Rumours of an Assassin’s Creed sequel have been spreading about since Assassin’s Creed came out, but Ubisoft have finally confirmed that they are “working hard on” the sequel. After the recent talk about the game being set in the 1700s, this may not be a surprise to many. However, the kicker in this story is that Ubisoft are quoted as saying Assassin’s Creed 2 will only arrive once there is “more anticipation for it.” Maybe if Ubisoft had spent more time making more than 3 mission types for the first game ten this one would have more hype, right? Right?

Via Gamezine.

Are you trying to stalk Jade Raymond and having no luck? Well, maybe this will help. At just $360, this Altair cosplay is sure to get you past Ubisoft security. Not so thin? No problem. The site selling this badboy boasts sizes up to 5XL, and they won’t cost you a penny more than the small.

In order to really appreciate a cosplay such as this, one must be capable of the moves shown in the video below — and Ubisoft, if you are reading this, locate the guy in this video, dress him up as Altair, and charge admission to watch him perform.

Have something you think we should show on Geeked-Out? Email it to us.

If you have been waiting to see some new gameplay footage of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4 videogame, Kojima has ended that wait, as only he can. The following video is sure to amaze and entertain you. Enjoy.

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While it was revealed a while ago that Assassin’s Creed for PC would contain four new types of investigation, Charles Beauchemin, the game’s Technical Lead, has given the lowdown on what those investigations will be.

Archer Assassination will require Altair to take out archers without being spotted; Escort Challenge requires you to escort a fellow assassin from one area to another – I assume you’ll be protecting him as well; Merchant Stand Destruction has you destroying the stands of merchants that are in league with your current target; Rooftop Race Challenge will have you racing across cities to reach your destination in the allotted time.

Along with these additions, Ubisoft has also made it so you can skip the entire kingdom area when traveling to a city that you’ve already been to. Finally, the AI has been tweaked. If you try to blend into the crowd next to the body of one your victims, you’ll find that it does you no good. Also, guards react differently to stealth assassinations depending on how many NPCs are in the surrounding area.

This is all good news, as I thought Assassin’s Creed for console missed the mark in a few key areas. It’s good to see them address the issues of poor AI and repetitiveness.

Source: Total Video Games

Ubisoft’s ambitious Assassin’s Creed is set to hit PCs by the end of March and will feature new exclusive content.

Assassin’s Creed came out for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in November of 2007 and received mixed reviews. Many people – myself included – felt that while the game greatly excelled in certain aspects, it fell terribly short in others.

One of those downfalls was the repetitious gameplay that became apparent very early on. For each mission, you were given a target to take down. In order to get more info on said target, you had to talk to informants, as well as interrogate, eavesdrop, and pickpocket. You had to do this for every target, so it got old fast.

Well it looks like Ubisoft wised up somewhat. The upcoming PC port, titled Assassin’s Creed: Director’s Cut, will feature four new investigation methods, and although they haven’t told us what they are exactly, hopefully they will help break up the action.

Here’s to Assassin’s Creed slowly becoming the game it should’ve been!

Via Voodoo Extreme

Great, we’re happy for you, Ubisoft. You’ve saved yourself from being swallowed by the mammoth that is EA. Just keep making Assassin’s Creeds, Splinter Cells, and keep the MyWordCoach away from my 360, and I’ll continue to love you just as much as I do now. And that Lost game better be good or there’ll be hell to pay.

Oh and about that not-so-inadvertently-semi-confirmed game I was talking about: It’s business as usual, Prince of Persia. Also expect another GRAW, Rainbow Six (after Vegas 2), and Splinter Cell.

Hell, why not? They have a license to print money with those few franchises. As long as they keep releasing AAA-quality titles, more power to them.

Ubisoft fanboys and spin lovers rejoice, for here is the press release in its entirety:

Sales for the third quarter of 2007-08 came to €450 million, up 44.4%, or 50.1% at constant exchange rates, compared with the €311 million recorded for the same period of 2006-07. Sales for the first nine months of fiscal 2007-08 totaled €711 million versus €483 million in the corresponding period of 2006-07, representing an increase of 47.2%, or 52.1% at constant exchange rates.

Third-quarter sales outstripped the guidance that was raised to €410 million on13th December, 2007. This very good performance was fueled primarily by the following elements:

A further exceptional showing from Assassin’s Creed. In Europe, this was the best-selling game in 2007 for the PS3 and the number 2 best-seller for the X360.
In the United States, it was the second best-selling game in 2007 for the PS3 and the number 3 best-seller for the X360.2

Excellent sales levels reported by our casual games including Fashion Designer, Babyz and Animal Doctor for the Imagine series; Horsez, Hamsterz and Catz for the Petz series; and MyWordCoach for the MyCoach series.

Games for new-generation consoles represented 84% of the Group’s sales in the first nine months of 2007-08, versus 55% for the equivalent period of 2006-07.

Ubisoft continued to gain market share in calendar 2007, and was ranked as follows:

* Number 2 independent publisher in Europe, reporting 58% growth (versus 25% for the European market as a whole), and market share of 8.7% (6.9% in 2006).
* Number 3 independent publisher in the United States, where growth came in at 49% (compared with 29% for the US market as a whole), and market share represented 6.1% (5.2% in 2006).

Yves Guillemot, Chief Executive Officer of Ubisoft, stated

The vast majority of our games reaped the benefits of particularly strong market momentum over the Christmas period. Two new long term multi-million franchises were created, Assassin’s Creed and Imagine, generating sell-in sales of 5 and 2.5 million units respectively. They will join our existing portfolio of 12 franchises.

As a result, Ubisoft moved up from fourth to third place in the overall ranking of independent publishers in 2007 – a year that saw the video game industry enter new dimension with previously unheard-of visibility. This revolution stems from the greater accessibility of Nintendo’s consoles as well as from the superb cinema-like visual experience provided by Sony and Microsoft consoles.

We expect this situation to significantly drive up market performance once again in 2008, with overall market growth representing at least 10%. Against this backdrop, Ubisoft will continue to leverage its strong brands and design capacities with a view to outperforming the market.

Fourth-quarter 2007-08 will see the following main releases:

* Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for PC, the X360 and the PS3,
* Assassin’s Creed for PC and the NDS
* The game based on the Lost television series, for PC, the PS3 and the X360,
* New casual games for the NDS and Nintendo Wii.

Haze, which was originally scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2007-08, will now be released in fiscal 2008-09.

The Group expects sales for the fourth quarter of 2007-08 to total around €165 million, representing a 16% contraction compared with the same period of 2006-07.

