Kim Wigend and Justin Levy (whoever they are) started off the show and made a promise saying it was going to be more exciting than a keychain, which was a reference to the keychain used to tease the new Assassin's Creed. Then, a whole bunch of game logos began flying.
The first video began to play and of course, it was for Just Dance. It involved a bunch of parade characters in colorful costumes dancing around the E3 venue. The new Just Dance will be Just Dance 2019. Why does Ubisoft always lead off with Just Dance?
The next trailer began with a skull icon. It showed a beautiful space setting and it looked like the rings of Saturn. There's a ship cruising through the ice. Then I got the feeling that this has to be Beyond Good and Evil 2. There was an old woman communicating with pig, and that's when it confirmed. The pig she was talking to was Peyj. There's the monkey character. Then everything got interrupted as ice storm began to zoom across the ring threatening the ship and then a giant enemy ship emerges. The video ends with a girl holding a katana who looks like Jade. Gabriel Schragerand Guillame Brunier come on stage to talk about the game. They confirmed it was Jade and they reveal new characters. We also learn the game is a prequel and there will be a demo behind closed doors. They played a video of pre-alpha gameplay footage taking place in Ganesha City. They confirmed that you can play solo or with co-op and promises seamless transition between ground and air movement. There will be what's called a Space Monkey Program that's an open invitation to promote creativity. Joseph-Gordon Leavitt, actor and co-founder of Hit Record came out on stage to talk about how it will all work. Basically, everyone who cares about the game can submit music and visual assets to help create the game. Not sure how I feel about that...
Next up is Rainbow 6 Seige. Justin Krueger, community developer, took the stage to talk about community achievements. He said there are now 35 million players for Siege. He also talked about eSports and a documentary following a handful of players called Another Mindset and showed off a trailer for it.
A dude riding a motorcycle wearing an Evil Knievil outfit with Trials on the back made his way to the stage. As he got onto it, he tripped and fell and broke something on stage. As he got up, he apologized for the mess and made a few jokes. This guy is actually kinda funny. He introduced his game Trials Rising. A trailer players and it looks like multiplayer will be at the forefront. Looks like a lot of fun. Brad Hill aka Professor FatShady (guessing a community manager) comes out to talk about how he made a YouTube channel called University of Trials to help Trials players. He also said Ubisoft asked him to help create the tutorial content. He announced there will be a closed beta happening later this year. The release date will be February 19th on PS4, Xbox, PC and Switch. I might actually check it out on Switch. There was a hilarious closing video showing riders crashing in numerous ways.
Division 2 was the next game to follow. Julian Gerighty took the stage to talk about the game. A beautiful cinematic began playing showing a girl running through the post-apocalyptic city. The camera panned out of the gated city to show how violent life is like on the outside. The trailer ended with a team finding a help note as they move towards the city. I believe I heard Julian say there will be a story based campaign. If by single-player campaign, then that's worth it or me to look into. Washington DC will be the setting and there will be new progression paths for specializations and skills. He announced eight player raids. He also said that Year One will have three DLC episodes, all free, and that's actually pretty exciting. Another trailer plays with more cinematics. It shows off what kind of weapons you'll be using and enemies you'll be fighting. March 15th is the release date. You can register for the beta coming soon.
Rabbid ears poke out from the Ubisoft logo and it's clear that this will have something to do with Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. Xavier Manzanares comes out to talk and introduces a band called Critical Hit who begins to play while a trailer shows Rabbids interacting with Donkey Kong. Looks like it will be expansion for Mario + Rabbids called Donkey Kong Adventure. It will release June 26th.
The ext trailer begins with "Piracy is Dead". This has to be the Skull & Bones pirates game they showed last year. Of course, there's more cinematics but it looks great regardless though. Justin Farren , creative director, takes the stage to talk about the game. It takes place in the Indian Ocean. There's a new mechanic called Fortunes. There's a fortune teller that you talk to before you start a mission and depending on your fortune, it will greatly affect the environment and encounters. It's one shared world with player encounters. A new video plays showing off the gameplay with the fortune that says there will be high winds. You can load out your ship dependent on which fortune you get. The video has the player chasing down a convoy, but there's a fort in the way. You can actually disguise yourself as a merchant ship and sneak past the fort. After you rob the convoy, you attract the attention of a Portugese warship. It's too dangerous alone, so you can invite people to help you. It comes out next year. I have to admit, it looks incredible.
