Tag Archives: Ubisoft

Review: Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (PlayStation 2)

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Review by William Kee

Sam Fisher is back with a whole whack of new missions and a brand new story to boot.

Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow is an Ubisoft developed and published game, and the second title in the franchise. The game starts off in the Spring of 2006, where the Darah Dan Doa, an islamist militant group led by Sudahi Sandono in East Timor, is receiving support from the United States in the form of training in their fight against Indonesian guerrilla militias. Sadano is CIA trained and considered a charismatic leader. The game starts off when you have to rescue your friend and ally Douglas Shetland. There is also a larger story in that an unknown drug known as ND133 makes a huge impact on the game’s story, and later becomes the focal point for the final chapter. The ND133 is a compact version of the smallpox virus, which of course if released, could spell deadly consequences.

You are once again put in the shoes of Sam Fisher (voiced by Michael Ironside) and assisted throughout the various missions in the game by Irving Lambert, Anna Grimsdottir, and a new character, Brunton.

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Jungle missions? Hell yes

The game was developed by Ubisoft Shanghai, while the first game was originally developed by Ubisoft’s Montreal team. However, Ubisoft does a great job of staying true to the game’s dark atmosphere and pacing in its story mode.

There are a lot of new changes that made progressing with stealth a lot easier this time around. For instance,  you can now perform a whistle with “LB”, which distracts the character and can help you get them away from any action. Health kits are now mounted on walls instead of spread around the levels as individual kits.

Your arsenal of gadgets and weapons stays pretty much the same, I didn’t notice any changes in that aspect. However, there were still some gadgets I found myself never getting around to using, including the Sticky Camera and the Ring Airfold Round, but that’s just me. Of course, my ever favorite Diversion Camera came back, and it helped me out of quite a few jams.

I really liked a lot of the missions this time around. I felt there was a lot more diverse locales that we were given the chance to explore, much like the first game, but this time, we got to head outdoors into the jungle for the first time, and act as stealthy as the cover art depicts.

The final level, however, was a bit irritating, and at times, it was never explained clear enough what to do in the mission and I found myself getting stuck multiple times and looking at playthroughs online. If you are as dull as a lightbulb like I am when it comes to stealth games, you’ll be pulling your hair.

Use stealth, remember? From the first game. I'll let you finish now.

Use stealth, remember? From the first game. I’ll let you finish now.

Regardless, I don’t think that detracts from the overall experience. However, as much as I enjoyed Pandora Tomorrow, I still have to lay all my chips down on the first Splinter Cell. I think to date, it’s done stealth action perfectly, and it was far more challenging than this game was. I admit, I was still faced with challenge in Pandora Tomorrow, but nothing to the level the first game put me through.

To add to my thought, with some of the changes put in place, some aspects of the game do become much easier. Those include the mounted wall health kits and the whistling. And in some cases, you will find yourself running into twice as much ammunition as you can carry. In every mission, I found ammo I didn’t even need, and even if I were to run out of my pistol, that wouldn’t matter as long as I could whistle for distraction, lure an enemy into darkness, and knock him out - rinse and repeat.

But first-time players, I’d definitely suggest starting with the original Splinter Cell before this one. Pandora Tomorrow is still worth the buy though, don’t get me wrong. Newcomers will find it a challenge because it’s not your typical run-and-gun scenario, there’s thinking involved. Are you sure you can handle that?

Final Score: 8 out of 10

Assassins of the Caribbean?

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Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag's new protagonist, Edward Kenway

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag’s new protagonist, Edward Kenway

Ubisoft is looking to make a quick turnaround with the unveiling of the latest title in their popular Assassin’s Creed series, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

With this new title, we see the move from the American Revolution to the Land of pirates, gold, and potential scurvy.

The protagonist for this new game is named Edward Kenway, who is the father of Haytham and grandfather of Connor.

Black Flag is expected to feature full naval combat, a feature introduced in Assassin’s Creed 3 but not a central point of the game.

Ever wanted to fight Blackbeard? Well now you can. There is reported to be 50 different Caribbean locales to explore.

The game is expected to ship as early as October of this year, according to Ubisoft. And it will be seen on the next-gen PlayStation 4, as well as the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and PC.

It has been announced for the next-gen Xbox console as well.

With files from IGN.com and The Telegraph

E3 2012: After-thoughts from the Nintendo E3 2012 press conference

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Nintendo’s E3 2012 press conference came as no surprise: it was all about the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing in some cases, but for those expecting one big bucket of surprises, they would be sadly mistaken.

