Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot took the stage at the Microsoft Xbox Media Briefing to announce that all future Tom Clancy titles for Xbox 360 will "leverage" the Kinect controller.
The first game to use Kinect will be Ghost Recon: Future Solider. But Guillemot's announcement implies that future Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six games, among others, will also be compatible with Kinect.
The diminutive French executive introduced a demo of Future Solider on stage. Its weapon customisation mode, Gunsmith - which will allow you to create 20 million unique weapons - uses Kinect.
Guns can be customised down to their interior parts with either gestures - using hand motions to split them apart and combine them - or voice commands.
Simply saying "optimise for close combat" or "randomise" changes the configuration of your weapon.
You can then try your guns out using motion control on a firing range.
The demonstrator crouched forward and his left hand, held in a fist as if holding the gun, guided his weapon. He fired the gun by opening and closing his right hand. Upward and downward gestures with his right hand took him into and out of the gun's scope.
"At Ubisoft, we have been big believers in Kinect since day one," Guillemot said. He added that Ubisoft would be moving on from supporting Kinect with fitness and sports titles to incorporating it in its core games.
A new entry in Ubisoft's Rainbow Six franchise is on its way that will see the series return to its strategic roots, according to a Kotaku tipster.
Though no name for the project has been settled on yet, the source claimed that the game will see your team attempting to thwart a homegrown terrorist attack on New York City.
It'll be more story-driven than recent entries in the long-running tactical FPS series, but see a renewed focus on stealth and strategy over reckless gunplay.
The new game will apparently sport a new "icon-rich" visual style and include a cover system which sees the action briefly switching from first person to third person.
Ubisoft has declined to comment on the leak.
This isn't first time talk of a new Rainbow Six games has popped up. Last month "Rainbow Six (2011)" appeared on a developer resumé while Ubisoft has been sitting on the www.rainbowsix-bd.com domain name since 2009.
An E3 reveal perhaps? We wouldn't bet against it.
The last time the series graced our screens was the solid Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 back in 2008, which skillfully maneuvered a 7/10 from Eurogamer's Kristan Reed.
UPDATE: Ubisoft has contacted Eurogamer to say the report is untrue.
ORIGINAL STORY: Splinter Cell 3D and the upcoming Driver Renegade will be included in a new set of Nintendo 3DS hardware bundles, a new report claims.
Nintendo launches the two new packs in October, according to a leaked retailer release schedule obtained by MCV.
Pricing for the bundles is yet to be determined.
Stealthy shooter Splinter Cell 3D was a launch title for the 3DS earlier this year. Its charms unfortunately snuck by Eurogamer's Kristan Reed, who fired off a damp squib 4/10 review.
Driver Renegade meanwhile is an upcoming portable accompaniment to September's home console iteration Driver: San Francisco. We've yet to hear much more about it.
Both blue and black 3DS flavours will be available in bundle form.
Video: Ubisoft's Splinter Cell 3D.
Ubisoft has taken the wraps off Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Online, a PC MMO take on its long-running tactical shooter franchise.
Developed by Ubisoft Singapore, it will be free-to-play with premium items available for purchase.
Gameplay details are thin on the ground right now, but it seems you'll be able to choose between three different classes of soldier, each of which will be fully customisable. Regular events and content updates are promised, as well as a "rich lobby platform" for hosting social and persistent progression features.
"The online market is an exciting new frontier for video games and for gamers," commented Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot.
"With Ghost Recon Online, and other major upcoming projects, Ubisoft is creating online experiences that allow our fans to stay connected to their favorite brands and to continually receive new content and gameplay. This direct link with our fans will allow us to create new and ever better experiences for them."
No launch date has yet been announced but a closed beta is expected to go live in the Summer. You can register for that now at the game's official site.
The more traditional Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is also still in the works, currently scheduled for a multiplatform release in early 2012.
Third-person shooter Ghost Recon: Future Soldier has been delayed again.
Future Soldier was down for launch during publisher Ubisoft's 2011/12 financial year between now and March 2012.
Yesterday Ubisoft said the game will now launch during its fiscal fourth quarter for 2012, or the first three months of calendar 2012.
CEO Yves Guillemot blamed the delay on a crowded holiday release schedule packed with the likes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Ubisoft's own Assassin's Creed: Revelations.
It is the latest in a string of delays to the game.
It was at one point due for release in the autumn 2010.
Eurogamer last saw the game in April last year. "This latest instalment in the Ghost Recon series may be faster and flashier than its measured, belly-crawling predecessors, but its military hardware is so new and so different that there's no way a whole new clutch and concept of tactics won't spin out of it," wrote Alec Meer in Eurogamer's. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier preview.
