Out of Ubidays 2007 is the latest trailer to Splinter Ce Assassin's Creed (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) (sorry for the Conviction segue, but it was too tempting, with all the stuff coming out of Ubidays). Welcome to more videos of Altair in glorious action, c/o GameTrailers. Actually, the Conviction segue might have been fortuitous - compare this and the latest trailer to Conviction and you see the same kind of elements: crowds and a**-kicking.

(Not meant to fuel those debates regarding the direction Conviction has taken, but just the observation that both titles are what I guess I could call "stealth-in-plain-sight" games.)

And is it just me, or did you find the trailer BGM anachronistic?

Buy: [Assassin's Creed (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Assassin's Creed (PS3)]

If you had to see just how much Sam Fisher has changed - and whether it's agreeable or not - IGN finally put up this gameplay work-in-progress video from Ubisoft of Splinter Cell: Conviction.

And as it is an indicator, yes, Sam has changed. Since when did he beat the crap out of five-odd cops like Jack Bauer after a coffee break? There's a rather layered combat system implemented here, it seems, apart from the ever-handy "throw a chair at the guy" attack that the new environment dynamic emphasizes.

The question is, is it still Splinter Cell? The only certain answer is that the debates do not end here; that only the game in our hands and the tabulated outcry of Splinter Cell fans the world over will deliver the verdict. One video and these screenshots are not enough.



Screens after the jump.

 

She may be too much to be contented remaining in the shadows of Freeman; Valve's Gabe Newell revealed to IGN that they might be thinking about a Half-Life spin-off revolving around Half-Life 2 (PS3, PC, Xbox 360) sidekick Alyx Vance. And Dog.

We'd like to do games that are about Alyx. We'd like to do games that are about Dog. I don't think we've made this decision that it's always going to be you playing Gordon in the first-person with Alyx as a companion...

Obviously having Alyx as the player character breaks the "silent protagonist" mold of Half-Life - unless Valve mutes her, of course - but it does allow the devs to explore other parts of the Half-Life universe. A lot of the Half-Life universe. Like, what the heck really happened in that Seven-Hour War?

Of course, this might still be in the future; Valve's just begun with Episode Three after all.

  

In yet another sign of the potential - or madness - of MMO-ing various different game IP and genres, Australian-based devs ICNH Games announced their first massively multiplayer online game No Horizons, a turn-based interactive strategy title that plays out across an entire world of players - up to "tens of thousands of players per server," says their PR.

Yes, we heard the sudden pangs of doubt and incredulity, too. "MMO + turn-based?" No other game title has been so aptly titled: this fusion of concepts will either be a stroke of genius, a stroke of luck, or a stroke - to the head. No Horizons, indeed.

No Horizons will take place on a vast world so large that no single player could hope to explore it all (but one will try...). A rich landscape with many climates and varied topography. The player's challenge will be to set up and thrive their own culture on this playing ground - even underground, underwater, and on sky islands.

Think something like an MMO Civilizations - honestly, that's the closest we can come to imagining it. These screenshots did help in drawing up that picture, though. ICNH is targeting a December 2007 release date for No Horizons.

   

Granted, the video game console is rapidly becoming saturated with the same genres: shooters, action, sports, sandbox. Innovation did happen, but a lot of it was stove-piped, locked within the genre rather than in the greater world of console gaming itself.

Brave is a title that bucks conventions and is willing to take risks. One more recent development was bringing the traditionally PC-centric real-time strategy genre to consoles, which until games like Full Spectrum Warrior and Battle for Middle-Earth II, were rather clunky and painful affairs. But now, we have Command & Conquer 3, and Ensemble is spinning Halo Wars up to speed.

In the same vein I'm taking another PC-centric game genre and looking at its chances in console gaming. Except this time, unlike RTS games, I'm less confident about its chances - not because it can't be done, but out of the fear that just like innovation, interests in console gaming are rather stove-piped as well. And for the most part, the console is locked to shooters, action, sports, and sandbox.

Pity, really. Consoles could be a potential breakout ground for the submarine simulator.

Thar she blows up, Cap'n. Appreciation - and cynicism - for console subsims after the jump.

One game engine powers the acclaimed pretty boy Gears of War and is set to drive Unreal Tournament 3; the other elicits the occasional swearing from video previews of Crysis. German site PCGames.de wanted to see how the cutting edge of middleware engines stack up to each other, and did some side-by-side shot comparisons of Unreal Engine 3 and CryENGINE2. Here are but two of their results:

 

These are sure to inspire debates as to which achieves what and who achieves more where, but we won't be stoking those flames this weekend. (Most likely these are PC demonstration screenshots, so we honestly can't tell how the Xbox 360 and PS3 Unreal Engine 3 would stack up to CryENGINE2, which is still - as of now - PC-specific).

PCGames has other side-by-siders, accessible at the Read link.