Now off the top was a cutesy cinematic introduction by Shigeru Miyamoto, aka. the Pikmin Master, as he helped to introduce the latest Pikmin title, Pikmin 3. A stunning improvement from its predecessors, Pikmin 3 utilizes to its full capacity the screen-controller of the Wii U and show a world map as well as optional top-down view of the game, while the Wii nunchuks and remote can be used for controlling as well.

Pikmin 3 will definitely be a hit on the Wii U console.

The game introduces four new characters in a 4-player co-operative game. Sadly, Captain Olimar is not present in the video footage, but it is hinted by Miyamoto that the four new characters may be descendants/children of Olimar, which wouldn’t be surprising seeing as how we haven’t seen a new Pikmin title since 2004. A new type of Pikmin class was introduced known as the “rock type”, which can help to break down walls and is used for combat purposes.

Once Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime took to the stage, he began to break down the Wii U and explain how exactly it was going to work, including mention of the console being able to utilize two gamepads, and mentioning how the Wii U will revolutionize players’ living rooms.

Reggie introduced New Super Mario Bros. U, a new title in the Mario universe and the sequel to the console version of New Super Mario Bros., and will contain a wide range of online capabilities tied to the game, including leaving messages, and scores.

Warner Bros. took to the stage to announce Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition and Scribblenauts Unlimited, the first being a new version built specifically to showcase the Wii U game pad’s unique abilities, and the latter is a new installment to the already popular Scribblenauts franchise, allowing for sharing creations with friends over multiple game pads.

A montage came next, showing off games to be expected on the Wii U,  including Mass Effect 3, Aliens: Colonial Marines and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge. Wii Fit U was briefly showcased while a new working title singing game, simply dubbed “Sing”, graced the stage with endless possibility.

Switching over to the Nintendo 3DS, new titles expected for the 3DS come from the popular Mario bros., including New Super Mario Bros. 2, a new game in itself dedicated highly to the collection of gold coins in high capacity, Paper Mario Sticker Star, bringing you back into the flat, yet still 3D environment of Paper Mario as he collects stickers to use in gaining classic weapons such as the hammer and boot ability. And finally, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, which is the successor to the 2001 Gamecube classic, Luigi’s Mansion. A handheld trio that’s sure to promise unique, yet familiar gameplay on the 3DS handheld.

Finally to round out the show was three new titles, and one that had already been seen previously at Ubisoft’s conference. The first was LEGO City Undercover, an open-world LEGO title where you work as a cop to solve crimes and bring criminals to justice. It brings LEGO City to life in a way never seen before.

I was intrigued for Zombi U, and the way it controls on the Wii U gamepad puts it close to the top of my most anticipated Nintendo titles.

Zombi U finally gets a quick gameplay demo, and believe me, I was quite intrigued. The game is considered a remake of Ubisoft’s first commerical game, Zombi, back in 1986, but with the Wii U’s game pad, hopes to deliver an edge-of-your-seat experience like never before. Including hacking doors with the game pad, aiming down the barrel of a sniper, scanning areas, and shaking off zombie attacks. Yesterday’s trailer from Ubisoft made me compare Zombi U to an experience like that of Dead Island, and it showed in its emotional, still-motion trailer.

Finally, NintendoLand graced the floor. Seen as a spiritual successor to Wii Sports (but not really, because they’re nothing alike), Reggie convinced audiences that NintendoLand will help players to understand the Wii U and how it performs, much like how players immediately understood how the Nintendo Wii worked upon debut through games like Wii Sports Tennis and Bowling, which still hold up to much of an extent today. NintendoLand hopes to provide fun, exciting mini-games from the likes of Mario, Metroid, Animal Crossing, Wii Sports, Legend of Zelda and Luigi’s Mansion, the latter which was demoed on stage. NintendoLand is a bright, colorful and unique experience that will ship opening day alongside the Wii U.

Photo: Joystiq. The stage was decorated in the style of a theme park to help promote the Wii U’s final hoorah of the conference, NintendoLand.

So even though there were no huge surprises like Ubisoft and Sony provided with their press conferences, Nintendo did what they do best, providing new titles to the core fans, and promoting that there will be something out there for everyone. My hopes lie on the Wii U, and I hope that when it drops this holiday, that it will hold up and be as responsive as it appears to seem.

E3 2012: After-thoughts from the Sony E3 2012 press conference

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Today has been such a big day for video games, like E3 always is. We’ve seen big reveals, epic gameplay footage, and mind-blowing trailers from some of the biggest names in video game development.

Sony delivered a pretty great E3, but I feel like it ended off with a bigger bang than Microsoft’s conference did, with the gameplay demo for The Last of Us.

