Ubisoft recently revealed yet another potential franchise starter in the world of Tom Clancy, and I must say, that truly warrants a little attention around these parts. GRAW and R6:V can be some good fun, but it’s high-time we saw something that, you know, didn’t have you playing in the perspective of a rugged camera man packing heavy artillery. So at least with EndWar, we’re getting a game where you instead TELL rugged men packing heavy artillery where and what to shoot, and now with HAWX - we’re getting a game where you have rugged men sitting in jet planes, packing heavy artillery. Hey, it’s a start.

Honestly, I’m a fan Ace Combat, so I in no way can possibly see this as a terrible initiative. Well, not until Ubisoft decides to show off actual snippets of gameplay and reveal more on what sort of features we can be expecting. The prospect of four-player co-op in campaign unquestionably raises a few eyebrows. You can’t have an arcade flight shooter without ye ol’ dogfights, and the incentive for players will to be compete for cash and experience points, which will later be spent on upgrading their personal doomsday baby into a full-fledge warmonger. Then there’s the whole Enhanced Reality System (ERS), which to my understanding, is supposed to encourage irresolute first-timers to jump in the cockpit and get a feel of things without having to much be bothered about.

Blazing Angels developers Bucharest Studio will be dirtying their hands for this one, but no judgment calls there. It took time for Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six to shed their pimples and measles before their glossy current-gen makeovers finally came into realization. Not that the Blazing series has anything to do with that comparison…Whatever, start instigating the denial mojo when the game comes out, hmkay?

Trailer after the jump.

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Rejoice, counter-terrorist hotshots! After months of sheer neglect, Ubisoft has finally announced that a sequel to the highly successful tactical shooter Rainbow Six: Vegas is currently in development at their Montreal studios.

Critically acclaimed for reviving the Rainbow Six series after the load of steaming horseshit called Lockdown, Vegas brought fans of the tactical shooter genre as well as regular FPS fans together in a great meld, before ending with an infuriatingly nail-biting cliffhanger. Announcing Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 in a press release, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has said that the sequel, still set in Las Vegas, should be arriving on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 sometime in March 2008, with a new single player campaign and some surprising additions to the multiplayer and co-op modes.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas has been the effect of a bomb in the world of video gaming in 2006, by introducing in one fell swoop technological advance and innovation in terms gameplay.

We are confident that Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 will also pioneer in the field of highly competitive shooters and delight fans of the Rainbow Six brand.

This time, though, let’s hope that PC owners get a better port job with fewer problems and complaints and that PS3 owners don’t have to wait months before getting to drop tangos with a well placed shot. Irena Morales, I’m-a comin’ to getcha!

via [CVG]

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Well, welly, well, it looks like someone DID figure out the passcode to enter the JSF site after all! In more EndWar news, logging in to the JSF site (which can also be accessed from Rev64.com via the ads on the Ubisoft Tom Clancy site) with the password s9p1z6 gives you access to the site, where a woman talks about how the EndWar came about. Apparently, in 2014, the United States and a unified Europe pool together their strategic arms and build a global missile defense system, but when Russia discovers new sources of oil, it monopolizes it, and uses the money to further its defensive and offensive capabilities, dawning a new Cold War. When the United States’ space-based weapons delivery system is destroyed in a terrorist attack, conflict exaggerates, leading to the EndWar.

The page has a couple of links to the forum as well as a registration page that allows you to get more information as and when it becomes available, but the most interesting parts of the website are the flashing pieces of text reading EGM216 (a reference to the upcoming world-exclusive preview of the game on EGM) and two little yellow dots on the bottom left corner, which show a GRAW-like soldier on a future battlefield and another video of an extremely fast aircraft diving towards a city to drop off a bomb. Looks like we finally do have a WW3 based RTS game on our hands, now that Company of Heroes has satisfied our itch for a WW2 based one!

After days of going through the same Flash files over and over again, and with no end to theories in sight, it looks like Ubisoft’s viral website for the JSF (covered here and here) may be nothing more than the announcement of their new Console-RTS, EndWar.

In a press release issued today, Ubisoft has written that Tom Clancy’S EndWar, is being developed by Michael de Plater at Ubisoft Shanghai for all next generation consoles, but we’re probably just going to assume it’s not going to include the hapless Wii. Like we had guessed at the blog here (all hail our “133t” internet detective skillz) the game takes place after World War III has broken out in full force and will “push the envelope of technology, showcasing artificial intelligence, graphics, physics and animations that were not possible prior to the launch of the new hardware systems.” Calling it a “strategy game like no other” Ubisoft has said that EndWar will allow gamers “to lead their own armies against hundreds of others online in real global locations on the massive battlefields of World War III.”

Expect a world-exclusive first look of EndWar in the June issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly on May 8. And if that’s not enough, head on over to the JSF forums and see what’s unfolding up there. We don’t know what’s going on, since the site is now asking us for a passcode to enter, but we’re sure one of you will break through any time soon. But jeez, Console exclusive RTS? First Halo: Wars and now this? Looks like PC gamers are being shown the door yet again! And what the heck is up with all console RTS games ending with some Wars or the other?

