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Completionists looking forward to strapping themselves in Da Vinci's flying machine in Assassin's Creed II will need to pick up the game's PSP version as well. Speaking during Sony's E3 2009 press gathering, Ubisoft revealed that the upcoming sequel will feature unlockable weapons, which players will only be able to unsheathe by connecting the game to the series' upcoming PSP debut this holiday. Animus compatibility, however, is still a ways off, so we're told.

Money continues to pour into the House that Rayman built as Ubisoft announced fourth quarter sales growth of 10% to €217 million ($339 million). In addition, the company saw its wallet grow by an impressive 36.4% over the entire fiscal year ended March 31, 2008 by some €928 million ($1.45 billion) driven by "stronger than expected" sales of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (nearly two million units sold), Assassin's Creed (more than six million units sold), and titles from its casual "Games For Everyone" brands.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot called 2007-08 a "remarkable year" thanks to "excellent sales" of established brands and a "steady output of new releases...that have performed exceptionally well." Ubisoft also continues to work towards a sales target of €1 billion, or $1.42 billion, for 2008-09, while the exec set the bar high for his company going forward with an expected growth of "at least 15 percent" in the coming year.

Lastly, Guillemot boasted of a "particularly strong" line-up of titles in the year ahead, including seven existing franchises, five new releases, and a continued focus on bringing more casual games on the Wii and DS, one of which we think should be based solely around counting money.

Oh ... dear. This is exactly the sort of video the internet shouldn't be showing us. Does it not realize the colossal, sensory danger posed by a combination of two of our favorite franchises? Seeing the Assassin's Creed garb running around a modern environment is one thing, but when the mise en scène happens to feature Metal Gear Solid 4 gameplay, we stop asking questions ("Where did this come from? Why is it so unrelenting in its awesomeness?") and start experiencing debilitating gleezures. That's glee + seizure, FYI.

[Thanks, Emphar]

In an attempt to address criticism aimed at the game's repetitive "investigation missions," Ubisoft has detailed (via IGN) some of the enhancements made to the PC version of free-roaming bump-off sim, Assassin's Creed. Four new types of missions will be added to protagonist Altair's premortem preamble, including "archer assassination," which tasks players with stealthily eliminating rooftop guards, and "escort challenge," an exercise in protecting a fellow (seemingly inept) assassin as he wanders to a specific location. Also new to the personal computer will be the rather impolite "merchant stand destruction challenge," a pastime that's sure to exude the same amount of subtlety seen in "rooftop race challenge." We're surprised Ubisoft didn't throw in some pizza delivery missions for good measure.

Still, considering the more diverse activities and enhanced guard AI (no more blending right next to a corpse!), PC gamers won't be waiting until "early April" without compensation. And just so you know, we never partook in all the assassin hate -- we liked the clambering and killing well enough to put it in our list of top ten games of last year.

Hey, look! Actual direct-feed screenshots of the DS Assassin's Creed game! It's a freakin' miracle! We can finally see what Altair's Chronicles is going to look like, even if we don't exactly know how the game works.

As for what it looks like: it's in full 3D, with slightly more success than you'd expect on the DS. The game keeps a mostly top-down perspective, like another early 3D stealth game we know, but seems to close in on combat scenes. The whole thing actually looks fairly sophisticated and nice, for a game we continue to be very suspicious about.

We imagine that it plays similarly to a more acrobatic Metal Gear Solid, as well, with the bottom screen acting as radar. You can also choose from the dozen or so available weapons via the touchscreen.

We haven't heard much about the DS version of Ubisoft mega smash Assassin's Creed since we learned of its existence back in October, but we've finally had a little light shed on it by a GoNintendo reader who seems to have nabbed the game's box art. Click here for an embiggened version.

We're kind of intrigued by the "Explore a fully-rendered 3D world" part, and a bit perplexed by using the stylus to pickpocket items from unwitting targets. We're also a bit troubled by the name, Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles. We've learned through the years that "Good Game Title: Character Name's Story/Tales/Chronicles/Adventures" is almost always a recipe for sadness. Here's hoping this one proves us wrong.

Altair himself would probably admire the stealthiness of the build-up to Assassin's Creed on the DS. Since the title was confirmed, not a word has passed through Ubisoft's lips about the project, despite the fact that it launches under a month from now. But finally, after a lengthy period of time, we have a full title, courtesy of IGN: Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles. MEGATON!

Of course, that leaves us absolutely no clearer on what this accursed game actually is. The sensible money would be on a 2D platform-based adventure title, but that's pure guesswork. It could be a card game. It could be a kart racer. For all we know, it could be a damn dating sim. But we know this much: the lack of information on the game is now beginning to take its toll on us, to the point where we have developed a kind of perverse curiosity about just what form Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles will take. And we're not proud of that.

Does anyone else find it suspicious that Assassin's Creed is due out on the DS in one month and we still haven't heard even the most basic of information? We haven't seen one screen -- we don't even know what kind of game it is. We could interpret this seeming blackout in one of two ways: first, and most likely, that the game isn't actually going to come out next month; and second, that Ubisoft knows they have dead weight on their hands and hopes to slip it quietly out to stores, where people will buy it for the front cover.