I’m really interested in learning more about the relationship between these two protagonists, and judging by how in-depth and detailed  the combat system works. The game is one of the most realistic experiences the PlayStation 3 will be expecting over the next few months.

The Last of Us is one of the biggest titles to be revealed by Sony this year.

New gameplay footage was revealed to add to what was already revealed for Ubisoft’s FarCry 3 and Assassin’s Creed III, as well as a PlayStation Vita version of Assassin’s Creed III, titled Liberation, and featuring the first female assassin of the series. The new gameplay footage for ACIII was confusing, because it showed a completely different protagonist in Connor, dressed like a revolutionary soldier and driving a large pirate ship. In the FarCry 3 footage, we saw stunning 4-player co-operative play, that set apart from the actual game. So whether it is drop-in/drop-out co-op, or a totally separate story, I was unable to pick up on.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale showcased four new characters, and confirmed the addition of Nathan Drake and Big Daddy from Bioshock as playable fighters in the roster. But of course, the game is ultimately no more than a Super Smash Bros. rip-off.

Take control of Jody Holmes (played by Ellen Page) in this exciting new IP title from Quantic Dream, titled Beyond: Two Souls

I definitely feel that Sony had a better introduction and extro to their press conferences. The introduction featured a montage of PlayStation titles, and the first game revealed was the new IP title by the developers of Heavy Rain. Beyond: Two Souls puts you in the shoes of Jody Holmes (voiced and likeness of Ellen Page), a character with a disturbing life whom is on the run. I’m excited to see more from this game, as I loved Heavy Rain and want to see more interactive video games like this one.

The Wonderbook was also another fun and quirky addition to the PlayStation product line, with the Wonderbook.  The product puts a physical book in your hands, and brings stories to life, allowing you to explore and interact like never before. The first book is co-created by J.K. Rowling, whom if you’ve been living under a rock for more than a decade, was the famous writer behind the popular Harry Potter franchise. Titled Book of Spells,  the book allows you to learn “spells” and interact with your television through the PlayStation Move, using your controller as a wand. Its a really cutesy creation, allowing older audiences a chance to return to exploring imaginative ideas, but you can tell that the Wonderbook is far from perfect, and definitely has a lot of work ahead of it before it can be released.

Book of Spells is the first title announced for the Wonderbook product.

All-in-all, its been a really great day of coverage. Ubisoft still holds strong on top of my list, and I feel Sony and Xbox have come to a tie, with Xbox winning in terms of additional content for the console, and Sony has won for exciting new titles coming our way. There’s definitely a lot of games I’m looking forward to this year and into 2013.

E3 2012: Splinter Cell: Blacklist screenshots leaked

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According to Eurogamer, screenshots for the new unconfirmed Ubisoft Splinter Cell project, dubbed “Blacklist”, have been posted online by the French site Gamekyo.

The screenshot above depicts returning protagonist Sam Fisher in desert camouflage storming a dusty, Middle Eastern settlement.

Sam Fisher’s location, according to one of the photos is Mirawa: Jadid Basecamp, and depicts his location to be in a dusty, Middle Eastern settlement in broad daylight sporting desert camouflage.

The screenshots look promising, showcasing Fisher wielding a pistol and assault rifle, ducking behind cover, grappling off the side of a building while pointing his weapon, and what looks like a close-encounter interrogation. Plus, you can’t forget Fisher’s iconic trifogal goggles.

The much-anticipated Splinter Cell title will be under development by Ubisoft Toronto, and lead designer Jade Raymond.

Tune in to GTA Gamers for more news about this developing title.

With files from Eurogamer and Gamekyo

Review: Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc (Gamecube)

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Love him or hate him, to me, Rayman is one of the most iconic video game characters of the last decade, and sadly thanks to the Raving Rabbids spin on the series, I feel Rayman was pushed back a few notches. Albeit, Rayman Origins and its upcoming sequel, Legends, are looking to bring back a once classic Rayman side-scrolling experience that was only last seen on the Game Boy Advance port of Rayman Advance (a remake of the original Rayman from 1995).

Whether or not you all agree or disagree with me, I feel that Rayman 2: The Great Escape was definitely the best Rayman game to date, so much so, that it would crack my Top 10 favorite games list if I were to expand my list some more.

And so here we come to Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, the next-gen console sequel to one of my favorite games of all time. Does it hold up as well as its predecessor? The answer is a big fat no. But first, let me explain the story of Rayman 3.

