Assassin’s Creed 2

Everyone’s favourite assassin, Altair, is back again – and this time he’s murdering Leonardo MOTHERFUCKIN’ DaVinci. Well, that’s still up in the air, but the time period’s right. Ubisoft has been relatively close-lipped about a lot of the details, but they have released a video with some gameplay which you can watch below. Also, they’ve announced that it’s going to be released November 17, 2009. With a team of 450 people working on the sequel to their (arguably) flagship title, let’s hope Ubisoft has made side missions a bit less repetitive this time around…

Highlights:

• out with the Crusades, in with the Renaissance
• sharper graphics, bigger crowds, taller buildings. oh, and HANG GLIDERS
• will be released November 17, 2009

WET

Better known for first-person RPGs (heard of Morrowind or Fallout 3?), Bethesda Softworks is attempting to break new ground by publishing the original IP/third-person action game – WET. Playing more like a Quentin Tarantino movie, WET is designed from the bottom-up to provide nonstop in-your-face action. It still remains to be seen whether it can transcend the tired mechanics of most cliched action games on the market these days, but the trailer below shows a glimmer of hope that developer A2M (and, of course, Bethesda) can bring something new and innovative to a genre that has been whipped like a dead horse for the past five years.

Highlights:

• gameplay marries elements from Tomb Raider and Prince of Persia
• from developer interviews, it seems the entire game is styled after the ‘crazy 88s’ fight scene from Kill Bill: Volume 1

Miscellaneous Highlights

• Nintendo announced Super Mario Galaxy 2
• Blizzard FINALLY set a release timeline for the first entry in the Starcraft 2 threequel – Terrans: Wings of Liberty. should be out before the end of the year, with an upcoming Beta beginning this summer
• both Microsoft and Sony have announced new Wii-like, full body interaction controller schemes. Microsoft’s entry, Project Natal, really blew me away with the demo by Peter Molyneux (second movie down in the article). Sony’s, on the other hand, looks like a GPS unit topped by a ping-pong ball…
• Miyamoto announced a new Zelda game for the Wii. while not a direct sequel to Twilight Princess, it’s described as a spiritual successor, nonetheless