From the team that brought you Jade Raymond comes this epic third-person action/adventure game. Assassin’s Creed is a game with a lot of hype behind it, for a good reason. At first glance, it's obviously a very visually impressive game that oozes of production value and artistic quality. It’s simply a delight to watch the main character, Altair, run around in the Middle-Eastern cities, cutting up templar knights.

But visuals aside, there's of course some gameplay involved. The acrobatic / sword-dueling gameplay is not that far away from the team’s earlier Prince of Persia games, but to me Assassin’s Creed has a bit more appeal than the old prince’s adventures. This is not only due to its art direction and tone, but also because of the game’s storytelling and mission structure.

Most people who followed this game will remember that a certain “twist” overwhelmed the media buzz around this game. While I will not reveal the twist in itself (even though the game’s been out for quite a while at this point), I will say so much that it opens up for sequels that don’t necessarily take place in the setting of this first game. This is probably a deliberate choice of the studio/publisher for that exact reason, but it does serve other purposes as well. It gives Assassin’s Creed a unique attribute that really stands out.

Assassin’s Creed is an enjoyable game with very simple but fun game mechanics. Altair is a wonderful character to control, and his ninja-like agility and abilities would put most videogame ninjas to shame. The downside, however, is that the game is very repetitive. With a long list of main targets and a number of side missions at your disposal, it doesn’t take long until you start to grow tired of the routines you’ll have to go through to finish a “level”. But players who’re willing to push through the somewhat weak middle part of the game are sure to be rewarded by an excellent finish that only leaves you hungry for more.

Assassin’s Creed is far from a perfect game. It's main downsides are by far the repetition and some quirky AI problems, but it still managed to keep me hooked the whole way with its engaging story and high fun factor. It’s going to be very interesting to see what waits in the next chapter.

De acuerdo con la revista impresa Xbox World 360 Splinter Cell: Conviction ha sido enviado "de vuelta al tablero de dibujo". Parece ser que los Xboxers se van a quedar sin su MGS 4-killer (LOL) hasta que salga MGS 5 (sí, habrán más secuelas). Bromas aparte, se baraja una fecha comprendida entre finales de 2009 y primavera del 2010.

He de confesar que nunca me han llamado la atención los Splinter Cells pero este apuntaba maneras. Eso de sobrevivir al gobierno evadiéndote entre multitudes, improvisando con el mobiliario urbano o estableciendo amistades con el mercado negro DEBE de molar. En teoría... en la práctica quizás Ubi nos regale un fantástico Assassins Creed: Sam Fisher Adventures. Espero equivocarme.

El caso es que aún no hay confimación oficial por parte de Ubisoft, así que tocará esperar a los UbiDays (a finales del presente mes) para saber si será aplazado porque tienen juegos para parar un tren o porque quieren remodelar a Sam a lo cel-shading...

Sam argumentando su opinión al respecto en las oficinas de Ubi.

Fuente: CVG

Ah, eles ainda dão emprego a uma certa moça chamada Jade Raymond e nos brindam sempre que possível com seu sorriso e... hã... "carisma" em vídeos e entrevistas.

O fato é que os competentes franceses tem motivos de sobra para estarem animados. Eles anunciaram hoje seus relatórios sobre o ano fiscal de 2008 que terminou ontem. A empresa teve um aumento de faturamento de 37%, saltando de $1.07  para invejáveis $1.46 bilhões! Os principais responsáveis foram Assassin´s Creed com mais de 6 milhões de cópias vendidas e Rainbow Six Vegas 2 com 2 milhões de unidades comercializadas.

Ainda na conferência realizada hoje, Yves Guillemot - CEO da Ubisoft - garantiu que Assassin's Creed como franquia estará nos planos da empresa por muitos anos. As altas vendas garantiram o game no rol de marcas prioritárias da empresa. Guillemot não quis confirmar que uma continuação está em produção, mas sabemos exatamente que na realidade a produção de Assassin´s 2 está a todo vapor.

Saindo do campo de anúncios oficiais e indo para compo dos boatos... Fontes garantem que Michel Ancel - visionário game designer da Ubisoft responsável por Rayman - está trabalhando em um novo game que não é continuação do seu sensacional- e fracassado - BG&E. Isto, por sí só, já seria bastante empolgante, mas e se o projeto tivesse envolvimento direto com o fantástico Yoshitaka Amano?

