Honest Opinion : E3 2018 - Ubisoft Conference (Monday June 11, 2018)
The middle of our Monday gets carried through by the Ubisoft conference. This is the one I've been waiting for the most. A few games were already revealed ahead of time like Skull & Bones, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and Division 2. Obviously these weren't going to be the only titles brought to the show, but it was still a wonder what else they would bring with them. And while the whole thing didn't start off with a bang, it did start off with a dance party, and the inevitable reveal of Just Dance 2019. Not much was shown or said of the actual game itself, and really what else can you do other than reveal soundtrack items? After the stage was cleared, what was going to come next?
Well, things went in a completely different direction. We finally got to see more of Beyond Good and Evil 2. The long awaited second game in the series. This space opera is going to take us into something that doesn't even look like it's predecessor. The world is massive (and seamless apparently) and compared to the semi-cartoony look of the first game, this one looks incredibly detailed and realistic. We saw some familiar faces, along with a couple new ones. Oh and did I mention this one's a prequel as well? Yeah, that shot above is of a younger Jade, and she looks pissed. The game will feature solo and co-op play, and they've even partnered up with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and his company Hit REcord, hoping to get the fans into the game. Fan art, videos, pictures, anything and everything (obviously this stuff is gonna be pre-screened), can be submitted and just might even be placed in any number of places within the game. This world is going to feel like it's ours.
My Take : While I never got to finish playing the original game, thanks to a faulty PS2 randomly deciding to quit on me while streaming, I love it and this one looks even better. I both love and question the upscale in graphics, although this could also be attributed to the fact that it's been how long since the first one released? No matter the reason, this is gonna be an incredible game and I hope it lives up to what was shown.
Next, fans were treated to a small thank you segment from the team behind Rainbow Six Siege. They paid homage to the ever growing and faithful community, and showcased all of their previously released (and free) characters in the game. Things were capped off with the announcement of a six-month long tournament, starting in August, that would feature the pros of Rainbow Six Siege and culminate in the final rounds early in 2019.
My Take : It was cool, I've played quite a bit of Siege and I'm definitely a fan. But....really? This was it? No announcement of incoming characters? New maps? Just...big tournament upcoming and that's it? This felt like it could have just been pushed out in a small Twitter thread...and maybe should have been.
Okay I'm not going to lie, this segment was actually quite enjoyable. It started off with a dude on a bike, Evil Knievel-inspired get up and all, riding up to the stage, running up and...falling into a podium that then shattered to pieces. Trials Rising is the next entry in this bike-platforming racer, and it looks really good. Stages are going to feature all across the world (or at least iconic inspired locations). What's more, the dev team made sure to get heavily involved with the community to make sure that this Trials gives the best experience to date. Fans can expect this one to come to Playstation 4, Xbox One, PC, and for the first time Nintendo Switch in February of 2019, with a closed BETA coming later this year.
My Take : Maybe not the most popular of games from the studio, but in my opinion it's a great one nonetheless. Whether you just like pushing yourself on the hardest of stages, speedrunning through things as fast as possible, or just making your friends eat your dust, these games are really fun. I've loved the ones I've gotten to play and I will easily be playing this one come next year.
There was no way we weren't seeing more of The Divison 2. Set in the same timeframe as the first game, following the same outbreak on Black Friday. Only this time, we're going to Washington! (DC). They showed off a trailer and quite a bit of gameplay, which was shockingly not the same footage shown in the Xbox conference. Mechanically and all, the game looks like it's taken everything from it's predecssor and honing it down better. Ubi showed us some really cool action in this game, but they sweetened the pot even more. Once you finish the main game, you'll get to pick a specific specialization for your character that will help you meld with other players in the game (it sounded like it was meant as a New Game+ but if I misunderstood that is all on me). Oh and squads have expanded to include up to 8 players, which will come in handy when the other big bomb-drop comes into play : Division 2 is going to have RAIDS.
We were also treated to the Year One plan for Division 2. There's going to be three DLC expansions released, all over the course of a year and ALL FOR FREE. Each one is going to unveil new single player content, as well as new areas and unique experiences to each one. If you're already excited to get your hands on this one, you can do so in March 2019.
My Take : Okay this left me speechless. Going in, I wasn't all that interested in this one. I loved the first Division but I always lost interest due to the bland, repetitive feeling of the city environment. Now, we're going to Washington and this looks gorgeous. You'll get the city feel, but also some woodsy and open spaces on top of it. I don't know if I'll ever bring myself to pushing through the rest of Divison and freeing NYC, but I'll for sure be diving head first into Division 2 next spring!
Another portion of the evening that stepped aside for a live on-stage performance. A small band came out from under the screen and gave us a brief musical performance while footage for the upcoming story expansion to Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. And...that was it. This was a really quick segment, and I felt it served just as more of a reminder that "Hey...we've got DLC coming out in a couple of weeks". If this had been skipped and left out until Nintendo's conference...it wouldn't have changed anything really.
Then, everything shifted to the high seas. We've slowly gotten information on Skull & Bones ever since last year's E3, so this year was about showing us the gameplay and introducing us to the world and some of it's mechanics. Players are going to share an open world on the seas, with access to a pirate hideout that is all their own. Before sailing out on your adventure, any number of customizations can be tweaked on your ship, and your crew can be picked by hand.
