Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands Announced

Ubisoft today announced the development of a brand new Prince of Persia game. Rather than being a sequel to the exceedingly beautiful and well received Prince of Persia that released last year, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will make a return to the Sands of Time storyline.

Ubisoft promises The Forgotten Sands to be a truer experience to the previous PoP games featuring “many of the fan-favorite elements” and “new gameplay innovations that gamers have come to expect from the Prince of Persia brand.”

“The goal is to reach both audiences, the core and casual gamers. It will be a game that will have lots of combat, with the possibility for gamers that are not as good – a level for beginners. In that sense we are trying to cover both groups,” said Ubi’s CEO Yves Guillemot recently.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is scheduled to release in May 2010 coinciding with the release of Disney’s feature film based on the franchise. The game is planned for “consoles and handhelds” (no PC version, we guess). The game’s premiere trailer will be shown at Spike TV’s Video Game Awards on Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 8 p.m. EST.

Win 10 copies of Darksiders: Wrath of War plus T-shirts and Caps

Penned by legendary comic book artist Joe Madureira (X-Men, Battle Chasers, The Ultimates), Darksiders: Wrath of War is set in a Post-Apocalyptic demon-ravaged world where evil forces have prematurely brought about the end of the time.

Originally sent to oversee the destruction of Earth, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have been betrayed by their master, stripped of their powers and cast down to Earth. Players take on the role of WAR — the first of the Four Horsemen — as he embarks on a brutal quest of vengeance and revenge against the forces that betrayed him with the help of his phantom steed RUIN. Darksiders: Wrath of War features open-world exploration, a deep combat system and a huge arsenal of modern and mythical weapons.

Thanks to Pluto Games, we have ten copies of the game plus t-shirts and caps to give away.

Assassin’s Creed II Review

Despite all the negativity surrounding the first Assassin’s Creed, we were still very impressed with what the game had to offer. The interesting story and magnificent visuals surely were an important factor. But the repetitive nature of the game limited how far it could and should have gone. Even though the game ended up selling very well, gamers still expected and wanted more than doing the exact same three missions over and over again. The developers listened carefully and highlighted the shortcomings in the first game and worked on them. AC 2 comes with a load of improvements while building up on all what was good in AC.

To complete a sequence in AC you had to gather info, climb a few buildings before assassinating the target.  In AC2 it’s a completely different case. Now you will get to meet new people and talk to them, look around the more lively cities and collect items and money. The majority of the missions are still rather simple, but that doesn’t mean they are not fun. Playing the game for a few hours straight you will feel like you are watching a very good movie. That comment right there shows you exactly how good the presentation is in this game.

The story is also very interesting. It continues after the events in the first game and builds up with style. Factored in this time is some drama and comedy. The drama comes from the death of some key characters and seeking revenge. Comedy comes in a numbers of ways in a different number of situations (With Mario making has AC debut). We were expecting the story to drop off a bit after an impressive start, but the game managed to keep coming back with more drama for us to follow and look forward to. Every time you visit a new area or meet a character a little icon will appear indicating that new info was recorded. That info will give you an idea about the historic importance of that area and character. So reading them is certainly not a waste of time.

AC was based in the Middle East, something we rather enjoyed. This time however all the action is happening in Italy as Desmond tries to go back and find out what exactly happened in the past. The cities picked to represent the game are perfectly created. Each city has its own set of places to visit and climb. Each city also has shops for you to check out. The shops sell everything from weapons to cloth and decorations for your castle. That is right; there is a business side of AC now. You gain money from completing missions, treasures scattered around the game or even by stealing that money from poor citizens.

The weapons you can buy are very diverse and each comes with its own set of animations. We actually ended up buying all of them just to see the awesome animations each one of them offers. The money you collect will even help you complete missions faster. You can hire people to help you sneak by guards or even hire a few men to fight on your side for a while. Another way to make money is investing. We actually felt here that developers are taking it a bit too far. But you actually can buy and improve certain buildings in your city to attract more people to the city and there for increase your daily income. Not a totally bad idea, but we would rather worry about killing people with style instead.

