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'NHL 22' finally moves the series to EA's Frostbite engine
The latest edition of the hockey sim arrives on October 15th with graphics and gameplay upgrades.
EA embraces game streaming with its new 'Project Atlas' engine
EA has announced a new cloud gaming development platform called 'Project Atlas' as it eyes a video game streaming future. In a Medium post, CTO Ken Moss said the publisher has devoted a 1,000-strong team to the service. Unlike current setups where a game runs on console hardware mounted on the rack, Project Atlas will seemingly allow devs to build titles from the ground up to run on a cloud server.
EA's design chief is leaving the company
EA's turmoil isn't over yet. Chief Design Officer Patrick Söderlund is leaving the publisher after years in various positions, and mere months after receiving a promotion to his current role. It's not clear why he's leaving or where he'll go next, but he'll transition out over the course of three months as the company reshuffles itself to accommodate his exit. The cross-disciplinary SEED team will join EA's studios group, while Ubisoft and Zynga veteran Jason Wozencroft is joining the company to lead user experience design. EA's Orignals and Partners teams, meanwhile, are folding into its Strategic Growth unit.
FIFA 18's story mode has become the franchise’s best feature
When FIFA 17 came out last year, its standout feature was something called "The Journey." For the first time in the franchise's 24-year history, EA Sports added a story mode where you can pretend to live the life of a professional soccer (er, football) player. The plot centered around a fictional character named Alex Hunter, a British teenager who's trying to make a name for himself in the English Premier League. Your goal, naturally, is to guide him in his quest to do exactly that. Thanks to its success on FIFA 17, the adventure continues with FIFA 18's "The Journey: Hunter Returns."
Taste amateur football glory with 'Madden 18’s' ‘Longshot’ mode
To say that I miss NCAA Football games is a massive understatement. Those games were my respite from classwork in college and continued to be a staple in my library for a few years after. Of course, EA hasn't made a college football game since 2012 after a pricey lawsuit over the use of athletes' likenesses in the franchise. Thankfully, the studio is giving us a new option for amateur football glory this fall via Madden 18's "Longshot" story mode.
'FIFA 18' isn't out yet and I'm already in love
There was a brief period of time last year when I was playing Pro Evolution Soccer more than FIFA. It was hard to wrap my head around that, considering EA's franchise had been my number one choice since it was known as FIFA International Soccer back in the '90s. But, despite all the welcomed graphics and gameplay improvements we see on each yearly release cycle, I felt the game was getting stale and decided to experiment with Konami's own -- which I much preferred in its Winning Eleven days. This didn't last long, though. FIFA 17 brought a story mode for the first time ever, known as "The Journey," and I was sold almost immediately. Because, let's face it, it's the closest I'll ever get to experiencing the enchanting life of a footballer.
What EA learned from 'Mass Effect' will shape its future
When I spoke to Electronic Arts Executive Vice President Patrick Soderlund last week, Kotaku's report about why Mass Effect: Andromeda turned out so poorly hadn't been published yet. Nonetheless, when I asked him about the flawed game's development cycle, he was incredibly candid -- just as he had been in 2013 when I'd interviewed him about his company's move from myriad game-design toolkits to just two. Here are his thoughts on several key topics.
‘Need for Speed Payback’ adds higher stakes and familiar ideas
On paper, Need for Speed Payback sounds a lot like Grand Theft Auto V crossed with a modern Fast and the Furious movie. Tale of revenge? Check. Three distinct protagonists with differing skillsets? Check. Heist missions? You see where we're going with this. There aren't a ton of other details to go on, but Electronic Arts says that the arcade racer will once again be open world and will feature "jaw-dropping set pieces." Like a submarine surfacing in an ice floe?
