Major game studio Ubisoft held its virtual event Sunday to make some game announcements and share more details on some of its biggest titles, including Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Hyper Scape, Watch Dogs: Legion title, and more.
Dubbed Ubisoft Forward, the game company’s livestream aired on YouTube, Twitch, and elsewhere. Ubisoft didn’t share much about its plans for the show over the past couple of weeks, but a teaser promised a few big announcements. Ubisoft also revealed more about its plans to support the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 when they launch later this year.
We’ve updated this page with each big announcement.
The event kicked off with a short film inspired by the upcoming Watch Dogs: Legion. Ubisoft said the game will tell the story of “ordinary heroes” who want to save the world.
Watch Dogs: Legion takes place after a London terrorist attack and requires players to build a “resistance” that will need to take back the city. Players can choose anyone in the world to take out terrorists. Indeed, Ubisoft said the game will let players “choose the hero.” But not every person players choose to build their resistance will be equally capable, so they’ll need to choose wisely.
Ubisoft’s in-game footage showed players choosing a variety of characters to fight in the resistance and the ability to play missions differently based on the characters’ key attributes. The title will come with third-party action and the option to use a variety of weapons and tools strewn across London.
The game is launching on October 29. Microsoft’s Xbox chief Phil Spencer said Watch Dogs: Legion will be available with Xbox Series X Smart Delivery, so players who buy the game on Xbox One X will get a free Series X-optimized version on that console when they get it.
Ubisoft dug into Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and showed video clips of the Ubisoft team traveling across Europe to learn more about Vikings and how they lived.
The game tells the tale of Eivor, and players can choose either the male or female version of the character at the start of their quest to leave Norway for England.
For the first (official) time, Ubisoft shared in-game Valhalla footage as the Vikings invade England. The gameplay’s combination of weapon combat and stealth looks strikingly similar to its predecessor, the 2018 launch Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Ubisoft said players will need to explore different areas and hunt and forage to “stay sharp.” Hidden challenges are also available across the world, and players will also complete several assaults on fortresses.
Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen in-game footage — two lengthy clips leaked online last week, much to Ubisoft’s chagrin.
The game will launch on November 17. And like Watch Dogs: Legion, it’ll be available with Smart Delivery for those who buy it on Xbox One X.
Ubisoft ended its show with a teaser trailer for the long-rumored Far Cry 6.
The game stars Giancarlo Esposito, who famously played the character Gus Fring in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. The video depicts Esposito’s character as a fascist leader trying to teach his son Diego about ruling their country as a revolution rages on outside their castle walls.
The video didn’t show any in-game footage, but Ubisoft announced that the game will launch on February 18.
Ubisoft played a quick thank you video for Rainbow Six Siege players and said the game now has 60 million players worldwide. The title will continue, and more updates are coming. But exactly what players can expect is unknown.
Although Ubisoft already launched an early test of its new urban-based battle royale title Hyper Scape, the company shared a teaser video during the event.
Much of Ubisoft’s Hyper Scape discussion recapped some of the game’s core features, like the ability to develop special abilities called “hacks.” The game also features Twitch integration, so spectators can change a battle’s gravity, rules, and other attributes to modify the play experience.
Ubisoft said Hyper Scape is now available as a free-to-play PC title worldwide. But Ubisoft cautioned the game is still in beta.
Ubisoft shared a quick update on its upcoming fighter Brawlhalla, saying it will launch on August 6 on both iOS and Android.
Tom Clancy’s Elite Squad is “coming soon,” Ubisoft said. It shared a brief teaser showing some of the more popular faces from Tom Clancy titles, including Gabriel Logan, the lead character in the stealth shooter Syphon Filter.
Updated at 12:56 p.m. PT to include new announcements.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.