Ubisoft showed off their 2009 slate of games, headed up by Assassin’s Creed 2 at an E3 Press Conference. Here is a recap.

The Ubisoft E3 press conference opened with Joel McHale, host of E!’s The Soup greeting the crowd with “Good evening fellow nerds,” which was as good a away as any to open a press event that was somewhat all over the map. But the good news is that Ubisoft is working on a lot of games that are worth paying attention to.

Media Convergence
But before it got to the heart of why a bunch of game nerds and journalists were gathered in the auditorium, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot wanted to ramble a bit about media convergence and to talk about U Play, a new web-based service for gamers where they can create content, get hints, share with friends and more. The first games to offer UPlay integration include Avatar, Assassin’s Creed 2, and Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Hooray for Hollywood
Guillemot continued on with his talk about media convergence, mentioning collaborations with some of Hollywood’s finest including Lightstone and Fox, as well as Peter Jackson, Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg, and with Kathleen Kennedy of Paramount. The latter three are part of a collaboration on the upcoming Sony Pictures and Paramount film Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. The film and games will be released in the U.S. on December 23, 2011 and internationally in late October and early November 2011.

James Cameron’s Avatar
Then the talk turns to James Cameron’s upcoming sci-fi epic, Avatar – and who better to talk about it than the man who is making the film. James Cameron talks about the back story of the film and how Ubisoft has worked closely with him and his team to create more than just a marketing tool for the film. Cameron said what most people think when people talk about movie games” “most movie games suck.”
But in the same breath he said that this game based on his film is very good.

Development on the game has apparently been under way for over two years and Cameron says that the Ubisoft team hasn’t made a game that is the “red headed stepchild” of the movie. The game takes the story in a different direction explaining things in some ways more deeply then the film ever could. The game has its own set of unique features like special vehicles, weapons and lore as well as its own unique storyline that is still set within the confines of the film. While Cameron talked a lot the basic message to the audience was that Ubisoft isn’t making a crappy game. As much as I’d like to believe him, James Cameron is not a game developer, and doesn’t know as much about games as he’d like to think he does. He makes good movies. My pessimism aside, Avatar sounds like it could be an interesting game if it can live up to even half of the hype that Cameron put out there this evening.

Red Steel 2
Moving on, a live demo of Red Steel 2 was shown. The Wii MotionPlus, which the game will ship with later this year, really does make the newest titles in the sword and gunplay game for Wii more responsive in every way. Now when you move the Wii Remote the sword actually moves the way you move off screen. The Live demo showed off a battle against multiple enemies including a few that were armored. With Wii MotionPlus the game can now tell how much force you have used when you swing your sword, which translates to more damage in the game. There are lots of changes to the whole formula that make this game look a much better experience. The game will ship later this year and will be bundled with Wii MotionPlus.

Shaun White and Pele
A Shaun White Snowboarding World Stage trailer was shown – mostly featuring a goofy skit with White building a ramp on his roof. The game was announced earlier this month so no real news here. The game will ship for Wii this winter.

Another Wii game, this one featuring Soccer / football legend Pele, was shown called Academy of Champions. The game is clearly geared towards kids and will also be exclusive to the Wii. The soccer action in the game is best described as a little bit real soccer and a lot of arcade style play. It looks very good. That game will ship sometime later this year.

Splinter Cell Conviction
The biggest title shown at Ubisoft’s press event made an appearance earlier in the day at Microsoft’s event: Splinter Cell Conviction. After the official trailer was shown once again, it was time for another demo with producer and creative director of the game. Conviction marks a serious change in direction for the series, where Sam Fisher was bound by the people he worked for and the voice buzzing in his year. After his daughter is killed in “an accident” Sam leaves his employer and goes on a hunt to find the truth.

This Sam Fisher has no conscience as his guide anymore and there are official no rules to abide by, which means he has carte blanche to kill or torture anyone he wants to at any time. The key things to note with this game is that stealth gameplay is less methodical and more expedient. You can tell that Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed have had an influence on this game as Sam swings on ledges, climbs pipes and commits various acrobatic acts. Another new feature is Mark and Execute. This feature, which plays out sort of like a real-time VATS system from Fallout 3, lets you mark multiple enemies and assassinate them quickly – at least that’s how it looked in the demo.

