Saddle up and ride for world’s ending, its time for another edition of EpicBattleCry! This week, we check out the ‘better late than never’ Darksiders demo, run down the latest details on Super Street Fighter IV as well as the news that SFIV is headed to the iPhone, discuss the new Assassin’s Creed 2 DLC and the circulating info on Assassin’s Creed 3, and ponder the North American delay for the first episode of the Heavy Rain Chronicles DLC.

First up, we talk the Heavy Rain demo. With the game being release this week we discuss our impressions of the demo and what the future may hold for this unique title. Next, after many a request from you the loyal Axehead vanguard, we take a stab at some of the business models being discussed by Jason Rubin on his recent Bonus Round appearance.

The Battle Cry of the Week goes to Metal Gear Solid: Arcade, free copies of Red Faction: Guerrilla, Transformers G1 Awakening on iPhone, and VOD vs Blu-ray.

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While it’s kinda “Captain Obvious”, Kotaku has a post up this morning about the next installment of Assassin’s Creed which delivers a a few small quotes from Ubisoft creative director Patrice Desilets and series lead writer Corey May gathered during this week’s DICE Summit out in Vegas. Basically, the duo kept reassuring Kotaku that the next installment of Assassin’s Creed would offer a full single player campaign that “won’t be boring” while also offering the franchise’s first foray into multiplayer, of which Desilets said the mode will have “narritive justification.” It seems that there’s some concern on behalf of fans that the turnaround between AC2 and AC3 might be too soon, but Desilets also added that the lengthy AC2 development included a full year dedicated to getting the game’s tech fully in place, but now that it is, AC3 can be worked on much more swiftly.

Assassin’s Creed III, expected to be released in March 2011, is being developed up at Ubisoft Montreal. We’ll keep you posted on any new details as they emerge.

Source

Fans of music in gaming and game audio in general will appreciate the fact that The Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.), the non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and recognition of game audio, recently announced the finalists for the 8th Annual G.A.N.G. Awards that are designed to honor outstanding creative, technical and artistic audio achievement in the world of interactive entertainment.
 
Voted and judged upon by the game audio industry and members of G.A.N.G., the finalists represent an array of the best audio in games from 2009.  The standouts for nominations this year include Assassin’s Creed II and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves which received 9 nominations each.  Final voting has begun and the final winners are chosen by the entire membership of the G.A.N.G. organization.  Over 2,000 people representing over 30 countries have signed up as members of G.A.N.G. since its inception in 2002.  The winners will be announced at the 8th Annual G.A.N.G. Awards ceremony being held on Friday, March 12th, 2010 in San Francisco, CA during the Game Developers Conference.
 
“The level of quality for game audio continues to get higher and higher each year,” said Tommy Tallarico, G.A.N.G. Founder, CEO and Chairman. “It’s so important to make sure that the talented game audio individuals from around the world get the recognition they deserve.”  G.A.N.G. President Paul Lipson added, “This was one of our biggest submission years yet and over 70 game audio professionals on our global advisory boards helped in deciding the final nominees.  With the level of talent these days, being voted as a final nominee is a remarkable accomplishment.”

Finalists for the 8th Annual G.A.N.G. Awards are listed below by category in alphabetical order after the jump.
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Ubisoft has announced that the second bit of DLC for Assassin’s Creed 2, Bonfire of the Vanities, will be released tomorrow, February 18, 2010, via PSN and XBL. Players will gain access to a new district of Florence in the DLC as well as Ezio’s new “spring jump” move as they work with Machiavelli to free the city from the grip of the mad monk Savonarola by targeting influential citizens under his control.

You’ll be able to pick up the DLC by itself for $4/320 MS Points or bundled with three Templar Secret Locations described below for $6.50/520 MS Points.

Palazzo Medici – Located in Florence, the player gets to explore the house of the Medici family. It is located in the San Marco district of Florence.

Santa Maria dei Frari – Located in Venice, in the San Polo district, the player gets to explore this renowned church built in the XIIIth century.

Arsenal Shipyard – Venice was known for its Arsenal, a shipyard that was settled in the eastern part of the city. The last Templars’ Lair is located there, and lets the player explore the Drydocks.

There are a couple of new screens from the DLC here and you can check out the trailer here.

