French publisher Ubisoft is one of the rising stars of the games industry – while not yet as big as the likes of Electronic Arts, it’s very much a top-tier publisher and has designs on becoming a behemoth. Prompted by the downsizing of the E3 Show – the traditional place until this year for publishers to showcase a year’s-worth of games – Ubisoft became the first of what will surely be several big publishers to put on its own event in 2007 to present its games to the European media. Called Ubidays, the event took place in no less prestigious establishment than the Louvre in Paris. And there was plenty of good news there for PS3 owners craving new games.
For us, the biggest draw was Haze, the latest first-person shoot-em-up developed by Free Radical Design, a Nottingham outfit formed by some of the team who developed the legendary GoldenEye for Rare Software, who have more recently received acclaim for the TimeSplitters game and the excellent psychological action-adventure Second Sight. They’re basically the guys who proved that you can do top-notch fps games on consoles – not just the PC.
Haze – hurrah – will be ready in time for Christmas, and will be a PS3 exclusive (at least for a while – there is an Xbox 360 version in the offing, but it won’t surface until some time next year, and the PS3 is the lead platform). Which will claw back some bragging rights about Xbox 360 owners going on about Halo 3.
You play Shane Carpenter, a soldier employed by the private army run by the shadowy Mantel corporation, a company which pretty much runs every aspect of the near-future world in which the game is set. As Free Radical’s scriptwriter Rob Yescombe put it: “Your hair-gel, your microphones, your laptops – they would all have been made by Mantel.” But the company’s main businesses are its private army/arms manufacturing wing, and its pharmaceutical wing.
So, as a Mantel soldier, you get unlimited access to the wonder-drug Nectar,
which turns you into a super-soldier by heightening perception – take a hit
and you’ll be able to anticipate things like mines going off, see hidden
soldiers who are miles away, and even find your aim becomes steadier. It even
gives you a “melee blast” – a melee attack with the force of an explosion —
although, sadly, that wasn’t demonstrated. As with all drugs, there’s a
downside – if you overdose on it, you lose the ability to distinguish between
friend and foe and, indeed, the ability to control when you shoot – so you’ll
probably take out your nearby squad-mates. All to the accompaniment of some
mad visual effects.
Haze takes place over a three-day period in a war that is raging in South
America – Free Radical says there are 12 environments in the game, and we saw
a super-lush jungle, a quarry area in which you proceed in buggies and a huge
warehouse. Four people can play the game co-operatively (dropping in and out
whenever they fancy). Free Radical has gone big on the storyline (something of
a first for the company, as anyone who played TimeSplitters will testify) and,
amusingly, got people in from RADA and the RSC to do the voice acting.
Free Radical strongly hinted that, as the game progresses, you’ll find that
everything in your war is not as clear-cut as it seems – when you’re hopped up
on Nectar, everything looks bright and shiny, your fellow soldiers are
distinguished by fluorescent yellow highlights on their body armour and the
bodies of enemies you have killed disappear instantly. But as the effects of
the Nectar wear off, the enemies you shoot will bleed and won’t disappear, and
the environments take a much more monochrome, grimier look. The Daily Mail
will have fun discovering what an integral part drug-taking plays in Haze’s
gameplay.
Free Radical also promised that the game will have a satisfying online
experience – the company’s Derek Littlewood said: “You can have up to 24
players online. We do have the traditional modes like Capture the Flag, but
there’s also a narrative multiplayer mode which will change your understanding
of what happens in the single-player game.” Once again, it seems that a Brit
developer is poised to come out with a genre-defining game for the PS3 – where
would Sony be without British ingenuity?
Assassin’s Creed
Assassin’s Creed earned itself a reputation as one of the most-anticipated next-gen games when it first surfaced at last year’s E3 Show, but recently, silence from developer Ubisoft Montreal led to a spate of rumours about it getting behind schedule and so on. Happily, producer Jade Raymond was on hand at Ubidays to assure us that it will be ready in time for Christmas (although it will come out on Xbox 360 and PC as well as the PS3). Although there was only a rolling demo of the game on show, Raymond explained that was because in July, Ubisoft will let the press get their sticky paws on it for some hands-on action. So when that happens, we’ll bring you an in-depth report.
Raymond did speak extensively about the game, though, and it sounds like it will be another biggie this Christmas. It’s certainly original – you play Altair, a Master Assassin in the Middle East during the Third Crusade – the year 1191, to be precise. It’s a free-roaming game, although it’s driven forward by the storyline, and you’ll have to work through some seriously meaty missions, involving travelling to authentic reconstructions of cities like Jerusalem, Damascus and Acre (on horseback), research into your victims (obtaining info by eavesdropping conversations, pickpocketing and beating people up), executing your assassination, then escaping.
