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• Conspiracy Theory: Assassin's Creed II Protagonist's Telling Name

  Assassin's Creed was the first game I played from beginning to end on a high-definition gaming console. It was kinda pretty, it was kinda fun, it was a whole lot of boring, but it did show a lot of really cool ideas, which is why I'm actually sort of excited about the upcoming sequel. The long-teased and only recently-confirmed Assassin's Creed II doesn't have a whole lot of info out just yet, only that it is set in 15th century Italy (at least, some of it is), based heavily on the work of Renaissance master Leonardo DaVinci, and that the protagonist this time is named Ezio. People are justifying this name by stating that Ezio (that guy on the right) roughly translates to "like an eagle" in latin, much like protagonist Altair in the original game's name in Arabic, likely tying into the "eagle vision" skill used by the assassins in the game. Now, maybe it's just decades of sci-fi and comic books affecting my brain, but the name "Ezio" suggests a whole other meaning to me, one that I'm frankly surprised to see mentioned nowhere else that I've checked. I'm probably reading way too much into this. Then again, maybe I'm right on point. Be aware that beyond this point I am going to be going into spoilers from the first game and a bit of rampant speculation on the second game. Read More... Posted Apr 20 2009, 12:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments Filed under: derrick sanskrit, ubisoft, rumor, assassin’s creed, ezio, speculation

• The 61FPS Review: Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.

  Guest contributor Adam Rosenberg covers games from his secret lair in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, typing, reading and playing the days away as his dog Loki looks on in bewilderment. In addition to the noble pursuit of video games, Adam enjoys spending time with fine film, finer food and his fine fiancée Bekah. Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. is a fun game. Flying a state-of-the-art combat jet over satellite-rendered landscapes in a game halfway between simulation and twitch thrills just works. The control is simple, the goals basic. But let’s be honest here. You don’t play game about flying a killer plane and look for a reflective experience. You play it for the rush of speed and vertigo, narrow escapes and quick action. H.A.W.X. provides that. Just not enough of it. Read More... Posted Apr 09 2009, 08:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: ubisoft, 61fps review, Adam Rosenberg, h.a.w.x., tom clancy, ghost recon advance warfighter, endwar, hawx, graw

• Atlus Shows You Love, Localizes Damn Near Everything

  Actually, half of that headline might be a blatant lie. Depending on your point of view, it’s a distinct possibility that Atlus hates you and everyone with a sweet tooth for melodrama, a lust for turn-based battles, and a fetish for watching numbers get higher. They hate you because no one in the world has the time to play everything they’re releasing over the next six months. It’s not like you can put off getting the games either. Atlus’ print runs are so small that it’s a guarantee you’ll be paying three times the release price on Ebay just six months after a game comes out. You are cruel, Atlus. But so, so giving. Read More... Posted Jan 27 2009, 08:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, shin megami tensei, ubisoft, atlus, namco, Knights in the Nightmare, Crimson Gem Saga, Dokapon Journey, astonishia story, Devil Survivor, and Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier

• You’re Doing It Wrong: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Franchise Misuse

  I understand. Using a familiar property to sell a game is a great way to make it popular. Just look at the myriad faux-sports games Nintendo’s made in the past decade. Would Tennis have been a hit on Gamecube? Hell no. That’s why you give Mario and everyone else living in a Mushroom Kingdom area code a racket and put them on the courts. The familiar will bring people in to play something they wouldn’t have otherwise. While the franchise-means-audience maxim holds true, I’m baffled by the way certain properties get used. Sonic Riders is a perfect example. Why in the hell would you make not one, but two separate racing games starring Sonic the Hedgehog when nobody runs? It would be like making a Transformers game where Optimus Prime spends the game renewing his trucking license. Ubisoft’s new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game for Wii is just as misguided. Read More... Posted Jan 27 2009, 06:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, wii, ubisoft, gamecube, sonic the hedgehog, smash bros, teenage mutant ninja turtles, mario tennis, game arts, sonic riders, tmnt

