Everything EA Showed At E3 2018

This morning in Los Angeles, Electronic Arts kicked off E3 2018 with a press conference in which they announced a new Star Wars game, an Unravel sequel, and took a longer look at BioWare’s upcoming RPG Anthem, which is out next February.

It was a straightforward way to begin E3: light on major news, with a focus on games we already knew about. Here’s everything EA showed and announced.

Battlefield V gets more destructible environments and a battle royale mode.

The next Battlefield game will bring back the destructive environments that DICE ran wild with in Battlefield: Bad Company. In the World War II-based Battlefield V, tanks can blast through buildings and destroy cover in real time. Also, your character can dive-roll through windows? Hell yeah man, I’ve always wanted to do that in a game like this. “No loot boxes. No premium pass,” the developers reiterated on stage.

They also announced “royale reimagined” for Battlefield, meaning that Battlefield V will be getting a battle royale-style gameplay mode. I’m shocked. Shocked, I say! The developers said they’ll have more to share on that mode later in the year, and we’ll see more of the game at Microsoft’s Xbox conference tomorrow.

Respawn’s Star Wars game is called Jedi: Fallen Order.

Respawn’s Vince Zampella confirmed that means you’ll be playing as a Jedi, lightsabers and all. The game takes place “during the dark times” between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, when the Jedi are being hunted. Per EA on Twitter, it’ll be “an original Star Wars story around a surviving Padawan set shortly after the events of Star Wars: Episode III.” It’s coming in holiday 2019.

Battlefront II is taking on the Clone Wars.

Star Wars Battlefront II is getting a bunch of new stuff this year, including a new squad system, a new starfighter mode, a new command-post capture mode, and new heroes and maps taken from the Clone Wars. There will be new heroes including General Grievous, Obi Wan Kenobi, and Anakin Skywalker.

Unravel Two brings Yarny back for a co-op adventure, out today.

It looks as cute as the first game, but has a co-op focus that has both players using their yarn abilities to swing around and avoid hazards. They were sure to stress that you can play it in single-player, if you want—the other yarn character just wraps itself around Yarny and you can control them both. The demo also had this weird bird chasing the yarn creatures around, and it was pretty stressful. Go away, bird!

EA also pulled the first Beyoncé of E3, announcing at the end of the presentation that you can buy the game... today! It’s on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Sea of Solitude is all about loneliness and depression.

It’s another EA indie, this time from German studio Jo-Mei Games. The game was introduced in a winningly wandering way by writer/creative director Cornelia Geppert, who seems pretty great. It’ll be out in early 2019.

Command & Conquer is returning as a mobile game.

After those announcements, EA hosted a resoundingly unexciting stage demo of a new competitive Command & Conquer mobile game. It’s called Command & Conquer: Rivals and it definitely looks a competitive mobile RTS. I don’t really know what else to say about it. You can watch a gameplay overview here.

We learned more about BioWare’s Anthem, coming in February.

During an on-stage interview segment, BioWare manager Casey Hudson, Anthem executive producer Mark Darrah and lead writer Cathleen Rootsaert talked about how they’re approaching their much-hyped action RPG. They seem pretty focused on story, and Rootsaert said they’ll be adding things to the game “for years to come.”

As we already knew, the sci fi action game is designed about the “Javelin” exo suit you wear. Since your character is a person who wears the suit, you can change your suit whenever you want to fit the mission or your team makeup. So basically, Javelins are changeable character classes.

There’ll be no loot boxes in the game (not a huge surprise), and there’s the expected customization options for your mech. We saw a gameplay demo that looks like the same third-person, Destiny-ish gameplay we’ve already seen. Slick though, and some pretty big bosses. I’m also happy to report that the soundtrack during the demo was synth-heavy in an appealingly Mass Effect-ish way, especially in quieter moments. Watch that demo here:

The game’ll be out on February 22, 2019. For more on Anthem, read this post compiling everything we’ve learned about the game.

A few other things: We got a dramatic trailer for FIFA 19, which is out on September 28; an enhanced “Origin Access Premiere” subscription service is coming later this year that’ll give full access to EA’s big PC games; Madden is coming to PC; We got a trailer for Madden Overdrive; and EA CEO Andrew Wilson talked up their “Play to Give” program supporting various charities.

And that’s it for EA! Feels like last year’s EA press conference was just last week. But no, it was an entire year ago. You are now a year older than when you first found out about A Way Out. I’m not, though. Every year, I stay the same age.

We’ll be here all week covering every E3 press conference and with news, interviews, and hands-on impressions from the show floor. Stick around.

EA had already announced its biggest titles, like Battlefield V, before its E3 keynote. But it showed up with a number of smaller announcements, including a new indie game that’s launching today, as well as some gameplay footage for the highly anticipated BioWare game Anthem. And the show was shot through with promises that EA isn’t going to repeat last year’s Battlefront II loot crate debacle. It was a low-key way to start a week of big reveals, but not a disappointing one.

Here’s the most exciting stuff from the show.

After being announced last year, Mass Effect studio BioWare’s new game Anthem was due for a bigger reveal in 2018. It’s a shared-world role-playing game set in a hostile future, where players don powered armor suits known as “javelins” to play cooperative missions. EA didn’t disappoint with its reveal: it offered a release date, some more details, and a few minutes of gameplay. The footage so far makes it look like a combination of mech warfare, Destiny-style massively multiplayer gameplay, and the epic science fiction that BioWare is known for. Anthem will be released on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on February 22nd, 2019.

This isn’t a big surprise, since it feels like every game is getting a competitive multiplayer mode inspired by the massively popular PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite. But now we know that Battlefield V will let you fight to be the last player standing in a World War II battlefield. You know, just like in real life. In any case, we got a new trailer with a little bit of multiplayer gameplay and some detail about the game’s single-player “War Stories.”

