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Prince of Persia gets his Wii on
There are new shots floating around from the upcoming Prince of Persia title slated for the Wii that show some of the controller movements. Though we knew a little about how the Wiimote and nunchuk were going to handle the action, it's nice to have a visual to shape some sort of foundation for what we're going to be doing next spring. Check out the screens after the jump.
GRAW 2 producer: don't play Gears for more than ten minutes
Because only the first ten minutes are awesome. In a recent interview with CVG, the content producer for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 details some of the enhancements slated for the sequel, but not without taking a few shots at fellow, erm, shooter, Gears of War. Though Olivier Dauba admits that Gears is "a very good game" and "is raising the bar this Christmas," he believes the experience grows stale after ten minutes. After all, who can really stand more than ten minutes of awesomeness at a time? "We're designing our game as a more long-term experience. In my opinion if you play ten minutes of Gears of War it's an absolutely awesome ten minutes, but if you play 20 minutes it doesn't bring anything new. They've made something perfect for ten minutes but we try to go beyond that and making something that lasts for quite a few hours." Mr. Dauba then notes that it's "a different game maybe but in my opinion we're aiming for something deeper and wider with a bigger scope," ultimately saying nothing. Whether or not you agree with that evaluation of Gears of War shouldn't distract you from what the interview's really about: In GRAW 2, passing helicopters will make the smoke go all swirly.
GRAW Chapter 2 expansion is now 1/2 off
When Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter's expansion pack came out on the XBLM there was a little uproar from the fans. Not due to the luscious content it held, oh no, but because the download cost a whopping 1200 Microsoft Points! But today Ubisoft announced that the Chapter 2 expansion pack has been discounted to a more reasonable 600 Microsoft Points. Go download the expansion pack for the new uber low price and if you already purchased it for 1200 ... that kind of sucks. Maybe Ubisoft will be nice next time and not gouge their loyal fans who ate up the content right away. [Thanks, Derka]
Assassin's Creed secrets spotted! Mission failure...
Heh, stealthy games end when you're seen. That's when all hell breaks loose. Not unlike that, when a game with a "big twist" suddenly decides to leak the secret, it's game over for the hype. Did we seriously just use "game over" to describe something? Oh well. Now, this came about a few days ago and we missed it (damned finals and their time-consuming textbookery!) but since Assassin's Creed is a PS3 and a 360 title, it's still worth giving the shout out.Kristen Bell, the famous (and good-lookin'... sorry, I'm a pig, I know...) actress spilled the beans in a recent interview regarding the twist of the upcoming title. Here's what she said: "It's actually really interesting to me. It's sort of based on the research that's sort of happening now, about the fact that your genes might be able to hold memory. And you could argue semantics and say it's instinct, but how does a baby bird know to eat a worm, as opposed to a cockroach, if its parents don't show it? And it's about this science company trying to, Matrix-style, go into peoples brains and find out an ancestor who used to be an assassin, and sort of locate who that person is."You know, what really annoys me, personally, about this is the fact a few months ago I started up a short story regarding what I decided to call "Persistent Eternally Linking Memories"... PELM. It's a neato story, but now that this game is apparently going a similar route, I feel I'd be regarded as a "me-too" storyteller. Oh well, it at least makes me interested enough to see how they present the material. What do you guys think? What sort of memory tricks will be wrought in Assassin's Creed? And seriously, can Ubisoft stop monopolizing the beautiful girl circuit? What with Assassin Creed producer, Jade and Kristen... sorry, lost my train of thought in those eyes...
Rainbow Six Vegas patched. Can you hear me now?
Rainbow Six Vegas' voice chat issue, along with a scrolling list of additional bugs, have been patched up with today's arrival of the promised auto-update. The severity of some of these issues has drawn sharp criticism from players, some of whom have given up on Vegas. With the patch deployed, will they return?Ubisoft would do well to learn from Capcom's recent exercise, when the company released a multiplayer demo of Lost Planet early enough to receive feedback from fans and correct issues in time for the game's launch. Sure, Vegas hasn't been on the market for long, but three weeks is enough time to sour our perceptions.
Despite poor performance, UbiSoft gets buy rating
UbiSoft Entertainment hasn't been putting out great news in the financial statements. They've taken a nice loss in the first half of their fiscal year, but it was bolstered by improving expectations. Now UbiSoft gets a little more praise with a buy rating. Analysts with Wedbush Morgan Securities expect UbiSoft stock to hit €34 within the next 12 months on an expected 30% earnings growth. The price is currently hovering around €19. This means UbiSoft could expect good things in their future (possibly profitability). As usual, UbiSoft is expected to make this happen on the backs of key franchises, like the Tom Clancy series and Prince of Persia. The trick is for Ubi to not destroy their franchises; nothing will destroy your business better than turning your popular games into junk.
