So I woke up early today, and I’m glad I did because I would have missed the gosh dang Electronic Arts livestream.
So what did EA have to show? A lot of updates to existing franchises, a morsel of new content in the form of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order gameplay, and sneak peeks at their annual offerings for both FIFA and Madden NFL. What they didn’t show us: any updates to Anthem, and nothing about BioWare’s reported new project(s). The only mention of Anthem at all was a banner EA put up near its presentation stage area.
Here’s a brief rundown of (some) of the new content coming from EA in the next few months.
Apex Legends, Season 02: Battle Charge
Between Apex Legends and the new Star Wars game, Respawn Entertainment has their hands full right now. The studio held a partial reveal for new Apex content, mainly consisting of new modes like Ranked Mode and Elite Challenges, updates to existing weapons like (hilariously) the Mozambique Shotgun, a new weapon called the L-STAR, and a new Legend, Wattson.
Wattson was arguably the biggest reveal of the show. She’s a defender archetype who can deploy a turret and erect barriers that stun enemies and ping your teammates, and in the game’s lore, she’s the genius daughter of the inventor of the Apex Arena.
Gameplay footage shows Wattson building a fence with a flick of her wrists and flourish of her hands, clapping once she’s done. Honestly, Apex Legends is a delight and I think I’ll be playing a lot more once season 2 comes out in July.
Battlefield V: New Maps, New Theater of War
Battlefield V fans will get to go to Greece and North Africa in new maps later this year, and then take a trip all the way around the world to battle in the Pacific Theater. The maps are called Al Sundan, which will have a wide focus on air and tank battles, and Marita, which will focus more on infantry fights and holding positions. The Pacific Theater will include the Battle of Iwo Jima, and reportedly tell the story of how the United States entered World War II.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Respawn really carried EA this year. While they still have FIFA 20 and Madden NFL 20 on the horizon, as well as a significant update to The Sims 4, EA has been hit pretty hard by some high profile issues. And there Respawn was in the background, making a great Battle Royale game off the Titanfall 2 engine. To top it off, EA also gave them control of a new, single-player, linear experience in the Star Wars universe!
What we know about the game is that it’s set shortly-ish after Order 66 was issued. Players will steer a former Padawan, Cal Kestis, from planet to planet in his fight to resist the burgeoning Galactic Empire. Wall-running is involved, because of course wall-running will be in a game from Respawn (except Apex Legends. Please let me wall-run in Apex Legends, Respawn. Please). You’ve got a cute little Droid, BD-1 (I’m calling it Buddy and you all cannot fuckin stop me), that does everything from analyzing interesting artifacts in the world to opening doors. It’s like a Guardian’s Ghost from Destiny except 1) it rides on your shoulder and 2) it’s not voiced by Nolan North desperately trying his latest observational comedy routine in the sound booth.
Also appearing in the game is Rogue One’s Saw Guererra, and Forest Whitaker is reprising the role! That’s pretty neat.
The gameplay footage they showed during this livestream was rough, as it came directly from an Alpha build of the game. Check it out below.