We Talk Over: Ubisoft Forward Livestream (07/12/2020)

Cool it's the 40+ duders being cynical on new games time!

Gosh, Ubisoft just doesn't make anything I want to play. Maybe it's that I'm burned out on open-world games, but I had a hard time paying attention during this thing.

Could've gone for a new Rocksmith, though.

Glad they addressed the sexual abuse and harassment stuff upfront and how Ubisoft is leaving it to a collective shrug.

Keep on 'em, don't let them coalesce into silence.

That's what a lot of us* have signed up for, so that's awesome!

@admiralburrito:

I'm paying for their wisdom and that's how I justify my reasons for paying for Premium and so far, it's been great!

I understand the groan when Ubi implied these streams are going to be periodic instead of annual, but I don't hate that idea. The notion of announcing everything at once is just as antiquated as everything else that makes E3 feel old. Not much surprise here but some fun stuff coming and more fun ahead in the next Ubi Direct.

Pray for BG&E2. Can't wait for the book on the arrested development of that one.

Honestly bizarre to me that you are expressly doing the exact thing you're incorrectly accusing them of doing. Saw lots of interest from these guys and some good questions too, which is what I'd hope for when we're talking about 3 sequels and another battle royale game. It's ok to look forward to something and also express some hope that it won't be more of the same thing we've gotten for the last few years. Didn't see anyone actively shitting on anything until I saw your comment.

I really enjoyed Odyssey and love the viking setting, so Valhalla looks like the game for me. It looks exactly like what I was expecting, which is great!

A little less sold on Legion so far. Idk if @alex or anyone else can answer this, but I wonder how much you can customize your team. Can I just release the starting characters and build an all-hacker team, or all-hitman team? Or does it force you to have a wacky assorted team with construction workers and grandmas because the different missions require one of each type. I hate the wacky assorted cast idea, but would really enjoy being able to min-max this system to build the exact team I want.

Me playing the game is basically coming down to this, so I'd love to hear if anyone knows anything about it.

Nothing about Devolver? Man, you all missed the mark. Ubisoft, yay, amirite? Seriously, y'all. Watch this.

Also, sit down and play Devolverland Expo. Beautifully done. I hope you realize this.

Damn I hope you're being sarcastic.

Yeah I can't take it any more unfortunately, Giant bomb used to be my favorite gaming site, I've been a part of this site since the beginning but I just can't take the negativity anymore. It's too predictable and it's almost like its become their brand. Video games are a fun escape for me, especially with everything going on in the world. I just can't deal with it anymore , it's been a good ride.

I’ll play Valhalla. Everything else was try hard.

@leejunfan83: I'm well over 40, and if you're still relying on Ubisoft.... well, I'm sorry.

@mancopter: I'm not relying on anyone!

@leejunfan83 we good, my man.

@mancopter: Devolver’s streams are mostly just an extended sketch comedy bit. They’re fun, I get a kick out of it, but I don’t think they need the crew speaking over them.

@onlineatron: Meh, as opposed to Ubi's pre-recorded "co-op" segments?

I'd much rather hear the teams reactions to a Devolver-style situation than an Ubi one, because we all know how that one will sound.

@leejunfan83: Hope you find what you're looking for!

More and more I’m just completely put off by Ubisoft’s offerings. Their wacky murderbox set against serious political backdrop (Brexit, Cuban-esque revolution) games feel at best tone deaf and at worst opportunistic and irresponsible.

I've enjoyed the new AC formula in Origins and Odyssey, so I'm looking forward to Valhalla.

Watch Dogs: Legion and Far Cry 6 on the other hand are still question marks for me. Watch Dogs looks like it could be interesting as something in the vein of a Saints Row, but there is major tonal whiplash with it also taking place in a post-Brexit London in the grips of an over-militarized police force with the marketing material also leaning into the "first they came for our..." holocaust poetry.

Given they haven't shown any gameplay of Far Cry 6 at this point, but right now, my confidence level in that franchise is pretty low and there's not much reason to think they're changing course.

@mancopter: The difference is Devolver’s bits are actually funny, talking over them would add nothing. The scripted co-op segments are terrible and benefit greatly from being dunked on.

@onlineatron: Fair enough, but but that imply that they won't ever talk about it? That's kinda effed.

*but does that imply

Jeff would rather talk about what shooter just came about. That's not entertaining.

@mancopter: I think Vinny has mentioned they plan to do a round up of not-E3 announcements at some point so maybe they’ll cover it then?

I'd guess there's a pretty good chance they bring it up on the Bombcast.

