Of course, their show began with an Assassin's Creed trailer. I was expecting it to be a reveal of the next AC game, but then I noticed it looked like a montage of their past games. It was accompanied by a live orchestra, and it turned out to be a build up for a "Worldwide Tour" of the AC Symphony. Who cares. Ubisoft, did you not learn from Sony last year? Opening a show with live music only bores people.
A couple people from Ubisoft came out to get the crowd cheering, but all they got me doing was rolling my eyes. Come on, we got to get the show moving.
The first trailer began playing and almost instantly, I knew it was going to be Watch Dogs Legion. It's going to be a set in London this time and what do you know, they're actually showing gameplay for it! THIS is how you start the show, with a gameplay demo! So, it started off with a main character named Ian who was talking to his AI Bagley. Ian appeared to be scanning NPCs for some reason, possibly looking for a recruit. He found one that specialized in drone tech but almost immediately, the guy gets confronted by a cop. Ian engaged the cop, but then was immediately being attacked by a drone. It shot him critically and an option arose. He could surrender or fight, so he chose to fight and cloaked himself before running off. He got in a taxi and fled, but then crashed and had to run on foot. He eventually got killed, and that's when the game's twist was revealed. Instead of retrying the misison, the player then pulled up a list of other characters. Now an old woman was chosen, and she turned her purse into a spider drone to infiltrate a compound while she started taking down guards with a tazer. A new character was now chosen, Namoi, who proceeded to take down guards in combat. She climbed a giant drone riding it around to find the recruit they were looking for, where the demo end with the recruit now playable.
Clint Hocking came out on stage to talk more about it. It sounds like a very ambitious project because every NPC you see you can play as, and it will affect every aspect of the story. He ended his time with another trailer. It looks fun, but I'm really skeptical about that ambition. Every single NPC can't possibly be very interesting, so there's got to be a lot of filler NPCs because no way can anyone write that much dialogue for a whole city of inhabitants, but we'll see. The game releases March 6th, 2020.
Rob McElhenney from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia came out next to announce a TV show he's making with a few other people from It's Always Sunny. It's called Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet. It's about people who are making an MMORPG and they're just about to release their first expansion. I kinda got a little The Guild vibe from it, so I'm hoping it will be good. However, I think I just heard it's for Apple TV+? That's a major deal breaker. A trailer played and it looks kinda funny.
Some eSports caster came on the screen to talk about what's new in eSports. Who cares. Some Rainbow Six game was shown in the montage and revealed to have Battle Royale, because of course.
Next was a trailer for an Adventure Time game, but it turned out to be an expansion for a game called Brawlhalla, which looked like a cheap Super Smash Bros. knock off. Whoop dee doo.
The next trailer that played showed a rendered Jon Berthnal giving a rally to his troops. He kept mentioning ghosts, so this must be the new Ghost Recon. It was, subtitled Breakpoint. Jon then took the stage with a dog named Bam Bam. I'm guessing he'll be in the game? His speech actually ended up being a bit cringey, however. Another video followed, but showed no gameplay. Someone came out on stage to talk about the community, someone else came on after to talk more, and then announced the release date of October 4th with a beta on September 5th. Sounds like a games-as-a service game as they said it will be live for years, so that's a hard pass from me. Oh, and a teaser played to announce a Terminator: Dark Fate tie in. Really? First it was Gears 5 and now the new Ghost Recon. I wonder if they'll tie Dark Fate in with the new Just Dance. That would be funny as hell!
Next up was a trailer for a mobile came called Tom Clancy's Elite Squad. Trash is trash. We've all be en waiting for a new Splinter Cell for years, but at least we can get Sam Fisher in a mobile game...
Another video played that showed a guy giving a pep talk in a locker room. They were all wearing dance outfits, so clearly this is the new Just Dance 2020. After the video, the whole squad came out on stage and began dancing. At least they didn't lead the show off with them this time. And no, it looks like there won't be a Terminator: Dark Fate tie in. Small victories.
The next video that played showed a Japanese village and began to tell a tale bout a samurai who became the "Spirit of Death". I started to get interested until I got a suspicion that it might have something to do with For Honor. I was hoping I was wrong, but I wasn't and as it turns out, it's an expansion for For Honor called Shadows of Hitokiri Pass, so I will pass.
A trailer began playing showing a guy breathing heavily, aiming a gun at something with something creeping up his arm. His heartbeat monitor was on the rise. A squad found him and rescued him. Turns out it was Rainbow Six Quarantine. I don't really follow the series, so I didn't bother to pay attention as the developer came out to talk more about the game.
The next trailer looked like it was more Division 2 stuff, which it was. I don't care for the Division games at all, so I went back to playing my game, but I did hear someone say a Division movie is coming to Netflix. Will it have Battle Royale? Most likely.
Brenda Panagrossi ,Vice President of Global Management came out to announce a new gaming service called Uplay+. 14.99 a month will get you access to over 200 Ubisoft games that will also be playable via Google Stadia. Yay....
A new video played showing a woman dressed up in roller derby gear with what looks like her little brother being inspired by her. The game is called Roller Champions. Stephane Drapeau came out to talk about it, but I immediately lost interest when I heard it was going to be team-based PvP. Pass.
Yves Guillemot came out to close out the show, but before it ended, He brought out Marc-Alexis Cote to show off a new game. Usually when one last trailer is shown after someone thanks everyone for coming out, it's usually a showstopper, but not this. What was shown was beautiful, but the artwork definitely was inspired by Breath of the Wild, and after the title was shown to be Gods and Monsters, available 2/25/20, that was it...nothing more.
Well Ubisoft, you managed to start out wrong, end weak and not really have anything exciting outside of more shooters that appeal to a certain crowd. You did do right by actually showing a gameplay demo from the new Watch Dogs, but then you just kinda did what everyone is doing and showed more gameplay-less trailers. I can't think of a single game that got me excited except for Watch Dogs Legions, and you managed to waste time by talking about a mobile game and a TV show, let alone mention a Division Netflix movie. I got to say, this is one of the worst showings I've seen from you. I'm actually kinda missing the bad jokes from Aisha Tyler. Hell, even Joe McHale. Fuck it, bring back Mr. Caffeine, anything, to prevent the next one from being so bland.
Overall grade: D
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