Tag Archive

Prince of Persia Trailers Bonanza

Written by John Walker on November 14, 2008.

Prince of Persia is only three weeks away, and the promotion is stepping up. A throng of videos have recently appeared, and they’re below. They still leave me with my tweak of concern that the game hasn’t made any real changes beyond the aesthetic. The addition of the NPC co-op buddy intrigues me, but the trailers have yet to show me what she does other than follow you around. However, those aesthetic changes really are stunning, and if they can recreate Sands of Time’s action I’ll be a happy man.

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Ubisoft Bigs Up Massive

Written by Jim Rossignol on November 10, 2008.

Ubisoft have bought Swedish studio Massive Entertainment (of beloved Ground Control and World in Conflict fame) from ActiBlizzard. Hooray! The studio will live to create another base-buildingless RTS with splendid visuals, which will probably be in-progress WIC sequel Soviet Assault, which was also purchased.

Ubi executive director Christine Burgess-Quemard had this impeccable comment: “Massive has put together a group of some of the most confirmed and recognized creators in the industry and I know that their talent and innovation will allow them to seamlessly integrate into our worldwide network of production studios.”

Hopefully they’ll make some more games with fat explosions and oh-so-clever timed resource/reinforcement multiplayer mechanics too, eh CBQ?

Far Cry 2: First Impressions

Written by Jim Rossignol on October 23, 2008.

So I’m a few hours into Far Cry 2 and I’m going to just quickly report my impressions of it so far. Firstly, it pains me to have to quit out of the game to blog about it, which is a good sign, but also a bad sign. The bad being: it locks up if I alt-tab. That said, I have ignored the game’s pleas to update both Vista and my Nvidia drivers, so I’m probably partly to blame for technical difficulties. That said, even with my updating laziness, the game runs fantastically on my 8800 with everything maxed. Not quite comparable with Crysis, perhaps, but that really doesn’t matter: it pulls of the dense, jungled African valleys impeccably. The action is smooth, and the world detailed.
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Far Cry 2 Map Editor: “Uhh!”

Written by Jim Rossignol on October 16, 2008.

Ubi’s latest trailer for their Far Cry 2 multiplayer map editor shows off some of the more radical possibilities for map creation that the tool offers: with big crazy maps with Eiffel Towers, Pyramids and vast rope-bridge mountain-islands. “Crazy” they’re calling it. Better still, however, is how the headshots and explosions of the trailer are timed to coincide with the “Uhh!” of the human beatbox soundtrack. There’s something wrong about that particular juxtaposition. Or maybe that’s just me.

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Far Cry 2 Offers African Beats

Written by John Walker on October 14, 2008.

See, I didn’t even realise Adult Swim had a music publishing arm. It’s amazing what you find when poking your nose around the internet during the breaks of the baseball game you’ve stayed up until a million o’clock to watch (go Phillies). So to coincide with the release of Far Cry 2, Ubisoft are getting all cross-promotional, sponsoring the free distribution of an album of South African hip-hop, called African Swim.

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Far Cry 2: “Money, Diamonds, and Blood”

Written by Jim Rossignol on October 10, 2008.

Far Cry 2 is almost upon us, and I’m seething with anticipation. PC Gamer’s Tim Edwards telling us that it effectively kills off the entire linear shooter genre doesn’t do anything to ease that. His review in the latest PC Gamer UK is worth reading. If he’s right - and I dearly hope he is - that will stand up as one of the best game reviews of 2008. Of one of the best games.

While Far Cry 2 is very definitely just a shooter, Edwards’ review suggests that Stalker’s “wide corridor” model (that I loved so much) is going to be made to look shabby by this seamless 50km world, as executed by a talented, well-funded studio. I can’t wait to get to grips with the kind of freedom in an FPS that has previously only really manifested itself in GTA games. This latest trailer doesn’t make the longing any better, showing off loads of the open world stuff, including character dialogue, gun-play, speeding vehicles, and the ubiquitous fiery explosions. The dynamic story-telling perhaps doesn’t lend itself well to trailers, but trying reading our previous interview with the lead designer to get your head around that a bit better.
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Will He Be King? New Prince Of Persia Footage

Written by John Walker on October 9, 2008.

Right, so that Mirror’s Edge trailer was three weeks old, despite being posted as new by evil sites who I will now destroy, so it’s gone. HAPPY? Good. So instead, below is some new footage (and by God it had better be new) of Prince of Persia. (Surely the next game should be called Prince Of Iran?)

The first video is a super-emo (but nicely put together trailer) showing off the pretties. The second is in-game footage. And it’s the second one that concerns me slightly. I’m not seeing the Prince do anything new, beyond the sidekick game device. It seems more of a variation of the last three PoP games, rather than the stellar leap forward Sands of Time represented. Hopefully they’re saving the big surprises for nearer December’s release.

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EndWar Delayed Because “Piracy’s killing PC”

Written by John Walker on October 8, 2008.

Sorry to get into this again, but as much as I want to ignore it, this one’s significant. Ubisoft have stated that they’re artificially delaying the launch of EndWar on PC because of, you guessed it, piracy.

Talking to VideoGaming247, Ubisoft Shanghai director and former Total War “Evangelist”, Michael de Plater said,

“To be honest, if PC wasn’t pirated to hell and back, there’d probably be a PC version coming out the same day as the other two.”

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More HAWX. Mawx.

Written by Jim Rossignol on October 2, 2008.

Gallic air-war game developer Thomas Simon features in this most recent HAWX trailer, telling us all about how computer-assistance helps players in air combat, just as it does in real-world jet-fighter war. Those men in their marvellous flying machines ain’t nothing without a big old calculator under the hood… For more Thomas Simon action, check out our recent interview with the fella.
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Hell’s Kitchen

Written by Jim Rossignol on September 23, 2008.

Inexplicably foul-mouthed TV chef Gordon Ramsay is to feature in a new videogame about professional cooking. I’ve always said that there’s a great game to be made about kitchen action, and I wonder whether this Ubisoft title is it.

“The game will allow players to step into Hell’s Kitchen to experience the show’s high-pressure atmosphere. After successfully executing the three phases of an order – preparation, cooking, and service – players will be rewarded with recipes from Hell’s Kitchen and Chef Ramsay. Failure will shut down the kitchen and incur the wrath of the man who put the hell in Hell’s Kitchen.”

Probably not, eh? The game should be out some time this month. [Discovered via Blues.]

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