E3 2017: We Talk Over the Ubisoft Press Conference

For @danryckert:

Edit: BGE2 seems _super_ early - Ubi aren't even committing to what platforms it'll be on at this point.

Damn getting these videos up quick.

I think the thumbnail speaks for itself folks.

I went from 0 interest in the new Far Cry to wanting to give it a chance.

The perfect thumbnail for a really great press conference. Might not be all for me but most of it was new and interesting stuff.

I love this thumbnail

This was a nice conference. It's been a good year overall for that stuff, and Ubisoft did a good job this year of keeping it nice and cozy and not doing any #girlwood shenanigans. It was nice to see Michel Ancel and Yves Guillemont look happy.

I came late to this one (long day) but a summary of notable stuff I have seen:

Mario and Rabbids looks pretty cool, though I've never played an XCOM-ish game before. My main concern is the Rabbids, since their brand of humor generally annoys me after a while, but I very well may give this a shot. New Switch games are always welcome, and it frees up space for Nintendo to talk about new things tomorrow.

Far Cry 5 did nothing for me. One of my favorite parts of the bits of Far Cry 3 that I played was how you were basically up against the world by yourself and had to struggle to improve yourself as time went on. Having a bunch of helpers kind of kills the vibe for me. Plus the music was lame.

The Starlink game looks ok. Not sure I'm into the whole figurines approach, but it could be fun.

Beyond Good and Evil 2, as someone who's never played the first....eh. All the needless profanity made it feel really immature and falsely edgy, especially since these are CG animals dropping all these F bombs. I know this is something everyone's hyped for, but I'm really not feeling the attraction. I hear the first one isn't like that though, so I may check that out.

Now to watch Skull and Bones to see what the fuss is about.

Pretty good conference!

Yes! Perfect thumbnail choice. Anybody got a gif of those two hamming it up.

I find it super interesting that Wildlands and For Honor, two Ubisoft games I barely hear anyone talking about, are the two best selling games of the year so far.

2017 Best Selling Video Games

For some reason 1:03:41 is probably my favourite moment in this. The look Vinny shoots at Jeff, who immediately goes to mark it is just perfect.

That and the PvP chatter were great.

@passivespiral: it feels kinda like the division last year, which was sort of muted in exposure but i don't think nearly to the degree for honor and wildlands were. i think both of those just hit big with streamer culture and console gamers looking for multiplayer. i still want to try for honor, but haven't checked how dead it is on pc. honestly with the way it's being discounted i thought it didn't do so hot.

Does anyone else's video stop working at the 1:55:21 mark? it happened to me on the live stream too and I haven't been able to watch the end of this even on the archive.

@passivespiral: different people enjoy different things. Watching Rorie livestream some of Wildlands it seemed like he was having a fun time.

@fatalbanana: Yeah same, couldn't skip to the end of the archive on here either. The YouTube archive worked for me though:

Personally felt it was the best E3 conference so far this year. Ancel getting really emotional at the end was nice considering how much BG&E means to him and the Mario-Rabbids stuff ended up being better than expected.

@ripelivejam: @humanity: Yeah, I'd actually be curious to see the guys check back in on them, if they ever worked out that NAT issue they were having. Like do an Us vs Them For Honor. Or get Jeff, Vinny, and Dan, Brad or Alex in on some four player open world cocaine hunt in Wildlands.

@vinny Thank you for recognizing that Miyamoto and Yves goofing off was less cringe and more "These are two people who love this industry and are having a great time". Too many people today find happiness to be embarrassing. Those guys were having a blast!

That Mario + Rabbits game looks so damn good. Legitimately the most exciting game I've seen so far, since it's actually close to coming out.

Can't believe Ubisoft BOFA'd Dan for saying their name wrong.

No Splinter Cell? But hey, here's some more of that Far Cry garbage. Fuck, man.

So THAT'S what Ubisoft was hinting toward in Watch Dogs 2!

No Splinter Cell really sucks bad just replayed blacklist last week still holds up great.

@Quicklyer: Yeah, that worked for me. Thank you!

I can't wait until someone adds special effects to the arm-gun fight.

@lawgamer: I'd be lying if I said that wasn't a big appeal to me. Boomer looks just like my blue heeler.

Ok, apparently I don't care about anything Ubi has lined up :( that makes me sad.