Wait people think they are funny? I tried to watch the most recent one and it was endlessly dragging on and the jokes were not funny at all. Robot lady who kills people who screams and swears? I guess they like Rick and Morty maybe? Those the kind of people who like the jokes? It was hard to watch and I've watched the previous ones, all equally painful to watch. There is no reason to ever think the Devolver presentations are worth watching unless you use the fast forward feature to see the games being presented. Shadow Warrior 3, Serious Sam 4, and Carrion on July 24th - cool I got all the info I needed from scrolling through their video and wasn't subjected to the painfully unfunny skits.

Anyways, Watch Dogs Legion looks great and shame on Brad of all people to not make a Quake joke during the construction worker with a nailgun segment. I need to watch the rest of it but Ubisoft continues to be one of the most impressive developers and Valhalla is right next to Diablo 4 in terms of most looked forward to games and the fact it is coming out in 2020 is hard to believe. I don't really have any faith in Legion or Valhalla to come out this year though to be honest. Legion was already high on my list of games I am anticipating but this just seals the deal. I got burned hard w/ Ghost Recon Breakpoint but maybe the AI will make it worth playing since that was one of the reasons I was initially interested in the game since that was promised, but then taken away from us at the last minute.

@onlineatron@chaser324 Awesome. Let's see what happens! I've got pessimism, but I don't have hatred. Just posting my thoughts.

EDIT: Be well, my dudes!

@judgementkazzy: nope.

not sure what you watched. but our duders are consistently bashing anything new.

you don't have to delude yourself. it's okay. these are our duders.

c'est le vie.

yeah i'm with you. granted i'm not attached to any ubi franchise (i'm a narrative-driven, single player kinda consumer)- but i try to show up to their events with an open mind. as an outsider it really seems they're content to make the same games forever with new set dressings (and yes you can say that about a lot of publishers, but ubi games feel more and more like action games with a sports game business model).

Old People, Damn!

Anyways, I'm afraid I have aged out of a lot I saw. Except nominally Far Cry 6. One is I liked how they set up the trailer, and told a coherent social/political story there. I wonder if someone like Abdel el-Sisi has some general thoughts along the lines of the featured dictator. Though the despot in Far Cry 6 is a bit more front burner. Another is there is no indication with how the gameplay and such is going to be handled. Though I do get the crew's wariness. Anyway the trailer presented reflects potential relations between Ruler and subject people that goes to the beginnings of civilizations...

The Watchdogs one seemed edgy and more current (near-future), in a very recognizable country. I'll leave myself out of that here.

It's the Assassins' Creed's Vikings that puts me sideways, though I do not hold Ubisoft directly to account. It's a personal dislike for a group of extremely effective Marauders that I have read, held Europe back perhaps for 200 years, to fully recover. They were beyond brutal, stole everything, killed the men and children, and hauled the women back for wives. I do not have a romantic conception of the Vikings, though they did do some impressive things, like terrorize a huge area as much as the plague, made some good weapons, found Vinland, and were even traders of sorts in Russia.

I think the tone of Watch_Dogs has always been the most tone deaf about the real power dynamic of th world. They go so over the top that the whole things seems like they just tick off how to make sure they never take a stand or have a take on the world that says something.

I'm over these games because Ubisoft has no clue how to write these type of stories....after seeing the video of play it seems like such a twisted take on "Boomer" interpretation of protest. To teh producer of this game I can only say, "Okay Boomer."

If you feel that way, perhaps time to move on. Plenty of cheerleaders on YouTube who will just scream at everything Ubi announces in hopes of getting a handout. Maybe that's more your speed.

It's like Ubi doesn't know anything but to constantly double down on their tone deaf BS. Also that watchdogs 3 "movie" thing they started with was dogshit

You know I woke up with no expectations watching this. Watch Dog 3 trailer was fine.

But man some people woke up on the wrong side of the bed and just carry that baggage to the stream.

I know what you mean. I am a 40+ gamer myself and I was going to cancel my (sympathy) subscription on the weekend. It is just the renewal you cancel, so I decided to leave for it for another 9 months. The section to leave feedback on why you are leaving was very tempting.

Of course I want GB to succeed, and there is still some magic with certain personality combinations. Like the funny and endearing uncle, the balanced and wise grandpa, the candid and witty kids, and the lecturing grumpy old man.

There is a loyal and passionate GB community. Not sure if that is growing, but GB, please stay irreverent and not irrelevant :)

nb. I completed everything in Watch Dogs 2, so will definitely be playing Watch Dogs 3. I won't be heavily invested in the story or tone, but more the sandbox mayhem and the 2020 AAA production values.