In light of the Group’s third-quarter performance and initial positive trends for the fourth quarter of the year, Ubisoft has raised its performance targets for full-year 2007-08. The 2007-08 sales target is now approximately €875 million, compared with the forecast of €840 million announced on December 13, 2007, and the Group expects current operating income before stock options to represent at least 13% of sales, versus the previous estimate of at least 12%.

At the same time, in order to take into account the postponed release date for Haze, Ubisoft has raised its 2008-09 sales target to approximately €1 billion, compared with the previously-announced forecast of around €975 million. The Group is maintaining its target for current operating income before stock options to represent at least 11% of sales.

The 2008-09 line-up will include notably the following key titles:

* 7 franchises, including Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, Brothers in Arms, Far Cry, Prince of Persia and Anno,
* 5 new brands, including Tom Clancy’s EndWar, Haze, the Shaun White snowboard game and a Tom Clancy air combat game,
* New games in the Petz, Imagine and MyCoach series as well as a new line of casual games.

Market share: Excluding Asia, Ubisoft was the third-leading independent publisher in the world in 2007. It ranked number 3 in the United States with 6.1% market share (compared with number 5 and 5.2% one year earlier); number 2 in Europe with 8.7% market share (compared with number 2 and 6.9%); number 2 in France with 9.3% market share (compared with number 2 and 7.7%); number 2 in the United Kingdom with 9.1% market share (compared with number 3 and 7.6%); and number 2 in Germany with 7.9% market share (compared with number 2 and 6.6%).

Ubisoft closes the acquisition of the Japanese video game development studio Digital Kids: Established in 1996 with offices in Nagoya and Osaka, Digital Kids currently has a team of 20 developers specialized in games for the NDS. The studio has worked regularly for a number of Japanese publishers and has developed several successful titles for Ubisoft’s Petz line of games, including Hamsterz Life.

Thanks to BeNintendo.de for the image.

See, it’s not all doom and gloom for the 360 after all! According to the NPD Group’s data, Microsoft is leading the videogame industry in several areas. They had a big year overall – December hardware sales were on par with the Wii ,while 360 software sales took the lead with games like Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, and Assassin’s Creed.

Microsoft sure is proud of their accomplishments and wanted to let you know how awesome they are. Read on to see their take on this information.

Xbox 360 Drives the Video Game Console Industry in 2007:
NPD data released today confirms consumers spent more dollars on Xbox 360 in 2007, with more than $13.7 billion in total consumer spending. Xbox 360 won 2007 with $4.8 billion in total consumer spending compared to Wii with $3.5 billion and PlayStation 3 with $2.2 billion. This wraps up a historic year, with NPD reporting consumers have spent nearly 45 percent of total industry figures on Xbox 360.

Here is a quick snapshot of what is driving revenue for Xbox 360, based on the latest reports from NPD and Microsoft data:

* XBOX 360 WIDENS THE GAP OVER PS3 WITH CONSOLE SALES: According to NPD, Xbox 360 sold 1.3 million consoles in December alone, and has steadily widened the gap between Sony’s PlayStation 3 console sales. In December, NPD stated that Sony sold 798,000 PS3 hardware units. Since PS3’s launch in November 2006, Xbox 360 has outsold PS3 by nearly 2:1 on average, bringing a total U.S. Xbox 360 install base of 9.2 million consoles, compared to and installed base of 7.4 million Wii consoles and 3.3 million PS3 consoles.

* GAMES DRIVE INDUSTRY GROWTH: Xbox 360 robust games portfolio spans across the highest-ranked AAA titles to the largest collection of “Everyone” and “Teen” rated games. According to NPD, of the top 20 best-selling titles in 2007 for this generation, 11 were on Xbox 360; while only seven were sold on the Wii and two sold on the PS3.

** NPD reported that this holiday’s leading multiplatform blockbusters continue to sell better on Xbox 360: + “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare” for Xbox 360 was the leading game last month with 1.5 million copies sold, outselling the PS3 version nearly 3:1.

+ “Assassin’s Creed” for Xbox 360 was the fourth best selling title, having sold 894,000 units. It outsold the PS3 version more than 2:1.

+ “Guitar Hero III” outsold the PS3 nearly 2:1, having sold 625,000 copies.

+ “Rockband” continues to rock the charts, selling 463,000 units for the Xbox 360 platform, compared to 174,000 units for the PS3

** To date, 33 third party games on Xbox 360 hit the top 10 list across all consoles compared to five third party games on PS3, and four on Wii. These results confirm that third party partners create better games and reap more sales on Xbox 360 than any other platform.

** In its fourth month on the market, Halo 3 continued its strong performance and was the sixth best selling title in December, selling another 742,000. In 2007, NPD projects that Halo 3 has sold 4.8 million units in the U.S. since its launch in September.

** Xbox 360 continues to lead in number of games sold per console, setting another record with an attach rate of 7.0 games per console.

* XBOX LIVE SETS NEW HEIGHTS: Xbox LIVE’s network is 10 million members strong and growing, achieving membership goals six months ahead of schedule. Only on Xbox LIVE can members experience the largest catalog of on-demand, high-definition content in the U.S., including movies and television shows from our most recent partners: Disney-ABC Television Group and MGM Studios.

We’re not slowing down in 2008. The next versions of powerhouse franchises like “Grand Theft Auto,” “Resident Evil” and sports games like “Madden”, “FIFA”, and “Pro Evolution Soccer” open up a new arena for game play on Xbox 360. This year we will make great strides toward improving our brand appeal to consumers interested in more physical game play. With titles like “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock,” “Rock Band” and “Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action” we’re creating interactive experiences on Xbox 360 for the entire family.

Whether or not you believe this information makes Microsoft the market leader is entirely up to you. Regardless, these numbers certainly are positive for Microsoft and the gamers currently enjoying their Xbox 360s. Now if only they could sort out these hardware issues…

Source: Team Xbox

For those who missed it, EGM (according to Editor Dan Hsu) was supposedly cut off from receiving preview and review copies of games by Sony, Midway, and Ubisoft due to what the publishers felt where unfavorable review scores and or practices.

While I can understand why Dan may have felt the need to call out the poor sportsmanship of Sony’s Sports Division, the low blow of Midway’s Mortal Kombat Team, and the stealthy exit of Ubisoft, I question his decision to do so, and can’t help but feel that an unnecessary trend is beginning to take place.

