FOR HONOR / Ubisoft
Ubisoft started off strong with an announcement trailer for SOUTH PARK: THE FRACTURED BUT WHOLE which is a direct sequel to the popular STICK OF TRUTH. Sure it was just an announcement teaser, but it was pretty funny and looks well worth playing.
Following was an unexpected but extremely welcome announcement for the game FOR HONOR. It’s a brand new IP for Ubisoft and is basically a visceral melee weapon combat game featuring brutal warriors, armies, and castles. For a game being just announced it looked far along in development. We even got a live demo showing off what to expect and it looked cool as hell. Basically you are part of a huge army alongside 3 other friends pretty much just going to war and trying to kill one another. I didn’t smell anything about a story or a specific character…just pure brutally violent combat focusing on strategy and surviving. Pretty sweet. This one will be worth keeping an eye on.
Next were a few quick announcements for DLC in the form of THE CREW: WILD RUN coming November 17th 2015 and TRIALS FUSION: AWESOME LEVEL MAX coming July 14th 2015. Both looked like fun additions to already fun games.
After that we got a nice and lengthy presentation for THE DIVISION which is an open world team-based survival game that really finds new ways to interact with other live players and compete and/or team-up. Ubisoft shed a lot of info about what to expect in this game including that factions of 4 players are surviving parallel to other 4 person teams in this world all fighting for loot and…well just to stay alive. The gameplay we saw featured teams bumping into each other, stealing from one another, teaming up to take down common threats, and backstabbing one another. It’s pretty varied stuff here creating a lot of potentially memorable gaming moments. Just wonder about how long a game like this can last online considering how quickly a game like EVOLVE fizzed out. Still…it’s looks fun.
Ubisoft then introduced via a teaser trailer ANNO 2205 which is a SIM-CITYesque game but on the moon featuring sic-fi elements for building your utopia. Not a lot of solid footage was show, but it looked cool if you are into those types of games. And speaking of “if you are into those types of games”, we got a long ass JUST DANCE 2016 presentation that made me want to JUST FAST FORWARD…to be fair, my Pringles eating ass ain’t the target audience for this game. People danced, sweat was made, stinks were born.
Once the adrenaline wore off RAINBOW SIX SIEGE kicked my ass up and down and left and right. Every time I see something new abut this game I get even more excited. Things really heated up with a full round of team-based gameplay in a live demo (so they say…) where the team had to infiltrate a mansion and defuse a bomb. It was action heavy, set in destructible environments that change the way you play, and featured some cool weapons and gadgets to play with. Everything here looked stellar.
We then got a quick preview of a funky looking racer called TRACKMANIA TURBO that focuses on building unique and wild tracks and we got a peek at yet another ASSASSIN’S CREED game in the form of ASSASSIN’S CREED SYNDICATE. I’m so burnt out on the franchise I daydreamed through most of the presentation about being a pirate in ASSASSIN’S CREED IV…why do anything else after that!?
And the final big announcement of the somewhat underwhelming presentation was in the form of GHOST RECON: WILDLANDS. I admit this game looked pretty cool. It’s yet another ope world action adventure game that has you murdering people, riding vehicles, and causing all kinds of mayhem. Sure it looks sweet, and maybe 5 years ago my socks would knock off my feet, but we live in a time where we are oversaturated with games of this ilk and I’m not seeing anything too fresh going on. Don’t get me wrong, it looked great, was a pleasant surprise, and will likely be tons of fun. But I doubt I’ll even beat what’s already on my plate in the form of THE WITCHER 3, GTA V, FALLOUT 4, and yes I’m still chipping away at SKYRIM before this game comes out. WHAT!? I’m a methodical gamer and open world games don’t really get beaten overnight now do they!?
In case you missed it:
E3 2015: Bethesda Press Conference Impressions
E3 2015: Microsoft Press Conference Impressions
E3 2015: EA Press Conference Impressions
