We know what you came here to see
Welp, that's EA's conference done and dusted. We got our first taste of a new Mass Effect, gameplay footage from Mirror's Edge: Catalyst and Star Wars: Battlefront, and way more Pele than we were expecting. I mean, sure, EA has a huge line of sports games, but seriously, there was a hell of a lot of Pele. And it's all here in our EA conference recap.
Mass Effect: Andromeda coming Holiday 2016
Johnny Cash plays over a handful of screenshots from outer space, as a man in a space helmet swipes through them. He walks toward the camera and - boom - an N7 logo appears. Ladies and gentlemen, we have Mass Effect. A CGI trailer for Mass Effect: Andromeda shows off biotics, the Mako, and a Holiday 2016 release date. Aaaaaand... that's it.
Need for Speed marks a return to the fast and furious Underground era
Inspired by the customization of Underground and the world of Carbon, Need for Speed follows your quest to be the ultimate racer. The world will be twice as big as NFS: Rivals, and will feature a narrative featuring five overlapping stories. There are five different playstyles: speed, style, build, crew, and outlaw, and each one will play an important part in earning you respect. Need For Speed brings back glorious FMV sequences to help tell the story, and the transition from cutscene to gameplay is seamless. As you race, you'll earn experience points based on your ability to pull off risky maneuvers. Need for Speed will be available on November 3rd.
EA reminds you Star Wars: The Old Republic is a thing that exists, and announces a new expansion
Coming October 27th, Knights of the Fallen Empire will bring even more story to Star Wars: The Old Republic, and it'll be free to all subscribers. If this is your jam, you'll have a lot more game to look forward to.
Unravel looks to take you on a heartfelt ride
Unravel is a side-scrolling puzzle-platformer and it looks absolutely adorable. You play a little yarn person named Yarny, and you'll use yarn to solve challenges and swing across gaps. As Yarny, you'll make your way through underground caverns, across lakes, and through lush forests. Numerous obstacles stand in his way, from birds, to cars, and numerous gaps to cross. No release date yet, but keep your eyes open for this one.
Plants vs Zombie: Garden Warfare 2 puts the plants on the offensive
Wouldn't you know it, the zombies are still giving the plants a hard time, but this time the plants are having none of it. A new mode sees waves of plants attacking a zombie factory, and as the zombies, you have to defend your base from their onslaught. A few new classes were shown, like the Imp, a speedy ranged fighter that can summon a walking mech from the sky that he can ride around in. There's also the SuperBrainz, a new melee class for the zombies. Captain Deadbeard is the zombie's first sniper class, and he has an ability that lets him duck into an explosive barrel and launch himself in the air. While it seems like a simple evolution of the first game, solo play is new, and lets players fight against AI opponents by themselves or with a friend via split-screen. Plus, most character data from the first game will transfer right into the sequel, and the series will continue to see free content updates after launch.
Sports!
No EA conference is complete without sports, and EA's got a ton of it. Rory McIlroy (say that three times fast) PGA Tour is coming in July, and is made entirely in EA's Frostbite engine. NBA Live 16 will be able to scan your face with a mobile app, and will hopefully not (but will most probably) result in human abominations. NBA Live's passing and shooting game has also been rebuilt, letting it control like, y'know, a basketball game. That one's coming in September.
Mobile!
EA's still working on mobile games too, and will release a collectable card game called Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes in the near future. They're also working on Minions Paradise, a game based off of those adorable creatures from Despicable Me. It's building sim (read: Farmville clone) that lets you construct a little playground for your minions. Like any good mobile game, expect a ridiculous amount of in-app purchases.
Pele!
Like the setting of the sun, FIFA 16 is coming this year. For EA, this means dragging Pele onto a stage to talk about unrelated anecdotes for five whole minutes (keep an eye on #whatwouldpeledo on Twitter for some Photoshop magic). This is the conference equivalent of someone behind the scenes making a "stretch it out" motion with their hands. Don't get me wrong, Pele's a fantastic player, and I'm sure he's got tons of great stories but what does this have to do with video games again? Anyway, they finally talked about FIFA, and yeah, it's more FIFA - soccer so realistic you can practically see the top execs getting carted away to prison. Still, it's really cool to see FIFA finally add women's teams to the game.
Mirror's Edge: Catalyst is a free-roaming origin story
Mirror's Edge: Catalyst is as much Faith's story as it is about the city she lives in - a high-tech city run by corporations. First-person parkour is back, it looks gorgeous, and it's going open-world. That's right - there are no levels to hold Faith back, as she'll be able to explore an entire city's worth of rooftops and corridors. Mirror's Edge: Catalyst is coming February 23rd, 2016.
Sports 3: The Footballening
Madden NFL 16 takes a page out of fantasy football, and will let you draft players, create your own teams, and use them to compete with other drafted teams, both solo and online. The game will also see a raft of improvements (because of course it will), so football fans will have more reasons to buy the same game every year.
And now, the moment you've all been waiting for: Star Wars Battlefront!
After keeping us waiting forever, EA finally showed off the first gameplay footage for Star Wars Battlefront, with the Battle of Hoth. The demo EA showed jumped back and forth between multiple viewpoints on both the Rebels and the Empire. Battlefront purists will be happy to know that you'll be able play in both first- and third-person views. Battle on ground, or hop in a snowspeeder (or AT-ST, depending on what side you're on). Combat looks fluid, and battles are filled with dozens of players all running (or flying) around, trying to complete their own objectives. We even got to see a brief glimpse of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker in action - with Vader force choking an unfortunate Rebel soldier. In addition to the online multiplayer modes, you'll be able to take on Battlefront Missions will let you compete in single-player battles against the AI. Star Wars Battlefront will be available on November 17th.