My feelings are that gaming sites, as well as printed publications, will now start to air their dirty laundry in an effort to proactively defend themselves, and reassure readers that they are on the up and up.

I sure hope that I am wrong, because while I am not saying that this is the case here with EGM, I really don’t want to be reading about how enormous publications/websites will now have to resort to buying games (just like their readers) in order to review them — Boo freaking hoo.

Most gaming outlets (including us) do not receive every game that they review directly from the publisher in advance, and at no cost. In fact, many purchase the majority of their games just like you do.

While I do not necessarily agree with the way the publishers treated EGM here, they are free to decide how they want to distribute their product. Below you will find a reprint of Dan’s editorial from the February issue of EGM via his blog page on 1up.com

Gamemakers have been taking issue with our reviews for as long as EGM’s been around (almost 19 years now). It goes with the territory: Be honest and tough with your critiques, and you’re going to piss just about everybody off at some point. But when I took over as editor-in-chief in 2001, I also wanted us to get more real with our previews. I was tired of the press-release rehashes our industry had become accustomed to, so I asked for more sincerity and opinions from our writers and editors. Naturally, you have to be fair — the products aren’t finished yet, after all — but judging from reader feedback, our opinionated previews have been a hit.

Except with some game publishers, of course. Less-than-totally-positive previews don’t sit well with those who are used to those press-release rehashes. Combine that with our candid reviews, and you can imagine the consequences that we have to face constantly.

For the time being, you’ll get little, late, or no coverage of the following products: anything Mortal Kombat (they didn’t like our reviews), anything from Sony’s sports department (ditto), and now, anything from Ubisoft (it seems our coverage of Assassin’s Creed was the last straw). So in case you’re wondering why you’re seeing so little of these games in our magazines and on our websites, now you know.

What do we do now? Nothing. We won’t treat these products or companies any differently, and we’ll just cover them to the best of our own abilities, with or without their support. Because, after all, we’re writing for you, the reader — not them.

In closing, while I agree that these scenarios do occur, I personally don’t think we should be bickering about them to our readers, and I truly hope that this does not become the norm.

Altaïr, the free-running, robe-wearing, back-stabbing assassin is set to become the fastest selling new Intellectual Property in American videogame history.

After selling an estimated two and a half million copies worldwide in just four weeks, Ubisoft has raised their total sales forecast for the game during fiscal 2007-08. They are now predicting sales of around five million copies of the game, two million more than originally predicted.

With a Metacritic score of 82, Assassins Creed is a strong title, yet one with accepted and commonly reported flaws. Jade Raymond, the game’s producer, has been at the centre of much of the negative hype surrounding the game after rather unflattering cartoons of her began to circulate the net.

You don’t need to look hard to find some criticism of the actual game, either, like the repetitive gameplay, buggy AI, poor combat system. Yet gamers seem to have looked past these and instead proved that good graphics, a novel idea, and solid marketing really can push a game’s sales into the record books.

Source: Gamesindustry.biz

There are certain standard-setting games in each genre, like the brilliant FPS action of Halo, or the incredible sound design of Bioshock, that you wish could be applied generally to every game you play. Assassin’s Creed has its particular perfection — you’ll wish that every game had this level of graphics and animation.

When Altair scales the highest points in each ancient city, the view from the top is absolutely breathtaking. Hawks slowly circle your “synchronize” points, where you can take stock of your surroundings and find nearby objectives. Telltale tufts of hay indicate a jumping-off point where you can perform a perfect dive into a haystack.

This climbing, synchronizing, and soaring moments are so strong that the entire game could have been reskinned as mountain-climbing/base-jumping simulation (think Tom Cruise at the beginning of Mission: Impossible 2). But there’s just a bit more to Assassin’s Creed, like the stealth, crowd, and combat situations.

These aspects of the game are clearly not as well-developed as the incredible climbing and moving mechanics. Instead, they’re watered-down versions of, respectively, Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto 3, and Prince of Persia.

The stealth mechanics in particular are incredibly limited for a game with such extraordinary detail in its visuals. There are only four ways to evade guards, short of beating them all in hand-to-hand combat. You can blend with a group of monks, roll into a haystack, crash someone’s rooftop garden, or sit on a bench. That’s all. There should be so many more ways to blend or evade capture, and that would have cured much of the game’s unfortunate repetition.

Metal Gear Solid 2, which came out six years ago, offers far more ways to avoid detection. You can hide in lockers, disguise yourself as a box, and crouch in the shadows. Later Metal Gear Solid games offered new camouflage options, but Assassin’s Creed falls far short of the bar set by Snake years ago.

The crowd mechanics should offer better blending and hiding mechanics, but for the most part Altair sticks out like a sore thumb. Why a group of guards would ignore the one monk wearing a ton of knives all over his back is one of the game’s many leaps of logic. The fact that guards would ignore the conspicuously-dressed guy sitting on a bench, who looks just like the one that slit one of their fellow guards’ throats, makes me wonder if I’m not playing A Hard Day’s Night: The Game.

George, Paul, Ringo, and Altair run from adoring fans and guards

Besides the running and hiding, the crowds in Assassin’s Creed are generally uninteresting, but do give me a great deal of hope for Grand Theft Auto 4. Like the GTA or Hitman series, citizens will run and freak out if you start a bloody fight in their midst, and you can commit some random criminal acts like pushing beggars or pickpocketing knives from hooded thieves.

But like the stealth mechanics, the crowd interactions are barely passable on the surface. You should have more characters to interact with than just beggars, thieves, and drunks. Your investigation missions along the main storyline will take you across several interesting conversations, but these seem unnatural.

They are extremely forced, and never feel fluid or lifelike. Instead of triggering a cutscene, couldn’t there have been some way to make the crowds feel less robotic? Even when you save a citizen, they only offer the same few lines of thanks, and the end result is always that either a group of monks or a group of vigilantes appear to offer you help should you need it.

The citizen saving side missions take me to the game’s disappointing, but beautifully animated swashbuckling combat system. Instead of succeeding with combat like the Prince of Persia or God of War games, Assassin’s Creed has a button-mashing, timing-based combat system that looks great but feels cheap.

Guards hardly put up any resistance, letting you take the lead in this dance of death. The result looks like something out of a bad kung-fu movie. Guards will surround you in swarms of 10-20, then attack one at a time until they’re all dead. Chalk the combat system up to one more missed opportunity for this game.

So the stealth, crowd, and combat range from laughably silly to completely awful. But there’s a saving grace here, which I touched on earlier in this review–it looks astounding. There are hardly any glitches at all in the scenery or animations. Every time you dive into a haystack, shove a beggar, or drive three feet of steel into a guard, it looks flawless. It’s almost enough to make you forget that the actual game lacks a lot of challenge or depth.