It's interesting that there were no long gameplay demo sessions besides the little bit of Assassin's Creed. I was expecting a few minutes of Far Cry 5 beyond the trailer we got. That being said, it felt like they packed in a lot of games.

I love Jeff's surprise face when they realized that Mario& Rabbits game is a Xcom type game. Love to see Jeff surprised at something.

So the Beyond Good & Evil 2 thing everybody was freaking out about today was yet ANOTHER CG trailer? Why are people pretending this is a thing? Why is Michel Ancel almost crying? What's the accomplishment being celebrated here? Do people remember that the first game was just pretty alright?

Mario has a gun.

AC Origins looks real good, I personally can't wait.

dat cbc skull shirt

I got to say, I think this was Ubisoft's best E3 press conference. Mario and Rabbids has my attention with it being Nintendo/Ubisoft's take on XCOM, Skull and Bones looks fascinating, Assassin Creed Origins looks neat and that Beyond Good and Evil 2 was a nice shocker.

GOD, I wanted to like For Honor so much. Had a blast when I could play it, but the server stability, p2p connection meaning ragequitters ended THE MATCH, and imbalanced equipment was just too much when Overwatch is RIGHT there.

What we like in our bubble and what the gaming culture at large likes is incredibly, vastly different. Most people don't even know the names of development studios, of gaming personalities like Ken Lavine or Michel Ancel, or even the idea that microtransactions are weird and bad.

Anything you see complained about in these forums, on Reddit or on GAF is absolutely, without a doubt a blip on the radar of these companies. it's why military shooters are still so popular, why gritty realism reigns supreme, and why sequels get pumped out year after year despite criticism from players like us. What we like and what gamers like are entirely separate things. And Ubisoft is the supreme ruler of this kind of thing.

Rabbids are basically white Noids. I think I'd rather have seen a Mario & Noids game.

What do people think of the hud in the pirates game? just straight up numbers for damage and health?

I also thought For Honor's hud was weird as well

Mario and Rabbids is the coolest thing of the show so far.

Assassins Creed looks boring and the animation is super stiff.

Far Cry has potential but I'm tired of the Ubisoft open world template in general.

The Crew 2 could be the Burnout Paradise successor I want on PS4 if they nail the handling--Ubisoft has a track record of dramatic improvements on the second iteration of their games.

I thought it was funny Jeff bought the Far Cry developer pitch and press reaction to Far Cry 5 intitally so much he was surprised it was going to be this dumb. Far Cry 3 and 4 were both so stupid and crass and usually tasteless (the rapist you deal with and do missions for in 3 for example).

I think a dedicated pirate game is a good move but I don't think I liked what they showed. I don't like the "just a ship" thing it seemed to be. Not that I need to run around on land but if it's really just the ship all the time I would find that too repetitive I think. I want a singleplayer game. If they are going the For Honor route with it I am not interested at all.

I like some of it. I am super down for just a well done historical setting like Egypt too. I do agree the animation was so stiff and so far I have to say the combat doesn't look good. That includes the stiff animation. I was happy they did something new but not sure this is good.

Also, at some point this isn't even a parkour game really, at least from the things I saw, so it's just weird. I felt that same way about Black Flag too in parts. I guess it's becoming something a little different but I think if it is doing that it needs to add more to the formula.

I think a lot of hardcore type gamers that are on here and places like it don't realize how much Ubisoft kills it because I think they just have this different audience. Last year the Division was gigantic too.

No Man's Sky: Toys Go Buy

@danryckert
The plane action is not to far off from the real thing, albeit they are not dumping smoke on track cars.

i agree if i were still a kid i'd be all over Starlink.

umm... it still looks kinda cool tho...

I've always dug the Rabbids. Something about them feels more natural than the Minions. Both are undoubtedly more market-tested than an 80s toy commercial cartoon, but the Rabbids' random insanity comes off as more believable than the Minions' more measured antics.

All of this is to say I'm definitely checking out Kingdom Battle. Even if the exploration and combat don't expand much beyond what was shown, I'm willing to pay to see the Rabbids being Rabbids in the Mushroom Kingdom.

My favorite part is the same part from last year, when the South Park trailer comes on and they all turn into prudes.

Skull & Bones: PVP=Pretty Vicious Pirates.

@stordoff: PS5 and XBoxXXX