New GRAW 2 and Bioshock trailers
Some brand spanking new trailers were unveiled at the Spike Video Game Awards last night. It's a good thing that somebody was actually watching the show, otherwise we never would have known about these new trailers for Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 and Bioshock. GRAW 2 is of course the highly anticipated sequel to GRAW (perhaps you've heard of it). Bioshock is the spiritual successor to the System Shock series and contains some very, very freaky environments and monsters. The GRAW 2 trailer is embedded above, and the Bioshock trailer is (appropriately) embedded below the break. (Underwater humor, get it? ... oh, never mind.)
What happens in Vegas ... gets patched
Those of you dealing with bugs in Rainbow Six Vegas every day, lift up your hands in joy, for a patch has been released. The patch will be applied by an auto update the next time players load Vegas. The patch fixes numerous issues, most notably the voice bug that has rendered the game nearly unplayable for some. The patch also fixes a number of crashing issues and removes proximity chat for some reason. Check out the Vegas forums for a complete list of all fixes.Have any of you been so frustrated by these bugs that you stopped playing?[Via Major Nelson]
Doh! Assassin's Creed plot leaked
In an interview with Kristen Bell, IGN TV asks about her roles in Veronica Mars, Fanboys, and the upcoming not-so-PS3 exclusive (yes, we're going to keep saying that) Assassin's Creed. Everything in the interview seems pretty safe, no real dirty secrets revealed, that is until Kristen talks about her roll in Assassin's Creed, where she gives a little glimpse into what the story is really about saying ... It's sort of based on the research that's sort of happening now, about the fact that your genes might be able to hold memory. And you could argue semantics and say it's instinct, but how does a baby bird know to eat a worm, as opposed to a cockroach, if its parents don't show it? And it's about this science company trying to, Matrix-style, go into people's brains and find out an ancestor who used to be an assassin, and sort of locate who that person is. So there you have it. Assassin's Creed may not only be about killing in the Crusades, but may be a sci-fi mind traveling adventure where you go back to live the life of your assassin ancestors ... and yes that came out of left field. Commence discussion as we're out to find the meaning of life, why cockroaches are so ugly, and why the Matrix movies got progressively worse.
Secret Assassin's Creed plot slipped by Veronica Mars star
Speaking with IGN TV about her role in Assassin's Creed, Veronica Mars star Kristen Bell offered a surprising take on Ubisoft's upcoming title:"It's sort of based on the research that's sort of happening now, about the fact that your genes might be able to hold memory. And you could argue semantics and say it's instinct, but how does a baby bird know to eat a worm, as opposed to a cockroach, if its parents don't show it? And it's about this science company trying to, Matrix-style, go into peoples brains and find out an ancestor who used to be an assassin, and sort of locate who that person is."Huh? We thought Assassin's Creed was about the Third Crusade? Guess there is something to that mysterious 'after-death screen' (see video; jump to 5:35). Too bad Ubisoft was unavailable for comment.
Wait ... what's up with GRAW's achievements?
After snooping around Xbox 360 Achievements we found one game's achievements to be rather interesting. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter has been out for a long time and now it has just came to our attention that its achievement point totals are extremely odd. Take a look at the whole list of them, notice anything a little weird? If you look closely you'll notice that there are achievements that award you Gamerscore points listed at 2, 8, 16, 24, 28 and 32. We've never seen any games offer such odd Gamerscore point totals, usually they are in increments of five, never being as odd as these. Are we missing something here or are there other games out with such odd Gamerscore point totals attached to achievements? Microsoft, don't let them do this to our nice rounded multiples of five ... it's just not right.
Reasons why Assassin's Creed will pwn!
