Gamescom 2009: The official thread! | Forums

[UbiGabe]

Hey all, just figured that, as with Comic-Con '09, I would fire up a thread to collect all the news stories coming out of Gamescom in Cologne. I'll be posting news as it's released, but if you find something that I miss, be sure to link it here!

It's going to be a big week!

[amzone]

Play.tm: "Ubisoft's line-up also remains a mystery beyond web rumours that point to the likes of Assassin's Creed 2, RUSE, Red Steel 2, Silent Hunter 5, Rabbids Go Home, Academy of Champions and Avatar "


IGN.com: "Blitz Games Studios Andrew Oliver says he's really excited about Ubisoft's Avatar, and again reiterated that 3D gaming was the next-generation."


Gamescom: the eight key titles: "Sure, Ubisoft has its Avatar tie-in and the genuinely promising Splinter Cell Conviction on display, but Assassin's Creed II looks just as astonishing as its predecessors and hopefully this time most of the gameplay glitches have been well and truly stomped on."


I'm anxious to see Ubisoft's presence at Gamescom 2009.

[UbiGabe]

GameSpot Hands-On With game release date at the end of the article! "The rich, alien habitat of Pandora looks great thanks to some help from the robust Far Cry 2 engine, and the gameplay looks like it will offer a healthy variety between the RDA and Na'vi sections. Avatar can also be displayed in stereoscopic 3D--provided you can afford a TV that supports the technology." Seconded.

[UbiGabe]

UGO has a preview up.

And The Hollywood Reporter has an article as well.

I'm surprised that I haven't seen anything from IGN yet...

But here's a news story from GameSpy.

[UbiGabe]

Here's another writeup from PC Games Hardware

[amzone]

A post-Gamescom article....



Avatar: The Game Goes Its Own Way On Wii - Gamescom
August 25, 2009 by admin

James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game is getting noticeably different treatment on the Wii, courtesy of publisher and developer Ubisoft. Like the Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3 versions you’ll play as the alien Na’vi. But you won’t play the humans.

Avatar for the Wii puts you in the role of a Na’vi warrior, meaning a stronger focus on melee combat and a little bit of stealth. During our hands-on time with the game, we crept through the tall grass while taking out those pesky RDA soldiers with our Na’vi staff and bow, requiring much Wii Remote waggling and careful aiming, courtesy of the Wii MotionPlus accessory.

While it may not look quite as good as its higher-definition peers, the Wii version of Avatar: The Game has something the other entries don’t. That would be two-player same screen co-op, which allows a second player to join in as a female Na’vi soldier. When a fellow member of the press hopped in mid-game, it appeared that both Na’vi players used the same set of moves.

That presented a bit of an obstacle, as the camera didn’t quite know what to do in a two-player situation when one of us was trying to aim his or her bow. Hopefully that’s something Ubisoft is aware of and tweaking, as the two-player mode has its benefits—namely the cooperative revive technique.

When my Na’vi was defeated by an RDA soldier in one of those hulking AMP suits, my partner helped revive me, letting us double team that massive exoskeleton. While I was attacking the thing, my partner sneaked into the tall grass, reviving his character with one of Pandora’s life giving plants, then finished the AMP suited invader from behind. It worked, but not without some hitches along the way.

The Wii version of James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game definitely looked sharp, if you’re thinking of going with the motion controlled version. It should ship on or about the same day as its more visually detailed brothers, should you and a friend want to fend off that human invasion of Pandora together.

[ecma4]

Looks like IGN's impresions of the wii version are less that enthusiastic.

link: http://wii.ign.com/articles/101/1017941p2.html

Avatar on Wii:
Everything that's wrong with licensed games – poor production values, underwhelming gameplay, broken cameras, shoddy controls – are all present and accounted for in the Wii version of James Cameron's long-awaited epic sci-fi film. Shown behind closed doors at Ubisoft's stall at GamesCom, it's hard not to savage the title, based on what we've played so far. Of course, it's not finished and there's still some time to pull this one up and out of the co-operative gameplay nosedive.

James Cameron's Avatar: The Game running on Xbox 360. This screenshot looks nothing like the Wii version. ...Well, it's a bit green and brown, I suppose --but that's it, I swear.

So – what was so wrong with Avatar on Wii? Beyond what we listed above, demonstrating the game in co-op mode was a flat-out poor choice. What should've been a fun, action-based romp through the jungles playing as two stealthy Na-vi was instead a painfully glitchy, unintuitive and inaccurate experience. While the player was compelled by the game's demonstrators to 'feel like a predator', this player felt more like a special-ed student trudging through molasses, fighting against indistinguishable foes in a muddy landscape. But then, to place the Wii version next to the true-3D Xbox 360 version? Now that's just cruel and unusual.

That's too bad.