Pois é exatamente isto que, aparentemente, está acontecendo. O novo game da Ubisoft é uma parceria entre o criativo Ancel e o lendário artista japonês! Informações sobre o título são inexistentes, mas não dá para não ficar curioso com o resultado desta mistura!

Woohoo! And since I didn't have internets on April Fool's Day, I missed out on these two awesome pranks:

Legend of Zelda Live-Action (elaborately made!)

Metal Gear Creed (ftw because of Jade Raymond, yow!)

En el video podemos notar que es una Skin "Mascara" de Altair sobre Snake

I didn't do a lot yesterday. I didn't do editing. I was scheming a couple of things, actually, one of which was my library. I also went through a few random websites, listened to Kid A and got some sort of new appreciation for it, and read a bit of Kafka, although I was really sleepy and Kafka's prose has this "translated classic" quality to it that I can't really describe but is really bad for sleepy moments. At least, for me.

All this while, I negotiated a very pissed off mom, who appears to be mad at me because of some driving things. The fact is that I'm not happy either, but it's not so much the driving but rather that it reminds me that my parents really have no grasp of who I am at all. And it's really sad. I wonder if one day they'll read this and realise that the things that are important to me aren't trite, impossible or the same as the things that are important to them.

Random

I came across this about the Animal Lovers League selling calendars, so I thought I'd spread the word a bit. [Crazy. Cool. Cute!] For your convenience, their main site is here. [via Animal Lovers League]

Review of the film adaptation of Atonement. [via Geeks of Doom] I never read the Ian McEwan book, but I have heard very amazing things about it, so I think I'll look for it the next time around. That said, this review is highly favourable too, so I just might catch the film.

Scientists to make cows fart like kangaroos to cool the planet. [via Inhabitat]

David Beckham trains with the Arsenal squad. [via Arsenal.com]

Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt have this book club, The Sword And Laser, for sci-fi and fantasy books. [via The Sword And Laser]

Balancing gameplay in Street Fighter IV. [via Kotaku]

Hideo Kojima talks to Jade Raymond about violence. [via Kotaku]

Finally, Conan is back, and he's not bad with the guitar too! [via Youtube]

I'm most happy that he played Sunshine Of Your Love.

d

The first response I'd like to comment on is:  "She should just expect something like this."

Why?  Because she's a woman?  Someone somewhere asked if people would be white knighting a guy like this.  The response they got was, "If she was a guy, THIS wouldn't have happened."  And it's true.

One of my first articles was the "Bad Gamer Archetypes:  The Guy Edition."  Don't go wadding your knickers over that, because the next column was the Girl Edition.  But anyway, in that column two of the types of Bad Gamer Archetypes I talk about are:  "Plays His Sexual Fantasies Guy" and "Does Brutal Shit to Plays His Sexual Fantasies Guy's Character Guy." In the latter entry, I talk about how the most disturbing thing about the entire situation was not that the second guy spent long periods of time lovingly describing this horrible, brutal, terrible, fucked up sexual violence his character was perpetrating on the first guy's character, but rather that it didn't bother the first guy at all.  It was almost like, "Well, yeah, that's what happens to hot chicks."

Do I have to tell you why this is fucked up on so many levels?  Do I?

So, Jade Raymond should just expect this crap because, "Well, that's just what happens to hot chicks?"  By doing her job she should just expect doucheclams to draw pornographic cartoons of her.  Because she's doing her job?

Faith in humanity... sinking...

Another variation on this theme is, "Well, until guys stop wanting sex and women stop knowing that guys want sex..."  OMG!  How many ways is this fucked up?

1.  Hey, maybe women want sex, too.
2.  Wanting sex is not the same thing as being a sexist prick.
3.  How is a woman who is dressed fairly conservatively and talking solely about her JOB using sex to sell videogames?
4.  Did you hear that?  My head just exploded all over everything.

Seriously guys, do you not know how self-loathing you sound when you say shit like this?  "Urg want pussy, not able control self around pussy... do anything get pussy." 

Do you really think that poorly of yourself and all other men? 

And people say Feminists hate men...

