E3 2019 has kicked off and the first significant game company, EA has kicked off the event with their main stage Showcase.
EA covered a lot of different games during their two hour plus presentation and so we’re going to recap them for you in the video below, or feel free to read our thoughts below the video.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Respawn Entertainment are becoming one of EA’s “go to” in-house studios having published their Titanfall game in 2014 and acquiring them outright in 2017.
Respawn were tapped by EA to run with one of their crown jewels, the Star Wars license, and the product of that effort is the impressive looking “Jedi: Fallen Order” title.
Jedi: Fallen Order kicks off after the events of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith when Palpatine issues Order 66 for the Clone Army to find and execute all remaining Jedi.
In this single player, mission based, story driven game, you play as Jedi Padawan, Cal Kestis trying to help rebuild the Rebel Alliance after its devastating defeat. With the help of a lightsaber and Cal’s trusty droid, BD-1, part of your goal is to develop Cal from Force sensitive Padawan into a more accomplished Jedi Master.
It’s important to note than this game is something that EA and Respawn have collaborated closely with LucasFilms on and everything that happens in the story is considered canon within the Star Wars Universe.
As for the gameplay itself, Respawn showed off 15 minutes of Alpha footage where we followed an experienced play tester who’d built up his character a bit by the time we see him.
The scenery looks amazing, the fighting animation is terrific and the fluidity for such an early build of the game is quite impressive.
Some of the facial animations and the running motions of the characters are obviously still a work in progress, but the visuals on the game look stunning.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is scheduled for a November 15th, 2019 release and is available here for pre-order.
Apex Legends – Season 2 “Battle Charge”
When EA and Respawn dropped the initial launch of Apex Legends back in February of 2019, the game caused quite a stir because it had somehow managed to remain a secret until release.
Within 8 hours of launch, Apex Legends had over 1 million registered users and within a week was the catalyst for EA’s biggest stock rise in its illustrious history – needless to say, Apex Legends was an instant success.
With the launch of Season 2 on July 2nd, 2019, the Respawn team are adding several big things while simultaneously tweaking some of the metas and adding some buffs to existing weapons to better balance the game.
The biggest announcement was the addition of the 10th Legend, “Wattson” – with a unique set of skills to add a more collaborative and defensive style of gameplay, Wattson should really give more strategically focused players something to sink their teeth into.
The new weapon, the L-Star Light Machine Gun, comes across from Titanfall to the delight of many fans. The L-Star is a care package weapon in Apex Legends so it has limited ammo and can overheat.
Respawn also hinted at a new Map Event that’s coming during Season 2, but didn’t elaborate on the details.
Season 2 will add a new Ranked Mode with 6 tiers (Bronze through Apex Predator) that will add some interesting abilities as well as give you some new onscreen bling to show off your progress.
Finally, the Season 2 Battle Pass will get a few changes – it will be challenge-based rather than time-based so you can stack challenges and play them later, there will be additional crafting medals so by the time you get to level 100 you’ll be able to craft your own Legendary and there will be some fun new skins.
Grab your Apex Legends Coins here to buy your Season 2 “Battle Charge” Battle Pass.
Battlefield V – Season 4 / Season 5
Battlefield V has had a challenging existence so far with an odd marketing launch and a number of bugs across the entire multiplayer experience, but EA and in-house studio, Dice, have been very committed to get the true WW2 experience nailed.
At E3, EA annouced Battlefield V – Chapter 4, “Defying The Odds”.
The new maps are going to start appearing over the next few weeks with the Al Sundan map launching on June 24th, 2019.
Al Sundan is a multiplayer map in the African theatre and is a re-engineered version of the “Under No Flag” map from the campaign mode of the game.
In July, the Marita map will be released. This map continues the story of the campaign in Greece with the battle taking place in a hilly village where controlling elevated positions and the road will be vital.
Two more maps were discussed for later in the year including one that takes place across the Norwegian countryside and an “Operation Underground” map which takes place in some kind of subway system and looks really fascinating.
EA also took on feedback that the ranking system needed to be adjusted, so Max Rank will move from 50 to 500 in August.
The last Chapter 4 announcement revolved around “Private Games” which will allow players to run their own private Battlefield V servers where you can play exclusively with your own friends. This will be free to run and should drop in September.
EA also took the time to touch on, and show some footage from Chapter 5 which will progress the war into 1942 and the Pacific Theatre, thus bringing the Americans and Japanese into the game.
Chapter 5 will have three maps including the famous, Battle of Iwo Jima.
You can pick up Battlefield V with an EA Access Pass which will also give you Chapter 4 content when it comes out by clicking here.
FIFA 20
The most popular of all the famous EA Sports line of games, FIFA 20 is scheduled for release on September 27th, 2019, and it has a number of new features in the core game, but more interestingly, we see the return of the FIFA Street concept with a new playable mode called “Volta Football”.
Most of EA’s presentation on FIFA revolved around the new “Volta Football” mode.
If you’re familiar with street football, then you’ll know a bit about this skills and tricks heavy version of the game where teams play in 3v3, 4v4 or 5v5 matches inside of an enclosed arena.
Volta Football takes this concept to the next level with amazing player tricks and skills available and fully customizable players, including the ability to make female characters.
You will also be able to import real-life players into your Volta games, so if you want Messi to take to the cage against a team of players you created, then that’s entirely possible.
Within the main FIFA 20 game itself, the focus is on three areas: on the ball, off the ball and ball physics.
On the ball, there’s been more work done to bring the 1-on-1 battles within the game more depth by giving you more dribbling options and tweaking player ratings to be more impactful in the actual game.
Off the ball, tackling dynamics have been improved and there are more options to counter the improved dribbling moves available.
Ball physics are getting reworked to take things like spin into account, which will be more noticeable in the revised penalty and free kicks portion of the game.
FIFA 20 will be available more broadly on September 27th, 2019, but if you grab your EA Access Pass here, you can get access early on September 19th, 2019.
Other Games EA Talked About
EA highlighted some changes and updates to a couple of other games during their showcase as well.
Madden 20 is coming this year and it will have a new “Face of the Franchise” career mode where you start out as a Division I quarterback and you lead this player’s career through to becoming the cornerstone of your franchise.
The Sims 4 is getting an expansion entitled “Island Living” where your sims take up life on the island of Sulani. You can build sandcastles, go jet-skiing or become a conservationist and try to make the island more environmentally friendly and well cared for. Island Living will be available in June and July for the various platforms.
Interestingly, EA didn’t give Anthem a main stage speaking spot, but Lead Producer, Ben Irving, did make an appearance between sessions to say that they are working with community influencers to get some feedback so that they can improve the game in the coming months – Irving went to great pains to assure everyone that Anthem still has a future!
What Did You Think?
We’d love to hear your comments below about the EA Showcase at E3 2019 and about any of the games mentioned above.
If there’s something you thought we’ve left out our would like us to update, let’s hear about it below in the comments!
