Every PC game at Ubisoft's E3 Press Conference
Excluding Just Dance, sadly
Ubisoft's conference included everything we expected, from a closer look at Beyond Good & Evil 2, to confirmation of the leaked Assassin's Creed Odyssey, to the now traditional (and delightful) Just Dance dancy party. If you don't have time to watch the conference in its entirety however, here is a showcase of the trailers that were shown and links to the associated news from Ubisoft.
If what's below doesn't sate your monstrous appetite, scoff our roundup of every PC game from Microsoft's E3 2018 conference for even more glossy trailers. Almost everything is a PC game now.
Beyond Good & Evil 2
After the dancing subsided, Beyond Good & Evil 2 opened the show with a new cinematic trailer. It seems like some things have changed since last year's presentation, but we now have a lot more concrete details. For example, the game is a prequel to the original with Pey'j returning and a young Jade (the player-character from the first game) appearing to side with the Alpha Sections. There will apparently be a closed door briefing for journalists this week, so hopefully Brendan should have more for us soon.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt also took to the stage to announce his company HitRecord has partnered with Ubisoft to provide a platform for people to create their own music and art to be included in the game. There was no release date announced, but given the lack of gameplay footage and the ambition of the project, it's probably not anytime soon.
Rainbow Six: Siege
Next was a short announcement that Rainbow Six: Siege now has 35 million players, some news regarding esports, and the announcement of a documentary being produced. However, there was nothing new game-wise which is a tiny bit of a shame.
Trials Rising
One of the few surprises at Ubisoft's conference was that there will be a new Trials game. This time, the tracks take place in different locations around the world, and RedLynx have drafted some of the game's best players to help produce the game's tutorial content. A closed beta will arrive later this year. Trials Rising will be released in February 2019.
The Division 2
The newest Division game also turned up at Ubisoft’s conference after a previous (game footageless) appearance at Microsoft's. Julian Gerighty - Creative Director from Massive Entertainment - reintroduced the background behind the game, before a trailer showed a community rebuilding by growing crops in a safe zone while around their walls, desolation and lawlessness rule in Washington DC.
Otherwise the presentation focused on endgame stuff. For example, at the end of the new story campaign, players will choose one of three classes called specialisations which allow you to unlock new weapons and perks and advance past the normal level cap. On top of that, the new game will have raids, in which 8 players can partner up. Otherwise, the game is still following the template set down by the first game: there will be frequent content updates, with the year one content being three episodes of DLC including new story, new areas, and new activities. All those updates will be free for everyone, so no season passes this time. The Division 2 will release March 15th 2019.
Skull and Bones
This was one of the most detailed trailers shown during the conference, giving lots of details about the shared-world multiplayer pirate action-RPG. Details like being able to customise your ship's loadout, from cannon types to special abilities, and details like being able to sail stealthily in order to dodge the ire of forts. The presentation also ended in a big ruckus, as boatchums teamed up to take down large enemy ships.
Also you can customise the bust that appears at the front of your ship. The most important part. Adam wrote a preview of the game after last year's E3, most of which seems to still hold true.
Transference
When actor Elijah Wood walked on stage, the RPS Slack channel had a collective flashback as we suddenly realised this happened last year as well. The game we'd forgotten is Transference, made by Spectrevision, which Wood co-founded. Alongside Ubisoft Montreal's Benoit Richer, they talked about the upcoming horror game which is coming to both VR and notVR. The trailer above was less illuminating: the game is about a father subjecting his child to some kind of experiment and incorporates real life footage. There isn't that long to wait to find out more as it will be releasing sometime in the Autumn.
For Honor: Marching Fire
Marching Fire introduces four new Chinese warriors to alt-history stabfest For Honor. They're all from the Three Kingdoms era, and join the game's existing Vikings, Samurai and Knights.
There was also a new 4v4 multiplayer castle siege mode called Breach. Here the massive battles are asymmetric, so one team attacks the castle and the other defends it during each phase. Maps have multiple lanes, with the attackers trying to kill the king in the castle. The Marching Fire update will be released on 16th October 2018.
The Crew 2
We've seen enough of The Crew 2 by now that there isn't much more information to impart. Ubisoft did announce that there will be an open beta starting June 21st, running til the 25th, before the full game is released on June 29th. Otherwise the trailer was a reminder of what we already knew: it's The Crew, only with planes and boats now. It looks fun.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
As leaked long before the show, Assassin's Creed Odyssey was announced. You take on the role of one of two grandchildren of the great Spartan hero King Leonidas, Alexios or Kassandra. Set in 431 BC, you'll meet the likes of Socrates as he no doubt wrestles with his philosophy, and explore underwater ruins and Greek islands. It's also more of an RPG than ever.
Then the in-game trailer set on island of Mykonos showed returning mechanics from last year's Origins such as loot and being pursued by pesky mercenaries, as well as dialogue choices, romance options, and more. We also see Kassandra fight in large scale skirmishes and a brawl with the Minotaur was also teased. Assassin's Creed Odyssey is aiming for an October 5th release date.
That's pretty much all we have from Ubisoft, but there are lots of other publishers making their own E3 announcements to come during the course of the next week, so keep an eye on the E3 2018 tag for more news.