E3 2009: Ubisoft Press Conference

[modeps]

http://evavhost.com/i/news/ea2009.jpg

Starting in just a few minutes, Ubisoft's press event is set to begin. We're sure to see stuff about Assassin's Creed 2 and I Am Alive, so lets see how this one goes!


uplay was revealed. It's a new social networking thing for Ubisoft with content creation tools.
Avatar was discussed. James Cameron is on board to make a decent movie tie-in.
Red Steel 2 was shown using MotionPlus. It is very accurate.
Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage is a sequel to the Shaun White franchise. More snowboarding and out this year.
Academy of Champions is a game about a soccer school and was announced.
Splinter Cell Conviction was shown, the same stuff as from Microsoft's conference.
There was chat about the Imagine brand and the R.U.S.E trailer was shown
Rabbids Go Home was announced. It's another Rabbids game for the Wii.
Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles Smashup was shown, it's out this September.
No More Heroes 2 was discussed with no gameplay.
Assassin's Creed 2 shown in a CGI trailer. Guns are now being introduced.


Click the headline to check out the coverage in the first comment.

[modeps]

Reserved for Ubisoft Coverage, Starting 8pm ET / 5pm PT


Joel McHale takes the stage to MC the event. Starts off with a funny quote "Good Evening Fellow Nerds," and he's doing a stand up routine to kick things off.


Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft big wig takes the stage. Announces uplay online destination, basically a social networking tool with content creation tools. Launching at the end of the year.


Yannis Mallat, another Ubisoft big wig takes the stage. He's talking about Ubisoft working with James Cameron's Avatar movie. Their target is to use the same assets between movies and HD games. Releasing short movies this fall based on Assassin's Creed assets. Moving from just a game developer to a true media asset provider.


Speaking of James Cameron, here he is. Coming on to rap about Avatar. I'm not going to relay most of what he's talking about, just rolling on about the movie and stuff that's in it. No screens from the film or anything right now, just words. December 18th the movie hits, they've been working on it for 4 years.

Cameron just said that most games based on movies have "sucked" and he doesn't want anything related to Avatar to suck, basically, that's why they picked Ubisoft. Avatar is the first major "stereoscopic" video game (it'll be in 3d). Game doesn't spoil the movie, they live together in harmony. They don't step on each others toes.


Joel McHale is back on stage cracking jokes about French people and teleprompters.


Red Steel 2 It is super accurate and uses Wii motion plus. Trailer now. showing a pseudo western game and swordplay. Now gun and sword action together... blocking bullets with the sword and dueling. Jason Vanderberghe, lead designer takes the stage to talk about it and narrate the first level of Red Steel 2.

Everything they are showing is live and running on the Wii. Starts out in First person, you're being dragged along behind a motorcycle then eventually get free and stand up to play. Movement is really, really smooth. The picture-in-picture isn't sync'd quite right so human movements don't look mapped as advertised. Some cool gameplay elements like throwing dudes into the air and shooting them... also jumping up after them and slashing them. 60 Frames Per Second, and will be bundling with Wii Motion Plus.


Shawn White Snowboarding: World Stage Sequel coming this year. More balance board antics in a trailer that features mostly real video instead of gameplay.


Academy of Champions Pelé (yes, THE Pelé) takes the stage to talk about Academy of Champions. A game about a soccer (futbol) school. They are having technical difficulties, but its just shtick. A single shot of in-game Pelé is on the screen, very cartoony and Xbox 360 Avatar-like. They think the sport is important for young people. Now is an actual video from the game... looks like they're trying to mimic Hogwart's from Harry Potter. No in-game footage shown, just cinematics. Looks fairly interesting conceptually though. No platforms named, no release date.


Splinter Cell Conviction They're showing the same trailer we saw earlier at Microsoft's press conference. It looks really great, so I can watch again. They're about to show some gameplay footage... same thing they showed earlier today at Microsoft's. Again, looks really good. They've got a bit more info letting everyone know that the interrogation part is completely interactive and you can use the environment to help in getting the info you need. I like seeing head smashed through urinals.

I love the 'environment projected' objectives. They're a really slick touch. More coolness is that when you're in the darkness, the screen washes out to a black and white to show you are hidden. Enemies stay colorized. Again, very subtle but technically cool. 'Last Known Position' is also cool, shows a ghost of where the enemies last saw you. Exclusive to Xbox 360 and PC.


