Ubisoft Press Conference Roundup:

Hope you’re ready for the Ubisoft conference highlights, because there’s some really cool stuff in here.

You said they couldn’t do it. They said they WOULDN’T do it. It’s South Park: The Fractured But Whole. Commence snickering. Instead of RPG gimmicks, this time we get superheroes. We’ll have to wait for details on gameplay, though.

Now for a surprise. Ubisoft revealed For Honor, a medieval-era arena game where players fight on one of two sides filled with AI-controlled soldiers. AI characters go down quickly, but when two players engage one another, the UI changes and the camera zooms and locks onto the opponent you as you strike and parry one another in a fast-paced duel mode. Looks really cool. Gonna keep my eye on this one.

Next, we saw footage of an expansion for The Crew, called Wild Run! New maps, new cars.

Do you want to be a cat swordsman riding a firebreathing unicorn? Then brace yourself for July 14th, when the Awesome Level Max Expansion releases for Trials Fusion. This is Trials, so assume the unicorn will attempt to gore you every time you accelerate.

Finally, Ubisoft gives us another taste of The Division. We follow a team of three players as they venture into a Dark Zone – a dangerous area without surveillance or power. While scoping out hostiles, they are stumbled upon by a team of two other players. After a moment of wordless communication, the two groups decide to work together. Their targets go down quickly. Once they reach extraction, our protagonists suddenly turn on their chance comrades and loot their bodies. But before they can extract, our party’s third member – who has been silent the whole demo – guns them down, revealing them to be rogue agents and himself to be a double-agent. Good stuff. Hard to imagine players will operate with such sophistication, but we’ll see early next year when the public beta goes live on PC, Xbox One and PS4! The game is slated for a 2016 simultaneous worldwide release.

Next up, from Blue Byte Studios, is the reveal of Anno 2205. Forget city building. Now, you’ll take your civilization into the space race and build your own shuttle, then begin a colony on the moon! Anno 2205 will be in beta later this year.

Feel like getting off the couch for a while? Ubisoft revealed Just Dance 15 (or Just Dance 6 for the sane), They also announced a new streaming service called Just Dance Unlimited that will deliver “fresh content straight to your console”. Hmm… sounds more like downloading to me. In any case, subscriptions to the service will be available on Xbox One and PS4 in 2016.

Then we saw a prerendered trailer for Rainbow Six: Siege. The cooperative multiplayer mode Terrohunt is back, now with up to four players! This is not fake enthusiasm – I loved playing on Realistic difficulty in R6 Vegas 2, despite almost never winning. Afterward, we were treated to a live demonstration of a particular Terrohunt mission in which four players infiltrate an estate to defuse a bomb, and then held until extraction. Their coordination was great; they cleaned up, right until the end when the enemies began creating new points of entry with explosive charges, and killed two members just before the objective was completed. That’s exactly the kinda tension I want from R6. The game enters open beta on September 24th.

Trackmania Turbo is coming to consoles this year, and bringing an exclusive Caribbean-esque map set called Roller Coaster Lagoon. Along with its 200+ pre-made tracks, the game features one-touch random track generation.

Next, Ubisoft showed us a prerendered trailer for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate that teased a new noire art style and new gameplay features. Stalk your mark with your gang of ne’er-do-wells. Rob moving trains! Surf carriages in high-speed chases, rifle fire whizzing by. The trailer seems to suggest you will be using objects in the environment in combat. The hidden blade now features a clockwork grappling hook and a hidden firearm. “Join the Rooks.”

Finally, we close with the newly released Ghost Recon: Wildlands. Cocaine, Blackjack, violence! All in a huge open online world! No details were formally given, but the trailer says plenty. Some might call this an MMO, but frankly with games like these becoming more popular, we need a new genre label.