ubidays-2008 posts (Subscribe to this feed)

HAWX gets voice control options

by Scott Jon Siegel { May 31st 2008 at 1:00AM }

Not to be outdone by EndWar's fancy gesture controls, Tom Clancy's HAWX will feature a voice control option, allowing you to squawk commands to your squad mid-dogfight.

Eurogamer learned of the feature during UbiDays, but was unable to get further clarification. According to Eurogamer, an Ubisoft representative also discussed the game's two-player cooperative mode, with a promise of more multiplayer details as the holiday 2008 release approaches. This is where we'd make Top Gun references if we knew any.

Imagine: Princez of Persiaz

by Candace Savino { May 30th 2008 at 4:00PM }

The Wii might not be Prince of Persia-less, after all. With Ubisoft's track record on the Wii, though, we're not even sure that's a good thing.

Recent rumors "reveal" that Ubisoft made mention of a new Prince of Persia game for the Wii at Ubidays. According to LiveWii, it will be a spin-off of the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, but other than that, few details are known.

As you might imagine, gamers can't help but be jaded by such a rumor. If it's an Ubisoft Wii game, it must either be bad or full of minigames, right? We love it, though, when people put such cynicism into picture form. That's why we've posted a handful of them (made by NeoGaffers) after the break. Even if this turns out to be a rumor, we're glad it existed just so that we could look at such silly and cynical images.

Be warned: One of the following pics is adorably NSFW. (That will make sense once you see it.)

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Get all the Ubidays 08 content at Big Download

by Xav de Matos { May 30th 2008 at 3:30PM }

By now you've undoubtedly seen the trailers for Beyond Good & Evil 2, Prince of Persia and Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., but more than likely you've only witnessed the Ubisoft library in standard def blurriness. Well our little brother site , Big Download has you covered with high-def downloads for all of Ubisoft's upcoming games.

Head over to Big Download now, or click on each title below to bring you to its respective download page.

Beyond Good & Evil 2
Teaser

Prince of Persia
Teaser
Speed Drawing (Prince)
Speed Drawing (Elika, the Prince's new ally)

Shaun White Snowboarding
Intro
Trailer

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.
Trailer

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
Trailer

Video: Tom Clancy's EndWar gameplay demo

by Richard Mitchell { May 29th 2008 at 1:30PM }

Yesterday brought us some in-game footage of Tom Clancy's EndWar, but today brings us an actual gameplay demo from Ubidays, including the often touted voice controls. You'll hear the Ubisoft demonstrator saying things like "Unit One, attack Hostile Two," and, through some kind of devilry, the game does exactly what he commands. There are a few details left unclear in the video. For example, we're not sure exactly how labels are applied to units and areas. How does the player designate an area as Bravo? How do you determine with unit is Unit One? It's possible that the game labels these things automatically, but we won't know until we get some more details.

However it all works, we're definitely intrigued. If the voice commands really do work as well as they appear to in this video, Ubisoft may have found a solution to the console RTS problem after all.

Ubidays '08: Prince of Persia producer on sidekick, new prince

by Christopher Grant { May 29th 2008 at 11:28AM }

click to enlarge

Ubisoft wasn't showing off much of its new Prince of Persia title at the Ubidays event in San Francisco earlier this month, but it did trot out producer Ben Mattes to acrobatically dodge – and sometimes answer – the queries of a room full of journalists left unsated by the beautiful, if not particularly informative, CGI teaser trailer.

First, what do we call it? Though the Ubidays press materials listed the title's name as Prince of Persia Prodigy, the very same name recently trademarked by the IP-owner Jordan Mechner, Mattes wouldn't confirm that that was the final title: "I don't think we've announced the final title."

If you're still unable to wrap your head around where this new prince fits into the existing franchise, Mattes wants you to forget about everything that's come before. "The Sands of Time trilogy is over. We're finished that story," he explains for what we're guessing is the hundredth time that day. "It's a new prince, with new challenges. There's no chronological connection with what's gone on in the past."

