 So it's midway through the first big day of announcements here at E3 and EA just wrapped up its press conference. Sometimes this was incredibly exciting and exhilarating and sometimes you just wanted to turn it off and stop watching. It was so dull. So we're going to go ahead and try to cut out all the bad bits and just give you the best. There's basically one thing that everybody came into this event wanting to see and that is Star Wars Battlefront, which is an online shooter set in the Star Wars universe. In Battlefront you can either join the Empire or the Rebellion and EA has compared it to a virtual toy box where you get to act out being in any battle you ever wanted to be in in Star Wars. Battlefront's always sounded pretty cool but we haven't gotten to see much of it until today when EA gave us five minutes of what it calls pre-alpha Battlefront footage. And that footage seriously shows you a lot of stuff. You can shoot down AT-ATs and shoot things down with a TIE fighter and use a lightsaber and force powers and anything that you tried to act out with your friends after seeing the movie when you were a kid. Of course the problem is that we're not actually seeing a game. When it says pre-alpha footage it means they picked everything they thought would be cool and stuffed it into one level. So whatever we end up seeing when it comes out later this year is going to be pretty different. But this does show that EA knows what is cool and it knows what we do want to see and hopefully they're going to be able to actually translate that into a game. So unfortunately not everything was this much fun to watch. If you like sports games EA has a lot of the best and they've refreshed just about every single one of them. But they didn't manage to really communicate why you'd want these. Everything looks better, everything has some new features, you can scan your face and put it actually into the game with this new 3D scanning technology that hopefully won't look like a terrifying uncanny valley, although we haven't gotten to try it out. But the whole thing just ended up dragging on maybe because they spent way, way too long in an interview with Pele and we wish we could just unsee that. And EA did bring back a couple of our old favorites, just the games that have become modern classics that people love playing. One of them is Mass Effect. There's going to be a new game called Mass Effect Andromeda and it's set in the Mass Effect universe but it's not going to star Commander Shepard, it's a new story. We don't actually know a whole lot besides that except that apparently it looks really good with the Johnny Cash song, which is a little bit of a change from the epic sci-fi space opera that we've gotten used to. So we're going to be waiting for details on that. And then there's a game that's kind of a personal favorite of mine, which is Mirror's Edge. Mirror's Edge had a ton of flaws but it also just managed to be a fantastic experience when they got it right. And now they've got another game that's a prequel called Mirror's Edge Catalyst where they have a chance to do that. And the trailer captures a lot of the things I really liked about the first game, but we don't get to actually watch anybody play it so we don't know if they fixed those flaws. Sometimes E3 can just feel like a cavalcade of guns but EA's keynote was actually pretty varied. There's this adorable little yarn creature and there's a new plants vs zombies garden warfare game. And then there's racing and then there's all the sports. But it looks like the thing we're going to be most excited for for this coming year is these big epic story experiences like Star Wars and Mass Effect. And apparently we're going to be really excited about Space too since that's both of those. If you want more details you can check out our full write up on theverge.com or you can watch a far more watchable condensed super cut of this keynote on YouTube. So just stay with us for the rest of E3. We're going to keep bringing you all of the news and all of the games that we're seeing here.
 So it's midway through the first big day of announcements here at E3 and EA just wrapped
 up its press conference.
 Sometimes this was incredibly exciting and exhilarating and sometimes you just wanted
 to turn it off and stop watching.
 It was so dull.
 So we're going to go ahead and try to cut out all the bad bits and just give you the
 best.
 There's basically one thing that everybody came into this event wanting to see and that
 is Star Wars Battlefront, which is an online shooter set in the Star Wars universe.
 In Battlefront you can either join the Empire or the Rebellion and EA has compared it to
 a virtual toy box where you get to act out being in any battle you ever wanted to be
 in in Star Wars.
 Battlefront's always sounded pretty cool but we haven't gotten to see much of it until
 today when EA gave us five minutes of what it calls pre-alpha Battlefront footage.
 And that footage seriously shows you a lot of stuff.
 You can shoot down AT-ATs and shoot things down with a TIE fighter and use a lightsaber
 and force powers and anything that you tried to act out with your friends after seeing
 the movie when you were a kid.
 Of course the problem is that we're not actually seeing a game.
 When it says pre-alpha footage it means they picked everything they thought would be cool
 and stuffed it into one level.
 So whatever we end up seeing when it comes out later this year is going to be pretty
 different.
 But this does show that EA knows what is cool and it knows what we do want to see and hopefully
 they're going to be able to actually translate that into a game.
 So unfortunately not everything was this much fun to watch.
 If you like sports games EA has a lot of the best and they've refreshed just about every
 single one of them.
 But they didn't manage to really communicate why you'd want these.
 Everything looks better, everything has some new features, you can scan your face and put
 it actually into the game with this new 3D scanning technology that hopefully won't look
 like a terrifying uncanny valley, although we haven't gotten to try it out.
 But the whole thing just ended up dragging on maybe because they spent way, way too long
 in an interview with Pele and we wish we could just unsee that.
 And EA did bring back a couple of our old favorites, just the games that have become
 modern classics that people love playing.
 One of them is Mass Effect.
 There's going to be a new game called Mass Effect Andromeda and it's set in the Mass
 Effect universe but it's not going to star Commander Shepard, it's a new story.
 We don't actually know a whole lot besides that except that apparently it looks really
 good with the Johnny Cash song, which is a little bit of a change from the epic sci-fi
 space opera that we've gotten used to.
 So we're going to be waiting for details on that.
 And then there's a game that's kind of a personal favorite of mine, which is Mirror's
 Edge.
 Mirror's Edge had a ton of flaws but it also just managed to be a fantastic experience
 when they got it right.
 And now they've got another game that's a prequel called Mirror's Edge Catalyst where
 they have a chance to do that.
 And the trailer captures a lot of the things I really liked about the first game, but we
 don't get to actually watch anybody play it so we don't know if they fixed those flaws.
 Sometimes E3 can just feel like a cavalcade of guns but EA's keynote was actually pretty
 varied.
 There's this adorable little yarn creature and there's a new plants vs zombies garden
 warfare game.
 And then there's racing and then there's all the sports.
 But it looks like the thing we're going to be most excited for for this coming year is
 these big epic story experiences like Star Wars and Mass Effect.
 And apparently we're going to be really excited about Space too since that's both of those.
 If you want more details you can check out our full write up on theverge.com or you can
 watch a far more watchable condensed super cut of this keynote on YouTube.
 So just stay with us for the rest of E3.
 We're going to keep bringing you all of the news and all of the games that we're seeing
 here.