E3 2015: Ubisoft Press Conference Impressions

2014 was a less than stellar year for Ubisoft's reputation as Watch Dogs fell far short of its hype and Assassin's Creed: Unity was shipped as a broken mess.  Despite Ubisoft's best efforts to fix the situation, many felt betrayed by Ubisoft's transgressions.  So the French publisher had something to prove coming into E3 2015.  The question was: could they deliver?

For how many games Ubisoft crammed into a 60 minutes, the conference moved at an incredible pace.  The hour flew by before you knew it as Ubisoft. much like Bethesda, let the games do the talking for them.  For every minute spent talking, three or more was spent showing live gameplay or pre-rendered trailers.  While I do prefer gameplay over trailers any day, the trailers that Ubisoft showed at their conference were short, sweet and incredibly produced.  My personal favourite was Trials Fusion Awesome Level Max's trailer, which saw a gun-toting cat riding a fire-breathing unicorn.  No, I'm not on crack!  It really happened!

The biggest plus from Ubisoft's conference was most certainly the live demos.  Seeing all those titles played live, including the newly announced For Honor, The Division, Rainbow Six: Siege and TrackMania Turbo, gave me a much better impression on all of them.  I'm actually excited to play all of them.  From a medieval melee combat to a tactical shooter to an arcade racer, there was incredible amount of diversity between the titles demoed and on the show as a whole.

Also, I have to praise Ubisoft for being the only publisher in the video game industry that can actually keep a secret.  There were no leaks or rumours about South Park: The Fractured But Whole, Ghost Recon Wildlands or a new IP in For Honor being set for Ubisoft's press conference.  Not having any prior knowledge on those games made all the surprises feel special, something that rarely happens nowadays.

It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows at Ubisoft's press conference.  There were some problems when it came to presentation.  It has become par for the course that Ubisoft brings in some celebrities to host, make appearances or even sing, but it never usually ends well.  The same can be said for this year's show.  Aisha Tyler tirelessly tried to inject some humour into the conference, but seemed to make things awkward ever single time.  Angela Bassett talking about her role as Six in Rainbow Six: Siege was completely worthless.  And to top it all off, Jason Derulo showed the world that he cannot sing—or he might of just hit puberty—in a moment that was so gloriously awful that it came off as being incredibly funny.  Like watching a train wreck, you couldn't turn your attention away from it.

Despite the problems with the conference's presentation, Ubisoft's press conference was a highly entertaining show.  It let the games stand as the sole focus and kept Aisha Tyler's on-stage shenanigans to a minimum.  You know it's going to be a good show from Ubisoft when the only reference to Tyler's girlwood is her necklace.

Grade:  A-

On the Download: April 15-21

It has taken a little while for the downloadable game scene to really get going again after a pretty solid start to the year.  With a full-order last week and now a full-order this week, I no longer have to desperately search for big downloadable games to talk about as they seem to be falling right into my lap.  Without any further ado, let us dive right into the biggest downloadable games of the week.

Earlier this week, the Free-to-Play successor to Uber Entertainment's Monday Night Combat, Super MNC leaked onto Steam before its scheduled release.  Instead of immediately taking the game down, Uber decided to make the leak Super MNC's official release date.  From those who have not played the original Monday Night Combat, Super MNC is a strategic multi-player shooter.  Super MNC blends intense tactical combat, a deep RPG-like metagame, ever-expanding roster of characters, a huge amount of customization options and humorous play-by-play commentary into one all encompassing package. On top of all that, Uber will be updating Super MNC every week.  Each update will continue to balance the game, make improvements to the gameplay and add more content such as new characters, maps, weapons and attire.  With a dedicated developer and the ever great price of absolutely free, Super MNC is a game every PC shooter fan should download and try.

Trials HD was a critical and commercial success for XBLA back in the Summer of 2009.  Close to three years later, RedLynx and Microsoft Studios are back with the sequel to Trials HD called Trials Evolution.  Trials Evolution is a 2.5D platform racing game that sees the player control a rider of a trial motorcycle with exaggerated physics as you navigate past various skill testing obstacles on the way to the end of the level.  The main goal of each level is to complete the level as fast as possible and with the fewest number of faults.  Trials Evolution offers a whole new multi-player mode that can be played up to four people on the same system or over Xbox Live.  Trials Evolution also includes 60 single-player levels to compete, online leaderboards and a fully featured level editor.  For 1200 Microsoft Points, Trials Evolution looks to be another great XBLA exclusive that 360 owners should check out.

In the States when you pre-ordered Kid Icarus: Uprising for the 3DS, you got a free download code for 3D Classics: Kid Icarus.  While up in the Great White North, we got the short end of the stick in the form of special AR cards.  After a little less than a month, Nintendo has finally brought this once pre-order exclusive to the Nintendo eShop.  Along with the new 3D visuals, 3D Classics: Kid Icarus has all new backgrounds that make the game's visuals pop off the screen a more than the old NES version did.  The original Kid Icarus follows Pit's first adventure as he fights from the pits of the Underworld to the skies of Angel Island in order to save the goddess Palutena from Medusa's evil grasp.  Journey through all of Kid Icarus' worlds to gain possession of the Three Sacred Treasures, which are needed to take down Medusa once and for all.  For those interested on taking a trip down memory lane or want to experience Pit's first adventure for the first time after play Uprising, 3D Classics: Kid Icarus will be 6 dollars well spent.