• New Year’s Resolutions For a Few Of Our Favorite Publishers

  Now, to close out the first full week of 2009, we will do for videogame publishers what we did for console makers: we will tell them how to live their sordid, godforsaken lives! You’d think developers would make the list, but no. No, I tend to trust them, so they will be left to their own devices, free from the crushing logic of advice from 61 Frames Per Second. Read More... Posted Jan 09 2009, 07:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, ea, capcom, konami, ubisoft, Ghostbusters, dark void, sega, atari, activision, retro game master, atlus, koei, tecmo, namco, neversoft, xseed, midway, bioshock 2, square enix, street fighter iii, take two, beyond good & evil 2, the world end with you

• The Death of Death

  While we were on break, Ludwig Kietzmann over at Joystiq raised an interesting question about the nature of games, elaborating on a point made earlier this month by Penny Arcade's Tycho here. The basic idea is that death in games is an outmoded convention that often makes games frustrating for no reason other than because that's the way it's always been done. Prince of Persia is the game that has raised these questions. Basically, Prince of Persia provides you with a cute sidekick that rescues you when you're about to die. From what I understand, it's relatively easy to complete the game without dying. It's a seamless, spawnless jaunt through a wonderland begging to be discovered through your character's physics-defying acrobatics. So why are people complaining? Read More... Posted Jan 02 2009, 02:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: penny arcade, prince of persia, ubisoft, joystiq, cole stryker, death

• The 61FPS Review: Prince of Persia

  Guest reviewer Adam Rosenberg resides in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, where he slaves away daily as a contributing editor for UGO’s Gamesblog as his dog Loki looks on in bewilderment. In addition to the noble pursuit of video games, Adam enjoys spending time with fine film, finer food and his fine fiancée Bekah. I’m not really sure the title “Prince of Persia” is relevant anymore. After all, in Ubisoft’s latest – a reboot of the trilogy started with Sands of Time – you play a wandering scoundrel: two parts Han Solo, two parts le Parkour founder David Belle and one part Indiana Jones. You could argue that the open-world, Middle Eastern-flavored surroundings might be situated in an ancient, fantasy-world version of Persia, but it just as easily might not be. But hey, that’s brand recognition for you. Prince of Persia is a streamlined spectacle, lighter on challenge than previous series entries but also more visually appealing by several orders of magnitude, thanks to the face-lifted, cel-shaded art design. Meanwhile, the gameplay remains fundamentally unchanged; as the titular (not-)Prince, you’ll still be wall-running, column-groping and bar-swinging, all of it supplemented by increasingly frequent dalliances with magic. But to be honest, there’s not much in the way of "game" in Prince of Persia. It is essentially a massive, player-guided Quick Time Event broken up by occasional displays of QTE-fueled swordplay. Read More... Posted Dec 19 2008, 02:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: prince of persia, ubisoft, 61fps review, jake gyllenhaal, sands of time, Adam Rosenberg

• Should I Or Shouldn't I: My French and Japanese Coach(es)

  I live in Canada. There are a lot of French signs in Canada. As long as I am living in Canada, I would like to brush up on my French so that I can fully read these signs. How else can the Government adequately warn me against stealing wood from ravines and possibly inviting the alien Asian Longhorn Beetle into my home to eat my family? Oh, I do have a certain level of understanding. It's impossible not to absorb French through osmosis if you like to read the backs of cereal boxes while you eat breakfast. In fact, I immediately recognised the joke behind the surnames "Froid" and "Chaud" from the Mega Man Battle Network series and I suffered as those who never had French forced upon them referred to the characters as "Freud" and "Chawd." So, I want to brush up on my French. I am a willing learner and the way I hear it, Ubisoft's My French Coach for the Nintendo DS is a capable teacher. Though the game won't implant an instant translator into your brain (that would be nice), the interactive lessons do wonders for the learning process versus the nasal drone of a stale-perfumed French teacher who wears litres of jewelery and rattles like a pirate skeleton. (Madame Benlolo, Grade 7. Sacred nickname granted by the classroom tribe: Madame Benhoho.) Read More... Posted Dec 08 2008, 09:52 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo ds, ubisoft, nadia oxford, education, language, my japanese coach, my french coach

