#E32016 Ubisoft Conference Recap/Predictions Review
Gosh, Ubisoft had such a boring conference. They were good in the beginning, but it fell apart quickly.
Ghost Recon: Wildlands led off the show. Sounds like a name from a random generator. “Wildlands.” In this game, the Santa Blanca Cartel completely controls Bolivia, and the team of ghosts have to take them down. It’s an open-world game, with 4 player co-op optional. They did some gameplay of these guys sort of roleplaying as the characters, I guess? I doubt real co-op gamers are as coordinated in lines as they were, so it feels somewhat unauthentic. Regardless, the game looks interesting. I might give it a try. The game releases March 7, 2017.
The new South Park looks great. Your character was King, but now they have resorted down to nothing, since the kids are out playing an entirely new game. Instead of fantasy, it’s now superheroes. Lovely. There’s plenty of classes available this time around, each with their own set of powers. You can mix and match these powers to create a hero more suited to you. The combat system has also been redone, with more spaces on the field to go through, along with the ability to hide behind cover. Looks like there’s more companions available too, like Craig and Tweek. South Park: The Fractured But Whole will release on December 6, 2016. If you pre-order now, you’ll be able to play The Stick of Truth, the previous South Park, on Xbox One and PS4. Best part of the show.
The new expansion for The Division, titled “Underground Expansion” is coming June 28 to Xbox One and PC. The PS4 releases on August 2. My birthday, actually! Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, and Rainbow Six outfits are coming to The Division as well. They announced another expansion titled “Survival”, but nothing interesting really was shown. Merely a C.G. teaser. I noticed some names for future DLC in the background of the image on screen, though. Two expansions named “Last Stand” and “Conflict” were in the background. No word on those yet. We’ll have to see in the future.
Eagleflight is a VR game that they play on stage. You sort of dogfight using the eagles and play Capture The Flag. After this, the conference started going downhill. What do the eagles shoot, though? Lasers?
Star Trek: Bridge Crew. Basically a VR game where you work together with people like you’re on the Enterprise. The captain shouts out orders for thrusters and things like that. They used Levar Burton to help advertise it. I don’t know why, though. One thing - graphics look like a PS2 game, as the Twitch chat so eloquently described.
So For Honor got shown off. They described that you can either choose a Knight, Samurai, or Viking for the campaign. Reminds me of Deadliest Warrior a bit. They didn’t describe the Knight campaign at all. The Samurai campaign involves your empire falling, and the need to start a Civil War in order to take it back and restore it to it’s former glory. They showed a live demo for the Viking campaign. I don’t think the guy playing was that good. He took a lot of hits during the gameplay, and wasn’t really blocking often, even though there was a block button - evidenced by the few times he did so. Anyway, the Vikings invaded the Samurai, to pillage them mainly. Then a boss fight occurred at the end with the leader Samurai. It looks nice, but the combat is sort of stiff. Maybe that’s just the Viking, but we’ll see. The game releases on Valentine’s Day in 2017. Same day as Persona 5, by the way. Persona will kill it in sales, surely, despite such vastly different audiences.
Grow Up. This didn’t need to be here. They said it’s a sequel to a previous game. I never heard of it then. It’s a little cartoon robot named Bud that jumps around in this open playground. Cute and quirky, but not for me. Releases in August.
Trials: Blood Dragon. The presentation for this was arbitrary. Just show the trailer and have Aisha Tyler say “It’s out now!” Two much. It’s basically a merging of Trials: Fusion and Far Cry: Blood Dragon. Cool, then. Might give it a look. It’s out now, so if you’re interesting, go take a look yourself.
They talked Assassin’s Creed… the movie. A bit too much, actually. So boring. I literally wrote in my notes, “Who gives a f*ck”. That about sums it up.
Watch Dogs 2 got some significant time. I like the protagonist this time around, and I like the music choices. The gameplay, though… Not that intriguing to me. Not sure if I can recommend it at launch. The hacking things seem too similar to the first game, in my opinion. Watch Dogs 2 comes November 15, 2016.
