Ubisoft's conference starts off with a trailer for the new Rabbids Mario game, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. Heh, it's pretty cute and funny, as you would expect from the Rabbids.
Yves Guillemot comes out to talk about the game, and then introduces Shigeru Miyamoto to a standing ovation! He's got something with him, a life-size replica of a weapon from the game. He gave one to Yves. Then, Yves gushes praise unto Nintendo. There's a lot of banter between the two... and now I'm starting to roll my eyes. Get on with it!
Xavier Manzanares comes out to HOPEFULLY show off the game. Yes, showing some gameplay! It looks like an adventure style RPG. Hehe, there's a Rabbid dressed up as Peach, inspecting the crew. There's one dressed up as Luigi. There's some kind of thing that looks like a Roomba wearing Rabbid ears that's leading them. They're running around Mushroom Kindom, and there's all sorts of classic Mario imagery.
Now, a battle is being set up. It looks like it's tactical RPG style. They can use cover which will also be destroyed. Pipes can be used to reposition units. It looks very interesting and fun. There looks to be a lot of different weapons and combo opportunities. I love seeing all the different Rabbid takes on Mario costumes and whatnot.
Xavier again. There's a tag that advertises Rabbid figurines, most likely Amiibos. He leaves the stage and another video of the game plays. This game is going to be so funny! Haha, there's even a Donky Kong Rabbid. August 29th is the release date! SOLD!
Ashraf Ismail comes out to obviously introduce the new Assassin's Creed: Origins. The backdrop on the stage is full of hieroglyphics. A trailer rolls out showing dunes and pyramids and rivers. There's wildlife that shows hippos and lions and cranes. It shows slaves moving giant stonework. Horse chases across the dunes. Live gameplay is now being shown. The assassin is riding horseback, lets his eagle fly to scan the area. As I said in the MS conference, it just seems weird to see the eagle hovering. More gameplay will be shown after the conference.
A new trailer begins to play. Looks like a street racing game, I bet you this is The Crew 2. Because the first Crew was only online, I had no interest in it. I'm willing to bet that will be the case with this new game. The trailer, all pre-rendered, looks great, but shows no gameplay. There's a mix of all sorts of different vehicles. Race, street, airplanes, motorcycles, trucks, speedboats. Yup, it's The Crew 2. Better not be online-only again, or I'm not playing it.
Stephane Beley comes out to talk about the game, with a very heavy French accent. I can barely understand him. He lets another video play, showing in-game footage. It does look very pretty. It shows a lot of varying gameplay, varying scenery. The boat racing looks great. You can race from oceans to rivers. There's also airplane racing over and through the city, which looks like San Francisco. Not much else is told about the game, no story details and more importantly, if the game will be only online or not.
A new video begins to play, and it's South Park: The Fractured But Whole. I am getting tired of waiting for this game! This game looks so good, a must play for any South Park fan. October 17th is the release date.
Another video plays, shows some people talking about a new project. Some company called Spectrevision. I spot Elijah Wood. Seems like this might be a virtual reality game? Test subjects are wearing VR headsets. The game is called Transference. Spring 2018, no idea what to expect.
Yves again, to talk about a new surprise. A video begins to play about pirates. Everything is underwater. Drowned bodies. Then, we have pirate ships on open water, loaded with gold. There's a female captain. I'm getting a kind of Black Flags vibe from this. Yves says this is "something truly unique"... but there's nothing unique about pirates, especially if you aren't going to show any gameplay in your trailer. Skull and Bones is the title. Yep... that's "unique"!
Justin Farren comes out to talk about the game. Sounds like they're taking the naval combat gameplay from the Assassin's Creed games and building on it. I can get behind that. I loved the ship combat. Sounds like they're focusing on multiplayer. He's going to show gameplay from a mode called Loot Hunt, a five versus five PVP mode. Yep, the gameplay is very reminiscent of the ship battles from the Assassin's Creed games. I only pray that there's a solid single player mode. It's coming Fall 2018.
So, we have some Daft Punk looking dancers coming out on stage dancing to Jamiroqui to promo the new Just Dance. Now some girl dancers some out dancing to some j-pop. Then, there's someone in a panda suit dancing. A singer comes out. Bebe Rexha, whoever that is. You know, Ubisoft was actually doing pretty good so far up until this point... Just Dance 2018 arrives this October. Yay.
