E3 2014: EA Press Conference Recap

E3 2014 is well under way with all of the big brands in the gaming scene showcasing their newest games and trailers. E3 was expected to have a big year and after the announcements yesterday you can see why. I take a look at the big picks from the EA press conference at E3 2014.

Coming next year, Swedish studio DICE who most famously worked on Battlefield 4 are working on the next Star Wars title dubbed "Battlefront." A teaser trailer showed very, very early beta footage featuring gameplay on Hoth and Endor systems made famous in the films and looking at the trailer the game will be incredibly realistic holding the true landscapes as found in the Star Wars series. The DICE team went to the Lucas Arts cultural museum to photograph all of the original models used in the movies themselves in order to replicate them for the. It's a Star Wars game by Star Wars fans, for Star Wars fans they say so we're hoping to see how this game builds over the next few months and hopefully it will be another cracking Star Wars title that will be released with the next film perhaps?

EA also announced the features of their flagship soccer title FIFA which is entering its 21st year. The game is still received very well each year and they say that 2015 will be even better. The guys at EA explain that pitches will degrade over time in the game with skids and wet patches as the weather prevails. To make the game even more realistic they're including features such as shirt pulling, kits that get muddy and grassy, bus parking, shoulder barging, and a bench of players and manager that  react to the game. They're really focusing on realism here and this should be the best FIFA yet.

DICE and Visceral Games have taken a different approach to the Battlefield series with Hardline by taking a step away from the realistic war zone feel expected from previous games. This time they have brought us a new theme with the idea of a war, creating the idea of a cops and robbers feel. It's the good guys versus the bad guys in a game which they claim puts you "right in the middle of the war on the streets." We will have to wait and see if the idea really kicks off but from the beta coverage it looks like it will be a big hit. The match mode will allow 32  player s and will allow you to grapple and zip-line across the map as well as holding new weapons like the Baseball bat. The PC and PS4 beta launched today which you can access through your console or computer's Battlefield 4 landing page though after seeing the limited servers fifteen on PC it may be hard to get involved any time soon.

Being dubbed as the biggest game that Mass Effect studio Bioware has ever made, this is the third chapter in the popular RPG Dragon Age story, and with the world in chaos, an Inquisition is called. The player will wield weapons and magic, leading the Inquisition in an ever-changing world where your choices impact the story and you can completely control the look and feel of your followers, outposts and strongholds. Bioware explained it is planning on fusing elements of both earlier games in the series into the creation of its new title.The game will feature larger environments with much more opportunity for exploration and will be released across all consoles on October 7th. They also teased Mass Effect 4 for a cheeky second. We will have to wait and see if that gets any more attention over the forthcoming weeks.

The new Mirror's Edge is a sequel to 2008's critically acclaimed concept parkour game and DICE have tweaked the title to "redefine the runners to allow for more varied gameplay" while building on the first-person parkour move set that set the world alight in the first game, the result is a smart and slick feeling combat game where fighting is based around the tight geometry of any encounter as you figure out how you can use where you are in the level to kick off a bum kicking. So there's a tight, power and efficiency to the fighting along with a lot of thought and skill. Level design will offer a variety of paths for players of different skill levels and in addition to the expanded moves, environments, and combat, Faith's story will play an important role in this outing.
All in all it was a very eventful day for EA with some top titles being shown. Some of them were a bit too early such as the new Criterion game and Mass Effect 4, but EA has a good enough lineup of games coming out for the next year. It is unfortunate that Battlefield: Hardline was their big closer given how much of the game has been leaked already, but the beta being out now on Playstation 4 and PC is good news.
Liked what you saw from EA from E3 this year? Let us know in the comments below.