Ubisoft is about to kick off their E3 pre-show, and they’re going to have to bring out the big guns if they want to compete with what’s been shown so far. After an afternoon of Battlefield 4, Titanfall, a teaser for a new next-gen Halo, and the most tease-ful of teases in the form of a DICE-developed Star Wars: Battlefront, Ubisoft will have to surprise us with more than just a new trailer for Watch_Dogs and some new Rayman Legends footage. The biggest question on everyone’s mind is whether or not this will finally be the year we see Beyond Good and Evil 2 (odds are good, as a matter of fact.) After the Live-Blog, I’ll deliver my usual recap and provide some thoughts about how well Ubisoft did relative to the other presentations up to this point. Until then, let’s find out what Ubisoft has in store for gamers during their E3 2013 presentation:
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Ubisoft begins with an introduction by Jerry Cantrell, who picks up a guitar and starts jamming (lol, wut?)
He then goes into a gameplay session of Rocksmith, an all-new 2014 edition
Aisha Tyler takes the stage (wearing a t-shirt with a #girlwood hashtag (I’m literally facepalming right now) to discuss some of Rocksmith 2014’s new features with Cantrell
Tyler introduces Splinter Cell: Blacklist, coming in August. A new gameplay trailer is shown.
- New features include an upgraded “Mark and Execute” that makes it easier for Sam Fisher to add to his kill chain mid-execution
Next up, Rayman Legends gets a new gameplay trailer
- New characters have been added to the roster
- Some characters use weapons now, instead of traditional melee combat
- Natural extension of Rayman Origins in regards to art style and gameplay
- Releases September 3
- A couple devs are on hand to show off a new real-time demo
- Over 120 levels, including musical maps (no details on those yet.)
The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot is a free-to-play title just introduced. Obviously, it’s loot based.
- Players build a castle and fortify it so that their treasure, nestled safely in their treasure room, will stay out of the hands of other players looking to steal the loot
- Multiple hero types
- Details at www.themightyquest.com
- A new trailer to commemorate the game going into open-beta is shown
Next up is South Park: The Stick of Truth, complete with gameplay trailer
- Classic South Park humor is intact
- The game is slated for a Holiday 2013 release
Yves Guillemot comes on stage to talk about Ubisoft’s next-gen projects
The first game comes from developer Ivory Tower and is called The Crew. The announcement is accompanied by a first-look trailer
- A racing game focused on cooperative play divided amongst smaller groups (“crews”)
- Coming early 2014
Julian Gerighty, creative director of The Crew, comes on stage to further discuss The Crew and provide a live stage demo
- Promising more variety in landscape: Mountains, desserts, waterfronts, cities, etc.
- Offers complete customizations over the cars players can create
- “Sharing and competing with friends is essential.” The Crew blurs the lines between single-player and coop by allowing teams to complete the entire experience either by themselves or with friends
- Teammates can be racing in different regions before meeting up to partake in team-based activities
- Thousands of challenges and trials to complete
- Invites can be sent out to assist players through a challenge
- Seamless transition means there are no lobbies when switching between single-player and online cooperative play
- Every part can be stripped and customized for each car
- Non-racing challenges include taking down specified targets by ramming them, and performing stunts while driving
- Destroying property during challenges will draw the attention of police officers, who will attempt to take players down
- A leveling system adds “Comfort Points,” which offer more customization options among other benefits
- Tablet integration allows players to customize cars and import them into the main game
Watch_Dogs is the next title brought onstage
Senior Producer Dominic Guay comes out to discuss the game and introduce a new trailer (read: the previously-leaked E3 trailer)
- Aiden Peace takes down a human trafficker
Guay promises we’ll see more of Watch_Dogs very soon
Aisha Tyler returns to announce Just Dance 2014 with a debut trailer
- 6-player dances
- “On-stage Mode” allows players to stand in center in front of background dancers
- gestures during specified dance segments can manipulate the music
- Releasing this October to multi-platforms
Rabbids Invasion is a TV show that you can watch and interact with. An announcement trailer is inbound
- Partnered with Nickelodeon in America
Adriane Lacey takes the stage to discuss the new interactive TV show
- Players will become part of the story
- Xbox One exclusive
- Puzzles to solve with voice commands
- Variety of missions will include gesture controls and dancing
- One example allowed players to point at the screen to throw objects at onscreen animals. Another required players to yell at the screen with the Rabbids to complete a mission
Tyler introduces Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag with a brand new extended trailer
The next trailer introduces Trials Fusion and Trials Frontier, the next installments in the popular physics-based puzzler.
- Trials Fusion will be on multi-platform consoles, while Trials Frontier will be available for mobile devices.
Yves Guillemot takes the stage to introduce an announcement trailer and gameplay demo for Tom Clancy’s The Division
- Developed by Massive Entertainment
- Game can be played across multiple devices simultaneously. One can play on a tablet while others play on consoles
- The player on a tablet plays as a drone that can mark enemy targets and survey the area
- Squad-based combat is once again the focus
- Environmental destruction is highly detailed
- Players can jump in and out of the online co-op seamlessly while other players continue progressing
- Online, open-world RPG experience coming to Xbox One and PS4
Aisha Tyler closes out the show and directs everyone to her post-show wrap-up where she’ll take social media questions while interviewing developers.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Ubisoft announced a couple new IPs. A new Rabbids isn’t really that surprising, but the fact that it’s a TV show?interactive experience is a pretty unique idea. Next-gen seems focused on combining TV and Gaming into one experience.
The only unexpected announcements came in the form of The Crew and The Division; two open, expansive experiences, that focus on cooperative play and seamless transitioning between multiplayer and solo gameplay.
Obviously, the lack of a Beyond Good and Evil 2 announcement, is a major downer, especially considering how heavily Ubisoft had been teasing the possibility on social media such as Twitter.
Unfortunately, a lot of what was shown was expected, and as amazing as Watch_Dogs still looks so long after it’s initial unveiling, it wasn’t enough to carry the presentation. Ubisoft definitely came off as the weakest of today’s presentations. Even though they showed a strong lineup of great games, there wasn’t anything that really wowed the crowd the way Ubisoft was hoping The Division would.
How do you folks feel about Ubisoft’s presentation? Were you expecting more, or were you content to see more footage of those handful of solid titles you’d already known about? Are you heartbroken over the lack of a Beyond Good and Evil 2 announcement? Let us know in the comments section, Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or give us the ‘ol +1 on Google+.
){kind=link}