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ubisoft
Ubisoft Looking To Combine Tom Clancy Franchises Into A "Megagame"
This is real pie-in-the-sky stuff, so remain seated while reading, but here goes: Ubisoft are looking into turning their five Tom Clancy series - Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Endwar and Hawx - into a "megagame". How's that going to work? Here's how. They'll do it in baby steps. For example, in the next Ghost Recon and the next Endwar, they're hoping the missions will be interwoven, a mission in Ghost Recon 3 being given context in the larger conflict by a mission in Endwar 2. More » -
tom clancy's endwar
Two New Tom Clancy's Endwar Trailers
Today we get to take another look at Tom Clancy's Endwar and if you're in the market for a new Odama style voice command strategy game - you might want to keep your eye on this one. The first video covers command points and explains how the more you acquire, the more mission command can offer you support in case you get yourself in a bind. The second video has explosions, tons of explosions! In the event that all else fails, defcon 1 is triggered and you can nuke your enemy back to the stone age. You can pick it up November 4th on PS3, PSP, Xbox 360 and DS. Second video after the jump. More » -
ubisoft
Ubisoft: Europe More Important than U.S.
As one commenter elsewhere points out, must be Europe buying all these Imagine titles, because for Ubisoft it's a bigger market than the U.S., "by more than five percent," said Ubi CEO Yves Guillemot in an interview with Gamesindustry.biz.
From the sound of it, the strength of European currencies against the dollar has something to do with it. But Guillemot also says the market's growing because gamers are becoming "more accessible" to European games, and of course flacks Ubisoft titles as leading the charge. EndWar (out in October) features voice commands, for example. So will Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., out next year.
"A game like EndWar, for example, which you can control by voice - it's totally changing the industry because it gives you the opportunity to command what's happening, and to have a quick answer to the orders you give," he said. "And it's the same for a lot of other games, like the party games you can play - the games with guitars are also helping things to increase the fun, and bring more people. Because when you have fun with your family on the game, you take them into more games with you."
If Europe is indeed Ubisoft's biggest market, fine, I don't know their numbers. But this to me sounds like sour grapes for getting beaten up by U.S. critics and gamers, especially over its Wii titles, and more than a little justification for going so heavy on the casual stuff. Whether that's retroactive justification — or pre-emptive — bears watching.
Ubisoft: Europe is Now Our Biggest Territory [Gamesindustry.biz, via Joystiq]
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EndWar Launches Private Beta
Ubisoft's voice-command real-time strategy game EndWay is getting a private beta this summer. A site set up for those invited into the beta says that it will take place for three weeks in June and July and only be in English.
The three gig download will feature three maps for 1v1 and 2v2 matches, but no offline play.
I hope they launch a public beta as well. As with most new ideas, the concept of voice-command mixing with real-time strategy isn't easy to wrap your head around without trying it first hand.
As I mentioned in my preview of the game earlier this year, it seems to work quite well and despite the reduced unit types, I think there's enough depth in the game to keep things interesting.
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ubisoft
Tom Clancy's EndWar Voice-On Impressions
I got a chance to sneak over to Ubisoft's San Francisco office during the Game Developers Conference and sit down with Michael de Plater, creative director Tom Clancy's EndWar, to talk about the upcoming voice-command strategy game. Better still, I also got a chance to actually play it—and what I saw impressed me.
De Plater said that part of the impetus for the game was the fact that, as real-time strategies have evolved, the genre has left a lot of people behind. People like my dad, even people, in some cases, like me. People, basically, who aren't interested in dealing with a Zerg rush five minutes into the game and instead want to play something a bit closer to, say, a detailed and realistic game of chess.
"One of the things we hear a lot of us is 'I used to love real time strategies, but it's gotten too complex'," he said. "So we decided to make a tactical game, slow the pace down. We call this game strategy at the speed of thought." More »
11:00 AM on Sat Mar 22 2008
By Brian Crecente
14,419 views, 83 commentsLatest by ironphoenix: @EVERYONE: its a freakin video game people! come down off your high horses and live in the real world. getting more »
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EndWar May Actually Work
While the choice of hosts is...regrettable, those able to withstand the obtrusive chit-chat may see instances in this video where console RTS EndWar's much-hyped speech command system actually works. There aren't many of them, but those precious few there are, well, they're enough to give you the chills. After all, real generals don't tap buttons on a controller, they say stuff, and stuff gets done. -
rainbow six vegas 2
EndWar Sneak Preview Packed in R6 Vegas 2
Packed in with the retail version of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is this neat little surprise: A Sneak Preview disc for upcoming, voice-command, real-time strategy game EndWar.
My excitement was quickly deflated when I realized that while the disc does have some neat EndWar stuff, it doesn't include a demo. Dammit! You do get the announcement trailer, a GameTrailers special about the game called "the future of war" and an EndWar sneak peek preview, featuring the Frag Dolls.
Sucks about the demo, but it's free and still a neat idea.
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ubisoft
Far Cry 2, EndWar, Hell's Highway Delayed
Ubisoft's news today wasn't all good. Sure Assassin's Creed is doing amazing sales and the company as a whole is picking up, but it appears they've decided to push back three of their triple-A titles.
Or as Ubisoft puts it they've "strengthened its line-up of games for next year..." EndWar, Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway and Far Cry 2 are now all scheduled for release in fiscal 2008-09 rather than the fourth quarter of 2007-08.
This will let them push the expenses of developing those games into next year's fiscals and push up sales for that fiscal year, from what I make of the press release. Good news for investors, but boo for gamers.
Ubisoft just sent over this trailer for EndWar which features a snippet, a very short snippet of gameplay. What it doesn't show, for some reason, is their super cool user interface which uses, almost entirely, your voice. So far this game is shaping up to be a must get for me if for no other reason than I like the idea of pacing around in front of my television issuing "commands" to my troops. I totally need to figure out where I can buy 
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