EA Play Live returns for an all-digital event next month

By Mark Delaney May 4, 2020

EA revealed its summer gaming event, EA Play, will return in 2020, but this time it will be presented entirely online. EA Play Live, as it’s called this year, will kick off on June 11 at 7 p.m. ET, where it will be streamed on EA’s website, Twitch, and YouTube.

EA says fans can expect “world premieres, news, and more,” though it didn’t add any more specifics. Still, it’s safe to assume at least a few annual sports simulators will make appearances on the virtual stage, such as Madden NFL, NHL, and FIFA. Other projects in the works under EA’s massive umbrella include a Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sequel, a second Star Wars game rumored to be code-named Project Maverick, and more sequels to two of its biggest franchises, Battlefield at DICE and Dragon Age at BioWare.

Recommended Videos

EA Play has been held annually since 2016, following the publisher’s move away from the E3 show floor in favor of hosting its own event the same week at the Hollywood Theater in Los Angeles. This will be the first EA Play show to not feature a live audience to help fans, creators, and journalists stay safe during the coronavirus pandemic.

EA is just the latest E3 attendee to shift to a digital event following the Entertainment Software Association’s cancellation of E3 2020. Sony backed out of E3 even before the pandemic, though the company promised it will remain active this summer as it approaches the launch of the PlayStation 5 this fall. Microsoft announced an Inside Xbox stream, which takes place on May 7, with a look at next-gen third-party games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg hinted that there’s more to come this summer, as well. Bethesda, meanwhile, stated it will not hold a digital showcase in place of its typical E3 conference. It remains to be seen what companies such as Nintendo, Ubisoft, and Square Enix do, though the options seem limited to a digital show or nothing.

Many of the scheduled summer gaming events filling the E3 void will fall under the Summer Games Fest banner, a new initiative led by The Game Awards’ Geoff Keighley to keep the hype machine moving in a year without major gaming expos.

Topics

Gaming

Diablo 4 beta rewards: how to earn all titles and cosmetics

Diablo 4 promotional image of Lillith.

Diablo 4's beta is an opportunity for fans of the loot-heavy role-playing game to sink some time into its dark and demonic world before the game launches on June 6. Though you can invest a good bit of time into seeing everything Blizzard has included in the beta, you won't be able to carry the progress you make into the full game, meaning everything you do is just for testing purposes – well, almost everything. By completing a few milestones during the beta, you can earn some neat rewards to use in the full release later this year. Here's how to get them all.
All Diablo 4 beta rewards and how to get them

There are three rewards you can obtain during Diablo 4's beta, including two titles and a unique (and extremely cute) cosmetic – all of which assumedly won't ever be earnable by any other means in the retail game. In other words, if you want anything Blizzard is offering during the beta period, you'll need to devote the time to get them now or risk never having another opportunity.

Gaming

The Finals is the shake-up the competitive first-person shooter scene needs

A player stands up against a wall in a The Finals screenshot.

While I enjoy playing first-person shooters occasionally, it's a genre I've struggled to become a hardcore fan of. To me, it has stagnated, with recent Call of Duty and Battlefield games feeling like little more than rehashes of the same quick-kill-focused gameplay on maps that all blend together after a while. That's why The Finals' longer time-to-kill, unique match objectives, and focus on level destruction all feel like a breath of fresh air.
THE FINALS Closed Beta Trailer
Developed by Embark Studios, the new multiplayer shooter is a notable change of pace for a stagnating genre. Because it takes a lot of effort to defeat an opponent, and the map is continuously changing as you do so, no two matches feel quite the same. I can attest to that, as I recently went hands-on with it and had that exact experience. Lots of thrilling, emergent moments organically happened during each match, leading to some of the most memorable matches I've had playing a first-person shooter in years.
If you've always enjoyed destructible environments in your FPS games and enjoy inventive competitive shooters that aren't just trying to chase what is popular, then you'll want to check out The Finals.
Map mayhem
The Finals' primary mode, Extraction, is framed as a game show where four teams compete to earn the most money during a match. Players do this by locating vaults on a map, obtaining cash boxes, and delivering them to a cash-out station. Extra money is rewarded for kills and a team's total is halved if they are completely wiped. The basics of the FPS gameplay are approachable enough for anyone who has played a game in this genre before. That said, its longer time-to-kill also helps that mission and gives players time to appreciate just how reactive its world is.
In the Closed Beta preview build, I played on two maps based on Monaco and Seoul. Each contains points of interest connected by some indoor arenas and long outdoor corridors that you'd come to expect from an FPS map. But it only stays that way for a short time. As soon as explosives get involved, the map transforms as buildings crumble and the environment reacts to the players. It stays that way too, as developer Embark Studios' server-side technology tracks and accommodates any changes to the map.
Last year, the developers at Embark Studios told Digital Trends that they hope this technology would make other developers panic. While we don't think The Finals will go that far, it certainly handles destruction better than other games that have tried to boast similar strengths, like Crackdown 3 or Battlefield 2042. It's not only a neat technical feat, but it also opens up many organic situations you don't get in other FPS games.

For example, a building was crumbling as I retrieved a cash box and headed to a cash-out station. I was under fire, and an opponent's rocket completely destroyed the pathway to get me to the building my teammates were in. I knew I didn't want the team chasing me to get ahold of the cash box, so I sacrificed myself by throwing the vault across that gap to my teammate before proceeding to hold enemies off as they delivered it to a station.
Even the greenery reacts to the player, especially when they have a flamethrower or flame grenade. At one moment, the station my team was delivering to was out in the open in a park. Other teams were coming at us from all angles, so I threw several fire grenades, and my teammate used a flamethrower. Doing this, we set most of the park aflame, forcing our opponents into pathways where we could pick them off more easily. Floors can crumble beneath you, staircases that get you to objectives can be destroyed, and a lot of map mayhem helps define each match of The Finals.
Leaving your mark
The Finals' destruction creates some compelling dynamics, making the player feel like they are shaping the world that each match takes place in. Players can customize their characters with outfits and special loadouts ahead of matches, and some of these options allow them to set down jump pads and ziplines or use a grappling hook to improve mobility. Turrets, barriers, and mines are also equippable, which can be used to direct the flow of battle and herd opponents into certain sections of the map. One particularly memorable moment saw my team calling two elevators in Seoul, only to find that another team had put a turret in one and all of themselves in another.

Gaming

PlayStation Plus just set a new first-party precedent with Horizon Forbidden West

Horizon: Forbidden West

Sony revealed the games coming to PlayStation Plus Premium and PlayStation Plus Extra this month on February 21, and it's the best month that the service has had since it launched in the summer of 2022. Not only are some great PS1 classics like The Legend of Dragoon and Wild Arms 2 coming to the service, but Horizon Forbbiden West is getting added as well.
Horizon Forbidden West coming to the service one year after launch is a big deal because Sony has been resistant to putting recent first-party PS5 games on its subscription service. While it's still not adding first-party titles on day one like Xbox Game Pass does, this is possibly our first indication of how Sony will handle adding its own games to the subscription. It's not the only PS4 and PS5 title coming to the service this month either, as the following strong lineup of games was also confirmed to be coming on February 21.

The Quarry (PS4, PS5)
Resident Evil VII Biohazard (PS4)
Outriders (PS4, PS5)
Scarlet Nexus (PS4, PS5)
Borderlands 3 (PS4, PS5)
Tekken 7 (PS4, PS5)
Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (PS4)
Earth Defense Force 5 (PS4)
Oninaki (PS4)
Lost Sphear (PS4)
I Am Setsuna (PS4)
The Forgotten City (PS4, PS5)
Destroy All Humans! (PS4)