OK, now that we’ve actually had enough time to analyze the Flash animation over and over again, here’s an actual breakdown of the really interesting stuff on the site and what can be said for certain. All of this is NOT speculation and actual facts taken straight from the game’s website.

• The game is set around or after 2028, 14 years after the events of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2.
• The game seems to incorporate the Cross-Com from the Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter games, considering how it is explicitly mentioned in the scrolling text feed, as well as seen in the “Promotion Recommended” recall mode.
• The US is a silent observer of the war in Europe, merely acting as a refugee camp until it gets attacked as well, forcing a counter-strike.
• However, the counter-strike has disastrous effects, with Washington D.C. being completely wiped out by electromagnetic pulse bombs, resulting in the simultaneous destruction of almost all federal/military facilities including the Pentagon, the NSA and CIA.
• It is not known whether the immediate areas around the nuclear explosions are survivable due to the amounts of low level radiation, even though the explosions themselves were seemingly self contained.
• New York City also bears the brunt of war, with major exits out of the city, including the Lincoln tunnel, destroyed and the residents facing internal rioting as more and more of them clamor to get out of the city.
• With their political and economic centers under siege, the United States moves to an interim capital in Boston and shifts the NASDAQ and the NYSE to Chicago, causing massive computer glitches that push current economic conditions from bad to worse.
• The United States joins the European Theater conflict and suffers major casualties in France.
• London, just as in WW2, pays a heavy price, with the Parliament fallen and major landmarks destroyed. The London Stock Exchange reels as major manufacturing facilities are nationalized to fuel the war machine.
• The new Chinese Yuan and the Japanese Yen flourish, thanks to the major players, the US Dollar and the Euro losing out big time. In fact, it seems that the governments of Europe and the United States are working to settle trade agreements that will allow open transfer of conflict currency.
• In the face of overwhelming odds, the United States has created the Joint Strike Force (JSF), a team comprising of some of the best people in the armed forces, to counter the new threat.
• Oil and natural gas controls have been wrestled away from the ONGC and is now in the hands of a select group of countries including Russia and Libya, who are trying to use the situation to their advantage.
• In the face of new conflict, the Canadian and Mexican Prime Ministers have withdrawn participation from their treaties with the United States.
• Due to the massive exodus from the United States, the borders at Mexico and Canada are now extremely well guarded, with Ciudad Juarez seeing large amounts of refugees across the border, although the exact status of the Canadian border control is not known.
• With more and more people fleeing from the United States, most South Asian countries have taken extreme steps to curb the reverse migration. Only those that were born in their countries will be allowed to return home, with the remaining being denied immigration as well as long term visas.
• With the war raging in Europe, thousands of students relocated from all over the continent have been holed up in the former tourist paradise of Ibiza, with former nightclubs now serving as refugee centers. The United Nations has expressed tremendous outrage at world heritage sites being used as internment camps, but it seems that they are completely powerless to stop the conflict.
• Shortages of water has led to great conflict across Sofia, Bulgaria and St. Petersburg, Russia, forcing people to riot on the streets. In Oslo, people have taken matters into their own hand and raided a water storage facility and looting resources worth over 2.5 million Euros.

More information on the JSF soldier:

• It is quite obvious that the injured guy was once a part of the Ghost team, considering how there are numerous references to “Cross-Com Intact” and how we can see him looking at multiple hostiles being highlighted in his Cross-Com during a recall.
• Having suffered severe injuries to his shoulder and collar bone, the guy has been this way for quite a bit of time, allowing the injury to worsen and mature.
• The extensive injuries to his system have resulted in a high fever, making his doctors postpone surgery to fix his shoulder blades. Chances of recovery at pegged at around 62% and it is possible that he may have very limited functionality in his right arm, thanks to the injuries.
• The high fever has also left the subject in a delirious state, where he is extremely panicky and almost catatonic. He is also unable to exert any state of control over the unpleasant experiences from his past. Speech is indecipherable.
• Mind-probe analysis reveals no trace of loss, no pessimism, no despondencies or fatalist/defeatist/pacifist tendencies and no remorse or regret. His ability to recall past memories is hazy at best and he has no memory of what happened after his capture or where is he is right now. Also a highly paranoid and obsessed individual.
• Served as a peacekeeper in Africa (USAFRICOM) as well as in USNORTHCOM and USCENTCOM (Pre-nuclear FOP) before joining the JSF Team.
• Frequently lets his past pain cloud his current objectives, hates people of Slavic descent for some reason, but is a great strategist and has been nominated for promotions and won several medals for his exemplary duties.

So what do I think about this game? It looks like this is the next game in line for the Ghost Recon franchise (Ciudad Juarez and El Paso from GRAW2 and the Canadian and Mexican government leaders are clearly mentioned in the radio broadcast), and even though a lot of people are wondering whether this will be a combination of all Tom Clancy franchises, I don’t really think that’s the case here. This game probably builds on the cliffhanger ending of GRAW2, where Cpt. Scott Mitchell bravely offers to put himself in the direct line of fire from the EM Pulse missiles just so that the United States can take out smuggled nuclear weapons. What might probably be the case is that about 15 years later, the rebels finally manage to strike deep in the heart of the US homeland, taking out Washington DC and NYC, and sparking a global conflict.

