The Shamus Showcase: EA vs. Ubisoft E3 2014

 #TeasE3

At the Electronic Arts Conference, I was really looking forward to this conference just to see the next Mass Effect game be announced. Instead, what I got was a series of empty teases. Along with Star Wars: Battlefront, Mirror’s Edge 2, the formula for the majority of teased games goes as follows: developer tells you that they are working hard on a game, people are then shown working, some pre-alpha footage is shown, developer tells you to wait and see without giving any useful information. It was a very disappointing conference for me, and as a whole, it didn’t really stand out.

They had the usual sports showcase, showing off whatever new tweaks that make this version better than last years. Not much was shown in terms of gameplay, aside from the Bruce Lee guest appearance in UFC. A noteworthy absence from the conference this year was NBA Live, a series that hasn’t done too well in recent years. After releasing a half-finished product, EA seems to be in no rush to release another NBA Live until it’s truly finished.

Personally, I enjoyed the Sims 4 showcase. It was cool seeing how each Sim was able to hold onto a consistent personality, as well as have memory of previous events. Following the short-lived life of Chuck was fun, especially his aged cougar fetish.

Ending the conference on Battlefield: Hardline was extremely obvious. But the multiplayer match shown off didn’t do anything to make me believe the claims that this is cops and criminals. Payday is cops and robbers. Hardline is cops and micro terrorist groups, bringing down buildings over a quick buck. These guys have helicopters, parachutes, RPGs, no robber carries those. DICE might as well have made another military shooter, rather than dressing one up as cops and robbers.

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The Ubisoft press conference was pretty fun. I enjoyed the host Aisha Taylor. Her casual style of hosting helped bring me into the conference, as opposed to the boring, professional style of hosting.

It felt more personal, and I feel like Ubisoft is more human. Besides that, there weren’t too many surprises. Far Cry 4 was the opening game, and it was a solid trailer. Revealed early last month, the villain of Far Cry 4 was brought to life, giving us a feel of what to expect when the game is finally released. There was no gameplay, but its forgivable, its Far Cry, first person open world.

The trailer for The Crew was interesting. The boast that you can drive from coast to coast with friends seems legit, but I’m not sure about how accurate those are claims are. Is the highway compressed, or is it all there? How long would it take to go from one side to the next? It can’t really be 2 hours if it’s scaled to real life?

Trailers for The Division and Valiant Hearts were pretty good, pretty bleak. Although there was no gameplay for The Division (probably because it was already shown at Microsoft’s conference), it was an entertaining story trailer.

Valiant Hearts is something to look at because of its focus on the Great War, or World War I. Seeing through the eyes of 4 characters, it tells the soldiers story. And apparently the narrator of the trailer is the dog, I didn’t catch that at first, but its pretty cool.

The stylish Assassin’s Creed Unity trailer was fun to watch, great soundtrack. But there was single player gameplay shown afterwards. A lot of side objectives you can run into while doing missions. The Murder Mystery missions are new for the series, and its something I look forward to. Maybe it’ll play out like the detective parts of the Batman Arkham games. Again, the animations for climbing are very smooth; it definitely looks like the first true PS4/Xbox One Assassin’s Creed game.

Just Dance and Shape Up seemed to be there for the casual audience, but they were nothing special. Now Just Dance has smart phone integration, Just Dance Now, but it just seems to act as another controller for on the go dancing. I do like how Shape Up looks; it seems like a fun way to get active. But as for how practical it is, I don’t know. People might be better off going to a gym or doing their daily mile run.

The finale announcement of Rainbow Six Siege was pretty good. It put an end to Rainbow Six: Patriots, but it’s probably for the better. This game seems to be what Battlefield: Hardline aspires to be. It’s on a smaller scale, the destruction is there, but the house didn’t collapse. It’s believable. The pre-alpha demo had some interesting chatter between squad mates, it wasn’t realistic, but it got the job done. I really liked how the hostage moved, even though she is a glorified flag.

Overall, I enjoyed this conference. It wasn’t perfect, I still want Prince of Persia, but it was way better than EA’s conference.

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And there you have it. If you disagree with anything stated above, or would like to chime in on your own thoughts regarding E3, feel free to comment below.

 

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