Electronic Arts

My Weekend with the Battlefield V Open Beta

Battlefield V looks to bring a ton back from its critically and commercially successful predecessor year’s Battlefield 1. The series’ current waiving of numbering convention confuses me a tad — Battlefield V is a sequel to Battlefield 1, but its official numbering means it technically comes after Battlefield 4, which was a modern warfare shooter. …

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I Tried to Bone the Scarecrow in The Sims 4: Seasons

Seasons is one of the latest expansion packs for 2014’s The Sims 4, and much like its predecessors, it integrates brand new, year-round weather features, new activities, career paths, furniture and more. In terms of added features, Seasons is an essential expansion, providing a structured calendar complete with themed seasonal events such as Love Day,…

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Games Review: Madden NFL 19 doesn’t iterate much on last year and that’s perfectly fine

I’ve brought this up before but it bears repeating: while it’s easy to think of sports sims as lazy annual rehashes, upgrading or altering a few aspects of a game to justify their existence, the truth is that that’s rarely the case. Madden NFL 18 strode boldly into new territory, finally making the jump to…

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Games Review: Burnout Paradise Remastered (Xbox One X, 2017): Throwback Thursday

If Burnout Paradise Remastered does anything, it makes the EA of 2008 look like a benevolent creativity incubator when compared to the strife-prone publisher of today. For one thing, the game is great fun. For another, its clear that developer Criterion was given the room they needed to properly execute on their vision. It’s a…

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Games Review: Fe (Xbox One, 2018): Beautiful, but oblique

You ever sit down with a game, settle in with it, familiarise yourself with the controls and prepare for the inevitable hook that will lead you on your quest? My experience with Fe was fine right up until the part where the hook was supposed to arrive. It never did. Forty minutes after booting the…

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Games Review: EA Sports UFC 3: A worthy opponent

EA Sports UFC 3 marks EA’s the third tilt at creating an authentic, complex mixed martial arts experience. While it’s not a total knockout punch, it’s safe to say UFC 3 provides hardcore and casual fans alike with a reasonably accessible fighting sim.

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EA dumps Star Wars Battlefront 2 microtransactions hours ahead of launch

I sense a disturbance in the Force, as if a million voices cried out in anger and were suddenly victorious. With only a few hours remaining before it officially launches in the US, EA have announced that Star Wars Battlefront II will no longer offer paid microtransactions.

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Games Review: Star Wars Battlefront 2 (Xbox One X, 2017): Tempted, but not quite giving in to the Dark Side

Star Wars Battlefront II, a game mired in launch window controversy. Is it as terrible as the screaming denizens of the internet would have you believe or is it all being blown out of proportion? For our Battlefront II review, we thought we’d split it into two discrete components — the single player campaign, reviewed by…

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Games Review: Need for Speed Payback (Xbox One X, 2017): Grind before fun

If I can communicate anything to you about Need for Speed Payback, it’s this: when the game first asks you to pick a car, choose wisely. Choose wisely, because you’re going to have that car for a really, really long time.

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EA and DICE retool Star Wars Battlefront II‘s loot box and progression systems

Following player ire regarding Star Wars Battlefront II‘s implementation of loot box and XP progression systems during the game’s last beta period, Electronic Arts and developer DICE have announced a re-balancing of both systems in time for launch.

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EA shutters Visceral Games, in-development Star Wars title delayed indefinitely

Electronic Arts have closed the doors on in-house developer Visceral Games. The publisher announced the closure in a blog post from executive vice president Patrick Söderlund, along with the news that they would be making rather sweeping changes to Visceral’s still unnamed Star Wars adventure game. 

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EB Expo’s return to the Gold Coast is a successful one

This weekend saw the EB Expo return to its roots, overtaking the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre for the first time in five years. It was, by all accounts, a successful homecoming.

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Games Review: NBA Live 18 (PS4, 2017) is a step forward for a series overshadowed by the competition

Do you remember the last time you played an entry in the NBA Live series? Me either. More or less off the radar for about a decade at this point, the series is back in the public eye this year with NBA Live 18, a basketball sim with a clear desire to leave the series’ average reputation behind.

