GBAtemp ponders E3 2013 -- EA

FAST6191

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The presentation is done and our writeup is available here.

GBAtemp's coverage of the stage and big shows of E3 2013 (Our e3 schedule thread) continues now with E.A.'s. Microsoft has just gone and unlike some other years EA was not a major presence in it so they presumably have more to come.
Generally the non hardware conferences, a relatively recent addition to E3, are worth watching as they usually take the time to showcase their games in detail but as we saw a relatively complete battlefield playthrough in Microsoft's presentation what will happen here is somewhat up in the air.
As before we are taking bets on how badly attempts at humour will go over, how much unintentional humour will happen (sadly for GIF fans Microsoft did not provide) and the buzzword bingo game will be running as always.
Feel free to join us on IRC to discuss things as they happen.


EA

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By the time you read this the pre shows for those two sites will have started​

Like or dislike them it is a fact that EA are a major player in the games world and they do a lot of note. Recently they were observed to being stopping their disliked "online passes" program for future games and are slowing rescinding it for older ones as well, this was done when the Xbone always online/game licenses stuff was at best a rumour so this might be seen in a different light now. Most are not really expecting much more than sports games, need for speed, Medal of Honor and Battlefield but as several of their big name franchises (mass effect, crysis, army of two, burnout and dead space to name but a few) have finished a given run, have already been released this year or have not been seen in a while things could happen. Likewise they have an intellectual property catalogue that rivals anything (not to mention they now have the Star Wars license) and they are in a need of a bit of cash injection so we could see something along the lines of "well, if it works for Nintendo" happen*.
*add ours to the collective will for "not another Syndicate like experience".

EA are slowly winning back the hearts of some game players though they have not had the most profitable of years, can they keep it up?

Ubisoft
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One of the few companies that do not make hardware that can punch at EA's level. Whether EA or Ubisoft are the present villain of the week reminds us of the old quantum thought experiment "Schrödinger's cat" but like their rival they do a lot of things in the games world. For those that need a rundown they work with Tom Clancy (Splinter Cell, Rainbow 6, H.A.W.X and Ghost recon), have Assassin's Creed, largely could be said to have won the "most interesting game of E3" last year with Watch Dogs and they have Rayman so they are definitely worth paying attention to. Anything about Watch Dogs will be studied in minute detail but with Assassin's creed having a reception less favourable than the previous entries and Splinter Cell showing some fairly radical changes there are some things to watch.

Sony
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The PS4 conference was a thing that happened back in February and not a great deal has happened since.

We now see it to have fairly similar architectures to the Xbone (which is to say somewhat tweaked PC architecture) which is interesting as the Sony online offerings are slowly catching up to Microsoft's, indeed in some ways with their paid offerings it eclipses what Microsoft have done, and this last go around with the consoles led to the PS360 being a thing; there were still a handful of exclusives but take off things that got sequels (spiritual or otherwise), equivalent franchises or eventual ports/remakes and the respective libraries were very similar, extremely so compared to previous consoles. To this end many reckon Sony could "win" by default if they just turn up, say "we have some games", show they are not Microsoft and go home. The shape of the PS4 console is set to be unveiled but if the colour or shape of the console is something you get excited about, assuming it functions as it needs to and does not have wired controller ports at the back or something, then you might be setting about this game playing thing wrongly.
The PS Vita is floundering a bit as well but an injection of a few games, something which the last few months do show as quite likely to happen, would probably see that do well.

Nintendo
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Nintendo are not having a big presentation like years past and instead have "Nintendo directs" timed to match up with this and the fairly interesting move of games being playable in various shops during E3. This is seen as a somewhat interesting move by many as the Wii U and 3ds are not doing as well as their predecessors (both Ubisoft and EA have potentially done some disservices in recent months though Ubisoft have said they are committed). In the case of the Wii U not many first and second party games, what many see as the reason to get such a console and the business types observe as the reason Nintendo are still around, have been released or announced and many are anticipating good things here.
 

FAST6191

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EA promised 11 games all of new code apparently (though to be fair it is not like they have anything left to come out after last year's E3 unlike the others) which they mostly did. Another fairly tight presentation give or take a little slip with dragging singers and sports people on in the sports section. GIF makers might well have a hard time this year.

Battlefield 4.
Features a commander mode where the commander has a rough overview and can call in support/direct people. Not new in such games but new to the more popular games world.
32 vs 32 seems to be the order of the day and could make for some nice teamplay.... assuming you can find people to play well in a team. Destructible environments (whether complete or lots of set pieces remains to be seen) and done on a fairly large scale.