The existence of a brand new entry in Ubisoft and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series is no surprise—Ubisoft Toronto managing director Jade Raymond has already confirmed she's leading the development team. What's new are apparently leaked details on the forthcoming sixth Splinter Cell.
According to a report from Gamerzines, audio equipment maker Blue Sky posted images on its web site seemingly from the game's title screen, which refers to the game as simple Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and SC6. Those images have since been removed by both parties.
The images, if real, don't tell us too much other than that it appears Sam Fisher will return with his trademark night vision goggles. The text "BROKEN ARROW" appears, indicating that the game may focus on an event involving "nuclear weapons, warheads or components, but which does not create the risk of nuclear war."
First images of Splinter Cell 6 leaked [Gamerzines via NeoGAF]
A new entry in the Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six tactical FPS series is incoming, according to a developer résumé.
As spotted on NeoGAF, recording engineer Sean Popejoy's LinkedIn profile claims he "developed Pro Tools sessions from Ubisoft audio for the game demo of Rainbow Six (2011)."
The same GAF poster also spotted a www.rainbowsix-bd.com domain name filed by Ubisoft in late 2009 and amended in 2010.
The last entry in the 13-year-old series was Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 back in 2008, which won a 7/10 from Eurogamer.
Another day, another Bank Holiday. Seriously, how many bloody holidays do these banks need? How about actually taking less than a week to clear a cheque. That would be nice, wouldn't it?
Anyway, if you're reading this on the Bank Holiday Monday like a truly hungry mobile gaming hound, then lucky you, because we have a rarity a pair of two-out-of-tens.
You see, one of the problems with the explosion in popularity of the mobile sector is the vast number of chancers who try to peddle bottom-of-the-barrel sludge and stand there with their hands out. Well, guess what, chancers? I call bulls*** on your nefarious ways, and will do my best to ward unsuspecting gamers off your worthless offerings.
But it's not all whining indigence. Three of our selection are rather good, too, and you can have all three for a sum total of 59p. This could well be the cheapest bank holiday you'll ever have.
With Coin Drop being the most talked-about mobile obsession right now, it is my sworn duty to find out what all the fuss is about. A bizarro combination of Peggle, Angry Birds, Breakout and Portal you say? Who could possibly resist?
Like many of the unfailingly addictive time sinks we now have in our lives, the name pretty much says it all. You have coins. You must drop them. Forever. Specifically, they need to find their way into the five hungry receptacles stationed at the bottom of each of the 60 levels.
Getting them there, though oh ho ho. At first, it's simplicity itself. Just line the coin up roughly above the goal and down it plops. But then pins which bounce your coin around, Peggle-style, start to become a factor. Before you know it, you've got all manner of obstacles: spinny things, whirling critters, portals, you name it, all doing their best to disrupt your once-simple task.
Judgement comes into it, obviously, but only a bit. Just like the ubiquitous Angry Birds and Peggle before it, you're kidding yourself if you think it's all down to your skill. Sometimes you'll just get that lucky break and squeak through, and then it's onto the next, even more vindictive stage.
I haven't even mentioned the shaking. Yes, just to add an even greater degree of random nonsense, you can shake the device to jog the coin a little, and therefore give you a chance to influence its direction. Once you start employing this tactic, of course, you can't bloody well stop, and so spend most of the game spasming like a drunk with an involuntary tic.
Sorry to say, but that spoiled Coin Drop for me. If the 'shake' could be deployed as a last resort like a Pinball tilt, fair enough, but when so much of your success appears to depend on blind luck, its appeal starts to wane.
Full Fat is addressing this issue in a future update, but whether it disrupts the balance the other way remains to be seen. Either way, it's certainly worth dropping 59 pennies on it. You wouldn't want to miss out on a phenomenon-in-waiting, would you?
7/10
As brilliantly creepy and original as Papa Sangre undoubtedly was, it left you wondering where Somethin' Else could go next. The answer? Into space.
Once again, you're thrust into a terrifying graphics-free world where you're forced to rely only on what you can hear. In this instance, you're abandoned on a space station and have to pace around while a strange voice gives you vital instructions on how to make your es-cape.
The mechanics are exactly the same as before, with a semi-circular dial at the top of the screen allowing you to turn, while the lower half of the device is given over to your left and right feet.
If anything, the effect is even more immersive this time around as you creep gently around unseen terrors, flicking switches and groping for the exit.
The only downside is that it's all over far too quickly. With just 12 rather simple levels to explore, it's the kind of one-hit app that you'll cruise through, never to return. Then again, unlike Papa Sangre, it's completely free, thanks to a promotional tie-in with Wrigley's of all things. On that basis, grab it now. Tell all your friends.
8/10
You've heard of Words With Friends. Now it's time for Prose With Bros a game essentially designed to bring out the perverted wordsmith in all of us.
