Aisha Tyler was back once again to host the Ubisoft Press Conference for E3 Expo 2016 along with plenty of reveals and new gameplay to showcase kicking off with an old familiar in the form of Just Dance 2017 coming to all platforms including the Nintendo NX in 2017.
Ghost Recon Wildlands was the next game shown with a new trailer and gameplay demonstration. Ghost Recon Wildlands looks like something lifted out of the Netflix series Narcos because it revolves around cocaine and the mexican drug cartel. Ubisoft developers claim Ghost Recon Wildlands to be the ‘largest open world’ they’ve ever done – everything looked exciting about the game except the voice acting which seemed completely out of context.
South Park‘s new game Fractured But Whole (word-pun) was presented once again with Trey Parker and Matt Stone taking stage. The new South Park game contains a good about of potty humor and is basically a point-and-click adventure with new combat elements this time around. Look for South Park Fractured But Whole to drop Dec 6, 2016 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC.
We saw more of The Division ‘Underground’ DLC coming in June 2016 from the same trailer previously showcased at other press conferences but Ubisoft announced that ‘Survival’ a new mode will be landing on Xbox One and PC first.
Capture The Prey is an upcoming VR game for Oculus Rift where gamers play ‘capture the flag’ in flight. Capture The Flag has very simple graphics and looks like something out of the Harry Potter univesre – like playing a game of Quidditch.
Speaking of VR – Levar Burton helped introduce Star Trek Bridge Crew which appears to be set in the current Stark Trek ‘movie universe’ and gives you the experience of stepping inside the Command Crew of a Galaxy Class Star Ship. For the demo we got to see a mix of former and current Star Trek actors with VR headsets on each communicating verbally and acting out scenes in VR.
Next up – For Honor the brutal cinematic fighting game between difference classes of warriors like Samurai, Vikings and Knights. For Honor gained interest at E3 last year and features heavy melee combat but this time around we got to see single-player campaign gameplay and fighting ship to ship. The extended gameplay demo showed more of how the fighting mechanics work using blocking and attacking in a methodical way much like the Dark Souls games. For Honor aims to release February 14, 2017.
Grow Up is an indie action game where you fly around jumping on stuff with simple yet stylized graphics. Trials of the Blood Dragon was announced with two of the developers dressed in strange red outfits while announcing the game was ready now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC.
No new Assassin’s Creed game this year but there was discussion about the movie producer Frank Marshall who was on stage with Aisha Tyler cementing their appreciation for Michael Fassbender. The Assassin’s Creed movie releases in December 2016 and looks promising thus far.
Watch Dogs 2 was revealed earlier in the week but for the Ubisoft Press Conference we got to see an extended gameplay demo. Watch Dogs 2 is set in San Francisco with new protagonist Marcus Holloway as a hacker trying to take control back from the villain group Dedsec. The game mechanics look similar to before in that areas are ‘hackable’ with melee combat and driving action. Players will be able to take over computers, phones, drones, cars, cranes, security robots and more — there is an emphasis on using stealth hacking to complete missions without killing enemies. Watch Dogs 2 will release on November 15, 2016 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC.
The final game shown was a new IP called Steep which looks like a combination of all things ‘action sports’. Gamers in Steep will be able to base jump, parachute, ski, snowboard, glide and more in an open world set in Europe.