E3 2013: Ubisoft press conference recap

Brian Achenbach

At Ubisoft’s press conference at E3, the company showed demos and trailers of games they have in the works. Some of the games presented were ones they have shown before at past events, such as Watch Dogs, Splinter Cell Blacklist, Rayman Legends and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Ubisoft also revealed new games, such as Rocksmith 2014, The Mighty Quest of Epic Loot, Just Dance 2014, Trials Fusion, The Crew and Tom Clancy’s The Division.

Most of what was shown of all the mentioned games were just trailers aside from The Crew and The Division, which was shown through mostly gameplay.

The games that are getting the most publicity are Watch Dogs and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

In Watch Dogs, you play as Aidean Pearce, a hacker who can hack into street cameras, cars and even cause a citywide blackout with just a touch of his in-game cell phone. The game is a third-person shooter where the player will have mission central to the story to accomplish or you could choose to simply wander through the city causing cyber havoc wherever you please.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is the next installment of the franchise that takes place in the Carribean on your pirate ship as you swashbuckle across the sea as the assassin Edward Kenway. The new mechanics of this game that separates it from its predecessors is the player can sail his ship all around the map and not just a small mission, such as in Assassin’s Creed III. At any point, the player can jump off the ship and explore any island they see. Players also gain the ability to carry four pistols to increase the assassin’s lethality.

The new intellectual properties (IPs) The Crew and The Division both made up a large portion of their presentation. The Crew is driving game that can be played alone or with friends, but the single player and multiplayer portions of the game are not separate. Players will visit racing locals such a New York City, Las Vegas, Miami, and the Black Hills.

Tom Clancy’s The Division is an online multiplayer, third-person shooter that takes place in a post apocalyptic New York City. From the looks of the demo Ubisoft showed, players can team up with friends to explore the city. The game is supposed to “reveal how vulnerable we have become,” and to show how “fragile” and “complex” society has become.

Ubisoft also showed two franchises that have been staples of their company for the past decade: Splinter Cell and Rayman. Splinter Cell: Blacklist, continues the third-person action stealth franchise. The game introduced new gameplay mechanics called killing in motion that allows the player to more fluidly take out their targets.

Rayman: Legends is a side scrolling platformer that can be played with up to four players.

Overall, Ubisoft showed mostly IPs that have been announced prior to E3, and a few new ones. With this year’s E3 focused on next generation of games and Ubisoft brought The Crew and The Division while still showing that they care about the current generation of consoles with Rayman: Legends and Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Games like Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Watch Dogs will be released on current generation of consoles as well as the next generation with the Xbox One and the Playstation 4.