Remember when EA would do really big press conferences? It seems those days are over now and EA’s conference offers a more relaxed feel to it and it starts off with some Battlefield V which has already been revealed prior to this conference. The big reveal for today though is the multiplayer that includes customization and so forth with a little bit of talk of the single player, more about the single player will be revealed tomorrow at Microsoft’s conference because everyone has a journey. The biggest news to come out of Battlefield V though is the new battle royal mode which it seems like every game has to have now, but there will be no loot boxes or microtransactions. Overall this doesn’t look like anything that hasn’t been done already by Call of Duty.
So it wouldn’t be an EA conference without some sports stuff right? This is where FIFA 19 comes in, which even as the years go on and I see FIFA over and over again, I still have absolutely no interest in. There’s a lot of talk about people who play soccer and of course I feel left out because I know nothing about this world and this is one of the times during the press conference that I zone out.
Next up is some talk from Respawn who is working on a secret Star Wars game called Jedi Fallen Order. The game isn’t ready yet, what EA game is, and it falls between Star Wars episode 3 and 4. This is apparently a dark time in the Star Wars universe and the game should come out holiday 2019. Or never seeing how these games go sometimes.
Battlefront II is up next and seriously who still plays this game? For me, I’ve forgotten about this game probably a week after it was released and it’s been sitting on my shelf since mid-November. Anyway, apparently the game didn’t do well. Really? That’s an understatement of the year. So there was talk about the new Han Solo season in honor of the Han Solo movie as well as new upcoming modes and the introduction of The Clone Wars update. Basically they know this game is a failure and they are trying to fix it.
Next up, something I kind of anticipated and wanted, but didn’t want to put it out there because what if it never happened. Since the first game did so well I could only hope there was a sequel and then out of no where is a trailer with everyone’s favorite yarn toy, Yarny. Yarny is back for Unravel Two and he has a new friend with him. You can play in either co-op mode or single player mode and it’s really up to you how you play and how this new story unravels. Bonus is that the game is out now and you can play today.
Because EA supports indie games after the success of Unravel, a new game called Sea of Solitude from a little indie developer is revealed. The game is about lonely humans, which everyone can relate to. The story revolves around Kay who is young and lonely and because of this becomes a monster. She has to learn to balance out her world to become human again. It looks visually beautiful and I was really digging the trailer, but it just hits a little too close to home for this gamer, so even though it comes out in 2019, it’ll be a pass.
Some more sports stuff is up next with NBA Live 19 along with some new Madden 19 stuff. It wouldn’t be EA without some sports stuff. Again nothing for me so it’s another zone out session.
The final sports stuff is followed up with a new mobile game of an old classic which is Command and Conquer Rivals. The game looks complicated and sounds complicated and isn’t something that you’ll see me playing on my phone any time soon. I have to say that for this portion of the conference, it couldn’t be more boring.
The show is now closing with a more in depth look at Anthem which was supposed to come out this year but won’t be hitting the shelves to 2/22/2019. This really feels like a last ditch attempt for BioWare who hasn’t had the best of luck after Mass Effect: Andromeda. I want to like this game, I really do because honestly I love BioWare, but it looks too much like Destiny for me. BioWare is known for great RPG’s and this doesn’t feel like a BioWare game. So apparently, Anthem will have an “outside” world which is shared among the people who are playing at that time and an “inside” world, your fort, where you control everything and this is where the classic BioWare story telling comes in. BioWare wants to support this game for years to come by adding new missions, new stories, new character interactions, and so on. This is to give the game the feeling of being alive. There will be no loot boxes and the game is promised to be complete from when the game is released. There’s a huge gameplay demo and even after that I’m not all that interested.
Overall I would say that this year’s EA conference was pretty boring compared to years past where they would announce game after game and everything was exciting. The only real thing I’m excited about is Unravel Two and that I’ll be able to play it as soon as possible.
1 Broke Gamer Girl 