Love it or hate it, the Assassin’s Creed franchise has garnered quite the following over the past several years and inspired more than a few creative works. Well, TheDuoGroup has stepped up to deliver one heck of a fan film, titled “Initiation”, that follows Altair (from the original AC) as he performs the final steps of an apprentice entering the Brotherhood.

Here’s a description:

“Initiation” takes place before Altair has received the coveted title of “Hashshashin.” Like all young men, Altair aspired to leave his mark on the world. After years of grueling training, fear and anticipation course through his veins. Anticipation, because he understands that this is the last right of passage towards brotherhood. Fear, because he knows that though hundreds of apprentices have reached this point, few come back alive.

Sounds cool, but it looks even cooler…Keep in mind that it’s not an official Ubisoft video, so the story is certainly not official, but check out the vid above for yourself if you’re a fan of the franchise and just enjoy it for what it’s worth.

Remember a little while back when we first became aware of some DLC headed to Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed II in January and February? Well, today brings about a few additional details that deliver insight into what fans can expect.

Here’s what we know:

“The Battle of Forli” will release for $3.99 in late January and features Machiavelli and Caterina Sforza fighting alongside Ezio to defend against the Orsi brothers. The content features six new missions (or memories).

“Bonfire of the Vanities” will release in late February for $4.99 (is it a dollar better?), features ten new missions, a new “spring-jump” move, and opens up the are of Florence that is inaccessible in the main game.

Both pieces of DLC are said to be around one full gig, so clear some space on your HD if you’re interested in picking these up.

While there’s widespread reports of the DLC, nobody felt like sourcing the info, but it’s being traced back to 1UP, so hopefully we’ll get official confirmation on the details along with any additional information real soon.

Before we see the two recently announced DLC packs, Ubisoft has detailed the first maintenance patch for Assassin’s Creed 2. Available today on PSN and coming on Friday (Dec 11th) for 360 the patch addresses a number of bugs and glitches as well as adding 5.1 LPCM support.

The list of fixes includes some story-specific details so if you’re trying to avoid spoiling anything for yourself you may want to steer clear. Hit the jump for the full list.

Source

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Several sites are reporting today that Ubisoft has officially announced two pieces of upcoming downloadable content for the recently released Assassin’s Creed II on the PS3 and 360. While nobody seems to wanna source the info, it’s apparently coming from a press release stating that the first bit of DLC, titled “Battle of Forli”, will be available in January while the second, “Bonfire of the Vanities”, will follow in February.

No pricing or content details have been revealed, but Ubisoft has requested that gamers make “a minimum of 1.0 GB of memory available for each DLC.”

That’s pretty big…

Anyway, we’ll keep you posted on all further details as they emerge.

via Dtoid

Several sites are reporting today that Ubisoft has officially announced two pieces of upcoming downloadable content for the recently released Assassin’s Creed II on the PS3 and 360. While nobody seems to wanna source the info, it’s apparently coming from a press release stating that the first bit of DLC, titled “Battle of Forli”, will be available in January while the second, “Bonfire of the Vanities”, will follow in February.

No pricing or content details have been revealed, but Ubisoft has requested that gamers make “a minimum of 1.0 GB of memory available for each DLC.”

That’s pretty big…

Anyway, we’ll keep you posted on all further details as they emerge.

via Dtoid

By Lorin Baumgarten

Although there were good topics on this week’s EpicBattleCry, I am, once again, going to take a stroll off of the ranch to discuss a topic that was not mentioned on the show. I did want to discuss the VGA’s, but alas, I have never been able to sit through them long enough to give me the knowledge required to formulate an informed opinion. I do think they need to be talked about, however. Therefore, I will watch the show in its entirety this year so that I will be better prepared for such a discussion. Likewise, I could have talked about what I am grateful for in the past year, but I have already written an article articulating how grateful we should all be for the myriad of great games this year (read – Daniel Kayser, you stole my article for your Thanksgiving speech). Actually, I suppose what I am writing about this week is something for which I am very thankful from this past year. Come to think of it, this week’s subject may be the thing I am most grateful for from gamings previous annum. I am as surprised as anyone to say that the thing that I am most thankful for this year is Assassin’s Creed II. Don’t stop reading yet – I know it sounds odd. But this goes far deeper than just the game – so read on.
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