21 June 2016
With EA moving to Sunday, Ubisoft was next. And for the 5th time Aisha Tyler was presenting and in fine form once again. After the musical intro which included a Just Dance game reveal in there somewhere, Ubisoft properly got underway with Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands. My most anticipated game from Ubisoft after the excellent trailer at last year's E3. This was a complete mission with a co-op squad of four. Almost immediately I was making comparisons to Metal Gear Solid V. A third person shooter set in a huge open world with enemy camps to infiltrate, and stealth clearly the best option as you're severely outnumbered. This combined with a little Far Cry seems to be the game in a nutshell, but that is by no means a negative. Combining elements from these games will be great, just some may complain that it's a little too familiar. The graphics and South American setting look stunning, and I'm also relieved the entire campaign can be played solo. It's just a shame we have to wait until March 2017 for its release.
Next up was the sequel to the hugely successful South Park game - South Park: The Fractured But Whole. A fantastic name but I'll still never be a South Park fan. Then it was time for some VR reveals. First off was Eagle Flight, demoed live on Oculus Rift, showcasing a PvP capture the flag style match. Now this game did annoy me. The art style was very basic, granted this was VR demo projected to a screen, but the gameplay was faultless and a core mechanic didn't make sense. Considering this was supposedly a live demo, the bird control was far too good through tight gaps, and what were the eagles firing from their beaks to bring down opponents? I have no idea. The other VR game revealed was a Star Trek game, and this is truly for Treky fans out there. I immediately laughed on seeing the gameplay. It looks to be literally sitting in a chair pressing buttons to warp around space, defend your ship, and whatever else happens in Star Trek. Actors from the films and TV series were brought in to tell you how amazing this game is. But I couldn't get over how little gameplay there was. And lastly the name was revealed... Star Trek: Bridge Crew. Not a game for everyone.
Then it was time for more For Honor. And the same lead designer on stage from last year who looks like he should be in the game with that beard and cane. There was a lengthy single player gameplay demo with some more brutal kills, but the slow fights which require precise blocking and pinpoint counters isn't my sort of game. Then it was Ubisoft's turn to fully promote a new indie title. Grow Up is a surprising sequel to Grow Home, where the objective is to reach the moon, and I say surprising because did the original really sell or score that well to warrant a sequel? Anyway this game is coming soon and I bet it will only be played by many when heavily discounted or as a free game of the month. Next on stage were two jokers in matching outfits, with one being from developer Red Lynx could only mean one thing... A new Trials game! And this was no ordinary Trials game, it has been infused with Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon to become Trials of the Blood Dragon. The trailer, music and art style was super retro 80's with tons of Blood Dragon purple smeared all over it. It probably claims the funniest trailer award this E3, and this was also the game to announce "it's out now!".
Then Ubisoft took a real nose dive with their conference. There was loads of footage and info on the Assassin's Creed movie which annoyed me on two fronts. One, this was supposed to be the year without any AC on stage with no game launching this year. And two, E3 is about games not movies! It dragged on so long it was easy to dose off and miss arguably the last two great games.
Watch Dogs 2 was the penultimate game. It was only revealed a week or two before E3 with a release date of this year, so we knew it was coming. I have huge mixed feelings on this. The game looks gorgeous set in San Francisco with a brand new lead character who has bags of personality (apparently) compared to Aiden Pearce in the original game. And despite the hacking aspects looking similar there seems to be many new gadgets to play with. However I have two gripes. Firstly who plays music through their headphones when using stealth to enter a building? And secondly, more significantly, a realism check. The hackers in this game aren't military trained. There supposed to be tech wizards who know a little parkour. It just annoys me that you can probably still gun everyone down with an AK-47. Still if it's possible to complete the campaign non-lethally i.e. a lot of tazer-ing, I'm completely down for this game and can't wait for it's November release.
So last but not certainly not least, Ubisoft's surprise final game. And a game I can't believe wasn't teased earlier given this is also coming out this year. Steep. Yep unfortunately that is literally the name of the game but the concept looks awesome. According to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, this is a game in a brand new genre - an open world action sports game. With those sports being extreme winter sports consisting of skiing, snowboarding, paragliding, base jumping, and no doubt combinations of the above too. Steep is effectively an MMO where it will be always online and you constantly see other players around you, similar to The Division. The mountain views and sheer cliff faces to perform stunts look amazing. However I do wonder how these stunts will play out, because this is no wacky SSX game. It's differentiating itself by taking a more realistic approach. Especially with crashes showcased. Challenges and slow-mo replays were heavily featured too. The game also features a Go Pro camera view to really churn your stomach when performing flips. This properly reminded me of the Criterion first person stunt game that was revealed at EA's stage two years ago, but now must be cancelled with them working on upcoming Star Wars titles. So all in all, another Ubisoft game I'm very much looking forward to playing this year. With Steep and Watch Dogs 2, Ubisoft has certainly learnt their lesson with revealing games too early and on super powerful unrealistic hardware.