First teased at last year's press conference, we finally got an idea of what the third Dragon Age will play like. But first EA teased us more with a trailer that showed various glimpses of the game's fantasy world. Highlights included a green beam of energy descending from the clouds, a third-person view of a character navigating a city, and a dragon.

Players will create their own main character in Inquisition, one whose past and motivations are shrouded in mystery. Presumably you'll fill in the blanks as you play the game and make choices that affect the story.

The main character will be accompanied by a team as with past games. Some of its members include a bearded Gray Warden, a female elfish archer, a brawny Kunari mercenary who fights with a giant hammer, and a dark-skinned female mage. Each of these teammates will have his or her own unique backstory to discover as the game progresses.

Inquisition's combat debuted via actual gameplay footage. Players can choose between two combat systems: action and tactical. Action looked very exciting, with the team working together to take down a dragon. The behind-the-back camera switched between various party members, seemingly at the player's will. We didn't get much of a look at tactical mode, but it utilizes an overhead perspective and pauses between turns like in traditional RPGs.





Bioware (which includes the proper Montreal studio as well as EA's Austin studio) is also hard at work on two more games: a new Mass Effect, and a brand-new IP. Nothing was revealed about the new Mass Effect other than plans to feature new places, characters, and regions of space.

As for the new IP, we glimpsed a fantasy world with day, night, and weather cycles – and that's it. I'm sure EA will reveal more later this year or at E3 next year.





Criterion is the UK-based studio that created the Burnout series of racing games as well as developing some Need for Speed titles. Although the studio doesn't have a new Burnout in the works, the game it's working on actually looks much more exciting. It doesn't have a name though!

The new game will still feature lots of driving…. Just not so many cars. Instead, players will get to drive or pilot an unrivaled array of vehicles, including helicopters, boats, jetskis, ATVs, wingsuits, parachutes, and snowmobiles! And the whole game will take place in the first-person perspective – possibly without the option to switch to a third-person view.

Presumably we'll get to crash some of those vehicles as well. But the game is still very early in development (as evidenced by the lack of title), so specific details are still scarce. This will be Criterion's largest title ever – let's hope the fun matches the increase in scope!





Like Dragon Age, our first tease of Mirror's Edge 2 came during last year's press conference. The new video introduction focused on the design of Faith, the same protagonist from the first game. She dresses in black and white and has minimal dabs of color as accents. And she is a runner, someone who uses parkour to deliver information while evading the oppressive governmental authorities.

After talking Faith up a bit, DICE shared some lovely prototype footage from the game. Unlike the Windows Phone game, Mirror's Edge 2 takes place in a first-person perspective. Faith will run, jump, and slide across rooftops, scaffolding, and zip-lines as she crosses levels that feature multiple routes. She also engages in melee combat, punching and kicking the evil police who would thwart her mission.

Being that Mirror's Edge 2 is still in the prototype stage, we shouldn't expect it until 2015.





It looks like EA plans to make Battlefield an annualized series, just like its biggest competitor Call of Duty. Since DICE is busy with Star Wars Battlefront and Mirror's Edge 2, the development duties go to Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores) – makers of the Dead Space series.

Hardline is a major departure from the traditional military settings of the Battlefield series. The new focus is the war on the streets between cops and criminals. That means new worlds, weapons, and ways to play. Players will be able to play on either side and engage in both a campaign and large-scale multiplayer matches. The campaign will be more cinematic than other FPS titles, playing out like a televised crime drama.

EA showed footage from a 32-player game of Heist, a new multiplayer mode. Despite being multiplayer, the Heist started out with a conversation between cops being news footage of a major heist in progress. It looked cool and seemed to build off of Titanfall's story-based multiplayer concepts.

Once the game starts, the criminal side of the game must collect a package and escape with it while the cops try to stop them. The two sides will fight it out on foot as well as utilizing vehicles, a staple of the series. We saw player-controller police cars, Armored Personnel Carriers, bikes, and helicopters. The destructible environments that featured so heavily in Battlefield 4 return, with a crane or similar structure crashing through a building and causing major havoc on the battlefield.

When the footage focused on the criminals, we caught side of the bad guys fighting off cops with baseball bats, sawed off shotguns, and other appropriate armaments. The crooks escaped from a skyscraper via zipline to another rooftop where their helicopter anxiously awaited. Although the bad team managed to take off in their chopper, the match didn't end there. The cops shot them down and we saw the fall from one of the crooks' perspectives.

Battlefield Hardline is due out on Xbox One, 360, PC, and Playstation systems on October 21. Hopefully it won't suffer from persistent technical issues like Battlefield 4. To that end, EA announced that a closed beta for the game starts today. Bad news for Xbox enthusiasts: the beta is only for PC and Playstation 4! To sign up, head to battlefield.com/hardline/beta.



Others

Electronic Arts also showcased The Sims 4, which is set to be released on September 2. On The Sims 4, you virtual people will have "heart," can die of laughter and you can import someone else's custom person (or house, even) directly into your game, pretty simply from the look of it.

EA also showcased a MOBA called Dawngate for PC, plus several sports games: EA Sports UFC (which looks great), NHL 15, EA Sports PGA Tour, Madden NFL 15, and FIFA 15. We'll take a closer look at those sports titles shortly.

What do you think of what EA has planned for this season of gaming? Share your thoughts with us in the following comments section.


source - Electronic Arts

Sony is coming to E3 2014 as the top console maker. With a larger number of exclusive titles, better specs and a more affordable price, the PlayStation 4 won the first round of the new generation of gaming consoles. With Microsoft's Xbox team working hard at a comeback, Sony will have to continue its trend in order to stay on top. So lets find out what they have in store for us at this year's E3.

[UPDATE] Those who missed the livestream, can now enjoy the video on demand



The conference is set to take place at 9.00 PM EDT | 6.00 PM PDT

source - Microsoft

Microsoft demonstrated the previously rumored XBox SmartGlass during the ongoing E3. SmartGlass is a feature will allows you to interact with your Xbox using a second screen of your tablet or smartphone.

Microsoft demonstrated some of the features which will be available through the service.

Xbox SmartGlass allows you to watch movies on multiple devices seamlessly. This means that you can watch something on one device and easily continue from where you left off on another. Another feature allows you to indulge in bonus content on a second device while one device plays your video. The bonus content could be facts or information about the episode you are watching as Microsoft demonstrated with Game of Thrones during their presentation.




The Xbox SmartGlass feature will also be extended to the Xbox gaming, and will work alongside Kinect or provide users with a richer navigating experience when browsing web pages.


Xbox SmartGlass will work with Windows 8 and Windows Phone devices and also be extended to iOS devices.