#fineart
Geoffroy Thoorens is a French concept artist who currently works at Quantic Dream, the developers of Heavy Rain and the upcoming Beyond: Two Souls. More »
Ubisoft is deploying additional content for its RTS, RUSE, later this month. In a tweet earlier today, the company revealed The Chimera Pack would be available "in a few days." VG247 surmises it's coming January 18, yet lists no source.
The Chimera Pack was first mentioned in this post detailing upcoming PlayStation Plus content, though the exact details of the content were not made public. We've followed up with Ubisoft for more information.
At first, this video appears to show the Xbox 360 RTS R.U.S.E controlled using Kinect, but it's actually a ... clever deception: Evoluce's Wolfgang Herfurtner applied a Kinect interface to the PC version of R.U.S.E., allowing the in-game cursor to be controlled with motions.
While there's a certain feeling of power, we're sure, that comes from managing an entire battlefield with sweeping hand movements, this appears to be a case in which being the controller is somewhat more unwieldy than being the person with a controller in hand. But while it looks to be an awkward replacement for the traditional mouse and keyboard on PC, it's a potential proof of concept for an RTS interface for consoles.
#clips
You won't be able to play Ubisoft's strategy game R.U.S.E. using Microsoft's Xbox 360 Kinect anytime soon, but the PC version is another matter entirely. More »
Sad news for R.U.S.E. fans, as Ubisoft has announced it won't be doing any DLC for the game at all. Just kidding! That was, in fact, a ruse -- Ubisoft is releasing a "Manhattan Project Pack" for the real-time strategy title that will add two 2v2 maps, another 3v3 map and two different brand new modes. "Total War" mode will unlock units and technology one year at a time, building up battle starting in the year 1939, and "Nuclear War" sounds much more fun, starting the game with "all prototypes, factories and upgrades" unlocked and ready to unleash on the enemy.
The pack will cost you a cool $50, almost as much as the actual game. No, that was another ruse, it'll be completely free. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait about 15 years for it, as the pack isn't due out until holiday 2025. No, just kidding again, it'll actually be out soon. We ruse-d you again! Are we doing this right?
#dlc
It's no trick; Ubisoft is delivering three new maps and two new game types to its deceptive strategy game R.U.S.E. next month as part of the free Manhattan Project Pack. More »
#innovation
The cry goes out: Another World War II video game? Writer Rob Zacny argues that the war is not the problem. The tired perspective is. More »
Every strategy game I've played in the past decade has boasted the same claim: a key feature that will reinvent the RTS genre. Streamlining the experience into a simple, yet complex battle of wit, this spectacular, never-seen-before feature will allow everyone from the most experienced strategist to your own mother to enjoy this groundbreaking masterpiece.
R.U.S.E.'s claim to fame is, as its subtitle says, "the art of deception." Control and manipulation are key, so forget strategic base-building and Zerg rushes. This game is all about fooling the enemy using decoys, spies, surprise attacks, radio silence, dummy buildings, psychological warfare and other underhanded actions. And who better to fool than the Nazis, right?
Well, turns out these Nazis have more smarts than your standard video game fodder. Their tanks are pretty big too ... and numerous. Oh so numerous.
Ubisoft Europe managing director Alain Corre isn't one to parse words -- for instance, he told GamesIndustry.biz in a recent interview, "The games that are not triple-A are not profitable anymore. And that's changed in the last 18 months." He admitted that "we are still releasing some new franchises," citing Ruse as a calculated aberration. "It's a niche so we know the size of the market for real-time strategy games ... with niche games it's possible to have a hit more than in the triple-A space, especially in the fourth and fifth year of the console cycle."
To Corre, it's a question of investment risk. "To a certain extent it becomes less risky to invest more in a single game or franchise than spreading your investment between three or four games," he explained. "If those three or four games are not at the right quality level, you are sure to lose money. So the business model has changed and we're changing our way of making hardcore games." He said we might not see a new IP push from Ubisoft until the next generation of consoles, which he foresees to be "less than five years" from now.
Oddly, he doesn't bring up Ubisoft Toronto -- a studio headed by Assassin's Creed producer Jade Raymond -- that's said to be working on both "AAA-game" and new IP. Nor did he address the fate of the scantly brought up I Am Alive, supposedly coming out next spring. Based on Corre's statements, we've at least managed to come to the conclusion that Beyond Good & Evil 2 (not a new IP) should be getting a release date during this console cycle. That's ... something?
Budding warmongers across Europe will likely want to set aside some HDD space for a R.U.S.E. demo, set to assault PSN there on September 1. However, if you're one of the cool kids with expendable income who signed up for PlayStation Plus, you can actually access the demo right now -- provided you live in the EU.