• Portrait of the Prince Pre-Persia

  There’s something about seeing the physical inspiration for a fictional character that is both deeply exciting and unsettling. The pizza missing a lone slice, covered in tomato sauce and bubbling cheese, is downright creepy when you think about it as a basis for Toru Iwatani’s Pac-Man. Seriously think about it. That’s what Pac-man would look like if he was skinned! What does that say about Iwatani, or even me for thinking about it? Take good ol’ Mario Segali as another example. You can practically see the ghost of a red hat perched atop his mustachioed dome. Now picture him breaking bricks with his scalp and jumping on turtles. Sickly fascinating, no? I’m told this footage of Jordan Mechner’s kid brother has been floating around the net for quite some time, but today’s the first time I’ve ever laid eyes on it. Some twenty years ago, Mechner dressed the lad up in whites and then set him off running, climbing, and falling as a model for his seminal masterwork, Prince of Persia. Thing is, the boy looks exactly like the Prince in motion. Read More... Posted Oct 29 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, pac-man, prince of persia, ubisoft, super mario bros, jake gyllenhaal, Jordan mechner, GWAR

• Sex/Violence: Oneechanbara and the New Localization

  I thought about filing this under the Japan Scares Me category, but frankly Oneechanbara doesn’t scare me. It merely makes sense. I am not surprised that Japan makes games about a woman in a cowboy hat and lingerie who runs around with her pre-pubescent sister killing zombies with a gigantic sword and who ultimately goes insane when she’s completely covered with blood. This is just what Japan does. I’m pretty sure that there are soft drinks whose canisters are decorated with the exact same scenario. It’s probably called Refreshing Breast Blood No Zombie Drink White Plus. Chances are I would drink it. Because I delight in these things. It’s curious, though, that Oneechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers is coming out in America at all. Read More... Posted Oct 23 2008, 04:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, xbox 360, wii, ubisoft, sega, shiren the wanderer, yakuza, d3, zombies vs ambulances, oneechanbara, simple 2000, izuna, envangelion

• Easy Access: Ubisoft and the Subtitle Initiative

  About a month back, as the devoted 61FPS reader may recall, I found myself thinking about the more taxing aspects of playing videogames. Not the calorie-burning inertia of Wii Fit or the it’s-time-to-roll-me-nurse bedsores of MMORPG play, but the fact that playing videogames demands players use all five of their senses (and in the case of twitch shooters, a sixth sense.) You have to follow the action with your eyes, control it with your hands, listen for aural cues, and you inevitably have to taste and smell your own general foulness after a marathon session of Rock Band. Videogame design, not unlike theme park rides, does not consider the physically disabled. It can, though, and should, as it would not only open the form up for new players but also force creators to reconsider how interactive media works on a fundamental level. Read More... Posted Sep 11 2008, 03:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, ubisoft, easy access, handigo

• Where Will You Go, Tecmo? What Will Happen to Our Love?

  This has been something of a tumultuous year for Tecmo. In the past twelve months, they’ve shipped just four games, three of which are Ninja Gaiden games. The fourth, Fatal Frame IV for Wii, wasn’t even developed in house (it was handled by Suda 51’s Grasshopper Manufacture.) None of these games were actually published by Tecmo, relying on companies as diverse as Eidos, Ubisoft, Microsoft, and Nintendo for distribution. In June, their public face and star designer, the outspoken, boozing womanizer Tomonobu Itagaki, quit the company days after Ninja Gaiden II released to middling reviews. In August, their president resigned and Square-Enix tried to take over the company. Today, Tecmo announced they’ll be the latest Japanese company to find refuge from shrinking domestic business by consolidating. Their new partner will be Koei. Tecmo, I’m worried about you. Times are tough for Japanese developers developing traditional games for home consoles. We’ve had wonderful times together and I’m still looking forward to Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff this fall. Remember all the good times we had with Tecmo Bowl? Yeah. Corporate mergers are a good thing for Japanese developers. Why, just look at previous successes! Read More... Posted Sep 04 2008, 06:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: nintendo, microsoft, final fantasy, ubisoft, sega, square-enix, ninja gaiden, koei, dynasty warriors, tecmo, namco, eidos, tomonobu itagaki, fatal frame, Bandai, sammy, team ninja

• E3 Day 4: No Blades, No Bows. Leave Your Weapons Here.

