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Ubisoft, in my opinion, had one of the most impressive presences at the show. They really pushed the boat out on this one. They’re main area on the main floor consisted of a mix of Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 and Soul Caliber 4. The next floor up had Haze pods and then, if you go upstairs again, you see one of my favourite parts of the show, the Farcry 2 presentation area.

The Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 area consisted of not only several pods all with playable versions of the game but mini-casino too with a roulette table. Also there was a mini stage with huge glittery dice where scantily clad Vegas show girls would dance every so often. We watched them 6 times. The game itself is also shaping up to look really special. Something to definitely keep on eye on over the coming weeks.

Also intertwined in that area was about a million Soul Caliber 4 pods. This was certainly not a bad thing as it meant everyone could have a go and you wouldn’t have to wait too long either. The game is playing superb. It’s still Soul Caliber but it’s the finest version and most stunning that I’ve ever played. I managed to get a couple of game with the legend that is John Watson and, well, what can I say? I totally thrashed him. The prize for winning the Soul Caliber 4 tournament (a Dodge Nitro SUV worth £20,000) was on display all weekend too. They left the hazard lights on though so I imagine the battery’s flat by now but congratulations to the winners all the same. Click continue reading for more

Now being a die hard Timesplitters fan that I am, I was looking forward to playing the next offering from Free Radical. While a lot of effort had been put into promoting Ubisoft’s other games (Rainbow Six, Farcry 2) this just seemed to be outcast a little. At the end of the bar there were 2 groups of 3 Haze pods. No dancers, no tournaments and no presentations. Scratching my head a little I decided to have a go. While playing Haze we had a talk through from one of the Ubisoft reps about the games features. Personally I was a little bit disappointed with Haze. The problem is it felt clunky and slow. They storyline’s nice and the option of being a rebel or not is cool if not original, but still it doesn’t feel right, for example, should you pick a certain side you can inject yourself with an adrenaline type thing that makes enemies glow. It works ok but it feels really gimmicky. Also if you “over-inject” then your character starts firing randomly at people regardless if they’re on your team or not. In the end I just left it well alone as I didn’t really seem to help in anyway. It’ll be interesting to see what the final version will be like.

And finally onto what I consider to be the gem of the show: Farcry 2. We were treated to a 30 minute run through presentation of the game. We entered a dark concealed area which held about 50 people. There was one guy who talked out the front and one guy behind a screen controlling the game. The presentation worked really well and they explained pretty much every detail clearly and efficiently. Gamers were encouraged to ask questions and it felt exactly what every non-playable game should have been like at the show (and yes I’m looking at you Ghostbusters). The game itself… was pure beauty. It really was. The code was from November 2007 so there were issues of tearing, pop-up and frame rate, however, despite all this the game was just stunning. We were also assured that these issues would be polished out by the time the final version of the game is in our hands. We were also assured the console versions would be as good, if not better than the PC game. This was my favourite game from the show and it was non-consumer playable. Imagine that!