Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Message Board

Drumroll, please…

We’ve tallied up the votes, slipped into our tuxedos, polished up the trophies and are now ready to reveal the winners of the second annual PSN Gamers’ Choice Awards. Votes were cast this year across 10 categories in the PlayStation Store, including the community award for Best PSN Indie, which was voted online by the community.

First off, we’d like to thank all of the nominees for being a part of this year’s PSN Gamers’ Choice Awards. All of the games that we showcased were some of the highest and most user-ranked games released in 2011, which is an honor in and of itself. Second and most importantly, we want to thank all of you for casting your votes both online and in the PlayStation Store to determine our winners.

We had an incredible turnout during the voting period this year, which made for an intense competition. Things got so heated, in fact, that the battle for Best PS Move Game literally came down to the last day between Dungeon Defenders and Dungeon Hunter: Alliance. But only one could come out with top honors.

Without further ado, here are your winners for the 2012 PSN Gamers’ Choice Awards:

• Best PSN Exclusive: inFAMOUS Festival of Blood (PS3)
• Best PSN Game: Resident Evil 4 (PS3)
• Best PSN Game Playable Online: Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition (PS3)
• Best PS3 Full Game: Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (PS3)
• Best PlayStation Move Game: Dungeon Hunter: Alliance (PS3)
• Best 3D Game: God of War: Origins Collection (PS3)
• Best PlayStation Classic: Chrono Trigger (PS3/PSP)
• Best Mini Game: Angry Birds (PS3/PSP)
• Best PSP Game: DISSIDIA 012 [duodecim] FINAL FANTASY (PSP)
• PlayStation Community Award – Best Indie: LIMBO (PS3)

The celebration continues as the award-winning titles will be discounted 30% in the PlayStation Store for one week, starting later today, with a 50% discount available to all PlayStation Plus subscribers. Don’t miss out on the chance to score these great games! And don’t forget to start rating the games that you’re playing throughout 2012 so your favorite games can get nominated next year.

With Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed: Revelations existing as something close to, but not quite fully proper sequels in the Assassin's Creed lineage, many have been wringing their hands in rapt anticipation over when, precisely, they would get their hands on something Assassin's Creed related with the word "three" in it, possibly represented by some kind of numeric character, either modern or using old timey Roman numerals. Now, Ubisoft has seen fit to tell you.

It turns out you'll be getting your grubby, stabby hands on Assassin's Creed III (Hah! Roman numerals! I was right!) on October 30, 2012.

The news came via Ubisoft's regularly scheduled investors call this morning, where Ubi boss Yves Guillemot proclaimed both that "Assassin's Creed III is the true next generation of both the Assassin's Creed brand and interactive entertainment/storytelling in general," and that it would be "the biggest launch in Ubisoft history."

Little is known about the plot of the next official sequel in the series, save but for the acknowledgment that it will revolve around adventures not featuring either Ezio nor Altair as the protagonist. Instead, a mysterious new assassin will enter the fray, presumably to tie up the story arc into a nice, neat trilogy, because that's just how things are done these days.

I'll just go ahead and call it that this will be the game where you play exclusively as Desmond. That could be a thing, right?

Assassin’s Creed lost the series' original creative director, Patrice Désilets, in June 2010, and it’s now lost his replacement, Alexandre Amancio, who took over after Assassins Creed: Brotherhood was complete.

Amancio has now joined the advertising agency Cossette, the marketing firm announced.

When contacted, Ubisoft declined to comment to me on Amancio’s departure.

For now, it’s unclear why Amancio left Ubisoft, but it’s not to join Désilets at THQ Montreal.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations was released just a few months ago, and like clockwork, another will arrive this year.

• 2 p.m. EDT: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Collector's Edition (Take to the rooftops of Italy with this limited edition)
• 2 p.m.: Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (Ryu vs. Thor)
• 4 p.m.: Call of Duty: World at War (Wage war from the remains of Russia and the ruins of Berlin)
• 4 p.m.: Call of Duty headset (Hear the Call of Duty)
• 6 p.m.: Body and Brain Connection for Kinect (Solve puzzles using your mind and body)
• 6 p.m.: Brunswick Pro Bowling for Kinect (Hit the lanes with your Kinect)

Ubisoft’s third Assassin’s Creed game arrived on PC on Friday – some four months later than the console version. I poured some time in the Xbox 360 (hissssss) edition late last year, and I’ve now spent the last week or so with the PC one. Too little too late, or about damned time? Neither of the above, actually. Here’s my verdict. (more…)

Hello my fellow assassins! This Tuesday, Ubisoft will be releasing its largest DLC offering for Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, the Da Vinci Disappearance. This DLC is bringing more AC: Brotherhood goodness with both single player missions and multiplayer content.

As the title suggests, Ezio’s old friend and confidant is in trouble. Now Ezio has taken upon himself to rescue Leonardo Da Vinci. The Da Vinci Disappearance will include eight missions, which will be accessed through markers on your map of Rome (similar to the Copernicus Conspiracy). Ezio will also travel to two new locations and meet Leonardo’s assistant, Salai (who may not have as high of moral standards as Leonardo).

But we didn’t stop there, as we’ll be making updates to multiplayer, including adding four new playable characters. Check out our new trailer showing off some of the new assassins that will be available:

The Da Vinci Disappearance will also include one new map and two new modes. The new map will bring the battle of assassins to Alhambra, a multi-leveled Spanish city featuring outdoor and indoor areas. Also, we’ll be bringing a classic free-for-all death match mode called Assassinate and team mode called Escort where teams must protect/assassinate a VIP target.

Look for The Da Vinci Disappearance to go live on the PlayStation Store tomorrow. Also, be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more Assassin’s Creed updates.

The people of Ubisoft have released a video to hype up the fact that the PC version of Brotherhood – that multiplayer stabbing game of the series – will come with The Da Vinci Disappearance, which is the console DLC for the game. Which essentially means it’s not DLC on PC, it just is part of the game. The clue to the details of this content is in the title: it’s a single and multi-player mission which features the kidnapping of Leonardo Da Vinci. Presumably you’ll have to rescue him, and dudes will get stabbed. Yeah, go watch the trailer, that is what happens. And it happens with style.

With that thought in mind, I suppose I’d better go and hunt for the scalps of indie devs at the IGF. Wish me luck! (more…)

Single-player and multiplayer content coming next month.