Ubi Demoer: HAWX Will Respond to Voice Command

Eurogamer reports back from Ubidays 08 that a demonstrator let slip word that voice commands will be able to order around your fellow fighter pilots in Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.

"Demonstrator Andrei Costin spilled the beans at the recent UbiDays event in Paris, but avoided elaborating on exactly how it will all work; we expect it will be a blend of EndWar and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter," writes Eurogamer.

Ubisoft handed out packs of these four Raving Rabbids at this year's Ubidays. I'm not a huge schwag fan myself, but these managed to melt even my cold heart. And yes, we're sorry Ubisoft, turns out Sam Fischer did make an appearance at your show.

Last week reports surfaced suggesting that Splinter Cell: Conviction, the latest chapter in Ubisoft's Sam Fisher saga, had gone back to the drawing board for a drastic reworking. Now that the company's Ubidays event has come and gone without even a thumbnail screenshot from the game, a representative is ready to give us specifics on how vague things are with Conviction.

In reference to speculative stories that have appeared recently, in January of 2008 we announced that the game would be released in the fiscal year of '08/'09. And at this point in time we are not ready to be more specific than that. We will begin to communicate more once we feel the time is right for us and our fans.

As the folks at CVG pointed out, last year's Ubidays event saw the game being played by developers, so the vague statements and lack of any assets definitely points towards a complete reworking, and those are never good.

Perhaps they just wanted to stuff it with extra awesome? Maybe? A little?

Ubisoft "not ready to be more specific" on Splinter Cell [CVG]

Ubidays the Final Round-Up

For those of you who somehow missed all of our Ubisoft coverage, which stretched from early afternoon until late into the night, I've compiled all of our stories on the jump. They include hands on with Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, H.A.W.X. and Far Cry 2 as well as tons of interviews and impressions.

Far Cry 2 Dev and Port Teams Range from 175 to Three

Far Cry 2 uses a proprietary engine that was built from the ground up for the game. The developers told me that about 175 people worked on creating the engine and then the game for the PC. Currently that team is working to build in DX10 support, though it wasn't ready when I had a chance to look at it.

Because the engine was built to work on a PC, bringing the game, with all of its bells and whistles, over to the Xbox 360 was a relatively easy affair, the developers told me. Afterall, they said, the Xbox 360 is essentially a computer. In fact they only have three people working on the team that is porting the game over.

The Playstation 3? Not quite as simple an affair. They have a team of 14 working on that port, mostly because of the "difficulties" of working with the Playstation 3's unique architecture.

Ubidays 08 Round-Up: From Beyond Good & Evil 2 to Prince of Persia

Ubisoft held their Paris Ubidays today, officially announcing that Beyond Good & Evil was on its way along with a slew of other titles including a DS game to help people quit smoking and a new snowboard title.

If you missed any of the Ubi related news and my hands-on impressions with games like Far Cry 2, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway and H.A.W.X. then hit up the jump for a round-up of all of our Ubidays 08 related posts to date.

Making Far Cry 2's Africa

Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway Hands-On

Far Cry 2: No Girls Allowed

Far Cry 2, Ubisoft's answer to Grand Theft Auto meets Mercenaries 2, has a lot going for it from its enormous 50-square kilometer map to its use of animal AI. Another neat feature is how they've decided to deal with the player character.

In Far Cry 2 you can't customize the way you look, instead you get to choose to play nine of the dozen characters that inhabit the game as friends. Depending on who you choose it changes some of the 75 or so side missions you can play through.

But why only nine of the dozen characters in the game? Because the other three are women.

"There are so many lines of dialog that they would have had to rescript and record if we let people play as a female," I was told.

Wow, that's not going to go over well.

Prince of Persia Ditches Roots, Gets a Final Fantasy Make-Over

Shaun White: Wii Play, Pics and Press Release

As I mentioned earlier, Ubisoft is getting into the Snowboarding game... game. Shaun White will, among other things, feature a Wii version that lets you use your Balance Board to board around open mountains.

The Wii version will also have its own story line which has you traveling the world with a crew to try and earn some fame as a snowboarder.

Hit the jump for the full release and some screens.

It feels like Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. is Ubisoft’s attempt at bringing a more, dare I say it, casual gamer into the historically hardcore flight sim fanbase.

But despite having modes for missile-lock and bomb drops that are akin to flying with training wheels, the game seems to still provide the technical controls that have always drawn fans of arcade flight sims to air combat games.

Ubisoft Officially Announces Beyond Good & Evil 2

Ubisoft Brings Easyway To Stop Smoking To DS Months Late

Back on Friday I decided that after over 22 years it was finally time for me to quit smoking. Since then I've made enemies of my cats, yelled at anyone with the gall to call me on the telephone I purchased to stay in touch with those same people, made vicious enemies of my cats, and started repeating myself. Now Ubisoft proudly announces Allen Carr's Easyway To Stop Smoking, due out in November for the Nintendo DS. Really? November?

Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking book is one of the most highly regarded books on the subject of kicking cancer sticks, published in 50 different countries. Famous folk like Ashton Kutcher, Ellen DeGeneres, and Richard Branson all swear by his program, while I sit in my apartment, sweating and shaking.

"Ubisoft's creative team has worked hard to deliver a game that successfully communicates Allen Carr's Easyway method via play,” said Christian Salomon, vice president of worldwide licensing at Ubisoft. "The player experiences a truly interactive engagement with the game through which he or she learns that it can actually be enjoyable to quit smoking.”

Shaun White Delivers Death to Snowboarding with an Assassin's Creed Engine

Among the top-tier games shown at Ubidays earlier this month, snowboarding title Shaun White was the one I was least interested in. While snowboarding is a sport complex and interesting enough to be a vehicle for a good video game, the franchises that have cropped up never seem to stick around for very long. And it doesn't seem to be because they're not good. Plenty of great snowboarding franchises have come and gone.

Ubisoft's Shaun White seems to have plenty going for it, but nothing that made me think "Wow, this is incredibly different." The game, heading to the Playstation 3, Wii and Xbox 360, uses the Assassin's Creed engine and features an open mountain for gamers to explore.

Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party Announced

Can't get enough Raving Rabbids? Well you're not alone, Ubisoft is crazy for their crazy hares as well.

Today the company announced a new Raving Rabbids title is coming to the DS and Wii this holiday season and that the Wii version will support the Balance Board.

"The Rayman Raving Rabbids titles have been an immense success, entertaining the world over,” said Yves Guillemot, president and chief executive officer, Ubisoft. "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!”

It sounds like the game will be like the other Raving Rabbids but this time getting players to do evil things to cows with the balance board... not that there's anything wrong with that.

Hit the jump for the full release and screens.

Far Cry 2 Brings GTA Sandbox to the Serengeti

It’s like Grand Theft Auto IV on the Serengeti, but not really.

At first blush Far Cry 2 looks and behaves a bit like Grand Theft Auto IV: The game has an open world, friends who can come to your rescue, a phone you use to contact them, safe houses, a detailed map for guidance and a non-linear story line.

But where at its heart Grand Theft Auto IV is an action game, Far Cry 2 has its roots deeply embedded in the bedrock of shooters and from what I saw during my short time with the game it seems to remain true to those origins.