The other response I'm seeing a lot of is the "If people wouldn't talk about it, it would go away."

Until the next time, and the next time, and the next time... Yeah sure, AssBoy McDouchehound* is getting a bunch of free press out of this.  But if we say nothing, that gives a tacit acceptance of what he's doing. 

It's like this, how many of you were bullied in school?  I'm guessing there's a lot of hands up out there right now, given the audience.  I know I was. 

Now, how many of you got the "Just ignore them and they'll go away" advice from your parents?  Probably many of those hands still up.

Now, for how many of you did that actually work?  Lots fewer hands I'm guessing.  I know it didn't work for me, it just made them escalate until they could get a rise out of me, as in escalating to physical violence, like hitting me with a car.

Ignoring these idiots doesn't work.  Just like ignoring bullies, doesn't work.  It's like potty training a puppy, if you don't rub its nose in it, it won't understand piddling on the carpet is wrong.  Granted, after reading his response, I'm guessing the puppy is more capable of learning, but hope springs eternal. 

*The really mean part of me wants to find a picture of him so I can draw a cartoon of him sucking off guys for readership, and see how he likes it.  But I will not sink to that level... And I don't draw that well. 

Dla porządku krótkie wprowadzenie: kilka dni temu na X360 i PS3 ukazała się głośna i wyczekiwana od wielu miesięcy gra Assassin's Creed (w lutym trafi również na komputery) stworzona i wydana przez Ubisoft. Jej producentką jest Jade Raymond, która wcześniej pracowała m.in. dla takich firm jak Sony (gdzie zajmowała się programowaniem; z wykształcenia jest informatyczką) i Electronic Arts (gdzie również produkowała gry). Ale nie o samym Assassin's Creed będzie mowa, choć gra to dobra i warto było na nią czekać. Przed kilkoma dniami bowiem w popularnym amerykańskim serwisie satyrycznym Something Awful opublikowany został komiks przedstawiający Jade jako obiekt seksualny. Komiks jest niesmaczny i nieśmieszny, ale ważniejsze jest to, co sugeruje: że w branży gier znalazła się wyłącznie dzięki wyglądowi, a nie umiejętnościom i że jest jedynie narzędziem służącym promocji gry wśród męskich graczy, czyli większości graczy w ogóle.

Warto w tym miejscu wspomnieć, że Jade jest rzeczywiście atrakcyjna: ładna, zgrabna, uśmiechnięta i komunikatywna. Jest też przy tym doświadczonym i wykształconym pracownikiem branży gier. Takie połączenie jest najwidoczniej dla niektórych trudne do zaakceptowania. Komiks wywołał wiele komentarzy; najgorsze jest to, że w części z nich przewija się przekonanie, że Jade sobie na takie traktowanie zasłużyła - najwidoczniej tym, że jako kobieta osiągnęła sukces w branży zdominowanej przez mężczyzn. Ani chybi zawdzięcza go ładnej buzi, tudzież ciału. No bo przecież nie wiedzy i umiejętnościom?

Z drugiej strony przyznać trzeba, że od wielu miesięcy w niemal każdym przypadku, gdy o Assassin's Creed pisze się i mówi, pojawia się postać Jade. Ubisoft używa jej do promocji gry w stopniu bardzo dużym - może nawet za dużym. W ten sposób w cień usunięta zostaje pozostała część zespołu pracującego nad produkcją. Ale, ale... Jade jest przecież producentką gry - jej "twarzą". W świecie gier nierzadko mamy do czynienia z sytuacją, gdy główny twórca danej marki jest medialną osobowością, która napędza niejako zainteresowanie nią i w konsekwencji sprzedaż: CliffyB (Gears of War), Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid), Peter Molyneux (Fable), Will Wright (SimCity), Sid Meier (Cywilizacja) - by wymienić tylko kilka przykładów. W ich przypadku nikt raczej nie poddaje w wątpliwość rzeczywistego wkładu pracy w powstawanie gry. Seksizm? Chyba nie można tego nazwać inaczej.

