Hey everyone! Thanks for sticking with me throughout E3 today! Ubisoft's press conference is just about ready to commence! If you missed the recaps earlier today, you can read all about Microsoft and EA's conferences by clicking on their names. For the second year in a row Aisha Tyler is hosting Ubi's conference, a job she exceeds at. Anyways, read the recap of the entire conference after the jump!
Ubisoft started their show off with a bang by bringing out Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains to play a song and introduce the first game reveal, Rocksmith 2014. He did this by first playing his guitar alone, and then using a band from Rocksmith to aid him in another song. This was able to start the show off in a lively and fun way, and also introduce Rocksmith, which is able to teach anyone how to play guitar in a quick and fun way.
Aisha Tyler added a whole nother level to the show by actually presenting games in an upbeat way (unlike everyone else today) and adding comedy to the show, even with the unbearably half a sleep audience she had to deal with throughout the show.
After starting things off with a bang with Jerry Cantrell Ubisoft immediately began to fizzle with their trailer of Splintercell: Blacklist. While this did look like a well made, immersive game it seemed more or less the same as most first person shooters, and after already seeing 40,000 other FPSs today, no one wants to see another, especially if it really doesn't offer any innovation whatsoever to the usual FPS formula.
After unveiling Blacklist, they revealed the new Rayman Legends. While there really isn't much new to this game, it seems like a fun all ages platformer that's cartoony graphics look beautiful on its new console home of the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U.
Ubisoft then revealed another overly cartoony game, The Mighty Quest For Epic Loot, basically a castle building game where you defend your castle as you steal from other players' castles for the younger ages, at this point look likes Ubi is really trying to appeal to a younger audience.
After revealing this game they unveiled another teaser for South Park: The Stick of Truth (right after 2 kids games, Ubisoft logic.) and while it didn't stack up to the many other teaser trailers out there, it's nice to know that the developers didn't forget that this game does in fact exist.
After that Ubisoft jumped to a new topic again by unveiling the first next gen title of the show, The Crew. The Crew showed off how powerful the next gen consoles are by making incredibly realistic cityscape and desert environments that were so real looking that the trailer could have passed for a movie trailer! The Crew is one of the first of its kind, an mmorpg racing game centered around making well... A Crew with your friends as you race around and take over the world with your Crew! With the ability to play single player, co-op, or competitive this game allows players to drive, and even work together from all around the in-game world that covers the entire United States. This is one of the few games today that has been able to truly show just how much power the next generation consoles have.
After revealing an already leaked Watchdogs trailer (which makes it no less awesome) they totally switched gears and revealed the incredibly predictable 2014 Just Dance, which besides a new 6 player mode really only offers a new playlist.
After just dance, the next topic was the Raving Rabbids TV show (which looks adorable) that you can play. Why they chose to brand this as a TV show I have no idea, as this is really just an overly cinematic video game, but, no matter what you want to call it, it's time for Assassin's Creed.
Although I've always thought that AC4 could have just been DLC for AC3 (Connor goes pirating, because that would be so hard to make) there's no doubt that Ubisoft puts a lot of time, money, and effort into their games, and this is no exception. Although the trailer was all pre-rendered cgi footage, (because you know, you only need at least 8,000 of those at every press conference) so far this title seems like it will really just be a repackaging of Assassin's Creed 3 with a new story (Call of Duty-esque much?). Also from what we've seen this looks as if this title really has no plans on pushing the boundaries, but rather sticking to what we've seen this whole generation (thanks Ubisoft that's refreshing).
The next announcement (the stand out of the conference) Tom Clancy's The Division, blurred the lines between single and multiplayer gaming. The gameplay featured stunning (I can't enunciate that enough) graphics and an entire team of 3-4 people playing together (that group being part of a much larger group over an entire in game open world), with people being able to drop out and rejoin as they please. With a beautiful UI and an array of abilities to choose from, we've finally found a shooter unveiled at this EA that had some variety to it.
Overall, there weren't many surprises in this conference. However, the conference unveiled a ton of new titles for every type and age of gamer. So overall I'd say this was an enjoyable conference that held something for everyone. Check back here in a few hours for the Sony conference!
-Colby
