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Surprise of the Century: Assassin's Creed Sequel In Development

Shiva Stella — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:26:21 -0500

Though it should hardly surprise anyone, a recent slip at TGS has almost-kinda-sorta confirmed that a sequel to 2007's controversial hit, Assassin's Creed, is indeed being developed.

According to Animation Director David Wilkinson, "He [Assassin's Creed animator] is busy making Altair even more beautiful. Last thing I saw him do was [get] Altair to swim."

For those of you keeping track, this means that:

The ninja theme suspected given the original's indecipherable ending is a little less likely
He can finally swim--now you won't drown every time you touch the water. And that, children, is progress.

Assassin's Creed DS Gameplay Footage: I Feel Asleep

Aaron Dunlap — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:52:41 -0600

Since its announcement, Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles has been kept pretty close to Ubisoft's maternal chest, odd for a game that could conceivably be such a big deal.

Well here's some gameplay footage. Do not watch while operating heavy machinery.

I guess the minigame shown near the end to pick pockets looks pretty interesting. It appears you scratch out the screen to reveal the contents, then have to drag the thing you want out of the pocket like a medieval game of Operation.

First Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles Screenshots

Shiva Stella — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:22:20 -0600

If you've played through Assassin's Creed you might have been wondering how Ubisoft could shrink that entire visual package to the Nintendo DS and pass go.

Well, wonder no more. Here are some interesting shots of Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles on the DS. It looks like many of the game's mechanics will be present - pickpocketing, eavesdropping, roof-top leaping, etc - but apparently cut-and-pasted icons have been added to the GPS. At the very least, the game should prove entertaining.

View media at the jump.

Worst of 2007: Biggest Disappointments

Aaron Dunlap — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:56:59 -0600

This industry is one that deals mainly in the indirect re-shoveling of hype. Publishers dump the hype on us, we shovel it onto to masses, the masses ask for more, we shovel some more. By the time a game releases, it's rare for anticipations to be met, and even after all these years we're not immune. We still fall for it. We let our hopes dictate the quality of an unreleased game in our over-stimulated little brains.

These are two games that had legendary levels of hype and were destined for record-breaking sales sight-unseen but did not match the hype.

While not a terrible game, and in some aspects almost revolutionary, Assassin's Creed is not the game we thought it was going to be. The brazen, well-crafted executions we expected weren't there, instead we got to tediously repeat the same set of actions over and over to reach a series of uninteresting kills. The rich and dynamic story we were expecting was also alarmingly absent. The advertisements that seemed to show the fringes of a very deep story turned out to have absolutely nothing to do with the game, and one of the most interesting periods of history was, as I said in my "What I Hate About Assassin's Creed" feature, used as the backdrop for a Dan Brown novel. A bad Dan Brown novel, with a completely indiscernible plot and atrocious voice acting.

Halo 3 was burgeoning with hype the second Halo 2 hit the shelves. The epitome of an inevitable sequel, Halo 3 rampaged through its development cycle with a cyclone of marketing and hype (two words: "Gamer Fuel"). This game had so much hype that it had to have swept up many people who haven't played a Halo game before, and what did those people get? Confusion. And a mediocre product. If you set aside the multiplayer mode, the single player campaign is not what you expect from a mega-ultra-blockbuster. If you aren't intimately versed in the Halo universe, the story will make no sense whatsoever. If you've played games such as Gears of War and had your idea about what a "next gen" shooter can be, you'd probably find Halo 3 an almost mundane experience.

Lesson Learned: Gaming journalists have been slapping themselves on the wrist for years now for being part of the hype machine, and it seems that we'll never learn our lesson. If these two disappointments get us a bit closer to that (hopefully) eventual realization, all the better. We've got to stop elevating games in our minds into shrines of amazement before we actually see a product on the shelves and in our hands. Some of the best games of 2007 were the ones that not a lot of people were so anxious about, like Call of Duty 4 and The Orange Box. Perhaps these are games where the money was put into development instead of marketing.

[GOTY] Best Action Game of 07: Assassin's Creed

Shiva Stella — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:38:19 -0600

Our Review (****)

Why It Won: From the outset Ubisoft Montreal's Assassin's Creed presented itself as a different sort of game, as a stealth title marked by unrivaled beauty and the promise of a more open-ended adventure boasting clever target assassinations, amazing buildings to climb, a great musical score and ambiance, and a level of seamless interactivity when the gameplay goes according to plan. It's a damn-near awe-inspiring feeling the first time you perch atop the highest guard tower, ride through the beautiful countryside with the sun at your back, or engage in roof-top leaping for that quick getaway following a smooth-as-silk assassination (or if you're like me, the tragic unexplained death of a civilian - practice makes perfect).

Its greatest feature, however, is how drastically ambitious the title is: with a wealth of assassination/combat options and the mechanics in place for either stealth or action-oriented gameplay - refreshing for those of us who appreciate the option for a change of pace - the game is positioned for fun and intense play full of subtle enhancements that showcase how far the industry has come since the days of Pac Man and plumbers. Thanks to next-generation technology Creed's world is full of responsive, helpless civilians with a lot of them on-screen at once, only this time without lag or draw-in factors you've encountered in other games: you can position Altair anywhere in a city and from the tallest structure spy the whole network of buildings, guard towers, and people scurrying around like tiny ants.

