Ubisoft Forward discussion

So Ubisoft showed some stuff. What did you guys think?

Generally I thought it was pretty weak overall. Ubisoft used to be one of my favorite developers responsible for some of my favorite games in the past. Assassins Creed, Splinter Cell, Watch Dogs, Prince of Persia, heck even Grow Home. Over time they seem to be sanding off all the edges from their games that made them distinct into this one conglomerate Ubisoft mass. Used to love AC specifically because of it's unique control scheme and the interesting sci-fi/historical interweaving stories. Now AC is a very boilerplate open world game with hack and slash combat, tiered loot and a lot of other modernizations that stripped that series of it's core identity. Splinter Cell is pretty much dead so no real hope there. As for Watch Dogs I was always in the minority that thought the first game was pretty good and I enjoyed the darker tone, only to find the extreme course correction in WD2 to be not only incredibly jarring but also very lame. Seems like Legion is trying to find a healthy balance and overall is the only thing from their current lineup that I find interesting or envision myself actually wanting to play.

EDIT: I just read that in AC Valhalla you can recruit cats for your ship. I might give this a shot.

I can't say I enjoyed it all that much, I'll probably play AC & Watchdogs but I'm not really excited for them. Everything they showed seemed exactly as I would have expected, some surprises would have been nice. Far Cry is a tough sell for me these days unless they drastically change the formula (which I just can't see them doing tbh).

Nothing else they showed was of any interest to me so pretty weak overall imo.

I haven't played an Ubisoft game since Watchdogs 2, and.... It looks like it will continue to be that way for me.

I was pretty bored right off the bat with it. Legion looked......idk. still need to play 2 anyways but when it was announced it sounded awesome but I've turned on Legion since. AC looked weak and I think I'm done with AC in general. I'll probably get Far Cry at a certain point. I'm hoping their games return to steam, sorry I try to keep my pc games library all in one place.

For me the only Ubisoft game that I was hoping to see is Gods and Monsters (whatever new title it has), so I was disappointed to not see it but maybe they had said it was a no-show already? I don't have much interest in Watch_Dogs, AC or Far Cry, so I that show wasn't for me.

Odyssey was the most time I put into an AC game since AC2. I have a couple hundred hours in that game, so I'll probably enjoy Valhalla. I lost all interest in Watchdogs after that first game, I doubt I'll pick up Legion. And I really liked Far Cry 3, but none of the sequels managed to grab me the same way. I'll give this one a shot though. Overall a weak show personally, since I only cared for AC.

Ubi's particular brand of treadmill games are exactly my thing, so I'm generally pretty excited for all these things. Far Cry would have landed harder if it hadn't leaked, so taking that into account, it would be a pretty cool mini-conference. Another event has been announced, so hopefully they'll have some cooler, smaller scale stuff there.

I am also an old AC fan that has more or less fallen off the vagon somewhere between 3 and Origins. I think what I liked most about AC was when it was taking itself too seriously, especially the mysticism of the past and the interconnected nature of history. In all the years of playing, Ubisoft seems to have listened more to the folks asking for the franchise to take itself less seriously and simultaneously tried to make it fit some Witcher 3 mold. I have always wanted them to explore the viking era though, especially since vikings travelled all the way to the middle east giving it a natural connection to previous lore. But judging by what is shown, feels more like the creators watched a bunch of seasons of Vikings and said "Let's do that!". On some level I am still curious about that game, though ironically less because it's Assassin's Creed and more out of some morbid curiousity how much norse/viking stuff they will take extreme creative liberties with just to piss me off. I hope it turns out well, but also, judging by the dialogue scenes.. ugh, it looks so damn stiff and generic 'video game character pose' that lacks and and all relation to the scene at hand.

Far Cry 6 just made me feel tired. I'm way over the "Let's go shoot stuff in [made up South American/South East Asian place with a dictator]" -- I feel like Ubisoft uses places the way Hollywood traditionally used people from certain parts of the world as the action hero's antagonists. Be it Russians or ill defined middle eastern 'terrorists'. I'm just over it.

Still need to watch the Watch Dogs thing, I tuned in around AC.

Ubisoft and EA showing the future is exciting as beige

They showed off a bunch of games i'll probably buy on sale at some point, nothing terrible, just more of the same.

It was a better showing than EA at least but thats not saying much. I hope Microsoft's next show is better than these. The Playstation event was the best e3 press conference video so far.

They did have the typical Ubisoft games, and they did show some gameplay, but i can't say i wanted to play anything i saw. I'd say it would be around 3/10 or 4/10 for me. A bit harsh, given that the games mostly look solid and more of the same, but given that i'm not playing these franchises already, it's unfortunate to see that this big dev is not offering something new.