It’s hard to understate how far the game’s looks go in making up for these fundamental flaws. You can actually forgive the lack of side missions or repetitive nature of the investigations, because at any given time it looks unlike any other game out there. Also, a compelling story makes the flaws a bit more palatable.

Scores for this game have generally ranged from perfect to slightly above average. The key to understanding this breadth of critical opinion is simply due to the weight that each individual will grant to graphics over substance. Assassin’s Creed is not a substantive game beyond its incredibly detailed graphics and animation. It is, at times, as simplistic as Pac Man once you start to stray from the main storyline. It does not even offer a ton of replayability, but the graphics and an intriguing story make up for these problems significantly.

Since Assassin’s Creed has been referred to as the start of a new series, we can expect a sequel that hopefully will deliver on the promises of the original. Like Heavenly Sword, this is a game that looks astonishing on the surface but reveals only a shallow experience underneath. Still, considering how completely original the setting and animation is in this game, it’s a solid recommendation.

What does this score mean? Check out our review scoring breakdown.

What do you get when you combine a fashionably bald British television presenter with an ancient flying killer? Well, you get Jason Bradbury from Channel 5’s The Gadget Show in Assassin’s Creed of course.

Per chance you’ve never heard of The Gadget Show, which I know you haven’t since most of you guys are not from my part of the world, I shall explain to you its premise. Take a gorgeous young woman with the task of controlling a videogame obsessed hobbit and a tech savvy wizard. Place them on the very last of the terrestrial channels. And vamoose! You have The Gadget Show.

Alright, I’m messing about a lot today, but it’s the only way to keep me from watching television talent contests. Damn Simon Cowell! What have you done to us!?

Moving on. If you haven’t forgotten, Assassin’s Creed is the source of this story. An entertainment disc which Jason Bradbury says the kids are hailing to be the next big game. I’m not sure if they are, but if I had kids I’m sure they would be doing so.

Nonetheless, the critics haven’t been hailing it as the second coming. I personally blame this simply on Jade Raymond. I’m joking really, Jade is a talented lady, but the game promised so much – the next big thing as Jason says. Yet, since it does so many things right, its failures are all the more prominent. But we’re not here to rag on Assassin’s Creed, we’re here to say that Jason is in the game!

On last weeks episode of The Gadget Show, Jason went to visit Ubisoft Montreal and had his beautiful visage scanned into the game. The above photograph is what he looked like before he went in the game, and it’s all sorts of amazing that they turned his stretched blob like features into an actual face:

The clever thing about Creed’s character engine is that Jason isn’t going to be just one pre-decided character. Oh no no, it’s much cleverer than that. His face is put into some sort of random selection process, where his face is combined with a number of bodies (not at the same time), such as a Monk, a fat guy, someone with hair, or even as one of those women carrying jugs of water. Though let’s hope the latter option doesn’t occur. That might put you off the game before you’ve even got started.

Jason is struggling to find himself in the game, but he’s certainly in the mix – and only in the city of Acre, as opposed to Jerusalem or Damascus. So keep a look out for his mug and forward a screenshot of him to his blog so he can bask in his fame. Oh and come back for our review of the game.

It appears that frustrated Playstation 3 virtual assassin’s will be getting a fix to the freezing issues that have plagued the PS3 release of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed in the very near future.

A post by “UbiRazz”, the UK Community Manager on the official Ubisoft Forum, states the following:

“Following our recent statement regarding the freeze issues that some consumers are facing with Assassin’s 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.”

We will monitor this topic closely in the coming weeks, so check back often.

Via: forums.ubi.com

The notoriously critical UK Magazine has revealed its December edition scores. Another 10 is given, but not to a PS3 or Xbox360 game. Interesting scores this month, with Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect getting the same score. Find out after the jump.

Edge only gave out five 10/10 scores in nine years, but in the last three months there have been three additions; Halo 3, The Orange Box, and now:

Super Mario Galaxy – 10
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune – 8
Assassin’s Creed – 7
Crysis – 9
Mass Effect – 7
Call of Duty 4 – 9
Kane and Lynch – 6
Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground – 6
The Simpson’s Game – 5
Zack and Wiki – 8
The Witcher – 5
Bladestorm – 8
Castlevania Dracular X – 7
Silent Hill Origins – 7
Hellgate: London – 6
Timeshift – 6
Mutant Storm Empire – 8
Guitar Hero III – 6
Beowulf – 5
Need for Speed: Pro Street – 6

As soon as we find out the magazines pluses and minuses about some of these games we will post them. So check back soon to find out why Bladestorm got an 8/10 and Mass Effect only got 7/10.

While you wait, why not have a read of our reviews here at Ripten.com, which stack up quite well against the very harsh Edge Magazine.

Source: Neogaf

Did Ubisoft Montreal intend for the above image to resemble the fearless leader of the Autobots? Flickr website user Supernova3688 posted an image which oddly enough resembles Optimus Prime, had he been made out of twelfth century wooden window shutters. Pretty interesting.

It appears that Ubisoft’s legal team contacted what seemed to be an unaware website owner regarding a post that one of his site’s registered forum users made, depicting Jade Raymond (the games producer) and the Assassin’s Creed trademark in a way that the legal representative stated was “extremely offensive” and “pornographic”.

The site owner, upon receiving the email from the legal department, posted it on the forum and made the registered users aware of the issue. While their response was less than sympathetic, the image appears to have been removed. The owner also stated that he would be shutting down the forum.

The legal response, in its entirety can be viewed below.

VIA EXPRESS MAIL AND EMAIL
Attn: Richard Kyanka
webmaster@somethingawful.com
RE: Infringement of ASSASSIN’S CREED Mark and Jade Raymond’s Personal, Privacy, and Publicity Rights

Dear Mr. Kyanka:

We are counsel to Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. (“Ubisoft”), publisher of the popular video game ASSASSIN’S CREED and employer of Ms. Jade Raymond (“Ms. Raymond”). Ubisoft is also the owner of the following U.S. trademark applications for the ASSASSIN’S CREED mark (the “Mark”): Serial No. 78850944; Serial No. 78866696; and Serial No. 78850968. In consequence of Ubisoft’s extensive efforts and expenditures, substantial goodwill has been built up for Ubisoft and the products and services sold under the Mark, and the ASSASSIN’S CREED game is one of the most widely anticipated games of the year.

