And That Was E3: Day 0

June 13, 2016

Brief Thoughts on Bethesda's and EA's press conferences.

I still look forward to E3 every year, despite its decreasing significance. This year, I decided to write about the most exciting things I saw during the press conferences. And with that, here are the things that caught my eye the most:

Titanfall 2
I don�t own a Xbox One or a gaming pc, so I never played the original Titanfall. But I was super into the footage that they showed. Adding grappling hooks is always a smart design choice, and the increased mobility should lead to some really delightful chaos in multiplayer. Adding a single-player mode is a big plus, as well. As someone who is usually terrible at multiplayer in first-person shooters, having a story mode where I can play the game without dying all the time and being called racial epithets by strangers is a nice thing to have.

FIFA 17
Story modes in sports games can be spotty in terms of quality, but the upside is huge for the game that gets it right. The Be A Pro modes have always played pretty well, but adding a narrative framing to it could be interesting. Using a new engine is a smart idea, too. FIFA 16 is a good game, but it definitely feels stale in some areas. Here�s hoping the franchise makes the leap that the developers say they�re making.

EA�s Untitled Star Wars projects
Sure, the Star Wars part of Electronic Arts� press conference was mostly just people talking about how awesome the games we�ve never seen are going to be when they come out in two or three years. But the few seconds of the Amy Hennig-led game looked really, really cool.

Prey
I was still holding out hope that the space bounty hunter version of Prey 2 would be repurposed in some way if Bethesda was really going to revive this series, but this Prey seems enticing in its own way. Since EA�s probably done with Dead Space for a while, it�s good to someone else try to make a psychological horror game set in space. It�s tough to say what the actual gameplay will entail, but the aesthetic and mood seem spot on.

Dishonored 2
I really loved the first game, and the sequel looks even better. The new city that acts as the game�s setting looked amazing during the demo. The new time travel powers looked great and fun to mess with. It was really nice to see someone just play their game for fifteen minutes after the deluge of teasers and sizzle reels at EA�s press conference. I�m really excited to run around and explore that universe again.

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Feedback

honestgamer - June 13, 2016 (08:34 AM)
EA's conference was not one I was looking forward to, but I still had expected it to be better than it actually was. The few seconds you mentioned, when Amy Hennig's take on Star Wars was briefly shown, served as my favorite few seconds of the presentation. I don't much care about eSports, and the campaign mode for FIFA looked silly to me, plus I don't feel like sports games really ever look all that great in video demos, even if they wind up being excellent in reality. Besides the Star Wars game, probably my favorite thing to come out of EA's conference was the Fe indie game. Oh, and Titanfall 2 didn't look bad. I'm not sure on Battlefield 1 yet, because I had to leave to pick my wife up from work.

Nightfire - June 13, 2016 (01:05 PM)
Yeah, Titanfall 2 looks like good news. The first game badly needed a single player campaign, as the "campaign mode" amounted to a PVP match with little videos that played in the corner of your screen. The effect was like someone watching TV in the same room with you while you're trying to concentrate on playing your game, and it just didn't work. It seems like they've finally figured this out.

Now, Prey seems odd to me. They're throwing out Tommy Tawodi and all of the cool native american mysticism that was in the 2006 game; in fact it no longer takes place in modern day, and they seem to be throwing out the entire premise of Prey which was all about the portals... I didn't see anything even remotely familiar in the new trailer. Reboots are fine, but I wonder why they would even use the "Prey" name if the game is nothing like the original.

As for their other titles, Mirror's Edge: Catalyst is already out, and I'm super excited to play it when I find the time.

None of their other titles and franchises really excite me, though. Their list of IPs is pretty thin, to be honest.

Feedback
	honestgamer - June 13, 2016 (08:34 AM) EA's conference was not one I was looking forward to, but I still had expected it to be better than it actually was. The few seconds you mentioned, when Amy Hennig's take on Star Wars was briefly shown, served as my favorite few seconds of the presentation. I don't much care about eSports, and the campaign mode for FIFA looked silly to me, plus I don't feel like sports games really ever look all that great in video demos, even if they wind up being excellent in reality. Besides the Star Wars game, probably my favorite thing to come out of EA's conference was the Fe indie game. Oh, and Titanfall 2 didn't look bad. I'm not sure on Battlefield 1 yet, because I had to leave to pick my wife up from work.
	Nightfire - June 13, 2016 (01:05 PM) Yeah, Titanfall 2 looks like good news. The first game badly needed a single player campaign, as the "campaign mode" amounted to a PVP match with little videos that played in the corner of your screen. The effect was like someone watching TV in the same room with you while you're trying to concentrate on playing your game, and it just didn't work. It seems like they've finally figured this out. Now, Prey seems odd to me. They're throwing out Tommy Tawodi and all of the cool native american mysticism that was in the 2006 game; in fact it no longer takes place in modern day, and they seem to be throwing out the entire premise of Prey which was all about the portals... I didn't see anything even remotely familiar in the new trailer. Reboots are fine, but I wonder why they would even use the "Prey" name if the game is nothing like the original. As for their other titles, Mirror's Edge: Catalyst is already out, and I'm super excited to play it when I find the time. None of their other titles and franchises really excite me, though. Their list of IPs is pretty thin, to be honest.

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