Mirror's edge 2.
Coming at some point.
Some footage after a fashion was shown, got several people on IRC excited as the original has gone on to become something of a cult classic. Footage was notably fight heavy though.

Titanfall.
More of the same really if you saw the Xbone footage. If not it is a mechs, FPS (with weak jetpacks) hybrid thing. Looks like it could do well actually.

Star wars battlefront.
Snow CGI and not a lot else. The original battlefront titles had a fair following back in the day.

Need for speed rivals.
Pretty looking need for speed game with single player, co-op and rivals modes.
What was of note was the somewhat seamless single player to multiplayer shift, in practice it is kind of like the mini races you have seen in some of the later modern Need for speed games but with actual people. In the example race there was a lack of non player/non police cars in the multiplayer, it might be “because it was raining” but that could be a thing to watch out for.
Oh and they are making a film with the need for speed name.

Dragon Age inquisition.
Probably the September/October 2014 period.
It was so much CGI and generic “OMG fantasy” wording but it is new and you get to “change the world around you”.

Plants vs zombies - garden warfare.
Started with a nice fake out trailer but ultimately seemed to be another 3d tower defence title like the dozens of others littering XBLA at present. Probably a good one
Peggle 2 was mentioned, rather enthusiastically no less, but nothing more was said on the matter.


Sports.
EA do sports, sports games are not what we deal that well with so most of the time it was just an excuse to laugh at phrases using balls taken out of context though "I knew he was going to try to take me down so I took him down first" was pretty classic. Perhaps the most notable is the Wii U was not really mentioned and many things did seem to be PS4/xbone focused.
They also mostly kept their singer and sports people contained to this section which was nice, could have done without some of it but hey. Basketball, madden (American football), FIFA (football) and UFC were the things demoed.

These games seem to share something of a codebase and throughout it all the buzzword seemed to be AI driven better movement and ball physics where applicable. Also stats are in for basketball (they already appeared last year for various things called football).

Madden
IRC quote
<+smea> A NEW COVER
<+smea> OMG
<+smea> THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING

The UFC game is due out in Spring 2014 and gave us the delightful term MMAi, not as bad as the car racing term in the Microsoft presentation but not ideal.
 

dgwillia

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Wow, that troll. I was so damn sure that was Battlefield, not sure how well a PvZ game would work out like that lol

AND its Microsoft exclusive? I swear Microsoft only gets games because they throw so much money at companies to keep them exclusive

Also, this reminds me of Toy Soldiers or something
 

Joe88

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Not bad, seems it might get a little boring after the first few levels, and peggle 2
Probably also an exclusive
 

Gabbynaruto

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So, Battlefront... I was hyped. Then I realized it was made by DICE. And my hype died... for now. Unless they end up making a unique shooter, I probably won't like it. And NFS... Would it be good? Dunno. Last good NFS I remember is Most Wanted, and that is a really old game.
 

Gabbynaruto

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Woohoo, Mirror's Edge 2. Okay, now I'm hyped. Mirror's Edge was awesome, and 2 looks as awesome too. As for the press conference, the best word to describe it is: B-O-R-I-N-G.

So, what was great was Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare, Star Wars: Battlefront and Mirror's Edge 2. Everything else was awful. Like, seriously, did they really have to spend 30 minutes to talk about sports games? I want to watch the Ubi conference too, you know, and all you did was put me to sleep. Also, why call all that footage "actual gameplay", when all they've shown was either CGI or cinematic scenes from the games. Stupid. And then there's Battlefield 4, which didn't impress me too much. Watching their scripted match was interesting and all, but it was so scripted, it looked like a bad movie. And the gameplay didn't look that interesting either. Just your regular shooter. And why would they rely on tablets for actual gameplay?

Overall, bad conference, second in a row. Next is Ubi. Watch Dogs is enough to wipe the floor with both EA's and Microsoft's conferences, so, can't wait.

Sorry for the double post, btw.
 

SSVAV

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New BF4 finally gets real terrain destruction (might still be scripted), new NFS game looks awesome as a sequel to Hot Pursuit (cops FINALLY pursue in packs), new Mirror's Edge (might be a prequel)...

Battlefront revival, alas we didn't see the actual game.

Pretty excited for NFS, might get BF4 down the line, but they ALREADY gave MS the exclusive over the first DLC pack, and th pack is already named, hell it might even be finished... no good

Battlefront and ME won't see the light until late 2014 more or less. ME might come out Q2 2014 if we're lucky.
 

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