All we really know about the game (from the Gamestop product page) is that Gameloft is developing it. We sincerely hope that doesn't mean we're getting a cell phone port.

What isn't shrouded in mystery is Mad Catz's interest in cashing in on Assassin's Creed. On February 15th, they will release an Assassin's Creed-themed DS accessory pack, containing a DS system case, six card cases (which appear to snap together), two styli, a cleaning cloth, a car charger, and a lanyard. All of this is labeled with the Assassin's Creed logo, making every component of your DS experience potentially embarrassing if the game turns out terrible.

Pac-Man Championship Edition (XBLA)

If not worthy of a Top 10 spot, then certainly Pac-Man deserves Joystiq's 'Comeback Player of the Year' award. I covered Pac-Man CE's overblown launch in early June, but it wasn't until I became a devoted player at home that I realized the sheer genius of the first true Pac-Man sequel since 'the Ms.' hit the maze in '82. Designer Toru Iwatani managed to scrape off a quarter-century of rust and fashion a remarkably relevant game that held me down during an otherwise punishing summer drought. Geometry Wars might be the most celebrated, but Pac-Man CE is Xbox Live Arcade's true star.

Ubisoft's hugely anticipated bump-off sim created quite the controversy, though oddly not for the stylish and quite visceral violence it so gleefully inflicted upon authority figures. Instead, Assassin's Creed (or Assassin's Crud, depending on who you ask) divided critics, with some being utterly engaged by the game's unique setting and others thinking the same environment to be remarkably empty. Count us among the former, as we've yet to see a bigger, more lavishly detailed and immersive world than the one dashed through, clambered up and vaulted over in Assassin's Creed.

The game's greatest design flaw may be that it's a bit too open-ended for its own good, refusing to overtly reward or punish players for behaving in a specific way. If you wish, you can spend a lovely afternoon playing Maniacal Guard Killer's Creed instead, carrying out your missions with all the stealthy maneuvering of a grand piano rolling down an escalator. Would it have been wiser for Ubisoft to beat you over the head every time you set off a medieval alarm and otherwise played the game "wrong?" Perhaps... but isn't the point of open-ended gameplay to let you choose your own path?


In many ways, Assassin's Creed is more of a role-playing game than most of the titles officially labeling themselves as such. When you play as Altair -- really play as him, as an assassin -- and measure failure according to your own actions and not what a Fission Mailed screen tells you, the game's intricate world becomes inescapably engaging. Learn about your target, plan your attack and revel in the absolutely thrilling chase that follows your murderous deed. Though the game's overall structure may seem repetitive in the face of such a believable world, the true magic in Assassin's Creed lies not in what you do, but how you do it.

Apparently the stories that a video game's parents tell it really are true: One game can make a difference!

In an inspiring story that's sure to be adapted into a Disney animated film (featuring the voices of Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake and Robin Williams as the side-splitting "Ubi"), the sales of Assassin's Creed (at 2.5 million last week) may have been enough to save Ubisoft from EA's clutches.

Financial Times reports that strong sales of the game has helped Ubisoft increase its value to approximately $4.3 billion, meaning that it may just be too expensive of a pickup for EA at the moment. Of course, with the threat of Activision Blizzard looming, who knows how far EA will go to keep its market share?

[Via Gi.biz]

Read -- Ubisoft's assassin and the creed of creative defense (registration required)

Ubisoft announced that in the month since launch its love-it or hate-it epic Assassin's Creed has sold 2.5 million copies globally. The company said the title has "greatly outstripped" its sales expectation and the game is the fastest-selling new video game IP in US history. The company now expects to sell a minimum of five million copies of Assassin's Creed before the end of their fiscal year in March '08.

Ubisoft is also boosting its income expectation by 12%, it raised fiscal year projections by an extra €15 million to €840 million ($1.2 billion). The company also says that Tom Clancy's End War, Brothers in Arms and Far Cry 2 are scheduled for its next fiscal year beginning in April. Ubisoft plans to lay out its games portfolio for next year on Jan. 23, '08.

This week, rapid-fire ranter Yahtzee turns his verbal assassination skills on a game with a matching murderous motif, Assassin's Creed. Though Ubisoft's expansive bump-off sim has divided gamers and critics alike, Yahtzee picks a clear side by the end of this Zero Punctuation episode -- and it's not the one you might expect. Though he didn't approve of the combat or "wordy" dialogue (watch out, Mass Effect), it seems the Prince of Persia-esque platforming and non-linear "faffing about" convinced the man with the sweet hat to give the game an overall thumbs up.

Didn't see that coming, did you? Find the (NSFW) video proof after the break.

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Joystiq reader Flynn tipped us off to a rather bizarre, er, "glitch" in Assassin's Creed where death is just another gateway to life ... twice. Think you're seeing double? (Or quadruple if you play both videos at the same time.) Well, you're right. Enjoy the video after the break.

Joystiq reader Flynn tipped us off to a rather bizarre, er, "glitch" in Assassin's Creed where death is just another gateway to life ... twice. Think you're seeing double? (Or quadruple if you play both videos at the same time.) Well, you're right. Enjoy the video after the break.