Are Ubisoft Bringing Back Scott Pilgrim?

Brian Lee O'Malley the creator of Scott Pilgrim mentioned on Twitter that Ubisoft has been in contact.  While this is probably regarding the now exiled video game adaptation of the 2010 film, it could perhaps be something new. The film approaches its tenth anniversary and many fans have been expressing their disappointment that the game was removed from sale back in 2014.

I had the game on the Xbox 360 and it was everything you could have hoped for in a side scrolling beatem-up, certainly more than I expected it would be. Hopefully we shall see a return of the arcade emulating treasure.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

Ubisoft like many games companies has been under the hammer of allegations claims and accused of inequality of race and gender within their games. Sadly media runs on negativity and while people do need to atone for their wrongdoings, I do not feel that the trailer for Assassin's Creed Valhalla made me feel inferior as a woman or angry at the lack of a female lead. 

Despite this Ubisoft being one of the main forerunners for equality and inclusiveness in their games have made a second version of the reveal trailer, replacing our male protagonist with the female alternate.

We have seen death threats levelled at a huge host of Naughty Dogs team as well as various other outcries over other games and their content.  

Games are transcending the boundaries of just being games now. We have cinematic masterpieces such as Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima and The Last of Us Part 2, among others. I think it is time to look inward at ourselves and question whether challenging such boundaries should really cause so much upset. With the next gen consoles on the horizon we are entering a world of gaming never seen before. New exciting ideas, different directions and increasingly challenging narratives. If this upsets and disturbs you, perhaps stick to other great titles that do not challenge the boundaries and take as many risks.

We are supposed to be progressing as a society. Being inclusive of sexual orientation, faith, gender and race, yet while the world is still suffering and we have campaigns such as Black Lives Matter, I still see so much racist abuse and hate within the gaming community.

Love the hobby, love the creativity and the journey, turn your hate where it can be used more productively. If a game offends you rather than reacting on gut instinct look inward, maybe you'll discover something.  

It is time to change.

Netflix's and Game Adaptations

Netflix already had its adaptation of Castlevania meet some great success, now among many other great Netflix originals, we have word of two more game to show/film adaptations. 

The acclaimed Ubisoft series: Splinter Cell is getting an anime series from the director of John Wick, while Beyond Good and Evil is being made into a film that combines both live action and animation. The new project will be led by Detective Pikachu's director Rob Letterman and produced by Ubisoft’s Jason Altman and Margaret Boykin. The team is currently looking for writers to adapt the source material.

Potentially good news for the games fans, hopefully they will both make for faithful adaptations.

Far Cry 6 Leaked

Far Cry 6 has been revealed a little earlier than planned via a PlayStation Store leak, which has listed it for launch on 18th February 2021.

In the teaser we see that Breaking Bad and The Mandalorian star Giancarlo Esposito will play a major role as the dictator of Yara, a fictional country which looks heavily-inspired by Cuba.

As with all the games in the series you will be playing as a person aiming to take down a dictator's rule. Ubisoft boast that it will be the largest Far Cry to date and that we will see the return of much loved elements, such as companions and fangs for hire.

PlayStation 4 copies of the game will upgrade for free if you play on PlayStation 5, which I can only imagine will be the same for be the same for Xbox One and Xbox Series X.

Ubisoft's event is this Sunday at 8pm BST time where hopefully we shall see more.

You Are Not Alone

You Are Not Alone (YANA) is a new organisation that will be running a games themed event to support us all during COVID-19 and raise money for various charities. The company has been founded by Edge Esports co-founder Adam Whyte.

“People aren’t really talking enough about the mental impact that COVID-19 is going to have on our society,” Whyte told The Esports Observer. “We’re inherently social creatures. Taking away someone’s FIFA football and their NBA and their NCAA and Olympics and ComicCon makes it very difficult for us to find these social gatherings. You can’t congregate in the pubs. So I thought, why don’t we use gaming to bring people together?”

Their first fundraiser event will focus around livestreamed games and host competitions via live broadcast (Facebook Gaming and Twitch). Ubisoft, Barclays, Codemasters and Sports Interactive are supporting the event so far.

Just giving will be the method of donation and those that choose to donate will be able to select from a variety of charities. 

Already Barclays have confirmed they will be hosting a FIFA 20 tournament, while Ubisoft have announced events that revolve around a lot of their key franchises. 

The event will take place on the 2nd of May and they have said more details will be soon to follow.

It is nice to see these industry giants reaching out to entertain during a time of crisis. Hopefully more will follow suit and get involved.