The storyline is one of the strangest you'll ever play, but that doesn't make it less enjoyable, especially if you love this era of history and adore those "alternative" twists; the plot will pull the majority of you in with its peculiarity and great voice acting (though apparently this last bit is debatable), and for a lot of us that's probably because the game is not another Prince of Persia or World War II shooter. It does not feature aliens invading the planet, the threat of nuclear bombs, a kingdom that needs saving from a wicked monarch, or a pretty little princess in distress (for how else do they come?) For attempting something more innovative and not akin to the popularized crowd of blockbuster sequels, shooters, or never-ending RPGs, I give Ubisoft credit.

Why You May Disagree: For the fun that I had with it, even I had my qualms with Creed's gameplay, which becomes quite repetitive and frustrating in terms of mission objectives - which boast almost no variety at all - and combat - Creed's nicely sharpened double-edged blade that makes one wonder if Creed suffers from an identity crisis: is it a stealth title, in which case combat is to be avoided, or an action title in which it's to be embraced?

Naysayers are also quick to point to the game's unbelievably confusing ending that actually requires a guide to understand what the hell is going on, some illogical hiccups (why can't anyone swim, and why is it that someone riding a horse is immediately suspect by guards?), AI that needs a bit of work, and the damnable crazy people and beggars who get in the way when the player is attempting an objective or key assassination. Overwhelmingly, though, the game's greatest fault is that it failed to implement what it excels at the most: its seamless gameplay and assassinations that make the player feel like she's controlling the action in a big-budget film than merely playing a game. While stabbing a guard in the stomach and slinking away, blending into a crowd, is a lovely treat for stylistic play, the immersion is immediately ruined by getting pushed by a beggar woman into a guard who draws his sword and raises the alarm so that you have to climb the wall and hide in a "shady retreat" half a city away.

But We Say: Even with its slew of faults and hiccups, however, it's still one of the most inventive and original titles to release all year, not to mention beautiful and a bit less linear than the rest of the market, and this combined with what the game does do well makes it enjoyable and highly memorable for most, something I know I'll keep coming back to over the years despite its obvious drawbacks. Even so, I'm sincerely hoping that Ubisoft Montreal makes the necessary adjustments for the next one.

Runner Up:

God of War 2 - Released early this year, this sequel to the groundbreaking God of War had a lot great features. In fact, it was just as good as the original. The problem is, it's practically the exact same game as the original. There is very little new content there, just what feels like a continuation of the first instead of a successor to it. If they'd have made the game for the PS3 with next-gen-caliber content instead of releasing it for the PlayStation 2, Sony might have had a system-seller on their hands instead of wallowing in third-place for over a year now and blaming everybody but themselves.

CBS GameCore's Holiday Gift Guide 2007

Tim Grube — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:40:30 -0600

Our good friends over at CBS GameCore just posted their annual holiday gift guide that features everybody's top 5 along with the top 10 overall listings. Some of the games in the top 10 include:

What are your picks for this holiday season? Post them in the comments of this story! For the time being, head over to GameCore's website for the full listings.

Ubisoft to Patch Assassin's Creed (PS3) Soon

Shiva Stella — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:20:01 -0600

If you've been playing Assassin's Creed on your PlayStation 3 and experiencing freezes and other errors that make the game unplayable then you might be pleased to know that Ubisoft is aware of the problem and addressing it.

Your level of pleasure, of course, entirely depends upon whether or not you kept the game after experiencing the issues. Here's the info from a Ubisoft forum post:

Following our recent statement regarding the freeze issues that some consumers are facing with Assassins Creed on PlayStation 3, we can confirm that we are actively working on a game update. This update will help improve the stability of the game and will be released as soon as possible. In the meantime thank you for your ongoing feedback and patience.

Note that the problem-and-fix being addressed is for the UK version, but PS3 gamers stateside have already acknowledged that they're getting some of the same errors - and I see no reason why the fix wouldn't be released over here.

The Lows: What I Hate About Assassin's Creed

Aaron Dunlap — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 14:32:06 -0600

Assassin's Creed is one hell of a game. I don't mean in quality, per se, but in scope. It's huge, geometrically and conceptually. Like one of the better GTA games, you could probably wander around for days without really getting bored. The graphics are amazing, the free-running is unlike anything done in gaming before, and the concept is huge.

I'm just not liking it very much.

I've been taking my time, trying to experience the game as a whole, but I'm just getting sick of it. At this point I just keep playing because I feel that I owe it to myself to beat the damn thing rather than give up on it.

