STACK J#165 Jul 2018

GAMES FEATURE

visit stack.com.au

The Division

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey

UBISOFT H undreds of metres away from the sonorous Just Dance demos and free Divided we fall. Words Paul Jones & Alesha Kolbe

play Skull & Bones last year, but as huge fans of the naval combat in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag , we were prepared to unleash a broadside if we couldn’t get near it. We did on both counts. Choosing between different ship classes and aware of a 20-minute timed demo, we went, armed with a little knowledge on ships of the era, with the slow-moving yet heavily armed Frigate. Excited to jump straight in, we missed the boat on most of the info briefing, and we’re not even sure how the pirate element fits in – we were just sinking everything we came across with thunderous broadside after thunderous broadside, sinking anyone we encountered. It’s great fun and we look forward uncovering more on how the game's narrative unfolds. We finished E3 this year with a taste of Starlink: Battle for Atlas . Not to be confused with Bethesda’s Starfield , Starlink is hoping to breathe some fresh air back into the toys-to-life genre with customisable spaceships and pilots. These ships attach differently to your controller depending on your console, but are completely modular; halfway through a battle, you can pull off the cannons you currently have equipped and swap them for something that may be more effective. Starlink ’s ease of use and genuinely fun and challenging gameplay was one of the surprises of the show, and we can’t wait to see what sort of expansion packs will become available after launch.

this year news of a sequel broke, and it was indeed The Division 2 where we started our booth tour. The demo involved clearing an area of enemies around a downed Air Force One aircraft. Presented with a class choice, we took on the Demolitionist, armed with an assault rifle and a shotgun. Visually, this game is a knockout, from the character animations to the authentic gunfights as players move from cover to cover trying to outflank the opposition. This was definitely one of the highlights of the show. As were the next two games we played, to be fair. First up was an hour-long playthrough of Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey , which introduces a tweaked combat system that provides a taste of what the oar-driven naval trireme

Release dates of note:

from the stifling heat of last year’s Ubisoft press booth, what more could you ask to end a busy week at E3 than an appointment upstairs in the meeting rooms with Ubisoft? Presentations at the Ubisoft media booth always allow time for comprehensive playthroughs, and this was once again the case with The Division 2, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Skull & Bones and Starlink: Battle for Atlas on offer. The Division , released back in 2016, certainly had its issues, but Ubisoft, to their credit, unlike many of the games’ players, stuck to the task at hand fixing many of the looter-shooter’s faults through a succession of patches. Earlier

Assassin's Creed Odyssey - October 5, 2018 The Division 2 - March 15, 2019 Starlink: Battle For Atlas -

October 16, 2018 Skull & Bones - TBC 2019

sequences would play like – just don’t push your oarsmen too hard. AC has gone full RPG in Odyssey , with decisions that can significantly change the outcome of the game, similar to The Witcher III . A game imbued with a rich pallet of Mediterranean colour (the dev told us they spent a lot of time on the Greek islands taking photos), you can choose to play either as a female of male protagonist in a huge open world that will feature a plethora of side and sub missions. You've also got a new ability kit that includes things like shield parries and Sparta kicks; the combat feels reinvigorated. We missed the opportunity to

Skull & Bones

04

JULY 2018

jbhifi.com.au