E3 2013: The UBISOFT Press Conference Round-Up

Catch up on all the biggest MICROSOFT, SONY, NINTENDO, and EA E3 2013 Announcements:

Enter Jerry Cantrell, guitarist from ALICE IN CHAINS. The lights dim, the amplifiers starts to blare the tune “Man in a Box” out of its speakers and Jerry Cantrell has successfully melted the faces off of everyone attending the Ubisoft Press Conference — he might of even melted some of the hard drives of the computers streaming the event.

That’s how Ubisoft choose to kick off their press conference, having Jerry Cantrell demonstrate what people can expect from ROCKSMITH 2014 EDITION and by introducing the best hashtag of all time…#girlwood.

The press conference, or “media briefing” as they called it, was kicked into motion with a little help from Cantrell and his guitar expertise, it was a good appetizer for the start of the conference, but Ubisoft quickly moved into the main course by diving straight into SPLINTER CELL: BLACKLIST.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hUrKRu4CHA[/youtube]

While Sam Fisher has seen many manifestations over the years, this time he has a team called 4th Echelon backing him as he tries to track down terrorist threatening U.S. interests. While this title has been known for a while now it was the announcement of another Tom Clancy title called TOM CLANCY’S THE DIVISION which is a open-world Action RPG .

THE DIVISION takes place after a lethal virus, released on Black Friday, has caused an epidemic in New York and one by one the infrastructure of the city starts to fail and society is falling a part. It’s an interesting concept for a game, THE DIVISION really accentuates the realism that Tom Clancy games often strive to achieve. Ubisoft mentioned that this game aims to take advantage of next-generation technology, something that is clear witnessing the gameplay, and it displays a similar look and tone that Ubisoft’s WATCHDOGS does.

That’s something that could be either good or bad but it’s too early to tell since it’s still unclear what THE DIVISION really is as a game.

Also released was a new WATCHDOGS trailer that further goes in-depth on how technology can be used to become a vigilante and that we are not as anonymous as we think we are. Since last year’s E3, this game as been at the top of everyone’s radars and has been at about every important conference since its unveiling. I’m kind of over seeing WATCHDOGS everywhere I turn, but I’m still really pumped for this game. A game that makes your smart phone most dangerous weapon in your arsenal of debauchery has me excited.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njfj6KwEAfg[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqoQG_XYF-8[/youtube]

Ubisoft teased a new driving title that it has been working on called THE CREW.

This title strives to achieve a new caliber of driving game, and to achieve this level of driving game they aim to make it the most open world driving game players have ever stepped into. The premise of the game is that players will infiltrate a criminal organization and take it over.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CZrwNly8Zg[/youtube]

Among other things featured at this event were things most people would expect from Ubisoft: JUST DANCE 4, RABBIDS INVASION, and RAYMAN LEGENDS. Something that was a great surprise to see was SOUTH PARK: THE STICK OF TRUTH game. With THQ going bankrupt and it’s intellectual property auctioned off, it’s nice to see that this game didn’t get lost or abandoned by the unfortunate events that transpired at THQ.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcqr1qjdBU4[/youtube]

ASSASSIN’S CREED IV: BLACK FLAG couldn’t go unmentioned at an Ubisoft press conference. Bringing a brand new trailer and gameplay footage, ASSASSIN’S CREED IV: BLACK FLAG seems to be the polar opposite of ASSASSIN’S CREED III. Edward Kenway has no regard for the law and is a ruthless pirate, characteristics that make him a compelling character in an equally compelling game. Or at least that’s what Ubisoft hopes you think.

I’m still not 100% sold on this game. It looks like the same old ASSASSIN’S CREED games that we’ve come to know all to well, but I will say that this game has me curious and I haven’t written it off yet.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saUL3VAEER8[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cwj1RQbOzM[/youtube]

The Ubisoft Press Conference was a decent conference. It went in with the objective of showing you why it is one of the best multi-platform publishers around with its vast array of games that it offers across multiple platforms and it revealed it’s vision of games of the future. TOM CLANCY’S THE DIVISION and WATHCDOGS look similar, maybe too similar, but hopefully Ubisoft has some more games under its hood that it will want to reveal the closer we get to console launch this fall.