E3, the Super Bowl for nerds, kicked off this Saturday with EA first up to bat.

There Press Conference covered a lot of games and a lot of ground, leaving us with a couple of burning questions. Obviously, we cannot ask EA our questions because they never answer their emails and there are so many times you can get fake numbered, so we’re going to ask them here instead.

1. Is This a New Beginning for Local Co-Op Games?

I have such disdain for mainstream game developers these days. Seems like everything needs an online connection to get the best experience and rarely can you actually enjoy a co-op gaming session while sharing the same sofa.

Some of my favourite memories of gaming, in fact, the majority, are of split screen action, squinting to get a good view while making deals with friends not to screen watch, then obviously having a cheeky look anyway.

It’s so disappointing that local co-op seems to be going to way of the dodo, with fewer and fewer titles geared towards it.

As you can imagine, I am the over-the-bloody moon to see the announcement of EA’s new title A Way Out which focuses entirely on a cooperative story experience. I’m not the only one either, fans of games around the globe have taken to social media to tell all of their excitement.

Let’s hope this game is good, gets praise and breathes life into the local co-op genre. It has been neglected for far too long.

2. Will Battlefront 2 Capture The Magic of the Original?

EA showed a new trailer and some gameplay for Star Wars Battlefront 2 during their press conference and what they had to offer was pretty darn badass. The game itself is looking stunning, even richer than the first — perhaps it’s all the bright colours of the prequels.

However, it seems the style over substance formula used in the first title has been thrown out the window. With content spanning all eras of the movies, a fully-fledged story campaign, something we didn’t even get in the originals, and the promise of free post-release content, Battlefront 2 is shaping up to be something worth getting excited for.

But will it ever hold a candle to the originals? Despite the obvious limitations of the consoles, Battlefront and Battlefront 2 from the 00s had a spark that has never been forgotten by those who played them. What we want more than anything is for this game to capture the feeling of that game. Will it deliver? We’ll find out later this year.

3. Is Anthem Actually Going to Bring Anything New?

So EA have announced a new ‘IP’ in the form of Anthem. We don’t know much about it yet, except it’s a new BioWare project rumoured to be EA’s response to crowd-favourite Destiny.

The trailer gives us glimpses of the world we will eventually explore. A wall, an underground human society within and beyond it a world full of dangers and horrors. Some spacey armour which is kinda like a mech suit?

This is going to be a Sci-fi action RPG, from BioWare, so it is basically Mass Effect reborn.

It is likely the team behind this game is the team behind the more successful Mass Effects, probably why Andromeda did so poorly. In this instance, it Anthem will probably be a great, fun and immersive RPG, but is it going to bring anything new?

So far, what we’ve got seems to be fairly formulaic, with not a lot to set it apart from what else is already out there. Of course, this is just a teaser, and we’ll be seeing more of Anthem during other E3 events. We at THG just hope there is more to it that meets the eye.

With so many remakes and sequels games, it would be great to see a new IP that genuinely breaks to mould.

4. Will EA Get Sued by Universal for Making a Fast and Furious Game Without Official Licensing?

EA showcased a new Need for Speed game, Need for Speed Payback, which they described as a revenge mission. It looks, to quote the kids, pretty rad man.

Lots of sweet rides, explosions, truck hijackings and a story about a crew betrayed by one of their own… one of their family… wait.

Need for Speed Payback smacks of Fast and the Furious — and slightly less of Burnout — with a heavy emphasis on a story that could have been ripped from the mind of Vin Diesel himself. This, of course, is no bad thing. The Fast and Furious franchise, although not my absolute favourite, is full of fun, drama, laughs and some pretty crazy stunts perfect for video games.

We don’t get video game companions to movies anymore, but if we did, this is what I hope a Fast and the Furious game would look like. I am looking forward to this one, I just hope Universal don’t shut the project down over creative licensing.

(They won’t)

5. How Badly Will I Suck at the New NBA Control System?

The new NBA live controls look amazing. Using the thumbsticks to control as aspects of play sounds like an ingenious way of immersing yourself in the gameplay experience. But lord do they sound hard to master.

As Ryan likes to point out at every possible opportunity, I am a casual gamer with the reflexes of a baby seal. The new control innovation for this game is going to make the pros look like gods, but I worry for casuals like me it will leave us with broken hearts and broken controllers.

I’m not big on Sports Games, but I will definitely have to try this free demo they’ve announced just to see how bad I am with these new controls. It’s a brilliant idea, an exciting way of changing game mechanics in an era where a lot of sports games play a bit samey, but the question is, will it take things too far in the opposite direction?

I don’t want to have to put in the same amount of time to be good at a sports game, as I would to be good at the actual sport.

Stay tuned to Two Honest Guys for more E3 2017 news over the coming week!

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