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Video Games Review: Madden NFL 18 (PS4, 2017) is somehow both the same game and a very different one

As of this filing, I will have now reviewed fully three instalments of the Madden NFL series for this website. Reviewing sports titles, as I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, is one of the easier aspects of the gig as a games critic — the games don’t change much year-to-year and they are, by and large, quite…

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EA officially announces Star Wars Battlefront II

Though its existence has been something of an open secret for a while now, Electronic Arts have formally announced the follow-up to their 2015 shooter Star Wars Battlefront. Moreover, Star Wars Battlefront II will have its first official showing at Star Wars Celebration 2017.

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Video Games Review: Mass Effect: Andromeda (PS4, 2016) isn’t great, it’s just good and that’s okay

Mass Effect has been a series on my personal review Bucket List for quite some time. I wasn’t yet working as a journalist and critic when Mass Effect 3 was released in 2012 and so Bioware’s big post-Shepard return to the series, Mass Effect: Andromeda, was in my sights. Having finally crossed this particular item off my bucket list,…

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Video Games Preview: Space Politics and Alien Sex Make A Grand Return In Mass Effect: Andromeda

Mass Effect: Andromeda is going to be one hell of a game. From the moment I was introduced to the space-bound crew of the Ark Hyperion, hurtling as we were to realms unknown, I knew I was in this for the long haul. I will admit to having little prior experience with the Mass Effect…

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Here’s the new Mass Effect: Andromeda teaser direct from CES 2017

Bioware general manager Aaryn Flynn took the stage during Nvidia’s press conference during CES 2017 today to debut the latest look at the hotly anticipated sci-fi RPG, Mass Effect: Andromeda. You can check out the new trailer, running on Nvidia’s very latest GTX graphics hardware, after the jump.

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Mass Effect: Andromeda finally confirms March launch date

Ahead  of their appearance at Nvidia’s keynote address at CES 2017 today, Bioware and Electronic Arts have unveiled the official release date for their upcoming sci-fi RPG Mass Effect: Andromeda.

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New Mass Effect Andromeda gameplay trailer demo’s the fight for a new home

The wait for footage from Bioware’s space-faring role-player Mass Effect Andromeda has been an excruciatingly long one, but it seems the gates are slowly beginning to open. The latest gameplay trailer debuted during The Game Awards last night and takes us on a guided tour of some the galaxy’s most hostile planets.

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Mass Effect 2 and 3 now available on Xbox One

The entire original Mass Effect trilogy is now compatible with Xbox One Backwards Compatibility. Both titles dropped for the console as a part of EA’s N7 Day celebrations.

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“You’re the new Pathfinder.” Mass Effect Andromeda‘s new trailer is here!

Following yesterday’s announcement of a new Mass Effect Andromeda trailer, EA and Bioware have delivered on their promise. The new cinematic trailer times in with a number of other Mass Effect related announcements for N7 Day. You can check out the trailer in full below the jump.

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Hold onto your butts: Bioware is going to drop a new Mass Effect Andromeda trailer in the next 24 hours

Happy N7 Day, Australian Mass Effect fans! With November 7 deemed the annual Mass Effect date of note, it makes sense that EA marketing would want to make the most of it and give the long-suffering, information-starved community a little something-something. Good news: the official Mass Effect Twitter account has confirmed a new Mass Effect Andromeda trailer is imminent.

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EA bails out of E3 2016, creates own seperate event EA Play

EA continues is longstanding tradition of marching to the beat of its own rather odd drum, announcing today that they have released their booth space at this year’s E3 Expo in favour of holding an event of their own the weekend prior.

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Games Review: Battlefield Hardline (PS4, 2015)

Battlefield Hardline takes the venerable combat FPS series in some pretty new directions. Eschewing military combat for a cops-vs-robbers angle, Hardline works hard to make the most of it’s premise. If you’re reading this review, it’s probably to find out what the game’s multiplayer is like – Battlefield’s multi has long been it’s big draw….

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Games Review: Dragon Age Inquisition (Xbox One, 2014)

Where do you start with a game like Dragon Age: Inquisition? Bioware have unleashed on an unprepared world a game with so much to see and do that it defies belief. Bioware have taken the lessons they learned from Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II and their mechanically similar Mass Effect series and applied them…

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