Helpless in the face of such terror, the US Armed Forces creates the JSF, a team of extremely toughened individuals to deal with the threats. At some point, it looks like the soldier we see, who seems to have lost his wife and child in an attack, is captured by enemy forces and later retreived by the United States JSF. Just because a game mentions other Tom Clancy franchises doesn’t have to mean that they will be playable in the game, considering how Splinter Cell is mentioned by name in GRAW2, but Sam Fisher has nothing to do with the game. I just don’t care, I love the Ghost Recon franchise and would be happen just as long as I get to shoot me some rebels. If it just so happens that they’re going to weave a nice back story for the lead character, a la Sam Fisher, who am I to complain? But just what is it with macho stories in which the guy’s wife and kid HAVE to die to harden the guy?

Three days back, dear friend Jay Patel passed on the link to a sub-website registered to Ubisoft’s name, one that had something to do with the next game in the Ubisoft Tom Clancy series. In classic Ubisoft style, the website is extremely good looking and well designed. It is viral marketing as never before, as it has a continuous radio news cast giving clues as to what the game might be about.

This game does look mighty interesting AND bizarre. Forgive me as I rant on this. Understand that these are my OWN interpretations of the website and not facts by any means.

My guess, is the game is a logical conclusion to all the escalating conflict from all the Tom Clancy games yet. JSF refers to the “Joint Strike Force” program and presumably ~jsf28555833-80604722~ is a soldier from that elite unit.

1. jsf28555833-80604722: Supposedly the protagonist of the game. We see a injured man on the site homepage. The upper half of the screen shows a full status report on his vital signs, as the reports read “Mind Map status: Verified. RhD Antigen:(null) >0 or negative, Antibody analysis: No compatibility detected.” Now according to what they taught me in my first year of B.Tech, Rh factor refers to the rhesus blood group. RhD is an antigen that expresses itself on the surface of red blood cells, and helps in controlling their neural linkage to the brain. The emotion of pain is the said ‘linkage”, which means that JSF program’s suppressed RhD in their recruits allow them to FEEL NO PAIN. Kinda makes sense. The bastards have been blabbering about building super soldiers from the days of Project Invisible. A soldier who can’t feel pain is just the perfect warrior, dont you think? Sure they will die, but they won’t feel a thing until they actually do. That means longer stamina and longer staying power in tough firefights.

Apart from this, two of the links, according to me at least, are flashbacks to the recruit’s life. In one of them, we can hear him making a call from a railway station (I could hear the train announcements) from a government locked satellite frequency.

In other of the links, we can see a kid playing with some ornament and calling the camera ‘Daddy’ and a blast and gunfire seconds quickly follow. Maybe, this ties in somehow. If I have to take a wild guess, I’d say this guy has seen action in either the Ghost Recon team or the Rainbow team. He got banged somewhere in between and was taken in by the JSF program as he qualifies in every way - nothing to lose, familiar with battle and supposedly bitter at having lost his family.

2. Radio News: This was the most intresting bit of the whole deal. The news reader’s voice has a metallic, emotionless hum to it, suggesting automisation of media. This in turn signifies that the media is no longer controlled by ‘agendas’ and human governments nurturing them. The mood portrayed in the radio broadcast suggests a post nuclear warfare world. The timeline as mentioned in the newscast is 2028. The terrorist have supposedly nuked the German/France LOC some 12 years ago, thus sending Europe in the pit completely. The Euro has fallen down in the stocks and the market value of Europe as a tourist hub has also gone down. A report about how student tourists to Ibiza were forced to live in night clubs converted to hostels serves to heighten the point about the raging conflict in Europe.

The Caribbean nations have split up their market share and currency deal from US, thus causing the US Dollar to drop down a lot. Japan looks to be strongest economic power at that time apparently.

The news cast also speaks of sports and cultural activity. This suggests the world is trying to get back to normal, but terrorism is still prevalent apparently, on a large scale. The news cast also hints at a full scale war in Europe, with conflict raging between the British, Spanish and German forces. The death toll is very high and the news caster calls out the figures as if it is the most normal thing in the world for tens of thousands of people to die, suggesting that the war has gone on long enough for people to actually fear and rue over it.

The world is having a serious water and fuel crisis. The water reserves in the UK were stolen by the refugees coming across the English Channel, leading to a full sized genocide committed by the English forces on the refugees. There were also talks of reverse immigration to Asia and the MINDBLOWING population explosion in Asia. Some policy is apparently being formulated on the whole issue by the South Asian governments.

3. My thoughts on the whole deal: The stage is well set, and judging by the situations we are being told about, it seems a perfect premise for the typically corny, yet heroic entry of the US to the whole scene.

The videos show multiple references to the Ghost team and I could actually see Captain Mitchell with his typical gun stance in one of the vids. Let’s see where it takes us. I am hoping for a kickass, all consuming final fight against the heart of terrorism. But I could not find a reference to Sam Fisher, maybe I missed it. Let’s hear you people out!