The next video shows off a South Park game coming to mobile. Looks like some kind of card game. South Park: Phone Destroyer is the title.
A new video plays, set in space. A ship arrives to a new planet. There's a force called The Legion. Oh it's a Switch game. It showed some kind of toy or something being assembled on the Switch controller along with other controllers. This looks interesting. Starlink: Battle for Atlas I think was the title.
Matthew Rose comes out to talk about the game. Sounds like this might be Skylander sci-fi edition, since there will be a focus on toys you attach to your controllers. October this year, on Xbox One, PS4 and Switch.
Rebeka Coutaz comes out to talk about Steep. I have Steep, but never got around to playing it. I have no idea what Rebeka is talking about. Oh, she's leading up to an expansion, this December. A video plays, showing winter athletes gearing up to take on Olympic events. That's cool, tying in with 2018 Winter Olympics. The expansion is called Road to the Olympics.
Yet another new video. Right off the bat, it's recognizable as Farcry 5. It shows a church, with the party singing Amazing Grace. And... that's it.
Dan Hay comes out to talk about the game. He talks about Hope County, Montana. There's a religious cult that has cut off modern communications of the county. A gameplay video begins to play, shows a player scouting the area with his revolver and a dog. Such beautiful mountain scenery. There's a sniper partner, the player assigned her to the water tower. Now, he's going down street level, slowly sneaking up on the enemies. Now he's running around shooting, just saw the dog take down an enemy, grab his gun and bring it to the player. There's vehicles, cars and airplanes. Even a farm machine like a combine. Looks like a lot of fun! I never played a Farcry game before, but I kinda want to play this one now.
A new video plays, looks to be in China. But, there's talking animals. Some monkey with a metal arm selling something to a pig. Now, he's escaping from the pig. He's got some kind of grappling hook, flying around a building, gets on a hoverbike driven by a human woman. The scenery looks great. They just hijacked a flying vehicle and blew up a much larger one. I'm intrigued... what is this game? They arrive home. A space map is shown, a ship takes off, goes into warp. Title is Beyond Good and Evil 2!!! OMG! OH MAH GOD!
Michel Ancel comes out, in tears, clearly moved by the reception of this game. Gabrielle Shrager alongside him, starts to talk about them game. Wow, it looks so good. The design, the graphics, simply amazing. The hype level is strong with this one! You can register for something called The Space Monkey Program. Now, the entire team comes up on the stage. Yeah, there's a lot of emotional impact surrounding this game. I have to be honest.. I'm a bit moved. GREAT WAY TO END THE CONFERENCE! I just wish I could have seen a bit of gameplay. It must still be a very long way off.
Unbelievable... I can't remember the time a conference left me with my jaw dropping so much since Sony showed The Last Guardian back in 2009 I believe... *APPLAUDS* My hat's off to you, Ubisoft. You had an almost perfect showing! I can't believe you actually started it off by showing Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and having Miyamoto come on stage, and then ending with Beyond Good and Evil 2! What a way to end a conference! I mean, I'm still riding high from the emotions of everything! Really, seeing Michel Ancel in tears, KNOWING how loved his first game was by the community, and then FINALLY being able to announce the sequel to the fans... It was just an amazing moment!
Ok, so, having to take a step back from that.... Let's talk about the rest of the showing. First, I just want to thank GOD that Ubisoft did not go with Aisha Tyler to host the show again, or any comedian for that matter. Almost all the filler was trimmed away, with the exception of a bit too much talk between Miyamoto and Guillemot and then a big misstep with another Just Dance number. At least that was over quick.
As for the games themselves, I would have really appreciated more gameplay shown for some of them, especially with Assassin's Creed: Origins. I thought it was rather peculiar that, with Assassin's Creed being absent last year, that hardly anything was shown of it during either MS or Ubisoft conference. The game's coming out this year, so I was expecting at least a five minute demo from either side. Maybe they'll show more at Sony's conference tonight? Also, Skull and Bones looks great, but I'm worried that might turn out to be online only, along with The Crew 2. I also liked how they had some mysterious games such as Transference. I would love to learn what that game's about.
Overall rating: A-
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