Eurogamer Expo: The Ubisoft Tent

Although there was a pretty extensive number and variety of games on show at the Expo from a whole range of developers and publishers, the only company to have a proper all-under-one-roof booth was Ubisoft (there was a MotorStorm booth opposite, but that's not the same). In here were EndWar (which I babbled about yesterday), the new Prince of Persia and Shaun White's Snowboarding, as well as a couple of Raving Rabbids TV Party booths outside. Just outside the booth you can see Ubisoft trailer DVDs and Shaun White-branded bags being given out (yes, we got some).

There were about a dozen Prince of Persia booths set up (impressive for such a small van) on top of the other ten or so in the main Expo building, and although this tended to make it seem that the game wasn't as popular as Killzone for instance, whenever I saw a machine running the game, it was occupied. So either people are at least intruiged by the new Prince, or Ubisoft's been sending in its people undercover (I kid, Ubi! Thanks for the lush PoP shirts btw).

Onto the actual game: ah. Now I'll admit that I haven't really been following news and media on the game as religiously as I have been for LBP or the like, but I was aware of a) the new look, b) the new accomplice and c) the lack of any connection to the previous games in the series. And the only other Pricne game I've played was the one for PSP that came out a long time back. That I was shit at.My issue with the new look is not any kind of loyalty to previous art styles, or even that I think cel-shading is ugly, it is that Ubi seem to be using cel-shading as an excuse to have massive chunks of quite bland colour everywhere. The area I played had you following the new girl (who has not relaly been introduced at this point in the game) as she ran and jumped around a bit, and there was just massive patches of brown that made up the floor and walls: not attractive. Now I can understand that in games like this you're supposed to be moving quite quickly and therefore not noticing this anyway, but that never stopped Burnout Paradise or Wipeout HD being gorgeous.

As I said already, I've not played much Persia before this game, and so in fact, the only comparison I can make is with Assassins Creed (same engine, much of the same staff, same parkour concept). And my comparison is this: Persia seems very...simple. There's pretty much one button to jump or grab or grind, and although this may appear to make the game more accessible it is in fact more of a blow. PoP is the sort of game that requires precision and perfect timing, something the one-button system and often sluggish movement cannot really enable.

I find it hard to make a recommendation or not, as Persia is not my normal sort of game, but I guess I suggest renting it first, whether you think you'll fall in love with it or not - from reactions at the Expo, it is very Marmite. Prince of Persia is made by Ubisoft Montreal and should be out in December for PS3/PC/360.

Whilst the Wanderer spent some quality time with EndWar, I took the oppertunity to try out Shaun White Snowboarding for the Wii (Balance Board and all). And if you think attempting to show off your non-existent snowboarding prowess to a girl is bad enough anyway, try doing it in a room full of viscious nerds.

 

Turns out the game is suprisingly good, and a helluva lot better than Ninty's E3 conference made it seem. But then it is easy to understand why they chose to show it off: the use of both the balance board (which you simply lean in whichever direction to steer and jump when applicable) and Wiimote is essentially seamless, and pretty solidly recreates what you're actually trying to do on screen, and for this reason is not only more fun, but also what feels like a better game than the non-waggle console versions (I played with those too, I'm not just making it up). So thats one of my main issues with the majority of Wii games down. Next up - graphics. And you know what? Those are damn good too! easily much better than SSX Blur on the same console and can comfortably be shown next to the HD 360 version with no embarrassment. The on screen UI is modified to be more edgy and fun to suit the different game, and powering down the slopes at full speed offered up no visible issues. It's potentially the best planned Wii game I've ever played so I have high hopes for its success. Shaun White Snowboarding is devleoped by Ubisoft Montreal and will be released for Wii, 360 and PS3 this Friday 14th November, with Windows, DS and PSP versions to come.

That's all for now (these posts get blooming long), but we'll be back with more impressions soon.