback
Just as I was losing interest, suddenly, a game I am interested in! Payback was known of before this event, but it was nice to see a tasty gameplay trailer, as well as more info on the story. The plot will shift between three different characters (possibly in a GTA V switchy sort of way), with the action taking place in the Nevada desert. Claiming “the most diverse open world in a Need For Speed to date”, the trailer showed a little set piece of the three-man crew hijacking a truck and heisting a fancy-shmancy sports car, as well as showcasing a Burnout-like “takedown camera”, with the action slowing down as you wreck other cars to see the destruction.
It certainly looked nice, but the first thing that popped into my head was how similar it seemed to the Fast And Furious series of films. That was a franchise that moved from street racing to general car-dick-aboutery over time, and part of me doesn’t want to see Need For Speed go down that route. However, it is still Ghost Games developing it, and they impressed me with the newly rebooted Need For Speed of last year, so I’m curious to see what they have or us.
A Way Out
Okay, full disclosure, I never played Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, but I got the deal and do respect it as a nice slice of “videogame are art, honest”. I’ll tell you what, though, I don’t need to know the director’s prestige to get excited about this. A co-op only prison break game designed with split-screen in mind with Uncharted-like set pieces? Sign me up.
It looked very slick in the demo. Particularly striking was the way the split screen changed dimensions depending on what was going on, sometimes even merging to one screen when it came to co-operative endeavours. It seems like they’ve not only designed it to work well as a split-screen game, but almost actually directing through the medium of split screen. It looks like something that could make for a completely new experience with whatever BFF you choose to take along for the ride. And, good god, it was something original at an EA press conference! This will undoubtedly make some people’s best of E3 lists, mine included, and I’m very excited to try it out.
NBA Live 18
Bang, crash, boom, back to the sports. Not a lot to be seen from the next NBA this time around. They showcased a new system of using both your analog sticks to control exactly what you want to do with the basketball, such as what hand is being used and when feints happen, while anyone defending you would also have to match your input in order to dispossess or block. I’m not really a basketball guy, but this honestly sounds like a neat little system, a more in depth “rock-paper-scissors” to decide who beats who, rather than just going off pure stats, as many sports games are wont to do.
They also showed off a new career-mode entitled “The One”, but it doesn’t seem to be quite the same deal as the new story modes available in the other sports games on show. Where the others had you take control of a preset character, NBA Live 18 seems to be opting for a create-a-character RPG lite sort of thing, where you create a guy you then take through the levels of the basketball league, leveling him up and improving his stats, and gearing him up with the best equipment. Again, this will probably work quite nicely, but, again, I’m not really as basketball guy, so I find it hard to get too enthused about it.
Star Wars Battlefront II
Unsurprisingly, EA saved this until last, and certainly dedicated a hell of a lot of their air time to it. Yes, Battlefront returns, with the message essentially being “all the things we fucked up about the last one we’ve kind of fixed”. Now, instead of a £60 pew-pew simulator, we seem to have an actually fully rounded game, heaven forbid. A single player campaign will be included, as well as all of the modes and large-scale battlegrounds the original Battlefront sported, only this time spreading between all three trilogies of the films. In an uncut multiplayer demo, in which a whole room of real people played a legitimate game for the cameras, they showcased a three-stage attack/defend game mode. On top of that, they delved deep into the changes they had made, now opting for a more defined class-based system rather than loudouts, with a currency to be earned in game for making sick plays, to be spent on vehicles, elite units, or the ability to dress up like Darth Vader.
More interestingly, however, they announced that there would be no season pass or paid DLC for the game, instead opting for periodic free content releases bundled into “Seasons”, that would be free for all owners of the game as and when they came out. EA, is that really you? Have you shown a shred of common sense and been less of a massive dick?
You know, frankly, EA are doing exactly that. They’ve been known as the “nasty” games company for a while, and it does look like they’re starting (or at least trying) to buck that trend. Battlefront II is a prime example of that. Most of the changes came from player feedback, and whether or not you think it’s true care for the consumer or simple pandering to win a few brownie points, it’s good for everyone. We have a game here that will be a top-seller regardless, and they’re putting in a single-player campaign, free updates, no paid DLC, and used a true actual multiplayer game as their demo, warts and all, where most games would go for a “vertical slice” trailer to try and sell their game. Admittedly, only EA would really have the money to allow for a 64-player LAN at a press conference, but it’s good they’re going to the effort.
On the whole, EA had a decent showing here. A Way Out wins the day for sure, but the doubling down on story mode for their sports games and what seemed like a legitimate response to player feedback across all their current titles. We’ve still got a long way to go before they rectify the damage they’ve done, but this is a positive first step.
But please EA, next time, tell Andrew Wilson to stay at home. His slicked back hair and robotic movements aren’t helping you to look any less evil.
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