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It’s enough to have a grown man weep and leap in joy. Beyond Good & Evil was a multi-platform action-adventure game not too unreminiscent of the Legend of Zelda series, one that earned kisses and applauses from critics on its overall execution, but suffered in sales at the hands of other UbiSoft published titles (Sands of Time and Splinter Cell). But now it’s back. Jade is back! Pey’j is back! And even though the teaser trailer doesn’t give a whole lot of information, there’s theorizing to be had - because I’m just that bloody anxious. Will the series receive a reboot, ala the new Prince of Persia? Does Pey’j still have that you-know-what on his hand? Is Michel Ancel on board? Say, how do pigs have hands, Mr. Ancel? And where exactly are Jade and her chummy uncle, anywho?
Either way, here’s hoping UbiSoft has learned from its mistakes and doesn’t decide to clump BG&E2’s release date with the new POP. Wouldn’t that be the ultimate deja-vu FU? Acronyms are silly.
Life can be cruel at times, especially when it decides to throw a spanner in your plans. We have been sulking in a corner ever since a cruel twist of fate laid to rest our plans to be in Paris for the upcoming UBIDAYS® 2008, Ubisoft’s annual event that showcases the best that the publisher has to offer. But it seems like a couple of our Gods from the whole plethora of them have decided to be a little more kind towards us. So what if we can’t be at Paris? We can always watch it live through Ubisoft’s new portal, Uplay.
Firstly, the good news. Soulcalibur IV has a release date pinned, albeit just for the US as of now. Expect to see the dazzling installment burn into souls on the 29th of July, that too with your choice of cuddly Jedi master Yoda (Xbox 360) or bodacious Sith-Daddy Darth Vader (Playstation 3). Oh, and this time you’ll get to play online. Two jugs are better than one.
Now for the bad news. Ubisoft will be distributing SCIV within PAL territories, which means that the chances of seeing this carried over to Indian retailers are within the vicinity of slim. Not a possibility I’d like to admit, but that’s only going to be one more obstacle to overcome in my vast pursuit of knowledge for digital Tee and Ay. Man, if only Ubisoft acquired some mobile game development studio based in, oh I don’t know, Pune or whatever. Actually, I’m not sure how much good that’ll do, but not all candy-coated dreams should have to be imported from Play-Asia, ya know. Unless you don’t want your parents catching you during an intense session of Puchi Evangelion. Hang on, I better lock the door.
The market place is teeming with vibrancy and life to a point where you actually feel you’re in 11th century Jerusalem. However being an assassin in such troubled times means only one thing, you’re in the city on business. Your target, a town preacher with a hidden agenda.
You wait, watching from the roof tops as he makes his way to a secluded spot after spewing his half-baked propaganda. As soon as he’s alone, you descend from the sky, his back facing you as you hurl a few punches at him, beating him into submission. No one said this would be non-violent, or so god damned involving.
While he puts up a feeble resistance to your super-human combat skills, the trees sway, creating shadows that dance across the stone buildings in the mid-day sun, you can almost feel the breeze. The city crier concedes and vital information changes hands. You draw your sword to reschedule his appointment with god.
All seems well, until, from absolutely nowhere, a burly man decked in 11th century couture decides to amble down this lonely spot and manages to miraculously walk in between your blade and the victim. And come out unscathed. David Copperfield’s ancestor perhaps?
It’s amazing how an anomaly can reduce an experience like this to the rank of a mere video game with flaws et al.
Despite being criticised all around for the repetitive game play and tones of bugs found in both the console version of the game, we found Assassin’s Creed to be an immensely enjoyable game. Instead of rushing through, we took our time through the game and that’s where the brilliance of the game stood out. Superbly detailed locales, animation to die for and the sheer adrenaline-rush of jumping across the rooftops while being pursued by guards meant we could push aside the hype and the subsequent criticism that followed, and enjoy the game for what it is. All we can do now is wait for the sequels and hope that the developers have learnt from the mistakes and the next outing of Altair will cement the game as a masterpiece.
Yves Guillemot and Jade Raymond couldn’t be happier. Why wouldn’t they be, considering a certain robed and hooded Santa, complete with a spring-loaded dagger for his ring finger has been stuffing Ubisoft socks with millions of dollars over the last three weeks? The first part in a trilogy involving all sorts of medieval (and futuristic) hijinks, Assassin’s Creed has crossed the 2.5 mn. units sold milestone - recording worldwide sales of 1.51 mn. units for the Xbox 360 and 0.95 mn. units for the PlayStation 3 - making Ubi so damn happy that they have revised their initial financial forecasts and sent them packing straight into orbit.
Announcing that Assassin’s Creed had earned the distinction of becoming the fastest selling new videogame IP in the US ever, Ubisoft now claims that it will sell a minimum of 5 mn. units of the game in 2007-08 instead of the previously estimated $3 mn., with sales targets being raised to €840 mn., an increase of €15 mn. from their previous target. So much for all those “crystal ball gazers” who jumped the gun and screamed from the rooftops about what a phenomenal failure the game was. Hope you got enough quarters for the suicide booth, fellas!
In more good news, if you were worrying about sprunging the house for enough money to buy Tom Clancy’s EndWar, Brothers in Arms 3: Hell’s Highway and Far Cry 2, don’t worry, you won’t have to. The bad news is, the games have now been delayed to the 2008-09 fiscal year, which means you can probably expect to see them sometime around next Christmas, if you’re lucky. We know we’re not, considering we’re still got our keisters parked waiting for Altair to show up around here.
Hard to believe it’s been a week since we posted the Jade Raymond article. What was posted as a simple opinion on my part somehow ballooned out of control and became a huge “news story” on N4G and Digg, which it so wasn’t. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned from all this “attention” is that people who are nice are still nice and the jerks are still… well, jerks! We know, considering we had to blacklist a dozen IPs and delete a truckload of comments simply because they were downright disgusting.
Going through the comments, there’s so much I want to address, but I fear if I start getting into it, all the other stuff I’m working on will just get put on the back burner. While it looks like we’ve got a dozen people linking to the site, all of them, wonderfully, coming together to try and address retarded sexist “gamers” everywhere, others still believe gaming still hasn’t come out of the Dark Ages when women were just supposed to be barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen, cooking breakfast. Honestly, if I start playing a game, I don’t give a rat’s ass as to who made it - it just has to play right. And if I am playing online, I don’t care what sex you are - you just have to play right! Gender should never matter in an industry where you rarely ever see the people behind the scenes or on the other end of the internet connection.