While I largely agree with Shiva's review and 4-star (better than average) rating, I think that if I were to give it a rating based on living up to potential it would definitely be closer to the bottom of the barrel. Typical complaints against video games are about how they could have been better, but my problem with Assassin's Creed is how it should have been better. This game had some of the best designers in the industry, a ridiculous budget, a nearly three-year development schedule, and all the consumer-demand one could ever ask for. Few things manage to live up to their hype, but the final product in this case managed to meet its hype but miss its potential.

I don't feel like there's really a game here. What we have is a vast mid-Crusades Israel simulator. The more I play, the angrier I get at how this game fails to be a game.

Assassinations are a Joke

The potential is huge. The hashashins (early assassins) of the era are legendary for their skills in killing and invisibility. They used disguises and meticulous planning to slip into areas unnoticed and kill high-profile targets right in public without ever being noticed. A mere insinuation of their presence was enough to terrorize any public figure. An assassination by these dudes was a work of art.

How do assassinations work in Assassin's Creed? You roll up to where the guy will be, are forced to watch some lengthy parcel of "story" through dialog which can't be skipped, work your way up to him, bash him a few times with your sword, get attacked by a thousand guards, deal with them, and then run away and hide in a pile of hay for the five seconds it takes for them to give up searching for you.

This is not without plenty of "investigation," though. Before you can kill your target you have to learn about him and where he'll be by pick-pocketing, evesdropping, and even beating people for information. You find out where he'll be, some potential weaknesses in his security, and why your leader wants him dead, and only then can you dispatch him.

Often times you'll hear people say that they have a map of where your targets' guards are positioned, so you steal that map from him. Awesome, now you have a map of where the guards are so you can plan your approach accordingly, right? Nope. Getting that map serves no purpose whatsoever other than to check off another required piece of "investigation."

As you gather more information about the target, does that make it easier to perform your approach or kill? Does it let you choose different ways of killing him or choose the best time to attack? No. There's really only one time that you can approach him and only one way to kill him.

So the first word in the title of the game could very well be replaced with "Nameless Thug," because there is very little in this game to give weight to the lofty use of the word "assassin."

I suppose what I want is a Hitman game taking place in ancient Persia. These are games that are worthy of naming themelves after professional killers. In Hitman games you actually make choices about how you'll perform your hits, choosing to sneak your way in via disguises, maybe sabotaging some piece of equipment, or just running in guns blazing and hoping one of your endless bullets finds your mark. You can use information uncovered through the game to determine weaknesses in your target's security and plan your approach carefully.

If only Agent 47 knew how much easier it was for his early predecessors. All you need is a sword and a pair of legs.

Why The Hell Am I Saving All of These People?

The only speck of variety within the game besides completing your assassination missions and deftly searching for useless flags is to save civilians who are being attacked.

It works like this: As you're sweeping across rooftops like Batman's ninja cousin, you'll hear someone down on the streets yelling, "Please, help me!" and still other voices yelling, "Thief! I'll have your hand for that!"

OK, then, someone needs help because there's a thief about? Maybe Thief's Garrot has come to visit and we can have a hooded-cloak fashion show. So you track down the disturbance and you find that a person is being surrounded by armed... people, and being pushed around. It looks like a mugging.

So these guys are the thieves, right? No, there's guards all over the place. The person shouting "thief!" was one of the guys hassling this civilian, so you're supposed to be saving a thief now.

Regardless of that, you drop down there and have a go at the attackers. If you're quick you can get a few of them with your hidden dagger before the rest catch on and begin swinging swords. Without question, the nearby guards will see this fight break out and will begin attacking: a) the single person who is already surrounded by attackers or b) the sword-weilding thugs who were just moments ago roughing somebody up while they screamed helplessly?

The guards attack you, of course.

So your once-noble attempt to save a civilian is now a situation where you're fighting off five or six enemies in order to save someone who is apparently a thief. Can you use the game's much-touted "GTF out of there and hide" feature to evade these guys and still consider the civilian "saved"? No.

Alright, so you've just killed six men while this civilian stands around like and idiot. Six men, slain in a public square and afterwords all this person can say is, "Gee, thanks, I don't know why they were attacking me but thanks for risking your life for little-old-me, I'll be sure to tell people about what you did," while having the game's camera locked in the most frustruating way possible during this exchange.

As a reward for doing this, vigilantes who were nearby are now allied to you, so that if you're ever being chased by guards and you run through this area the vigilantes will attack your pursuers and give you an opening to escape.

Wait a minute... if there were about five vigilantes there the whole time, and they're so impressed by my saving of that civilian, why didn't they just save the civilian themselves or at least help me out when it was apparent that I was trying to help? What kind of vigilantes just stand around while someone's being attacked?

The first time I did this, heard the idiot say that she'll "tell people about what I did," I thought I had discovered a truly amazing feature of the game. As I continued to save people, my reputation would grow and grow among the townspeople until I become a kind of hero, and where as I walk the streets people know to leave me alone and if I'm being chased people will all try to help me. Maybe I could even become so well known that guards would start to fear me and if a single guard came across me he'd get scared and run away.

