Everything We Saw at E3 2016

E3 is finally over, and there’s a lot to talk about. Okay, so it’s technically been over since Thursday evening, but we’ve finally had a chance to catch our breath and are ready to get back to our regular programming!

This might have been our second year attending the trade show, but we’re still learning about the whole process. So if you’ve noticed that we’ve been posting a bit less than usual, sorry about that! Two years in and we’re still nailing down the process for getting everything published from the event.

Still, we’ve got a lot of stuff coming for you, both on the website and on YouTube. We’ve actually been hard at working posting videos from EA Play this year, so if you’d like to see that content before it hits the website, I’d recommend heading over to our YouTube channel and subscribing.

That said, we’ve still got a lot coming, so expect to see more content from E3 on the website within the next week. For now, we’d like to break it down and talk about some of the things we saw at the convention center this year, as well as some of what we saw at EA Play!

EA’s press conference

Unfortunately, we sat this press conference out like everyone at home, but there were a surprising number of details revealed for Madden 17 and FIFA 17. For Madden, we got a new trailer, as well as details on EA’s plans to bring Madden eSports to a new level with $1 million in prizes.

FIFA 17 got much the same treatment, with the introduction of a story mode and an accompanying trailer showcasing Alex Hunter as the game’s protagonist.

Speaking of Madden eSports, EA also took the time to introduce the 8 players that would be competing for the title of Madden 16 Champion during EA Play.

Microsoft’s press conference

We did a few posts about what Microsoft revealed during their press conference, but there’s a lot that just didn’t make the cut. If there’s one thing to say about E3 as someone who just attended for their first year, it’s that it’s incredibly busy. There isn’t always time for everything.

Microsoft opened up their press conference by announcing that a new, sleeker version of the Xbox One would be available for purchase during this holiday season. As you’ve probably already heard, this information had already leaked prior to the press conference, but it still ended up being one of the biggest pieces of news.

Interestingly, Microsoft also announced their plans for a new piece of hardware called Project Scorpio. You’ve probably heard plenty about that as well, since it was also leaked well before the press conference. That will debut in time for the holiday season next year in 2017.

Meanwhile, on the games front, Microsoft unveiled Forza Horizon 3 with a beautiful new trailer. Further in the sports department, they revealed a new eSports platform, Arena on Xbox Live, which will feature EA and their FIFA franchise as a partner in addition to other games like Smite.

Sony’s press conference

There’s a reason why you didn’t see much news from us on the Sony front, they just didn’t have enough sports coverage. Sure, they had Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare — a game which we mentioned in our article talking about what core games we’d be excited to see this year — but ultimately, sports was pretty scarce at the Sony conference.

With that said, they did a hell of a job in the core games department, and we were all equally excited with what they showed. It’s clear, however, that they’re more focused on the core gaming crowd and not the sports one. As long as they do it well, that’s okay in my book. It’s not like we won’t see FIFA 17 make an appearance on the system.

One thing that I did find odd was the omission of Gran Turismo Sport, a longstanding franchise that has often served to demonstrate the technology of PlayStation systems. Does that mean they’re abandoning Gran Turismo as one of their flagship franchises? Probably not.

Perhaps one of the most impressive things was PlayStation VR. Sony isn’t playing around when it comes to virtual reality, they’re fully backing this new medium, and they had plenty to show for it this year.

EA Play

Something new to E3 this year was the addition of EA Play, which EA held in the neighboring LA Live at The Novo. It was interesting to see a publisher open up their doors to the public outside of E3, and after walking around the venue and seeing some of the lines, I imagine it paid off for EA and we’ll be seeing it again next year.

EA Play held an interesting mix of core games and sports games, but it seemed that EA Sports ultimately had a stronger presence. Madden, FIFA, and NHL all made an appearance, in addition to Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2. I didn’t get a chance to play Battlefield 1, but I did check out Titanfall 2 and NHL 17.

They performed about as you’d expect. The builds they had on display were pretty damn smooth, and from the games that I played, didn’t seem to have too many technical hiccups. It’s entirely possible that’s because EA Play is more forward facing, with the goal of attracting their fans, but either way, it was nice to check out the games.

You can check out our videos from the event on YouTube, including an interview with Madden 17 Creative Director Rex Dickson.

PES 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qgFj4roRRY

We had a chance to check out PES 2017 as well, so you can expect to see an article on that coming soon. The game itself is looking beautiful, but you can find out more about how it plays when we release our article next week.

Moto Racer 4

We scheduled a meeting with Microids, the developers behind the latest iteration of the Moto Racer franchise, and they gave us the rundown on what to expect with the game. Unfortunately we didn’t get hands-on with the game yet, but we got to take a look at how the game will look on the PS4 with virtual reality support.

