Just Dance 2019

Ok, I have to admit right off the bat, I have never played, nor will I ever play a Just Dance game.  It’s not that I think they are bad games, I just don’t really enjoy the dancing genre.  However, I do understand that as a franchise, the damn thing has been a sales juggernaut over it’s life span.  However, given that over the last few years, the last few entries have had mediocre sales at best, it’s a bit of a head scratcher that they are keeping this going.  For reference, the most recent entry didn’t even sell a million copies.  Although, given that this is the style of game that can reuse assets, and likely isn’t as budge intensive, maybe they are coming out on top anyway? Regardless, people who love these games, really love these games, and I can see the appeal for families, especially with children, and to a lesser extent, parties.  That said, the stage presentation for this was phenomenal, visually appealing, and a great way to get the crowd engaged right off the bat.  Smart play Ubi.

Beyond Good & Evil 2

The journey for a deep space artifact starts here! This is a title people have been waiting for, for fucking EVER. That is to say, they have been waiting for a sequel to Beyond Good and Evil. Interestingly enough, Ubi went the other direction here, and moved to make this game a prequel. Fair enough, it looks gorgeous. For the first time since it was announced this game was coming out, we get to see some gameplay for BGE2, which also looks very….crisp, is the word I’m going to use. On top of this, they announced the Space Monkey Program. They are asking for contribution, in the ways of original content such as artwork, murals, music, content for the radio in game, and so on. Apparently they have partnered with Jason Gordon Levitt’s company Hit Record, who’s website actually crashed during this due to so many people trying to visit the site. Hit Record is a collaborative website where artists can collaborate on a singular piece together to create something new. They will be looking for the community to collaborate for in game content. This is a pretty large endeavor, hopefully it pays off. Sounds VERY cool.

Rainbow Six Siege & Trials

There was a quick throw to a talk about Rainbow Six Siege, nothing new on the game front per say, but a little bit of a humble brag about player base, making the game, and how it’s affected people. I’m a huge advocate of online gaming bringing people together, so I had no issue with this segment. Good for them. That said, Trials is coming out with a new game called Trials Rising, which has a co-op element, letting you and your friend ride a tandem bicycle, and immediately ruin your friendship.

The Division 2

I generally find it off putting when you see repeats at E3, as Division 2 was already announced during the Microsoft conference, however, this was a bit juicier. Washington D.C. has seen better days in Division 2. Seems like small pox is the issue this time around? That said the Division 2 has specializations for characters, each with their own load outs. This seems to be becoming more popular. There will also be raids again, and this time you can have 8 person squads. One huge piece of news, all three DLC episodes that come out during the first year the game is out are 100% free. We can also expect normal content and world updates to happen in between major DLC.

Donkey Kong DLC for Mario Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

Donkey Kong throws his barrels into the arena in an all new DLC for Mario Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. The announcement and presentation for this announcement was kind of cool, seeing a life stage on band as some of the skills and abilities DK has in the game were displayed on the screen behind them. It also looks like it will be introducing a Rabbids version of another Kong, possibly Cranky? Either way, if you were a fan of MRKB, this is a great reason to come back and give that game some love. If you haven’t played it before, I did a review when it came out, and trust me, it was a damn good game.

Skull & Bones

This ain’t your Microsoft pirate adventure, this shit is legit. I remember vaguely hearing about this in the past, but holy crap did this blow me away. Number one, it looks gorgeous, number two you can customize several pieces of the actual ship itself, from the damn ship wheel, to the front ornament. Bout time I got to own a boat that really felt like it was mine. You can also outfit your ships with different styles of cannons that have different stats as well, everything looks very customization. I love when games give you freedom of choice. Apparently you can also make, and break allegiances like in the Division, where you can turn on people after you complete your objective to take the goods for yourself. Legitimately looks like what Sea of Thieves could have been, if it had been a better game.

Transference

Elijah Wood comes on stage, to say that his company Spectrevision has partnered with Ubisoft to create a game. He describes it as a mind bending, psychological thriller. The game is about entering the consciousness of multiple characters in the game to solve mysteries, find clues, and presumably escape whatever situation the game has your protagonists in. The trailer raises a lot of questions, but the good kind. Interesting concept. It will be VR and on console.

Starlink

A short video for what looks like some kind of space adventure game pops up, and, what the hell, it’s ya boy Starfox? Miyamoto comes on stage after that, and the CEO of Ubisoft hands him a little model of the Starfox ship, which apparently will be playable in the Nintendo Switch version of the game. It will be available for all consoles apparently.

For Honor

Surprisingly, yes, For Honor still exists. I honestly would have bet money that it would be a “dead game” by now, based on how absolutely atrocious, horrendous, and hilariously bad the launch was. Seriously, it was a shit show on every conceivable level. From broken servers to loot boxes, it was a mess. However, Ubisoft busted their ass to rebuild their good will with the community, stuck with their guns, dealt with server issues, so on and so forth, and managed to keep enough of a player base to keep it going. It has actually grown it’s player base since last year by a little bit. Regardless, they announced some new DLC, bringing China into the battle. They are also releasing a new 4v4 mode called breach. The DLC is called Marching Fire, and if you download the game for PC right now, you get to keep it for free.

The Crew 2

I wasn’t a huge fan of the first Crew game. However, the Crew 2 does have a beta coming out soon, so I will wait until I play the beta to reserve judgment for The Crew 2. The game looks visually stunning, but hopefully the vehicles handle as well as the cinematic.

Assassins Creed: Odyssey

While I love ragging on how every Assassins Creed game is the same damn game, with the exception of Black Flag, this looks like a massive overhaul. Ubisoft has added even more RPG style elements into this one, and it looks like while the combat style is similar to Origins, it may have been retooled a bit. One major change though, is that at the beginning of the game, you choose between two characters. You will then play the entire game as that character, which changes dialogue options, and game choices. I feel this may be an inflated way to artificially create replay value, but if the characters are different enough, it should be worth it. I’ve never been an Assassins Creed fan, because I very much feel, ya played one, ya played em all, but this one looks a bit different. We’ll see what happens.

Final Thoughts

While some notable titles were missing like multiple Tom Clancy titles, this actually ended up being a pretty damn good presentation. There were some expected notes, and some fairly unexpected notes. Unlike a lot of the presentations so far, it didn’t really feel like there were any fluff, or bullshit games during this presentation. At most, the DLC for For Honor may be the fluffiest. The DLC for Mario Rabbits actually looks great. All in all I can’t complain. Ubisoft crushed it.

9/10