E3 2014: Ubisoft press conference -The Crew dated, Rainbow Six Siege announced
Assassin's Creed: Unity! Far Cry 4! Tom Clancy's The Division! All were part of Ubisoft's E3 2014 press conference this evening, and the firm kicked things off with a bang by showing the first five minutes of Far Cry 4.
It starts with a bus being shot the hell up
Dan Hay, executive producer for Far Cry 4 took the stage after the video pumped the crowd up. As mentioned above, the first 5 minutes of the game were shown. The video introduces the main villain of the game, King Pagan Min, who is the self-imposed dictator of Kyrat. He wasn't too pleased when the bus was shot up, was he?
Once he left the stage, host Aisha Tyler came out to introduce Just Dance 2015 and its updated track list. According to Tyler, over 100 million players have participated in the series since its inception.
Just Dance Now, an app for the game and hailed as a latency free alternative to many second screen apps, was announced alongside version 2015. The app allows you to take your game on the road and anyone with the app can play Just Dance 2015 at a friends house using the big screen. This means 20 or more drunks dancing in your living room can be a thing. The game is coming later this year.
Once all the crazy dancing was finished, Ubisoft Massive's Petter Sydow, The Division's production manager, took the stage to show either the most realistic CG trailer we have ever seen, or a live-action time-lapse combination. It eventually led into cinematic footage, which looked equally amazing.
Shame the game isn't coming to PC, PS4 and Xbox One until 2015.
The Crew was up next at the conference, with a video consisting "entirely of in-game footage," only with the action sped up. According to creative director Julian Garrity, the trailer shows the various landscapes which takes the player from coast-to-coast: NYC, The Rocky Mountains, Los Angeles and even Miami. Missions can last up to two hours and cars can be customized to look almost however you like; you can "climb" up mountains too.
The closed beta will go live on July 23, and The Crew releases on November 11 for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox One.
A really kick-ass, cinematic Assassin's Creed Unity video was shown next before an actual gameplay demo live on stage highlighting what the Assassin's Creed team calls "volumetric gameplay" with a systemic open-world.
Buildings were designed at a 1:1 scale and up to 5,000 NPCs on screen are possible. Players will explore the city and collect side missions to level up their particular playstyle.
Also seen in the walkthrough was the "reinvigorated" navigation system, particularity the new parkour down function which allows the player to control their descent. Interiors are also explorable, no longer just a pass-through locations, and some missions will take place inside said interiors.
Assassin’s Creed Unity with four-player co-op will launch globally on October 28 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
Fitness and guns. Lots of guns.
Ubisoft also announced during the conference a new fitness game called Shape Up. It's an Xbox One exclusive which promises that exercises will be both challenging and fun. A demo showing cardio was presented, and it looked like it would kill this asthmatic in an instant.
The puzzle-adventure game Valiant Hearts: The Great War was also shown in video form, pretty much making the entire Internet cry.
Finally, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot came on stage to announce a "surprise". It was pre-alpha multiplayer gameplay footage of Rainbow Six Siege which was developed in place of the scrapped Rainbow 6:Patriots.
The video showed a hostage rescue mission and more destructible environments than you could shake a mini-14 at - seriously.
Players will engage in sieges which the firm calls a "new style of assault" where enemies have the means to "transform their environments into modern strongholds". Players can fortify against these positions and reinforce walls and floors, using barbed wire, deployable shields and mines, and more. Observation drones, sheet charges, rappelling, and other items can be used to assault the enemy. T
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is built on the Realblast engine and makes use of procedural, unscripted destruction which allows the environment to react "authentically, distinctively and dynamically." This allows for modification in real time so players can create new gameplay opportunities directly within the game level.
The Ubisoft Montreal-developed Rainbow Six Siege will be released in 2015 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
You'll find the Microsoft and EA shows live through their relative links at 5:30pm UK and 8pm UK respectively.