For the past few years, Ubisoft has had some of the most ridiculous and outrageous press conferences of all time. From celebrity host like Joel Mchale -who tried his hardest to be enthusiastic about the crap games- to Mr. Caffine -who did nothing but make us want to tear our hair out- Ubisoft has had trouble convincing gamers that they are a serious game developer. With the new Assassin's Creed, Far Cry 3, and Splinter Cell hyping gamers, I was hoping that they would finally get their act together.
Sadly, Ubisoft continued their shenanigans introducing the show with a Flo Rida conncert for Just Dance 4, and presenting two of the most awkward hosts, actress/comedian Aisha Tyler and actor/comedian Toby Turner. The banter between the two hosts was painful to watch/listen and I almost had to stop watching the conference just to get a moment away from them. However, with hopes of seeing some AC3 gameplay, I endured the torture and completed the conference.
After the awkwardly horrible introduction, we were delighted to see some Far Cry 3 action. Far Cry 3 featured some nudity, bows and arrows, explosions, killer tigers, and psychedelic, tripping out moments (something all games need huh?). The gameplay was intense and showed that this game could have potential of being a great game. I am not too familiar with the Far Cry franchise, but from what I have seen it has been impressive
Following more awkward moments from our beloved hosts, Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Marvel: The Avengers Battle for Earth featured unique trailers that teased the audience. The Blacklist trailer was very impressive, showing some cool gadgets and some badass gunfighting. As for the Avengers game, it didn't show much except for the fact that it would only be for Kinect and WiiU. I'm afraid that this could become the next DC Universe Online except in the Marvel world.
With the announcement that the Avengers would be for the WiiU, Ubisoft decided to roll out the rest of their WiiU games, including Rayman Legends and ZombiU. Rayman Legends gameplay featured 3-player Co-Op, although the game is planned to support 5-player Co-Op. As for ZombiU, the trailer showed me that it was going to be nothing but a generic zombie game......but on the Wii.
Then it was the moment of truth. After all the meaningless banter, after the meh and bleh games, it was Assassin's Creed 3 time. In the first part, one the most epic trailers was shown that displayed how awesome AC3 will be. It showed Connor destroying an entire redcoat battalion with his tools of assassination an a little help from Mr. George Washington and his army. Then came the gameplay, which showed some tomahawk slaying and the usual being a bad-ass assassin. Announcements were made that this game is still against the Templars, which assumes you'll be killing both redcoats and colonists. One announcement that was not made, was how this would affect the story of Desmond.
After that, I thought the show was over, however I was completely wrong. The painstakingly, annoying chit-chat followed into the introduction of Shootmania, a fps online world which was nothing more than that. A scrimmage between two "top fps" players was played which was unimpressive to say the least.
When that was not the final act, I was thinking "what else does Ubisoft have?" Well, they answered that with probably the most surprising game of the entire E3 convention. Watch Dogs!!!! A sandbox open-world game that features the main character who has the ability to hack into the central computer operating system. In a world that is reliant on electronics, cameras, signal lights, etc. having the ability to control these objects gives you all the power in the world. So what do you do with that power? Use it to be a vigilante or wreck havoc upon the world? Watch Dogs gives you that opportunity without any of the "governmental troubles." I still have trouble putting this game into words, so all I suggest is for you to watch it.
Surprisingly, I was able to look over Ubisoft's blunders with their hosts due to the announcements and games showed. They did start off rather lazily with Just Dance 4, but ended with a bang, leaving the show on a high note. With the one-two punch of AC3 and Watch Dogs, Ubisoft was able to revitalize their conference after the previous years of horrible shows.
Ubisoft Press Conference
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