R.U.S.E. pulls a fast one on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on September 7 in North America and September 10 in Europe.
#gamescom
I've played Ubisoft's real-time strategy game R.U.S.E. plenty of times with gamepads and keyboards, But this week was my first chance to check it out using the Playstation MOVE: And I loved it. More »
Ubisoft's RUSE will not use the publisher's controversial "always on" DRM when the game attempts to make its latest release date in September. Instead, the PC version of RUSE will use Valve's Steamworks API to, as the publisher puts it, "offer the best community experience to players." The game will require an initial online activation, but the single-player game should be playable offline thereafter.
Following up with Ubisoft, the company tells Joystiq that it will "continue to use the Ubisoft protection system for most PC games." We'll have to wait and see if the publisher stands by its DRM policies for future high-profile PC titles, or if its commentary is just a, well, you know.
#pc
Ubisoft's digital rights management system for its PC games has been wildly unpopular since first adopted. And that's putting it mildly. Which might explain why the company's next PC game is ditching it. More »
We understand your apprehension when it comes to trusting in a launch date for RUSE, Ubisoft's oft-delayed WWII-based RTS. While befitting of the game's title, the publisher's habit of announcing a release date and then (surprise!) changing it -- numerous times over the course of the year -- has grown from a bothersome trick to just plain mean. When Ubisoft's Aymeric Evennou recently tweeted that the date was now set for September 7 (September 9 in Europe; and September 10 in the UK), we couldn't help but feel we were being set up again.
However, Ubisoft has independently confirmed with Joystiq that Evennou's posted releases dates were accurate and that RUSE will launch in the US on September 7 across PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. (We should note that this confirmation came without a pinky swear.)
We understand your apprehension when it comes to trusting in a launch date for RUSE, Ubisoft's oft-delayed WWII-based RTS. While befitting of the game's title, the publisher's habit of announcing a release date and then (surprise!) changing it -- numerous times over the course of the year -- has grown into a mean trick. When Ubisoft's Aymeric Evennou recently tweeted that the date was now set for September 7 (September 9 in Europe; and September 10 in the UK), we couldn't help but feel we were being set up again.
However, Ubisoft independently confirmed with Joystiq that Evennou's posted releases dates were accurate and that RUSE will launch in the US on September 7 across PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. (We should note that this confirmation came withough were a pinky swear.)
We understand your apprehension when it comes to trusting in a launch date for RUSE, Ubisoft's oft-delayed WWII-based RTS. While befitting of the game's title, the publisher's habit of announcing a release date and then (surprise!) changing it -- numerous times over the course of the year -- has grown into a mean trick. When Ubisoft's Aymeric Evennou recently tweeted that the date was now set for September 7 (September 9 in Europe; and September 10 in the UK), we couldn't help but feel we were being set up again.
However, Ubisoft independently confirmed with Joystiq that Evennou's posted releases dates were accurate and that RUSE will launch in the US on September 7 across PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. (We should note that this confirmation came withough were a pinky swear.)
Didn't get a chance to try your hand at the RTS trickery of RUSE over the past weekend? You'll be glad to hear the free multiplayer demo has been extended to this Wednesday, July 21, at 6PM ET. We've got mixed feelings, as we're happy to keep playing RUSE, but we're sick of all these tricks! Enough!
Interested in checking out RUSE, but worried you'll get duped into a Ponzi scheme somehow? Fear not! Valve's digital distribution service Steam is opening up Ubisoft's upcoming trickery-based RTS for free all this coming weekend. Oh. No, you're right -- that doesn't seem to protect you from the Ponzi scheme situation whatsoever. Oh well! At very least you get to check out a game for free, right?
We'd suggest pre-loading the game starting right now (available here) so that you can begin duping people left and right when the open play kicks off this Thursday morning at 11:00 a.m. PDT.
Ubisoft's oft-delayed strategy game, RUSE, will be getting support for PlayStation Move when it launches (presumably) later this year. Sony's motion controller can be utilized as a virtual pointer, with gestures assigned to camera controls and quick menu access. Senior producer Mathieu Girard told Eurogamer that the Move offers "the most enjoyable" way of playing, but conceded that the PC version is "the most efficient."
Although Microsoft's Kinect can also provide a similar virtual pointer experience, Ubisoft will not be incorporating motion support into the Xbox 360 version of the game. According to the Eurogamer report, "having to play standing up" while using Kinect proved to be a "stumbling point." While Microsoft still stands by claims that Kinect can be used while sitting down, we can think of at least one reason why Kinect support isn't ideal for the RTS: a lack of buttons, perhaps?
