Most of us know that Ubisoft is prone to leaking out morsels of data on its new projects, but I suppose Ezio's fresh chocolate-colored look is enough indication of something big happening.
News Blips:
New info on Assassin's Creed: Revelations leaps from the shadows. Game Informer's crack team of news ninjas managed to eke out features of the game from developer Ubisoft for their June issue. Here's what they found: Ezio of Assassin's Creed 2 makes his final appearance within the majestic Turkish city of Constantinople (or, for those who snoozed in history class, modern-day Istanbul). Protagonist Desmond Miles is still around as well, presumably with more interaction besides lying on a high-tech lawn chair and looking constantly confused. Interestingly, GI further revealed that the ivory-hooded and wise badass Altair from the original Assassin's Creed is returning as well and is fully playable. All three characters will employ an array of obligatory new weapons and items, including a tool that will "change the way" players fight and move around the world. It better not be a pair of fossilized 3D glasses or something; the plot is perplexing enough as it is.
Mass Effect 3 gets sent to the tweaking table to boost its mass appeal (get it?). EA CEO John Riccitiello told investors earlier today that developer BioWare is working hard to "essentially step-by-step adjust the gameplay mechanics and some of the features that you'll see at E3 to put this in a genre equivalent to shooter-meets-RPG." Riccitiello explained the purpose is to "address a much larger market opportunity than Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 began to approach." I'm sure the ME games have plenty of appeal, but I'm glad BioWare finally found the flaw in its cover-based combat system: no muscle-necked dude-bro soldier characters. [Eurogamer]
Hacker group Anonymous denies any involvement with the PlayStation Network outage and subsequent account theft. Following Sony's claim of discovering a calling card with the group's "We are Legion" slogan within its breached files, Anonymous released a statement to The Guardian distancing itself from Sony's current predicament, saying, "Whoever did perform the credit card theft did so contrary to the 'modus operandi' and intentions of Anonymous. Public support is not gained by stealing credit card info and personal identities. We are trying to fight criminal activities by corporations and governments, not steal credit cards." The group was also confident that "if a legitimate and honest investigation into the credit card theft is conducted, Anonymous will not be found liable." That's a pretty elaborate way of saying your M.O. is "for the lulz," Anonymous.
Split/Second developer Black Rock Studios suffers a large bout of layoffs. An anonymous source tipped off Eurogamer that half of the employees working at the Brighton, England-based studio had nothing to do since last December and were labeled redundant as a result. Disney Interactive, which owns Black Rock, later confirmed that a "reduction in its workforce" took place at Black Rock but didn't disclose any specific numbers.
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