Interviews

Das Gamer Interview: Ben Mattes, Producer Of Prince Of Persia

The Prince of Persia franchise re-erupted on the last generation of hardware, and Ubisoft recently took the wraps off their first next-gen Prince of Persia with some surprising results. First off, this is a completely new prince that actually starts out as a nobody. This game has nothing to do with the Sands of Time storyline, or the upcoming 2009 movie. With a phenomenal fresh take on cel-shaded art, to a new A.I. controlled counterpart, we’re dying to get our hands on it. But so far, all we have to go on is a trailer and a few screenshots.

Even though Ubisoft is keeping most of the game under wraps, we demanded more. For this game, former Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones producer Ben Mattes is back at the helm and he gives us a good idea in what to expect in Ubisoft’s first foray into a next-gen Prince of Persia. Read the full interview after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

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Interviews

Randy Pitchford Walks Us Down Hell’s Highway

The video game industry has profited mightily off of real life conflicts, none more than World War II. In the process games like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor have raised the bar when it comes to first person shooters. Besides getting gameplay, graphics and story locked down the developers face the added burden of treating the source material with the proper respect. Gearbox achieved all three in their previous entry in the genre, Brothers in Arms. We get a chance to see if they can pull it off again this summer when gamers get a chance to once again assume the role of Sergeant Matt Baker in their sequel, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. The new game focuses on one of the biggest clusterfucks of the war–Operation Market Garden. It was a battle the Allies ultimately lost when they tried to push through German lines, getting stonewalled on the banks of the Rhine. We got a chance to talk to Randy Pitchford, president and founder of Gearbox Software, about his studio’s debut game on next-gen consoles and got a history lesson in the process. Read the rest of this entry »

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Preview

EndWar’s Michael de Plater Launches Preemptive Strike Against Thumbs

For the first time in history gamers can give their joysticks the finger instead of their thumbs. The developers behind Tom Clancy’s EndWar, Ubisoft’s new real-time strategy game, designed the game to support completely hands-free gameplay. They even included multiple languages and accents, so any industrialized nation can rediscover the joys of world domination. Players can control virtually every aspect of this World War III simulation, which pits Europe, the United States, and Russia in a three-way fight 2020, with the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 microphone headset.

“You can play the whole game with the controller or with voice commands, or you can mix and match,” explained Micheal de Plater, creative director at Ubisoft Shanghai, during our interview at Ubidays 2008 in Paris. “Most people start with a combination and then gradually switch over to just voice. There are over 6,000 command combinations of voice commands in the game.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Game Trailer

Creative Director Clint Hocking Talks Up Far Cry 2

Get ready for some wetwork in the African sandbox. Clint Hocking, the creative director on Ubisoft’s Far Cry 2, gives a preview on their new shooter. The game, set in Africa, is an open-world stocked with friends, mercenaries and an aggressive AI that, according to Hocking, “will slowly close the circle of death around you.” Hocking also mentions plenty of first aid animations for dislodging bullets to popping dislocated shoulders back in for those times when the circle of death just kind of nicks you. Check the video after the jump.
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