Eachweek, X3F tips gamers to the tricks of the trade of Achievement hording in Points>Life. Every week a new achievement is unlocked to help you continue your unhealthy obsession with the Xbox 360 meta-game.
This week in Points>Life we're taking a stroll through memory lane and Team Rainbow's first vacation to Vegas. In Rainbow Six: Vegas there are two easy tips we can give you, the first is a simple reminder that some people may not realize and the second is a glitch in the end of the game that could save you a headache while trying to end the mission.
Both tips are classic, meaning they're old ones ... but somewhere someone is picking up this game for the first time and we're here to help!
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According to a post on PSLegion that outlines the latest rumors from PSM3's "Insider," Ubisoft may still release a sequel to the 2003 critically acclaimed title, Beyond Good & Evil. While the third-person adventure game was revered as a critical darling when it hit last-gen consoles and PC, the title was a commercial disaster. Within months of its release BG&E had been reduced from $50 to $20 but could never achieve the success seen by other popular Ubisoft debuts that year; Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.
Other Xbox 360 related rumors from "The Insider" include:
Prepare for a Leisure Suit Larry movie ... (*sigh*)
EA is returning to Springfield for another Simpsons game ... (Are bug fixes optional?)
Call of Duty 5, currently in development by Treyarch have been working on the game for two years, far longer than the standard nine month process ... (Nine months? That explains CoD3. Ba-Zing!)
Rumorang the BG&E sequel talk for now, but we've heard this before and we hope it's legit!
Do you like art? We here at X3F absolutely do, especially when it has to do with a game that sounds great and that we don't know a whole lot about yet. In a sped-up video of Ubisoft's character artist working his magic, we watch as twenty minutes (amazing!) of work flies by in about a minute, producing a stylized likeness of the protagonist. And as is becoming more common in the gaming world, there are plans to keep the short video clips of the game coming. With the job or introducing all the potential players to the world in hopes they'll eventually become actual players. A pic of the artwork can be found here.
Always better than boring old screenshots is full motion video, so that's why we bring you this latest video gem courtesy of the folks over at Ubisoft's Far Cry 2team. In this introductory video, you'll be treated to visual bliss as the dev team showcases Far Cry 2's Dunia engine, how combat will take place and where the story is headed this time around. Fun fact: the dev team actually took a trip out to Africa to gather some 7GB of pictures and video to aid in developing Fary Cry 2's look. Fun fact number two: We love producer LP Pharand's accent. Watch and enjoy.
Over on the Far Cry 2 developer blog, the crew posted a couple new in-game shots showcasing Far Cry 2's wondrously illuminate lighting system after the team claims they've made "leaps and bounds" on the engine. We placed both new screenshots in the gallery below and our first take on them and the lighting is something along the lines of "wow" and "amazing". Who knew an old tabletop fan and piles of rubble could look so darn good?
It would seem that Ubisoft's new entry in the Prince of Persia series has become a little bit clearer thanks to French magazine Joypad. Purported scans from the magazine have hit the net with screens of a cel-shaded Prince doing his princely business (you know, running, jumping, killing monsters, that kind of thing). A rough translation of the info (courtesy of NeoGAF) reveals that the Prince must "unleash light-wells to heal a corrupted world." Doing so causes real-time changes to the environment (plants magically regrowing, etc.). Of course, it's the Prince's fault that the world is corrupted. He frees an evil god, you see (always getting into trouble, that Prince).
The time mechanic has been ditched, though the Prince retains his athletic and acrobatic prowess. A new combat system has been devised to take advantage of this, featuring fewer enemies to make for more intense one on one combat. The number of bosses has also been reduced, the developers having decided to make them more central to the story and more memorable. Hit the "read" links for more details.
Read -- NeoGAF translation (the forum is currently down) Read -- Prince of Persia screens
Today Ubisoft announced that a new title in the Prince of Persia franchise will release this holiday season. The latest entry, which is simply titled Prince of Persia, is currently in development at Ubisoft Montreal and will launch on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
According to the publisher the latest installment in the franchise, "[opens] a new chapter in the Prince of Persia universe" and will feature a new style of gameplay "poised to rejuvenate the action-adventure genre." Along with the new gameplay Ubisoft promises a new "illustrative" art style. Well, color us excited.
Posted Apr 25th 2008 12:30PM by Dustin Burg Filed under: News
As if we didn't already expect another sequel to sneak from the shadows, Ubisoft head man Yves Guillemot mentioned via a Ubisoft conference call that they expect the Assassin's Creed brand to be around for "years to come". Which, if we're reading into this correctly and using our knowledge of the game's storyline, it means that a sequel or three should be headed our way rather soonish. Heck, we may even see an Assassin's sequel that plays more like more like Metal Gear ... then again, we pray it doesn't. Here's to a decade long life for the Assassin's Creed franchise!