  Much as I’d like to say things are winding down for E3, they’re really not. You have to wind up before you can wind down, after all. The announcements are over, the plans are in place, and 2008’s heavy hitters have finally been played. There isn’t too much more to say about E3 08’s broad implications for gaming as a medium and today didn’t yield any revelations that would necessitate any further waxing philosophical (though the Wii did finally surpass Xbox 360’s install base in North America. Surprise, surprise, surprise.) That said, while it’s still too early to call it a trend, two of E3’s more intriguing titles share a unique quirk: Ubisoft’s just announced I Am Alive, teased only with a CGI trailer, and EA’s freshly playable Mirror’s Edge are both blockbuster positioned games that de-emphasize violence. Read More... Posted Jul 17 2008, 08:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, mirror's edge, ea, xbox 360, wii, ubisoft, e3, i am alive

• E3 Day 3: No Alarms and No Surprises

  With the Big Three’s press conferences out of the way, E3 has settled into immersion mode, the vast majority of the press and publishers getting into a groove of demoing games, showing off videos, and hosting meeting after meeting after meeting. Publishers Take-Two, Konami, Ubisoft, and Capcom have all held press conferences and the extent of big news was the Capcom’s making a movie out of their sci-fi shooter Lost Planet and Ubisoft is making a game called I Am Alive, in which the player tries to survive natural disasters. Exciting stuff, eh? Not to beat a dead horse — 61 Frames Per Second prides itself on beating only a select number of dead horses — but what, exactly, is the point of this year’s E3? It certainly seems to be running more smoothly than 2007’s air-hangar-showroom debacle, but it’s become clear that everyone in the business of making games is not using the event as a venue for announcing new titles. The obvious implication is that, with the expansion of the gaming audience and the broadening of mass market releases throughout the year, publishers no longer need a centralized event to show North America what’s on the horizon. There is, however, a more subtle implication. Read More... Posted Jul 16 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, capcom, konami, ubisoft, take-two, e3, i am alive, lost planet

• BREAKING: Beyond Good & Evil 2 Debut!

  Oh, it’s more than in development. It’s more than a glint in Michael Ancel’s eye. Beyond Good and Evil 2 is so real it hurts to even think about it. Gamersyde is streaming the trailer that’s debuted at Ubisoft’s Ubidays event so click over there to get an eye full. My excitement. It is boundless. Read More... Posted May 28 2008, 02:55 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, beyond good and evil, ubisoft

• NPD Wrap: The Times Are a Changin’

  April’s come to a close and now, under the cold, hard light of math, three things are becoming clear. First, people freaking love Nintendo games. Sure, we already knew that, but over a million people bought Mario Kart for Wii in less than a week. Second, people freaking love Grand Theft Auto. Nearly two million people bought that in even less time. Third, our access to new videogames is going to change dramatically in the very near future. While these numbers may just look like numbers to us, to the people who publish videogames, the people who control when we get to engage these creations, the math is saying that 2008 is different. Tradition dictates that high profile, big hype games are held in reserve for the holiday push from late September through December and the rest of the year is just a slow trickle of quality goods. The math of March and April 2008 says that people will buy many, many games throughout the year, not just around Christmas. What happens now? Going forward, we’re going to see more games, more often. At least, until digital distribution destroys physical media and the whole issue becomes moot. Come get some hard analysis and delicious numbers after the jump. Read More... Posted May 16 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, playstation 3, nintendo, nintendo ds, ea, microsoft, npd, xbox 360, wii, psp, mario kart, ubisoft, sony, call of duty, pokemon, gran turismo, army of two, super smash bros, guitar hero, rainbow six, Grand theft auto 4

• Michael Ancel is das Ubermensch: Beyond Good and Evil 2 Exists!

  Remember that delightful French auteur Michael Ancel? Penchant for lavishly detailed cartoon worlds and limbless characters? What happened to that guy after he made that King Kong game that was totally better than the movie? He worked on Rayman Raving Rabbids. Yech. But the man’s making up for lost time. Though there’s damn near no real information to speak of, Ancel has confirmed that he is creating a sequel to his cliff-hanger-ending, science fiction epic, Beyond Good & Evil. The original BG&E released back in 2003 and, despite a handful of flaws, is a remarkable piece of game due in no small part to its ambitious presentation, active world, and its protagonist, Jade. Jade remains a beacon of gender equality in a medium dominated by sexless anthropomorphics and muscle bound he-men. While publisher and IP holder Ubisoft have yet to kick the game into “full production”, it’s out there. Viva la Jade, baby. Hit the jump for a loot at the original game in all its glory. Read More... Posted May 16 2008, 11:00 AM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, beyond good and evil, rayman raving rabbids, king kong, ubisoft, michael ancel