Another noteworthy thing is how Sam can extract information: now he has the ability to use his fist, weapons and the environment to beat information out of certain NPC’s. When that information becomes available it plays out in the environment out on the environment like walls and buildings. Finally there a more in-depth use of light and shadows to hide within the environment, and if you are spotted you now have the ability to jump back in the shadows, break an enemies line of sight and lure them into your general area for a quick and dirty kill. Splinter Cell conviction is probably the darkest, most brutal portrayal of Fisher yet, and it’s a game that is really worth watching out for. It’s set for release on Xbox 360 and PC this fall.

Ruse Reveal
A strange video of two men playing a war game on a flat screen computer table airs. It’s reminds me of Risk, but with real air, sea and ground units in the mix. The game is called Ruse, and beyond the odd video, there’s not much info. Hopefully we’ll hear more about the game this week.

Petz, Fitness and Imagine
Next Ubisoft talks about the stuff most game journalist dread hearing about: tween games. U.S. senior VP of marketing, Tony Key, did a little chest pounding about how great and successful the Petz and Imagine games have done so far and how everyone is trying to copy them. While that may all be true, this press conference seems like the wrong place to talk about them . A captive audience is still an audience I guess, and I’m writing about it so that’s something.

Key talked about what Ubisoft has planned for its brand in the future. He talked about a new destination for tweens called Imagine Town Magazine, the integration and cross-connectivity of future Imagine games and all of its Petz games about a new brand called Style Lab. Style Lab is a new game for girls that focuses on creating and sharing content like jewelry and clothing.

Still on the casual kick, Key brought out Felicia Williams to talk about the company’s new fitness game called your shape. Your Shape will be the first fitness game that uses a camera to measure weight and build a workout suited for users. The idea is to use the camera to allow for hands-free exercise and to let users see themselves as an actual character in the game. The software will ship later this year with a camera included in time for the holidays.

Rabbids Go Home
Next Rabbids Go Home was shown off in a trailer and in a live demo. The premise of this latest game is that the Rabbids from Rayman Raving Rabbids want to go to a new home – the moon. So they decide the best way to get there is to build a pile of stuff to the moon. To do this the game has you and two other Rabbids driving around various locations collecting the stuff need to create this ridiculous pile. the gameplay is best described as Katamari Damacy style – with a shopping cart. Naturally there will be some silliness, silly mini-games and other ways to collect all the junk these little weirdoes need to get “home.” The game is set for release later this year.

Super TMNT Smash Bros. Brawl Smash-Up
A clip of Game Arts’ new TNMT game, TMNT Smash-up, was shown. the game looks a lot like Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The trailer showed April Jones, splinter, the turtles and Shredder slugging it out in various tags. This game is also set for release this September 22nd.

Q entertainment and Suda 51
Ubisoft made a couple of vague announcements, but didn’t reveal too many details. The first was that Suda 51 and Grasshopper are working on a follow-up to the popular Wii game No More Heroes called No Mores 2 Desperate Struggle – we’ll have more on this in a separate story. Ubisoft also revealed that Q entertainment is working on a new game for the company but didn’t give any details. Considering that Q Entertainment has made some great games like Rez, Space Channel 5 and Lumines, we are looking forward to hearing more on this new project currently codenamed “Eden.”

Assassin’s Creed 2 Trailer
A new Assassin’s Creed 2 trailer was shown revealing that the next game will be set in Venice, Italy in the year 1486. The trailer shows the assassin taking out a dignitary during some sort of celebration, then chasing down some other nobleman and disposing him in front of his guards. The game is set for release on November 17.

The End
And with that, the press conference came to an abrupt end. Joel McHale said good night and the auditorium emptied as folks who thought the press conference went on a little too long scrambled to get some food or drink or both. The obvious highlight was Splinter Cell Conviction – mostly because so much of the game was shown off and explained. Avatar certainly sounded appealing and No More Heroes 2 and Assassin’s creed 2 are most assuredly worth keeping an eye on. Overall a decent press conference with lots of peaks and valleys.