Is Hitman's Next Target Assassin's Creed? 
Why Kotaku Australia Should Never Work With Children... Or Robots 
Three Words I Said To The Man I Defeated In Gears Of War That I'll Never Say Again 
New Doom 3 For Xbox 360 And PlayStation 3 Supports Head-Mounted Displays 
Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land 
Why Robin Makes Batman Better As I mentioned earlier, Ubisoft is getting into the Snowboarding game… game. Shaun White will, among other things, feature a Wii version that lets you use your Balance Board to board around open mountains.
The Wii version will also have its own story line which has you travelling the world with a crew to try and earn some fame as a snowboarder.
Hit the jump for the full release and some screens.
It feels like Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. is Ubisoft’s attempt at bringing a more, dare I say it, casual gamer into the historically hardcore flight sim fanbase.
But despite having modes for missile-lock and bomb drops that are akin to flying with training wheels, the game seems to still provide the technical controls that have always drawn fans of arcade flight sims to air combat games.
The area I played around in was located over Rio and featured a map created by satellite data (the best on the market, I was told). The city, while amazingly detailed, was a bit too flat for my taste, though it did have plenty of high rises to zip through at break neck speeds. The final version of the game will also include settings in Africa and Afghanistan, I was told.
newVideoPlayer("teaserbgae2.flv", 506, 423,""); It’s official: At Ubisoft’s Ubidays 08 event in Paris, CEO Yves Guillemot unveiled a trailer for the company’s next project: Beyond Good & Evil 2.
Back on Friday I decided that after over 22 years it was finally time for me to quit smoking. Since then I’ve made enemies of my cats, yelled at anyone with the gall to call me on the telephone I purchased to stay in touch with those same people, made vicious enemies of my cats, and started repeating myself. Now Ubisoft proudly announces Allen Carr’s Easyway To Stop Smoking, due out in November for the Nintendo DS. Really? November?
Allen Carr’s Easyway to Stop Smoking book is one of the most highly regarded books on the subject of kicking cancer sticks, published in 50 different countries. Famous folk like Ashton Kutcher, Ellen DeGeneres, and Richard Branson all swear by his program, while I sit in my apartment, sweating and shaking.
“Ubisoft’s creative team has worked hard to deliver a game that successfully communicates Allen Carr’s Easyway method via play,” said Christian Salomon, vice president of worldwide licensing at Ubisoft. “The player experiences a truly interactive engagement with the game through which he or she learns that it can actually be enjoyable to quit smoking.”
Enjoyable to quit smoking? Scroll up to see how much fun I am having! Do I not look like I am having fun? Over the past 24 hours alone I have fallen asleep and woken up over 15 times. My nose is now running, I have to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes, and I am eating everything that isn’t nailed down. FUN! Perhaps you guys could have announced this game last week?
Of course now I am going to have to start up again, simply to test the DS game when it comes out in November. *heads to the store for some cigarettes*
Okay fine, as tempting as it is I wouldn’t jeopardise my life any further for a story. We’ll just have to get Crecente to start smoking in my stead.
newVideoPlayer("60sec_-PEGI_30fps_-H264B.flv", 500, 301,"");
Can’t get enough Raving Rabbids? Well you’re not alone, Ubisoft is crazy for their crazy hares as well.
Today the company announced a new Raving Rabbids title is coming to the DS and Wii this holiday season and that the Wii version will support the Balance Board.
“The Rayman Raving Rabbids titles have been an immense success, entertaining the world over,” said Yves Guillemot, president and chief executive officer, Ubisoft. “The inclusion of the Wii Balance Board into the game was a huge source of inspiration for our development team and I guarantee you will see the Wii Balance Board used in ways that will be surprisingly unexpected!”
It sounds like the game will be like the other Raving Rabbids but this time getting players to do evil things to cows with the balance board… not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Hit the jump for the full release and screens.
It’s like Grand Theft Auto IV on the Serengeti, but not really.
At first blush Far Cry 2 looks and behaves a bit like Grand Theft Auto IV: The game has an open world, friends who can come to your rescue, a phone you use to contact them, safe houses, a detailed map for guidance and a non-linear story line.
But where at its heart Grand Theft Auto IV is an action game, Far Cry 2 has its roots deeply embedded in the bedrock of shooters and from what I saw during my short time with the game it seems to remain true to those origins.
I asked the developers about the similarities and he seemed genuinely surprised, I think that’s because most of these similarities are obvious design decisions made once you’ve decided you want to create a sandbox game and the parallels are for the most part quite superficial.
Friends for instance. In Grand Theft Auto IV, you can call them for help, but they don’t really get involved in missions. In Far Cry 2 they are your salvation.
newVideoPlayer("farcry2509_kotaku.flv", 480, 290,""); Far Cry 2 looks like the sort of game I could get completely lost in. Looking at the scenic environments in this video, a preview clip from Ubisoft’s upcoming Ubidays press event, I get the urge to just wander about. Maybe it’s just my recent exposure to Wild Earth: African Safari talking, but what they’ve created here almost looks too lovely to blow up. Fortunately the way you play the game is just as varied as the vistas you’ll encounter. Creative director Clint Hocking sums up the concept of Far Cry 2 quite nicely towards the end of the video. It’s about giving the player the opportunity to play the game he wants to play the way he wants to play it.
That’s a concept I can totally get behind, though getting them to include a camera I can use to photograph wildlife might be a bit too much to ask.
