Ubisoft used to be one of my favourite game publishers and developers, in the pre-Assassin's Creed era. Not that I'm hating on them now, but their tendency to milking dry any good idea they come up kinda, well... bores me. I mean, look at Far Cry. People liked the villain in Far Cry 3, and boom - next 3 games are all about that super interesting villain of the franchise entry. To be clear though - I'm keeping an open mind and it's not like Ubisoft can't surprise in positive way. Heck, one day I might even give those damn Assassin's Creeds and Far Crys I shot here on the blog. For now though I'd concentrate on what they have prepared for this year's E3, as they (not counting SGF) basically kicked off E3 with their Ubisoft Forward presentations. So, let's go over the announced games, shall we?
Brawlhalla x Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Brawlhalla is a game I have played for several hours and then dropped. Seeing one of the franchises I rather like - and that is TMNT - becomes a part of it, I get encouraged to give another chance to this free-to-play take on Super Smash Brothers gameplay formula. Previous guest star appearances were, amongst others, Rayman, Lara Croft and Shovel Knight, but the game has a vibrant cast of original characters, too.
Watch Dogs Legion Bloodline DLC
I never played Watch Dogs, so I'm not going to pretend that I know what I'm talking about, but: During the Forward presentations, Ubisoft revealed the full trailer for Watch Dogs Legion's new DLC titled "Bloodline". Apparently it's gonna feature Aidan Pierce - the protagonist of the first Watch Dogs game (yay, I know that much), along with Wrench who appeared as the side character, although popular one, from Watch Dogs 2. The DLC is scheduled for release on July 6, 2021.
Rainbow Six: Extraction gameplay and story trailer.
The last entry in Rainbow Six series I have played was Vegas, so obviously, I'm kina out of loop. But what occurs to me, is that "with zombies" became a new "in space" of this age. It began with Call of Duty, and then it just kept spreading. Apparently the game's original subtitle was Quarantine, which is a hell of unfortunate coincidence, so they changed into something that closer describes what the game is about. From what we learned at the presentation, this zombie outbreak's flavour is going to be alien with a parasite sauce. "Extraction" references saving our teammates who have been captured by the parasite and require our help. Apparently, despite being a PvE mission based shooter, it's still going to be a "Rainbow Six". The game is supposed to release this year, so we'll definitely see more about it.
Riders Republic
Since long ago, I have always questioned why there isn't a mountain biking game (aside from GTA San Andreas). It seems somebody somewhere asked themselves the same question. The game looks (sorry, I had to) absolutely radical. Although bikes are what interests me the most, there is also a plethora of different vehicles you can use to ride in the game, even a rocket-powered wingsuits. Also, the word on the street is that there's gonna be up to 64 player multi-vehicle races. Color me hyped.
Rainbow Six Siege
This game is kinda impressive, being six year from release and still receiving a healthy stream of new content, I guess proving game-as-a-service model. At Ubisoft Forward we got an animated glimpse at the newest "operator" (playable characters) - called Thunderbird. Apparently, there are currently whopping number of 60 of them in the game. Aside from that, we can expect cross-play between PC, Stadia, and Amazon Luna to launch on June 30. A bit of a surprise to me was though, that console versions (Playstation and Xbox) will get crossplay too. Although, for that we're have to wait unitl 2022.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla Discovery Tour DLC
This time we're getting something rather... interesting? The newest DLC for Assassin's Creed Valhalla called Discovery Tour is going to put as in the role of NPCs living normal lives of Viking society citizens. We'll work and we'll reach deeper into the lore of the game. The expansion comes out this fall.
Far Cry 6 trailers
I already mentioned in the Summer Game Fest post how Ubisoft absolutely loves their Far Cry 6 villains. So much so that in the addition of Far Cry 6's main Big Bad Anton Castillo we get a DLC adding main antagonists of the three previous games. And, you'll be able to play as them as well. We shouldn't be counting too much on getting more wide open worlds with this DLC. I think Far Cry 6's map is big enough on it's own. If you missed out on the game, like I did, it takes place on a fictional Carribean island-nation of Yara citizens have to deal with violence and oppression on daily basis and Dani Rojas, our protagonist and main playable character, has to fight to free Yara of Castillo's rule. The game launches on October 7 this year for pretty much every active platform, aside from Nintendo Switch.
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope
If I ever get myself a Nintendo Switch, Mario + Rabbids franchise is one of the first games I'm gonna buy. I think this game is a blend of gameplay mechanics and universe crossover that probably nobody thought could think it would work. And apparently, it soo so did. Rumors about the new game have been circulating the Internet for a good part of the year. Now we know they were real, and that this sequel is going to bring us more XCOM style fun... IN SPACE. Rabbid Rosalina is great, and I think extending the concept of the game with elements from Super Mario Galaxy was a great idea. And not only do we get a new Big Bad, but also Man Behind the Man (or rather, a hand behind the man, uhm...). Unfortunately we'll have to wait until 2022 to play the game. Although, by then I might already have Nintendo Switch, so I guess it's not all that bad. :)
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Ubisoft wrapped up this year's show with a rather surprising announcement.- the Avatar game by Ubisoft Massive that was thought to be dead, is in full blown development after all. The game, aside from the setting, isn't based on first, or any upcoming Avatar movies, although wheter James Cameron actually works on this game is unclear. The game will use Ubisoft's own Snowdrop engine, and from the trailer, it manages to more or less match the beautiful visuals of Pandora that we remember ftom the movie. The sequel to 2009's film is going to cinemas in December 2022, but I don't know when Ubisoft is going to launch the game.
Overall, the presentation wasn't the worst thing in the world. I'm looking forward to some of the games, like Riders Republic or the new Avatar game. I might even tackle some other Ubisoft franchises in the future, that I ignored in the past. We'll see. For now, thanks for reading. Next up: Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase! See you there!
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