Ubisoft zagroził administratorom strony Something Awful sankcjami prawnymi i zażądał usunięcia komiksu z jej łamów, co też się stało, ale ruch ten paradoksalnie jeszcze wszystko pogorszył. Właściciele strony rozpowszechnili treść listu od prawników firmy, sprawa - jak to w internecie bywa - w tempie błyskawicznym stała się głośna i w rezultacie na temat Jade napisano wiele bardzo nieprzyjemnych rzeczy. Najprawdopodobniej gdyby Ubisoft zignorował ten wygłup, parę osób o dyskusyjnym poczuciu humoru by się pośmiało i o wszystkim szybko by zapomniano. Tymczasem autor komiksu chwali się teraz swoim "osiągnięciem". Zaiste Coś Okropnego.

Assassin's Creed is a really fun game.

Assassin's Creed was made by a fairly large group of people.

As you can see from the last picture, one of them, the producer as it turns out, is a fairly attractive, and well-spoken young woman.

Ubisoft marketing took advantage of one of the team members being well-spoken and photogenic. The gaming press reacted...

...well... let's just say restraining orders may be needed.

In fact, you might wonder if Jade Raymond's Assassin's Creed was an actual game, or if the entire purpose of creating a next-generation free-form adventure game set in the Crusades was simply an excuse to post pictures of pretty girls. The Internet is apparently short of these.

Hey, look, more!

This is from the unofficial Jade Raymond fan site. I wonder if my producer will ever get an unofficial fan site. Since he's not very pretty, probably not.

But this is all just harmless fun, right? Right? Surely we can take the genre-bending spectacle of an actual gee-she's-purty she-smells-nice can-I-see-the-rabbits-george woman in a significant game development role and not make something awful from it?

Yeah, whatever. This is the Internet. We break everything.

That vile little comic (trust me, it gets a lot more offensive) is now famous because Ubisoft is trying to sue it out of existence. Apparently they only like creepy Jade Raymond fanservice if it's happy creepy fanservice. Or if it's done by real game journalists.

By the way, Assassin's Creed is really fun. For some reason I thought I should bring that up again. You know, in case seeing pictures of a real girl makes you forget. Apparently this is a problem many people have.

Other commentary on how we can't have nice people (warning: both are apparently written by real girls and as has been shown, we just can't handle this):
Game Girl Advance
Feministe

The always readable Sanya Weathers (who is also a real girl, but moreover also can and will kick your ass) has well-thought-out points as well.

With the release of Assassins Creed marred by tasteless Jade Raymond jokes, glitches, freezing and a "white screen of death" , PS3 and Xbox 360 owners are up in arms. It has been noted that many of those who have encountered issues are using the 2.0 firmware, causing many users to hold off on the current update. As of now, Ubisoft Official Forum managers are urging its forum give them as much information as possible so that these problems may be resolved. Within the very same time-frame, the official Playstation Blog has let word out that a 2.01 update is on the horizon.

A 2.01 update so soon after the big 2.0 seems rather strange. The only detail mentioned in the blog post is that the coming update will be "a minor update that will improve the stability of PLAYSTATION 3." The key word definitely being stability. This is why, I am of the opinion that this coming update directly addresses the technical issues with Assassins Creed, similar to the updates that did some tweaking on Warhawk and Lair. Hopefully this will get resolved quickly cause my pre-order just shipped.

Update :

According to a blog post from William Harrison over at bebo, entitled "How To Stop Assassins Creed From Freezing And The Frame Rate Issues". The freezing and frame-rate issues can be fixed by simply turning off the information board and not signing in to the Playstation Network.

Ubisoft have issued a 'Cease and Desist' letter to SomethingAwful.com over a comic strip (linked at the bottom) featuring a women who is meant to be Assasins Creeds producer Jade Raymond involved in a sexual act.

The comic in question originally drawn by the mediocre Chugworth (nice artwork, terrible writing) was linked to by a member of the SomethingAwful forums. Somehow this is, according to Ubisoft, SomethingAwfuls fault, and a cease and desist is somehow valid due to harm to Raymond's reputation and/or career, and that this was all for the purpose of selling something on SomethingAwful. Of course this is all rubbish. If the letter was aimed at its creator 'Dave Cheung' of Chugworth fame it would be far more reasonable, more so due to the man being a borderline paedophile who draws images of under-age sex (lolicon) and guro

Sadly Richard 'Lowtax' Kyanka has complied with the threat and taken down the post that contained the link and given over the details to Ubisoft even though this was a suit that Ubisoft would not stand a chance of winning.