'Madden 18' may follow 'FIFA 17' with a story mode of its own
It looks like American football is taking something from soccer beyond the sport's name. Well, as far as Electronic Arts' virtual versions go, that is. This year's Madden will feature a full-fledged story mode akin to what FIFA '17 had. In the very evocative trailer below, a young man stares out at the Indianapolis Colts' Lucas Oil Stadium, dreaming of either a burrito or being on the cover of a video game. It's hard to tell which considering all we can see is the unnamed protagonist's expression in the reflection of a hotel window.
What we love and hate about 'Mass Effect: Andromeda'
A veteran Mass Effect player and a complete novice walk into a bar. This isn't the beginning of a terrible joke: Instead, it's the premise of a conversation between Engadget associate editor Timothy J. Seppala and senior reporter Jessica Conditt, both of whom have been playing the latest Mass Effect game, Andromeda, over the past few weeks. Tim has devoured and adored the Mass Effect series for almost a decade while Jessica has never touched the games before. How does Andromeda compare to previous Mass Effect games? Does it stand on its own as a worthy addition to the sci-fi genre? Are the animations always this messed up? In the following conversation, Tim and Jessica discuss Andromeda's highs and lows from two vastly different perspectives -- and somehow, they end up with similar conclusions. Spoilers for the entire Mass Effect series reside below; you've been warned.
Microsoft Research helped 'Gears of War 4' sound so good
Popping in and out of cover has been a hallmark of the Gears of War franchise since the first game came out in 2006. It hasn't changed much because it didn't need to. What's always been an issue though is how thin the game sounds -- a shortcoming of the underlying tech, Unreal Engine, powering it. But Microsoft owns the series now and has far more money to throw at it than former owners/Unreal Engine creators Epic Games did. With help from Microsoft Research, Redmond's Gears of War factory The Coalition found a high tech way to fix that problem. It's called Triton. Two years ago Microsoft Research's Nikunj Raghuvanshi and John Snyder presented a paper (PDF) titled "Parametric Wave Field Coding for Precomputed Sound Propagation." The long and short of the research is that it detailed how to create realistic reverb effects based on objects in a video game's map, to hear it in action pop on a pair of headphones and watch the video below.
'FIFA 17' marks a new beginning for the soccer franchise
I've been playing FIFA since its first title launched on Super Nintendo, when characters on the screen looked like nothing more than colorful stick figures. Nowadays, thanks to the power of modern gaming consoles, the visuals and gameplay are as close to the real thing as it gets. So much so, in fact, that oftentimes when FIFA is on my TV someone asks, "What game are you watching?" FIFA 17, which arrived yesterday in the US and lands tomorrow worldwide, is no exception.
EA's 'FIFA 17' lands on September 27th
Game studios are getting a jump on the E3 news cycle and Electronic Arts is no different. Today, the company announced that FIFA 17, the next installment in its popular soccer franchise will arrive in September. What's more, the game will be powered by Frostbite, a move that VP and executive producer Dave Rutter says "unlocks a whole new world of possibilities." The studio used Frostbite on a sports title in last year's PGA Tour release after employing it on Battlefield and other games.
EA's new jobs hint at plans for VR gaming
EA hasn't done much of anything with virtual reality so far, but that may well change soon. DICE has started hiring creatives and engineers to bring VR support to Frostbite, EA's seemingly ubiquitous game engine. Don't expect the developer to go all-in on immersive displays just yet. This is a "small and collaborative" team, technical director Johan Andersson says. Still, the hires could represent a big step toward bringing VR gaming into the mainstream. While you can already find VR in a few important game engines, such as Unreal Engine and Unity, EA has some of the gaming world's biggest franchises under its belt -- a VR Battlefield or sports title could give the technology broader recognition.
Playdate: Crushing the Rebel scum in 'Star Wars: Battlefront'
Not too long from now, on a Twitch stream in the very near future, Sean Buckley and myself will be blasting Rebel scum in Star Wars: Battlefront. The sci-fi shooter's the topic du jour on the latest edition of Playdate and you can tune in starting at 6 PM ET/ 3 PM Pacific to catch two hours of the hot Empire on Rebel action across Sullust, Hoth, and who even knows where else? And since we streamed the game's beta on PlayStation 4 we're giving the full version a go on PC today. As always, you can tune in here on this post, the Engadget Gaming homepage or Twitch.tv/Joystiq if you'd like to join us in chat -- it's your destiny.
