Today is the first official day of Gamescom 2014. There were some press conferences and some news, but the doors officially opened today. So what better way to kick that off than the company that everyone on the internet loves? Yeah, I'm talking EA. Electronic Arts. Evil Assholes.
Let's get on with this press conference, and sorry for the delay but again, I was at work and didn't get to see it live.
We start off with Andrew Wilson talking, claiming to have changed things up this year so we could be put in the heart of the action. Then we get to Dragon Age: Inquisition. No one expects Dragon Age: Inquisition!
There are 9 characters to lead. Extensive character customization system. 9 class specializations, 21 different combat trees, over 200 spells and abilities. 200 weapon upgrades, 150 types of armor, 80 different materials, so there will be a lot of stuff you can customize basically. Plus you get to name your items you create. There's a million words of dialogue so it's basically an Ayn Rand novel.
You lead and form the Inquisition. You start in a fortress called Skyhold, where you can strengthen the Inquisition, choose where to explore and choose missions.
It looks like a great time. I love the depth of the level progression and whatnot, and the tactical camera is cool. The action looks fluid and looks like a good RPG to sink your teeth into. I've never actually played a Dragon Age and this looks like a good place to start. The game releases November 18 in North America.
Next is TITANFALL (if you don't get why I capitalized it then you must be new to the blog but it's a running gag here because of how intense the game was supposed to be). The revealed the third and final map pack: IMC Rising. This fall you will be able to get three new maps.
NHL '15 is up next. It's going to be a more realistic, authentic experience and they're promising more control over everything, more leagues, better graphics, etc. Bigger and better like every year is supposed to be. It releases September 9 in North America and I believe a couple days later in Europe.
Peter Moore hits the stage and says words I don't understand. Then when he starts talking English he's talking about NHL '15. Then he talks about experiencing things with friends, which is a foreign concept to me, then starts talking about Sims 4. We get a live demo.
With the new Gallery you can share things online with people.
We start with Create-A-Sim. There's a lot of attention to detail when creating what your Sim looks like. Next is the personality: You pick a bunch of different traits, and things like walking style.
There's a build mode where you can easily build your house. You can pick up the entire house and move it, and easily expand your walls.
Using the gallery you can just pick an entire house from what people have made and make it your own.
Then we see the game in action. At first there's a maze and everybody is hungry. One of the Sims dies, and the Grim Reaper shows up. It's a pretty funny segment. The entire showcase of Sims was pretty comical and lighthearted. I enjoyed it. I haven't even played a Sims since the first one but even before this I planned on getting this one and seeing where the series has evolved.
The Sims 4 Create-A-Sim demo is available now. and you can put your sim in the full game when it launches in three weeks.
Before the new year, FIFA World will have a new game engine, complete dribbling and smarter AI. You will be able to keep your items and whatnot when they implement the new engine. I didn't even know that this game existed, if I'm being honest.
FIFA '15 is shown next. It's going to be a more realistic, authentic experience and they're promising more control over everything, more leagues, better graphics, etc. Bigger and better like every year is supposed to be.
That may seem like I made an error and accidentally pasted what I said about NHL '15. But I assure you... it was... no accident.
In Star Wars: The Old Republic, players will be able to get a new expansion next week called Galactic Strongholds Digital Expansion. In it you can build a house or conquer planets across the galaxy with your guild flagships.
Then there's Dawngate. It's a new MOBA, built on a foundation of player choice. You can choose any map and any character in the matches. You can sign-up to the beta at dawngate.com
Then there's a new online action-RPG IP from Bioware called Shadow Realms. The video is just a bunch of people fighting demons in a city and that makes it hard to really know how it plays. We do know that it takes place in a modern Fantasy world, is inspired by old pen-and-paper RPGs, and will have dynamic co-operative 3 vs 1 gameplay. The one player will get to control the bad guy: the Shadowlord.
It will have a continuously updated story, an ever changing world, and an episodic story arc.
The game will come out late next year. You can sign up for the alpha at shadowrealms.com.
The single-player in Battlefield Hardline apparently won't be as linear. It's going to play like a TV show which means it will be episodic, tense and have cliffhangers. You play as a young detective who is going cross country to track down someone from his past. Ooooh I do that sometimes.
They debut a short video of the single-player and it looks fun, but it's not really the reason I go to Battlefield these days anyway. You can flash your badge and make people freeze so you can handcuff them, since you are a coppa after all, see. The video ends with a fire fight, then it all of a sudden becomes Battlefield with things exploding.
More importantly they revealed two new multiplayer modes: Hotwire and Rescue. Hotwire is a high-speed chase, so it's fast and we shoot things from cars as far as I can tell. Rescue is an eSports-focused mode, where hostages have been taken by a team of five criminals. So naturally, five cops have to save them. Be careful though because you only have one life per round.
With that, the EA Press Conference ended and it was actually pretty solid. Got a new IP, some gameplay footage of other things and not just trailers with no gameplay (that's such a pet peeve of mine). Shadow Realms sounds interesting and I can't wait for Hardline.
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