Tag Archives: Ubisoft Montreal

Video Gaming

The Nostalgic Insanity of Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon

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Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon is nothing like I expected it to be. For starters, don’t let the “3” in the title fool you — there’s no sign of Jason Brody, Vaas Montenegro, or tropical islands to be found. Unless Blood Dragon turns out to be one of Dr. Earnhardt’s LSD trips, this game is in no way related to FC3. What the Ubisoft Montreal team has created here is a downloadable, kinetic ball of ’80s nostalgia that exists within in the confines of Far Cry‘s mechanical skeleton.

You’re bombarded with Reagan-era references the moment you load up Blood Dragon. Cutscenes come across in 8-bit fashion, neon lights ripped straight from Miami bombard your senses, and the theme of mechanically-altered super soldiers absolutely screams “Terminator.” Hell, the main character is even voiced by Michael “Kyle Reese” Biehn. I’d be willing to bet that an “All Your Base…” joke pops up at some point, and honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about that. Like 2012’s Retro City Rampage, it’s clear that the team behind Blood Dragon grew up with their hands glued to NES controllers and their eyes fixated on cheesy action movies. The question is, can Ubisoft back up their pastiche with any real substance?

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Video Games

Video Gaming

The Development Secrets of Far Cry 3

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The Far Cry 3 we know is not the Far Cry 3 that could have been. The setting of the open-world shooter was different when it entered pre-production in 2008. So was the creative staff. This sort of thing happens in game development, and it happens often at developer Ubisoft Montreal. Some things don’t work. People leave. Goals change. Ubisoft adapts.

Toward the end of Far Cry 2’s development cycle, narrative game designer Patrick Redding praised the promise of its African setting. “I think it’s safe to say we’ll continue to explore it,” he said. “That said, we might find something new and compelling about the Antarctic setting that wants us to make the next game there.” Either way, Ubisoft Montreal seemed to further distance itself from Far Cry’s traditional tropical locales. “Let’s face it,” Redding said, “jungle islands are probably less exciting than they were four years ago.”

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Video Games

Video Gaming

Far Cry 3: The Vaas That Never Was

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Vaas wasn’t always Vaas. Ubisoft Montreal initially sketched out concepts for a more physically imposing villain for Far Cry 3, a brutish man meant to intimidate with his size and scars rather than subtlety. Why did Vaas, a fairly non-threatening-looking dude with a haunting personality, come from this abandoned antagonist?

“We absolutely didn’t get it right on the first go,” executive producer Dan Hay tells IGN.

Bull, half blind and having presumably won a bare-knuckle boxing match with a grizzly, sports a nose-ring, broad jaw, and elaborate tribal tattoos. Distinctive traits for a potential Big Bad? Sure. Boring? Absolutely. The bald brute stereotype seems to have invaded almost every action game imaginable during the past decade. Bull was “like a 300-pound, six-foot-tall bullmastiff dog,” level design director Mark Thompson says. That changed after actor Michael Mando auditioned for the role.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Video Games