With E3 a couple of weeks out, all of gaming's biggest powers are preparing to descend on Los Angeles for one of the biggest weeks in the industry. Ubisoft has always tried to make the most of its time and with its lineup so far, things are looking pretty good.
What Will Be There
Ubisoft already has a list of heavy hitters lined up for the show, which begins on June 13. First there's the now-revealed Far Cry 5 that will trade the exotic locales for the American Midwest. It will continue the series penchant for seeing humanity at its most extreme. The newest entry in the series will take players to Hope County, Montana to take on Eden's Gate, a cult that has overtaken the county. Far Cry always seems to do well at E3 so Ubisoft will be happy to have it ready to show.
Another game primed for its debut at E3 is the newest Assassin's Creed game. The series has been on hiatus since 2015's Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, which takes place in Industrial Revolution London. Rumors have flown for months about what the newest entry could be or where it could be set.
The place that kept coming up is Ancient Egypt, which has popped up as a potential setting for the last few Assassin's Creed games. It will be interesting to see what Ubisoft has to show at E3 and how the game has evolved and been retooled from what it was.
Next, after what seems like forever, is South Park: The Fractured But Whole. The sequel to South Park: The Stick of Truth, the new game will continue the story of the new kids in town and their adventures with the boys. Cartman, Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and the rest of the kids are done with fantasy and are now playing superhero, with the kids adopting their alter egos seen on the show, like Mysterion and Human Kite.
The story is very much a South Park riff, this time on the superhero genre, with the boys ending up in their own Civil War-ish story. The game looks like it will play the same as the first, but given how good the first game came out, the change in aesthetic may be all that's needed.
Last, there's Crew 2, the sequel to the 2014 shared open-world driving game. While The Crew had unique ideas and was fun, it didn't quite nail everything it was going for the first time around. It did sell well enough at the time and proved popular enough that Ubisoft decided to take another shot with the sequel. While no details have been revealed thus far, the first game did show well at E3 when it was there, so hopefully the sequel will as well.
What Else Could Show Up?
One game that probably won't be there is Beyond Good and Evil 2, the long-awaited sequel to the 2003 hit action-adventure game. Over the last few years, rumors have flown about the potential of a sequel debuting at the trade show. Unfortunately those rumors have never panned out for either side.
All hope is not lost for the game, though, if creator Michel Ancel's comments are to be believed. He recently said that the game won't be at E3, but could end up being shown later this year. But given the title, that is a big if.
What could and likely will happen is a special surprise announcement during Ubisoft's press conference. This has been a move the company has used the last few years to debut games like For Honor, Tom Clancy's The Division, and Watch Dogs.
The great thing about this is that it leaves the door open for all kinds of speculation to what could fill that slot. It could be a brand-new IP or a surprise sequel to Splinter Cell, but either way, fans would be in for a surprise. But even if they skipped this and relied on the games mentioned above, it would still be an incredibly stacked conference.
