EA Conference Recap - E3 2018

Lights up on the first conference of E3 2018, and a countdown timer leads into a trailer depicting a variety of EA IPs from Star Wars Battlefront to Battlefield to FIFA. We now see a monster appear to crawl out of the screen followed by a man with a jet pack who starts shooting at it, only to have host Andrea Rene come out and announce this is indeed from Anthem, but we will need to wait until later in the show to see more.

On to Battlefield V then, with team leads from developer DICE taking the stage to discuss the upcoming World War 2 inspired shooter. They reiterates some previously announced info such as fortifications and improved destruction, and soldier and vehicle customization for gameplay and cosmetics. War Stories will return from Battlefield 1, depicting moments of human heroism, mentioning that more will be unveiled at the Xbox conference tomorrow. There will be no loot boxes and no premium pass for Battlefield V.

After launch, a “Royale” mode will be coming, supposedly reimagined for Battlefield which will involve vehicles and team play, though we will have to wait until later in the year for more info on this (audience reaction is very much mixed). Now it’s on to the regular multiplayer. Operations will return, and a highly cinematic trailer starts to play depicting planes dropping out paratroopers in a night-time scenario, and another skirmish in a snowy mountain-side town.

That is all for Battlefield V it seems as another trailer with soccer players starts, presumably for a new FIFA. Indeed, it is for FIFA 19, with developers taking the stage to talk about it. There will be a UEFA League Champions mode, career mode, and ultimate team mode. More will be coming on this later in the summer. The gameplay has been supposedly refined with input from the community, though no real details about improvements are shared. The game will launch on September 28 this year. They also discuss the FIFA World Cup 2018 DLC for FIFA 18, letting players create teams from countries that don’t typically participate in international soccer tournaments. They also announce a free trial for FIFA 18 on PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Andrew Wilson, EA CEO comes on the stage next to officially welcome the audience to EA Play 2018. He talks a bit about the importance of streaming and subscription services, and mentions the new EA team located in Israel who will be looking into utilizing these technologies, with a tech demo of streaming games from the cloud in HD apparently already existing (though we don’t get to see it). Origin Access Premier is also announced, a subscription service which will grant access to all new PC games including Madden 19 which will be coming to PC for the first time in a decade. It will grant access to Battlefield V and Anthem among other titles, plus access to the EA Vault. This service will be launching later this summer.

Host Andrea then chatted with Vince Zampella in the audience, who mentions Respawn Entertainment has been working with Lucas Arts on their next project. The new game will be called Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which will let you play as a Jedi and use a light saber, taking place during the ‘dark times’ when the Jedi are being hunted, between Star Wars episodes 3 and 4. It is planned for launch in Holiday 2019.

More Star Wars news next, with Dennis Brannvall from DICE coming on next to talk about Battlefront II. He talks about how they overhauled their progression system, added a new Hunt mode, and the upcoming Han Solo themed content coming next week. Later in the summer, a new squad system will be added, making it easier to play with friends, and a new Star Fighter mode with a focus on dogfighting. After this, a new large-scale ‘multiplayer sandbox’ experience will be added involving attacking outposts and capital ships. He then confirms that Battlefront II later in the year will be getting into the Clone Wars era, with multiple levels coming along with some new playable heroes from both the light and dark side.

Now a trailer starts showing a boat on a stormy sea, manned by a small character Yarny, who will be familiar to anyone who played Unravel; this must be a sequel. Martin from Coldwood Studios takes the stage, announcing it will indeed be Unravel Two. The entire game is made to be played with two characters, either alone or in co-op. Another producer from the studio comes on for a gameplay demo, showing that when playing along, one character can pick up another for faster-paced sections of the game. When you get to a puzzle, the characters will become separated, with both characters playing a role in puzzle solutions and solo players being able to switch between them at any time. They then show a bit of co-op gameplay, in a sequence showing the two yarn characters trying to escape a bird that is giving chase. The two characters seem to be permanently connected so they cannot get too far from each other. The biggest surprise is that the game is released as of now!

Patrick Soderlund briefly takes the stage to talk about EA Originals, discussing A Way Out, saying there were over 2 million players in the first two weeks. The developers of this game will be moving into a new studio. Next we are getting a look at something new from a small studio in Berlin called Sea of Solitude from Jo-Mei games. The idea is that humans turn into monsters if they get too lonely, and is about a young woman who suffers from loneliness turning into a monster, with the story focusing on how happened, and how she can be turned back into a human. A trailer showing a girl with red eyes traversing a flooded city in a boat, dealing with strange shadow figures and monsters, indicating it will be some sort of puzzle-platformer. The game will be out in early 2019.

Next up is a brief trailer showing basketball players, for the upcoming NBA Live 19. This transitions into another trailer, this one for Madden, highlighting the e-sports scene for the game. JuJu Smith-Schuster from the Pittsburgh Steelers and Young Kiv who won the Madden 18 championship belt come on the stage next, with Kiv describing his journey to the championship. Now we get another trailer, this time gameplay focused, for the upcoming Madden NFL 19, which depicts men playing football as one might expect.

Michael from Redwood is now on stage to talk about a new Mobile game, a Command & Conquer RTS game which involves two players trying to destroy each other’s bases with missiles. We get to see a live matchup between two players, showing a basic RTS format where both teams must collect resources and fight for control points to gain control of a missile launcher. Each player must hold the control zones to launch a missile at their opponent’s base, with the first player to launch two missiles winning the match. This game is dubbed Command & Conquer Rivals and will focus on quick competitive head to head matches, coming to Android and IOS, with the pre-alpha being available on Android today.

Andrew Wilson is back, with some closing comments focusing on some organizations that promote inclusiveness in gaming, and sets up the final showing of the day, Anthem. We see a mostly CGI trailer for the upcoming science fiction game from BioWare that sets up the story, with some vague threat wanting to destroy everyone, and not much of substance being shown. Andrea returns to the stage to introduce Casey Hudson, Mark Darrah and Cathleen Rootsaert to talk about the game.

Casey describes how they wanted to make the game more dynamic and living, that also lets users play with their friends. Mark talks about the story aspects, saying the stories will be more player specific despite the world being shared. The world will be shared, but players will return to a base which will be a singleplayer experience where most of the story will unfold. The game is designed so that additional story elements will be added for years after the game launches. The premise for the world is that it was left unfinished by the Gods, and the world is constantly being reshaped by powerful storms.

Players will play as freelancers, who are trained to use suits dubbed Javelins needed to survive in the world. There will be a variety of Javelin suits available for different situations, with each one having unique abilities. The suits will be customizable from both a functional and cosmetic perspective. Some cosmetic items will be available through microtransactions, though they will not impact gameplay and there will be no loot boxes. We get to see some gameplay which will involve swimming and flying alongside on-the-ground combat. Playing through the game solo will be possible, though supposedly a bit more challenging than playing in co-op.

Now we get to see a longer chunk of gameplay, depicting segments from an entire mission. The mission starts in a Strider, a sort of forward base of operations. The player exits the strider onto the surface of a mountainous jungle environment, jet-packing around before landing and getting into some combat. Damage numbers pop up when enemies are hit. We now see it is a group of players going through the mission, and we get to see gameplay from a few perspectives. We see one player using a flamethrower on the ground in a heavier suit, while another launches into the air and fires down rockets. Players are fed information through what sounds like an AI guide, who makes a lot of jokes, indicating the tone of the game might not be too serious. Anthem will be releasing February 22, 2019.

With that, the EA E3 2018 conference comes to a close.