Gallery: Prince of Persia (2008)

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Download the Ubidays 2008 trailers here

by Ross Miller { May 29th 2008 at 10:30AM }

If you're interested in owning an HD copy of the Beyond Good & Evil 2 teaser trailer (and really, who isn't?), our file sharing friends at BigDownload (Update: and GameDaily) are offering all the HD trailers from yesterday's Ubidays 2008 event as, erm, big downloads. Check out all the trailers below, including two Prince of Persia speed sketches of the Prince and Elika (here's a game: count the number of times the artist changes brush settings).

Beyond Good & Evil 2 teaser (217 MB)
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway trailer (111 MB)
Prince of Persia teaser (62 MB)
Prince of Persia speed drawing: Prince (9.4 MB)
Prince of Persia speed drawing: Elika (13 MB)
Raving Rabbids TV Party gameplay trailer (59 MB)
Raving Rabbids TV Party teaser (55 MB)
Tom Clancy's EndWar trailer (111 MB)
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. trailer (181 MB)
Shaun White Snowboarding intro (150 MB)
Shaun White Snowboarding trailer (110 MB)
Soul Calibur IV Yoda gameplay trailer (25 MB)
Soul Calibur IV Darth Vader gameplay trailer (31 MB)
Soul Calibur IV cinematical trailer (106 MB)

Rabbids, Persian Princes and Beyond Good & Evil 2? Check out all our coverage (and a bountiful amount of screenshots) from Ubisoft's Ubidays 2008 event.

Ubidays 2008 screenshot roundup

by Ross Miller { May 28th 2008 at 5:00PM }

More rabbids! More abso-freaking-lutely gorgeous new Prince of Persia screens! More Beyond Good & Evil! There's been a lot of great eye candy coming out of Ubisoft's Ubidays 2008 Event. Check out all the new screenshots below (also after the break).

Gallery: Prince of Persia (2008)

Gallery: Beyond Good & Evil 2

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Far Cry 2 tech video is a pyro's dream

by Richard Mitchell { May 28th 2008 at 4:30PM }

More from the Ubidays event, as Ubisoft has released a tech demo video of Far Cry 2 and, more specifically, the Dunia engine on which it runs. The video shows off lots of nifty aspects of the engine, such as dynamic weather, dynamic light and shadow, day and night cycles, and (beautiful) procedural sky. Oh, and did we mention that it's frickin' gorgeous? Well, it totally is. Lest we forget, the video also shows off the engine's fire propagation. In other words, if you set something on fire, it will, in turn, set other things on fire. Sounds like a great way to surprise a hut full of guerillas.

Avatar game is 3-D, coming mid-2009, Ubisoft confirms

by James Ransom-Wiley { May 28th 2008 at 4:30PM }

Speaking during the Ubidays 2008 conference in Paris today, Yves Guillemot confirmed that the "wonderful" game adaptation of James Cameron's Avatar (not The Last Airbender) would use a new, true 3-D technology developed by Ubisoft, which will presumably be used in other unannounced projects as well. Guillemot did not comment on Cameron's so-called revelation that Avatar will require ~~standard, polarized~~ some form of 3-D glasses to enjoy the screen-popping action (though we continue to assume it will). He did note, however, that the game is expected to ship in the middle of next year, likely coinciding with the fim's release (also 3-D) in summer 2009.

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New Prince of Persia teases 'deadly new ally'

by Ludwig Kietzmann { May 28th 2008 at 4:00PM }

Well, it's nice having a deadly new thing on your side for a change. Ubisoft's teaser video for the new Prince of Persia, hitting Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC this holiday season, doesn't reveal much, but it does provide a glimpse of the title's touted, open world and the princely protagonist's lovely assistant, Elika.

We lika very much, actually.

