Faux E3 is in full swing, and it hasn’t felt like it is that time of year yet. Why? We didn’t have EA on Day minus one. Everyone knows EA kicks off the event two days early, Microsoft a day before everyone gets into the halls, and everything else is a blur. E3 is that magical time of year I have a tiny bit of hope for the games industry to show me something I want to play, sometimes I get it.

Yesterday the emotionless defective David Cage android known as Andrew Wilson opened the hour-long showcase with a sit-down chat. The year has been a mess, bush fires in Australia (Wilson’s home country), Covid-19, and Black Lives Matter protests. It felt like that awkward moment a few years ago when Aisha Tyler had to stand in front of a dancing giraffe after the Let’s Dance game open the show, and she had to talk about the Pulse shooting. It was awkward and went on a little too long. In fact, he should have done as Aisha did, say that it is a bad thing and move on.

Swiftly moving on, we got a look at all that is new in Season 5 of Apex Legends. I’ll say it now, I’m not fond of the multiplayer loot box games EA pop out. I’ve never downloaded Apex Legends and I don’t plan to. This Tuesday, players can jump into the new “Lost Treasure” event, bringing updates to maps, new character content, and more. However, the most important part of the announcement came towards the end. Starting this fall, players can play on any platform they want as EA is bringing cross-play to the game. They aren’t just offering cross-play though, they are also bringing the game to Steam and the Nintendo Switch this fall too.

Next up was a quick talk about diversity in The Sims, oddly referring to The Sims 4 as simply “The Sims.” With an emotional package from fans of the game talking about skin-tone, gender identity, and their sexuality being realized in-game, it was more emotion than you’d find in Wilson. However, there is a slight issue with the package, as it opens with a woman who is herself disabled. Speaking with those who enjoy the game and talking about their disability, they all said there is no representation of disability in-game. With that, it feels cheap to add a disabled woman to the package to talk about everyone realizing themselves within the game.

It is understandable to feature someone who is disabled, but the point of the video was to showcase black women seeing themselves, trans people getting to see their lives, and gay men realizing who they are by expressing themselves in-game. With that, if you are disabled, play The Sims 4, and want the game to show your true experience, Lisa found a video on mods to fix this. Other than the importance of diversity in The Sims 4, it was announced The Sims 4 is coming to Steam later this year.

The Sims 4 isn’t the only game coming to Steam. Earlier this week Titanfall 2, A Way Out, and Dead Space 3 have all come to the storefront, with Burnout Paradise releasing today as well. There is a big concerted effort from EA right now to shift from Origin, so much so that EA Access is also coming to Steam later this year.

Next up came the indie studios with their games being published by EA, first up was Josef Fares of Hazelight talking about It Takes Two. You know, Josef Fares; That guy that swore at the Game Awards and said the Oscars can shove it. His studios’ next game following A Way Out is a co-op action-adventure platformer, and quite frankly I don’t think we’ve seen anything solid about it. The video features video of the studio making the game, possible concept art, and animation to enhance Fares’ explanation. I want to see more, but we’ll find out more about the game in the next year, as it is set to release in 2021.

Following Fares and clips of Hazelight studios, we got a look at what Zoink have been working on. They previously worked on Fe for EA as well as Flipping Death and Stick it to the Man! as indie projects. Next, the studio is making a game called Lost in Random, a beautiful 3D action-adventure where you play as a young woman fighting monstrous demons in a world run by chance. She makes friends with a D-6 and they team up to take on the ultimate villain of the world. If there was anything in this showcase I liked it was Lost in Random, which is releasing sometime next year.

Next up, and lastly, is the reveal that Final Strike Games are making a multiplayer arena shooter. Similarly to Apex Legends, Rocket Arena is a multiplayer shooter with nothing but rockets for shooting. With a very cartoonish look, and featuring a song from Green Day’s latest album; it feels like EA are trying to strike gold twice in the same vein, almost begging children to like this new thing. There will be 100 in-game levels to work through and cosmetics will unlock on everyone, which means that it is another one of those games I know I’ll be ignoring. Releasing on the 14th of July, Rocket Arena will feature cross-play from release, with the first season of content coming on July 28th.

Following that was a long presentation of the next cash cow that was revealed earlier in the week thanks to some leaks. Star Wars: Squadrons is a Star Wars-themed dog-fighting game that is set for release on October 2nd. It will feature cross-play between consoles and PC as well as VR within that cross-play. The event’s host Greg Miller conducted a rather softball interview, which I can’t really fault him for, and we learned nothing new we could have gleaned from the press release from earlier in the week. However, we did get a gameplay overview, talking about the ships, the single-player aspect and how that feeds into multiplayer, and more.

Following that, we got a bit of a lead into what would normally be the shareholder’s conference portion: Sports ball. Lamar Jackson, the cover star of Madden: NFL 21, introduced a package of the sports and how they will look even more like actual sports if you make an in-engine bullshot video. What I found strange about the package was the switch between three voices: One talking about the NFL, one talking about FIFA, and a woman or very high pitched young man, i’m not certain. Is this meant to tease the women’s world cup being included in FIFA 21 this year? If so, I’m in, because the women’s world cup last year was ace!

After that, we got a little chat with EA studio head Laura Miele talking about next-gen, the developers behind games, showing off tech demos of things to come, and a couple of clips from studios with games coming in 2022 and beyond. Criterion is working on a car game that isn’t proper Burnout, so I don’t care. Bioware has been working on what many assume to be the next Dragon Age, and Dice is working on the next Battlefield. Meanwhile, EA Motive, the studio behind Squadrons, is also working on what looks to be an open-world Prototype-like game where you’ll jump off buildings and smash into the ground at stupid speeds, splitting a granny in twine.

However, that’s not the last announcement. Instead, EA caved to the pressure of the internet and gave them Skate 4. Well, kind of. It has been announced that two men behind Skate 3, Deran Chung and Chris “Cuz” Parry, are heading up the project, but they are keeping quiet about the game. With a bit of digging, a bit of research, and general knowledge, both men are listed as working for two different studios: Kabam and PopCap Studios. The latter is known for making Plants Vs Zombies and the former made hundreds of mobile and Facebook games. Has your hope dwindled yet? Good because EA doesn’t give you good things.

As Parry and Chung say in the very short segment, you willed this into existence. There is no confirmation of systems, release date, or anything of detail, all we know is “it is early.” Am I hopeful that the people who have been chanting to bang their balls against a railing again will shut up? Yes, but do I hope it is a proper game? Also yes, do I think it will be? It is EA and some studios that make little more than Bejeweled. That answers itself.

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