Steep is a game revolving around action sports like paragliding and snowboarding. Cool, I’m sure there’s an audience for that sort of game. Seems sort of like a tech demo, just something to explore and mess around in. Like a snow sandbox. It looks beautiful, though. I just wouldn’t end the show with it. It’s cool and all, but if I was Ubisoft, I would’ve ended with Watch Dogs 2.
Reviewing My Predictions
Here’s how I grade my predictions. Zero for incorrect, half a point for half-correct, one point for correct. 13 points possible here at most.
- Watch Dogs 2 obviously. It’ll get a big showing. I’m optimistic for it, honestly. Hopefully it’s better than the first one.
Yep, totally right. (1/13)
- New Rabbids maybe? Could be.
No, it couldn’t. (1/13)
- How about a new Rayman? Shoutout to Raymanhill by the way, lovely curator over on PKA. New Rayman game would be nice. I think the last one did pretty well, so I wouldn't be surprised if another comes out.
Sorry Ray. (1/13)
- Some more content for The Division. Once I can go to my hometown of Brooklyn, I’ll pick the game up. Probably will be disappointed, but whatever. I’m sure people who like The Division will be happy to see it here.
Yes, more content. (2/13)
- Wishful thinking here, but a new Valiant Hearts would be great. Maybe they can focus on WWII this time around. Although, that game is fine with just one entry as a series.
Nope. (2/13)
- Some more dance or workout games. Stuff like that. I don’t care.
Yes, very early on. I missed it, though. (3/13)
- Some DLC for Far Cry: Primal would make sense too. Wouldn’t be surprised to see that.
Nope. (3/13)
- I don’t think Ubisoft realizes how good South Park: The Stick of Truth was. That’s why I am super excited for them to show South Park: The Fractured But Whole. Lovely and clever name. Classic Matt and Trey. Please be released this year. Again, this might actually be the best game in Ubisoft’s lineup. If I were them, I’d give it more time. Show some gameplay even. Ubisoft confirmed on Twitter that it will definitely be shown.
Absolutely! (4/13)
- No more cringy attempts at jokes, please. Although against that, I still think they’re going to try making jokes. Ugh. Just have Aisha Tyler say the f-bomb a few times. That’s fine enough.
Well, she did say the f-bomb, but there was also cringy stuff. Half a point. (4.5/13)
- Racing game probably. Sequel to The Crew or something else. That’s what I predict. I’m not really into racing games, but go ahead and enjoy. I was in the closed beta for The Crew a while back, and I wasn’t impressed at all - enough that made me decide not to purchase it. Hopefully a sequel is more appealing. I don’t think it’ll be called “The Crew 2” if there’s a sequel, by the way. Probably “The Crew: [Insert Name]”.
God, I’m doing awful. (4.5/13)
- For Honor will be shown. It reminds me of Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior a little bit. You have warriors from different eras and time periods fighting to the death (like knights and samurai). It’s intriguing. I want to see more from it, for sure. Hopefully there’s a singleplayer mode, though. Seems like it’s a multiplayer-centric game at the moment.
Yes. With campaign! (5.5/13)
- Ending the show with a teaser for Assassin’s Creed, dated for 2017, would be a great way to close it. I always like the settings of Assassin’s Creed, and I think they’re great for a video game world - but I never liked the gameplay. If they can work on that aspect, this soft reboot they’ll be doing will be phenomenal.
Would’ve been cool, but no. (5.5/13)
I didn’t do well on that one. Oh well. Let’s see how I do with Sony. I know a few of my Sony predictions are already disproven, so hopefully I do well.
So overall, Ubisoft’s press conference started out strong, but got stale quickly. Overall, I’d give it a 4/10. It wasn’t good at all. I did like Aisha Tyler’s hosting, and they had plenty to show, but it wasn’t really engaging whatsoever. They really dragged a bunch of segments longer than they should have.
What do you think? How did they do?
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