No, nothing like that. When the guys you save state that people will hear about your heroics, they're just being gigantic liars. The only point of saving someone is so that the worthless vigilantes standing five feet away will become my BFFs.

Two People I Want to Stab In The Face:

Crazy People: After you reach a certain early point in the game, a variable switches regarding crowd population where suddenly about one-in-ten people on the street will be a skinny, shirtless, crazy person who moans, giggles, and shuffles with arms crooked in a somewhat offensive representation of what's basically autism.

When these guys see you, they giggle and shove you. They practically seek you out and push you, hard. Until you unlock the ability to regain balance, they will actually knock you over. Even if you're running at full speed past them, their advanced autism-brains allow them to lock onto you and time his deft shove so precisely that it'll meet your stride and still screw you up. He's just a crazy person, though, what are you gonna do?

Well, they don't seem to shove anybody else. They just shove me, and usually they'll shove me right into a guard who will take that as a cue to start killing me. I take that personally, so I want to take revenge by stabbing the life out of these mindless fools. I can't do that, though, they're just crazy people.

The only function of these people in the game is to piss the player off. That's all they're for. They're not "added challenge" and they aren't "atmospheric immersion," they're just a giant middle finger up the tailpipe straight from Ubisoft to you.
Poor People: "No please, you don't understand! I am poor and my family is sick, I just need a few coins. Please, sir, some money!"

On the streets there are a bunch of these whining poor women who will run up to you and stand in front of you, blocking your path, decrying their unfortunate eco-social situation. Like the crazy people, they only seem to do this to you and they seem to lock onto you from a distance and latch on for all eternity. I've had three of them on me at the same time. Three poor ladies, all with the same voice and the same lines, running in front of me and asking for money. If you try to push past them, they just catch up and continue asking for money. The game doesn't have any kind of money or inventory system, so you can't give them money. The only thing you can do is soldier on and try to get past them.

You definitely can't stab them in the face.

Again, they serve no purpose other than to annoy and frustrate you.

The Usual (Only) Suspect

One of the most-tauted features of this game is the whole "social stealth" element, where you have to blend in so the guards don't unilaterally decide to kill you.

This is a gigantic failure.

It's a good idea and there are times when it works, those times just aren't when you need them to. Guards seem to be unusually suspicious of you, to the point where if one is watching you and you bump into somebody or walk funny they will go from "suspicious mode" to "kill, kill, kill mode."

There's no logic to it. There's even been times when I've just been minding my business and a guard notices me and yells, "Assassin!" and initiates another "GTF out of there and hide" sequence. How the hell does he know I'm an assassin? Do I have a guilty face? Isn't the point of my outfit to blend in? If someone can look at me and instantly know that I'm an assassin, maybe the outfit isn't working.

This has nothing to do with any kind of reputation, however. Instead, it's apparent that in order to add difficulty to the game, the designers simply increase a value that determines how "suspicious" a guard will be as you progress through your nine required assassinations.

What I don't understand is that the very first time I was allowed to ride a horse, I was targeted for death because I had the audacity to ride the horse at a full gallop out in the open wilderness. The game wants you to slow down to a speed that in horse terms would be basically running on neutral on a slight decline when you're within a guard's sight. Even a casual trot will garner unwanted attention. I'm outside! Why can't I ride my damn horse?

And it's not even my horse, it's just some horse I found. Why are there so many free horses standing around? Why couldn't they have there be one horse that's just Altair's? Maybe there could be a feature to whistle for him to come find you when you need a horsie.

For lack of that, they just have plenty of ready-trained horses waiting around whenever you'd need them. It's like those services in larger cities where you can pay a monthly fee and have access to a whole fleet of rental cars parked at airports and train stations and other convenient locations, except they're horses.

If I'm just walking casually though the center of a city, I shouldn't be on anybody's radar. I shouldn't have to walk at a turtle's pace to keep from avoiding suspicion. I understand making people get curious when you're crawling over the side of a building like Spider-Man's ninja nephew, but just walking fast shouldn't unsheathe the swords.

There's a Plot Here. Try to Find it!

Somewhere beneath the surface of this game there has to exist some kind of plot, story, or narrative, I just can't find it. I can grasp along the edges of it as people often start talking and only shut up on the following Tuesday, but for the life of me I can't figure out what's going on.

The big "secret story element" that was supposed to be a big secret is stupid. Of all the things to keep secret in the history of man, this has got to be the stupidest. Keeping the second chapter of Metal Gear Solid 2 a secret made some sense, because it was a large plot twist, but this is just pointless. Not to mention, I figured it out from the second gameplay video from X06.

The bulk of the exposition comes from the leader of the Assassins as he and Altair practice an exercise where they each try to see who can say the most words without actually saying anything. He tells me to kill someone whose name I never remember but is supposed to be important, I go do my three "investigations" and find out some worthless information about him, I'll find that guy and he'll talk for about ten minutes, then kill I him, then after I kill him he just keeps on talking, then I go back to the leader who does a boatload of talking, but nothing is ever said.

