It took a while for Ubisoft’s press conference to find its groove, but after a series of speeches about convergence and market innovation, Ubisoft finally kicked things off properly by pulling acclaimed director James Cameron (Terminator, Aliens) out of the ether to discuss his widely anticipated film, Avatar, and the game that’s being simultaneously developed alongside it. Cameron admitted that most movie licensed games “sucked,” but seemed impressed with how the Avatar game was progressing. Ubisoft boasted that they were selected to work on a certain amount of CG renders in the actual film, and Cameron reciprocated by saying he had been inspired by portions of the art direction for the game, and even pulled some specific ideas in his movie. It appears Avatar the game will feature a narrative independent from the film, but will still capture to mood and, most importantly, feel of the actual film. Presented in true 3D, like the film, Cameron even stated that, upon the short demo he received, it was the first time he actually was terrified by a videogame. We don’t know if he’s ever played Silent Hill before, but it looks quite likely that Avatar, with its considerably long development time, looks to break the chain of crappy, half baked movie licensed games.
Sometime later Ubisoft flashed over to Red Steel 2. The sequel to the Wii lunch title looked quite a bit better and significantly more interactive than the first title, mostly thanks to the inclusion on the (bundled) Wii Motion Plus. The input delays and less and accurate nature of the first game appear to be put to rest with WMP’s instant 1:1 input response. Dicing up foes admittedly looked like a bunch of dumb fun, and shooting them in the air, Devil May Cry style, looked equally impressive, but one has to wonder what they’re going to do to sustain an entire game with these mechanics. Still, as the opening, being-dragged-by-a-horse sequence conveyed, they might pull it off if they can do such compelling things with perspective.
If nothing else, Splinter Cell Conviction looked to raise the bar in the integration department. The “agent gone rogue” storyline is a bit hackneyed, and the uncompromising badassery of Sam Fisher was, at this point, expected, but the cinematic presentation of mission objectives and seamless narrative conveyance was a refreshing blast of immersive delivery. In an interrogation scene, rather than take players away from the action with lengthy cut scenes and trite dialogue, the plot information was broadcast on the side of the environments walls, like a minimovie that occurred as Fisher tortured the guy in real time. Later, on Fisher’s assault on a mansion, plot points and direction were scaled on the sides of buildings and on the floor below enemies. It was a little jarring at first and, originally, I thought it would distract me from falling into the game’s world, but as further examples appeared, it seemed more and more like a stylized, seamless integration and combination of navigation and narrative. The predefined execution of the new “stealth” elements looks kind of fishy, but it probably won’t matter in the face of the game’s presentation.
At one point Ubisoft reran the Ruse video that also appeared at GDC. It featured two men playing some sort of futuristic real time strategy bases war game on some sort of table top contraption. I have no idea what the hell system it was for, I was going to guess iPhone or some sort of touch based option with the newly announced Natal for 360, but details were withheld and Ubisoft was uncharacteristically vague about the whole thing. Who knows where this one is going, but, regardless, it looked interesting.
Early in the show we were teased with the appearance a popular athlete, but I don’t think anyone could have predicted Pele would make an appearance. He was there to talk about his dedication to keeping children active an educated, and sought to do both with his participation in The Academy, a soccer football game exclusively for the Wii. The setup, with some sort of mythical team stealing a trophy from Pele’s soccer academy, carried a certain amount of charm and, honestly, felt quite similar to Space Jam. The graphics looked far beyond the Wii’s potential output, and we were denied a real time demo, but the gameplay seemed to indicate you would, from a first person perspective, participate in a soccer match by controlling only one individual player. This game looks pretty far away, but it could prove to be a winner if we get some more information somewhere down the road.
After that Ubisoft had to feed the monkey by subjecting us to the admittedly boring line of Imagine games. They had some slides demonstrating the financial success of casual games and some of the jewelry creation options, where you design jewelry on your DS, upload the art, and receive the item (via mail) in real life was interesting, but you’re not going to win over a crowd of mostly male journalists by showing Tween games for girls. Still, I respect the intended audience’s interest in such a product and, like they said, these games are making boat loads of cash. If that’s what’s necessary to refill their pockets, then so be it.
Perhaps the most chaotic part of the night was the debut of the new Raving Rabbids game. The customization options for your Rabbid, by done by torturing/dressing them inside of a virtual Wiimote, was charming, but the gameplay left a little to be desired. Basically a repurposed Katamari Damacy, it had you going around environments and collecting progressively larger set pieces on a shopping cart. The stack in your cart wasn’t consistent and disappeared eventually, which was disappointing given the large ball of accumulated crap was part of Katamari’s appeal, but an alternate mode, where you sucked up objects in a stolen jet engine, was a fun spin on the formula and definitely brought a smile to everyone’s face. Regardless of the lack of inspiration in the gameplay, the presentation was just as charming as ever; Rabbids are legitimately funny, and praise to Ubisoft for hitting the marks on that one.
I wasn’t aware of this, but apparently remnants of Game Arts (Super Smash Bros Brawl) and Team Ninja (Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive) collaborated to craft a four player, Ninja Turtles based fighting game for the Wii. Featuring the word “Brawl” as often as they could, the TMNT Smash Up looks to capitalize on the mayhem of Smash Bros in both aesthetic and feel. The visual looked like a slightly more stylized version of Smash Brawl, except with the obvious replacement of Nintendo characters with representatives from the TMNT universe. I’m not sure if lighting can strike twice, but this game should be awesome of the lineage of the developers stays consistent.
It was almost glossed over, but the biggest announcement of the show (for me, at least) came in the form of Q? Entertainment’s involvement in a new game, currently named Eden, for Ubisoft. Guys from Q? are responsible for Lumines and, one of my favorite games of all time, Rez, so I’m eagerly anticipating more information on this one sometime down the road.
Ubisoft is also taking a stab at the fitness market with Your Shape, a title designed to be used with their original motion camera for the Wii. It looked to outclass Wii Fit and EA Sports active by using somebody scanning technology to make sure you’re bending and stretching properly, but I’m not sure if the end result, i.e. the amount of calories burned, will differ from either of the already released fitness games. Still, that genre is growing exponentially, and Ubisoft’s entry in this field looks to be formidable.
The press conference closed with a brief look at Assassin’s Creed 2, with a new character prowling the streets of Venice. The art style was beautiful and engaging, but it was limited to the dynamics of a CG trailer; unlike nearly everything else, no actual gameplay footage was shown. Still, the first Assassin’s Creed was Ubisoft’s biggest new franchise in 2007, so the sequel shouldn’t disappoint and, hopefully, we see it on the show floor tomorrow.
