Image Credit: Electronic Arts
Check out all of GamesBeat's Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014 coverage here.
Electronic Arts, one of the world’s largest third-party publishers, came to Los Angeles with Star Wars and Battlefield. We’ve collected all the news and trailers for you right here. Let’s do it.
Star Wars: Battlefront
Battlefield developer DICE, which is making a Star Wars game, kicked off the show with a video showing how it worked with Lucasfilm to check out the props and characters of the classic films in person at the Lucasfilm Museum. The studio also went to the real filming locations to capture the feel and “emotion” of the classic sci-fi film series.
EA didn’t show a ton of the game, but it did reveal some behind-the-scenes looks at Battlefront in development.
“We have a committment to amazing games,” EA chief executive Andrew Wilson said. “Games that inspire us.”
Dragon Age: Inquisition
While BioWare has already shown off Dragon Age once today, it didn’t miss the chance to show off the game once again at its own press event. This time, the company introduced a trailer with a live cellist accompany the video.
The trailer showed off a number of epic-looking environments that players will get to explore. The RPG, which is a sequel to two previous Dragon Age games that debuted on the last-gen systems, looks like graphically astounding. Players will run through gorgeous locales and then battle mammoth dragons that animate in a very life-like way. BioWare wants to bring its classic RPG mechanics to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC while also blowing fans away with the visuals.
BioWare didn’t just show off impressive imagery, it also unveiled its cast of heroes. Players will get a chance to recruit a cunning dwarf, a powerful elf, a huge knight, and more. Together, this team will make up the titular “Inquisition.”
Mass Effect 4
The epic space role-playing franchise will return. In a video, BioWare revealed some concept art and ideas it has for the next game in the Mass Effect franchise. It will take place in a new region of space.
New BioWare game
EA’s RPG experts aren’t just making Mass Effect and Dragon Age. The company also revealed it is working on a new property. This will enable it to start from scratch to build something completely new. BioWare didn’t reveal many details, but it showed off some fantastical-looking art that may enable it to explore a fantasy, sci-fi, or some other kind of universe.
The Sims 4
One of EA’s biggest franchises is The Sims. The series consistently makes tons of money for the publisher, so it’s no surprise that it’s working on The Sims 4. Developer Maxis showed how players interacting with one another will affect their emotional state.
Maxis also demonstrated how players can create characters and items and share them with others.
Also, laughter can kill … so, be careful.
UFC
EA Sports has football, hockey, and more. Now it also has mixed martial arts with EA’s UFC. The publisher introduced the fighter by talking about how Bruce Lee invented the sport … which is also just its way of justifying why the movie star is in the game.
NHL 15
EA’s hockey game was its only sports title not to make the leap to new-gen systems last year. That’ll change with NHL 15. The publisher is promising high-detailed visuals and realistic stadiums. The hockey release will incorporate EA’s sports-specific engine that should make its physics feel more realistic.
New Criterion vehicle game
The racing experts at Criterion Games are moving beyond cars. This new property will have planes, helicopters, ATVs, jetskis, wingsuits, and more. It sets itself apart by always taking place from the first-person perspective. Criterion always wants you to feel like you’re riding on these vehicles.
EA says the title is in very early development, and it didn’t even give it an official name.
PGA Tour
EA Sports has dropped Tiger Woods, but it isn’t dropping golf. The company is planning to use the same engine that powers Battlefield 4 to make PGA Tour the best-looking entry in the franchise ever.
Madden NFL 15
For Madden NFL 15, EA Sports is focusing on the “other side of the ball.” That means defense. The developer said that this time you’ll have more control on defense than ever before.
Dawngate
EA is introducing its own competitor to League of Legends and Dota 2. Dawngate is a multiplayer online arena battler that will have the strategic action that MOBA gamers love, but EA is fleshing out the experience with an “epic storyline.” It makes sense that EA would want to get into the MOBA space, as games like League of Legneds generate hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
Mirror’s Edge 2
The free-running action platformer franchise is back. EA announced the sequel last year, but it is finally sharing some details about the game. As opposed to the first Mirror’s Edge, this game will emphasize hand-to-hand combat. Don’t worry about the guns, the developers want you to feel great about punching, kicking, and beating your enemies into submission before moving on to the next obstacle.
FIFA 15
Soccer is a big deal. Madden might seem like EA Sports’ biggest property to those of us in the States, but FIFA actually eclipses it thanks to its popularity internationally. The publisher hopes to improve this year’s entry by improving the feel of the stadium as well as the way the ball moves on the pitch.
FIFA 15 will debut this fall.
Battlefield: Hardline
The military franchise is back, but this time it is heading to Los Angeles to have cops face off against criminals. The shooter will have players taking control of the police as they take on a group of robbers. Developer Visceral, which produced the Dead Space franchise, wants to bring an in-depth story mode, but the game will of course also have a huge multiplayer mode.
And the publisher also announced that the beta is now live.
EA showed off the cops-versus-criminals mode that had two 32-player teams fighting one another on the streets of sunny Southern California. It started off with SWAT in cop cars arriving at the scene of a robbery. They then had to take on the robbers who were perched atop an overpass. It looked like a Battlefield game with some interesting twists.
After the initial firefight, the two teams then got into a car chase as the robbers attempted to escape the fuzz.
It actually makes the multiplayer look a lot like the heist film Heat, which was likely Visceral’s intent.
Electronic Arts and Sony also announced that the Battlefield: Hardline beta will launch on the PlayStation 4.
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Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for ... read more »