Alright, RUSE dev team at Ubisoft, that's quite enough! This is at least the fourth time your game has been pushed back from a retail release and frankly, we're tired of thinking up punny headlines based on your game's title at this point. So we'll just be straight up with you, dearest reader: RUSE's Facebook page has been updated by the development team reflecting another delay until sometime in September.
The note cites "massive feedback" from the game's beta users as the cause of said delay, and explains that, "this extra time will allow us to implement many of your suggestions and improve the multiplayer experience while polishing the overall game." So, will we finally get to play RUSE in September? We're gonna go ahead and say "maybe ... we think."
#delayofgame
Proving that public beta tests aren't just for early free access, the team behind Ubisoft's deception-based strategy game R.U.S.E. are postponing the game's release until late September based on community feedback. More »
It's been almost a year and we're still haunted by the atrocities we've seen on the battlefield. We just weren't prepared last time, so the enemy advanced, steamrolling us like we were nothing but a squadron of cute, fluffy teddy bears covered in butterscotch pudding -- the cutest of ineffectual "warriors." So we've resolved that in the R.U.S.E. beta, we're not going to be such easy pushovers and, thankfully, Eugen Systems is here with another salvo of tutorial footage to help ensure that happens.
The Paris-based developer behind the deceptive RTS offers several tips on maximizing time with the recently released beta; through the use of slick ruse combos, players can create more potent attack patterns and even distract the enemy from vital strongholds. There's even some insight into the unique characteristics of some of the six different factions in the game and combining their units in very specific ways, giving you a more dynamic unit set -- not to mention a breakdown of time periods, which limits the amount of research you can access and, by extension, your access to certain units.
Because R.U.S.E. is such a complex game, it means you can't just click on stuff until you figure it out, which is our basic go-to strategy in these situations. What? We're lovers, not fighters, folks!
When we last played R.U.S.E., we weren't shy about expressing our initial difficulty with the game's steep learning curve. After all, the game is a deep real-time strategy title and still in beta (set for release on June 8). It's extra nice, then, that senior producer Mathieu Girard and creative director Alexis Le Dressay created this eight-minute-long walkthrough of the various gameplay options at your fingertips in the public beta.
From faking army advances to the importance of reconnaissance, Girard and Le Dressay will have you up to speed on the forthcoming game's variety of tactics in no time. There are even subtitles for those among us who don't speak French-accented English or haven't played Heavy Rain -- talk about accessible!
R.U.S.E. is quite a crafty game. It turns out that the recently revealed June 3 release date was nothing but a smoke screen for the real date. The fully legitimate, actual release date is June 8. The game's PC beta began today and, according to Big Download, Ubisoft also announced the change in launch schedule. Normally, this kind of thing would be upsetting but, given the title, it just seems appropriate.
The beta, incidentally, is available now to all Steam users. It allows both single-player and multiplayer action with six different factions on seven multiplayer maps.
If you were paying close attention to Twitter this morning, you might've noticed Ubisoft community developer Aymeric Evennou noting that a R.U.S.E. public beta would be strategically moving itself onto Steam on March 9. More importantly, though, if you were looking way too closely into the French publisher's YouTube video details, it's possible you would've seen this little tidbit about the game's release date: "R.U.S.E. will be available on PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on June 3, 2010." (June 3, a Thursday, is likely the European retail release date. We've contacted Ubisoft to confirm the North American date.)
From Ubisoft ... ahem ... tricking us into believing the game would see release in Q1 2010, to a private beta last year, and now the announcement that we'll get a chance to play the game next week, it's been a bit of an emotional roller coaster for us over the last year at Joystiq. Thankfully, Ubi also released five minutes of soothing fan service in video form that we've embedded after the break for you (and for our own well-being).
[Via Big Download]
If you were paying close attention to Twitter this morning, you might've noticed Ubisoft community developer Aymeric Evennou noting that a RUSE public beta will be strategically moving itself onto Steam on March 9. More importantly, though, if you were looking way too closely into the French publisher's YouTube video details, it's possible you would've seen this little tidbit about the game's release date: "RUSE will be available on PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on June 3rd 2010." Oh snap!
From Ubisoft ... ahem ... tricking us into believing the game would see release in Q1 2010, to a private beta last year, and now the announcement that we'll get a chance to play the game next week, it's been a bit of an emotional roller coaster for us over the last year at Joystiq. Thankfully, Ubi also released five minutes of soothing fan service in video form that we've embedded after the break for you (and for our own well-being).
[Via Big Download]
