What were the highlights of EA Play 2021? | Team Talk

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While most publishers stuck with E3 to put out their biggest annual updates, Electronic Arts pushed its EA Play event back to late July to avoid the competition. With four spotlights building hype towards the final showcase, we’ve heard about all sorts of games - but what stood out?

What was your personal highlight, from this or any of the EA events this year? Let us know in the comments.

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by James Michael Parry

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​@James_Parry

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by Team PTC

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@pass_controller

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James | Battlefield Portal

Some of my best multiplayer moments have been with the Battlefield franchise, and as we’d already had the game’s reveal last month, I wasn’t expecting more at the show. Then the mix-and-match Battlefield Portal mode appeared, immediately grabbing my attention.

Custom games often don’t get traction because, for example, they can involve players needing to download custom versions of maps before they can join in. What makes Portal different is that the games are all based on the standard maps, including a few we might recognise sprinkled in from earlier games, and the player just sets the rules, going as far as playing around with the logic engine which controls how the game works at a developer level.

Pitting futuristic weapons against WWII hardware, as we saw in the reveal, is one obvious place to go, but there’s a lot of ways the different options could be combined to create some really interesting gaming experiences.

The prospect of taking on these with a squad of friends is exciting, providing the other players follow the rules in the spirit they’re intended. The balancing of these modes might be difficult, but hopefully how it’s managed by the game will mean the best rise to the top.

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Sam | Lost in Random

Electronic Arts does a pretty stellar job of selecting which independent titles to publish under its EA Originals label. Lost in Random looks to continue that tradition, blending real-time platforming and combat with card-based upgrades and attacks.

It’s a dark, Tim Burton-esque fantasy in which everybody decides their future with a single roll of the dice. Not content to live a future dictated by random chance, protagonist Even and her companion Dicey (a literal dice) set out to dethrone the wicked monarchy.

Lost in Random is the kind of creative oddity we used to see in the mainstream just a few console generations ago. Now that the big players are more interested in converging on the same ideas to maximise profit, the game is a breath of fresh air and at the same time somewhat nostalgic.

On another nostalgic note, EA Play ended with the reveal of Dead Space - a remake of the 2008 original. Having replayed it last Halloween, I can’t help but think that a reboot or a sequel would’ve been better. It still holds up well, and, thanks to EA’s subscription service, it’s still widely available. Accounting for all that, it honestly seems a bit redundant.

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Liam | Battlefield Portal

​Like James, I’ve fond memories of the Battlefield franchise, so Battlefield Portal was an obvious highlight seeing as it mashes up some of the series’ best bits into one big playground. While the scope and potential of such a mode is certainly impressive, it would’ve been good to hear more about the game’s other modes, including the rumoured Escape from Tarkov-style match type.

I was already on board when it was just a straight up shooter, but Portal should add plenty of longevity and variety to what’s sure to be a superb game. Communities usually come up with some novel ideas whenever they're given the opportunity to do so by developers, and considering DICE and Ripple Effect have basically given players carte blanche (not to mention the size of the playerbase the game will attract), I’m expecting big things from this mode.

Elsewhere, I thought GRID Legends looked quite interesting. I enjoyed the 2019 GRID reboot, but it did feel like it was lacking some personality, even with its excellent nemesis system - the live action story mode this time around could potentially remedy that.

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What was your EA Play highlight?