E3 2018: few surprises from Ubisoft
Ubisoft has a reputation when it comes to showing games early on E3 presentations. Just as they have a reputation when it comes to the premature leak of their announcements. That is no different this year. The presentation occasionally left much to be desired, did not contain any big surprises, but does offer a nice line-up to games for this year and beyond. Like last year, she opened with a cheerful dance show to show that Just Dance will get another version this year. After that the real work started.
Beyond Good and Evil 2
Not only a super slick cinematic trailer to set the mood, there was also a gameplay trailer. Of course, it is still early work that can be seen in this, but the game looks lively in any case. In terms of gameplay it seems to be a fairly standard action game, but that can still be changed enough. When the game comes out, after all, is still a big question mark.
Hollywood stars
It is striking that they have entered into a collaboration with hitRECord for Beyond Good and Evil 2. That is a production company of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception, Looper) where people from all over the world can collaborate on projects via the internet. And you can also contribute to Beyond Good and Evil 2. Salient detail: they forgot to mention that you get paid for your contribution – although you probably want to read the fine print before you put all your time and energy into it.
Community is everything
Even old games that have been running for a while still receive support from Ubisoft. For example, Rainbow Six Siege now has 35 million players, and (new) content is coming. In addition, e-sports tournaments are also organized.
For Honor also gets an expansion. The game gets a four versus four mode and there will be a single player. In addition, there are also new heroes to the game. The Marching Fire extension will be available from 16 October.
Together with Nintendo
One of the most absurd fusions of the past years, Mario + Rabbids, gets DLC, this time with Donkey Kong. The game seems to have changed little, it is still Xcom light. The DLC will be available from 26 June.
Starfox is also back. Only not quite in the game where you hoped to see him. He is in the Switch version of Starlink, a toys-to-life game – which means that you can buy a lot of plastic.
The President of Finland
The Director of Trials likes to joke, just watch how he gets on stage. And everything is falling apart. And introduces himself as president of Finland (fact check: not true). Fortunately he also brought a game: Trials Rising, which promises much more of the well-known motor-action. The game will be released in February 2019.
Playing a pirate
Three games were discussed in more detail with a large dose of gameplay images. Skull & Bones, the pirate game that was announced last year, will be released in 2019. The images show immense ships that attack each other, with an RPG touch: you do not want to see some enemies. Think of the ship’s parts of Assassin’s Creed 4, but then as his own game.
End game for The Division 2
Since they put the emphasis on it themselves: Tom Clancy’s The Division 2. Of course we already saw some images at Microsoft. In it, it was mainly visible that the environments have become more diverse. Today more images, but also important information for the people who (want to) play.
The biggest complaint with the original was that the end-game was not good: there was too little to do, too little reward, no goal. The Division 2 promises not only to keep you busy for a long time with all kinds of skills that you can unlock (specifically in the end-game), there is also a whole DLC plan ready, there are raids, and all DLC is free in the first year . The Division 2 will be released on Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC on March 15, 2019.
This year an Assassin’s Creed
The big question was actually around Assassin’s Creed. After the successful unpacking of the year break that they have taken between Syndicate and Origins the question was: do they skip again this year? The answer is no. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is already coming out on October 5th.
As already leaked, the game is set in ancient Greece. The gameplay is in line with Origin’s, although some extra steps towards the RPG side have been taken. There are now call options where you can choose what you say. The heart also suggests one of the options that you can enter into relationships. There are also two playable characters, a man, a woman. It is not really surprising, but it is a nice ending for this presentation.