The first Unravel stole our hearts with its adorable yarn protagonist Yarny, although it sometimes frustrated us with its challenging puzzle platformer gameplay. Now, it’s getting a sequel called Unravel 2, which is supposed to be “friendlier,” “more challenging,” and “more playful” than its predecessor. Among other changes, Unravel 2 will feature two Yarny characters, which means that either one player can control both, or two people can play cooperatively. Unravel 2 is not only being announced today, it’s being released immediately on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

EA picked up indie game Sea of Solitude some time ago, and it’s got a new trailer out at E3. One of the game’s core themes is that “when humans get too lonely, they turn into monsters” — and in this case, that’s literally the plight of protagonist Kay, who must explore a nearly deserted city finding others like herself. Sea of Solitude is shaping up to be a haunting little game when it comes out in early 2019 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Titanfall developer Respawn hinted at a new Star Wars game before the show, and now we know it’s called Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. We don’t know much more than that, unfortunately. The single-player story game is slated for release during the holiday season in 2019; it’s set after Revenge of the Sith, when the Jedi are being hunted; and it’s got a dark and gritty feel. Oh, and you can use a lightsaber.

Meanwhile, Battlefront II is getting expanded with material from the Clone Wars, including playable versions of Anakin Skywalker, Count Dooku, General Grievous, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. We don’t know when that’s coming out, but there’s a Solo-themed expansion arriving on June 12th, featuring new environments on Kessel and a new starfighter mode, among other things.

Credit: Nibel/Twitter

E3 is nearly upon us, and that means that all the major publishers, developers and platform holders will be vying for eyeballs as they try to build hype for new releases in the fall and beyond. So far, it's looking like a big one: Nintendo is back as a company capable of generating excitement, and there are plenty of other big games rumored and confirmed from other publishers. Even Microsoft, which has been struggling as of late, might come to the table with some big announcements. So with that in mind, let's take a look at the 6 biggest games coming to the show in LA.

A few notes: this is for games confirmed to be coming to E3 2018. There are surely other surprises waiting in the wings, some of which have been leaked to the degree that they seem pretty likely at this point, but they're not on this list. Also, this list isn't necessarily the games that will wind up being the biggest when they release or anything like that. These are the games I've been waiting to see and that I expect to make a splash at the conference. Without further ado:

Credit: Nintendo

Smash Bros.: Smash Bros. on Switch is anchoring both Nintendo's fall release schedule and its E3 show. We don't know much about it beyond the fact that it exists and it will likely have everything we've come to expect out of a Smash Bros. title, but it's a big deal nonetheless. Smash Bros. is popular among the Nintendo faithful, and it has a hardcore competitive following in a way that other Nintendo games don't quite, though Splatoon 2 is getting up there and Mario Tennis Aces could well develop one.

Credit: Naughty Dog.

The Last of Us Part 2: Plenty of people have questioned whether or not we need a sequel to the singular The Last of Us, but this is the video game industry and we do like sequels. The Last of Us is a grim, post-apocalyptic creation from Uncharted creators Naughty Dog, and nothing we've seen about The Last of Us Part 2 so far seems to be short on grim. I expect to see some gameplay of this for the first time, as well as a possible release date. I'd be surprised if this wound up making its way to shelves in 2018, but if it did sony would pull off an impressive double tentpole along with God of War.

Credit: Ubisoft

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey: After a brief hiatus, Assassin's Creed returned to murderous form last year with Assassin's Creed Origins, taking the series back past its roots in the Crusades to Classical Era Egpyt, allowing the series' faithful to take a sigh of relief after two lackluster outings with Unity and Syndicate. And now that we've taken that year off we appear to be back on the furious release schedule the series is known for, conjuring up entire ancient worlds one year at a time. This years' title will take us back to Ancient Greece, and I'm hoping the "Odyssey" in the name means we get a seafaring adventure something like Black Flag.

Credit: Bethesda

Fallout 76: Bethesda teased Fallout 76 a little while ago, and we still don't know exactly what to expect out of it. The visuals look like the sort of Fallout game we've seen before, but rumor has it that that the new game will be a multiplayer survival sim more like Rust or DayZ, with a healthy dose of the base building mechanics from Fallout 4. Something like that is a natural fit for the Fallout universe, but it's likely to cause fans of the series to raise an eyebrow unless Bethesda also announces a more traditional RPG like Elder Scrolls 6 or something from its Starfield project.

Credit: Epic Games

Fortnite: Battle Royale: Fortnite doesn't have any big announcements planned for E3, though it might well give us an Android release date or make its way to the Switch. It's treating the show as a celebration with a big ProAm tournament and what it's calling "Party Royale," but it's still the biggest game in the world, and E3 isn't going to change that. A recent social media analysis found that even now, people are talking about Fortnite twice as much as they're talking about E3.

Credit: Ubisoft

The Division 2: Ubisoft's big post-apocalyptic loot shooter has had an interesting life. It launched to scattered acclaim, though problems with progression, a troubled endgame and muddled politics gave it trouble throughout its early phases. A long succession of free updates has given it new life and its players a whole lot more to do, as well as clearly giving the developers a better handle on just how to run the game going forward. Hopefully, that means its the moment is right for a numbered sequel, something to give lapsed players and curious onlookers a chance to sign onto an improved experience. Let's hope it goes better than Destiny 2.

IGN Live at E3 2018

Join us as for all of your E3 coverage including the Press Conferences from EA, Bethesda, Xbox, Ubisoft, Sony and Nintendo, live game demos from the show floor and much much more!

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