Ubisoft has recently learned that the extremely offensive pornographic image (the “Image”) accessible at http://sabretooth.mirror.waffleimag…dd47ceb2a5.jpg, a copy of which is attached hereto, is being used on your website located at http://www.somethingawful.com and/or other related sites, including, but not limited to, http://forums.somethingawful.com (collectively, the “Site”). Such Image and misuse of the ASSASSIN’S CREED mark constitute trademark infringement, dilution, and unfair competition in violation of common law trademark rights, the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §§1125(a) and 1125(c), and state law.

Furthermore, the Image’s blatant, vile, and unauthorized misappropriation of Ms. Raymond’s name and likeness, and your conduct in using the Image on your Site, have caused immeasurable harm to Ms. Raymond’s reputation and career, and constitute an egregious infringement of Ms. Raymond’s personal rights and privacy rights. The Image and your conduct also constitute an egregious unauthorized commercial exploitation of Ms. Raymond’s rights of publicity in violation of, without limitation, her common law rights of publicity and California Civil Code §3344, which provides in relevant part:

“Any person who knowingly uses another’s name, .., photograph, or likeness, in any manner, on or in products, merchandise, or goods, or for purposes of advertising or selling, or soliciting purchases of, products, merchandise, goods or services, without such person’s prior consent…shall be liable for any damages sustained by the person or persons injured as a result thereof.”

It is well established that a person who commercially exploits the name or likeness of someone without their consent is liable for all of the damages caused thereby. Additionally, the Image and your conduct in using the Image on the Site constitute unfair business practices and false advertising in violation of the California Business and Professions Code; intentional infliction of emotional distress; a violation of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §1125(a); and harassment, which is a criminal offense.

Please also note that any failure to comply with applicable privacy laws may result in direct action against you by the Federal Trade Commission, in addition to other litigation.

Ubisoft hereby demands that you immediately: (1) permanently remove the Image from your Site, databases and servers and prevent any further uploading or display thereof; (2) permanently cease and desist all unauthorized use and hosting of images using the ASSASSIN’S CREED mark and Ms. Raymond’s name and/or likeness; (3) provide us with the name and contact information of the person who originally created and/or posted the Image; and (4) complete, execute, and return to me the enclosed Declaration by November 16, 2007 to confirm that you are complying with Ubisoft’s demand.

While Ubisoft hopes to resolve this matter quickly and without resort to further legal action, Ubisoft reserves all rights to seek appropriate legal relief, including attorneys’ fees, injunctive relief, statutory damages, costs, and enhanced damages.

Sincerely,

David Anderson
for Nixon Peabody LLP

DECLARATION

1. I am the owner of the website located at www.somethingawful.com.

2. I have permanently removed the image that was previously accessible at http://sabretooth.mirror.waffleimag…bdd47ceb2a5.jpg from www.somethingawful.com, forums.somethingawful.com, all other related sites, and all databases and servers under my ownership and/or control, and have implemented measures to prevent any further uploading or display thereof.

3. I have permanently ceased all unauthorized use and hosting of images using the ASSASSIN’S CREED mark and Jade Raymond’s name and/or likeness.

4. I have provided Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. with the name and contact information of the person who originally created and/or posted the Image.

Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746, I declare under the penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.

Executed on ____________, 2007 ________________________

Name: _______________________
Title: __­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­______________________

Dave Anderson
Nixon Peabody LLP
555 West 5th Street, 46th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90013
(t) 213-629-6095
(f) 866-532-8491
dlanderson@nixonpeabody.com

Assassin’s Creed is one of the few “next-gen” games we’ll be experiencing this year – whatever that means, seems to be the buzz word these days. Coming from the makers of the classic Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, it has lofty expectations to live up to.

The game takes place during the Third Crusade, with the player taking the role of a secret Assassin, Altair. Altair means “the flying thingy” in Arabic, where the word “thingy” should be replaced with “one” to avoid any childish visions. This flying bloke, or Altair as he will henceforth be referred to, has the objective to slay individuals who promote hostilities. What hostilities? The Third Crusade, young one. Pay attention.

The game promises to contain historically accurate cities and interactive environments. You’ll be able to climb any building you fancy, buildings complete with historically, accurately, coloredly bricks. You are but an archaic Spider-Man (minus the red and blue tights) making your way through cities dressed in an assassin’s hawk outfit.

Yet, there is something on top of all this “gloriousness” that Ubisoft Montreal has kept swept under their grandmother’s carpet; a “sci-fi” twist that is suggested in the game footage. But should we give a monkey’s (or a rat’s ass as you American’s like to say) about this twist, and could it potentially spoil the game’s integrity?

An Assassin fallen from grace, Altair must prove himself to be a worthy stealth killer by assassinating nine historical figures who are propagating the Crusades. The Crusades? How interesting. Please tell us more, you cry. Well, if I must.

It says here on Wikipedia, that the Third Crusade is also known as the King’s Crusade. Good website that Wikipedia is, and if you type in my name there, it’ll come up with a “List of Winniepeggers”. Now, I don’t know what they are exactly, but they sound amusing, and I’m vaguely proud to be associated with them. Anyway, the Third Crusade, also known as the King’s Crusade, saw European leaders trying to reconquer the holy land from Saladin.

Who’s this Saladin fellow? Did he make salad? Actually he should properly be introduced as “Salah al-Dīn Yusuf ibn Ayyub” better known to his friends by his hip short rapper name “Saladin”. He was a Muslim leader from Iraq who led the resistance against the European Crusaders from infiltrating Jerusalem, which Saladin had captured years before.

Well, little Saladin was defeated by Richard I of England at the end of 1191, and the two came to an agreement over Jerusalem in 1192, where it would remain in Muslim hands but was open to Christian pilgrimages. This was a time when the opposing rulers had large mutual respect for one another, so much so that Saladin offered his personal physician to an injured RIchard I, sending replacement horses, providing fresh fruit, and even giving the King snow to keep his drinks cold. Ah those were the days. Fast forward to 2007, and we’re stuck with a pleb who calls an air strike against an adversary for hiding “invisible weaponry amongst oil reserves. That’s the end of our history lesson, so we must move on.

As Altair, the bird man, you have the power to impact events in the year 1191 AD, by tracking down and assassinating key figures on both sides of the conflict. Three cities will be your playground: Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus. But why is Altair called the flying thingy? Does he have wings, or a nifty glider to glide him from place to place, or perhaps even a funky colored hot-air balloon. No, he has no such transport, though at times, a wee pony will be gracious enough to carry him on her back. What he does have are some amazing abilities in free-running.

You might have seen “free-running” at the beginning of Casino Royale, or even better you might have watched Top Gear where James May raced a couple of free-runners through Liverpool in a Peugeot 207 – the runners won of course. Yes, it’s that jumpy jumpy, climby climby stuff. To escape from the deed you have done, you must climb the buildings, jump over the roof tops from beam to beam, and generally act like a flying fox floating from place to place with your nimble feet.

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You must agree that this sounds beyond splendid. Playing an Assassin in the Third Crusade, targeting individuals from both sides of the conflict whilst skipping from location to location, sounds like a veritable ball. Some might say that Jerusalem is a bit of a touchy subject, but how many World War II games have we seen in the past years, glorifying the Americans, and vilifying the Germans as Nazi encrusted robots? Moreover, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare takes place in a fictitious adaptation of the present day Middle East. Thus I think, in comparison, 816 years is plenty of time between now and The Crusades for it to be a safe and welcome change from other games.

There must be a catch, right? A catch maybe not, but there is a twist – a sci-fi twist. In interviews and game footage there has been a suggestion of “something else” in the Assassin’s Creed universe. There are visible effects, such as electrical interference encroaching across the screen like a TV with bad reception, and character’s outlines flashing with a blue glow when you approach them. Some have theorized that the historical setting may be a simulation, or even the “genetic memory” of present day people trying to discover information about past conflicts. This was put into the minds of those who frequent the sticky web that is the Internet by one of the character actors for the game, Kristen Bell. She said in an interview with IGN:

“It’s actually really interesting to me. It’s sort of based on the research that’s sort of happening now, about the fact that your genes might be able to hold memory…And it’s about this science company trying to, Matrix-style, go into people’s brains and find out an ancestor who used to be an assassin, and sort of locate who that person is.”

Well since then, the game’s producer, the stunningly gorgeous Jade Raymond (I wonder if she’s an unlockable skin in the game…hmmm), has stated that it’s not like the Matrix, and Altair is not a time traveller. Yet, in a gameplay demo at X06 a few little snippets seemed to support the genetic memory theory, with the words “memories/01”, “hard drive” and “access your genetic memory” appearing after Altair had died. Furthermore, in the background of the official website and in the “making of videos” are visible DNA strand patterns. So, the plot thickens for Assassin’s Creed, the supposed historically accurate game set in 1191AD. What’s clear is that the developers don’t want to talk about any of this yet, but have tried to make it certain that this is not a gimmick.

Now this worries me, because if this twist is an integral part of the game, then it’s not really set in 1191AD, and you can’t really get immersed into the atmosphere of Jerusalem and the Crusades.

What really gets on mon wick as I watch game footage, are these electrical glitches that interfere with the screen, which are said to have roles in the gameplay – such as being able to change the camera angle in real-time cutscenes. Even worse are the electrical readouts and outlines around the many characters within these cities, that apparently identify who you can interact with. Still, these effects are far from subtle.

It seems such a shame that Ubisoft Montreal have gone to all the trouble to accurately create these holy cities, from the architecture, to the clothes of the characters, to then just stab the player’s eyes with futuristic effects. Yes it’s a game, but games are meant to engage and engross and make you suspend disbelief. These “glitches” act as a knocking down of the fourth wall, taking you out of the immediate action and shouting at you “There’s a twist, don’t forget the twist young Assassin, oooh glitchy glitchy this is not as it seems, everything’s all Matrixy”. I’m all for twists and turns, but it fails to be a twist when the game tells you there’s a twist every five seconds.

Rumour goes that this sci-fi twist is actually revealed in the first 10minutes of the game, and that Gamesradar, the cunning foxettes that they are, have already worked it out by reading a chapter from the Assassin’s Creed comic. Let’s be honest, one is too cowardly to spoil the game by reading a piddly comic, and I doubt you, fine reader, would like the game experience to be spoiled like a freshly killed badger being run over by a two seater Cadillac (I mean I could have had that for my dinner!), either.

So, all in all, I could be wrong. This twist could in fact enrich the gameplay, supplement your interest in the game, and further engross you in the story.  All the while the game’s plot will play with your little mind, confusing your thoughts like a Bishop confuses a choir boy when he leads him to the confession box.

Anyway, the long and short of it is young hobbit, is that there’s something else in this game, something bigger, more clever, and we all know it’s coming (well, you do now) and I for one am not convinced that it will help this game. In fact, right at this moment, I think that this twist will detract from the gameplay.

Hot off the presses, here’s an interview with Ubisoft’s Jade Raymond. The video includes some new Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 footage of the game, as well as insight into the game’s “twist” at the 3:15 mark. Have at it after the jump. (Spoiler Warning)

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Ubisoft’s name comes from the word “ubiquitous”, which means to be everywhere at the same time. With the many branches Ubisoft has throughout Europe and Canada, there’s a reason for the name.

Locations in Barcelona, Shanghai, Dusseldorf, Bucharest and Casablanca (just to name a few) make the company seem like the in-house producer of spy novels rather than a high-end video game developer.

And that assumption isn’t too far off target. After all, Ubisoft has more than dabbled in the subject matter, being the creator of both the Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter series.

Ubisoft got its start as a publisher, and much like Electronic Arts, used this as a springboard to make its own in-house software. Starting in France in 1986, they received their first recognition as a developer with the creation of Rayman, a title originally designed for the flop that was the Atari Jaguar and the more standardized MS-DOS operating system back in 1995.

Rayman was your typical 2D side-scrolling adventure, but it served its purpose in getting the company noticed, and Ubisoft was able to continue future creations with decent capital. Giving the hero a wide variety of powers helped the game achieve enough variety to create a fan base and later Rayman adventures.

Ubisoft continued to produce quality carts in the years to come. They would really start to make big strides once development began for the newer generation of console titles. Ubisoft really started to make a name for itself with the PS2, XBOX and Gamecube clientele. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell in particular was a huge leap for them and their famous Montreal office.

Splinter Cell proved successful with fans of the stealth/action category made famous by its Konami counterpart, Metal Gear Solid. Sam Fisher, a character now synonymous with the genre, was a more grizzled, realistic, and relatable character than the super-soldier archetype of Solid Snake. His was a more realistic world, using more realistic weaponry in more realistic settings.

The addition to the highly popular multiplayer capabilities introduced in the sequel Pandora Tomorrow would only sweeten the deal, and many gamers found more joy in the highly playable Splinter Cell series than Kojima’s cinema-heavy Metal Gear Solid series. He was the Pepsi to Metal Gear’s Coke, and many gamers welcomed the change.

After Ubisoft successfully went toe-to-toe with a genre monopoly, they decided to reanimate a classic game themselves. In 2003 the Montreal branch released Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time , an artistic interpretation of the original series created by Jordan Mechner. The game successfully captured the urgency and acrobatic prowess of the original, while delivering an amazing story arc with top-notch narration.

Flipping over parallel bars, running on walls, and sliding under closing spiked gates has never been this much fun, and fans who fondly recalled the 1989 original rejoiced. Like Splinter Cell, the game gave birth to several sequels. While Mechner would not continue with Ubisoft in the development the next two games, they continued to garner success (albeit with a much darker tone and subject matter). Ubisoft had another hit that would continue to attract critical praise.

Ubisoft has made plenty of must-buy titles in its short existence, and published dozens of others. The sleeper hit Beyond Good and Evil, the Myst series continuation Myst IV: Revelation, and the stylized first person shooter XIII are some examples. But what makes Ubisoft hold its own with the other big hitters on this list is its commitment to a promising future.

By the end of this year we can expect to have Assassin’s Creed, Naruto: Rise of a Ninja and Haze. Next year shows no sign of letting up with potential blockbusters FarCry 2 and Tom Clancy’s EndWar rounding out 2008’s lineup.

What puts Ubisoft in the running for best developer of our generation is the fact that many will buy these titles simply because they’re brandished with the Ubisoft logo. They have built a name in the past, which continues in the present and should continue into the future. Ubisoft picked its name wisely – ubiquitous is truly what they are.

Must Haves:
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (Multi),
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Multi),
GRAW 2 (Multi)

Have Nots:
Star Wars Trilogy: Apprentice of the Force (GBA)

Top Ten Developer List: 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1

Contrary to the rumors circulating regarding Ubisoft’s latest financial report which states the company has decided to “postpone the release of certain games”, Assassin’s Creed will not be on the list. Press release after the jump.

UBISOFT ANNOUNCES ASSASSIN’S CREED™ VIDEO GAME HAS GONE GOLD – LAUNCHING NOVEMBER 15

Montreal – CANADA – October 25, 2007 – Today Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, announced its highly anticipated Assassin’s Creed™ video game has gone “gold” and is set to launch in Canada on November 15, 2007. The title is one of the most anticipated games for the holiday season, arriving on the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft.

“We’ve been working very hard for nearly four years to make Assassin’s Creed a reality and now there is a confirmed date when players will get to experience the results of our efforts,” shared Jade Raymond, producer of Assassin’s Creed. “This is a huge event for the team. Our biggest reward will be everyone having a lot of good solid fun.”

So rest easy would be assassins, you will be free to hunt your prey soon enough.

A mysterious flash teaser site hit the web today, courtesy of Ubisoft Canada, and within hours it was causing quite a stir on gaming news site N4G, as well as several game related message boards.

The short flash teaser shows a blood covered feather slowly drifting downward towards a white surface. DNA type information flashes on the screen at two points during the feathers decent, along with the words “Nothing is true. Everything is permitted. November 14th, 2007. Be prepared …”.

Some fans believe it is hinting at a possible suprise, while others say it is just an attempt to hype up the games release date. Assuming the game ships on the 13th as expected, the date it would be available for sale in stores would most likely be the 14th.

The 14th also happens to be the same date mentioned in the teaser, which is causing a great deal of confusion and debate. Our very own, Michael Bencic, who resides in Canada forwarded me the information about the trailer this morning. However since we both looked at it and thought two different things, we decided to contact Ubisoft Canada for an official comment via email before going forward with a story about a teaser that could end up being nothing more than a way to promote the games release.

It is important to note that Michael has been working with Ubisoft Canada and his contact Katia, for some time now. He emailed her asking for clarification and she responded “lol. Can’t tell… be patient…”. Armed with an official response, be it brief, Michael and I discussed the response, the teaser, and weighed the obvious exclusions that would point to it being a release date reminder.

Having dealt with many PR firms, we believe that if it was a release date reminder, there would most likely be some sort of means to drive sales and ramp pre-orders for the game. Being that there is no “click here to pre-order the game” button leads us to believe that this is more than just a means to promote the games release. To find out what it is exactly though, we are all apparently going to need to “be patient”.

The newly released trailer will definitely get your blood pumping with increased anticipation for the games release. The camera pans down from above as the trailer begins and reveals a secret meeting taking place between the Knights Templar. They discuss their plan to prevent the game’s protagonist. Check it out after the jump.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Can Assassin’s Creed dethrone Metal Gear Solid as the king of third person stealth gaming? Ubisoft’s Project Manager of Animation, Elspeth Tory, allowed us to take the controls while she provided us with a walk through of one of this years most anticipated next gen titles – Assassin’s Creed.

Elspeth was well prepared to give us demonstration, as she supplied us with headsets and communicated to us via a microphone equipped headset of her own throughout our session. With the tight quarters at this years Min-E3 it was surprising to us that more publishers didn’t follow Ubisoft’s lead.

While you do have mission objectives indicated by a flashing X on your screen, the game is free roaming and everything as far as your eyes can see is available for you to take cover behind, climb, jump, push, and shove, all in the name of successfully reaching and eliminating your next target.

“Everything down there is your playground … So are you interested in playing?” said Elspeth with a smile on her face.

We of course said yes and shared a good laugh as she handed us the controls. The game starts with your character perched high above the city as you study your surroundings and admire the breathtaking view. When you are finally ready to begin you must jump down and land into a bale of hay in the streets below. This is done simply by pushing forward on your left analog.

Upon exiting the bale of hay (by again pressing forward on your left analog) you begin to make your way through the crowd of people. The game features something called “free running” which essentially means that in order to move you must push the left analog in the direction you want to go and press the (A) button which sets your feet in motion. To run simply hold down the right trigger while doing the above as well. The right analog changes the position of your camera, the (B) button controls your empty hands, (Y) corresponds to your head movement, and (X) is used to attack.

“The game has very innate detection and tons of animations to represent different collisions from different angles.” said Elspeth

We would have to agree there. The controls are very sensitive and the games collision detection is unlike anything we have seen before. You will notice this most when working your way through crowds as your character turns his shoulders to maneuver his way through tight places you will see many different animations depending on the speed and angle of approach.

