Roundup: Here's Everything That Was Revealed During Ubisoft Forward

@Grot right there with you. I’m gonna play Valhalla eventually because I’m a conpletionist when it comes to series I’ve invested in. But I have zero interest in anything else they showed.

@Grot

I completely agree. There were zero surprises here. And that is disappointing.

And still nothing on Beyond Good & Evil 2!

Very underwhelming show

I know this does not apply to everyone, but I find it weird every time someone says they are tired of the UBisoft formula, yet love PS4’s Spider Man game. That games is literally the same thing: hack towers to unlock map, collect the thingies, beat the forts... yet it seems to be universally loved.

Ubisoft has become "EA of the EU" to me. Safe titles every year but nothing that really demands attention. Like others who have posted, I liked Mario + Rabbids and liked a few of the Rayman titles, but there's no magic in anything anymore.

@Tharsman Yep and also Horizon, it's more boring than most Assassin's Creed games and look at what people say about Horizon... and Spider-Man.

The show was predictable so it's weird that they said that more surprises will be revealed soon. People are right to ask for Rayman, Splinter Cell and Beyond Good and Evil but I know I will enjoy Valhalla on Series X. Let's hope something different comes after it because I'm not a fan of Watch Dogs.

@BlueOcean was it really predictable? I mean, how many saw a mobile port of Brawlhalla coming? 🙃

On a serious note, it would had not been as predictable had Far Cry 6 info not leaked ahead of time, and it was a pre-taped show.

@Tharsman That's exactly what I was thinking after posting. Far Cry 6 was leaked and if Ubisoft had shown Valhalla in their own "E3" event for the first time it would have been awesome but Ubisoft has a good relationship with Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo so if they can make them happy and reveal their games in their shows for a little bit of marketing and love, that's what they'll do. I remember how Ubisoft was the star of several Nintendo E3 shows probably because Nintendo didn't have anything better, especially in the Wii era. You know, when Ubisoft had to make a snowboarding game for the snowboard created by Nintendo.

@BlueOcean I completely agree about Horizon: Zero Dawn. Absolutely baffles me that so many people are enthralled by another by-the-numbers open world game with a terrible plot. The same applies to Days Gone.

@ShaiHulud Yep. Assassin's Creed games have much more going on in them and tons of history bits even if it's fantasised history, I don't care.

If you missed the event, you didn't miss much. It was bad.

@ShaiHulud Days Gone was considered bellow average at best, although I loved it. I still have hit played Horizon but my partner has and they loved the story, needless to say I trust their taste 😉

The thing with many of these “UBisoft formula” games is, they only seem to be called out when UBisoft makes them. Hell, Breath of the Wild is pretty much a “ UBisoft formula” game, almost all open world games are.

And in most of them, you can always just focus on the story and ignore absolutely every side activity, albeit that was a bit hard in the last 2 AC due to leveling and demanding some grinding.

I understand if people just don’t enjoy open contemporary open world game design, I just don’t understand why it’s only UBisoft that gets called on it.

@Tharsman I wouldn't say only Ubisoft's open world games are called out for their samey designs, but they do seem to get the brunt of the criticism, and I think it's because they are unequivocally the poster child for the modern open world game. It has defined their portfolio for the last decade, and they've even brought franchises which were more linear and curated affairs into the mix (like Ghost Recon). Part of the reason I think we haven't had a new Splinter Cell for a long time is because Ubi can't figure out a way to bring it back as an open world.

I'd argue games like Breath of the Wild, Horizon and Spider-Man get more excused because they bring newer, bigger and, dare I say it, more imaginative elements to the table to distract you from the fact they largely follow the same pattern. Spider-Man's traversal is what makes that game such a pleasure to play, and where else can you roam a world like Horizon's and battle against robot dinosaurs?

@TimG13 I will say this much about Breath of the wild:
Its a very smooth game with some awesome physics mechanics, ambience and what not... but...

900 koroks
120 shrines
15 climb puzzle towers
4 dungeons unique full "dungeons" with bosses at the end. (5 when you count Hyrule castle.)

Other than the towers, that makes the average Ubisoft game looks quite varied.

" Spider-Man's traversal is what makes that game such a pleasure to play, and where else can you roam a world like Horizon's and battle against robot dinosaurs?"

I can see that, but it is distilling the game to its core unique elements, that Ubisoft games also have. I do have one complaint about the last two AC games: by going into very ancient civilizations, they minimized vertical architecture, resulting in not-super-satisfying parkour climbing, and too much boring mountain climbing stolen from Breath of the Wild.

