Tag Archive

Wot I Think: Anno 1404: Dawn Of Discovery

Written by Jim Rossignol on July 1, 2009.

Sea-trading city-builder Anno 1404 (or Dawn Of Discovery in North America) has sailed into our critical harbour to unload large bales of real-time medieval economics. Will it attract gaming patricians? Or could it simply be a peasant’s hovel furnished with old-school resource management? Here’s Wot I Think.
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“Questionable Moral Character”

Written by Jim Rossignol on June 19, 2009.

Bombastic cowboy (six) shooter Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood is out on the 3rd of July. Don’t expect the bible ‘n bullwhip zaniness of the original game, but do expect a solid shooter with loads of blood, guts, and carefully orchestrated set pieces. Ubisoft have knocked out one more trailer before release, which you can find below, and it’s probably one of the best trailers we’re going this summer. And that’s not just my unnatural love of cowboy tunes talkin’.
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Desert Island Discoveries: Anno 1404 Demo

Written by Kieron Gillen on June 17, 2009.

So, I’ve been sitting and reviewing Anno all day on the Wii, where I found myself unfeasibly amused by being repeatedly told to pay the herb tribute to the king, which sounds like some fascinating kind of drug-dealing slang. I come upstairs and find that the big-boy pants version of Anno 1404 (aka Dawn of Discovery in the US) has just released its demo. It’s time limited, allowing you an hour of play in each of the demo’s two modes, which still leaves a lot of time for city building, trading and herb-tributing. Jim did a mass post with all the videos on recently, but I think you’ll find one beneath the cut which he didn’t include. Or I could be wrong. You tell me, Anno 1404 fans.
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So Anyway, Dawn of Discovery Looks Intricate

Written by Jim Rossignol on June 16, 2009.

I just realised that we’ve barely paid any attention to Dawn Of Discovery, which is the historical city-forging management sequel ANNO 1404 for us Europeans. Presumably Americans need something that ties into the whole colonial history/discover of America thing to make sense of it, eh? [This bit is where I am poking fun at pointless rebranding exercises, HAHA.] Whatever the naming foolery, it’s looking rather splendid, with some remarkably intricate city-building going on. The core campaign of the game is based around interaction with Eastern cultures, including what is apparently fairly complex trade and diplomacy, as you settle a chain of islands. What looks most satisfying is the visual wealth of the cities themselves: I can easily imagining sinking weeks into creating the bustling little economies. That should be made easier by the game apparently being a bit more sandboxy than the previous ANNO titles.

No US release date yet, but it should be out by the end of the month in Europe. Check out the four videos below for a mildly amusing juxtaposition of smooth-voiced American narrator, and the German developers.

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E3 09: Assassin’s Creed II Dev Walkthrough

Written by Jim Rossignol on June 5, 2009.

“More variety” seems to be the mantra uttered by the Assassin’s Creed II development team, and we get to see some of that variety in this new walkthrough. It’s the bulk of an entire assassination sequence from the game, and possibly one of the high points, so beware spoilers if you’re definitely going to buy into the dude-slaying sequel. Venice certainly looks impressive, and hopefully the new game will give you a little more freedom to make the most of that enormous cityscape. I hope “more variety” somehow also translates into “fewer cutscenes”, but perhaps that’s expecting too much.
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Splinter Cell 5 – “Who Said Anything About Hiding?”

Written by Alec Meer on June 2, 2009.

Sam Fisher’s been off the radar for a little while, Ubisoft having given the old lad some time off whilst they made that bloke in the hood from Assassin’s Creed their stealth-man of the hour. Well, the guy who pays Michael Ironside’s rent is coming back this year, in the long-delayed Conviction. In the CGI and in-game footage below, it’s clear this is an earthier, angrier, more brutal Fisher. Maybe he’s so grumpy because he just heard the Left 4 Dead 2 announcement?
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Hands On: Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood

Written by Jim Rossignol on April 30, 2009.

This week I had a chance to play through the first few levels of an unfinished build of Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood. My impressions of the forthcoming cowboy gunslinger meander hazily in the sunset below. (Cut to: distant jangle of campfire guitar on the prairie…)
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No Trick: Ruse In Action

Written by Alec Meer on April 18, 2009.

I’m quite excited about Ubisoft’s enormo-RTS Ruse (let’s not dignify marketing idiocy with the capital letters or full stops), but last time I nattered about it here all I had to show you was a trailer that seemed more like it was advertising haircuts or watches. So it’s way past time I nudged y’all in the direction of some in-game footage. Oh, it’s worth watching the HD version of the first vid if your bandwidth can stomach it…
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Ubisoft: Some Of Their Games Are Inexpensive

Written by Jim Rossignol on March 26, 2009.

These twenty-four hour sales barely give us enough time to realise that they’re happening. I mean I do have to sleep half the week, you know. Anyway, Ubi’s Far Cry 2 – which I know is hotly debated, but I thought was splendid – is currently up on Steam for $15 until 9am PST tomorrow. Probably. Something like that. I should check, really. What I do know is that it’s a US only offer, and it’s £18 in the UK on Steam. It’s still expensive in the rest of the world though, which is rubbish. Also GoG, whose convenient sign-up link wot-we-are-advertising is at the bottom of our sidebar (eh, wink, nudge etc) have just announced a stack of older Ubi games on their roster, including Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Beyond Good and Evil, and IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946, with more on the horizon. Beyond Good & Evil is one of the RPS love-games. We’d buy it a pint and take it home in our van. (John even wrote longingly about it here.)

Ruse: Let Slip The Tricks Of War

Written by Alec Meer on March 24, 2009.

The current, surprising industry-wide obsession with real-time strategising continues. This time it’s Ubisoft having a crack at both a new IP and a new take on this oft-static genre, with the fascinating, board game-esque and absolutely gi-frigging-normous Ruse.

I took a first-hand gander at Eugen Systems’ (you’ll know them from oddball action-RTS Act of War) new baby last week, but sadly the terrifying EmbargoBot has been stood menacingly by my PC since then, wagging an electro-death-finger at me whenever I think about mentioning the game here. Now I can. And I will. Watch me. Yeah. Yeah!

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