Ubisoft E3 2009
James Cameron explains it ALL
Besides the hustle bustle of booth babes on the show room floor, the press conferences are one of the biggest parts of E3. And while all flock to the "Big 3" (Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony) the more "sizeable" publishers also attempt to bring in the crowd by holding their own little press get-togethers. Of the four that did (Ubisoft, EA, Konami, and Square Enix), Ubisoft was clearly one of the largest and most...er...extravagant of them all. Ubisoft shocked many by carting out famous faces, including host Joel McHale (of The Soup) who clearly seemed out of his element amongst the goings on of the gaming convention, legendary footballer Pele who decided being a sports god was not as fun as making a video game, and of course, the prolific director of the highest grossing film of all time not adjusted for inflation, Mr. James Cameron, there to talk about the game version of his new film project Avatar (not ": The Last Airbender").
And did he talk...and talk...and talk in one long incredibly unbroken sentence moving from topic to topic so that no one had a chance to interrupt it was really quite hypnotic. It was ten grueling minutes of Cameron monologuing about his new movie before he even mentioned the video game. It was as if the entirety of the French-based development studio was too frightened to hold up a "finish it up" sign. I now know why they invented the "your time is up" music at the Oscars. James Cameron.
Besides jabbering James, Ubisoft did have plenty of games to talk about, including beloved IPs like the DaVinci powered Italian throat stabbing Assassin's Creed 2, the face-to-urinal introducing powers of Sam Fischer in Splinter Cell Conviction, and the cooky antics of the Raving Rabbids in Rabbids Go Home. Ubisoft also dished on their followup to one of the worst Wii titles ever made with much improved looking Red Steel 2 as well as a curious battleship like game for the Microsoft Surface (you know, that thing that no one will ever own) called RUSE. Ubi's lineup is clearly strong making it a big contender for king of the Lilliputian conferences, and with EA's demo-free performance at its own event, it seems a fairly certain ordination. Check out a full video of conference and a reprint of my liveblog twitter feed after the jump.
Dustin Anglin