E3: EA – Buy / Rent / Skip Star Wars: Battlefront Rent – This series was amazing on the PS2, but will they stand the test of time and can DICE catch lightning in a bottle twice? The team is wisely using the love of the original trilogy but will that be enough? This game, like many that will follow also suffers from being revealed well ahead of release date, making a final judgment difficult. Dragon Age: Inquisition Rent – More Monster Hunter than Dragon Age at this point. This game does promise to have a complex system of characters and abilities. Sometimes this results in everything being flat because not enough attention is given to any one aspect, other times it helps create a complex and interesting world. Mass Effect Buy – Nothing is truly known about this next installment except for the fact Bioware is working on it. ME was the best new IP of the PS3 generation and hopefully Bioware can continue the trend. I loved all of the original trilogy and have high hopes for this installment. Sims 4 Skip – The Sims never grabbed me and this doesn’t seem to be any different. If you enjoyed Sims 3 and are willing to pay full price for DLC than this game is a must for you. UFC Skip – Random citizens can’t name a single UFC fighter, to solve this issue EA pays the estate of Bruce Lee to use his likeness. I think this is a callous and crude maneuver. Will it sell games, absolutely but it won’t make anyone like UFC more than before. NHL / PGA Tour / Madden / FIFA 15 Skip – More so than any other series, the annualized sports entries are consistent. If you like them, then you are in good shape. If you are like me and avoid them, then you’ll probably do the same this year. Dawngate Skip – MOBAs make companies tons of money. EA likes money. This entry attempts to tap into the cash cow and add some extra revenue to their books. Nothing has been revealed that makes me think this will be any different than other MOBAs available. Mirror’s Edge 2 Skip – The first Mirror’s Edge was a devise game. You either hated the parkour first-person adventure or loved it. I didn’t care for the mechanics and found the experience frustrating and the world to be flat. This reveal used the first entry as concept footage and didn’t showcase why newcomers should care. Battlefield: Hardline Skip – Continuing the trend of ‘borrowing’ concepts, EA looks to lift the elements of Payday and put them into the Battlefield engine. Cops and robbers battle it out in objective based combat. Think Counter Striker or Rainbow Six or any other such game. Level Up, Friends!
