EA skipped this year's E3 conference in favor of hosting its own EA Play Live event that concentrated all of the powerhouse studio's reveals and information into one big broadcast. Leading up to the show, EA held a series of live streams titled EA Play Spotlights that gave fans more detailed looks at specific titles or genres. Many of them also teased what players could expect to see at the full EA Play Live event, with a look at an all-new Battlefield 2042 among one of the promised reveals at the event.
Ahead of the event, however, many of EA's biggest titles were confirmed to not be making an appearance. This included titles such as Mass Effect 4, Dragon Age 4, and Skate 4 along with a couple of others. The lack of some of EA's biggest upcoming titles had some fans worried that the event would be light on announcements, even with a number of leaks and rumors hinting at a possible Dead Space revival being featured in the event. Thankfully, the event ended up having plenty to show to the fans who tuned in.
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While developer Codemasters has shown off its all-new campaign mode coming to F1 2021 already, the studio also provided a new look at the upcoming GRID Legends. With an expected release date sometime next year, GRID Legends also features a campaign that sees players competing against an antagonistic racing team in a worldwide racing competition. New additions to the series include players being able to race any class of cars against one another. In the trailer shown during the event this can lead to some strange combinations, such as a semi-truck taking out a Formula 1 racecar on the track.
During the event, Codemasters also talked a little bit about some of the technology the studio is taking advantage of to make the game's campaign feel as realistic as possible. The technology was developed for the production of the hit Star Wars show The Mandalorian. It includes a large screen displaying the digital environments that the actors will be placed into in the final product to help immerse actors in the scenes and allow them to react appropriately. It will be very interesting to see how the technology plays out in GRID Legends, as it could be a big benefit for performance capture across the industry in the future.
The newest season for Apex Legends, Emergence, also got a launch trailer at the event. It features narration by Apex Legends' newest legend Seer as well as a look at some of the legend's abilities in action. Thankfully, the game director of Apex Legends spoke after the trailer to give players some more details. He said that Seer is a tracking character similar to Bloodhound with an ultimate that creates a dome that tracks all enemies moving inside of it. The event also revealed that a ranked mode is coming to Arenas in Apex Legends after many fans asked for its inclusion.
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The mysterious Lost in Random from Swedish studio Zoink Games also was featured during the EA Play Live event. The event showcased an official gameplay trailer that shows off more of Lost in Random's beautiful gothic world as well as detailing how combat works in the game through some turn-based battles. There is still a lot that is not known about Lost in Random, but the game was featured in the Tribeca Film Festival and definitely looks like an interesting title to keep an eye on for fans of creative new worlds.
The second season of Knockout City was also revealed during the event. Season 2 of Knockout City was recently confirmed, but the new trailer gave fans their first look at what sort of new movie-themed content players could expect from the season. The trailer shows off a lot of movie-themed cosmetics, as well as a new explosive dodgeball, and a map that seemingly changes layout during the match. Knockout City was a hit when it was released a few months ago, so it is great to see that the game is continuing to be supported by its developers and EA.
Fans have known that Battlefield 2042 still had something to reveal that would be big for fans, but when EA Play Live announced Battlefield 2042 Portal, it blew away many player's expectations. Ahead of the official reveal of Battlefield 2042, leaks claimed that the game would be a hub for previous Battlefield games as well as the all-new multiplayer mode, and it seems that Battlefield 2042 Portal is likely what those leaks were referencing. The mode allows players to make, share, and play custom game modes. At launch, the mode will feature a selection of fan-favorite maps from throughout the franchise, and the developers have said they plan on adding more maps to the mode in the future.
The most interesting part of the mode developed by the rebranded Ripple Effect Studios, however, is that it allows players to pull vehicles, weapons, classes, and gadgets from Battlefield 2042, Battlefield 3, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 1942. The trailer shows off some of what is possible in the mode, including a fight between World War 2 soldiers with only knives and Battlefield 3 medics with defibrillators. EA Play Live also showed off three custom game modes made by content creators that included a Rush variant of 12 Battlefield 2042 soldiers facing off against 32 Battlefield 1942 players and a mode that saw a tank facing off against an army of Battlefield 3's engineer robots.
Leaks had been pointing towards a new Dead Space remake being announced at EA Play Live, and it ended up being the final reveal that wrapped up the show. Not much is shown of the title, but it does feature some iconic visuals from the series, including an imposing silhouette of one of Dead Space's necromorphs that looks gorgeous running on new hardware. The trailer's description does reveal that the game will only be available on PC and next-gen consoles, so it will be interesting to see what EA and Motive are able to bring to the survival horror classic with the new hardware.