Making the Grade – Review of Ubisoft's E3 Press Conference
Ubisoft started off with Jerry Cantrell from Alice in Chains playing his guitars. He was there to represent a new Rocksmith game. Aisha Tyler was the host, and kick started it with the mention of Watch Dogs. Tyler did a good job with hosting, and kept the conference flowing. Enough of the host, on to the games!
Splinter Cell: Blacklist –– the big thing about this title is the return of “Spies vs. Mercs. Mode.” For those who are fans of the Splinter Cell games, I don’t think that you will be disappointed. The graphics seem okay, but nothing special stands out. It comes out this August.
The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot — This is an online game that seems funny, but will it be any good? The player gets to a castle/maze for others to try to get through it. It reminds me of the Little Big Planet gaming community. You get to build the dangers and traps and the others try to conquer and invade your maze and get into your treasure room and get your loot. The game has been in beta. I do wonder if this will be any good because they really did not show any game play. The only thing that the video trailer did was make me laugh at the corny jokes.
The Crew –– From the trailer, I honestly couldn’t tell if it was a car commercial or a game trailer. Coming out early 2014, this title seems like another car/racing game, but the way the creators were talking about the game it seems like there will be more to it. The only difference that makes this game stands out is that may have a robbing/crime storyline. The game is co-op and multi-player.
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Watch Dogs — This highly anticipated game not only has a unique plot, but the trailer is giving me more that I could ever ask for. Great looking graphics (at least from the trailer) and I cannot wait to get my hands on this! Although this game was a surprise from last year’s E3, there are plenty more surprises to come. For those who have not heard about this title, it is based in an alternate reality version of Chicago where a central operating system controls every aspect of life. The gamer plays the character Adian Pearce, a skilled hacker who embraces technology and uses it to his advantage even if it’s trying to attempt murder.
Rabbids Invasion was another game that was made to look like a big deal. First off, Rabbids Invasions will have a show on Nickelodeon, and the game will be the first to have an interactive game with a show. The sponsor for this game called it “play your TV show”. Although there are a few loop holes as to how it will be interacting with the TV show, this is an interesting concept, and is definitely a family friendly game.
The Division (Massive Entertainment) — This trailer was definitely the highlight of the conference. The live game play is very much like Splinter Cell, and may have potential. The game is an open- face RPG that centers around the question, “what will you do if a pandemic broke out?” The game play was on a PS4, and there was a nice shot of the PS4 controller.
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Other games included: South Park: The Stick of Truth, Rayman Legends, Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag (just a trailer), and Trials Frontier (mobile)/ Trials Fusion (consoles). A new Just Dance was announced for 2014. There is a new “6-player mode”. Something that was interesting is that the little video made for Just Dance was the only video for a game that featured the Wii U touch controller/tablet controller.
There was nothing really new, the heavy hitting games (Watch Dogs and Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag) were known about, and the only surprise was The Division. There was really no game play for Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, or Watch Dog. This was understandable if you watched the Sony’s press conference, which showed game play of both games. This was by far the weakest conference of the day to me.
Overall I would give the press conference a grade of “C-/D+.”
Related articles
- E3 2013: Ubisoft conference (thelostgamercafe.wordpress.com)
- Ubisoft E3 presser: The Crew, The Division hitting next-gen (vg247.com)