At its core, it's multiplayer fridge poetry (online or off). If you've never had the tittersome pleasure of this dubious pastime, it involves creating slightly bizarre sentences out of a word soup. Many small hours of the morning have been lost crafting prose to excite and delight fellow residents.
In Prose With Bros, the same aim applies. You're given a page full of disconnected words, and tasked with arranging up to four lines' worth.
Meanwhile, one of your buddies somewhere in the world has to try his or her best to out out-filth you, and both attempts are voted upon by the rest of the world over the next 24 hours. The one with the greater percentage of the vote 'wins'. While you wait, you can also vote on everyone else's distressing creations and give kudos where it's due.
Of course, Evil Laugh Games didn't intend for the game to descend into grubbiness, but that's the internet for you. At time of writing, the plan is to remove some of the more suggestive words in the upcoming free update so the dirty-minded among you best get in there quick.
If you loved Words With Friends, then it's almost certain that you'll waste just as much time here. Just don't blame me for corrupting your innocent mind.
7/10
If the recent 3DS port of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory was a sullen disappointment, it looks like a peerless masterpiece next to this amateurish attempt at bringing Sam Fisher to the mobile realm.
When it first came to iOS and Android, I took one look at the hideous virtual stick controls and thought better of trotting out more black words about virtual stick controls. But with Xperia Play's excellent combination of dpad, buttons and thumb pads, that no longer applies to the same degree.
Unfortunately for Gameloft, the vastly improved control system only highlights what a terrible game it was in the first place. For starters, you can't even invert the Y axis, making it basically unplayable for about 50 per cent of us.
And even if you're able to adapt to that, the game feels like a hapless approximation of what Splinter Cell might have been like if Ubisoft had designed it for the PS1 in 1997.
If the horribly angular, poorly animated visuals aren't enough to put you off from the start, the undercooked stealth certainly will, featuring some of the most brainless AI you've ever seen.
If you bother to play it properly, then it's possible to gradually creep up behind enemies and dispatch them with a swift melee manoeuvre, or mark targets and take out a whole group at once.
But once the game's hilarious limitations become fully apparent, you'll soon realise that it barely matters if enemies discover you or not. You can simply wander up to anyone and smack them with a melee smash, and shrug off the small matter of a few bullet wounds to the chest.
From that point, the game descends into a farce where the biggest challenge is not switching it off immediately. One day Gameloft will bring us high-quality mobile versions of its sister company's console hits. Until that day, avoid this at all costs.
2/10
And now, the final insult. After months of being routinely charged over the odds for ports of two-year-old iOS games, Windows Phone 7 owners can now enjoy Atari 2600 games for a mere £2.49 a pop.
To be fair to David Crane's legendary platformer, it was bloody brilliant at the time but that time was 1982. In an era before Miner 2049er, Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy graced our screens, Pitfall was one of the first home titles to get anywhere near the arcade standard, and it promptly sold four million copies.
But nearly three decades on, it's little more than a charming museum piece. Even with triple-layered rose-tinted hippy specs on, your wistful memories will turn to ash as the harsh reality hits home.
You can't really knock the game itself. It is what it is: a simple 2D run-and-jumpathon where you have to collect 32 artefacts within 20 minutes. It's tough, it's exacting, and one of the very few 2600 titles that doesn't look irredeemably awful.
On a touchscreen system, though, it's obvious within about two seconds that it's a total waste of everyone's time. Things like achievement points and leaderboards mean nothing when the game itself is as fun as tucking into a maggot and offal sandwich.
Fortunately for all sane retro gamers that don't come running at the merest whiff of nostalgia, you can find out all of this by downloading the free trial. If you want to slap money down, more fool you.
2/10
Driver: San Francisco launches this September, Ubisoft has announced.
The game, delayed in November 2010 to ensure that the finished product is up to scratch, was due to launch between April 2011 and the end of March 2012.
In an updated release schedule issued today, the French publisher narrowed the release window of the PlayStation 3 version of Child of Eden and Splinter Cell Trilogy HD.
Child of Eden launches on PS3 during the second quarter of 2011 meaning it releases at some point between now and the end of June.
The Kinect-enabled Xbox 360 version of Child of Eden has a confirmed UK release date of 17th June.
Splinter Cell HD also launches at some point between now and the end of June. The PlayStation 3 collection had been down for launch during the first half of 2011, but last month was rumoured to have suffered a delay.
Elsewhere, shooter sequel Call of Juarez: The Cartel launches this summer, and Nintendo 3DS games Driver Renegade and James Noir's Hollywood Crimes go during the third quarter of Ubisoft's financial year between November 2011 and January 2012.
Ghost Recon Future Soldier is pegged for launch during Ubisoft's 2011/12 financial year between now and March 2011.