Ubisoft 2018 E3 Briefing Impression
/Ubisoft always brings a large set of games to E3. Usually an Assassin's Creed title, something Tom Clancy, a dancing title, and usually something a bit different. So what was on this years docket?
Just Dance 2019
Ubisoft loves it's dance series. And despite more there being fewer systems that monitor us in our living rooms, the Just Dance series continues to run rampant. Can't say I have ever purchased one, but it seems to be popular.
Beyond Good and Evil 2
The trailer showed the crew and their ship getting tossed around in bad way while sitting in same ice rings around a planet. The ship gets near destroyed and then captured by what I can only assume are our villains. Then Jade, the original protagonist from the first game shows up. The game is still pre-alpha, which is dev speak for no-where near ready and subject to change.
They are trying to make fans part of the game via the Space Monkey program. They are asking fans to supply art, music, and ideas to the world of BGE2. To do so they partnered with a group named Hit Record. Details can be found here. I am torn on this. It is either a brilliant way to interact with fans. Or a cheap way to get free assets for their game.
Tom Clancy: Rainbow Six Seige
35 million players play this game. I am not one of them, but that is an impressive number. That is more people then are in Saudi Arabia (source). They are doing more contests, three planned through the year. In order to honor these professional players that keep this game going and keep it populated Ubisoft created a documentary following a 8 of community members over 9 months. To these people, this is more then a game, this is live. Another Mindset will be available August 13-19 at their Paris event.
Trials Rising
Trails, the game about falling with style and getting back up. The trailer showed some cool tricks on dirt bikes and some epic crashes. Things that no one would survive in real life. So thanks video game rules! The game was built largely my the community with players from the previous Trails game. It is out in February on everything not mobile. The game looks interesting, but not sure it is my cup of tea. All the ways you have to crash at least makes failure look fun
Tom Clancy's - The Division 2
It has been 7 months since the disease released on dollar bills on Black Friday. The disease is pretty burned out, but the country is in shambles. The trailer shows a happy community behind fenced walls with food and water. Then on the other side is those that abuse the weak. And variable nightmare. The people to save them, the agents of The Division.
In game you can play through the story based campaign. Then once you are done you pick a spec that allows you to customize your play style. They are also adding raids to the game. So 8 players, only 5 of which will show up on time, can play a mission at once. The game will also be supported by 3 free DLC "Episodes" over time. This could give the game much more lasting power then the previous game. Fingers crossed. It is set to release March 15, 2019.
Mario Rabbids
So apparently there are now Donkey Kong levels in Mario Rabbids. Or at least if you have the season pass you will have it on June 26th. This seems to break with all the free DLC from other games this year, but maybe there is enough to warrant it on this game.
Skull & Bones
Amazing how the worst thing that happened to some of the people of the past has become amazing games in the present. In Skull & Bones you are plundering the Indian Ocean. The game looks to have dynamic environments, and is, another shared environment. You will encounter other players and you can work together or fight. Or one then the other if you want to help a fellow and then steal their gold. You are pirates after all. Looks like you can outfit your ship before heading out. Looks like different ships have different abilities. The game, at least from the trailer reminds me highly of the ship battles in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, which makes sense given it is the same studio. Fingers crossed this game is as fun as the trailer made it out to be.
Transference
The trailer for this game made about as much sense as a perfume add, but lets try anyway. We have a dad that apparently sucks at being a father and husband. He seems to be putting you, his son, in some sort of machine. This machine is maybe supposed to move your conscience into a virtual world? And he didn't test for bugs, so the world has corruptions. They didn't say, but lets assume the corruptions want you dead. This is why you always put stuff through Q&A. Deadly bugs will cause this to fail on the open market. And then the tag line "Escape a corrupted mind". We should know more about this mystery this fall.
StarLink: Battle for Atlas
Space based game with real life toys that help outfit your ships. You can go from planet to space to another planet and dog fight. The area is called Atlas, and you have to protect it. And you can go to target and buy accessories for you toys to mod your ship for the situation. And they are teaming with Nintendo on this again as Starfox is there with this ship. Does this mean I can buy a Arwing?!? They had one on stage, so fingers crossed it will be in stores, and that it won't sale out in 30 seconds. I will probably get this game just because I love space shooters. I just hope I don't get nickle and dimed by the need for toys.
For Honor
Good to know Ubisoft didn't forget about this game. The guy on stage said thanks to the community. For the week you can get the starter edition of For Honor for free on uPlay. That is pretty cool. After that they announced new factions coming to the game. For Honor: Marching Fire was announced. The new faction and 4 new fighters are from China bringing new fighting styles. There will also be a new mode called Breach. There was lots of fighting in a castle courtyard. I am not not sure what really was going on. But it looked cool. The whole thing about making the starter free this week means I will at least try it.
The Crew 2
Another Crew title. There is an open beta for PS4 that can be pre-loaded and will be available soon. Looks like there are more then land based vehicles now. In the trailer they showed planes, and boats as well. Each category of vehicle has tons of options in it as well. Looks like something you might like if you liked the first Crew.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Welcome to Greece Assassin. You are apparently stuck in the middle of the Peloponnesian War and must save the country. The game is still an RPG and when you start the game you choose to play as Alexios (the guy) or Kassandra (the girl). Nice to see they added some choice here. You start the game learning to use the weapon of your grand father, a special broken but glowy spear, fancy. Of course being in a war means that you will end up in battles. Prepare to interact with the history of Greece on October 5th. Which also apparently means fighting a Minotaur. I may have to jump back into this series.