Gallery: Prince of Persia (2008)

Beyond Good & Evil 2 revealed [Update]

by Xav de Matos { May 28th 2008 at 3:00PM }

At the end of the Ubidays 2008 conference today, CEO Yves Guillemot left the audience stunned with a final teaser--Michel Ancel's Beyond Good & Evil 2. We've heard rumblings of BG&E2's development in the past and Ubisoft has finally come clean on the sequel to the critically acclaimed title.

We will have the official teaser trailer, showing off the ragged Uncle Pey'j and an older Jade, as soon as its mad available.

Update: Check out the teaser trailer starring everyone's favorite hog, Uncle Pey'j and a glimpse at an older Jade after the break.

Gallery: Beyond Good & Evil 2

[via Joystiq]

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Beyond Good & Evil 2 revealed at Ubidays 2008

by James Ransom-Wiley { May 28th 2008 at 2:41PM }

click to enlarge

Closing out the Ubidays 2008 live conference, CEO Yves Guillemot left the audience with one final teaser: the next project from designer Michel Ancel. While the trailer stops short of naming its subject, we'd recognize that schnozzle anywhere. Why that's Uncle Pey'j of course! And look at dear Jade, she's gone and grown out her hair.

The "Beyond Good & Evil 2" debut trailer is posted after the break! (Beware: Graphic fly snorting ensues.)

Gallery: Beyond Good & Evil 2

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Joystiq hands-on: Far Cry 2

by Christopher Grant { May 28th 2008 at 2:10PM }

When we last saw Clint Hocking, creative director at Ubisoft Montreal, he was making a last minute stop at PAX to show off Far Cry 2. The visibly tired Hocking took us on a tour of the new game's exotic environment, the African Serengeti – exoticism being the game's major connection to the original. A couple weeks ago at Ubisoft's Ubidays event in San Francisco, Hocking was there again, but in a smaller room (decorated in an African theme) surrounded by journalists actually playing the game.

"It's 50 square kilometers, an open world," he says. We'd heard the same thing previously, as far back as PAX. The game had always been ambitious; now, it was running quite smoothly right in front of us, on an Xbox 360. So, how close are they to reaching that goal of being an entirely open world shooter? From what I could tell in this very limited demo, pretty close.

Gallery: Far Cry 2 (Ubidays '08)

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Ubisoft bringing Allen Carr's 'Easyway to Stop Smoking' to DS

by Ludwig Kietzmann { May 28th 2008 at 1:50PM }

As evidenced by the many circular singe marks across our DS' bottom screen, we sometimes forget when we've switched the stylus out for a ciggy. Thankfully, Ubisoft and some guy, Allan Carr, frown upon our deleterious, chain-smoking activities, announcing their intention to teach us the "Easyway to Stop Smoking" via the DS. Developed in conjunction with Mr. Carr's "top experts" (top experts), the game will echo the method featured in the Easyway to Stop Smoking book, as well as its network of clinics.

In case you were wondering, Ubisoft's press puff piece notes that said method "removes the smoker's belief that smoking provides them with any genuine pleasure or crutch, takes away the feeling of deprivation and therefore rids the smoker of the fear of stopping." If your lungs haven't been reduced to a hyperventilating mass of black goo by then, you can discover the Easyway to Stop Smoking this November.

Raving Rabbids TV Party, for use with balance board, coming this winter

by Ross Miller { May 28th 2008 at 1:15PM }

Click to embiggen ... Daaaah!

Those wascally wabbits are back. Ubisoft has announced Raving Rabbids TV Party, due out this holiday season for the Nintendo Wii and DS. Said the press release, "The Rabbids plan to invade televisions worldwide, providing players with a variety of games and comedic exploits spoofing TV shows, pop culture and even advertisements."

As was hinted in a recent video (embedded after the break), TV Party will make use of the Wii balance board. Early screenshots indicate the balance board is not required for every game, but will involve sitting on the board and shaking your butt. Said CEO Yves Guillemot, "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!" More details are to come at this year's E3.