E3 Ubisoft 2016 Press Conference

 

The press conference opened with Queen's “Don't Stop Me Now” with an amazing choreography. After the dance a tribute to the Orlando tragedy was raised. Aisha Taylor introduced with why she keeps coming back and raising a fine cheer for Ubisoft's 30^th anniversary. To celebrate, Ubisoft announced that through the Ubisoft club, they will be offering up 7 free games through Ubisoft Club that you will be able to download through Ubisoft Play. The first game is Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

 

 

The first game introduced was Ghost Recon: Wild Lands. Release: March 7^th, 2017. The trailer showed a helicopter bringing an agent in who drops out of it. It quickly shows the highly level of technology found in this area. The stakes are established with a cartel and its offerings to those who would oppose it or worth with it. After the trailer, Dominic Butler, came in and explained what the Cocoa leaf offered in Bolivia. He presented the premise that a Mexican cartel has moved in and taken over Bolivia, making it a Narco State. This is a massive open world shooter. This is potentially the largest open world that Ubisoft has made. They followed this by showing a gameplay trailer where the players are sent in to extract a target for his knowledge. It shows the influences of the open world where the team is communicating very well with each other and coordinating their assault to make it in quietly. It shows the level of cooperation that is possible. The demo showed the team moving flawlessly through the massive world with no loading. You can see them flying helicopters, drones, trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles. The team works together, with multiple people on the same vehicle working together to achieve their objective.

 

 

South Park: The Fracture But Whole was the second game to be shown.
Release: December 6^th, 2016.

 

 They brought in the South Park creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The story continues from the Stick of Truth, you return as the New Kid. You see just where you stand after the events and you are back to being an outsider. Cartman walks you through the creation of you as a Super Hero. You also see Cartman make the backstory for the New Kid. From there they went on to explain the combat differences between The Fractured But Whole and The Stick of Truth, mostly that you can move around. Farts are now so powerful you can fracture time and re-arrange the turn order. They have a limited time offered where pre-ordering The Fractured But Whole will give you The Stick of Truth for free. This is exclusively through Ubisoft's retail channels.

 

 

The Division was the next game on the list. Julian Gerighty brought out the Underground Expansion for the Division. Release: June 28^th on Xbox and PC and August 2^nd on PS4  in 2016. You will find various challenges and unique encounter. For the 30^th anniversary of Ubisoft you get 3 unique outfits, Ghost Recon Wildlands, Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six Siege. He also talked about the next pending expansion. This brings brutal weather into the game, Survival. It also hints to something darker with people hunting the Agents.

 

 

Next up was a VR item, with the Oculus crew making an appearance. This was for the new VR game, “Eagle Flight”. For the demo, they showed off a PvP mode, Capture the Prey. It is a capture the flag style game. Everyone needs to work together to bring the prey back to their nest. It shows just how well they are using the full 3D space that the Oculus emerges them in. All the birds have some ability to fire off a shot at each other. There is a lot of emphasis on the physics that are inherit to Eagle Flight, the need to use wind drafts and thermals for speed boosts.

 

 

David Votypka presented the next VR game, Star Trek: Bridge Crew. They opened with a trailer with the well-known scanner beep. They have a unique ship, Aegis. Levar Burton, Karl Urban and Jeri Ryan all from various Star Trek Series came together to try this game. This gives everyone working together to reach their goals and survive. This is the kind of game that every Star Trek Fan has been waiting for. This shared VR game was just what they really wanted to enjoy. After that trailer, they brought out Levar Burton to talk about the game. He was very clear about the immersion being something very unique as well as everyone working together to coming together to achieve the goals. This offers very engaging gameplay. It has a Fall release window for all VR systems.

 

 

For Honor was the next game, opening with its conflict heavy trailer. Release February 14^th, 2017. Jason Vandeberge introduced the game and the premise behind it. Last year, they let the attendees trying the melee combat. This year, they introduce the world. The Black Stone Legion, the Samurai and the Vikings are the factions. They brought in the game director to show the Viking faction. As they are Raiders. They started with the Samurai nation and raiding those villages. The game play demo started with the raid opening cinematic. It showed off more the melee combat system which has been built over the last year. You could see the dynamic functions in the combat and the various tasks that you needed to complete to get through this raid stage. Each faction has various ranks of enemies of increasing difficulty to fight. It is a very impressive game and one that will call for equal parts aggression and thought. There will be an alpha very soon for For Honor.

 

 

Grow up was the next game shown. This will have an August release. This showed off Bud and what he can do now. This will give you a chance to ride the Giant Star Plants and you can plant seeds to explore the world. This game will have Bud exploring the world on his own without the watchful eyes of his mother.

 

 

Dave and friend Dean Evans came to present something new from their collaboration: Trials of the Blood Dragon. A new twist building out the world of Blood Dragon. It is a combination of the constant forward motion of Trails with the 80's excitement of Blood Dragon. This is out already on PC, PSN and Xbox Live and will be available after the Ubisoft conference.

 

 

After all the games, they brought out the producer for the Assassin's Creed movie, Frank Marshall. It has a release date of December 21^st, 2016. He liked the elements presented in the game and tell a new story within its world. A new hero and dynamic supporting players with it. Assassin's Creed is unique for its deep lore that is on the surface and through playing the game. They shot the movie in 3-4 different counties. They worked hard to build a team that would be able to support this. After that, built a powerful creative team. He suspects people will enjoy the multi-layered mythology from the game and the unique story that is in the movie. It offers the same wish fulfillment that the games did. He brought a behind the scenes video with some new footage from the movie.

 

 

The next game had a very appropriate hack style introduction into Watch_Dogs 2, starting with pan over of the Embarcadero. This time,Jonathan Morin the game director, introduced the main character. He explains that hyper-connection in this world. He can see the world and the connections between players. This time, you can join into anyone's game world seamlessly. This preview showed one of the missions Marcus was shown using a drone to scout the target location to start learning about what the target is up to. Many of the original systems of jumping around the various cameras in a location remain. Marcus also shows up some new consumable items that help you neutralize guards and clear your path forward. A new small two-wheeled drone was shown which Marcus used to grant DedSec access to the data they want to get on this target. Just like the last game, there are numerous approaches to how to deal with any task.

 

Yves Guillement came out to present on Watch_Dogs 2. He brought out Jim Ryan from Sony to continue the presentation. He also announced a Watch_Dogs film that will be coming out from Regency and Sony Pictures. Jim brought out the news that Watch_Dogs 2 DLC will premiere 30 days before on Playstation before any other platform. This was followed with a demo using in-game footage to show just what the world will be like and what options there are going to be.

 

 

Yves Guillement came out to announce the final game of the press conference. This is a new IP for Ubisoft. An open world action sport style game, Steep. This has the player in control of extreme sports explorers. Base jumping, parasailing, all on a massive mountain. To do something completely new on this massive mountain. After the trailer, they brought out Rebecka Coutaz and another developer. This game simply focuses on the experience, getting memorable game play of both amazing achievements and spectacular failures. The biggest feature was mountain view, to see the world around you. You will also find Drop Zones, these will be the points that you can trigger challenges. It can be any variety of different challenges based on the location. This will also offer the chance to see things in both first and third person perspectives. Using the replay view, you can custom videos and do a variety of things inside it. This will allow you to create new challenges as well. The final element they showed was the raw ability that the players will have to explore the mountains in the Alps. Just the freedom of what you will be able to do and what you will be able to see. Steep will also offer a beta. The game will ship this December.