South Park, Samurais, Space, Syndicate and a showcase of Tom Clancy games – Ubisoft seemed to have it all covered this year with an impressive array of original and returning titles to show off at E3, including a new Ghost Recon game. The Ubisoft conference took place at 23:00 PM GMT on Monday evening, with actress Aisha Taylor once again charismatically heading up the presentation. Here is a quick round-up of everything that was announced at the Ubisoft E3 conference.
Ubisoft launched their E3 presentation with a hilarious new addition to the South Park franchise introduced by the show’s creators themselves, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. South Park The Fractured But Whole. And with a name like that you just know the game is going to be full of the South Park humour that we all know, love and occasionally cringe at. The game is a sequel to The Stick of Truth but this time you, as ‘the new ki’d, take on a superhero role alongside Cartman’s ‘The Coon’, Mysterion, Professor Chaos, Kiteman and many more of your favourite characters from the show.
Chairman and CEO of Ubisoft, Yves Guillemot was up next and he was the man with all the surprises. Promising a new game in a new genre, going on to presenting the new and exciting but brutal looking game ‘For Honor’. In this fast-paced visceral melee combat experience you’ll carve a path of destruction through the chaos of a raging war as one of three great warrior legacies: bold Knights, brutal Vikings, or mysterious Samurai. Ubisoft are hoping that For Honor will reinvent and master the perfect melee system.
It’s been a long time in the making but we got to see a little more of Tom Clancy’s The Division next, including some Darkzone multiplayer which saw team mates turn against each other in the last few seconds of play in an interesting twist. In the Darkzone it’s up to you to cooperate with other agents or team up against them. After years of delay, the Beta for the game is finally starting early next year, with the full release set for March 8th 2016.
Ubisoft moved swiftly on to their next Tom Clancy title – Rainbow Six Siege which was just as anticipated as, if not more so, than The Division. We were treated to some intense Terrorist Hunt gameplay to show off the return of this destructive and extremely precise fan favourite mode and it’s our pleasure to say the visuals have come along even further since the original gameplay was released. The ultra-aggressive AI and a one shot one kill mode will have you and your teammates on tenterhooks throughout unique and challenging, tactical combat matches, and has us eagerly awaiting the October 13th release date.
Trackmania was next on Ubisoft’s agenda and we witnessed some convincing gameplay which has converted us from our original pessimism about this game from a first look. Though it’s lacking the colourful sleekness and pristine graphics of most racing games it’s clear that Trackmania makes up for this in sheer flexibility. It provides a diversified gaming experience by blending arcade-style racing with the perfect track building toolbox: thanks to the revamped and easy to use Trackbuilder, you will be able to design an infinite number of outlandish tracks.
Though it didn’t give much more away it was great to see a new cinematic trailer for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, giving us even more confidence that French company Ubisoft has managed to capture the gritty victorian environment and era extremely well. There was also a minor display of the impressive arm grapple hook sported by Jacob Frye, which we look forward to hearing more about in terms of weaponry and gadgets in future updates on the game. In the trailer Frye enlists his own version of a ‘brotherhood’ to help him take down his enemies, but the brotherhood consists of ordinary thugs as opposed to skilled assassins so we’re curious to see how Frye’s social prowess and his ‘Rooks’ fit with the overarching Assassin lore. With cockney accents and swagger to spare it wouldn’t be crazy to assume the trailer focused on Oliver’s The Artful Dodger, but thankfully at no point does anyone break into song.
Our surprise fix of the evening from the Ubisoft camp definitely came from their grand finale – the reveal of the return of Ghost Recon with Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands. It will presumably be a long while before we’ll be playing this but we’re already keen to see more from this title. In Wildlands you’ll lead a team of four Ghosts, the absolute best of the US military and you can either play solo or with up to three of your friends online in this gritty adventure as they seamlessly join you at any point in the game. A violent open world, get set to wreak havoc, take down a cross continental drug cartel and face the consequences of your decisions.