'Need for Speed' balances opponents and adds neon later this month
Need for Speed is one of this fall's best games (it really does deserve your attention) and it's about to receive some changes. First up are tweaks to the game's computer-controlled opponents. Developer Ghost Games says it's working to make the rubberband AI, what keeps the other racers close by you regardless of how much of a lead you've built, "more balanced." If you're a fan of the current system, hopefully this new addition will be an option rather than a requirement. The game's visual customizations are getting some newfound love as well: a look at neon lighting kits, functional mirrors, more pre-made vinyl sets (additional features for that, too) and a better color picking system. Ghost is increasing the level cap and adding a smattering of new achievements, too.
The new 'Need for Speed' looks like a movie shot on film
The new, simply titled Need for Speed (out this week on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One) is as close as you're going to get to an art-house, video game version of The Fast and the Furious. The series has had players recreating cop chases from movies since 1998's Hot Pursuit, but this is the first time the game actually feels filmic. It isn't going to stand toe-to-toe with Microsoft's Forza series or Sony's ill-fated, but gorgeous Driveclub because it doesn't have to -- visually, they aren't even competing against each other. NfS doesn't run at 60FPS like Forza Motorsport; it doesn't feature those meticulously detailed cockpits either. What's more, car models aren't nearly as detailed as Driveclub's. But whatever NfS lacks in "perfection," it makes up for with killer arcade-like handling and a visual style guided by a clear aesthetic: Make a racing game that looks like a movie shot on film.
Try hating 'Star Wars Battlefront' now that you've seen it
Star Wars Battlefront invades PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on November 17th with large-scale multiplayer gameplay and a lot of classic series trimmings. We're talking lightsabers, X-Wings, AT-STs and more. You can see a lot of those in the gameplay video below, in a battle inspired by the Hoth sequence from The Empire Strikes Back, captured on PlayStation 4. It's pre-alpha gameplay (meaning incredibly early), but it looks bombastic with a sense of scale I haven't seen in a Star Wars game to date. The AT-AT feels like a monstrous, multi-story death contraption that could kill you underfoot if you walk too close to it.
'Mass Effect: Andromeda' coming holiday 2016
We've waited and waited for solid details on Mass Effect: Andromeda for what seems like an eternity and now we have a few more. The game launches next holiday season, to start. That's big enough on its own, but BioWare had even more to share from the stage of its press event here at E3 2015. Since it's using the Frostbite game engine pioneered by DICE, the game looks predictably gorgeous. It's in a new galaxy; the Mako is back; you're an N7 officer once again. You're playing as a human male or female, but not as the character seen in the trailer. BioWare says that Andromeda's "very much a new adventure" and that it takes place quite a bit after the events of Mass Effect 3.
When executives apologize for April Fools potshots
EA Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore has tweeted a necessarily brief apology to Nintendo of America and its fans, distancing all parties from an unapproved, "unacceptable" and "stupid" joke that made the rounds earlier today. The handlers of an official Twitter account for Frostbite, the engine which powers many EA games like Battlefield 4, targeted Nintendo's Wii U console with now-deleted messages like, "our renderer is now optimized for Mario and Zelda" and "we have finally fixed and optimized our 'netcode'." The punchline, of course, is that Frostbite's current incarnation is not supported on Wii U, which is a step behind the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in terms of power. April Fools' Day is treated with contempt by many tech and gaming news outlets, and perhaps it's because the jovial nature of a pie in the face has been lost to the contemporary reality: console war jabs made from a Twitter account dedicated to a graphics engine. These comments are no more caustic than you might see on console forums, but those don't usually draw apologies from a COO. These are just awkward.