Andre, leader of the Black Lums, is transforming all the Red Lums (which are used for healing Rayman in-game), into Black Lums and creating a Black Lum army. Of course, Murfy stumbles upon this catastrophe and returns to alert Rayman and Globox of what is happening, for which they must now partake on a brutal quest to rid the world of these infectious Black Lums. A big problem that arrises near the beginning of the game, is that Globox has accidentally swallowed the Black Lum leader, Andre, and its up to Rayman to help his buddy out, by bringing him to three doctors during the game, who must help in ridding the Black Lum from Globox’s insides.

Rayman 3 was recently ported to Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network on March 20th of this year, so if you are somehow intrigued by the series, go pick it up, but if you want my opinion, I’d say to stay the hell away from this one.

So when you first pick up this game, you will either receive it one of two ways: it will either be the most hilarious game you’ve ever played, or perhaps the most annoying one. You can tell which of the two this game drove me to.

A screenshot from the third level, Bog of Murk.

For starters, why is it that these characters can talk? In Rayman 2, they talked in their own language with english subtitles, and I felt that was really cool. And now, the voice acting has changed so drastically it feels like a completely different experience. In the first 20 minutes, I wanted to put earplugs in my ears so I didn’t have to hear the bickering between Globox and Murfy, who are the most annoying characters I’ve heard in a long time. Thankfully, Murfy doesn’t stay around for too long, but Globox is enough to drive me to drink.

Now I can accept the controls, which seem to carry over much the same since Rayman 2, but with the sequel came new abilities, new punches, and of course, new restraints.

So now, Rayman is rendered almost completely useless, besides the traditional long-arm punch and various angles for which you can attack a bad guy. But now, every ability Rayman can use has been transferred into five power-up containers. Green containers are the “Vortex”, which allow Rayman to shoot mini-tornadoes, which can be useful in taking down enemies on stilts, changing enemy size, or bringing a platform closer for you to jump on. Red containers are the “Heavy Metal Fist”, which allows Rayman to charge up stronger fist attacks, which could help defeat tougher enemies and break wooden doors. Yellow containers are the “Throttle Copter”, which allow Rayman to fly higher, but under a restricted amount of time. Orange containers are the “Shock Rocket”, which allow Rayman to shoot a rocket, which Rayman could guide in small areas to help in opening blocked paths. And finally, the Purple containers are the “Lockjaw”, which can help Rayman grab Purple Lums to reach areas inaccessible without the ability, and when grabbing enemies, delivers an electric shock.

This all sounds pretty overwhelming yet quite diverse, and at times it can be, but sadly after a while, you kind of get used to it.

The dialogue in this game feels really dumbed down, and a lot of the platforming and difficulty this game carries holds itself at a 10-year old level, which I feel is probably the core target audience for this game.

A lot of the “humor”, and I say that with quotations, is unneeded and out of place, and tries too hard to be “cool” and “hip” with the time period. I even heard the Duke Nukem joke about “kicking ass and chewing bubblegum” used during the game, which will not register with any young people playing this game other than sounding a little humorous to their simple minds at the time.

One redeeming quality this game does carry is in its level design. Although by the end, I was hoping every level was the last level, I was impressed that the Rayman series could still develop interesting levels, minus how easy they all were.

By the end of the game, I didn’t feel any sense of accomplishment, rather I felt like I had wasted about 4 or 5 hours total, only to find a terrible conclusion to the game. I want to know what Ubisoft was thinking when developing for this game, because if it was to target a new audience on its next-gen consoles at the time, well you not only gave them that, but you gave hardcore fans of the series a swift kick in the pants. This game has been praised for its graphics and sound quality, which it has of course, but given the sound quality, its poor quality on the ears, in my opinion.

So in the end, I’m going to do my best and pretend this game just doesn’t exist. I will also completely ignore the Rabbids series as part of the Rayman series as well, but thankfully this game doesn’t change how I feel about Rayman 2, but it makes me believe how hard it must be for developers out there to make a successful trilogy, especially by its third game.

Final Score: 3 out of 10

The British are coming in Assassins Creed III

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For those of you in to games based on historical events, Assassins Creed III will be sure to fuel your urge to play and learn. Who wouldn’t like to combine history class with a video game, right?

As a little refresher that might have been in an earlier post, this game takes place during the American Revolution as you take control of a half-English, half-Mohawk man named Connor Kenway, dragged into the battle after his home is attacked by colonists.

Below are two recently released gameplay trailers, which shows some of the awesome new changes and additions to the game. Some of these for example; the weapons, the hidden blade which seems to be a rotatable knife, the return of the bow & arrow, and the historical hatchet. Another addition is the ability to jump through buildings while scaling them to run from enemies.

Like many of you, I cannot wait till a demo makes its way out or even for the game itself, it should be an excellent addition to the already mind-blowing series.  Leave a comment below with your thoughts.