We’ve got a full article on that coming soon, so you can expect to hear more next week.

Infinite Air

Mark McMorris has partnered with HB Studios to become the namesake of their new snowboarding title, Infinite Air, and I think it will make a lot of snowboarding fans happy. There are a lot of interesting things going on with this game, including a large emphasis on creativity and sandbox gameplay.

You can expect a full article on the game coming soon, including an interview with Mark McMorris and the producer of the game, Andrew Nguyen.

F1 2016

I had the chance to check out F1 2016 during E3, and there’s a lot to look forward to with the latest installment in Codemasters’ F1 franchise. Career mode will be getting a huge improvement, along with some additions to actually make practice worthwhile.

Crowds

E3 might be off limits to the public, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t packed. Every year the trade show seems to grow, and this year was no exception. This year’s show hit a record number of just over 70,000, according to the ESA. Interestingly, they’re also counting 20,000 who only made it to E3 Live, but since that’s an ESA sanctioned event, I guess it makes sense.

To give you an idea as to how packed it was at E3 2016, the wait to play Final Fantasy XV was 2-3 hours. Yeah, that’s a long time. It’s worth noting that not all lines were that long, however. Square Enix had one of the biggest lines outside of Nintendo and Sony from what I saw. The difference? The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Sony’s VR demos required people to jump through hoops in order to play. Square Enix let everyone line up.

Is there anything that you’re excited about from E3 that wasn’t on this list? Let us know in the comments or on social media, and be sure to stay tuned for more content from E3 2016!

Everything We Saw at E3 2016

F1 2016 First Impressions

Yesterday at E3, I had the pleasure of dropping by Codemasters’ E3 headquarters to check out the latest installment of their F1 franchise, F1 2016. The series has been going strong for a few years now, with F1 2016 marking the 8th iteration. Like most franchises that see a yearly release, the biggest questions are how they’re iterating the game this time around.

The demo I played was strictly limited to practice runs, with only four tracks. With F1 2016, the team behind the game has put a lot of effort into the practice section of the game, and it shows.

Some of the tests in practice mode are inspired by real tests performed in Formula One racing, including things like track acclamation, qualification performance, and tire and fuel management. One of the things you’ll be able to do with your practice runs is create strategies with practice data, presented using a number of graphs. Through that practice data, you can be given a set of strategies to choose from.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to experience that aspect of practice, but it’s nice to know that your practice runs actually count for something and aren’t necessarily there exclusively to improve your time on the track.

Outside of that, another big focus with F1 2016 is to improve the immersion of the game. To that end, they’ve made a number of changes that add up to deliver a more realistic experience for the Formula One enthusiast. The safety car will make a return, but new to this year’s game is the addition of the virtual safety car.

As a result, the AI has also been improved, and you’ll now see AI vehicles retire. Pit wall boards will give players the info they need on the race.

F1 2016 will also introduce a more realistic penalty system, and car damage sensitivity systems have been reworked based upon fan feedback from last year’s iteration. Kerbs and surface properties have also been remodeled.

With the new time of day editor, you’ll be able to switch between times, letting you race tracks from sunrise to sunset at day or night. This doesn’t apply to the career mode, which is also receiving a significant upgrade.

For career mode, you’ll choose a career path of 10 years and create your own driver, including your number, helmet design, and nationality. As part of career mode, you’ll have access to team members. You’ll have an agent and team engineer. The agent will help you manage your team by recommending different strategies to help you succeed.

I had a good time with the demo at E3 this year, and I look forward to checking the game out when it launches. During the demo, they weren’t talking about the release date, but this morning they announced that F1 2016 would release on August 19 later this year. That announcement comes along with a trailer, which you can check out up top.

F1 2016 First Impressions

Codemasters Announces F1 2016 Coming Late Summer

The latest F1 game from Codemasters, F1 2016, is coming this summer for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

F1 2016 is introducing a new career mode that will span 10 seasons with on and off-track interactions. They’ve even added the Safety Car and the Virtual Safety Car to the game.

One of the new circuits that Codemasters is promorting is a street circuit set in Baku, Azerbaijan.

F1 2016’s Principal Game Designer Lee Mather said in a press release, “F1 2016 is a massive step forward for the franchise. The new career mode sits at the heart of the game and allows gamers to create their own legend over a career that can span for up to a massive ten seasons. Beyond improving upon the fastest and most thrilling on-track racing experience in gaming, F1 2016 uniquely offers the drama and vehicle development that goes on behind the scenes. A rich car upgrade system is fully integrated into a new and deep practice development programme which mirrors the tests carried out by the teams in real life.”

The development of the game has run late enough that it will also include the new Haas F1 Team, one of the first all-American-led F1 teams in decades.

Codemasters Announces F1 2016 Coming Late Summer