You can critizice a company (rightly) for sleazy pr moves, but baseless speculation of people's involvement in really serious and damming allegations that are still being investigated is extremely unethical and dangerous. Congratulations, you just made a mental connection for people between the creative director of hyperscape and some really dark shit, without any evidence. Considering how close GB has been to some recent allegations, I would have hoped that would shape some of their actions and words.

Also, you cant blame the people behind watchdog 3, who have worked on this game for years and years that in the last few months the USA has made madmax look like a children's party.

No i dont have any affiliation with ubisoft, my truly terrible French would make that impossible. Overall most of the games seem fine, but not my taste.

How the fuck are you going to use a poem about the fucking holocaust as the trailer drop music for your hack the planet game. So fucking despicable.

Oh yea, that was completely terrible. Though to be fair, that was that apperently famous french director making that "short movie" that was just basically a CGI trailer. Perhaps he took the lorebible a bit to serious...... still someone should have said "absolutely not! Are you out of your mind!?" to that guy.

I skipped around but I didn't see much cynicism, and besides, calling these guys cynical isn't an insult. These guys have been cynics since Gamespot and it hasn't hurt the website any.

I don't think I've ever been excited for anything Ubisoft has put out but I can't really put my finger on why. I tried the first Assassin's Creed and found it boring and never really tried another Ubisoft product after that. I'm sure they're all totally fine but the advertising or genres of their games or whatever has just never done anything for me. I wish I was excited for any of their franchises.

I survived a global pandemic and all I got was this lousy free 30 day battle pass

@sonicboyster: People might be confusing skepticism for cynicism. Or Ageism.

Or expressing ageism themselves.

They chose a bunch of bad ways to promote their new games, this was awful. I am now less interested in watchdogs 3 good job ubisoft.

I wish Ubisoft would make more games like For Honor, a real quality original IP, instead of rehashing these cookie-cutter open worlds.

We have Cyber Open World 3, Historic-Fantasy Open World 11(?) and First Person Open World 6 (but actually 8). Even their new IP, Hyperscape, is just a take on an existing and popular formula while that Roller Derby game and Skull and Bones have just completely fallen off of the radar. It's a real shame to me personally, because they've proven before that they can do these interesting smaller games but wider audiences just prefer these rinse and repeat open world adventures.

Well. That sucked, to be perfectly frank. Aside from the giant unaddressed elephant in the room of the shitty shit going down at that company, none of those games were doing anything for me at all.

Watch Dogs looks like an attempt at an actual idea that came up against Ubisoft's cowardly "we don't do politics" bullshit and ended up as a confused jumble of gameplay elements as a result.

Far Cry 6 looks like a giant yawn. Hey - someone saw the credits of True Detective!

And Assassins' Creed might be cool . . . if they didn't call it Assassin's Creed. Like, remember when those games were about, you know, assassinating people? But nope. That series can somehow no longer exist without naval combat, big battles, a generic, empty soulless open world, and meaningless loot.

And there was another battle royale game in there, wasn't there? It was so generic I already forgot it's name.

Happy birthday Xbox

Ubisoft’s stream was definitely kinda weak and didn’t really have much to impress, but even with that in mind I though it was kinda weird how jaded and negative some of the crew was during this. Maybe the lockdown is affecting them too much, I don’t know. I thought some of their complaints, specially at the beginning of the presentation, didn’t even made sense...

Regarding the games, I was never a fan of Watch Dogs and thought they always missed the tone on how they showed those games. The first took itself too seriously and the second one tried way too hard to be edgy and felt very cringy. Even the first presentation for Legion was weak. But I think they nailed on this one, they embraced the silliness and it just seems like we could have some fun with it. The short movie they showed at the beginning was great, Alberto Mielgo has an incredible art style and always delivers great animations. I wish Ubisoft would hire him to do a game inspired on his style.

Far Cry 6 also had some cool visuals, I’m curious to see if they changed the game enough to make it interesting again.

Assassin’s Creed just looked extremely bland and disappointing. It feels like a generic Action RPG and they keep explaining how Vikings were peaceful farmers and then show the opposite. It’s a shame they moved the franchise so far away from the stealth and parkour that made it unique. Is the game even about actual assassinations anymore? Remember when all the people your murdered in the story were real people who died in mysterious ways? Or how killing someone took planning and timing? Sad to see all of that gone.

@bicycle_repairman: well said, I was thinking the exact same things