Ubisoft E3 Conference Recap


Ubisoft stepped up to the plate with their offerings for what has been a packed E3 already.

They immediately kicked off with The Fractured But Whole, a sequel to The Stick of Truth. This time, the game is based on Super Heroes stories, such as Coon and Friends, Trey Parker and Matt Stone stated that, at the end of The Stick of Truth, they learned how to make a good game, and decided to give it another crack, continuing the story. The only thing they mentioned is that it would focus on the New Kid's backstory - your character from the first game.

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Aisha Tyler, the host for the Ubi conference, acknowledged the critisism that has been levelled at Ubisoft over the last twelve months, and re-affirmed their passion for making games. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot then took stage and announced a brand new IP and genre for Ubisoft. The trailer showed off combat in various landscapes and eras - castles and medieval times, countrysides and viking eras and Feudal Japan with Samurais. They were showing off a title called For Honor. Citing a new style of gameplay called "The Art of Battle" , it promises to make the player feel as if they are truly weilding a weapon in gameplay. The multiplater was shown, featuring Dynasty Warrior levels of enemy characters - one side were knights, the other Samurais. The gameplay seemed to involve moving your sword in a way that counters blows, forcing you to find an opening in an enemies defense. It was very much like real sword fight with parrying and deflecting - complete with finishing blows. 

The Crew was up next, and a trailer was shown revealing a new expansion pack, promising bigger and faster cars in an American setting entitled 'Wild Run'. It's due out in November, with a "complete graphical overhaul" being one of the bullet points. They then moved onto a Trials Fusion expansion called ;Awesome Level Max' and it features, randomly, a cat riding a fire breathing purple haired unicorn. There'll also be at least 30 new maps.

The Division was given its next a chance to shine after the expansion packs announcements. Introducing the Dark Zone to the known game modes, citing that in this game mode players are given the option to either help their fellow agents or betray them. Set in the walled off area of New York, known as the Dark Zone, the gameplay trailer showed how it looks in gameplay, players talking about strategy, as well as some of the gadgets, which include a seeker mine that rolls towards hostiles and deployable turrets.

With the heightened danger in the normally co-op game, there is a chance for better loot, but if you perish in the Dark Zone, you will lose it. You can exit the Dark Zone via the extraction that takes ninety seconds. In that time you can choose to betray your teammates to take their loot or be a nice guy and leave as a team. Aside from announcinng the first ever hands on demo at E3, they also announced betas for the Division coming early 2016, as well as a full release coming March 8th 2016 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

The next trailer was the city building game Anno 2055 that is due out on 5th November - that showed off a futuristic city on the moon, showing possible end game with space travel to the moon, meaning having to manage not only the cities and Earth, but jumping to other planets in a Space Race with other nations. The sheer size of the developable area being shown off does mean a large amount of ara to develop and giant areas to play with. Just Dance 2016, called a pillar of Ubisoft was also announced as the biggest music based video game of all time. The biggest announcement is that a camera attached to the console is no longer needed, meaning that players can now play with just their smartphones, opening the game up to a lot more players. After a performance by Jason Derulo, and a brief interview with Aisha Tyler, the game was announced to be out in October for all consoles, with Ps4, Xbox One and Wii U they get Just Dance unlimited, a streaming service that players can subscribe to it for new songs all year long until Just Dance 2017.

The next trailer started with a trailer talking about a global threat, a teaser for Rainbow Six| Seige with an incredibly beautiful graphics, with close quarters combat and everything is destructible and if you are killed, you stay dead. There was also an interview with Angela Bassett, who is behind the character Six, the leader of Rainbow Team, saying that Six is a complex and interesting character, only teasing so far. They then announced Terrohunt has returned to the Rainbow series - either solo or four teammates against what they call the most advanced AI that will be highly unpredictable in their defense strategies.

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They played a live demo to show off these features. One of the features on the rappel system is the ability to change stance to control how you walk and and to get a better view on your shot if you shoot through the window. Gadgets include a small RC car with a remote camera that can help players scope out the map. It is possible to destroy a wall to create new pathways. The damage seems to be progressive, showing support beams as the more fragile plaster is easily destroyed, with explosives damaging the floor as well. When the demo team planted the defuser to take out the bomb, enemies started showing up everywhere, going through windows and using the same tactics the players were doing. There are four modes in the Terrohunt, as well as Terrohunt Classic. The beta for Seige will be on September 4th 2015, with both PvP and Terrohunt playable on all consoles.

Trackmania Turbo was announced to be making it's debut on current gen consoles - complete with fully customisable maps as per the series norm. The trailer that was being used was made from pure gameplay footage and the replay function. The game can be played from a first or third person and has around two hundred maps across all difficulties, as well as a track builder that builds it within seconds, fully randomized, meaning that it will be near impossible to build the same track twice, and mentioned VR capabilities.

 

The conference then showed the obvious with Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, featuring a trailer that shows off Industrial Revolution London in 1868, showing the lead character guiding a gang to catch a man who was buyin children, as well as chases on horse drawn carriages, and the new climbing rope, shootable from the wrist. The cinematic showed the main character kill a child slaver and freeing the children, before walking into a bar, starting a fight and recruiting more members for his gang, the Rooks. Heralded as the first modern Assasin's Creed, the game will feature two brothers - twins - in a bid to retake London. You can also sign up on the website to play the demo at one of the UPlay lounges around the world.

Syndicate was not the finale, with the CEO returning one more time to display a game that has been worked on secrecy, showing pre-lpha gameplay footage of four men parachuting into mountains working as a crack squad of men chasing a truck full of cocaine, then doing the same mission stealthily as well as full out attack, meaning multiple ways to do missions with different outcomes. For example eachoption left the cocaine dealer dead, kidnapped or left alive respectively. The game promises to be open world with many enviroments and many ways to suit your gameplay style. Ghost Recon returning as Wildlands. Ubisoft certainly did their best to impress, what did you think of the conference?

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