Check out all of our coverage from E3 by taking a peek at our Liveblog. The EA conference began at 9:00 PM GMT on Monday evening. Here is a quick round-up of everything that was announced at the EA E3 conference.
Johnny Cash welcomed us to EA’s presentation and to the official announcement of Mass Effect: Andromeda. Showing off some beautiful environments in what we think we can safely assume is the Andromeda galaxy, and an anonymous armoured N7 soldier. The trailer was purely cinematic but it did tease the return of the (much faster) Makoand the addition of a sort of jetpack for players to possibly use. Mass Effect: Andromeda is expected for a summer 2016 release on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
Racing into EA’s spotlight next was the latest trailer for a new Need For Speed. It introduces “Five Ways to Play” including Speed, Style, Build, Crew, and Outlaw modes to cater for all types of gamers. Deep customization and fine tuning offers you a wealth of options to personalize your handing, plus a Grip vs Drift slider makes allows you to cater the experience to your racing style. But that’s not all with the new Need for Speed – you must compete not just your place at the finish line but for your reputation, clocking up rep points by pulling off stunts and close calls with other racers. Need for Speed will launch on 3rd November 2015
Not quite the new Star Wars game, but not a bad concillation for fans of the franchise. We were shown a cinematic trailer for the Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion pack for Star Wars: The Old Republic. This expansion offers a higher level of play and a new story arc to explore, focusing on two (possibly royal) twin brothers, their advancement in the army and ultimately the start of a feud between them.
You heard us! There looks to be quite a few technical improvements to the EA Sports canon this year across the NHL 16, NBA Live 16 and Madden NFL 16 games. There were new trailers for each of the games to show off their more individual improvements but across the board you can expect to see greater attention to detail, making players and environments more crisp and realistic than ever. Highlights for us were the new GameFace app for NBA which allows you to scan your face and put it on an in-game character and an overhauled draft system for NFL 16 making it easier to engage with the strengths and weaknesses of your team and improve your passing game. Check out the full trailers for NHL 16, NBA Live 16 and Madden NFL 16.
EA then welcomed legendary footballer Pelé to the stage to talk about his football career and to present the new FIFA 16 game. You’ll be able to play as 12 international women’s teams in FIFA 16, and every single role on the pitch has been evaluated and improved, especially defending with increased defensive agility, passing and intelligent interceptions. There’s also something called FIFA trainer which will provide feedback and help you to improve your game during matches.
By this point in the EA presentation non sports fans might have been twiddling their thumbs hoping for something more up their street but they were sure to get that with the reveal for new gameUnravel. It prematurely looked like Unravel was Xbox’s answer to Little Big Planet, but it turns out that Unravel is a beautifully unique game in its own right. In this physics-based puzzle game platformer, you play as Yarny, a tiny new character who unravels as you traverse nature’s obstacles in an environment inspired by the breath-taking scenery of Northern Scandinavia. The adorable Yarny captured everyone at E3’s hearts, check out the trailer below to see why.
Another treat from EA as they showed off Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst with some gameplay videos. The name change cemented the game as a prequel to the first Mirror’s Edge, an origin story for Faith as opposed to the sequel taht was perhaps expected. EA announced that it’s built on the latest Frostbite engine and that there are no levels or loading screens, “You are truly free-roaming.” The game was both truly as beautiful and badass as we’d always hoped it would be! Mirror’s Edge Catalyst has been confirmed for release 23rd February 2016.
EA truly finished their leg of the conference on a bang with some amazing Star Wars Battlefront Gameplay. Flying an X-Wing, driving an AT-AT, fighting Vader, playing as both the Empire and the Rebels, and all this was just a teaser of the Battle of Hoth! Just imagine what the rest of the game has in store for us. We feel like we’ve been waiting for a Star Wars game like this all our lives, and hopefully other fans of the franchise witnessed all the convincing evidence they need to pre-order what looks set to be a fantastic game. Released on all platforms on 20th November 2015.