Most of the time you will have to move around the city while under cover. You either have to climb buildings or walk with people to distract the guards. The fighting and its animations are so good in this game though, that most of the time we actually went for the fights. The combat and its controls will improve as you progress through the story. The tutorial levels most games force you to play at the beginning are scattered around AC2. The simpler moves like throwing knives for example will be learned in the first few levels. Other more complicated moves will be introduced as you need them during the course of the game. That is a very good idea for one reason. You will actually remember and use each move before moving on to the next one.

Win Need for Speed: Shift for the Xbox 360

Shift into high gear! Designed to deliver a true driver’s experience that reflects contemporary motorsports, Need for Speed Shift is built by racers for racers. Need for Speed Shift delivers an authentic and immersive driving experience, replicating the true feeling of racing high-end performance cars like never before.

Players are thrust into the heart of the action with immersive and exciting features including a stunningly realistic first-person cockpit view camera and an all-new crash mechanic, providing an unrivaled sensation of the speed and feeling of racing a car on the extreme edge of control.

Thanks to our friends at EA, we have 3 copies of the game for the Xbox 360 to give away.

PlayStation hosts Karaoke evenings at Dubai Festival City

Press Release: Calling all Karaoke Kings & Queens! Do you want to be a pop star? Have you ever fancied yourself as a bit of a Mariah Carey? Or do you just feel the need to sing along to everything?

Well now you can put your talent to the test! PlayStation and Dubai Festival City are offering you the chance to showcase your singing every Saturday at the Floating stage, Dubai Festival City, between 7pm and 10pm, from 5th December through to the end of January 2010.

Whether you’re a singing sensation or a tone-deaf warbler, come down to the stage, grab your friends, grab a microphone and lighten the load of those shopping bags whilst singing one of your many favourite songs from the extensive SingStar library. Choose from Kings Of Leon, Queen, Mika, Take That, Aerosmith, Abba, Lily Allen and many many more to prove just how good you are.

With special appearances by Catboy and GeordieBird of Dubai 92’s breakfast show, you can guarantee a great night out.

For more information, log on to www.dubaifestivalcity.com/karaoke or just email events@festivalcentre.com.

Dark Void Preview Trailer

Super Street Fighter 4 Trailer

Microsoft Reveals Facebook, Last.fm Usage Stats

On November 17, 2009 Microsoft launched to two social media tools onto Xbox Live: Facebook and Last.fm music streaming service. On November 30, 2009, it is stats time. According to Microsoft, nearly two million Xbox Live users logged into Facebook via the console on the first week of its availability. The figure rounds upto ten percent of all Xbox Live Gold users who used the service at least once. The stat does not indicate if the service was used extensively by a single user which could very well mean that any number of users could have just logged in for the novelty of it.

Last.fm also has its fair share of statistics. Microsoft says that the US and UK only music streaming service generated one million new profile activations in its first week. On Last.fm, users streamed more than ’120 million minutes’ of music to their Xbox 360 consoles. Jeez, who even keeps such stats? Oh wait…

Splinter Cell: Conviction To Have Co-op, New MP Mode

CVG reports that the first concrete details on Splinter Cell: Conviction’s multiplayer will be revealed in the next issue of PC Zone magazine.

This information comes from a back-page advert in the current issue of PC Zone that promises to include “hands-on, co-op reveal and a brand new mode” in the next issue which will be on stand December 23rd.

It won’t be the first time Splinter Cell will have co-op, but a brand new mode reveal has us dripping in colored intrigue.

Far Cry 3 Confirmed

Official Playstation Magazine recently confirmed the development of Far Cry 3. Yup, Ubisoft’s first person shooter will be getting a new installment (surprise!) and if a Ubisoft scribe is to be believed, the game is looking “pretty exciting”.

At a Avatar: The Game event, OPM asked Ubisoft scriptwriter Kevin Shortt if he was working on a new Far Cry title. Not to shy away from dolling out information companies may want to keep a secret, Kevin said that while he is not working on the script this time around “but I know the team are and what I’ve seen looks pretty exciting“.

Personally, i never could get myself to play more than a few hours of the sequel. With its ever spawning enemy reinforcements and the unneeded realism, it annoyed me to my wits end most of the time. I hope Ubisoft does away with the dull aspects of the game and refines it to bring out the truer qualities of the series that made it popular.

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