E3 2019: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Apex Legends, The Sims 4 and everything announced at EA Play

E3, the video game industry's biggest event of the year has just kicked off with EA Play. Instead of a traditional conference, EA decided to run through a mix of games including new titles like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and established titles like Apex Legends and The Sims 4. 

Here's what they revealed in order.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

EA showed off its highly anticipated new game, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. which will tell the tale of a light saber-wielding hero shortly after Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine grabbed power and formed the evil empire. 

During the event, which was held Saturday June 8, EA showed about 15 minutes of gameplay, showing what people will experience about three hours into the story. In it, you play as Cal Kestis, a Jedi-in-training who wields a blue light saber. He also has a companion droid who sits on his back called BD-1. You can watch here.

Apex Legends

A lot of announcements for Apex Legends. There's a new weapon called the L-STAR, which is only included a part of a care package drop because apparently it's "so OP"! A ranked mode is coming as part of Season 2.

But the big news of the day for Apex Legends: a brand new character.

Wattson.

She's an electrical engineer and can place fences to help defend her team.

People seem to be very excited about Wattson.

Battlefield 5

The first piece of big news for Battlefield 5 was a brand new map called Al Sondan. 

The map is a massive one, designed to support players who like the bigger, large scale combat that Battlefield is famous for.

There was also Marita.

But for those of you who prefer the more intimate aspects of Battlefield, another brand new map: Operation Underground. It's full of flanking routes and opportunities to surprise players. 

Chapter V of Battlefield V was also a big focus. The team are attempting to recreate the conflict of Iwo Jima. With that comes a new set of weapons and vehicles specific to that theatre of war.

FIFA 20

EA Play focused very heavily on the new Volta mode -- basically a new version of FIFA Street that will be integrated into the main games. Makes sense. 

I like the idea of this being just another mode in FIFA rather than a seperate game. Volta is designed to reflect the kind of street football I played when I was a youngster. Pick up games basically! With that comes female character creators, the ability to customise your gear and your look. 

As for the main game, a lot of chat on subtle AI and dribbling updates. As usual with this stuff, it's difficult to see how this stuff works without actually playing. 

There's also a new free kick and penalty system. With free kicks players have full control of the spin based on how you use the right analogue stick. Interesting.

Madden NFL 2020

A lot of chat here about live updates to the game during the NFL season. For example if a team uses a new play in a game, EA will find a way to have that play exist in the in-game playbook. I don't understand NFL in the slightest, but that sort of dynamic sounds great for super intense NFL fans. 

Also they revealed this super star journey trailer.

Patrick Mahomes II, the quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs (I had to Google this), is the face of this mode.

The Sims 4

Sims 4 Island living is here! It's confirmed and it is a thing that is happening. It's available July 16th on consoles and July 21st on PC. 

There's new fashion stuff, which you would have expected. But one of the big parts of the game is the Sims can GO INTO THE WATER. They can scuba dive and stuff.

The game also has an active volcano, which I'm hoping you can use to plan elaborate deaths for your Sims. 

Big same.

Also: you can make friends with dolphins. I repeat: you can make friends with dolphins. 

The Sims 4 also has eco-friendly themes. If you don't take care of the island, with littering and what-not, the island changes for the worse. So a big part of the gameplay will involve looking after the environment. Very cool.

Look, Mermaids are also in the game. You can create mermaids, design them. They have powers. I really need to know if we can 'woohoo' mermaids.

Finally, because The Sims is just so ridiculously wholesome, the game is partnering with It Gets Better to provide Pride items in-game. Excellent.

Skate 4

Oh my god! Can you believe they finally announced Skate 4!

Sorry, nope that didn't happen. That was it. Yep, that was it. You can all go home now. 

Upcoming E3 press conferences

Saturday, June 8

• Electronic Arts -- The game maker showed off 15 minutes of gameplay for its upcoming adventure game, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. It also announced new features for its free-to-download Apex Legends last-man-standing battle royale game, offering a new character and weapon to play with. The company also showed off a new paid update for The Sims 4, called Island Living, that brings the series to a tropical beach. Finally, the company did discuss drama over the mixed reviews for its Anthem action adventure game, saying it "learned a lot" and had more updates and features planned soon.
  

Sunday, June 9

• Microsoft / Xbox -- The gaming giant's biggest news was Project Scarlett, its next-generation Xbox, coming in 2020. The new device is up to 4x more powerful, the company said, and like the next-gen PlayStation it'll include a fast non-mechanical SSD hard drive, and it'll be powered by custom innards built with the help of chipmaker AMD.  The company also announced that Halo Infinite will launch alongside Project Scarlett next year. Meantime, Microsoft is starting public tests of its Project xCloud streaming service in October, promising people the ability to play high end games on their mobile devices while away from home. While fans wait, Microsoft announced an update to its Xbox Elite Controller Series 2 as well as a slew of new games. And action star Keanu Reeves, fresh off the success of John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum, was on stage to announce his involvement with Cyberpunk 2077, which is coming next year.
  
• Bethesda -- Bethesda kicked off its event with humility over the mixed response to Fallout 76, but quickly went back on the offensive. Fallout 76 got a new Battle Royale mode, Wolfenstein Youngblood received a new trailer and a co-op mode. We got a new game called Deathloop from the clever folks behind Dishonored and Bethesda introduced us to Orion, a piece of tech from ID Software designed to make game streaming better on services like Google Stadia. The lion's share of attention, however, went to Doom Eternal, which looked fantastic in both single player and multiplayer.

Monday, June 10

• PC Gaming Show -- This annual PC Gaming Show is held at a theater a short walk from the Los Angeles Convention Center, but still draws a large crowd, filling the 1,700-person capacity downtown Mayan Theater. Inside, the usual suspects, from Halo to Doom, were nowhere to be found. Instead, the crowd cheered for PC-centric games including Zombie Army 4, Baldur's Gate 3 and Terraria: Journey's End. (No, the game sequel problem isn't any better on PCs.) The highlight was a brief onstage appearance by legendary game designer Yu Suzuki, responsible for classics such as Hang-On and Virtua Fighter. His long-awaited Shenmue 3 is expected in November, 18 years after Shenmue 2. 
• Ubisoft -- The French gaming giant announced its next big dystopian hacking adventure game, Watch Dogs: Legion, launching March 2020. The new game is set in near-future post-Brexit London, where the economy is failing and government is breaking down. The company also announced a new television show, called Mythic Quest, that will launch on Apple TV Plus. And it celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Just Dance party games. 
  
• Square Enix -- Aside from the Final Fantasy 7 remake release date announcement, Square Enix also showed off its new comic book tie-in, Marvel's Avengers: A Day. Though the new game is different from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, some fans criticized the character's looks. It's coming in 2020.
  

Tuesday, June 11

• Nintendo -- The Mario maker surprised fans with announcement of a new Legend of Zelda game, which appeared to be a direct sequel to the critical darling The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This new title appears to be a sequel to Breath of the Wild, too. It also announced its newest Animal Crossing game is being delayed to 2020, and gave a look at Luigi's Mansion 3, coming later this year.

We're there

CNET will be on the ground, covering covering E3 2019 alongside our sister site, Gamespot. We'll update this page throughout the show as more games are announced.

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We're there

CNET will be on the ground, covering covering E3 2019 alongside our sister site, Gamespot. We'll update this page throughout the show as more games are announced.

The 17 most anticipated video games of 2019

+14 more

See all photos