@Tharsman U can say he . I'm probably the biggest The Legend of Zelda fan in town because Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess HD are among my favourite games ever and I consider Breath of the Wild to be worse than the first Assassin's Creed. Breath of the Wild does a few things right like physics and lighting but it's a dull open-world game. Same for Horizon. I like the open-world thing except when it feels pointless and that's why I skipped Mass Effect Andromeda. I have learnt the kind of open-world game that I like. I loved Xenoblade Chronicles X and the Assassin's Creed games that I've played.

@TimG13 In my opinion, Watch Dogs is the open-world game that has it all (and then some more), varied mini games included, and yet I didn't like it much.

"Spider-Man's traversal is what makes that game such a pleasure to play" I don't disagree but Batman Arkham City too .

@BlueOcean Batman for the win, until they gave him a stupid car.

Arkham Origins > Arkham Knight (yes, i said that!)

@Tharsman I have only played Arkham City 😅. I want to play Origins and Arkham Knight.

@BlueOcean Origins can only be acquired physically, used these days. Still is supposed to work under BC, though. Think i recall you saying you are mostly digital only, unless im confusing you with another Banjo avatar

@Tharsman So those two remastered games are Arkham City and Arkham Knight then. I am mostly digital lately, let's see if they release Origins digital, too...

@BlueOcean Sorry, there are 4 total:
Origins (prequel done by other studio, buggy at launch but IMO, excellent after all the bug fixes.)
Asylum (in remastered collection)
City (in remastered collection)
Knight

Origins never got a remaster, but was supposed to work on BC mode (I think it works, have not tested it but it's on MS official list of BC games.) You could get lucky on the hunt of a retail digital copy code, if you find one they still can be redeemed.

@Tharsman Thanks. I'll have a look. I liked Arkham City.

@Tharsman Ubisoft's games may very well have those unique elements, but, certainly the way I see it, their games are defined by their structures, whereas other open worlds (but by no means all) are more defined by what's within them and the methods of interaction.

@BlueOcean Arkham City is great, but Knight is the real challenger to Spider-Man's traversal. There are so many refinements and improvements that elevate it beyond what came before. Both are neck and neck when it comes to world navigation.

All the Arkham games are highly recommended by the way.

@TimG13 I'll play them, I enjoyed Arkham City ☺️.

@Tharsman Days Gone wasn't that highly rated by critics, but it had a lot of fans and sold fantastic. Each to their own of course, so if you loved it and your partner loved Horizon, more power to you

I have to say that I don't agree with Breath of the Wild almost being a Ubisoft clone. For me, BotW is one of the very few open-world games I actually adore. It's about going where you want to, rather than working off all the icons on the minimap. Its sense of adventure is unparalleled; you can go everywhere you want just for the sake of it. The only title coming close in that regards would be Death Stranding (although that one's got a string of other issues imo).

@ShaiHulud assassins creed didn’t use to have icons on the map, they were basically begged for by the community. It has changed over the years, sometimes you need to just go to a tower for zone icons to be first marked, other games require the purchase of a treasure map. Either way, the icons are just a feature for those that want to collect all the things by figuring exactly how to get to them but not by guessing if they exist in the area at all or not.

You can disable them in most games, and lets face it: many actually hunt down a map full of icons online to play breath of the wild and find all the things.

I know I’d love if those Koroks on the map. It’s fun to find the first few on my own, but eventually it’s impossible to know where you already looked, and what you already found. Heck, Mario Odyssey fills your map with moon icons.

@Tharsman Ah, I didn't realise that. It's been ages since I've played the first two Assassin's Creeds and the one set in London was the last one I played.

Those moon icons in Mario were a shame though, it spoiled all the fun of trying to find them yourself. I'm happy there weren't any Korok icons on the map in BotW though. Sure, you won't find them all, but does that really matter? Like I said, to me it's just about the sense of adventure rather than trying to cross of a set of jobs.

@ShaiHulud does it matter? Depends on the player. You could argue many keep playing because they have not found them all, but they would find them all too easily if they were on the map.

Don’t take this as me arguing, I do understand how some hate seeing the maps full of icons, it can force that “this a check list of things to do” feeling.

Many devs keep playing with different approaches, my personal favorite being where I can buy a map at some post-game shop. That, IMO, offers the best of all approaches, as it lets everyone enjoy a pressure free game experience, and open up, if the player wants, an end-game way of easily finding the stuff one missed. Maybe Mario Odyssey should have done that, they already have shops to sell costumes.

@Tharsman Yeah, I suppose it depends on the player. I'm not interpreting your posts as arguing, but rather as having a civilised discussion Like I said, different players prefer different things. That's a good idea though re the post-game shop.