My main takeaway from the presentation of the Ubisoft press conference, was that it had the most crying and the most swearing.
But anyway, let’s get into it.
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle
A wild Shigeru Miyamoto appears!
Despite the rumours this caught me totally by surprise. But now the Mario and Rabbids crossover is official. Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo joined Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot on stage to announce the collaboration. Miyamoto also brought in life size weapons from the game and gave one to Guillemot.
The producer of the game came to talk more about it, and it looked like he’d been bursting to tell everyone about it for three years. Maybe he was the one who started the first rumours.
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is going to be a tactical “turn-based adventure” game, where you can run around a world and then walk into battle zones. In the battle zones, you can use different heroes, which have different abilities, to defeat enemies by using combos, destroying cover and moving into flanking positions. It looks like it has a really well-thought out combat system that also seems very accessible, which is nice for the younger and not-as-gamey gamers.
They also have a behind the scenes video, if you want to check that out (or just want to listen to Shigeru Miyamoto speak).
Assassin’s Creed: Origins
They already made the big announcement at the Microsoft press conference, but we did get a release date! October 27th. They also streamed some gameplay of the demo they’ve got at their E3 booth after the show and we learned a little more about the RGP stuff and took a look at the skill tree.
For one, despite it only being in alpha at the moment, the water looks stunning. There are boats and they look pretty and very detailed! They’re also quite fast, which is good, because the lake they were on was huge. There are hippos and crocodiles and sunken treasure that you have to dive underwater for, and eeee! Oh, it looks good!
I’m so glad they decided to wait an extra year to make this one, instead of pumping it out last year. They’ve really added to the franchise this time, especially mechanically. For example, if you want to be able to assassinate people with a single shot, you not only need to level up, but you need to craft the weapons with the bonuses that are perfect for your playstyle. You can find weapons and other gear lying around, waiting to be looted, but like most games, the best gear is always crafted.
Combat has also been added to. You really shouldn’t fight people who are a higher level to you, unless you play it super safe. Bayek also has Adrenaline, which is a sort of ‘resource’ that you gain while in combat, and then use to bust some furious moves.
The Crew 2
The Crew 2 was announced featuring some awesome plane, motorboat, street car and dirt bike gameplay. Check out the super cool cinematic trailer, too!
But if actual gameplay is what you want, take a look at this
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
We got a quick look at the new trailer, and a little later in the program a mobile game called Phone Destroyer was announced.
And here is the trailer to the Cowboys vs Indians vs … a lot of other things mobile game Phone Destroyer
Transference
Ubisoft have teamed up with Spectrevision, the studio started by Elijah Wood, to create a psychological thriller VR game. It’s set to come out “Spring 2018” for the PSVR, Vive, and Oculus Rift. It’s a part-game, part-film sort of a thing.
The announcement trailer looks pretty creepy.
They’ve also got some more interview stuff if you want to know a little more about the project
Skull and Bones
I’ve been saying for a while that Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag is the best pirate game you can play right now, and finally Ubisoft have taken the mechanics made for that and turned it into its own game. You can recognise Black Flag immediately in some of the gameplay, but they’ve added to it, including a 5 v 5 PVP mode called The Hunt, where you try and get more loot than the other team (but there’s still quite a bit of ship battling).
You can choose what kind of ship you want to sail, from the reinforced tank-style of the frigate to the small mortar-firing sluperwar to the brigadine which is perfect for close range. Its set to come out in the first half of next year but you can sign up for the beta now.
But can we talk about this cinematic trailer though?
You can check out more about gameplay and the PVP mode here
And there’s a behind the scenes here too!
Just Dance 2018
We were treated to some pretty cool dance moves from three guys wearing over-the-top Wrench cosplay (not really, but I don’t know how else to describe it), and then they were interrupted by some KPop dance girls.
I dunno if I should admit this, but as I was watching the guys I was thinking, ‘Hey, they really should do a KPop version of Just Dance.’ I didn’t think they would, because I don’t know how popular that would be but lo and behold! It seems Just Dance may be getting a few (if not just the one) KPop dances in there too.
Starlink: Battle for Atlas
Now, this looks cool. I’m a sucker for sci-fi, so when I saw ships flying through space and planets and stuff, I was intrigued. At first I thought No Man’s Sky was getting a massive update, but then I remember that this was the Ubisoft press conference. But then that meant this was an entirely new game?
In Starlink you can command a team of starpilots, customise your ships, outrun bandits in asteroid fields and save the system from ugly fire rock monsters. The coolest thing about this is that it’s set to release on not just the PS4 and Xbox One but the Nintendo Switch as well!
There are also collectible ships that you can buy and interact with the game!
Steep: Road to the Olympics
Oh my goodness, I loved Steep, and I am a big fan of the Winter Olympics. Though it was the Summer Olympics, I remember playing Athens 2004 and really enjoying myself. I know there won’t be any curling, but Steep is the best thing out there for a good and proper Winter Olympics game.
They talked to real athletes who would spend 300 days jumping on a trampoline to perfect their landing and practice six million turns so that the few they did on the day would be the best turns the world has ever seen.
The update will be hitting the game December the 5th, which will give you a couple of months to hype up for the real deal in PyeongChang 2018!
Far Cry 5
Along with an ironic cinematic trailer, we got a look at some gameplay featuring the Guns for Hire system. It seems you’ll be able to set up your sniper, call for death from above, and sic you Fangs for Hire on people. Notice the dog disarming the man to make him an easy kill.
Beyond Good and Evil 2
Yep, you read that right. The developers took to the stage with literal tears in their eyes as they told us that after fifteen years they’re finally announcing the sequel to Beyond Good and Evil.
Nothing in terms of gameplay was shown, but the trailer breakdown told us a few things. Apparently you’ll be able to own a fleet of ships that can be stored inside a bigger ship. There’ll also be online features where you can play with friends, which sounds absolutely awesome.
If you haven’t played the original game, it is an absolute gem. You’re missing out on some of the finest gaming of the early noughties.
Oh, and there’s a bit of swearing in these, for those who have bosses with sensitive ears.
Ubisoft also broke the trailer down, if you wanted to get a little bit more out of what little we were given.
Fan Creations!
Ubisoft appreciated their fans by showing off some of the content that the gaming community had created, inspired by their games. I loved it so much that I’m going to put it here for you to enjoy as well.
That’s it from the #UbiE3 press conference. For the lowdown on all of E3, you can check out our article E3 in a Nutshell, where we’ve got everything in one place.
Sony is on later today at 1pm NZST
Nintendo is on tomorrow morning at the wee hours of 4am NZST
