There are three absolutes in life: Death, Taxes, and a fucking awkward EA E3 press conference.

A couple of things are always a given in an EA presser, like for example, spending way too much time on FIFA. Look, FIFA’s a stupid popular game based on a worldwide sport. It sells millions of copies each year. But hey, playing FIFA is one thing; Talking about FIFA is a whole different can of boring, lame-ass worms. Talking about FIFA when everyone just wants to see Anthem, well that’s just torture.

We also got a quick look at Battlefield V, with the promise of more at the Microsoft conference. It’s the usual.

But this year, EA still had their share of massively awkward moments. But a lot of these awkward moments were brought to us by people from small development teams, who just aren’t used to being in the spotlight like that. It was obvious they were nervous as shit, and may have flubbed a line or two in their speech, but the fact that EA has these people in the spotlight is great to see. They deserve some attention.

But, as they say, EA gonna EA, because then came the cringe-worthy Madden segment about some tournament player that won a Madden championship or some shit that obviously I don’t give a rat’s ass about. Look, you can care about e-sports, you can play and watch them till you’re blue in the face, but a lot of other people just don’t give a fuck. Myself being one of them. For us, it was a weird conversation with some nervous guy on stage trying to crack a joke, and nobody cared. Luckily, EA maybe learned it’s lesson from previous conferences and kept it very short.

Then we came to an RTS segment with shout-casters and some players that, again, nobody gives a shit about. Also, shout-casters are a thing that needs to go away. They then featured some RTS match being played on mobile that… honestly I can’t even comment on what was going on because I lost interest about 20 seconds in. Even the Kinda Funny guys used the time to take a break.

Finally we got a look at Anthem and the cringe factor tapered off a bit, thanks to people talking about stuff we’re actually interested in. They did spend a pretty good chunk of time on it, stressing that there would be no loot boxes. It was the second time during the conference they’ve made it a point to say this, the first being during the Battlefield V showing. At least it’s great to know that the whole lootbox fad/fiasco may be behind us.

Then we got to see some gameplay and despite the kinda meh voice banter, the game looks pretty good so far. It definitely has that Destiny hook to it.

Andrea from Kinda Funny Games and What’s Good did a pretty good job as a host, at least she can talk at a normal pace without those weird pauses everyone else has to do. Either they’re waiting for the teleprompter or trying to remember their lines, but whatever it is, it’s always off-putting.

In any case, at least we got this year’s E3 started off on the right note. Now the question is, will Ubisoft one-up them in awkwardness with that quirky French humor of theirs, or will we get Aisha Tyler back in all her trash-mouthed sexiness? Only time will tell!