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.

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.

Obviously it is Halo 3 (its Beta, to be specific) that has captured the Xbox 360 imagination these days, but let's step back and take a look at the bigger Halo picture. While it isn't much to update with, Ensemble Studios' latest small update to the dev process behind the Halo Wars console RTS demonstrates that they are, indeed, on the job.

According to their latest post in their Halo Wars forums, their playtest sessions have moved from the all-critical control scheme experimentation to "making the game as fun as it can possibly be."

Lately, the post also indicates that they are well into implementing the in-game unit and structure graphics: they speak of "fewer of the... stand-in buildings in the game these days" and the importance of properly scaling unit sizes to each other and compared to other structures. Spartans may be very tall, but there is such a thing as ridiculously tall - especially if they can't fit in a Warthog.

The fact that it's undergoing playtesting also means that a lot of the game is down in place. Yet to be bolted down, but in place nonetheless. We'd love to see an update in the future that involves videos. We'd love to see Ensemble's take on console RTS, especially in contrast to Electronic Arts' approach.

Ryan Lesser, Harmonix art director, assures GamesIndustry.biz that they are doing all they can to keep Rock Band (Xbox 360, PS3) affordable. In particular, he's dismissing rumors that it will cost around US$ 150.00-200.00 to jam. And this despite all those instruments.

That US$ 200.00 figure was allegedly from someone who took part in a focus group for Rock Band. Lesser explained that such a leak could not be true because "of a lot of reasons that I can't talk about, but we're far from releasing prices at this point." But:

There's no way we're going to make a game that people are not going to be happy about buying. We scrutinize every little piece that goes into every peripheral to make sure that it's affordable and still really high quality.

How much of a challenge would it be? GameStop already had prices for those peripherals (guitar, drum set, microphone), all of which (plus the game) would put it in the US$ 150-200 range. But then, Lesser did say that Harmonix was far from releasing prices yet - so how did GameStop get these prices in the first place?

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).

If you have a modded console, and enjoy said modded console, [insert choice of expletive here].

BIGVIP posts in the Gamerscore Blog that if Xbox Live detects a modified Xbox 360 console, it will spit out Error Status Code Z: 8015-190D, and not connect to Xbox Live, and you will spit out [insert choice of expletive here] and not enjoy Xbox Live.

Note that this does not mean that your Xbox Live account has been banned - it is still active, says BIGVIP.

It is your hardware that has been banned - or more accurately, that it has been detected to contain certain modifications that violate the Xbox 360 Terms of Use and thus will not be allowed by Xbox Live to complete the connection and log on the user trying to use said Xbox 360 with modifications.

This seems to have been put into mass play beginning with the Halo 3 Beta rollout - BIGVIP hints at it. Xbox-Scene reports mixed-bag effects: some firmware mods get detected and some don't, although they observe that Microsoft tends to "ban with delay". Xbox-Scene thinks that Xbox Live's detecting backup discs, and this despite using "new firmware with disc-jitter added" - and this despite earlier reports that backups worked fine with Spring Update.

Apparently the mod-detect feature wasn't piggybacked to Spring, but to the release of the Halo 3 Beta.

The official line is that this protects the integrity of the Xbox Live community and the XBL service, "the protection of our partners and the benefit of our users." You already know our stance: boo to piracy (but make next-gen a little more economically accessible), no flag-waving for either side, and honestly, those Halloween brick rumors still hurt, half-a-year on.

Sharing space with Bethesda in the cover for the Japan-localized version of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion will be Tokyo-based Spike, which has agreed to handle co-publishing and distribution of the game in the Land of the Rising Sun, according to their PR. The PR also lists the dates and prices with which Oblivion will hit Japanese shelves:

• July 26, 2007
• ¥ 7,800.00

There's nothing in the PR about the Shivering Isles expansion pack, which does leave a couple of questions open:

• Given that Microsoft has clamped down the region-locks on Xbox Live downloadable content, when will Bethesda make available The Shivering Isles for the Japan Marketplace?
• Will this Oblivion localization also include Japanese voice casts, or just subtitling? The answer to this would have an impact on localizing The Shivering Isles.

Frankie from Bungie lets everyone know that the Halo 3 beta test has received its first test update. It's meant as a test of the game's online robustness in taking and absorbing this and future updates to patch up any problems Bungie would encounter. One notable consequence of the update was wiping the file share of current beta testers clean "in advance of tomorrow's public rollout."

Goodbye Halo 3's funniest Beta videos (to date).

The news update also comes with a set of instructions for current Beta testers, who might find certain fonts or characters in the user interface missing after downloading the required update. Frankie advises: do not despair, do not run around screaming.

• First, restart your Xbox 360.
• Second, boot up the Halo 3 beta.
• Third, while in the Halo 3 boot up sequence press up on the D-pad and hold the A button until you see the Bungie logo. If you've completed this correctly there will be a dialog box confirming maintenance has been done on your system.
• Four, resume bathing in the Halo 3 Public Beta.

Reserve despair and running around screaming for events such as a Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies, or finding out to your frustration that the Princess is in another castle.