Ubisoft And Free Radical Collaboration Turns ...

Ubisoft And Free Radical Collaboration Turns To Haze

Continuing with our "better late than never" E3 reports, Ubisoft's big revelation at last week's gaming mecca was a next-gen shooter called Haze. The project itself isn't actually new - we've known about it since back in November, when Ubi announced their collaboration with Free Radical Design (developer of the TimeSplitters series) for creating a new action game. With the arrival of E3 2006, more solid details about the title began to surface, including several screenshots (some new ones added yesterday) and a cinematic E3 trailer that sets the game's near-future premise:

"Twenty-five years in the future. Governments have outsourced military operations to private multinational corporations. As Jake Carpenter, a newly enlisted soldier in the Mantel army, you are seeking fulfillment and thrills by fighting for a good cause.

Thanks to their high-tech arsenal of vehicles, deadly weaponry, and performance enhancing bio-medical support, the Mantel Corporation's ruthlessly efficient soldiers are the most feared by terrorists, dictators, and the corporation's political enemies.

Your conflict begins in a war-torn country in South America, where you have been sent to fight a vicious rebel faction, The Promise Hand. At first glance, all is well, but things quickly begin to look a little strange..."

That's not to say the game's graphics are weird, of course, since what we have here is a prime example of next-gen visuals, with lush jungles and advanced effects a la Crysis. "Hyper-intelligent AI" and realistic physics are also high atop Free Radical's promise-list, and so is another thing that will supposedly set this game appart from Crytek's exotic shooters: "difficult strategic choices and moral dilemmas", as they put it. Precisely what that means is still a bit hazy, but that's exactly how Ubisoft is trying to keep it, along with other gameplay elements - which is only to be expected, considering the game's title.

For now, Haze is scheduled for an early 2007 release, on the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)