Level up writes: "After the results of the Game Critics Awards were announced two weeks ago, we reached out to several winners for their reactions and some updates about their games in progress. In the Best Strategy Game category, Tom Clancy's EndWar beat out several established franchises and studios. We emailed some questions to Michael De Plater, creative director at Ubisoft Shanghai. Here are his responses:
Q: EndWar was up against some pretty formidable competition for Best Strategy Game, including Ensemble and EALA. Are you surprised that you won?
A: We were very proud to be in such impressive company. In particular I am a massive fan of the Warhammer 40K universe and of Relic. In fact every one of those teams has been making great strategy games for years and the game they each took to E3 this year looked like one of the most polished and fun titles they had ever built. On the other hand I definitely thought we had a good chance of winning if people got some hands on time with EndWar because I think it's a fun game and everyone is waiting for the genre to break through on console. Also Ubisoft put together a really great team with a lot of depth of experience. Todd Owens, our lead level designer had worked on Command & Conquer Generals and Battle for Middle Earth and I'd worked on Rome Total War, while the rest of the team had experience on top quality tactical and military games like Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six and Brothers In Arms."
The PlayStation Network is back again for its weekly sale which currently features games from the Tom Clancy franchise like the recently released Rainbow Six Seige and Splinter Cell Blacklist.
The sale has a variety of titles spanning across the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita. The sale will be starting today and will run until next Tuesday 11:00 am. This is the time for gamers to give the tactical Rainbox Six Siege shooter a chance as you can save up to 45%.
Forget discounts,If they want to compete with EA Access, they need to bump up the AAA Games that are on the PS Store and on PS Now. There weren't a lot of games on PS Now that interested me, especially for that price point.
Let's take a moment and think about this..
Sony, I love you, but take notes! EA Access has a lot of extras that sound great if you’re looking for a new loyalty program, that blanket 10% off digital video games will definitely save subscribers some money if they’re big fans of Electronic Arts’ video games. Users who purchase a brand new Electronic Arts Xbox One title a month will break even on that first game, saving $6 off a $60 purchase.
PSN store trying to compete with EA Access? What nonsense!
Total different things!
And they need to bump up the AAA games on the PSN store? What? All the AAA games can be bought on the PSN store.
And no, PS Now is also not trying to compete with EA Access, again something else entirely...
And no, EA Access is not good value at all if you do not live in the US! They give 10% off on digital game purchases, MSRP of games is €70, 10% off means they are €63 but I can buy physical copies during initial release for between €50-55. Then there are a gazillion sports titles for free that I have no interest in. The games I'm interested in I already buy so don't need free copies a year after their release. The only nice thing about it is the 10 hours early access, that's it!
Ubisoft have today announced that Tom Clancy’s EndWar Online has completed its Alpha and is kicking off the Beta Test phase. The Closed Beta will start on September 1 and will run until the beginning of November and will come with two brand new commanders on each side, a brand new PvE mode called Special Operations, support for multiple characters on an account, a new VIP system and tons of additional improvements.
Ubisoft Shanghai have announced that after some great feedback from Part #1 of their On the Front Lines: A Fresh Start Developer Blog for Endwar: Online, they have begun to include some suggestions into Alpha Update v0.5.0, and have now released Part #1.5, in which the development team says that one of the biggest advantages of being involved in the Alpha Test is the flexibility.