New entries in long running IP's make the changing environment the key selling point for why this new one is cooler than the previous one. And that can be cool, because there are a bunch of interesting environments that we don't get to see all that much. Sadly for Valhalla that doesn't seem to be the case. Literally thought i was watching some For Honor finishing moves and settlements during that Assassins Creed portion. And if you're fully into the current run of Ubisoft IP, maybe that's exactly what you're looking for, but i haven't enjoyed an Ubisoft game since Black Flag so i'm naturally looking for something different.

I will say that Watch Dogs 3 has the most potential to offer a different 'feel' , so that should be the one i keep my eyes on. The idea of having all these characters playable in watch dogs is a neat idea, but i don't think that is a good enough hook for me. Sure, these characters all have their own toys and quirks, but at the same time they all need to bypass the same door if the quest asks for it, so it won't be all too unique i imagine. You're probably not going to be playing as the rich CEO that hires a demolition expert to blow up a building while you play a few rounds of tennis, while the actual mission gets done in the background. You will not be boobytrapping your own mansion and then organizing a party to lure a target to your crib , instead of going out there to hack a building and kill him yourself.

No, you will be the boots on the ground and you will be the person that has to get in the building yourself. You will be the one that has to place the thingy on the computer. Well, if the mission calls for that archetype of character to fulfill it. I'm sure there are also missions where you have to be the spy / hacker type to open the door for the 'infiltrator' type. And missions where you have to be the wheelman. Which makes me fear that Watch Dog's big hook is not going to be all that much more impactful than putting on a different outfit or choosing a certain loadout in other games. And sure, i bet some people will love the idea that they can get through the entire game as a granny, or plumber. But personally, i rather just have stories written around a fleshed out character instead. Sure, let me play as a granny.. But please make her feel like an actual person with her own life, relationships, ideas and quirks. Giving these characters all their own voice actor helps quite a bit for sure, but there's no way that they will be able to give all these characters the kind of depth that you'd expect from a game with a fully realized protagonist.

I fear that having no real protoganist means that the story won't be all that personal. You will be part of the #Resistance and the story will mostly play out between these groups and the NPC's inside these organizations , who are the constant of everyone's story. You probably have handlers cracking wise over videos and radio's and screens and then they get murdered and you're supposed to have an emotional reaction to this person that you only know as the wacky guy that gives you quests. I just don't think that stuff fits what i like. I want stories to actually affect me as the player, not the organization i'm part of.

This company has officially run out of things that interest me.

@pezen: It really does seem like over the years instead of listening to all the people that enjoyed the games as they were and improving on that, they instead listened to all the people that didn't like it and tried to change the game for them. I've always yearned for that natural fit of feudal Japan and the assassins mythos, but one of the game directors in the past idiotically shot the idea down as being "too obvious" - who knows if they are still there.

@humanity: I remember that comment thinking it was oddly short sighted to ignore a historical place. But then again, I sometimes get the feeling that AC development lost some kind of unified creative vision at some point. Because most games past the Ezio trilogy feels like they are fumbling around in the dark trying to see what sticks while trying to be all things to all people. So who knows, eventually they might end up in feaudal Japan because why not.

not here to yuck anyone's yum, but as an ubi outsider (none of their franchises have resonated with me as yet) it looked like more of the same- formulaic and not much to entice me. but if fans of those franchises are stoked, i am peripherally stoked for fans.

The Assassin's Creed stuff made me think that I should give Origins a shot. I haven't played since IV and I was pretty much done before playing that game. I only played it because so many people praised it as one of the "good" ones. After playing it I decided if that is considered good then I have no interest in continuing to play the series. They obviously did a big shake up for Origins so I should probably give it a shot and the Egyptian setting is a lot more interesting to me than this new Viking thing.

I'd buy or rent AC and Watch Dogs 3 from what we've seen so far.

Hyper Scape has potential. I don't know what that cell shaded Rainbow Six/Splinter Cell trailer was for.

Every Far Cry game is underwhelming. Seems like people get their hopes up everytime then get shocked when it's just the same game slightly changed.

The hate Ubisoft gets sometimes is odd to me. EA, Activision, and Take Two have a worse library of games and are more anti-consumer than Ubisoft - EA gets a lot of hate, but not the other two.

I'm an AC die-hard and I definitely want to play Valhalla, but it might be the first time in the series that I wait on it. Considering the next-gen version is "later" and Cyberpunk comes out 2 days after ACV, yeah...probably gonna wait.

