Ubisoft has just finished its first Ubisoft Forward event – and announced that it will broadcast later this year. Ubisoft's Yves Guillemot said that there will be "a lot more to come" from Ubisoft, and an Ubisoft spokesperson said the next conference will include "games news and updates" Today's event saw release dates announced for Far Cry 6, Watch Dogs Legion and Assassin's Creed Valhalla, among other announcements. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Ubisoft has just finished its first Ubisoft Forward event – and announced that it will broadcast later this year. Ubisoft's Yves Guillemot said that there will be "a lot more to come" from Ubisoft, and an Ubisoft spokesperson said the next conference will include "games news and updates" Today's event saw release dates announced for Far Cry 6, Watch Dogs Legion and Assassin's Creed Valhalla, among other announcements. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will introduce new narrative elements for the Animus that provide lore justifications for new gameplay possibilities, namely the ability to switch the gender of the player character at will, as well as bring modern-day protagonist Layla into the historical open world. A recent hands-on demonstration of Assassin's Creed Valhalla I took part in featured the ability to swap Eivor's gender from a menu. But it turns out this isn't a demo feature to allow journalists to show both male and female versions of the character to readers. Talking to IGN, Valhalla’s Narrative Director Darby McDevitt explained - while avoiding any story spoilers - that this is a new gameplay feature to ensure both male and female versions of Eivor are considered canon. The feature is backed up by new lore that upgrades the abilities of the Animus, the machine that allows Assassin’s Creed’s characters to explore the memories of their ancestors. “You can go into the Animus layer of our game,” he said. “There's an option to change the memory stream. To explain why would spoil a long-running secret, but I will say that the whole reason for why you can switch [Eivor’s gender] back and forth fully embraces the often overlooked science fiction nature of our series.” “We've got this thing that's called genetic memory, and we've got this Animus,” he added. “What are all the ways you can play with that? And how could we leverage that to make a character that you could choose male or female? We found a way that we think is pretty satisfying.” While McDevitt would not explain the story reasons for the Animus doing this, it seems reasonable to predict that this is an continuation on from an idea explored in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. In that game, when the Animus scans DNA found on Leonidas' spear, it finds two potential matches in siblings Kassandra and Alexios, hence your choice of protagonist. For Valhalla, we may be dealing with a damaged DNA sample that cannot determine Eivor's gender, and so the simulation fills in the blanks based on what Layla/the player asks it to do. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=assassins-creed-valhalla-ubisoft-forward-screenshots&captions=true"] The Animus also has another new ability: to bring modern-day protagonist Laya into the simulation itself, allowing you to control her in the Anglo-Saxon open world. It’s an innovation designed to solve a problem previous games have had. “The modern day story often grinds the experience to a halt,” McDevitt said. “Taking you out of whatever historical period you're in and putting you into the present day where you have a bunch of different characters with different skills, different affordances, and different abilities. It really has this kind of hard stop.” Layla being able to explore the open world prevents that hard stop. “The story is that there are anomalies inside the stimulation. And when you find them as Eivor, Layla and her handlers will pause the simulation, and set up this big thing for her to deal with. It’s a big puzzle, lots of intense puzzle solving and parkour so that you can acquire a bit of interesting data and then close this rift.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/12/13-minutes-of-assassins-creed-valhalla-gameplay-raising-iron-quest"] “And so that the experience is much more comfortable,” he adds, “you're not just going into a loading menu, going into a small office somewhere in the present day. You still get to be Layla, but you get to be Layla in the past. And so that means that all these interesting skills that she may have learned - the parkour, the epic vistas, and the puzzle solving - you get to float right into that without any kind of hitch.” For more from Assassin's Creed, check our our big breakdown of the evolution of the series, as well as our hands-on with Valhalla. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. 

