Grave Gamer News & Views — ubisoft

Watch_Dogs - “Alone” Gameplay

I’m learning that Watch Dogs has tons of surprises hiding about Chicago’s virtualized nooks and alleyways. The Digital Trips rank as my favorite discoveries.

The idea is a trench-coated individual of loose morals sells you basically a VR acid trip. Why Aiden Pearce considers tripping virtual balls in the middle of his revenge-quest a worthwhile pursuit is...

Conan v. Watch Dogs: Dawn of Voyeurism

One of the very first reviews of Ubisoft’s uber anticipated Watch Dogs comes way of the Clueless Gamer himself – CoCo!

Okay, it’s less on the review side and more on the “mock relentlessly” side, but video games, or the struggle of video games, are always fun to watch through Conan’s sardonic viewpoint. If you take anything away from this segment, just...

Ubisoft “Had No Choice” But to Delay Watch Dogs

One of the most anticipated and hyped up titles in recent memory gained itself a spot of infamy when publisher Ubisoft and the game’s Montreal based development team decided to miss Watch Dogs’ November 2013 release date, instead delaying it a whole six months.

Tony Key, Ubi’s marketing executive, says it was a bitch of a decision to make, and the blow-back was almost immediate. “On the day we announced that, I think our stock dropped 40 percent or some ridiculous number,” Key admitted to the [a]list daily.

The company wasn’t comfortable with the product last November and, despite it being an untested IP, Ubisoft has funneled a huge amount of time, resources, and money into the project, all in the attempt to have Watch Dogs make a name for itself early in the new console cycle.

“We’re a long-term company, with a long-term vision, and Watch Dogs for us is a long-term play,” said Key. “We had no choice. We knew it was the right thing to do, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less.”

Watch Dogs’ delay assured that the game would not ride the waves caused by the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One’s media eye-snatching releases, but Key says the move inadvertently led to even more industry wide attention than Ubisoft planned for; preorders, Key says, are up.

Though Watch Dogs has become one of the many poster children for the next-gen wave, the PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and the Wii U (eventually) will all see Aiden Pierce’s tale of Wi-Fi revenge. Watch Dogs releases May 27th, 2014.

Here’s hopin’ the push was worth it. Delays, after all, have given us gold such as the original Batman: Arkham Asylum. On the flipside, delays have also cursed us with games like Aliens: Colonial Marines and Duke Nukem Forever. Perhaps game development can be likened to cooking burgers – you want to heat the paddy until it’s evenly cooked through, but you have to be really mindful that you don’t leave the meat sitting on the grill for ten fucking years. Game devs, take heart.

Assassin’s Creed: Unity is Officially Official

Just as leaked promotional art forced Ubisoft’s hand into revealing Black Flag early last year, this week’s unofficial info lowdown on a next-gen exclusive Assassin’s Creed sequel has pushed the publisher to publicly unveil the project.

Say hello to Assassin’s Creed: Unity. Disappointingly, the game does not chronicle the efforts of hood-clad rude...

Leaked Assets Reveal New Assassin’s Creed Set During French Revolution

It’s ‘bout that time of year again, folks. And here I was thinking we might actually slip into April without an Assassin’s Creed leak. Alas, I was wrong and should continue not to gamble.

The above images, and more, were sent in to Kotaku (the giant watermark may have given that away) by an anonymous contact. The leaked materials refer to this installment as Assassin’s Creed: Unity, though the moniker is likely a code-name – Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was called Golden Age throughout development in reference to the game’s pirate theme (i.e. the 'Golden Age of Piracy’).

Pairing hushed internet discussions and conversations with developers, Kotaku has pieced together a clearer picture of Unity to complement these very early-production screens. Unity takes place, at least partly, in 18th-century Paris, smack dab during the French Revolution. You’ll control a new assassin named Arno whose knack for parkour will be a step above his contemporaries’ thanks to new free-running mechanics. 

We’ve caught wind of this rumor before but Kotaku again corroborates that Ubisoft intends on releasing not one, but two separate AC installments in 2014: one designed for current-generation systems and another specifically tailored for next-gen consoles. Unity would fall into the latter category, releasing for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The thought process behind the decision is actually shy of genius; it would mean Unity’s team can fully harness the power of next-gen hardware without the constraints of making sure the game runs on last-gen tech.

From a business standpoint, it appears particularly shrewd to double-up on a proven IP and go after both next-gen adopters looking to pad out their bare-bones libraries as well as the gigantic install base already established on PS3 and Xbox 360. Problem is, franchise fatigue can lay waste to a publisher’s best-laid plans.

I thought Black Flag was brilliant; my favorite sequel since ACII brought on the changes that would cement the series as a prime-time player. Yet I had a helluva time trying to convince my peers it was worth even playing, the malaise of “been there, done that” keeping them from revisiting the historically driven, free-running filled mythos of Assassin’s Creed.

Black Flag proved that Ubisoft understands the formula needs some shaking up to persist, and I’m interested to see if Unity follows suit and introduces a new way to strut around under the hood. We won’t have long to wait for more information, either. Unity and its unrevealed counterpart are said to release this Fall.