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Ubisoft, developer of some of the biggest titles in gaming: Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, Assassin’s Creed, Rayman and lest we forget, Beyond Good & Evil, had their press event Mon June 1st, to show off their upcoming titles. Here are the highlights:
James Cameron came out to talk about his upcoming movie, Avatar, and the game tie-in. Cameron admitted outright that most licensed movie games are rubbish, but he seeks to change that with Avatar. For one, Ubisoft is actually working on the film, doing over 100 shots for it. This will create a more seamless transition from film to game. Secondly, the game will have its own plot, set in the Avatar universe. It will contain no spoilers for the film, which will be released after the game.
The plot deals with an ex-marine going to a planet called Pandora, where the atmosphere is poisonous to human life. He ends up falling in love with one of their inhabitants and must decide whether to side with the humans or aliens. Supposedly, the romantic interest is a smoking hot ass-kicking alien (think Liara from Mass Effect, but with more ass-kicking).
Little is known about how the game will play as sadly, no footage was shown, but there will be a good/evil mechanic at work giving you a choice how to proceed. Given that Ubisoft made the King Kong tie-in with Peter Jackson, which by movie game standards was underappreciated, this could turn out to be something special.
Red Steel 2 was shown both in trailer and gameplay form. It switches the setting for a Samurai Western feel, where you play as a gunslinger in the desert. Red Steel 2 utilizes Motion Plus (which will be bundled with the Wii once it launches) for a far more in-depth sword fighting experience. The footage we saw had no gore, which seemed a bit at odds with the setting, but it looked like they’d learned a lot of lessons from the first game, and this could well be the game that that should have been.
Pele came out to promote his soccer game tie-in, Academy of Champions, which looks to be sort of a "Pele goes to Hogwarts" experience. The trailer we saw had no gameplay footage, but it set the fantasy tone, which should set it apart from other soccer games, even if the character models do look a bit disturbing.
Splinter Cell: Conviction was shown both in demo and playable form and looks to be a drastic change for the series. It’s far more free-roaming with interesting "mark and execute" mechanics, where you can peak under doors, setting targets that you can then execute almost instantaneously. It’s unclear how that works exactly, but it looks like it allows you to lock onto enemies, and take them out much quicker and more efficiently than you would ordinarily. There’s also a neat feature where it leaves a ghost of Sam Fisher showing his last known location, once he leaves the enemy’s line of site. The other really cool, if somewhat distracting feature, was how it shows mission objectives on the environment, like a giant billboard telling you to make your way into a specific building. It’s a bit goofy, but it looks a bit like a Will Eisner’s The Spirit cover, and that’s never a bad thing.
Imagine games (Petz, Imagine Cheerleader, My Secret World) sold more than any other third party developer for the Nintendo DS, so Ubisoft is looking to expand upon that in a multitude of fourth wall breaking ways. Notably, they’ve launched the ImagineTown website, which was had more traffic than any other part of Ubisoft’s website, as well as an Imagine magazine, as well as custom jewelry you can order based on the designs in their games.
Your Shape, a fitness game utilizing a camera that scans your body was shown, but not in playable form, so there’s no telling how well it will work. It will be coming out in 2009 at least, so we won’t have to wait long to find out.
Rabbids Go Home was shown in playable form. The idea is that Rabbids come from the moon, and it’s their goal to build a pile of trash to the moon, so they can you know, go home. It looks a bit Katamari-like, with lots of trash collecting, but that’s never a bad thing. Furthermore, you can modify your rabbid by torturing him (her?) in multitude of ways. It’s by far the most adorable torture porn I’ve ever seen, and that’s pretty cool, if you ask me.
Assassin’s Creed 2 was shown in trailer form (sadly, no gameplay) and, as you all know, its set in 15th century Italy. The trailer showed Altair chasing down and slaughtering a man during Carnival. We still have no idea if it will play much different from the first, but the art direction sure is stunning.
James Cameron came out to talk about his upcoming movie, Avatar, and the game tie-in. Cameron admitted outright that most licensed movie games are rubbish, but he seeks to change that with Avatar. For one, Ubisoft is actually working on the film, doing over 100 shots for it. This will create a more seamless transition from film to game. Secondly, the game will have its own plot, set in the Avatar universe. It will contain no spoilers for the film, which will be released after the game.
The plot deals with an ex-marine going to a planet called Pandora, where the atmosphere is poisonous to human life. He ends up falling in love with one of their inhabitants and must decide whether to side with the humans or aliens. Supposedly, the romantic interest is a smoking hot ass-kicking alien (think Liara from Mass Effect, but with more ass-kicking).
Little is known about how the game will play as sadly, no footage was shown, but there will be a good/evil mechanic at work giving you a choice how to proceed. Given that Ubisoft made the King Kong tie-in with Peter Jackson, which by movie game standards was underappreciated, this could turn out to be something special.
Red Steel 2 was shown both in trailer and gameplay form. It switches the setting for a Samurai Western feel, where you play as a gunslinger in the desert. Red Steel 2 utilizes Motion Plus (which will be bundled with the Wii once it launches) for a far more in-depth sword fighting experience. The footage we saw had no gore, which seemed a bit at odds with the setting, but it looked like they’d learned a lot of lessons from the first game, and this could well be the game that that should have been.
Pele came out to promote his soccer game tie-in, Academy of Champions, which looks to be sort of a "Pele goes to Hogwarts" experience. The trailer we saw had no gameplay footage, but it set the fantasy tone, which should set it apart from other soccer games, even if the character models do look a bit disturbing.
Splinter Cell: Conviction was shown both in demo and playable form and looks to be a drastic change for the series. It’s far more free-roaming with interesting "mark and execute" mechanics, where you can peak under doors, setting targets that you can then execute almost instantaneously. It’s unclear how that works exactly, but it looks like it allows you to lock onto enemies, and take them out much quicker and more efficiently than you would ordinarily. There’s also a neat feature where it leaves a ghost of Sam Fisher showing his last known location, once he leaves the enemy’s line of site. The other really cool, if somewhat distracting feature, was how it shows mission objectives on the environment, like a giant billboard telling you to make your way into a specific building. It’s a bit goofy, but it looks a bit like a Will Eisner’s The Spirit cover, and that’s never a bad thing.
Imagine games (Petz, Imagine Cheerleader, My Secret World) sold more than any other third party developer for the Nintendo DS, so Ubisoft is looking to expand upon that in a multitude of fourth wall breaking ways. Notably, they’ve launched the ImagineTown website, which was had more traffic than any other part of Ubisoft’s website, as well as an Imagine magazine, as well as custom jewelry you can order based on the designs in their games.
Your Shape, a fitness game utilizing a camera that scans your body was shown, but not in playable form, so there’s no telling how well it will work. It will be coming out in 2009 at least, so we won’t have to wait long to find out.
Rabbids Go Home was shown in playable form. The idea is that Rabbids come from the moon, and it’s their goal to build a pile of trash to the moon, so they can you know, go home. It looks a bit Katamari-like, with lots of trash collecting, but that’s never a bad thing. Furthermore, you can modify your rabbid by torturing him (her?) in multitude of ways. It’s by far the most adorable torture porn I’ve ever seen, and that’s pretty cool, if you ask me.
Assassin’s Creed 2 was shown in trailer form (sadly, no gameplay) and, as you all know, its set in 15th century Italy. The trailer showed Altair chasing down and slaughtering a man during Carnival. We still have no idea if it will play much different from the first, but the art direction sure is stunning.
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