It's like reading a novel where the narrative is in English but all the dialog is in Latin. There's something about the Templar and conspiracies, two great tastes that taste great together, but it all falls flat. Rather than telling an intriguing story about the Crusades and the Assassins (hell, how many young people today even know what the Crusades are?), they've decided to use one of the most significant and intriguing periods of history as a backdrop for a Dan Brown novel.

I'm a large proponent of video games as a storytelling device. This game is a storytelling black hole.

There's a Flag on the Field. No, Wait, There's A Thousand Of Them

So you've killed all nine targets, saved all of the worthless thief-civilians, and climbed every tall surface with a piece of wood sticking out of it, but are you done?

Yes.

But if you have no social life and are a slave to your Xbox Live gamerscore, you can spend the next eternity collecting all of the flags scattered around the game's 5 areas.

I hate collecting as a forced component of gameplay (played a Mario game lately?), but using collecting as a shoehorned extension of replay value just annoys me. Spider-Man 2, another free-roaming game I liked more for the engine than for the game, had collecting in the form of skyscraper tokens that were only located at the tallest buildings, so collecting them at least required some skill. The flags in Assassin's Creed are just strewn all over the place, so they only require that you play the game long enough for the skin of your hands to fuse with your game controller so you can blindly stumble upon all of them.

I'm sure kids on the playground are all showing off their mad skills by broadcasting how many flags they've found, but I'd prefer it if the game managed to find some kind of gameplay diversity besides performing the same five tasks over and over.

MISC

Why does Altair have to take a nap before and after every assassination? Is it just so morons don't ask their friends amidst a chuckle, "Hey, when does this guy sleep?"

Why does Altair, an acrobat with incredible dexterity who can fall from a building and catch himself just by his fingers, die instantly upon touching a body of water deeper than the soles of his shoes? I would prefer invisible walls as a means of boundary-containment to magical insta-death water.

Why does the game constantly take over my camera? I need it to see, but whenever something happens they don't just cut away from me to show it, they grab ahold of the camera and force it from my grasp. This is infuriating. The game also likes to limit my movement for the sake of drama. When you first enter an area where your assassination target is, the game locks you into walking, not because you need to, but just to make you angry. All these things do is interrupt the experience and remind you that you're sitting in a chair playing a video game.

A lot of people are complaining about the combat, but I don't have too many problems with it. Actual sword-to-sword combat is very complicated and isn't rarely handled in games in favor of systems where you swing a weapon wildly and people die. For that, it's nice to see a system where swords often fall upon other swords pulled off in a mainstream game. The combat isn't fun at all, but the game seems to want you to avoid it anyway. Except for all those times where they force you into it. Then it just sucks.

The voice acting in the game is mostly good except for two problems. First, the poor women who I mentioned early in reference to the desired stabbing of their faces, when you walk away from them they say, "No you don't understand..." but you never said anything so they should be saying, "No, you don't understand..." The second small problem I have with the voice acting is that the voice work of Altair, the main character of the game, is absolutely horrible. They got an ethnically-appropriate actor for the role, but no matter what he says, it always sounds like a white college-age guy talking to an ex-girlfriend on the phone.

Conclusion

Reviews for this game have been along the lines of "Assassin's Creed: Great Game, or Greatest Game?" but I have to say that I find the game to be a huge letdown.

On one hand, the graphics, ambient sound design, and free-running are all spectacular beyond anything we've ever seen.

On the other hand, the actual "game" part of the game is annoying, derivative, repetitive tripe and it often seems as if the designers have an actual grudge against the player.

Balancing out those two things is difficult. It's not difficult to recommend such a pretty game, but pretty easy to trash on it as well. As a matter of economics I would recommend people don't buy it unless they can appreciate the technical achievements of it. The game is getting largely favorable reviews, though, but I suspect that we reviewers might have been swayed by the beautiful visuals at first and hadn't had enough time to digest the rough bits.

People loved Perfect Dark Zero right after release, remember? Then it had some time to settle and we realized it was pretty damn bad. I think that after a while, maybe a few months, people will start to realize that, though very beautiful, Assassin's Creed is a stinker.

Assassin's Creed Ending Explained: Be Confused No More

Shiva Stella — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:31:14 -0600

If you've already completed Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed and are at a loss as to what the ending means, Xbox World 360 has posted a detailed explanation regarding all the freaky symbols, emails, ancient deities, and dates given for the gamer to ponder.

Here's an excerpt (spoiler):

Q. Okay, so why can I not see it (the writing) until the end of the game?
A. Abstergo washed the messages off of the walls and the floor, but Desmond is able to spot the messages by using his Eagle Vision.

Q. Wait a second. You said that Desmond wasn't Altair! What gives?
A. He's not, at least, not yet... Read through Vidic's emails and you'll stumble across one that mentions 'The Bleeding Effect.' Vidic reports that, after using the Animus for a given length of time, some previous subjects were unable to distinguish between their ancestors' lives and their own. Their genetic and real-time memories have literally 'bled' into one another, which is why Desmond is able to use the Eagle Vision power at the end of the game.