R.U.S.E. Showing the first trailer that was released a month or two ago. That's it. Nothing more to talk about.


Casual games time. Imagine is the best selling brand Ubisoft has, and the biggest brand on the DS by any publisher. "Welcome to Ubisoft's Tween Games 2.0" video is now playing, saying how great the Imagine line is. New games that tweens will probably love for sure. They'll sell a ton.


Felicia Williams takes the stage to talk about Fitness and Ubisoft... specifically talking about Microsoft's Natal. Conceptually telling everyone what they're going to do with it. Camera will help you train and track your goals. YourShape announced as the first camera enabled game... Whoops. They screwed us. This is a Wii title, and it comes with a Camera. Not a Natal title.


Rabbids Go Home announced. The Rabbids are going to the moon in a shopping cart. All CGI trailer. The goal of the game is to collect objects to build a tower to the moon. (ie, Katamari Jr.) Your Rabbid avatar can be modified using the Wiimote and then imported back into the game.


President of Ubisoft comes out to talk about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. French guy talking about an American comic book. Uh, huh. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smashup. This is the 25th Anniversary 'shellabration' of TMNT. No one laughs at the joke. Trailer plays. It is a fighting game, releasing in September.


No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is mentioned. Tetsuya Mizaguchi is getting props from Ubisoft President Laurent Detoc, but the game title is not revealed -- codenamed Eden.


Time for Assassin's Creed 2, releasing on November 17th. Trailer plays: 1486, Venice, Italy. All CGI again. Assassin will have a gun this time.


Show over.

[CrysDark]

This guy is a snore fest.

[Mav]

*prays they announce Shadowbane 2*

[Venkman]

Sam Fisher will beat the shit out of you

[Angelus073]

This conference is terrible!!!

[Zetsuei]

This is a fucking disaster. I am literally embarrassed for who ever is responsible for this conference. I feel actual pain from viewing this shit.

[Angelus073]

Acadamy of Champions?!?! Terrible.

[CrysDark]

This is a fucking disaster. I am literally embarrassed for who ever is responsible for this conference. I feel actual pain from viewing this shit.

Word.

We have a new contender for worst of show!

[Angelus073]

And it keeps getting worse and worse!

[Zetsuei]

Oh my god. Tweens. I'm going to flip out.

[Angelus073]

Casual gaming blows!! When will companies realise that the Wii buyers don't buy games!

[CrysDark]

There is a serious lack of smiles to express my disapointment

[CrysDark]

Hey look it's the Natal, someone call microsoft!

[Zetsuei]

This is ten times worse than last years Nintendo Key Note. All they need is M. Night Shyamalan to show up with a stupid-ass hair cut and demo their fitness game. All this is is a bunch of people talking about stuff that no one cares about, and demos of games we've already seen. If they don't show Assassins Creed 2, the world is going to implode.

[drowsy]

A human has never been less interested.. And I just know that they'll close out with Assassin's Creed 2, which I have zero interest in. Blagh.

[Angelus073]

Sounds like Natal is coming Christmas 2010.

[Zetsuei]

Oh dear sweet baby jesus, Rabbids.

[CrysDark]

Oh dear sweet baby jesus, Rabbids.

I lol'ed

The message you have entered is too short.

[Angelus073]

How long are they spending on the Rabbids?!?

[CrysDark]

They call that a shell-a-bration.

[Zetsuei]

And now they have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtals Brawl. "kuwa-boonga"

I hate this so bad.

[hmecey]

Watching this a bit late and I have a question.
Does Cameron ever shut up?

[Evil Avatar]

Watching this a bit late and I have a question.
Does Cameron ever shut up?

No, he thinks Avatar is the 'next big thing'. Given the secrecy around it and the average looking teaser shots I've seen from the movie it will either be the 'next big thing' or it will be the next big 'Snakes on a Plane'.

[revelation]

I read IGN's write-up on Splinter Cell and now I'm a lot more interested being able to put the video into context.

Assassin's Creed 2 (if they kill the silly repetition from the first one), No More Heroes 2 and the Rabbids. I dig 'em.

Thankfully you guys summarise all this stuff so I don't have to watch terrible presentations. Cheers for that!

[modeps]

Thanks to Evil Avatar for picking up the show around the casual game announcement mark so I could go and record the latest episode of Shotgun (http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1755225#post1755225).