Sam has changed. If in Double Agent, he's had to balance trust between Third Echelon and the bad guys, in Splinter Cell: Conviction, Third Echelon's trust in Sam Fisher (and vice-versa) goes out the window.

Sam has changed. In a special coverage of behind-the-scenes, Ubisoft Montreal Narrative Designer Mary de Marle revealed to IGN the changes to Sam's profile and gameplay. Sam returns to find Third Echelon a bureaucratic mess and hiding a shady conspiracy, and a threat to a good friend and comrade from back in the Splinter Cell day, and so he must now face off against his former employers.

Sam has changed. Out of Third Echelon, he no longer has access to the NSA's grab bag, and thus a lot of gameplay will change from that we're familiar with in previous Splinters:

• Sam's down with the hood. As you can see from the IGN screenie, gone is the iconic black suit, replaced by a more comfortable set of hoodies and jeans to hang with one's homies. This is deliberate: instead of hiding in the shadows, IGN reveals that Sam will have to blend with the crowd, Assassin's Creed-style. And the hoodie helps: pulling the hood over the head decreases recognizability from the authorities.
• Aside: why do we expect - with great trepidation - a ton of "Assassin's Clones" remarks in the comments?
  

• Sorry, only carry-ons allowed on this flight. That shoulder bag Sam's carrying also represents the limited amount of gear he can take with him at any one time. Instead, Sam will have to rely a lot more on his environment as a tool and as a weapon. Less high-tech and more street-smarts.

Sam has changed. But one thing hasn't: his morals. That's why he's going up against his own former employers, in an attempt to save a friend's life and uncover what the heck is going on, even if it means becoming a fugitive (again).

There is quite detailed work that goes into making a mohawk look just right in Mercenaries 2. This latest Web Blog from Pandemic Studios and GameTrailers features Lead Character Designer Matt... (why didn't you guys print his last name, Pandemic?) talking about his job. Perhaps this interview may also have some educational and employment-related benefits, too.

And Matt also describes how the character of Mattias, ExOps' favorite hatchet head, has changed from his appearance in the first Mercenaries to the here-and-now of Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PS3, Xbox 360, PC). With that said, his mohawk's sharp enough to chop down petrified trees. Goodness, how does this guy ever conduct ExOps' covert missions?

Free Radical scriptwriter Rob Yescombe describes to EDGE magazine, reported in GamesRadar, that Halo 3 "while brilliant, you're a teenager" and in comparison, "in Haze you become an adult." Them's fighting words.

To Free Radical, Rob explains, next-gen isn't just about the technology, but beyond the tech, being able to tackle mature - as in serious, not sex - matters and reference world events. "It's about what's happening in the world today - it's ludicrous, and how can you make something that doesn't reflect that? Well, you could bury your head in the sand and make Halo 3, but the fact of the matter is there are more important things at stake."

Ouch. More fighting words - and they're not just directed at Bungie, if you've noticed. Now, all fanboyism aside, the guy isn't being too critical of Halo 3 as it reflects upon current events - he does say there will be a place in the world for pure entertainment. Still, there should be room for games which are compelling because they tug at the real world - just like the "Battlestar Galactica" re-imagining makes people squirm every time they read the newspaper.

That said, how will Haze look like? It will be a satire of modern-day warfare, reports EGDE/GamesRadar, while retaining its "guns-blazing blastfest" feel. Rob adds that their "job is to entertain," but for those of us that read the newspaper every day, Haze might just make us squirm as well.

So, going back to "Battlestar Galactica", what the hell are we gonna do with Baltar now?

 

Shadowrun (Xbox 360), FASA/Microsoft Game Studios: US$ 60.00
Shadowrun (PC), FASA/Microsoft Game Studios: US$ 50.00
Shadowrun (Xbox 360 - PC) Difference: US$ 10.00

Okay, what explains the ten dollar difference between the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the same multiplayer-only game? Newsweek's N'Gai Croal asks the same questions in an email to Shane Kim, Microsoft Game Studios VP, and Shane Kim emailed back the response:

The $59.99 for Xbox 360 and $49.99 for Windows Vista price points are our standard pricing for each platform.

Should people be worked up over this? Maybe, maybe not - but the price difference, even at ten dollars, will still raise some eyebrows when one considers that FASA and MGS is trying to deliver essentially the same game (okay, to be fair, a similar gaming experience) on the Xbox 360 and PC. And it has to, because it's a cross-platformer, and if there were any significant differences between the gameplay or offerings of the two versions, players on one platform or the other might feel short-changed.

Kim's answer also indicates that Microsoft will be following this pricing schematic for their first-party titles "like Shadowrun" - which means that the only difference between future 360/PC cross-platformers won't be the controller-vs.-mouse/keyboard (not if a controller could also be used on the PC and MS adds keyboard and mouse support to the console), or the PC's open architecture, but...

Ten dollars.