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will introduce new narrative elements for the Animus that provide lore justifications for new gameplay possibilities, namely the ability to switch the gender of the player character at will, as well as bring modern-day protagonist Layla into the historical open world. A recent hands-on demonstration of Assassin's Creed Valhalla I took part in featured the ability to swap Eivor's gender from a menu. But it turns out this isn't a demo feature to allow journalists to show both male and female versions of the character to readers. Talking to IGN, Valhalla’s Narrative Director Darby McDevitt explained - while avoiding any story spoilers - that this is a new gameplay feature to ensure both male and female versions of Eivor are considered canon. The feature is backed up by new lore that upgrades the abilities of the Animus, the machine that allows Assassin’s Creed’s characters to explore the memories of their ancestors. “You can go into the Animus layer of our game,” he said. “There's an option to change the memory stream. To explain why would spoil a long-running secret, but I will say that the whole reason for why you can switch [Eivor’s gender] back and forth fully embraces the often overlooked science fiction nature of our series.” “We've got this thing that's called genetic memory, and we've got this Animus,” he added. “What are all the ways you can play with that? And how could we leverage that to make a character that you could choose male or female? We found a way that we think is pretty satisfying.” While McDevitt would not explain the story reasons for the Animus doing this, it seems reasonable to predict that this is an continuation on from an idea explored in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. In that game, when the Animus scans DNA found on Leonidas' spear, it finds two potential matches in siblings Kassandra and Alexios, hence your choice of protagonist. For Valhalla, we may be dealing with a damaged DNA sample that cannot determine Eivor's gender, and so the simulation fills in the blanks based on what Layla/the player asks it to do. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=assassins-creed-valhalla-ubisoft-forward-screenshots&captions=true"] The Animus also has another new ability: to bring modern-day protagonist Laya into the simulation itself, allowing you to control her in the Anglo-Saxon open world. It’s an innovation designed to solve a problem previous games have had. “The modern day story often grinds the experience to a halt,” McDevitt said. “Taking you out of whatever historical period you're in and putting you into the present day where you have a bunch of different characters with different skills, different affordances, and different abilities. It really has this kind of hard stop.” Layla being able to explore the open world prevents that hard stop. “The story is that there are anomalies inside the stimulation. And when you find them as Eivor, Layla and her handlers will pause the simulation, and set up this big thing for her to deal with. It’s a big puzzle, lots of intense puzzle solving and parkour so that you can acquire a bit of interesting data and then close this rift.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/12/13-minutes-of-assassins-creed-valhalla-gameplay-raising-iron-quest"] “And so that the experience is much more comfortable,” he adds, “you're not just going into a loading menu, going into a small office somewhere in the present day. You still get to be Layla, but you get to be Layla in the past. And so that means that all these interesting skills that she may have learned - the parkour, the epic vistas, and the puzzle solving - you get to float right into that without any kind of hitch.” For more from Assassin's Creed, check our our big breakdown of the evolution of the series, as well as our hands-on with Valhalla. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. 

Watch Dogs Legion was originally meant to come out on March 3, but saw a lengthy delay (and will now arrive on October 29) - thankfully, creative director Clint Hocking says that allowed the game to improve, even allowing the team to incorporate ideas it thought were out of reach before the original release date. Speaking to IGN, Hocking explained that the delay was due to "reasons external to the project", and described the mixture of emotions upon being told the release would be pushed back: "Obviously the day the word came down was devastating because you put yourself in the mental mindset of ‘We're going to close this and get it out the door.’ And that takes a little bit of time to undo but after a few days of stewing in it, it's like, 'Oh yeah, actually, this is great. This is great.'" The reason those extra months worked so well for the team was seemingly in how it allowed to team to take its near-finished systems to the next level, particularly its standout "Play As Anyone" idea, where every AI character can be recruited and used for their own generated stats and abilities. "We were very close when we were ready to ship," explains Hocking, "and the delay has allowed us to really look at the things that were out of reach for us back then, and how to incorporate those things and add a layer of polish and realization and clarity to the game." "So the most important thing I think we've done is added a lot more refinement to traits and the abilities that you find on characters in the world, and better ways for aggregating those into individuals. As a consequence of that, we have a lot of cool characters that kind of emerge out of these great traits." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=watch-dogs-legion-screenshots&captions=true"] The idea is that the kinds of characters - and the skills they offer you should you recruit them - will be more varied and interesting, and that they suit the characters themselves better. For instance, an architect with construction site safety gear would be able to enter a restricted construction site - but a construction worker who works on the same site may have the same privileges, but come wielding a nail gun, and able to call in a cargo drone that could let them access hard-to-reach areas. It turns the population of London into something like a strategic smorgasboard of gameplay opportunities, and potentially a more immediately readable one, where the kinds of clothes someone wears, or the job they have translates to your needs as a player. In a similar vein, progression systems were also tweaked so that players wouldn't feel punished for experimenting with lots of recruits, rather than specialising in a few. On the widest level, Hocking says the delay has also allowed the game to better translate its biggest moments, such as uprisings. Each London borough in the game includes activities that weaken the Albion corporation's control in the area. "Once you do all of those activities in a borough," explains Hocking, "you get a borough liberation mission, a really custom beat with unique gameplay and a really cool challenge. And then that causes the people in the borough to rise up and that makes them much easier to recruit, and it gets rid of the Albion checkpoints and reduces the Albion presence in the streets. It really makes it feel like you're actually taking the city back." The delay apparently allowed the team to turn these from unique missions into moments that communicate the sense of the population rising up to take the city back from their oppressors. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/12/watch-dogs-legion-welcome-to-the-resistance-trailer"] Watch Dogs was already an exciting set of ideas, so the fact that the extra time in the oven has resulted in even deeper systems should hopefully make that wait a little more palatable. If you want to learn more about Watch Dogs Legion, check out our hands-on preview, where we explain why, "The lack of a primary main character doesn’t detract from the story. Instead, it incentivizes exploring and immersing myself in a world I otherwise may have ignored in favor of mainlining the story." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Watch Dogs Legion was originally meant to come out on March 3, but saw a lengthy delay (and will now arrive on October 29) - thankfully, creative director Clint Hocking says that allowed the game to improve, even allowing the team to incorporate ideas it thought were out of reach before the original release date. Speaking to IGN, Hocking explained that the delay was due to "reasons external to the project", and described the mixture of emotions upon being told the release would be pushed back: "Obviously the day the word came down was devastating because you put yourself in the mental mindset of ‘We're going to close this and get it out the door.’ And that takes a little bit of time to undo but after a few days of stewing in it, it's like, 'Oh yeah, actually, this is great. This is great.'" The reason those extra months worked so well for the team was seemingly in how it allowed to team to take its near-finished systems to the next level, particularly its standout "Play As Anyone" idea, where every AI character can be recruited and used for their own generated stats and abilities. "We were very close when we were ready to ship," explains Hocking, "and the delay has allowed us to really look at the things that were out of reach for us back then, and how to incorporate those things and add a layer of polish and realization and clarity to the game." "So the most important thing I think we've done is added a lot more refinement to traits and the abilities that you find on characters in the world, and better ways for aggregating those into individuals. As a consequence of that, we have a lot of cool characters that kind of emerge out of these great traits." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/12/watch-dogs-legion-welcome-to-the-resistance-trailer"] The idea is that the kinds of characters - and the skills they offer you should you recruit them - will be more varied and interesting, and that they suit the characters themselves better. For instance, an architect with construction site safety gear would be able to enter a restricted construction site - but a construction worker who works on the same site may have the same privileges, but come wielding a nail gun, and able to call in a cargo drone that could let them access hard-to-reach areas. It turns the population of London into something like a strategic smorgasboard of gameplay opportunities, and potentially a more immediately readable one, where the kinds of clothes someone wears, or the job they have translates to your needs as a player. In a similar vein, progression systems were also tweaked so that players wouldn't feel punished for experimenting with lots of recruits, rather than specialising in a few. On the widest level, Hocking says the delay has also allowed the game to better translate its biggest moments, such as uprisings. Each London borough in the game includes activities that weaken the Albion corporation's control in the area. "Once you do all of those activities in a borough," explains Hocking, "you get a borough liberation mission, a really custom beat with unique gameplay and a really cool challenge. And then that causes the people in the borough to rise up and that makes them much easier to recruit, and it gets rid of the Albion checkpoints and reduces the Albion presence in the streets. It really makes it feel like you're actually taking the city back." The delay apparently allowed the team to turn these from unique missions into moments that communicate the sense of the population rising up to take the city back from their oppressors. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/12/watch-dogs-legion-gameplay-overview-ubisoft-forward"] Watch Dogs was already an exciting set of ideas, so the fact that the extra time in the oven has resulted in even deeper systems should hopefully make that wait a little more palatable. If you want to learn more about Watch Dogs Legion, check out our hands-on preview, where we explain why, "The lack of a primary main character doesn’t detract from the story. Instead, it incentivizes exploring and immersing myself in a world I otherwise may have ignored in favor of mainlining the story." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Far Cry 6 has been officially revealed for a February 18 2021 release date, and is coming to Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Stadia and PC (via Epic Games Store and Ubisoft Store). Free upgrades will be available on PS5 for PS4 owners, and Xbox Series X for Xbox One owners. After a leak this week, Ubisoft showed off the game's intro video and a cutscene introducing us to Antón Castillo (played by Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Esposito) and his son, Diego, who he's preparing for leadership of the totalitarian island state of Yara. Players will take on the role of Dani Rojas (who can be played as a male or female charcater), a Yaran guerrilla revolutionary. Incidentally, we got to speak to Giancarlo Esposito, who explained the backstory of the character he created, as well as the country her rules. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/12/far-cry-6-reveal-trailer"] The game doesn't just bring Hollywood quality power on the acting side. The score is by Pedro Bromfman (Narcos), and the opening sequence comes from Emmy Award winner Patrick Clair (Westworld, True Detective). Developed by Ubisoft Toronto (the first time that studio has led a Far Cry game), the game will take place across Yara, including its capital city, Esperanza - an unusual urban setting for the series. The game will see the return of Fangs for Hire, in cluding Chorizo, "the cutest wiener dog on wheels." We spoke to narrative director Navid Khavari, who explained why the game is returning to a tropical setting for the first time since Far Cry 3. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/12/far-cry-6-cinematic-title-sequence-trailer"] Pre-orders for the game have opened, with Standard, Gold, Ultimate and Collector's Editions revealed - we've got a Far Cry 6 pre-order guide for you. This is presumably the mystery AAA game Ubisoft mentioned that it would reveal between 2020 and 2021. We awarded the last mainline Far Cry game an 8.9 review, saying Far Cry 5 was "another wide-open playground with all the necessary ingredients for causing a real ruckus", but said its story was "not the most memorable in the series". [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=far-cry-6-images&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Far Cry 6 has been officially revealed for a February 18 2021 release date, and is coming to Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Stadia and PC (via Epic Games Store and Ubisoft Store). Free upgrades will be available on PS5 for PS4 owners, and Xbox Series X for Xbox One owners. After a leak this week, Ubisoft showed off the game's intro video and a cutscene introducing us to Antón Castillo (played by Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Esposito) and his son, Diego, who he's preparing for leadership of the totalitarian island state of Yara. Players will take on the role of Dani Rojas (who can be played as a male or female charcater), a Yaran guerrilla revolutionary. Incidentally, we got to speak to Giancarlo Esposito, who explained the backstory of the character he created, as well as the country her rules. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/12/far-cry-6-reveal-trailer"] The game doesn't just bring Hollywood quality power on the acting side. The score is by Pedro Bromfman (Narcos), and the opening sequence comes from Emmy Award winner Patrick Clair (Westworld, True Detective). Developed by Ubisoft Toronto (the first time that studio has led a Far Cry game), the game will take place across Yara, including its capital city, Esperanza - an unusual urban setting for the series. The game will see the return of Fangs for Hire, in cluding Chorizo, "the cutest wiener dog on wheels." We spoke to narrative director Navid Khavari, who explained why the game is returning to a tropical setting for the first time since Far Cry 3. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/12/far-cry-6-cinematic-title-sequence-trailer"] Pre-orders for the game have opened, with Standard, Gold, Ultimate and Collector's Editions revealed - we've got a Far Cry 6 pre-order guide for you. This is presumably the mystery AAA game Ubisoft mentioned that it would reveal between 2020 and 2021. We awarded the last mainline Far Cry game an 8.9 review, saying Far Cry 5 was "another wide-open playground with all the necessary ingredients for causing a real ruckus", but said its story was "not the most memorable in the series". [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=far-cry-6-images&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Far Cry is a series that radiates a tropical vibe - it's always been pitched as something like a morally grey adventure holiday (some cases more literally than others). So much so, in fact, that it's easy to forget how long it's been since the game's actually had us fight across a picture-postcard paradise, after trips to the Himalayas and Montana in recent years. With Far Cry 6, it seems we're heading back to the series' roots, with the Cuban-inspired, fictional Caribbean island of Yara providing a blue-skied backdrop for Far Cry's usual mixture of violence, surreal interludes and magnetic villainy. I spoke to the game's narrative director Navid Khavari, and asked what it was that drew lead developer Ubisoft Toronto back to a classic Far Cry location. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/breaking-bads-ultimate-villain-is-now-far-cry-6s-final-boss"] "I think it was two things," he explained. "There was a feeling among fans of being excited to go to a tropical setting once again. But also, I think for us, [there was] this idea of looking at revolution. And the moment you start looking at revolution, you think guerrilla warfare. And the moment you start thinking guerrilla warfare, you think Cuba." Khavari explains that the team visited Cuba for a month, spoke to real-life Cuban revolutionaries, and became fascinated with the idea of an island that became frozen in time because of forces outside of its control. "So when we were looking at making our fictional Yara, we loved this idea of the dynamic of 'here's an island that's been under a blockade – that has these old vintage cars, and is almost a living postcard'. And then you bring in a modern guerrilla revolution aspect - which is so Far Cry - inflicting chaos on this monolithic power structure. It felt like a perfect fit." That sense of frozen time will affect the gameplay too, it seems. Screenshots for the game show weaponry being seemingly upgraded with home-made elements - a rifle using a laser pointer as a sight, for example. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=far-cry-6-images&captions=true"] "One of the interesting things we took from visiting Cuba was this idea of making do with what you have," says Khavari, when I ask him about if those are player-crafted upgrades. "It's such an interesting concept. It goes from the vintage cars, I saw bicycles with chainsaw motors that were turned into motorcycles. "What we wanted to do in this game was bring that into the weaponry. The types of weapons and toys you're going to get to play with definitely have that sense of ingenuity and creativity that you kind of expect from a guerrilla movement - but it feels very fresh in terms of Far Cry." Far Cry 6 was officially revealed earlier today, after a major leak during the week. We also got to speak to Giancarlo Esposito about his role as antagonist Anton Castillo, who explained the method behind his madness, and how you may end up understanding his side a little along the way. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Far Cry is a series that radiates a tropical vibe - it's always been pitched as something like a morally grey adventure holiday (some cases more literally than others). So much so, in fact, that it's easy to forget how long it's been since the game's actually had us fight across a picture-postcard paradise, after trips to the Himalayas and Montana in recent years. With Far Cry 6, it seems we're heading back to the series' roots, with the Cuban-inspired, fictional Caribbean island of Yara providing a blue-skied backdrop for Far Cry's usual mixture of violence, surreal interludes and magnetic villainy. I spoke to the game's narrative director Navid Khavari, and asked what it was that drew lead developer Ubisoft Toronto back to a classic Far Cry location. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/breaking-bads-ultimate-villain-is-now-far-cry-6s-final-boss"] "I think it was two things," he explained. "There was a feeling among fans of being excited to go to a tropical setting once again. But also, I think for us, [there was] this idea of looking at revolution. And the moment you start looking at revolution, you think guerrilla warfare. And the moment you start thinking guerrilla warfare, you think Cuba." Khavari explains that the team visited Cuba for a month, spoke to real-life Cuban revolutionaries, and became fascinated with the idea of an island that became frozen in time because of forces outside of its control. "So when we were looking at making our fictional Yara, we loved this idea of the dynamic of 'here's an island that's been under a blockade – that has these old vintage cars, and is almost a living postcard'. And then you bring in a modern guerrilla revolution aspect - which is so Far Cry - inflicting chaos on this monolithic power structure. It felt like a perfect fit." That sense of frozen time will affect the gameplay too, it seems. Screenshots for the game show weaponry being seemingly upgraded with home-made elements - a rifle using a laser pointer as a sight, for example. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=far-cry-6-images&captions=true"] "One of the interesting things we took from visiting Cuba was this idea of making do with what you have," says Khavari, when I ask him about if those are player-crafted upgrades. "It's such an interesting concept. It goes from the vintage cars, I saw bicycles with chainsaw motors that were turned into motorcycles. "What we wanted to do in this game was bring that into the weaponry. The types of weapons and toys you're going to get to play with definitely have that sense of ingenuity and creativity that you kind of expect from a guerrilla movement - but it feels very fresh in terms of Far Cry." Far Cry 6 was officially revealed earlier today, after a major leak during the week. We also got to speak to Giancarlo Esposito about his role as antagonist Anton Castillo, who explained the method behind his madness, and how you may end up understanding his side a little along the way. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.