It's been rumored for a while, and even officially confirmed for fiscal year 2008, but we really don't know much about the next Prince of Persia game. The loose talk is that the next trilogy will be a form of prequel, and it looks as though the first game of said trilogy could be called Prodigy. Recently trademarked by Ubisoft, Prince of Persia Prodigy is an admittedly vague title and could possibly refer to another PoP product, but with a new official teaser site up and the game rumored to be hitting this fall, an official name hitting now feels about right.
Furthermore, other rumors say that the game will be shown at Ubidays (an editorial event) sometime in the near future and that the game's REAL title is in fact Prince of Persia Zero. We'll just have to wait for Ubidays for more concrete info, but those with time to kill can endlessly refresh the official page to attempt to quickly decipher the writing before it's covered.
Posted Apr 23rd 2008 3:00PM by Dustin Burg Filed under: News
Good news Rainbow Six Vegas 2 gamers who've been bothered by the handful of bugs (including the achievement unlock problem) that have been making your RSV2 experience less than superb. Ubisoft sends word that they just released a RSV2 title update via Xbox Live that aims at fixing a bunch of the gameplay issues. So many fixes, we had to post the list after the break to prevent eye strain. Highlights include the fixing of the rank reset glitch, numerous achievement fixes and an improved observer mode. High five to Ubisoft for actually caring enough to get a patch out the door, even though these problems should have been caught during QA testing. Tisk, tisk.
This is it folks, your last chance to nab a free copy of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for the low, low price of nothing. The giveaway ends in one and a half hours and, as we've mentioned already, entering is so easy even a highly trained chimpanzee could do it. You'd better hurry up an enter. If you don't ... the chimps win. Head over to the official giveaway post and place your entry lickety-split.
Hey kids! Maybe you saw it yesterday and maybe you didn't but either way we just have to tell you about our super-fantastical and wonderful-magical giveaway of Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Entering is so easy even a highly trained chimpanzee could do it. You're at least as smart as a highly trained chimpanzee aren't you? Of course you are! With this confidence boosting bit of knowledge, we suggest you head over to the official giveaway post and enter to win right now. Do it. Do it now! You can enter once a day too, so don't forget to enter tomorrow either. Just remember, if you don't enter, the chimps win.
Posted Apr 17th 2008 12:30PM by Dustin Burg Filed under: News
Update: Wouldn't you know, the August release is true. Confirmation of the release is revealed at the end of the new Hell's Highway "Face Stab" trailer which we embedded after the break. Thanks, Mr Gooooly.
So, here's the story.Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highwayhas been on the fast track to delays-ville, where its release date has been speeding through delay after delay since 2007. Then, last September, we learned that 2007 would see no Hell's Highway release and a general 2008 release was set. Now, according to Gamersyde who didn't list their news source (for shame!), Ubisoft is slating Hell's Highway for an August (European?) release. But so far we've spotted everything from April to May to June release rumors across the interwebs, so we don't know how much validity we can give to this latest August rumor. Though, if this August release turns out to be fact, you can color us impressed. We have $20 riding on the game being delayed into 2009.
Update: This giveaway is now closed and we will be notifying our winner shortly. Don't forget to check your spam filters, kids!
The fanswag just keeps on coming. This week we have none other than Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Yes, it's a game that every FPS fan should love (in some cases a little too much) and we're giving it away for absolutely nothing. If you want to win it though, you'll have to do something for us. What is that, you ask? It's quite simple really. Just follow the directions below. See? Easy.
Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is set in Las Vegas, home of depravity and gambling. Leave a comment on this post telling us about the biggest gamble you've ever taken. You can leave one comment per calendar day (Eastern Time).
Be sure you only leave one comment per day. Posters of multiple comments during the same day will be disqualified. We'll accept entries until Friday, April 18, 12:00pm noon, Eastern Time. You must be at least 18 years old to enter. This giveaway is open only to residents of the U.S. and Canada (excluding Quebec).
On Friday, we'll pick one winner via a random drawing
One winner will each receive a copy of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for Xbox 360, worth $60.
Posted Apr 15th 2008 2:15PM by Dustin Burg Filed under: News
Since we know that 94.8% of all Xbox Live users adore Microsoft's Xbox Originals program (it's a scientifically proven fact), we know there's a good chance that you'll be uber excited to hear that two new titles will be added to the catalog next week. On Monday, April 21st, both Ubisoft's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Metal Arms: Glitch In The System will be available for purchase off the XBLM for the standard 1200 Microsoft point price. So ... yup, more Xbox Originals titles next week ... what more achievement complaining can be said?