The gameplay involves a mix of stealth and acrobatic, free-running-style movement – and much of the stealth involves moving among crowds equipped with some of the most intelligent artificial intelligence seen in a game (if they rumble you, for example, they’ll trip you up and obstruct you). It looks amazing, and has an authentic ring to it – undoubtedly, it will provide a suss for those ignorant types who maintain that videogames are mindless.
Tom Clancy’s End War
Perhaps the most unexpectedly ambitious title on show was Tom Clancy’s End War – a new intellectual property with the stamp of the man who is synonymous with Cold War airport books, but who has become something of a modern warfare industry. Developed at Ubisoft’s studio in Shanghai, End War is that rarest of things, a real-time strategy game for consoles (it will appear on PS3 and Xbox 360).
A prospect which, frankly, usually fills us with dread (past RTS games have always been best played with keyboard and mouse) – but End War is seeking to redefine the idea of RTS games on consoles. For starters, it has been designed to be played using voice control (although you will be able to use the gamepad if you’re shy), and it also junks the traditional top-down view of the battlefield in favour of a first-person view which puts you right down in the action.
End War will also have an MMO element – it basically pitches you into World War III, and there will be a persistent online war whose front lines are updated at the end of each day. Sadly, there wasn’t any gameplay on show – just rolling demos – so we can’t comment on what the whole experience of playing it will be like. But it’s one of the most ambitious games we’ve ever come across.
Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway
Now that Activision’s Call of Duty has moved from WWII to modern combat, the Brothers In Arms franchise – which adds a squad-based spin to the World War II shooter blueprint – has a bit of space to itself, and the first next-gen version (on PS3 and Xbox 360) looked very promising indeed. We can’t tell you much about it, other than that it charts the Operation Market Garden mission which took place in Holland, and that it looks fearsomely realistic – but it should make devotees of WWII games pretty happy this Christmas.
By Steve Boxer
i would like to comment after reading this article,
Ubisoft is giving mix interpertations to us sony gamers, first of all 2 months ago ps3 magazines in the uk STATED the fact assassins creed was ps3 exclusive, then they scrap that idea and goes multiplatform. (more people let down).
R6 vegas suppose to be ps3 launch at europe, but hey what happend, o thats right they decide to push back twice now, the date is coming as close to graw 2, thats not it, graw2 is being pushed back again…(made MORE people let down)
Then 360 bashes xbox because tom clancy conviction is not for ps3, then saying haze isn’t ps3 exclusive. Then ‘’magically'’ ubisoft changes their mind AGAIN n states that ps3 is the lead platfrom, so i thought…great? Not so quite, after realising that its exclusive means nothing to us gamers. Xbox fans bash again sayin how haze can’t bring down halo 3 since its not even a sony exlusive 100%.
I never been a fan of tom clancy’s splinter cell’s franchise, meta gear rip off to be honest. I wasn’t really bothered.
What I’m ranting about is the fact ubisoft has devloped their FPS games for pc heavily, porting to 360 is quite similiar, however they never bother to make the port work, all their ports are letdown, which just makes ps3 look bad, when its the dev’s. Crap ports make people stop buying your games. Pushing back games just as bad, once is enough but twice?
Endware looks like a comand and conquer rip off too…from my first impressions of the trailer…
Comment by Gabz — May 25, 2007 @ 8:28 pm
fucking french sucking on the biggest american cock of them all .. mr. bill gates. at this point who cares about exclusives so as long as we get some of these gems like AC.
seriously though that jade r. is a hottie i would buy any game she has a hand in just to help her buy more stuff.
Gabz .. there is NO WAY endwar will look or play anything like C&C .. take a look at the Game Informer pre-view.
Comment by whackMushrooms — May 25, 2007 @ 8:42 pm
About the ‘exclusiveness’ of Assassin’s Creed: it was never, i repeat, never an exclusive. If PS3 magazines stated that, they were wrong! Months before there was even talks about Assassin’s Creed, the game was already presented behind closed doors at the Xbox event X05 in Amsterdam. Back then it was still called ‘Project Assassin’. A few months later the game’s name changed to Assassin’s Creed, and it was first only announced for PS3, but never did Ubisoft (or Sony) state that it was an exclusive title. Their reaction was always the same: “We haven’t announced other versions … yet”. Most of the (inside) press already knew about ‘Project Assassin’, so we knew that an Xbox 360 version would eventually be announced. So if you think Sony ‘lost another exclusive’ with Assassin’s Creed, you’re wrong.