While sailing on missions you'll have plenty of options. Engaging directly with enemy ships, disguising as one of them to sneak past and set up a flank attack on the opposite side. Weaken them enough and you can board for some up close and personal combat, and you'll even get to encounter massive war ships. It's been getting teased for a while, and fans finally have a timeframe that they can get their hands on this and hit the open seas. Sadly it's a rough one, but sometime in 2019 you'll get to invoke your inner pirate in the Indian Ocean with Skull & Bones.
My Take : To me, this game pulls all of my favorite bits out of Assassin's Creed IV : Black Flag and leaves everything else behind. After finally seeing a good chunk of gameplay, it looks like everything has been kept the same, but also massively stepped up and improved. This will for sure be a hard title to turn down, and I'm sure just like everyone else, I'm just waiting on a more firm release date.
Exclusive to platforms supporting VR, Transference seems...different. The psychological thriller traps you in a house amongst your family where you'll need to use them to solve puzzles. You can bounce between the family members perspectives which, when paired with the title, offers the hint that these people have somehow united themselves mentally and emotionally? Either way, Elijah Wood came out (he's looking good after all that Mordor stuff) and hyped up the game saying he and his team (yeah he does video games now...I had no idea) were super excited for their release which is coming this fall.
My Take : While the game looks incredible and definitely unique, I currently do not have access to VR anything, and don't know when that will change so for now...I'll just have to admire this as it goes by and maybe catch it on some streams.
We had Skylanders, Lego Dimensions and Disney Infinity. The next step into the peripheral-based gaming market is this one, Starlink : Battle for Atlas. The game is set in an open world and features a physical representation of your ship that mounts to your controller. This ship is how you'll explore the galaxy, fighting off any evil that you can find. What's cool is the ship itself is fully customizable, you can outfit it any way you want and it'll instantly show this change in the game before you.
That wasn't it for this one though. It's releasing to all consoles including the Switch, which itself is going to get it's own exclusive addition in the form of Fox McCloud. That's right, Starfox is going to be in Starlink, and the announcement was made even sweeter when the team brought Myamoto up from the crowd to give him a gift : the first prototype of the ship that was built for the team to work on the game. If you're excited about this one, you'll get to explore the galaxy this October.
My Take : I know everybody gets put off by peripheral / toy based games. However, I've got a 2 year old in the house, with another baby on the way so this kind of stuff is going to be pretty popular in the HG house. And yes...I'm going to share the excitement too because honestly this game looks like it'll be a lot of fun. It may or may not make it on a stream with the Little Gamer but it will definitely be getting played quite a bit.
Another portion of the show dedicated to a game that's already been out, the team at For Honor paid a huge thank you to their ever growing and faithful fanbase. To that effect, they wanted to invite new players in so for the following week only, via Uplay, fans can download the PC version of the game for FREE and keep it forever.
What's more, For Honor is looking this fall to drop a brand new expansion for the game, titled Marching Fire. Focused on the Chinese Civil War, this expansion is going to introduce a new faction with four new fighters, and single player content that will be revealed at a later date. There's also going to be a new mode that their fans have been asking for : a 4-v-4 Castle Siege mode coming along with this expansion as well.
My Take : Ugh yet another game on my personal list that I really want to dive into but haven't yet. I've seen tons of gameplay from it and it looks amazing, so seeing it expand is amazing. And you have to love when dev teams can go "Hey, there's a lot of you playing this but we want more of you to play it, so nab this thing for free." I already have it on PS4 (install coming ASAP) but I'll be checking out the free PC copy later this week and, most likely, anxiously waiting for Marching Fire to drop.
This, much like the earlier portion with Donkey Kong Adventure was really just a reminder. The Crew 2 expands on it's predecessor, adding in bikes, boats and planes for you to race in all across the United States. With the game launching in just a couple of short weeks, and a closed BETA going live no more than a week ago...what more were we going to get? The answer is not much. We were given a short trailer of footage we've already seen, and the fact that an OPEN BETA will be live on June 21st, and if players wanted to, they could pre-load it right now so that when the BETA does open up, they can jump right in. I loved the first game, so adding in additional racing styles can do nothing but make this franchise more fun.
The big grand daddy of them all that everybody's been waiting for. Ubi dropped a very short teaser looked that featured a beautiful Spartan Kick off a hillside, and the message "See you at E3".
The newest installment in the Assassin's Creed franchise takes us to Ancient Greece. Visually and mechanically, it looks very similar to Origins which, in my opinion, is fantastic because that system worked so beautifully. You'll be an outcast mercenary thrust into the middle of conflict that is dividing the Greek world. Now, we got to see some gameplay, but not before finding out a few juicy tidbits about this game.
The hero you play as? You have a choice from the beginning. Play as Alexios, or Kassandra. That's right, a choice between a male or female character that you stay playing as for the entirety of the game. On top of this, you'll get to interact with history in an even deeper way, as for the first time in the franchise, players will have dialogue options while talking to other characters.
A lot of exciting new things for the universe of Assassin's Creed, and you'll get to explore it all this October 5th.
My Take : If you've ever been to my stream or on my blog or any social media places, I love this franchise. I was losing faith in it but Origins completely turned that around last year. So it should be no surprise that I'll most definitely be diving into this one on Day 1 when it gets released!