Click the link for the full post. You can also find our own review of the title here.

This Just In: Ubisoft Makes The Money for Q3

Shiva Stella — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 12:00:00 -0600

Ubisoft has announced its results for the first half of the 2007-2008 fiscal year, claiming that sales are up 52% mostly due to the release of high-profile games, including Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 and Assassin's Creed.

The company also posted a little update on its release schedule following a third-quarter review, all provided at the jump.

Third-quarter business review

The third quarter of fiscal 2007-08 got off to a good start with a number of new games released in November including Assassin's Creed, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, Naruto: Rise of a Ninja, Beowulf, and the range of casual games. Assassins Creed has already notched up record sell-through sales of more than a million units, a positive sign that the brand will be successful and that Ubisoft has created another long-term franchise. The casual games including the Imagine, Petz and My Coach brands have also recorded a solid early performance.

2007-08 games release schedule updated

Ubisoft today announced that Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 will be released during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007-08. This release will capitalize on the success of the first episode. In addition, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction, previously scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007-08, will now form part of a stronger line-up for fiscal 2008-09. Lastly, Haze which was due for release during the third quarter of fiscal 2007-08 will now be launched in the fourth fiscal quarter. The targets previously announced by Ubisoft remain unchanged as they already took into account the possible impact of these delays as a preventive measure.

GB Review: Assassin's Creed (360)

Shiva Stella — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:52:04 -0600

Assassin's Creed: a veritable leap of faith?

Ubisoft Montreal's Assassin's Creed is one of the most ambitious, interactive, seamless, and intriguing titles in the next-generation lineup to date, boasting absolutely stunning visuals, superb voice acting, amazing historical thrills with a firm basis in an accurate presentation of this alternative past, and a curious storyline that will pull you in if you know what you're looking for. The game is beautiful and enjoyable, an experience you won't forget, and a gem for anyone with an appreciation of this era of history or gameplay style.

However, ambitious and astounding as it is, there are elements that feel forced, gameplay that becomes redundant, and bits of the plot that fail to make sense to the average player. The combat does become a chore (especially toward the end), a save-anywhere option is missing, and some variety is sorely needed (how come a third of all the civilians I save say exactly the same thing, be it in a different accent?), but while the gameplay does have its faults it's still impressive and well-done as far as mechanics go, plus you play an assassin - that's an automatic bonus in cool points. If Ubisoft Montreal had made some adjustments - switched up the missions, tossed in some variety in investigation objectives, upped the enemy AI some, and freshened the combat - this would have been a stellar title for the general public.

As it stands, its amazing qualities are somewhat overshadowed by gameplay design that failed to implement everything Assassin's Creed exceeds at as well as it should have, and while a five star game isn't perfect this failure knocks it down a notch. For those who appreciate its finer details, however, the game is worth its weight in gold and will be something you return to over the years and look back on and say, "I played that game and loved every minute of it" with pride.

Click here for an explanation of our review and scoring format.

There are two things that game critics hate when it comes to writing actual reviews, these being RPGs (devastating time-suckers) and really amazing games (trust me when I say that reviewing a piece of crap is always easier than something so good it inspires you and tugs at your heart). There is also a secret third item that critics hate to pin-down to a definite numerical figure, and this is the open-ended, highly ambitious interactive experience. Anything that doesn't amount to a functioning targeting system, an online mode, or saving the world from invading aliens/nuclear bombs is a lot more subtle and difficult to translate into a mathematical recommendation. I'm going to be blunt: Creed is not like the vast majority of games on the market, no matter the genre, and I think that explains at least some of the outlier scores (both negative and positive).

But I am not here to lecture on the reviewer's standard rating system or explain every intricacy and every moment of Creed that reminded me of why I'm a gamer or what I'm looking for (or not) in a game. I am here to address what I enjoyed and what I didn't quite so much, what the game excels at and what Ubisoft should have spent more time on, delays or not.

A sword and you. Classic.

And I'm going to start with the title's amazingly beautiful visual experience. Creed's presentation is superb and its graphics will boggle your mind; every fine aspect, from the movement of Altair's robe in the wind as he rests atop the highest steeple to the whole of a city that is viewable from a distance as the player trots up on horseback, Creed astounds. The lighting is amazing and you can clearly see the patchwork of light filtering through a lattice structure casting shadows upon a wall. Horses are perfectly mimicked and feel more realistic than any animal I've encountered in any of my virtual wanderings. Buildings are rendered incredibly sharp with every decorative item - from window bars and other convenient climbing protrusions to gorgeous mosaics and the golden sheen of the Dome of the Rock - catching the eye and inviting the player to explore.

Character models are next-generation quality, with every texture and style of pattern viewable in each person's clothing in impressive detail. Character movements are, dare I say it, natural, and this amounts to a seamless quality that almost convinces the player that he's walking the streets of a real world. Characters step aside for Altair as he gently pushes them away, drop objects they're carrying if he walks by carelessly, reacquaint Altair with the ground if he runs through too many civilians, or take no notice of him at all as he slyly slips through a large crowd, terminates a target, and inconspicuously melts into another batch of civilians before the body even hits the ground. This is the sheer genius of Creed, this smooth interaction that pulls the player into an assassin's life rather than having her assume a character's mere role.

