Gamescom 2015 wouldn’t be complete without an appearance from Electronic Arts, one of the biggest names in the gaming arena. Fans of anticipated titles got their fixes as new trailers were previewed and design updates breathed new life into monotony, that prevails prior to the release of long-awaited games.
Let’s take a look at what awaits us in the near future of EA gaming…
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst caused quite a stir when EA announced that the game would not feature any guns at all during gameplay. The newly released footage features a new antagonist, a wider view of the map, and free-running combat that doesn’t seem to be limited by Faith’s association with gravity.
Star Wars: Battlefront played into the hype even more with the release of gameplay footage of the Fighter Squadron mode in which up to 20 players (including AI) engage in aerial dogfighting with a host of machines ranging from X-Wings to the Millennium Falcon.
One of the biggest hits of E3 was Yarny and his Unravel team. When I first saw the clips of this during E3 I looked it over – ‘this has to be a little kids’ game’ is all that I could think. I was gently proven wrong. The Swedish developers who created the magnificent game unraveled [I couldn’t resist] the mystery of gameplay with a short preview of what the experience would look like. While the game is cute at its worst, its use of physics and strategy seem like it will be worth playing. Although there is no release date set just yet, I’ll be keeping a slight eye out for this one.
Need For Speed made an appearance at Gamescom to show off new faces as representatives of how a player can have fun in campaign mode. These real-life personalities can contour your experience to focusing on styles from the technicians to members of the Yakuza to a street racer. The graphics aren’t on Forza’s level, but they’re definitely making an effort.
FIFA 16 took the stage for EA sports, centering their focus on improvements to gameplay. With a condensed draft mode that has the new option to play with a friend, there is a fantasy football air that might bring in more players who were offset by the extra long time it took to build teams and get the players they wanted up to par. Pre-season friendly tourneys are accessible to build revenue and mini-games have been added to increase the skills of any players relative to their reality (for example, you wouldn’t be able to make Ronaldo into a star goalie but you would be able to make a younger player an exceptional striker under his watchful eye).
The Sims 4 has a new expansion pack! In Get Together, players get to control more of their world, a new area called Windenburg, and have a plethora of new possibilities at their fingertips. It comes out this November.
In other expansion news, Star Wars: Old Republic has a new expansion called Knights of the Fallen Empire that is slated to come out on October 27 (and will even be free for those already in the game). The pack with feature the first nine chapters in a new storyline in which the player’s original character becomes an Outlander or you can even choose to play as the Legendary Gunslinger, a sure shooter who embodies the Cowboys Vs Aliens feel that it seems that BioWare is trying to fashion the new saga into.
