RSS Feeds NGN on Facebook NGN on Twitter NGN on YouTube
Thursday March 28, 2024
Header logo

Ubisoft Conference Recap - E3 2016

Ghost Recon, Watch Dogs 2, South Park, For Honor among games shown at conference

Posted by on

Ubisoft kick things off with Queen and dancing as perplexing visuals play on the screen in the background and garishly adorned dancers crowd the stage. One pretends to play a butterfly guitar. Aisha Tyler comes on following this bizarre display and says a few words about the recent shootings in Orlando, and then explains that the dancing was in relation to Just Dance 2017, which will be coming to all platforms next year. After a more traditional opening speech, it’s on to games.

Ghost Recon wildlands

First up, Ghost Recon: Wildlands. A story trailer depicts an elaborate drug operation and lots of money changing hands. Towards the end, the Ghosts show up and start dealing damage, shooting up a convoy from a helicopter. The game will take place in Bolivia as Dominic Butler, lead game designer announces as he comes on stage. The story premise will involve a Mexican cartel invading and taking over cocaine resources, while the ghosts strike behind their lines to bring down the cartel. The entire game can be played solo or in up to four-player co-op. The open world will be the largest Ubisoft have ever made.

Another gameplay trailer plays with the Ghosts trying to infiltrate a village to get some intel. One player watches from a hill as another sneaks in. After getting the intel, the first player picks up the infiltrator in a helicopter and fly to the location revealed by the intel. From the demo, it doesn’t look like you have any AI squad mates though this is a co-op demo. One player tags enemies in the second camp, and a sniper silently eliminates one enemy. The team infiltrates the camp which has a lot more enemies than the first village. One player uses a drone to fly into buildings and spot enemies. It looks like players will be able to climb up fences and onto rooftops. Their target manages to get into a vehicle and escape the camp while the players give chase in a variety of vehicles including a dirt bike. The trailer ends with the group extracting the target and escaping in the helicopter. The game will be released in March 2017.

The next trailer plays, using the Snow Drop engine for what turns out to be the new South Park game, The Fractured But Whole. Trey Parker and Matt Stone take the stage to talk about the game. The kids are now playing as superheroes, and again you will play as a new kid in town. A gameplay clip shows Cartman verbally abusing the new kid in their superhero lair and eventually letting him decide what kind of superhero he wants to be. A following clip sees Cartman narrating your superhero origin story.

The hilarious dialogue that carried the Stick of Truth appears to be on point here. They reveal tweaks to the combat, in which a tile system lets you move around, and the environment can be used for extra damage. Farts can be used to rip the fabric of time itself, letting you rearrange the turn order. Anyone who buys the new South Park will get the Stick of Truth for free. The game will launch on December 6th, and a final trailer plays to set up the story - they are doing it to make a bunch of money from a superhero franchise.

South Park Fractured But Whole

Next up is The Division. Julian Gerighty from Massive Entertainment comes on to talk more about the game. The upcoming Underground expansion will launch on June 28th on Xbox One and PC and shortly after on the PS4. New player skins for Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell will also be added to the game with Underground. Another expansion, Survival, is also announced. This appears to be a separate experience from the main game with a survival twist on the usual formula with less ammo and more severe weather. It is not clear how the multiplayer aspect of this mode will work, and no release date for the expansion is announced.

A VR segment is next up as Oculus representatives come on stage to show off the game Eagle Flight VR. A live PvP demo is set up as two teams of three battle it out in a capture the flag match. The gameplay is fast as the players fly around and use wind gusts to increase speed and shoot each other with some kind of sonic blast. The players with their Oculus kits are comically all looking in different directions as they play.

Red Storm Entertainment come on next for another VR related product. A trailer starts, and it looks to be a Star Trek VR game. Star Trek actors from various series are shown trying the game along with their reactions. It looks like a multiplayer game where the group of players are all crew members on the ship. The gameplay sees the crew members at their stations pressing buttons on panels that control various ship functions. The game is titled Star Trek: Bridge Crew. LeVar Burton comes on to talk with Aisha about the game and his experiences with it. This marks the end of the VR segment, and another trailer starts.

This next trailer is a CGI cinematic one showing a medieval landscape getting destroyed in some kind of earthquake. A Viking, a Knight and a Samurai fighting in the aftermath indicates the game being depicted is For Honor. The creative director for the game Jason Vandenberghe comes on to talk about it. From the sounds of it, you’ll be able to play as the Vikings, Samurais or Knights for the singleplayer mode. Another trailer is shown as the Vikings are raiding a Samurai village on boats.