This action has done three things.

1) Ubisofts popularity has been damaged, to what degree is questionable but this is without doubt.

2) Jade Raymond's personality has also been drawn into question as most people will tie this stupidity and bullying with her and her reputation and career has been damaged, far more than the comic would have done, if it would have had any effect at all.

3) What was linked to as a joke in a forum, will now instead of being seen by a handful of SomethingAwful Goons, now be seen by thousands of gamers across the Internet who are all frantically searching for it to see what all the fuss is about.

Well done Ubisoft.

Edit:

It seems a lot of people are hunting for the comic in question. As I hate corporate bullying I am more than happy to link to the comic myself to help Ubisoft learn their lesson. Feel free to spread this as much as you like.

As a warning this comic is NOT work safe.

Redone links as photobucket are wankers.

Jade Raymond comic

Mirror (just in case)

Assassin's Creed has just been release on the Xbox360 home console, maybe shortly it will appear on the Ps3 and PC as well. What makes this game revolutionary you might ask, just by looking at the game environment makes you feel that you have been transform or have travel back in time, reverting your senses, feeling like you are really in a different place.

This game rocks PERIOD never has a game like this been release for some time now, I don't about you FPS fan boys but I love a good action game, specially a game that blurs the line between what's real and not.

Assassins Creed takes place during the third crusade in 1191, you assume the role of Altair meaning "the flying one", a member of the Hashshashin sect (the original assassins). Your task will involve killing nine historical people during the third crusade.

Altair is a solid and efficient killer, using a wide range of weapons to silently kill his target, when the game progresses so as Altair repertoire, gaining him access to new killing tools as well as news skills to complement the weapons.

When Altair successfully kills his target a feather soaked in blood to be given to their leader as proof of accomplishment.

It is also interesting to note that when Altair in is mid air his shadow resembles that of an eagle, this is because of his hood and a cut through in his suit.

Ubisoft, published this game, as we all know they have a reputation of release awesome and successful titles such as the Prince of Persia Franchise.

Assassins Creed blurs the line between a solid Action game and the platforming genre, we hope to be able to play this awesome game in our PC, I can't wait for this one, maybe I'll just keep myself busy for a while.

Although no official review has been posted yet, it seems IGN's initial impressions of Assassin's Creed are not very good. In their weekly podcast, they gave pick of the week to Smackdown VS Raw and Medal of Honor: Airborne. When asked about which game had the best graphics, they gave the response "Ass Creed". They are not allowed to post a review of Ubisoft's game until tomorrow, but if the podcast is anything to go by, do not expect a 10. Check IGN tomorrow for the full review.

(BC) 09.11.2007 - Jade Raymond says about herself: I am just a Nerd. Well, but then a lucky successful and damn good looking one...

The 32-year-old entrepreneur is a real stroke of luck for the game industry. Jade Rymond knows what's up, she is very eloquent and she looks great. That all is quite an advantage in an industry whose leading minds do not much to contradict the common prejudice to live between empty pizza boxes, cables and computers. Raymond on the other hand demonstrates, that video games are today something perfectly normal for totally ordinary people and thus she turned into the first female superstar of the whole game scene.

Now Raymond made it on the Cover of the German SPIEGEL and the editors spent almost two double-pages on her success story. Jade Raymond was born in Montreal Canada and she is currently the producer of the highly anticipated title Assassins Creed, one of the most buzzed-about titles of 2007. As a video game producer, she is in charge of overseeing the development of the game regarding the creative and technical development of the game as well as maintaining schedules and budgets at Ubisoft Montreal Studio. She is also acting as a liaison between the development staff and the publisher or executive staff insuring the game will be delivered in time. DIGG IT!

Assassin's Creed, from UbiSoft, appeared to be if not unique, at least polished to a mirror shine. The trailers showed an intensely stylish evolution of the recent Prince of Persia trilogy, starring the enigmatic Altair, an assassin bounding along the rooftops of third-crusade-era Jerusalem.

Today, I read in this month's Electronic Gaming Monthly, what is perhaps the most ridiculous statement to ever emerge from a game producer.

Quoth producer-babe du jour, Jade Raymond: "We know that the controls take some getting used to for some players, but playtesting has shown that both casual and hardcore players get the hang of it quite quickly."

