At Ubisoft's E3 briefing, we got some fascinating news on several upcoming titles, including Watch Dogs: Legion, Ghost Recon: Breakpoint and several additions to the Tom Clancy series. The company also announced a new subscription service called UPlay +.
The press event started with the Assassin's Creed Symphony treating the audience to some music from the franchise. The orchestra has a worldwide tour beginning June 29 in Paris. It will also show up in Lnndon, Los Angeles, Toronto and Vancouver, among other international cities.
Prior to the show starting, Ubisoft announced that a story creator mode is coming to Assassin's Creed Odyssey in which you can design quests and write your own dialogue trees. This is available now, for free.
Watch Dogs Legion
Prior to E3, Watch Dogs Legion leaked, in which you can play as any NPC. This was one of the heaviest amounts of gameplay we've seen at E3 so far.
The demo takes place in London, where a group of revolutionaries are building a resistance to the government one person at a time. In a trailer, we saw Ian, a member of the resistance, trying to find someone who can deal with government drones that are spying on people. He finds Alice Pandit, an MMA fighter, but is told to skip her.
He scans more people for skills before finding Jimmy Shaw, a drones expert who has been jailed before for hacking. He's fighting police, so Ian takes on the cops and a riot drone is deployed. Ian shoots at the drone but becomes injured. He chooses to resist, goes invisible and steals a taxi, with drones shooting all the way.
Ian, a gunner crashes and runs, ducking behind cover, but he gets killed.
Then the player chooses from other characters in the resistance to pick from. It's an old woman, Helen, who is following Ian's mark, the hacker. Helen uses a spider robot to get into a police building and take down the guards, then download Jimmy's record. She fights off drones herself (tripping a bit on the way), and then gets on the bus to leave and follow Jimmy to Camden Market.
We also see Naomi, an enforcer, at Camden Market. She's tracking Jimmy as well, but the place is on lockdown. She hides on a truck, jumps onto a drone and flies with it along it's path. She jumps onto a roof and takes down guards, then sneaks into the building with a mask on. The Kelleys, a crime family, are human trafficking out of the building. She sees Jimmy being tortured by one of them, and she smacks down with the guards.
Naomi clears a path of oncoming guards with a lot of gunfire, as well as an attack drone. She and Jimmy jump off the roof and escape its missiles.
At a bar nearby, Naomi recruits Jimmy. She hands him a small device. Jimmy asks after Ian, who Naomi said didn't make it. Now the player is playing as Jimmy, who puts the device in his ear. Now he's a playable operative. He's part of DeadSec, the resistance.
Clint Hocking, the creative director took the stage, where he invoked Brexit as a turning point for the UK and the world.
"Where London goes, all of us go together," he said, and in the game, London is on a downturn with deportation squads and armed drones. And it's up to Londoners - all of them - to fight against the authorities.
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
Jon Bernthal starred in the trailer for Ghost Recon: Breakpoint as Cole D. Walker. His army, the Wolves is going to battle with the existing Ghosts, who he feels are serving "the machine," rather than the people.
"You are the few with the courage to make history," he says.
Bernthal appeared on stage with his dog, listing off all of the tough men he has played over the years. Walker, he says, is ruthless with his own moral code.
"There's no briefing, there's no backup... you will face an entire army. My army. The wolves," Bernthal said. The Wolves trained alongside the ghosts, so it's a fair fight.
Then, a trailer played, showing the Ghosts fighting the Wolves in brutal battle in a jungle, fields and with lots and lots of weapons, including drones and rocket launchers.
Laura Chodrey of Ubisoft's Community team then took the stage. She said AI teammates will be coming back for solo players.
"We want to go the extra mile with how we engage with you," she said. She unveiled a program called Delta company for gamers to express their thoughts to the development team.
Nouredine Abboud then took the stage to announce an October 4 release date. The beta will start on September 5. He promised the game will be live for several years. He promised new content and free updates for the upcoming title.
Gods & Monsters
We got a sneak peek of a new game focused on mythology. The game comes from developers who were on the Assassin's Creed Odyssey team.
In a cinematic trailer, we saw a heroine who helps the gods fight beasts, and a short teaser had a cute, bright art style. It comes out February 25, 2020.
UPlay +
There's a new subscription service on PC, including early access to games and premium additions with extra content. There's over 100 games in the existing catalog. It will be $14.99 per month when it starts in September which had a bit of a groan from the crowd.
The list includes games from Rayman, Assassins' Creed, Watch Dogs Splinter Cell and other series.
In 2020, UPlay+ will also be available on Google's Stadia streaming platform.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Quarantine
This three-player tactical co-op game is coming in early 2020. In a cinematic trailer, we saw a man, with veinny patterns running up his arm, pointing a gun at a fast-moving creature. Medical alarms beep and power goes out as a device on his wrist flashes. Some soldiers come in to cover him, and we only hear the firefight.
You face off against a parasite, risking everything to keep your crew alive in a firefight. Episode 1 of D.C. Outskirts: Expedition takes you to the woodlands to attack a presidential compound and hit a traitor. There's also a mission in a national zoo and one at a college with a new game mode that includes investigation to find out what happened to a military convoy.
In Episode 2, Pentagon: The Last Castle, which comes in the fall you play in the Pentagon, you have to secure what's behind the standing walls. There's another 8-player raid.
Episode has a manhunt, but no full title was given.
Tom Clancy's The Division 2
We got some updates from the team behind The Division 2. Between June 13th and June 16th, the game will be free for all to play and try.
We got a demo for a mission in which players fight to save the country, not just the city.
Roller Champions
We saw a new game in which roller derby meets baseball and football. It had tricks, tackling and a bit of Rocket League's wall travel.
It's a team player-vs-player sports game. The game is available today on UPlay in pre-alpha on PC.
Then we saw some game play which definitely resembled Rocket League, but with more physicality and a looping race track course.
For Honor: Shadows of the Hitokoiri
For Honor is getting a limited time in-game event, in which players face the spirit of death. It's available until June 27.
Tom Clancy's Elite Squad
Ubisoft and Owlient are working on a mobile RPG with Tom Clancy game characters, including Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell.
Brawlhalla x Adventure Time
We got a look at an Adventure Time expansion for Brawlhalla in which Finn and Jake enter the game. There's also a buddy mode with online and local play. That's available today.
Just Dance 2020
It's been 10 years of Just Dance, and a dance crew came out to dance to Panic! at the Disco's "High Hopes," and other songs. It included someone in costume as a panda, because why not?
The game comes this November to Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, Wii (yes, the first Wii) and Google Stadia.
Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet
We got our first look at the Apple TV Plus original, Mythic Quest, following creative director Ian Grimms and his team making an expansion for their MMO. The show follows the studio as it makes the expansion. In the preview, we saw Grimm's team watching a commercial for the game, but it was instead almost all about the creative director.
Ubisoft consulted on the show, which is a comedy.
Image Credits: Tom's Hardware
