Over recent years, Ubisoft have had a knack of smashing E3 out of the park, revealing big budget games which left people impressed by the companies future. There has been some high profile blunders though - Watch Dogs and AC: Unity are probably the first that come to mind, and other games have not lived up to the hype that has surrounded them. But here we are again in 2015 and I find myself buying into what Ubisoft are saying, and I should really know better. All I can say is I have been impressed by what I have seen at the press conference, and I sincerely hope that at least some of the games on display live up to the expectation I have immediately put on them. Take a look below for the round up of everything revealed.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Yes, yes we all let out a little childish giggle at the title of the game. If you didn't get it, read it again! This is a follow up to the fantastic RPG The Stick of Truth. Trey Barker and Matt Stone are on board again, but Obsidian are out. In their place are Ubisoft San Francisco. And that fact alone has left me a little wary. I'm hoping they are able to use the systems in place to build upon rather than trying too much of their own. But as long as the script is as entertaining as last time I'm sure I'll be on board. We are taking up the 'new kid' role again but this time the gang are using their 'Coon and Friends alter ego's which should be great fun.
For Honor
I have enjoyed the surprises at E3 so far this year, and this was no exception. 4v4 melee combat taking the role of a knight/viking/samurai. From the brief gameplay footage that we had I was left fairly optimistic that it could offer us something different that the usual gunplay games that are thrown at us. There are plenty of AI grunts to kill aswell so it's not just the player control character you go up against. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on how this develops. Check out some of the multiplayer in action:
Next we had some DLC announcement for The Crew and Trials Fusion. Trials is introducing a slightly more bizzare pack of the two featuring a cat riding a fire breathing unicorn. Yes you did read that right. The Crew on the other hand are going down a more traditional path of new location, vehicle and a graphical overhaul.
The Division
This is a game that I'm really hoping doesn't suffer the same fate as Watch Dogs. Every time I see it I get more excited by the prospects it holds. This time, we were in 'The Dark Zone', an area of Manhattan that is walled off, and is a quarantine zone. You'll work as a team as always, but you shouldn't trust anyone! Feature co-op elements tied with PVP is gives the players opportunity to stab their friends in the back for the best loot. The gameplay showed a team of 3 linking up with another team of 2 to take out some AI characters before looking for extraction. Check out the video below to see what happens next:
Next up we had the PC only city building Anno 2205. It looked pretty cool, with the opportunity to take your city building skills to the moon, it should have fans of the series looking forward to its release.
Just Dance 2016
Here we go again with another Just Dance, which has become the biggest ever music game franchise. A fairly impressive feat. The big announcement was that they were knocking down the barriers to people without a Kinect or other console based camera by letting you use your smartphone as a camera to play the game. Not much was said about this or how it works, but it can only be a positive for people that want to get into the game. On top of this they announced a 'dance on demand' streaming service call Just Dance Unlimited, which I believe it subscription based, but don't quote me on that one.
Rainbow 6: Siege
Back to the big hitter with another gameplay demo of cooperative gameplay. I've never given a Rainbow 6 game much of a chance, and I haven't got a reason why, it looks right up my street. We were shown the returning Terrohunt game mode which a team of 5 taking on an AI stronghold. It was clear to see that there were plenty of different options for assault, from going in through the roof, windows, front door etc, and the destructable environments allowed for new paths to be carved by the players themselves. It was announced that the Beta would launch on September 24th. There was also an opening video on the campaign mode, announcing a new worldwide threat that the Rainbow team have to take out.
Trackmania Turbo
As a non racing game fan, I like the look of this. A new game in the Trackmania series, featuring 200 over the top tracks, and a custom track mode with a random track generator producing an unlimited amount of tracks. I said the word track a lot there, but what it means is hours of gameplay on levels that will always be fresh. Time trial type runs and multiplayer using what looks to be fun arcade racing looks like a winner to me. It reminded me a bit of the old top down Micro Machine games, which cant be a bad thing.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate
It wouldn't be a year in the gaming world without another Assassins Creed game, and I keep telling myself that I won't get the next one and I always do. Granted Unity was getting flogged very cheaply, but I never end up playing them all, and I keep meaning to miss out on the next one. I don't even know what is happening in the cannon anymore, but as we have finished the Desmond story I think that the newer games are mostly standalone. Anyway, bloody Ubisoft have piqued my interest in the series again with the trailer for Syndicate. I've not got much more to say just take a look:
Ghost Recon Wildlands
If they hadn't done enough, they only went and dropped a reveal of the new Ghost Recon game. An OPEN WORLD Ghost Recon game. Well done Ubisoft. It's a war on drugs this time and I will 100% be watching this one closely. I spent so many hours and have happy memories with the Advance Warfighter games. I didn't spend as much time with Future Soldier but I'm hoping Wildlands can get me back involved with the franchise. Again it focusses on teamplay, and seemingly allows multiple ways of completing an objective. I'm intrigued by how the whole open world scenario will work, and I can't wait to get my hands on it at some point.
Ubisoft have had another great year at E3 with plenty to look forward to. They seem to be wanting to push to co-operative gameplay element and there were a lot of big hitters here again, and they didn't linger too long on their smaller franchises. Very entertaining conference, and the future is looking bright for Ubisoft