Putting aside the fact that this team birthed the remarkably intuitive and functional Prince of Persia control scheme, writer Michael Donahoe goes on to remark how casual gamers will "most likely kill themselves more often than their targets."

An aside, before I go on, I have a condition known as dysgraphia. It is classified as a learning disability, though that is somewhat of a misnomer. Simply put, it is poor hand-eye coordination to the point of disability. For instance, I cannot write longhand. It is almost impossible, my handwriting is illegible and I can't write for more than ten seconds at a time before my hand seizes with pain. The improvements in hand-eye that I have enjoyed, come from avid gaming and computer use.

Still, there are limits. If a game has an obtuse control scheme, odds are I'll never be able to master it. If a game relies heavily on twitch aiming in multiplayer, I can't succeed in the multiplayer. I loved the Prince of Persia games for their blend of intuitive, accessible controls, and stylish action. The moves I was pulling off looked hot shit, but I was able to accomplish those moves fluidly.

Assassin's Creed seems to be a deliberate obfuscation of the control scheme. Keep in mind I have not played it, but the signs all point to the bad place. They were too worried of being labeled "Prince of Persia in the Third Crusade", so they decided to throw a wrench in the works to provide the illusion of being a deeper game.

I'm not a game designer, but I do know a thing or two about the trade. If you are having to make excuses for your control scheme, you have a bad control scheme. The philosophy for controls should always be; a minute to learn, a month to master, so to speak. I should be able to enter the game and do well from about a minute into the first level. If I want to take it upon myself to learn super-duper combos, it should understandably take longer.

There's nothing wrong with being Prince of Persia. It's a great game for a reason, and for me, that reason is controls. If the Ubisoft team doesn't fix their brainless attitude in regards to controls, Assassin's Creed is just a load of crap.

Jade Raymond, game producer, Ubisoft

"In the video game industry, developers and designers are rarely known and even more rarely seen. it is a rare and special case when one comes into the spotlight giving a name to a face. Game Producer Jade Raymond is one of those cases. Jade Raymond a video game producer in an industry dominated by men, she is truly an inspiration and she breaks the mold of what peole think a game developer is."
-from her bio at Jade-Raymond.com

Plus, Kristen Bell has some voice-acting parts, to satiate your aural desires. Assasin's Creed comes out November!

Xbox 360 has outstanding online content offering downloadable demos for every Live Arcade game and many of the premium disc-based games.

Issue #74 of the US Official Xbox Magazine (OXM) announced a digital edition of their editorial and disc content. It will cost 200 Microsoft Points or about $2.50 (is real money not good enough for Microsoft or something?). An explanatory post by Dan OXM can be found online on this Xbox forum thread.

The most interesting thing is the comment that the downloadable content

will/can contain exclusive demos.

This means that it may be possible that you are interested in buying a game but in order to play the demo you will have to pay $2.50. Now it has to be pointed out that exclusive demos have also appeared on the disc of OXM meaning you had to pay the price of the magazine in order to play them. Therefore, this idea of buy-before-you-buy is not new.

What possible benefit can be gained, however, from dissuading your potential customers from playing the demo of your game? With a $60 price tag on Xbox 360 disc-based games, you really do want to be sure you are going to like the game, to be able to get along with its control scheme and to be sure that the game's difficulty is within your ability. The only way to resolve these questions is to play a demo.

Surely, a person who is denied access to the demo is less likely to buy the game at full price. Surely, a person who is charged $2.50 to play the demo is going to have a lower opinion of the company producing the game. Why would a company deliberately restrict the number of people exposed to their product, deliberately undermine their own reputation and deliberately make potential consumers feel like they are simply wallets and not people? Surely, this is insanity.

With real money being spent on largely worthless, frequently transient advertising campaigns usually targeted at people who were going to buy the game anyway, why are companies even considering taking their single most potent and potentially indefinitely-lasting selling tool, the playable demo, and restricting its availability and, therefore, ability to turn interested parties into gaming parties?

That brings up the thought that Public Relations departments in the videogame industry tend to be generally awful but that and Jade Raymond, the lovely exception that proves the rule, are a topic for another day and a great excuse for a picture of a pretty lady.