Sorry, just wanted to get the facts straigth. Please continue
Comment by Karsten — May 25, 2007 @ 8:55 pm
Don’t believe a word Ubisoft has to say. They are so deeply entrenched in MS’s back pocket it’s not even funny. Don’t believe me? Just look at Rainbow Six: Vegas, STILL not out yet on PS3. GRAW2 DELAYED until the fall! The next Splinter Cell game EXCLUSIVE to 360.
They have and will continue to screw over Sony and its fans in favor of MS’s truckloads of money. Forget their BS about HAZE having any sort of “exclusiveness” on the PS3. I guarantee HAZE will be day and date with the 360 version.
Other than dumping ground for crappy ports, Ubisoft could care less about the PS3 and it’s fans.
Comment by Parker — May 25, 2007 @ 9:12 pm
@ Gabz - Going by your reckoning, everything is a ‘rip off’ except you wouldn’t know that because you haven’t played the games. Ubisoft is a AAA developer with a huge fanbase. I agree titles like GRAW 2 were overpriced and slightly frivolous but that doesn’t make them any less talented. Were you to play R6 Vegas I’m sure you’d be surprised, it’s a fantastic game.
RE: Making release dates, yes, it’s always disappointing but I think porting to the PS3 has proven more difficult than first thought.
@ whackMushrooms - get a vocabulary, nobody on here wants to hear your opinion if it’s going to sound like that.
Comment by Ben Furneaux — May 25, 2007 @ 9:18 pm
Fuck Ubisoft, they are on MS’s dick, but free radical are cool^
Comment by funkemo — May 25, 2007 @ 9:57 pm
HAZE LOOKS AWESOME.
I get the impression Ubi like all other publishers has started to hype the PS3 in one last big push this summer but the titles are on hold. They will wait to see if console sales pick up on news of announced titles before actually making the games.
The only games being made are old ports. WONDERING WHY 50 GAMES ARE SCHEDULED FOR Q4 OF 2007?
Comment by AG — May 25, 2007 @ 10:37 pm
Sony you have to lower the price of the PS3 to 349 euro/$399 to stay competitive.
These announced games stay on the near horizon just to tease us like Burnout (May), Heavenly Sword (June), Killzone (June), R6 (May), GRAW2 (June), MGS4 (August) - I remember all of these release dates and they were all pushed way back becuase the installed base is too small. Look at MotorStorm, a hit AAA title with less than 400k worldwide units sold! FEAR and Splinter Cell at less than 150K worldwide sales. How are publishers going to make these games when they need 400K to 500K units sold to break even?!
You need to lower the price to get a 10-15 million user installed base ASAP to make it worth while for publishers. This holiday season will be too late as the 360 will likely drop in price by $100-$150 and have an installed base of 15M with 200 games plus Halo 3.
Just some thoughts from a long time gamer and playstation fan.
Comment by AG — May 25, 2007 @ 10:55 pm
thanks for the feedback, I didn’t research that deeply, it was on a psm3 magazine 2months ago, so now I know that was wrong then. Didn’t know Ubisoft had such a huge fanbase. Im pretty new to FPS genre as I never used to buy them, it was either racing or rpg, or fighting, so I know I missed out alot about the FPS games company.
Comment by Gabz — May 25, 2007 @ 11:18 pm
Sorry but… i don’t like Ubisoft anymore, they gave us s**t on our PS3, they kept talking bad about it, they’re clearly on the Xbox360 side…. so i don’t trust them anymore….
Comment by Shinnok — May 26, 2007 @ 12:09 am
HAZE is going to be amazing, though I don’t credit Ubi Soft for that. Just Free Radical
Comment by Matthew — May 26, 2007 @ 1:59 am
hey Ben Furneaux no one else bitched about what i said (maybe because your a fucking frenchman) .. you however came across as a prude bag. why are there so many of you fags on the internet .. just let people say what they want .. choose to read it or not
Comment by whackMushrooms — May 26, 2007 @ 1:55 pm
FEAR sucked .. thats why sales sucked.
Comment by whackMushrooms — May 26, 2007 @ 6:49 pm
This sound i know this sound, yes i remembered when people use to say these same words, devs supporting getting backhands for dev’s to delay or cancel title, that’s it, it was sega fans crying and bitching and look at it were have sony fans doing the same thing. Look we are all gamers either PC, console look even board games can be counted, the question is this are we gamers buying an image or are buying a format that has the software, Dev’s have no loyality, sorry i’m wrong they do but that’s to the shareholds. We public/ consumers must have a choice, there not stopping all of us from being multi-format users, If a game misses it arrival date but it out on your other platform then go get end of story.
I most state this point, exclusive the only titles that should be exclusive are tiltes made by the hardware developer and that all software should be multiformat.
Comment by Raiden — May 27, 2007 @ 6:17 am
@ Whackmushrooms, the reason nobody else said anything was because they chose to ignore your pathetic post which made you sound like a ten year old.