All these events are so fucking boring lately. It's unreal.

I loved the stylized cinematic trailer for Watch_Dogs Legion (totally called that it was directed by Alberto Mielgo of Love Death & Robots fame) which was clearly heavily inspired by Spider-Verse, but it ultimately made the actual footage of the game seem even more bland. Wish they'd take more risks with their art department rather than just with their marketing campaigns.

Show me Beyond Good & Evil 2 or get out

@nightriff: no comment on the quality of these games, but Ubi games are on Steam most of the time. I think they launch with some uplay functionality, but they are purchasable on the Steam store.

@insomniak08: You should definitely give Origins a shot. I used to be really into that franchise, but by the end of Revelations I was so burned out on that formula. Gave Syndicate a chance, but it felt so bad to play due to how animation heavy those games became. The changes in Origins brought me back onboard. I'm way more into ancient Greece than Egypt, which is why Odyssey hooked me hard. But Origins is also a really solid game.

@pajamariot: Ubisoft went quietly epic exclusive a while ago, I think the last game they released on steam was Far Cry: New Dawn(they also had an Anno game that was for sale for pre-order and then the steam release was removed so that was on sale for like a month pretty much). Division 2 and Ghost Recon: Breakpoint were epic exclusive and none of the new games have steam pages, but all of them are up for pre-order on the epic store.

@pajamariot: Not since early 2019, they decided to only do uPlay and Epic. All major releases last year skipped Steam. I hate both stores but I could at least respect them if they did only uPlay, just like EA did only Origin.

@sweep: I’ve also noticed the short movie was from Alberto Mielgo in just a few seconds, it looked really cool!

Just a small note on your comment: it wasn’t really inspired by Into The Spiderverse, the truth is that he worked on Spiderverse as well! He pretty much created that style alone and defined the blueprint for what the Spiderverse animation should be! Unfortunately Sony fired him from the project due to creative differences, but every other artist enjoyed his vision so much they tried to follow it as much as they could. I think some of the animators who worked on Spiderverse also work with him now on his studio and worked on this (saw at least one on Instagram)

So yeah, it feels like Spiderverse not by inspiration but by sharing some of the same DNA :)

Edit: if anyone’s curious here’s some of his tests for Spiderverse. It’s interesting to see how some ideas he had for that movie ended up being repurposed for Watchdogs: https://vimeo.com/311716775

Man, I hate the direction they've taken Assassin's Creed these last few iterations. It's supposed to be right there in the name Assassins. Creed. There's been little to no creed to write home about and they appear to have no idea what assassination actually is. Assassination is an intimate act. It's about a single target rather than giant war-bands.

Instead the games have become just more murder simulators stuffed with a bunch of superfluous crap like boats and massive battles and inventory clutter and dialogue choices that never end up having an effect. But hey, that doesn't matter because Look! the numbers get bigger!

At least it looks nice and they moved away from classical antiquity as a setting.

Went back and watched that Watch Dogs footage, I'm still really curious about that system of recruiting anyone and as such have no real actual default main character. If I am getting their point correctly. Instead you have a group of people that are your characters to play with depending on style and situation. Overall I'm pretty intrigued by that notion.

I feel like the presentation was just yet another in the series of bungled non-E3 presentations this year. It's like everyone watched what Nintendo has been doing with Nintendo Directs, and went "that's the way to do it". Where are the big new game announcements ? Hell, I'd be happy with a good old fashion indie montage at this point. Instead we get "gameplay reveals" of the most predictable games you can imagine.

And since I'm already on a rant, can we have a conversation about this at some point ?

I realize it's just PR/legal nonsense, but it's like someone handing you a new soda and telling you "this isn't what it's gonna taste like, but have a taste anyway and see if you'd like to buy one". What am I supposed to take away from that ? Not to mention that this game is coming out in less than 6 months, and this is definitely what the final game will be like.

It would not be a necessary if chuckle fucks didnt file real lawsuits against companies for “graphics down grades”. Those law suits lost, but survived a motion to dismiss for failed to state a claim(the first hurtle any lawsuit has to get by). And the cost difference between a full case and one that can be disposed of with a motion to dismiss is huge. That line is there to make a Motion to Dismiss easier.

So yeah, blame the puddles people for that thing. It’s pretty much all their fault.

This just confirmed even more for me that Ubisoft has fallen off a cliff . Quantity over Quality is almost never a good thing for video games in the long run .All there games/sequels just seem like copy and paste overkill . I miss Prince of Persia 😔

Out of Ubisoft's big franchises I would not have expected Watch Dogs to be the last bastion of any kind of creative vision. After Legion they'll probably also include that franchise into the biennial launch cycle, so there goes that too.

