E3 2017 - Ubisoft

15 June 2017

The first publisher keeping their usual time slot this year was Ubisoft. However Aisha Tyler was not presenting for a change, that role was instead fulfilled by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. Their conference started with a great surprise. There were rumours before E3 about a Mario and Rabbids crossover game, and who sho should be the first guest on stage... None other than the creator of Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda, Shigeru Miyamoto.

He and Yves revealed Mario+Rabbids Kingdom Battle. The Rabbids from the Rayman universe really are love them or hate them, similar to the Minions from Despicable Me. Ubisoft's intentions here are surely to capture kids and adults, with the Rabbids and Mario respectively. The gameplay trailer that followed proved that adults will likely need to be involved because the gameplay was surprisingly deep. It's essentially a turn based battle arena on a grid layout, similar to XCOM, where moves need careful planning, and all sorts of character combinations can be pulled off. This is of course a Nintendo Switch exclusive that launches surprisingly soon on 29th August.

Next up was The Crew 2. Something I was eager to hear more about. The first game in the series was ambitious, with a massive open world spanning the entire USA. Which subsequently hindered the game (at launch) as the game looked poor whenever you stopped to look at any scenery. The Crew 2 is somehow more ambitious.

Not only does it feature track racing and off-road racing, it includes plane and boat racing too. I appreciate the ambition from developer Ivory Tower, but surely the quality cannot be sustained for all those forms of motorsport. I hope I'm proved wrong but they haven't got the best track record at this point. I have no idea how a story for one man can be tied to this either, but that's what they're going for.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole (still the best video game name) was hopefully given it's final release date of 17th October after numerous delays. A very strange, psychological VR experience was announced called Transference. And then a brand new IP was revealed called Skull & Bones. Quite obvious from the name, a pirate game. Competition for Sea of Thieves already.

On seeing footage of this new title, it's almost identical to the naval ship combat in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag from 2013. I know most people did really enjoy that aspect of the game, but for me it was the worst. I find it surprising that this warranted a full game to be developed. It could potentially have some fun online multiplayer modes, but it appears to be just controlling ships, you certainly aren't a badass assassin like in AC Black Flag. I wonder if more people agree as we get closer to the game's release in 2018.

Next was the most peculiar reveal from Ubisoft. Starlink: Battle for Atlas looks very much like a sequel to No Man's Sky, with the same sort of ships low flying over new planets with alien creatures. But then the trailer cuts to the player holding their Nintendo Switch controller attaching a physical toy ship to it... Adding new parts to the ship makes them appear in game! Just when we thought 'toys-to-life' video games were dying out with Disney Infinity discontinued. This seems to be latching onto the space/planet exploration market, made huge by No Man's Sky, so who knows if this catches on. The game is due out late 2018 and is available on all consoles.

Then it was Far Cry 5 time. A new gameplay trailer was shown off that revealed the typical Far Cry action we've come to expect. Co-op and hiring NPCs in game are clearly a big focus, as they were in Far Cry 4 really. Dog-fighting in a seaplane looks awesome. And there are some brutal kills in the trailer, particularly the tractor at 2:35. I'm also a fan of your dog fetching enemy weapons for you.

The last reveal of the show from Ubisoft was a big one. For years many people have been asking for Beyond Good and Evil 2, and this was their year. I never played the original as it really is a cult classic from 2004, but the reaction in the crowd and on Twitter was incredible. The cinematic trailer was very cool, but no gameplay in the slightest, meaning this game is likely to be 2019 at the earliest. But a great surprise ending from Ubisoft that provoked this kind of famous tweet from IGN's Marty Sliva...