The acoustic elements add to this inviting ambiance just as impressively, marked by your horse's hoof beats as you gallop across the countryside, the clatter of soldiers in their mess of gear, the bustling of the local marketplace, and so on. Creed's voice acting is what you'd expect from a big-budget title, with some very entertaining and intriguing performances from the primary cast, all nicely accented and featuring correct, realistic pronunciation. The linguistics might not seem like much, but they're vital for convincing the player that Altair's world is a living, breathing, and distinctly different thing, for which I give Ubisoft credit. It would have been even more persuading if civilians didn't quip the same lines all the time.

My friend, I think it's time you step away.

The immersion continues as the player explores the environs of Damascus, Acre, Masayaf, Jerusalem, and their surrounding grasslands, cliff-sides, small ruins and villages. While walking amongst the people is always a "socially acceptable" option, it's much faster and much more fun to take to the rooftops, where you can climb said amazingly detailed buildings, leap across giant chasms, dispatch foes away from the throng beneath your feet, and speedily maneuver from ledge to ledge, ladder to pole, synagogue to haystack at your leisure. The actual height of these obstacles is magnificent and damn near awe-inspiring as you activate view points and the camera spins around your perch. This life-like and free maneuvering off the ground is another aspect of the game's genius that invites the player to spend hours investigating every inch of Altair's world.

As much fun as exploring and rooftop-leaping are, the bulk of the gameplay is centered around performing successful assassinations, but these target assassinations can't be triggered without completing investigations first. Investigations are comprised of eavesdropping, pick-pocketing, killing the targets of fellow (lazy) assassins, interrogating propagandists, and collecting flags (the locked content is only reachable via collecting the flags of various cities/sects and killing knights templar). This is where part of that redundancy seeps through and breaks some of the game's immersion, as the investigation objectives become more like a chore to unlock the whole picture than a fun and varied assignment that progresses the plot. Ubisoft should have spent some time on increasing the mission variety and implementing that seamless interaction that makes Altair's universe so appealing; it's as if the team abandoned the natural feeling of the gameplay by having you routinely collect flags and pick-pocket letters. The only objectives that get interesting are the target assassinations, which - while entertaining and great fun - can't mask the redundancy of the typical mission. The "bonus" objectives - save the civilian and get to the view point - are nice inclusions - nice being that they're entirely optional - but don't add to the gameplay experience at all. They're just as redundant and will be skipped by players rushing through, making the core missions more difficult and frustrating.

Combat is another double-edged blade for Creed. The system is functional and beautiful in its bloody, seamless presentation if you perform the correct maneuvers at the right time, again convincing you that you've stepped into Altair's world and are fending off bad guys harassing harmless old men and damsels, but it gets repetitive when civilians scurrying from the scene attract the attention of additional guards who join the fray. Counter-killing foes, grabbing and pushing them into their allies, or exchanging swipes and blocking maneuvers is a treat, but it can be slow and tiresome when you're surrounded by ten guards with five more on the way and all you want to do is scale a building and hide in a bush. Or rather, a haystack/shady retreat/bench/group of scholars, as these are your only hiding or blending options. Again, the repetitiveness breaks the immersion level; Ubisoft Montreal definitely needed to increase hiding spots as well as variety between them.

The enemy AI, though appropriate and again, functional for the basic gameplay mechanics, also could have used some improvement. It's a tad unrealistic and less challenging when Altair can dispatch a civilian and stand there in blend mode while guard after guard approaches the body and speculates before meeting his doom. Again and again. At some point there should be a guard who determines that he is definitely not approaching the giant heap of bodies without significant backup. Maybe he's perpetually off-duty?

As an aside, elements of the gameplay that tend to frustrate players (those redundancy issues again) become more upsetting due to the lack of a save-anywhere system. You're entirely at the mercy of checkpoints and the good doctors who pull you from the animus (usually right when all you'd rather do is play). A save-anywhere system is sorely needed as well as an option to skip the dialogue you've heard before (as when you fail an informer's mission and have to hear the full assassin song and dance before you're told what you already know, again). Some gamers are also questioning why Altair and anyone else can't swim (there you go, Michael Smith).

I could write countless paragraphs on Creed's historical accuracy, twisting storyline, or all the amazing little subtle details that made me unable to put it down from beginning to end, or warn against rushing through it - this is a game in which your level of enjoyment directly correlates to time you're willing to spend doing things other than the primary missions. I could also go on and on about Ubisoft's failure to fully incorporate everything the game does well (and what it does well it does astoundingly so) into the actual gameplay mechanics, or remind you that there are portions that needed some additional work. Instead I'll end with a simple summation. Assassin's Creed is a rewarding, thought-provoking, amazing experience, fun in aspects utilized to their full potential, but the redundancy, the lack of variety in some of the smallest aspects, and forced segments may push some gamers away. If you're on the fence, spend some time with Altair and he'll "persuade" you that Creed is one of the most unique games you'll play all year, even with some caveats. Here's hoping Ubisoft hears the criticism and corrects the issues for the next one.