Far Cry 6 will probably be as bland, boring and checklisty as FC4-5 were, just as they've completely stopped trying with Assassin's Creed.

And I guess Splinter Cell is dead too.

I was about to say I didn't like anything they showed but this cat thing sounds interesting.

I miss the 1-2 year period where Ubisoft randomly made a few indie-budgeted games (Grow Home/Valiant Hearts/Child of Light/Grow Up). I guess that wasn't a very profitable use of studio talent and that initiative quietly got shelved.

Today's Ubisoft Forward was pretty much exactly what you'd expect. Yep new AC, yep new Far Cry, yep finally releasing Watch Dogs, yep more Hyperscape news. Sucks for them that the Far Cry 6 stuff leaked a bit, but the game sure seems like a Far Cry premise, so I don't know how much more it would have wowed me if I didn't have prior knowledge of what actor the bad guy was going to be.

I do actually think AC Valhalla looks pretty cool as a Viking game.

I used to be a big AC fan but now its just if it happens to hit my interests setting and gameplay wise. Origins I did like but the game had a lot of design issues people over look.

It looks like this maybe has a little more focus and I am a sucker for management and strategy type stuff like managing a roster or building a base, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

I'm also under the impression there's less bloated loot stuff too but maybe I'm wrong. I like some of that aspect but many games add it lately and go full Diablo, which sucks.

All of it looks absolutely fine, just like previous years for Ubisoft. But that's all it is, just fine. There's nothing exciting and different being shown, the facial detail on characters in both Watch Dogs and AC continues to be extremely mediocre (especially in comparison to AAA games of the past 3-4 years), and all of the gameplay can only be described as "serviceable". They also seem to be following the exact same "charismatic evil dictator/bad guy" trope for Far Cry 6.

Basically, if you were looking for Ubisoft to create a new mould, try something different or break out of the status quo they've created for themselves, you are going to be disappointed. They've changed the settings and gave everything a new shiny (kind of) coat of paint, but underneath these are the exact same games they've been making for the last decade. They will all sell well and make a lot of money, and I'm sure most folks are fine with it, but none of this stuff does anything for me. I think the last Ubisoft game that genuinely interested me was For Honor, because despite all the issues it had and continues to have, at least it was something extremely different from their usual catalog.

London as a setting is a neat thing, that alone gets me interested in Legion. The gameplay seemed fine as well, messy tone aside.

Otherwise...*shrug* Valhalla has a cool time period, but didn’t seem amazing otherwise. Also Cyberpunk releasing right after gets priority. Far Cry 6 only had a cinematic trailer, so no opinion really. Wish they’d make that sci-fi or Vampire FC they asked about in a survey years ago.

It was more of the same, in the worst sense possible...

Yeah, they have a new Assassin's Creed, and it looks like the previous AC with hatchets. It has a new Watchdogs, and it looks like the same game with different "heroes" (the original pitch sounded ambitious but problematic, this looks like all recruits fall into a handful of archetypes). Far Cry 6 was not shown, but nothing indicates its more of the same with a latin american setting.

There was a distinct lack of personality shown, no Just Dance, no Beyond Good and Evil, no Rayman or even Rabbits. The only new IP was HyperSpace, and that ended up being a battleground game...

I was excited about Legion due to being set in London and as a Londoner, it’s nice to actually see some representation which feels long overdue for one of the worlds major cities. That said, I think it looks pretty bad and that CGI trailer before the gameplay stuff was so fucking cringe. I haven’t really played much in the way of Ubisoft since Mario + Rabbids but that felt so different from typical Ubisoft which all seem to be open-world games that don’t have the polish. I saw a clip from Legion where the player forced an npc’s bike to hurtle forward, crash and send them falling off but it was just so janky looking.

Ubisoft has become the mediocre chain restaurant of videogames.

I'm with the crew that the tone throughout is incredibly weird and off-putting, even without the current allegations hovering over Ubisoft. Starting off their Legion stuff with a take on that poem, and then doing a U-turn into "aint this goofy?!" is just... Baffling and ridiculous. I want to be interested in it, but everything they're doing to promote it just feels so tone deaf it's hard to take any of it seriously.