Over at Assassin's Haven they put together a quick list of five reasons why that not-so-PS3-exclusive Assassin's Creed will rock your socks. Not only are the crowd dynamics amazing, but Altair (the assassin you play) is how Assassin's Haven puts it, " badass". Soon we'll be able to pull out our switchblade, cut some throats, and run around in the Crusades era ... who's pumped about this one? [Via Digg]
Alpha, bravo, charlie ... GRAW 2 confirmed
It's official. Today Ubisoft confirmed that Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (GRAW 2) is currently being developed and will hit all major consoles Spring of 2007. The game itself looks very pretty, but doesn't look much better than its already beautiful older brother. We know of a few people who are excited about this gem of a game, so we'll see if it lives up to the anticipation. Screenshots and video after the jump. [Thanks, to everyone who sent this in]
Ubisoft to doctor Rainbow Six Vegas
Ubisoft has released a list of some 36 gameplay issues that will be addressed in an upcoming Rainbow Six Vegas patch, including the now infamous voice chat bug. This latest development adds to the growing concern that console titles, particularly their online modes, are being governed by a 'ship now, fix later' mentality.Who will protect us from such lax development standards?[Via 1UP]
Ubisoft in red, but going in right direction
Ubisoft, maker of the Tom Clancy line of games, didn't meet their primary business objective; they failed to make a profit in the first six months of this year. However, Ubisoft is moving in the right direction. Ubisoft ate a €35.5 million loss (that fruit doesn't taste any good, we'll tell you) in the first half of the fiscal year on sales of €172.1 million. The bright side is the loss is far less than the €43.7 million last year and the sales are up 13%. Ubisoft also more than doubled their expected Xbox Live sales to €3 million -- up from an expected €1.3 million -- thanks to brisk sales of the Advanced Warfighter map pack. To further help Ubisoft's outlooks, major hitters like Advanced Warfighter 2, Assassin's Creed and Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway are launching during the current fiscal year. It is good to see Ubi's fortunes beginning to turn around; they make a number of quality games that we would not want to lose. Hopefully Ubisoft can turn their fortunes around and make their stock more valuable; EA owns 20% of Ubisoft and if they continue to slide, EA could buy them outright. We're not sure about you guys, but we'd rather not see EA Presents Assassin's Creed on our box.
Double Agent single player sneaks to XBLM
For those of you who missed Splinter Cell: Double Agent -- or simply haven't had the time -- a single player demo is now available* on Xbox Live Marketplace (it looks like a College Hoops 2K7 demo is up as well).. I am loth to admit that I am one of those who have not played Double Agent at all. I think I had Enchanted Arms on my rental queue at the time (oh, if I had only known!). Still, if you haven't had a chance to play, or if you're just the kind of person who needs a demo to make purchasing decisions, now is your chance. The demo clocks in at about half a gig, so find something else to play while you're downloading. Here's a suggestion: just watch the Halo 3 ad over and over again until the download completes.*As usual, we are informed that this content will be available for Silver members in about a week.
Rabbids in your milk
Young reader Preston was doing his body good one day by drinking milk. While his bones were thanking him for the generous amount of calcium (as his sweet tooth was for the chocolate), little did he know that Rabbids had invaded his lunchtime beverage. Ubisoft has found yet another way to get into the minds of gamers by placing advertisements on everyday items like this. We wonder how many other companies have used this same technique to grab our attention. In fact, if you, loyal reader, see an ad similar to this for a Wii game, take a pic and send it in! [Thanks Preston!]
IGN takes a look at Star Wars: Lethal Alliance
Egad! It seems like Star Wars: Lethal Alliance is coming out next week. It's usually not a good sign when a game sneaks past everyone's radar until right before it ships. Maybe Ubisoft isn't too confident in their first PSP Star Wars offering? (Anyone know why Ubisoft, and not LucasArts is publishing this?) The new videos that IGN have put up showcase a weird mix of the Star Wars and Matrix universes, with the main character being far more nimble and acrobatic than I'm accustomed to. Unfortunately, it appears that the game looks nowhere as nice as it does in the still shots (shown above). The textures seem a lot worse, and the framerate appears to barely chug along.Maybe I'm wrong (and I hope I am!). I'd love to see a decent Star Wars game on our platform. Read IGN's impressions to find out more.
Vegas, face mapping, and you: a video
We recently brought you Major Nelson's Vegas face mapping results, but those were merely pictures. Today we bring you the holy grail of face mapping evidence: video. It seems that the overall goal of face mapping, however, is not to map normal faces. If our previous commenters are to be believed, Vegas players have been trying all kinds of head gear, from sun glasses to Spiderman masks. It's fitting, then, that this video features a woman using the face mapping feature to give Xbox Live a permanent raspberry. Check out the video and tell us what creative things you've done with your Vegas avatar.
Double Agent patch is hiding
According to the official Splinter Cell: Double Agent website, a patch for the game was released yesterday, but we're receiving reports that it is not yet available. The patch was set to fix multiple issues with the game, including lag issues, connection issues, and a few miscellaneous issues. We aren't familiar with these issues (I still haven't played the game) but we can only assume the fixes would be welcome. In fact, reading through the fix list makes it look like there are quite a few problems with the lobby system.Has anyone spotted the update yet, or is it still MIA?[Thanks, Bountyhunterinc]
