beyond-good-and-evil posts

Beyond Good & Evil was a sleeper hit that, at this point, is looking pretty dated. Released in 2003 for all major platforms of the time, it has low-resolution textures and blocky models galore. Ubisoft is revamping this classic for an HD release sometime in 2011, with reworked textures, characters, environments, music, and 1080p resolution. This is alongside continued development of Beyond Good & Evil 2 (pictured above), which is still mostly hidden from the public eye.

Unfortunately, PC release is a speculation at this point, as the game is currently only announced for PS3 and Xbox 360. We would not be surprised if a PC version is announced closer to release date, however, as there are plenty of great downloadable platforms for the game to appear on.

The status of Beyond Good and Evil 2 has almost reached mythical proportions. Ubisoft's sequel to the acclaimed but poor-selling action-adventure title was announced over two years ago but since then the publisher has revealed little about the game's progress. Indeed even Ubisoft itself seems confused whether or not the game is still in production.

Kotaku reports that Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has assured them, "We were, as we are, working on the game. What is very import with this next product is that it will be perfect." He added that designer Michel Ansel, the main creator of the original game, wants to release a title that's "really exciting," according to Guillemot. However he adds, "But everybody needs a little bit of patience." That's would suggest strongly that Beyond Good and Evil 2 is a long way from completion.

Publisher Ubisoft didn't give an update on the status of the previously anounced Beyond Good and Evil 2 at E3 2010 but at this week's Montpellier in Games conference, the game's main creator Michel Ancel confirmed that the sequel to the acclaimed action-adventure game is in the works but it may be a while before it's released.

Ancel stated that the game will allow for multiple endings via branching storylines. It's also being made with a small development team which he believes will encourage more creativity. Ancel also plans to release the game's development tools for free. However it sounds like we are a long way off from its completion.

[Via VG247.com]

Normally we don't post news stories about rumors being busted but since there's so much interest in this game's progress we are making an exception. The game is Beyond Good and Evil 2, the sequel to the acclaimed but low selling Ubisoft action-adventure game. Last week some web sites (not us) reported rumors that the original game's main creator Michael Ansel had departed Ubisoft and as a result the game's sequel was cancelled.

However Eurogamer is reporting that Ubisoft has in fact said that Ansel is still at the company and that production on Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still continuing. The game was first announced just over two years ago but aside from a teaser trailer there's been no other official word on what the sequel will be like or when it will be released.

Back in 2008, Ubisoft showed off a teaser trailer for Beyond Good and Evil 2, a sequel to their acclaimed but poor selling action-adventure game. Since then Ubisoft seems to have had a love-hate relationship with the game and at one point it seemed like the sequel was in danger of not happening at all.

Now IGN has confirmed with Ubisoft that Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still in production. Although that's all we have about the progress of the game we can speculate that it may be a while before we see the game since Ubisoft didn't list it as a game that will come out in their next fiscal year.

Why is this pig-man thing not happy? Maybe it's because Ubisoft doesn't seem to know what to do with the Beyond Good and Evil franchise. The original game was a huge critical hit but sales were poor. In 2008 Ubisoft showed a teaser video for a second game in the series during a press event. Since then, however, Ubisoft has stayed silent on their plans.

Now a "Tweet" from a writer for the web site Gamersyde claims that he was told during Gamescom that a revival of Beyond Good and Evil was "on hold for now". The confirmation supposedly comes from an Ubisoft rep but our sister site Joystiq has yet to get anything beyond a "no comment" from the publisher. In other words, no news is bad news for this game.

With all of the BlizzCon stuff we did last week we forgot to mention a few notable downloadable PC game sales that are still going on as we write this post. One is over at Steam where the downloadable puzzle game Droplitz is on sale until August 28 for just $1.99. Yep that's an 80 percent price cut from its normal Steam price. The game also has added support for some new Steam leaderboards. Also Steam is giving folks a chance to buy a bundle of Southpeak's Raven Squad and Section 8 for 25 percent off before they are released on the service.

Over at GoG.com there is still time to download Beyond Good and Evil and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time at a discount. You can get either one of the Ubisoft games for 30 percent off their normal GoG.com price or get both in a bundle for 50 percent off. The sale ends tonight at 11:59 pm ET. However GoG.com just launched another sale for the excellent FPS Shogo: Mobile Armor Division. You can download and purchase that game for 10 percent off its normal price until August 30. Finally Direct2Drive has put Defense Grid: The Awakening on sale until Sunday for $9.95.

Over a year ago at their Ubidays press event, Ubisoft released a teaser trailer for Beyond Good and Evil 2, the sequel to the acclaimed but low selling action-adventure title. While fans of the original game were extremely happy at the time Ubisoft has since not shown anything official about the sequel project (although some concept movie footage allegedly leaked onto the Internet a few months ago)

Now in a new chat with IndustryGamers, Ubisoft's exec Laurent Detoc is backing away from delivering on the game, stating " . . . we've been working on some Beyond Good and Evil stuff, but whether there's going to be another game or not, that's something for the future." He also denied that the more recent movie footage leak was deliberate, saying, " I didn't know about the leak and neither did my boss." Ouch.

For the past four days, the Steam download service has been putting various recent PC games from Ubisoft on sale at 50 percent off. While each game was put on sale for one day only today Steam launched its regular weekend sale and put four older Ubisoft games together for one low price.

This weekend only you can get Beyond Good and Evil, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Far Cry and IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 together for just $9.99. Normally each game cost $9.99 each so this weekend you are getting a bundle of four games for 75 percent off their normal prices. Nice.

GoG.com has been gaining more and more publishers who like its theme of DRM-free classic PC games for cheap prices. Today GoG.com announced perhaps their biggest publishing partner yet: Ubisoft. Yep, the French-based company will be offering a number of their older PC titles via GoG.com

GoG.com has already added three Ubisoft titles to its expanding library: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 and the critically acclaimed Beyond Good and Evil. All three games can be downloaded and purchased via GoG.com for $9.99 each. Other Ubisoft games like Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Far Cry, Heroes of Might and Magic and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell will be added to the GoG.com lineup in the weeks and months ahead.