Gameplay shows the Viking player dodging catapult rounds and wading into melee combat, easily killing weaker enemies and then facing off in a duel against a tougher one. Eventually he climbs a wall using a sort of grapple as the defenders throw rocks down. He then faces off against a special enemy who gets a cutscene introduction. The weighty animations make the melee combat look meaty and satisfying. The game will be out on February 14, 2017.

For Honor game

Ubisoft Reflections' Pete Young comes on next to talk about Grow Home. Another game in this universe is being worked on, Grow Up. A brief trailer indicates the gameplay premise will be similar but with increased scale and abilities that let you gain height in new ways. The next perplexing segment sees two bearded game directors come on as if readying for a fight; instead they hug on stage. The men are responsible for Far Cry Blood Dragon and Trials, the two of which are apparently being merged. A trailer plays indicating it will be a strange 2d side-scrolling game with both platforming and action. The game is dubbed Trials of the Blood Dragon, and will be released at the end of the conference!

Next up is a segment about the Assassin's Creed movie. One of the producers comes on and chats with Aisha about the upcoming film. A video showing clips from the film and comments from start Michael Fassbender and director Justin Kurzel. The film will be out in December. After this, it’s time for Watch Dogs 2.

A DedSec video interrupts Aisha as a digitized and masked man talking about bringing down congress transitions into a clip of the world, which is the San Francisco Bay area. Jonathan Morin comes on to talk about the game as gameplay continues to play in the background. The player is shown hacking cars, causing people's cell phones to go off and eventually running into another player though their interaction is minimal. The player then heads off to complete a mission that starts with the player using a drone to scout a building, revealing armed guards within and other people destroying hard drives. The player character, Marcus Holloway,, puts in some headphones and infiltrates the building from the roof while hip hop music plays.

Marcus sneakily eliminated a couple of guards using a mixture of gadgets and takedowns from behind before hacking into the system using a sort of RC car. A firefight breaks out as the evidence is downloaded, the shooting mechanics seem familiar though at one point Marcus hacks a car inside the building which smashes through a window, before he escapes the building using a zip line. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot comes on next to talk more about the game, who in turn brings on Jim Ryan for further discussion. His announcement is that Sony Entertainment will be working on a Watch Dogs film. He also announces that PlayStation players will get access to all Watch Dogs 2 DLC thirty days before everyone else. Another Watch Dogs 2 trailer plays which depicts a bunch of action sequences set to more hip hop.

steep ubisoft game

Finally, Yves returns to announce something new. A new IP from the studio who worked on Splinter Cell and Assassins Creed multiplayer. Yves hails it as a new genre, and a trailer begins, which depicts snowboarding, skiing, base jumping and wing-suiting with a metric ton of GoPro product placement thrown in for good measure. The game will supposedly take place in an open world with an emphasis on sharing stunts and crashes with friends. The game will be called Steep. Developers come on after the trailer and quickly introduce another gameplay trailer that shows someone parachuting above some sharp peaks. He lands on a rock and looks at the game world, with a feature called ‘mountain view’ letting the player zoom out and observe the surrounding mountains. The game will feature ‘drop zones’ which are challenges the players can take part in.

The challenge featured in the demo is a wing suit proximity flying challenge as a group of players whizz down the mountain. The demo shifts to a different region of mountains, zooming in on a girl on a snowboard, and then to a skier, and then another paraglider. There is a lot of screaming and woo-hoo'ing coming from the player characters. Every traversal path is recorded in the world, and selecting these tracks lets you watch replays and view statistics about the race. You can even challenge your friends to try and imitate the same path. The game is slated to ship this December. This is the final game shown, and Yves with other presenters return for a final round of applause while Yves gives closing statements, as Ubisoft celebrates its 30th anniversary.

Comments
Top Articles this Month
Pacific Drive Review
Shifting gear
Posted 20 days ago
Alone in the Dark Review
Posted 9 days ago
Mario vs Donkey Kong Review
Posted 24 days ago
The Outlast Trials Review
Posted 15 days ago
Minami Lane Review
Posted 25 days ago
Rise of the Ronin Review
Posted 7 days ago
South Park: Snow Day Review
Posted 3 days ago
Latest Comments
Alone in the Dark Review
Mar 21, 2024 by pilathe
Pity, was a chance to bring the franchise back to...
Stasis: Bone Totem coming to consoles
Mar 16, 2024 by fxvc
great game that i hope they adopt well for console...
Pacific Drive Review
Mar 13, 2024 by ecena
Added to my backlog. looks pretty fun
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion Review
Mar 6, 2024 by nutguy6000
Turnip boy does say "stop." to crancran after you rip up...
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown - The Explorer...
Mar 4, 2024 by JamesJay
It will be difficult to stand out from the Forza Horizon...
Advertisement ▼
New Game Network NGN Facebook NGN Twitter NGN Youtube NGN RSS