Back onto the topic, Ubisoft games are usually great and the new Assassins Creed trailer looks amazing. As for Haze, it looks good - before Ubidays when people were saying “they’re going to announce a PS3 exclusive” was that the timed exclusivity of Haze or something else?
Comment by Tom Eccles — May 27, 2007 @ 4:59 pm
The Furnmeister isn’t French. Or a prudebag, whatever that is.
Comment by Pete Cullen — May 27, 2007 @ 8:35 pm
Ah, Ubisoft, the ones behind *cough* quality games *cough* such as CSI, 187 Ride or Die, Ninja Turtles, Red Steel, Open Season, Far Cry Wii, Cold Fear, Dogz, Catz, Horsez, Bomberman Hardball, Import Tuner Challenge, AND 1 Streetball, Dukes of Hazzard etc etc?
Never mind
.
Comment by Claire — May 28, 2007 @ 2:47 pm
Why bitch bout exclusives? Ask any kid/man/gamer what console he wants and its a ps3… the tide will turn.
AC & Haze sounds like really good titles, just work the splitscreen action, or the console devs will face a bigger threat: teh all mighty pc which now can just like a ps3 be connected to the tv via hdmi for hi def action…
Comment by Suetsu — May 28, 2007 @ 4:21 pm
UbiSoft and EA are low-tier in terms of quality just FYI.
Comment by That guy, you know — May 28, 2007 @ 5:52 pm
How about asking Ubisoft why their PS3 ports have not lived up to expectations (framerates, graphics quality).
Comment by BL123 — May 29, 2007 @ 5:05 am
Can you blame microsft for getting in bed with Ubisoft. I would have gotten in bed with them too. If only Sony had recognized the greatness and potential of Ubisoft.
Comment by Mansa — May 29, 2007 @ 7:57 am
Sorry but… i don’t like Ubisoft anymore, they gave us s**t on our PS3, they kept talking bad about it, they’re clearly on the Xbox360 side…. so i don’t trust them anymore….
Comment by Shinnok — May 26, 2007 @ 12:09 am
- Don’t blame Ubi or Capcom for releasing their grip on exclusives, they have to make money at the end of the day and Sony set the price point for their new console….if you are making a game you need a marketplace, Sony told all the devs they’d have sold X units by release date and they have not, so fair enough to the devs wanting to make some cash
Comment by Basil Brush — May 29, 2007 @ 12:03 pm
Ubisoft is about snatching up smaller game dev’s, taking their products, and calling them their own. They are a publisher, not a developer. They are leeches. I’ll buy R6V for PS3, but after that, no more ports from Ubiblows. They don’t care about the PS3 platform. It’s too hard for them. Hacks. And if Bill Gates stops too quickly, Yves gives him a free recta exam.
Comment by MacDaddy — May 31, 2007 @ 11:59 am
RE: Making release dates, yes, it’s always disappointing but I think porting to the PS3 has proven more difficult than first thought.
Thats the problem, don’t port.
Make the games for the consoles as it should…
Ubisoft, stop complaining and make good games on every console/pc
Comment by Draconac — May 31, 2007 @ 12:00 pm
In Haze’s defense. It’s actual developers are free Radical fellas. The guys that did Timesplitters. Those games are know on PS2, so if they say PS3 is the lead platform, that’s good news. I also here it’ll use the Sixaxis motion control from the Haze forums.
I don’t think Ubisoft is in bed with MS or anything of the sort. X360 is just an easier machine to work with-PERIOD. If PS3 came out first, this probably wouldn’t be a problem. MS is simply benefiting from launching before the competition.
After Sony and a few exclusive 3rd party guys so us what PS3 games can really look and play like, then companies like EA and Ubisoft will be forced to devote teams to make games specifically for PS3.
Just hold on a little bit longer guys, Sony is really cooking things up for 07. It’s just that the best stuff is actually coming from Sony this time around, and not 3rd party.
Comment by Jarod — Jun 3, 2007 @ 8:33 pm
Ok UBISUCKS IS BSing ps3 gamers they get on us about our install base. Holding games back because it is not big enough. Yet, the PS3 install base is bigger after 6 months, than the 360 was. Yet they released all their games on Xbox its first year but us PS3 gamers have to wait im calling BS. So umm how do u UBIsoft fans explain that? They are in bed with microsoft and have always given Playstation Games the Shaft. Ps2 was the outright champion last gen and they still gave us crap ports. There has never been a UBISOFt game that was better on Playstation 2 or 3 than on XBOX or 360. period coincedence i think not MS pocket umm… yes
Comment by Sham — Jun 4, 2007 @ 5:01 pm
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