The Best of Ubisoft Forward 2021

E3 has officially opened! And not even Nintendo accidentally leaking the reveal of a second Mario + Rabbids game hours before Ubisoft’s showcase could slow down this E3’s first AAA developer event, as the French gaming giant showed off an impressive slate of their hottest games to come at Ubisoft Forward 2021.

From Avatar to Rainbow Six Extraction, here’s a roundup of all the best-looking titles from Ubisoft Forward.

Rainbow Six Extraction

Following a bizarro 30-minute walking-sim pre-show, Ubisoft finally kicked off the day with the hotly anticipated Rainbow Six Extraction. Formerly titled as R6: “Quarantine” (wonder why they changed that, huh), Extraction brings us to a world consumed by a deadly parasite – if you can imagine such a thing. This parasite, however, has the distinctive quality of transforming its hosts into bestial beings with bright bulbous pustules, spiked growths, and hulking forms. As a team of Operators your job is to breach infected hot zones and extinguish the zombie-like parasite as best you can. The game looks to be taking the squad tactics Rainbow Six is known for and port it into a zombie apocalypse-like scenario. In other words: it is The Division x Left 4 Dead – the crossover event of the century. The gameplay shown was promising enough to suggest this might just work, so if you’re excited then Rainbow Six Extraction releases on September 16th for all main platforms, excluding the Switch. The game also possesses cross-play so you can squad up with your friends of any platform to fight the parasite together. 

Rocksmith+

Rocksmith+ was up next: a gamified platform for teaching real-life guitar techniques and songs. With the plus version of Rocksmith now you can use your phone as a microphone making learning while playing easier than previous iterations. A closed beta soon with registration opening now until the 22nd, so get going, prospective rock gods in the making.

Riders Republic

If you’ve ever looked at the X-Games and thought you fancied the cool stunts without the potential for death then Ubisoft’s next game, Riders Republic is the thing for you. Showing off a range of extreme sport events within an open world setting, Riders Republic offers up the extreme life of motorsports, wind-suit gliding, cliff’s edge mountain biking and so much more. It seems like a title that will exist or die on its online community however, so we can only hope enough fans are drawn to it. 

Rainbow Six Siege

Ubisoft then slowed the showcase down to give some updates on some of their existing games and live-service titles. Rainbow Six Siege is set for a crossplay update as well as a few more changes as the game continues to march on. The Watchdog Legions: Bloodlines expansion was also shown off too, most notably with Aidan returning to the series again. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was also announced as Ubisoft’s biggest AC launch to date as the developer boasted all the previous updates already implemented while teasing the future update to come – spoiler: we might be getting to a fight with Odin(??).

Just Dance continues apace too with Just Dance 2022 featuring over 40 new songs along with an exclusive version of Todrick Hall’s Nails Hair Hips Heels made just for the game. 

Far Cry 6

Some more of Far Cry 6 was shown, but only as a brief cinematic cutscene to show off more of just how bad a fascist dictator Giancarlo Esposito’s Anton Castillo is – as if you hadn’t worked that out by now. This acted only as a mere prelude to the far more exciting Far Cry announcement, however. The Season Pass for Far Cry 6 looks set to take us back to the previous instalments of the series, though now to be played from the perspective of the series’ iconic villains. Yes, we’ll be stepping into the mad mind of Vaas, Pagan Min, and Joseph Seed during their exploits with each game’s previous protagonist. Additionally, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon was also teased, presumably as a remaster to come.

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope then gave us a cinematic trailer reveal – only somewhat dampened by the fact that the game had already been leaked several hours earlier by Nintendo themselves. Still however, for fans of the first XCOM-like crossover this is sure to be a welcome announcement. 

Return to Pandora with Avatar Frontiers of Pandora

Finally, we had a game that, much like its film twin, seemed fated to never actually come out. But alas! Avatar Frontiers of Pandora got an impressive looking cinematic trailer to announce its prospective 2022 release. Keen eyed viewers will have noted that the game is slated only for next gen consoles and Stadia too. We’re yet to know what exactly this Avatar game is yet, but certainly Pandora is starting to look that little bit closer again.