E3 kicks off with EA’s Press Conference! It’s probably won’t be the most exciting of the conferences, but there were some cool announcements. Here is a break-down of it.
3:56- Start of the conference.
4:45- Mediocre drumline performance. (GET PUMPED FOR SPORTS AND DRUMS!)
5:33- Madden 18 Long Shot Trailer–all new story mode. It worked for FIFA. Let’s see if it can do well in football (Yes, I’m American).
6:45- CEO Andrew Wilson comes on the stage giving an awe-inspiring (not really) speech about how games are awesome.
10:34- Andrew Gulotta, producer of Battlefield 1, talks about the online community and shows off new DLC- Nivelle Night and Pise De Tahur missions as well as In the Name of the Tsar which includes new multiplayer maps in the Eastern Theater of WWI.
15:45- Patrick Soderlund (EVP, EA WorldWide Studios) comes on stage talking about competition for Battlefield 1 hinting more at Gamescom.
16:32- Talking about eSports competition for Madden and FIFA.
19:18- FIFA 18 Reveal Trailer (looks like Sony is the official partner).
20:51- Men in blazers talking about their talk show and more FIFA.
26:03- A very nervous Youtuber, Jesse Wellens introduces Marcus Nilsson to talk about Need for Speed Payback.
28:41- Need for Speed Payback trailer (too many slow-mo car wipeouts).
31:47- Patrick back on to talk about EA Originals.
33:23- Reveal trailer of Hazelight’s new game A Way Out, a Co-op player experience about two prisoners breaking out of jail. Looks fantastic!
34:57- Director & Writer of A Way Out, Josef Fares, comes out on stage to talk more about the game.
37:42- Some gameplay footage of A Way Out
40:02- Patrick comes back on. Announcing a new division of EA called SEED…I am not really sure what they do.
41:46- Talking about Microsoft’s Scorpio dev kits. Summary: They like it.
42:26- Teasing a New IP from BioWare. Anthem.
43:11- Teaser trailer. More at Microsoft’s Press Conference tomorrow.
43:57- Sean O’Brien comes onto the stage to talk about NBA Live 18
46:26- NBA Live 18 The One
48:59- Andrew comes back on to talk about EA Play to Give Event that was held last week supporting charities.
50:14- Origin Access and EA Access free this week (as well as PS4 free trials for EA games).
50:50- Start of Star Wars Battlefront II Presentation.
51:43- Janina Gavankar (actor for main protagonist in the single-player campaign) comes on stage talking about the gameplay, campaign, etc.
54:31- Devs and community members talking about the game.
56:54- First world-premiere of Star Wars Battlefront II Multiplayer Gameplay!
59:58- Video of John Boyega talking about the “free” content of playing as Finn and Captain Phasma in the first season of DLC content.
1:01:56- Janina recapping everything…kind of funny how she does it.
1:03:03- Live gameplay of Star Wars Battlefront II. It’s just a multiplayer game with some commentary.
1:04:37- NBA Live 18 screen mistake
1:04:39- Back to Star Wars…
1:22:09- End of the Conference
First off, I want to say this conference was definitely one of EA’s stronger ones. They were trying different strategies for their presentation, such as including their online communities in videos. That being said, I think the order of the presentation was little bit skewed. The last part with Star Wars Battlefront II gameplay was not fit for a conference and should have been its own thing. If they would have ended with the tease of Bioware’s new IP, that would have definitely ended on a high note for me. Anyways, I’m really looking forward to seeing more of A Way Out, Anthem, and Star Wars Battlefront II.
Be sure to come back tomorrow! I will have more breakdowns of conferences including Microsoft and Bethesda.