Ubisoft presented three themes for their E3 presentation: Games are adventure, games are sharing, and games are life.
If Ubisoft came out and showcased Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood for two hours, that would have been enough to please the E3 crowd. But this French based company showed up with a plethora of sequels, first person shooters, and action games that left jaws hanging.
Ubisoft started the evening showcasing Rayman Origins, a game they displayed at last years E3, but this time with a detailed demo. The game plays like an old school side scroll but features third generation graphics with bright colors and an overall inviting feel. And the animation is hysterical.
Ubisoft then rattled off an impressive list of action and first person shooter games with titles like Driver San Francisco, Farcry 3, and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.
But the most impressive trailer came from Gearbox Software’s Brothers in Arms: Furious 4. The game centers around four U.S. soldiers during WWII who’s only goal is to terrorize Nazis. The trailer was violent, gory, gritty, and the audience loves every second of it as they game a big ovation when it was done.
In the adventure category, ubisoft also presented The Adventures of Tintin which takes the classic novel and movie, with the help of Steven Spielberg, and turns it into a video game adventure.
On the sharing theme, Ubisoft presented online games like the complete customizable race simulator Tracmania 2, and the free to play Ghost Recon Online.
Ubisofts life theme centered around games that are compatible with the Xbox 360 kinect, Playstation Move, and Wii. Games like Just Dance 3, Raving Rabbits Alive and kicking, and Your shape Fitness Evolved 2012 utilize the kinect for hands free get-of-your-couch gaming. But it was Rocksmith that was the real eye opener. The music game does what other music games fail to do: teach you how to actually play the guitar with a real guitar. You can take any guitar and plug it into the game for essentially a virtual music lesson.
Ubisoft closed the show with their most anticipated title Assassin’s Creed Revelations. After showcasing a new trailer, the creators of the game presented a brief game play demo which was followed by a very excited cheering crowd. Like all the other games in the franchise, this new installment presented beautiful graphics, a compelling story line and a captivating soundtrack.
Overall Ubisofts presentation was better than expected. Of course it’s easy to present impressive trailers. Time will tell if these games live up to the hype they generate on the E3 show floor.
