The EA Play 2016 Live Show was Abysmal

I’m going to go straight in and say I did not enjoy the EA Play live show at all. I went in with fairly low expectations based on previous years and still came out feeling massively disappointed. A small number of announcements and uninteresting developer diaries made for one of the worst E3 presentations I have seen in years.

A major announcement during the conference was that of EA originals, EA’s new indie platform, much like ID@Xbox. Obviously, with the excitement around last year’s announcement of Unravel, EA saw an opportunity to build upon the fan’s love of smaller games. With that, their first announcement under this banner was Fe, a game that looks to be heavily inspired by games such as Journey.  Focusing on narrative and artistry, the game has you controlling a small creature wandering through an unusual world communicating through song. It looks very unique, offering the high quality indie experience we have seen in the past few years from games like Child of Light and Ori and the Blind Forest. I’ll be honest, this one has got me at least interested. While it’s unclear how good the final game will be, I am interested in seeing more in the coming months and learning what exactly it is that you have to do in the game.

The opening announcement of Titanfall 2 was very strong, offering great fan service as they reassured us that all of our issues from the previous game would be addressed in this sequel. Now also playable on PS4, Titanfall 2’s main addition is a much requested single player campaign. The trailer emphasised the relationship between the pilot and his trusty Titan, which could make for an interesting narrative while also, more than likely, offering some emotional moments.

The gameplay itself appeared to follow similar traits to the Call of Duty games, focusing on over-the-top set pieces – a bit where the pilot is falling, screams his Titan’s name and is quickly plucked from the air before falling to his death, stood out in particular. While the multiplayer looked very similar to the original games’, but with a few new additions (swords and a grappling hook), the single player should add more to the game addressing people’s concerns with the original of having a limited amount of content.

“Following the strong opening, the rest of EA’s conference was a downward spiral of dev diaries, limited information and a lack of new announcements.”

The two sports games that were shown, Madden and FIFA, failed to excite. Aside from FIFA’s new story mode, The Journey, EA didn’t go into much detail, if any, about what improvements they have made to the games. The Madden presentation focused mostly on their tournament initiative, while never really talking about the game itself. While, as a UK gamer, I’m not particularly bothered about the Madden series, it’s a shame that they never took the time to really sell the game to me as I could not tell you anything about the game and how it differs from previous years.

The main focus of the FIFA presentation was the new story mode. The Journey. This mode will have the player controlling Alex Hunter, a young striker from Manchester United, as he works his way up to the first team and solidifies his place in starting 11. While the presentation looks to a very high standard, this really doesn’t strike me as the kind of thing that FIFA fans want, or even care about. Also, with the focus being on one particular player, it lacks the ability to appeal to fans of other clubs.

As someone who doesn’t like football, weirdly this mode is probably the only reason why I would ever be tempted to pick up a football game. Based on the trailer though, it does concern me that maybe the story is a bit to basic, focusing on the fairly clichéd tale of someone rising through the ranks and making it, literally, to the big leagues.

Despite the new addition of the story mode, other than that it is unclear what new features fans of previous games can expect to see. There was mention of premier league managers being present beside the pitch but, much like Madden 17, EA never went into much depth about new gameplay features which may be a worrying sign that there isn’t much in the way of innovation in this year’s entry.

Only one other game was actually shown and that was Mass Effect Andromeda. In the build-up to E3, I had prepared myself to see a lot more of Mass Effect. Revealed last year with a basic teaser, I anticipated that we would see a full trailer and some gameplay. Instead, EA did what EA do and showed us a developer diary. While split-second clips of gameplay were interspersed amongst footage of people talking at me about how exciting it is to work on the game, there wasn’t really much information given. Considering the game is supposed to be out early next year, it’s shocking that EA didn’t show us the actual game, and even more shocking that they took away five minutes of my life in the process.

And Star Wars……. Star Wars!!!! At the beginning of the show, EA promised news on their library of Star Wars games. This resulted in yet another developer diary, showing concept art and people talking about how exciting Star Wars is. After the reveal of Battlefront two years ago, I would have expected that EA would have learnt their lesson regarding Dev Diaries. During the presentation we heard about Visceral’s Star Wars game, Respawn’s 3D action game and Battlefront 2 was confirmed with content based around the new films. It’s a massive shame that the promise of big Star Wars news ends with non-game images, work-in-progress animations and a general vagueness.

Thankfully the show closed on a high note with Battlefield 1. While what we saw didn’t differ too much from the original trailer, the game appears to capture the feel of WW1 in a way that games haven’t in years. As a rare FPS Player, I will have to see more of the game before I can commit to getting it but the unique setting definitely has an appeal. With dogfights, trench warfare and tank battles, Battlefield 1 looks to be a great first person shooter that will appeal to those who are sick of the move into more futuristic ground.

And so there you have it, EA Play. The conference definitely had a lot more lows than highs, giving very little information about games we have already seen while never making any significant announcements, making for a conference that ultimately disappointed. With a whole host of other conferences coming over the next few days, let’s hope that they can avoid the mistakes of EA.