The Evening Report, March 14, 2013: Desilets Rejoins Ubisoft, Star Wars Shooter Leaked, Defiance To Start Console Beta, Call of Juarez Rides Again

The Evening Report, March 14, 2013: Desilets Rejoins Ubisoft, Star Wars Shooter Leaked, Defiance To Start Console Beta, Call of Juarez Rides Again

Patrice Desilets Back At Ubisoft After THQ Collapse

Look at that hat! No wonder they kept him on the team!

Polygon reported Thursday that Patrice Desilets, the creator of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, has rejoined Ubisoft after the company purchased his current studio, THQ Montreal in January. Desilets left Ubisoft in 2010 and joined THQ Montreal in 2011 where he was working on an unannounced game code-named “1666,” before the studio was auctioned off in publisher THQ’s bankruptcy proceedings. Ubisoft acquired 1666, and another project, Underdog,  when purchasing THQ Montreal, but it was uncertain until now if Desilets would come along. A Ubisoft spokesperson spoke to Polygon, saying, “we are very pleased to welcome Patrice to Ubisoft again and and anticipate that this renewed partnership will produce new ideas and high-quality titles for Ubisoft’s customers.”

[Source: Polygon]

Star Wars: First Assault Footage Leaked, Pulled Shortly After

The only thing left from LucasArts’ copyright claims to the leaked videos.

Kotaku released some footage today of the ‘unannounced’ Star Wars: First Assault, but were shortly made to take the video down. The game was first noticed, but not announced officially, in October last year when web designers found some image data for it on Xbox.com. Kotaku reported in more detail on March 11, followed by some more leaked screenshots, where they explained it was a 16 player shooter, putting players in the boots of Rebels and Imperials on some of the universe’s well-known planets. The game was scheduled to be released this spring, but seems to have been delayed indefinitely as part of a Lucas-company wide lockdown. Pardon the speculation, but it seems like Disney/LucasFilm are putting the brakes on everything Star Wars related until they can pair it up with the big marketing push for Episode VII, if not directly overhaul things to tie into the new movie.

[Source: Kotaku]

Defiance Enters Final Beta March 22, First Time On Consoles

The future of TV, I guess?

Defiance, the SyFy channel’s ambitious new MMO/TV Show will be coming out for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC in just a few weeks on April 2. Before that though, the game will start its final beta from March 22 until the midnight on the 24th. This is the first version of the beta that will be on the 360 and PS3, and also the first to lift NDA restrictions, allowing testers to upload and stream their time with the game. No one here at SideQuesting HQ has had a chance to play it, but I feel pretty dang confident in saying that a TV show that changes based on it’s MMO counterpart is pretty rad.

[Via: Joystiq]

The Ryan’s Den

Let me take a moment of your time to turn you fine people onto a neato little game I just learned of called Space Station 13It’s a role-playing game where lots of players, the most I’ve seen is 40, take on the role of one of many different occupations on the titular space station. This can range from space janitor, to space lawyer, to space security. Ideally, players are supposed to do their best to perform their specific roles to keep the station running in ~10 minute rounds, during which some random catastrophe like rogue AI or space-wizard battle occurs. What usually happens is usually more akin to this situation my friend who turned me onto the game described. “Me and the other space botanist were supposed to grow all the food for the station but we made the plant machine grow weed and smoked it until security stopped us. Then the space clown came and smoked with us some more. Then we all got killed by space wizards.”