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)