Other than that, I was really looking forward to seeing more Valhalla. As an Assassin's Creed fanboy who loved Origins and Odyssey, my biggest concern after those games was the feeling that the series would continue to stray further from 'stealth action' into that samey Ubisoft 'action' feel. From what I've seen and heard so far, those worries haven't gone away. I'm hoping that what they've shown and what Alex got to play is only a specific chunk and that there is some meatier Assassin's Creed stuff in this Assassin's Creed video game. Also, yeah it was super weird how they pushed their Vikings as simple farmers looking for a home and then turned around and had gameplay of the player burning and pillaging a random village and the like.

I think Vinny said something along the lines of "How do they keep getting this stuff so wrong?", and... Yeah. That's pretty much how I feel.

I haven't been able to muster much excitement for Legion up to now - I really didn't like WD1, didn't play 2, and the whole selling point of being able to recruit and play as any character just sounds like a gimmick that will get old pretty fast. What was shown during Ubisoft Forward didn't really make me feel any differently; the whole tone seems over-the-top in a way that is just wearying to me. I like the idea of an open-world game set in 'post-Brexit' London, but I doubt Ubisoft will provide much in the way of searing political commentary.

Valhalla looks really well-made and is a game I can imagine myself enjoying. I felt the same about Odyssey though and, while I thought it was impressive on a technical level and in terms of the sheer amount of stuff on offer, I bounced off it after a few hours. It felt like any progress I made was utterly insignificant in the face of its overwhelming scale, and I wasn't well enough invested in the characters, narrative or the gameplay to keep ploughing on. I may be more welcoming of this kind of time-sink if I buy Valhalla as a PS5 launch title though, especially if the launch line-up is sparse.

As for Far Cry 6, well I thought it was a cool cinematic reveal (that sadly wasn't much of a reveal anymore) - I liked the HBO-style opening credits and it was fun watching Giancarlo Esposito chew the scenery. I just hope they do something to freshen up the usual FC formula a bit.

Legion just looks like it will piss me off in a similar way to div2 where they say something TOTALLY NOT POLITICAL that is so offensive and braindead that it makes me put down ass-odyssey for another few months. Zero interest in their BR and Valhalla is probably something I'll get on sale a year or two after release.

And while I will almost assuredly skip it because every Far Cry since 3 (and probably also 3...) takes fun gameplay and an interesting premise and screws it up with horrible mission design, I am kind of cautiously really excited for Far Cry 6's city. Is it going to be like STALKER or ArmA and mostly be a bunch of boxes with no entrances or are they going to actually let us inside? And what will the rooms look like? Will they be ArmA style empty rooms or are we talking Tarkov style placements?

Because open world urban combat could be one of those game changers. Even rudimentary fear-style AI (or even zerg rushing ubi ai) could make for some amazing radiant quests and procedural set pieces. STALKER had some of it back in the day but I can probably count on one hand the number of times I felt like I was being suppressed and debating if I can sprint across an open field, grab an AK off a corpse, and get back in to cover before five grenades get thrown in to the coffee shop I am crouching in.

I'm looking forward to Valhalla and Legion.

I enjoyed both the previous games... I'm still playing Odyssey 180 hours in!

Valhalla does look suspiciously similar, but it is mostly set in England, and as a Brit who lives in an town that carries a Viking name, and close to the scene of one of the biggest Viking battles known about, I am definitely ready for that.

For similar reasons I'm looking forward to Legion. If nothing else I'll get to play around in London. I've always dreamed of a modern GTA set in London, and this is probably the closest we'll get to it.

For all the griping about Ubi churning out the same game again and again, Legion actually looks pretty experimental and adventurous to me.

It's a shame Skull and Bones seems to have disappeared, I liked the sound of that.

I'm really interested in Legion's "play as anyone" gimmick, but boy does the tone of it seem like a thing I want absolutely nothing to do with. Seems like a $10 Steam Sale pickup sometime in 2022.

AC Valhalla sure looks like Odyssey-but-slightly-different and that's just fine with me. Modern AC is my favorite gaming comfort food and I've dumped hundreds of hours into Origins and Odyssey. Plopping that template into a different historical setting is more than enough to get me to go in for another hundred. I just wish it wasn't coming out within two days of Cyberpunk because juggling two big open world RPGs at once is gonna be difficult.

They did have the whole chunk in the overview trailer showing the return of social stealth mechanics, for what it's worth. Felt like a strange thing to hype up if they're committed to otherwise continue to tack fully action.

Oh damn I had no idea, that's some great trivia! Thank you! :D

If you're curious to know a little bit more about it, his site includes the whole story and also a bunch of concept art he did for the movie: http://www.albertomielgo.com/spiderman/ I completely forgot about that when I wrote the original post!

It's really interesting to follow his work, I like how he grabs old ideas that didn't make it and reuses them in newer projects where it fits better: