Games

After the riprorious success of the other mid-90′s Need for Speed reboot Hot Pursuit and the subsequent disappointing sludge that was The Run, a shakeup of the entire franchise was in order. As creators of the only decent Need for Speed game in years, earlier this year Criterion took over all development of future Need for Speed titles. Prior to this, Criterion racers were either Burnout or forgettable Dreamcast outings. How do you make a Need for Speed game that redefines itself without veering too far into Burnout territory? You meet it half-way. Most Wanted feels like a seismic shift, more like the HMS NFS has finally gained a weathered old sea dog to give it some sense of direction; Paradise City. The way cars are earned and driven has been completely overhauled, no longer do you simply started with a Vauxhall Corsa and trudge your way towards a Lamborghini Aventador, all cars bar the ’10 Most Wanted’ are available as soon as they are discovered and jacked, meaning if y...

Creative director of Assassin’s Creed 3 Alex Hutchinson has mentioned that the team underestimated the popularity of Assassin’s Creed 3′s naval battles. It was first shown at the Sony conference at E3, and many people were impressed by it. They could have spawned a whole new game from that, but Ubisoft Montreal decided against it because it was too risky at that time. “When we looked into it we realised too that no one had done third-person action-adventure sailing, you know in this period. So we’re like, great, it’s brand new; it’s probably too risky to do as it’s own game,” he told AusGamers.   “Although now I think it’s been successful enough that we probably underestimated it. But it felt like an appropriate and exciting risk to take. When we looked at the history of this period of America we realised that sailing ships were so important. It’s how you arrived there if you were foreign, it’s how all imported goods arrived there.   “The French fleet at Yorktown b...

  The "Assassin's Creed" franchise is now in its fifth installment — and is looking better than ever. (Ubisoft) I recently got a chance for some hands-on time with easily one of the most anticipated games of the holiday season: Ubisoft's "Assassin's Creed 3." Instead of being on foot and climbing on rooftops in Boston, I was established in Caribbean on controlling a boat. The "Assassin's Creed" franchise is now in its fifth installment -- and is looking better than ever. Without a doubt, this official third entry is battling repetition and lack of variety as it tries to breathe new life into the franchise. This is a key ingredient in this entry, as sailing sections have been added. Sailing the sea is effortless, exciting and gut-wrenching at the same time. My playtime had me on a patrol passing a sunny beach allowing me to grasp the controls, which are similar to how you move while on foot. Afterward, the action quickly kic...

 Ubisoft's Far Cry 2 is at its best when your best laid plans go catastrophically wrong – when craftily assassinating a single target goes haywire and becomes a blood-soaked, bullet-ridden assault on an entire army. While I was only able to experience a tiny slice of the Far Cry 3 single-player campaign, I can happily report, at the very least, that things can definitely still go wrong.     As Jason Brody, I saunter through a small, somewhat ramshackle island town. The Ubisoft guide walks me through the basics, pointing out that my map isn't working properly because a nearby radio tower is blocking the signal. Seeing as how maps are kind of important for getting around, the radio tower seems like a logical first destination. After briefly attempting to drive a jeep up a narrow, hillside path, common sense prevails and I hoof it to the tower. Ascending the huge, entirely unsafe-looking structure – bent rails, missing steps and all – I finally reach the top and rip an...

Assassin's Creed 3 will not have a multiplayer beta according to Ubisoft. The developer, who held a beta for previous AC games, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed: Revelations stated that, while getting community feedback through beta testing is helpful, the process takes time that they'd rather spend adding elements to the game. "We’d need to polish a version, submit it to the platform holders and support it when it’s out," said Ubisoft Annecy multiplayer game director Damien Kieken. "And all the time put into the beta doesn’t go into the final game." And there you have it. Assassin's Creed 3 is coming to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on October 30. While you won't get to play it until then, you can check out its gorgeous new graphics in the latest Assassin's Creed 3  anvil next trailer.

At Comic-Con 2012, Alex Hutchinson, Creative Director, lead an equally informative and entertaining panel about Assassin's Creed 3. The panel revealed a lot of interesting facts about the development of the game. Here are the five most intriguing things we learned during the Assassin's Creed 3 Comic-Con 2012 panel! The Weapons Are Going To Be Totally Bad Ass Setting the game in American naturally changes some aspects of gameplay, and one of those is the weapons available to Conner, the game's Native American lead character. "A native American lead seemed like the perfect fit," Hutchinson explained. Neither British or American, Connor allowed the team to use a main character who was removed fray, but who also had new arsenal of weapons at his disposal. Conner is a dual weapons specialist, who wields a tomahawk along with other close combat weapons, and mid-range options like a bow and arrow. There will also be guns, so don't worry. One of the tools that caught ...

As the saying goes, if some is good then more is better, but that has not exactly been the case for some fans of the Assassin's Creed franchise. There is a rather large, vocal group of Assassin's supporters who adore the franchise, but believe the series should take a year or so away from releasing new versions of the game because they don't want the game to get stale? Are they right? Should Assassin's Creed take a year off from publishing? Assassin's Creed initially debuted back in 2007 and became an immediate smash-hit with its unique take on history and incorporating it with historic cities, during historic timeframes, and blending all of that with a stealth, open-world title that dazzled anyone who played it. Then it was not until 2009 that the franchise received the second installment, Assassin's Creed II , and this game, even today, is still held in high regard as the best Assassin's Creed of all-time. This time, even though gamers did not know, t...

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  The end of October sees the latest Assassin’s Creed launch, a game that has an actual number suffixed to the end of it. Assassin’s Creed 2 launched back in 2009, brining with it some much-needed improvements, before continuing the tale with annual releases in the for of AC: Brotherhood and AC: Revelations. And that’s a development cycle that will continue with the latest game as well, according to creative director Alex Hutchinson. Speakking to CVG at Gamescom, Hutchinson said that the annual-release cycle in the Assassin’s Creed line would continue with the third game, and that it was all a part of the Triple-A process of game design. “Since when is something less amazing if you get a new one every year?” Hutchinson said. If Breaking Bad was shown twice a week I’d watch it twice a week. If Radiohead put out an album every six months I’d gladly buy one every six months. If people want these massive triple-A blockbusters, people will have to accept that we have to make our money ...

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