Also available on: PS3 | 360 | DS
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Release: Nov 14, 2007
MSRP: $59.99
Mature
Winner of GameBump's Best Action Game of 2007

Edit: if you've played through and are just as confused by the ending as the rest of us were, here's a detailed explanation.

360/PlayStation 3 Visual Comparison for Assasssin's Creed

Shiva Stella — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:51:26 -0600

Here's yet another Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 comparison video, this time featuring Assassin's Creed. The video is below and individual screenshots are provided at the jump. The footage follows the NFS Pro Street visual comparison, available here.

Assassin's Creed Available Now, Scores In and Video Reviews Going Up

Shiva Stella — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 10:06:30 -0600

Altair + you = happy

If you've been carefully observing Ubisoft's development and release details for its very hotly anticipated Assassin's Creed then you'll be pleased to know that today is the game's official ship date; copies of the title for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 should be available at local retailers by tonight or tomorrow morning (you might even be able to get it earlier depending on your mad shopping skills and/or annoying persistence/begging).

Here's a score roundup that I'll update tomorrow with the title's "official release" statement. The average for the Xbox 360version is currently at 84, followed by an 84 for the PlayStation 3counterpart. At least the scores are in the same range.

100 - GamePro: "It's hard to put the sheer size and brilliance of Assassin's Creed into words."
100 - GamesRadar: "With its riveting story, beautiful visuals and surprisingly lifelike world, Assassin's Creed is an incredibly deep, enjoyablegame..."
96 - XboxAddict: "A masterpiece; a true gem."
95 - Game Informer: "It's a game people will still be talking about five years from now."
91 - GameTrailers (video review here)
90 - GameSpot (video review here)
87 - Computer and Videogames
79 - TeamXbox
77 - IGN
75 - Worthplaying
70 - Eurogamer
70- 1UP: "It attempts a lot of ambitious things and it almost succeeds at every one."
67 - Planet Xbox 360: "After the first level I thought I had a winner on my hands for sure but as I played more... the game became more repetitive."

Have a link to the

New Assassin's Creed Screenshots

Solomon Lee — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 11:20:00 -0600

Ubisoft has released new screenshots of Assassin's Creed for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. The game will ship to retail stores on November 13.

Check the link to view more images.

New Assassin's Creed Trailer, Same Groovy Music, Oh and Screenshots

Shiva Stella — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:48:44 -0600

Ubisoft has published another official trailer for its Assassin's Creed, set to launch on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 13 (available Nov. 14). Scores are beginning to trickle in, but at this point there are only two of them as follows:

100 - GamesRadar: "With its riveting story, beautiful visuals and surprisingly lifelike world, Assassin's Creed is an incredibly deep, enjoyable game that kept us addicted from beginning to bizarre end."
95 - Game Informer: "Its stunning visual style, high concept story, and wildly open level design are like nothing else, even if too much repetition begins to frustrate in the later hours. Its a game people will still be talking about five years from now."

Check out the trailer at the jump. It's got the same groovy music you should be used to by now.

[Update] New screenshots are also available, viewable here.

Assassin's Creed is Gold

Shiva Stella — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:18:50 -0500

Just in case you might have missed it last night, Ubisoft has confirmed that its Assassin's Creed has gone gold and is indeed launching on November 13 for the PlayStation 3 and and Xbox 360 consoles with an MSRP of $59.99.

A limited edition will also be available, running at $69.99. Furthermore, eager gamers who pre-order the title at GameStop will receive a fancy art book.

As an aside, a Nintendo DS version is also launching on February 5, with a rumor of a PC version still up in the air. You can check out various versions and other goodies by clicking here. Tell them GameBump sent you.

New Assassin's Creed Video

Shiva Stella — Wed, 23 May 2007 12:40:00 -0500

This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.

Ubisoft recently unveiled a new trailer for its Assassin's Creed, currently being developed by Ubisoft Montreal for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 with a launch date of this fall. Enjoy.

divxMovie('http://files.gaminghorizon.com/t_assassinscreed_ubidays07.divx',true);

Tenchu: Time of the Assassins Officially Announced

Brian Mohr — Mon, 22 May 2006 20:47:00 -0500

This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.

SEGA has officially announced the upcoming release of the PSP title, Tenchu: Time of the Assassins.

In the game, player will follow the ninjas, Rikimaru, Ayame, Tesshu and Rin as you follow each character through a specific storyline. Something added to the game is the free mission mode which allows players to play 50 independent missions once you beat the single-player game.

Tenchu looks to include ad hoc multiplayer support as well. Allowing gamers to play head-to-head or cooperatively. There is also a level editor giving players the ability to create their own levels and share them with others through ad hoc download.

Tenchu: Time of the Assassins is scheduled to release June 23rd, 2006.