Certain individuals you encounter will give off a distinct glow (think Terminator body scan) as they enter your line of sight. The glow designates a target which you can lock onto such as a guard. The glow is similar to the terminator body scan you may remember seeing in the movie as it outlines the figures body in white and gives off a subtle glow.

As you make your way through the town holding down the (B) button will gently push people out of your way. If the situation calls for more drastic measures, press (B) while in mid run and give anyone hindering your progress a good shove. This is great when being pursued, as it will clear a path helping you distance yourself from guards, however doing this any other time will surely draw more attention to yourself than needed.

If you are wondering just how much you can get away with before the guards catch onto you simply look at the on-screen “social status indicator”. It is a reflection of how the crowd and guards view you. When the eye flashes, it means you are being watched by guards. Shoving your way through crowds will effect the indicator and getting into a fight will cause it to turn bright red. While experimenting with the controls, we noticed that pressing the (Y) button caused the character to tilt his head down and bring his hands up into a position of prayer as he walked the streets. Elspeth explained …

“That’s what we call a blend animation. It is used to blend in. This is pretty helpful near the end of the game or after you have killed a target and everyone is after you. At that point the guards are really sensitive and even walking near them will cause them to attack you. The prayer animation will give you a couple seconds to break the guards line of site and allow you to find a place to hide.”

There a good number of places to hide in the game, and while the crowds and benches on the street level serve well for blending in, when your status indicator is in alert mode you will need to climb to higher ground in order to reach the more secure hiding spots.

When climbing your character will automatically detect anything that he can grasp and hold on to, and there are a ton of things available to you to climb. From what we saw, a simple wall alone contained extruding bolts, uneven bricks, molding, window sills, and attached wooden beams. Speaking of wooden beams, you will be able to swing from them as well, which is great when you are looking to bypass the crowded streets below.

After proving that we had the basic controls down we were finally given the green light to kill a guard, and we have got to admit it was worth the wait. Once we had ourself in position behind the unsuspecting guard, we pressed up on the directional pad in order to select our assassin’s blade and then tapped the L trigger one time to lock onto the guard.

With weapon in hand and target locked all that was left to do now was to move in as close as possible and press (X). With a swift thrust of our blade the guard was down and we were off to resume our leisurely stroll around the city. The awareness level of the other guards in that area increased and they began to leave their posts to examine the incident, but by the time they arrived to the scene we were long gone.

We were now in the process of making our way to our mark on the map, a slave trader by the name of Talal, when we ran into two characters on the street that were looking to pick a fight with us. The stance and overall appearance of the two tall lanky topless characters throwing constant jabs in our direction resembled Sagat of Street Fighter fame. It took us a few seconds to work our way around them without fighting back to draw more attention to ourselves.

Once past the dueling street idiots, we made a few more turns and closed in on Talal’s location. Upon entering the building where he was hiding out we were treated to a real time cinematic sequence. As the sequence played out we were still able to control our character and manipulate the camera movement. After the cinematic came to an end we walked through another set of doors and were swarmed by a group of guards who had been instructed by Talal to kill our character. We were not about to have any of that.

The key to this and other battles is to be locked in on your target, and the easiest way to know if you are locked in is to examine your characters stance. If you appear to be ready to attack you are locked into a target and if you are standing casually you are not. Before the battle begins you will have a few seconds to adjust your buttons and you want to make sure that you use the directional pad to select your sword.

Another important tip is to hold down your right trigger during the battle. This will automatically deflect the attacks made in your direction while you are locked onto a target. Holding down the right trigger and pressing (X) when attacked will cause you to perform a counter move, while right trigger and (B) will allow you to grab your attacker and throw him to the ground. To attack a guard from a distance, simply switch to your dagger, lock on to the guard, and tap (X). The dagger is a great default weapon for an encounter such as this, as it can be used to take out enemies both near and far.

This encounter was quite difficult for a first time player and we relied on GOD mode to save our assassinating ass on more than one occasion. However, we do believe that with more playing time the controls will become second nature to most gamers and these encounters will become less challenging.

After dismantling the guards Talal gets scared and begins to hot foot his way across the roof tops. We climbed a ladder and began to chase him. With a few well timed jumps we moved in on him quickly, and as he leaped off the roof we were right on top of him.

We must have bumped the (X) button before the camera could reposition itself because by the time it turned around to show our character he was already holding Talal’s dead body in his arms. This was a funny moment for all of us as Elspeth explained that she was fairly certain that was the fastest that anyone had ever killed the character.

The demo itself doesn’t end there though, once Talal has been killed the rest of his men give chase to you and you must make your way to the “assassin’s bureau”. Just getting there isn’t good enough as you can’t enter the bureau if guards in the area are on alert, so it is important to get there without being seen. Once inside, you debrief and the demo concludes.

After we got done patting ourselves on the back for our super fast kill, we turned around to see that the lead designer of Gears of War, Mr. Cliffy B was waiting in line behind us to play. It seemed that everyone was interested in getting a “stab” at Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed.

Our impression of the game? Visually stunning and extremely well animated. While it was a little hard to get used to the controls at first, we think the learning curve is worth while and can appreciate the value of an interface such as this especially in a game of this nature. The AI was very good but we did note a few areas for improvement such as the mark who wasn’t able to escape us for more than a few seconds even with a decent running head start.

All in all though, the issues we had with the game were very minor, and will most likely be worked out in its final release. Gamers making a big deal out of the glitch that occurred during the Microsoft Conference need to relax and realize that this game is still far from finished. In closing, there is nothing on the market like this, and it will make a very nice addition to your video game collection.

Assassin’s Creed Concept Art (click to enlarge)

Check out the video below demonstrating an alternate route you can take to achieve the same result. Narration is provided by Ubisoft.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We have also included the audio from our hands on preview of the game with Elspeth. You can listen to that below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Assassin’s Creed will be available this November in North America at the MSRP of $59.99 with the Limited Edition priced at $69.99 – ESRB rating is pending. For more information, please visit www.assassinscreed.com.

Controller Layout Summary

• (R) Analog: Controls the camera
• (L) Analog: Changes the direction your character is facing
• (A) Button: Sets your feet in motion
• (B) Button: Acts as your (empty) hands
• (Y) Button: Controls your head (The only example of this we saw was the prayer animation used to slip past guards)
• (X) Button: Initiates your attack
• (L) Trigger: Locks on to an enemy or available target
• (R) Trigger: Run when combined with Left analog and (A) Button, Deflects attacks when locked onto a target, Grabs a hold of and throws an enemy when combined with the (B) Button.
• (D) Pad: Equips Weapon