The next trailer is for a game called Transference. This was teased last year. Elijah Wood takes stage. Aside from being a well-known actor, he's also the co-founder Spectrevision. Benoit Richer of Ubisoft Montreal joins him. They say it will be a VR game but will also be for traditional platforms. It's a puzzle game about swapping consciousnesses and it looks like it will be a mix of in-game graphics and FMV. It also looks like it will be a spooky game. It releases Fall 2018.
A new trailer shows of an alien world. Then there's a team of starship fighters taking off from their home ship. More worlds are shown and there's mention of Atlas, which must be a star system. Oh, this was that interactive toy game that was revealed last year called Starlink: Battle for Atlas. Laruent Malville comes to talk about it the game and then shows off another video. Fox McCloud is revealed to be in the game along with his R-wing. Yves Guillemot comes out to talk about the game next and introduces Shigeru Miyamoto. Guillemot gives Miyamoto a gift of the prototype R-Wing. This really shows the relationship that Ubisoft has with Nintendo. The game will release October 16th (if I recall correctly on all platforms and of course, the Switch version will have Fox McCloud as an exclusive.
The next trailer is for For Honor. Roman Campos-Oriola came out to talk about the game. Another trailer plays and it shows time freeze before a knight takes off its helmet. It's revealed to be a woman and she begins walking through the time-frozen chaos. The trailer is for a new expansion called Marching Fire and it will take place in China. It will have single-player content. Another trailer plays to show off a new mode called Breach and it will release October 16.
The next game is Crew 2 and Delphine Dosset comes on stage to talk about it. Crew 2 releases on June 29. An open beta will start June 21st. A trailer plays showing off airplanes, boats and cars. There looks to be motorcycles as well as a formula 1 car.
The next trailer is the Assassin's Creed Odyssey reveal. The game takes place in the Spartan era of 431 Greece. Jonathan Dumont, creative director, comes to talk about the game. The focus of the story is around the battle between Sparta and Athens. He talks about how the game has evolved into a true RPG. You can now chose one of two characters, Alexios or Kassandra, and you'll be playing as the one you chose for the entire game. There will also be dialogue branches that could affect the outcome of the game. A gameplay trailer follows starting on a boat and has the player playing as Kassandra. Horse riding returns and as she rides, she comes across a mercenary. The combat looks to be same as Origins and the skill tree system seems similar as well. She takes a quest to help people that tkaes her to a battle-ridden beach. As she moves through the chaos, she ends up fighting with a boss. After the boss, the video comes to an end with the eagle perching on Kassandra's arm, so it looks like the eagle mechanic will probably return. There was also a tease of minotaur.
The show closed with everyone returning to the stage with the Just Dance parade music playing. Guillemot then says goodbye.
I will say this. Even though I find Ubisoft to be cringey at times, I can at least admit they know how to have fun with their conferences. After a run of nearly flat and monotone shows, Ubisoft mixes it up and has things like dance numbers and game developers riding motorcycles through crowds and wrecking props on stage. It's honestly quite refreshing and I applaud them for that.
As for the games, there wasn't anything really new or surprising accept for the Donkey Kong DLC for Mario + Rabbids. What I loved about their presentation is that what they showed off they didn't do flyovers on. They had people come out to talk about their games and many of them had at least a couple different trailers to show off. This made the conference feel meaty, like it had substance. It was very well thought out, not just a packed can of tuna, like SE's was. The only thing that prevents me from giving an A to them was no gameplay footage shown at all for Beyond Good and Evil 2. I felt like that game needed to be shown off better.
Overall rating: B
No comments:
Post a Comment