This first shots were fired today in the PR blitz that is the Electronics Entertainment Expo (otherwise known as E3) and EA is taking the lead with both anticipated titles and a few surprises too.

Sports, sports and more sports!

Story is playing a major role in EA’s sports titles this year; not only is FIFA 18 continuing on from its last entry, but Madden 18 is bringing its own take too. Mention was also made of Madden 18 supporting Scorpio so it looks like EA will be showing some love for the new Xbox. NBA Live 18 will also be coming too with a demo available soon in August.

Returning to the trenches

Battlefield 1 continues to power on much like the those juggernaut trains in the game itself. Two new maps will be coming soon to players that force them to face off at night. With how effective fog and sandstorms can be in impacting your vision, this will add another twist to the experience. It’s certainly something that the Frostbite engine is quite good at.

New DLC is coming in the form of Battlefield 1: In the Name of the Tsar which brings the Russians to BF1 an includes six new maps. There’ll be more to come for the game at Gamescom later this year with even more modes and features that sound. It looks like the game will continue to get plenty of support for some time yet.

Hard drivin’

Need for Speed Payback lets you take on the roles of three different characters during the campaign which sounds very GTAV but with a Fast and Furious theme to it. The cherry picking doesn’t end there though with players being able to hunt down classic cars that you can then modify to fit your needs… something which is straight out of The Crew and Forza Horizon.

A tale of two Escapists

A new co-op prison escape game was debuted called A Way Out. From the developers behind Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, the trailer hints that REALLY working together to complete objectives is key to making it through the game. An interesting idea is that though the game supports online co-op, the developers feel the best experience is to play it together via split screen and the games plays in that fashion no matter if your friend is online or on the couch with you. Even cutscenes for each player run separately so one could still be playing while the other has to sit through a sequence but both get to experience that together.

It’s a new title coming under the EA Originals banner so the company is still committed to their program – they’re highly selective with who they work with but seem pretty good at finding quality titles so this could be one to keep an eye out for. It would have been the highlight for me if not for Battlefront II.

A Mass (side) Effect?

A new Bioware game called Anthem was announced too.  This had long been rumoured to be under development by the Edmonton team and has been rumoured to be comparable to Destiny and The Division so I’m curious to find out what else we can learn soon as the trailer doesn’t reveal much yet apart from its science fiction themes. Possibly more to hear soon during Microsoft’s presentation.

The Force is with them

Finally there was Star Wars Battlefront II and I’ve got to give EA credit for accepting that not everything went down well with fans, with some feedback jokingly called “constructive”. It was a nice bit of honesty that was refreshing to see and was reiterated through John Boyega’s (Finn from The Force Awakens) now famous tweet.

The Battlefront presentation was fantastic and went all out in promoting that the story (set between Return of the Jedj and The Force Awakens) is a major focus of the new game this time plus a promise of over three times the content of the first Battlefront. Early DLC coming will tie with The Last Jedi and even better will be free. I didn’t think the visual presentation of the game could be improved but I’m happy to be proven wrong… it’s looking rather good and I cant wait to see the game for myself.

The whole shebang

More from EA will be revealed at the Microsoft conference… maybe some exclusives to tie with Scorpio? With Activision tying all their properties in with Sony, EA have had a few wins by striking up deals with Xbox. EA Access has been a success and despite advertising still favouring the PlayStation 4, players wanting to get early access to games know that to do so you need an Xbox One.

All the videos here (including trailers) are via Gamespot’s YouTube feed – to jump straight to the full conference, skip to the 28 minute mark in the video below. Please note it is a long video consisting of an hour twenty presentation between three and a half hours of press coverage so bring some popcorn and a choice beverage if you’re in it for the long haul.