Ubisoft’s Upcoming PSN Games: Beyond Good & Evil HD, Scott Pilgrim DLC, and more

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Yesterday, Ubisoft held its first dever “Digital Day,” a showcase for the publisher’s upcoming crop of PSN titles. In addition to the games – From Dust, Outland, Beyond Good & Evil HD and Scott Pilgrim DLC – Ubisoft also revealed future Facebook integration for titles like the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood.

In the Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood example shown, you’ll be able to train and interact with your guild of assassins on Facebook (while at work, for example), and then have that experience translate back into the PS3 version of the game, and vice versa. “You will continue to see brands like Assassin’s Creed across all content types,” Ubisoft VP of Digital Publishing Chris Early told us. “We want the player to experience the brands whenever and however they want.”

We also went hands on with the titles listed above. Here are some quick recaps:

Beyond Good & Evil HD

Beyond Good & Evil HD for PS3 (PSN)

Perhaps the biggest news of the evening was final confirmation that the PS2 fan favorite and cult classic Beyond Good & Evil will be re-released as a downloadable PSN title. Beyond Good & Evil HD will render at an ultra-crisp 1080p HD resolution with higher-resolution textures and a smoother frame rate, plus online leaderboards. These enhancements will make Beyond Good & Evil HD the definitive version of the game.

Originally released on the PS2 in 2003, Beyond Good & Evil is a story-based adventure game that takes place in the year 2435 on a distant mining planet called Hyllis. You play as Jade, a local photojournalist who seeks to expose a corrupt government agency that has allied itself with a race of dangerous aliens called the DomZ, who have taken to abducting and enslaving the locals. Jade and her band of colorful sidekicks must expose the plot and save Hyllis, while uncovering a tangled web of conspiracies along the way.

Aside from its sumptuous visual design, Beyond Good & Evil HD is noted for its diverse gameplay styles: close-combat battles with Jade’s staff; sneaking past guards in stealth sequences that would make Solid Snake wince; snapping photos of rare life forms to earn cash; hoverboat piloting, puzzle solving, massive boss battles and more. Beyond Good & Evil HD is scheduled to hit PSN sometime in 2011, so stay tuned for more details. –Sid

Scott Pilgrim DLC

Soon you’ll have a reason to jump back into August’s #1 PSN title: Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game. Knives Chau (17 years old) is the highlight of an upcoming DLC pack, as you’ll finally be able to play as the Scott-obsessed high schooler.

Scott Pilgrim

Those of you who have played the game know that Knives is the summon-able helper for Scott, Ramona, Kim, and Stills, so I was wondering if she’d summon… herself? Actually, a tap of the L1 button sends either her sword-wielding father or tracksuited mom into the fray to help out.

The $1.99 DLC pack also includes Dodgeball and Battle Royale modes, and 3 new Knives-related Trophies. A free patch will introduce drop in co-op – no need to wait til the end of the level to get some help – as well as various bug fixes and tweaking. To me, an experienced player in this game, the ‘Average Joe’ difficulty level felt a lot less punishing than in the initial release.

Look for both the patch and DLC to become available in early November, to coincide with the Blu-ray release of Scott Pilgrim vs The World. –Jeff

From Dust

This upcoming PSN “God game” gives you nearly limitless control over the terrain and physical structure of an environment – the ultimate sandbox game, if you will. The goal is to protect a long-forgotten island tribe from elemental threats, and in the process, help them remember their past and their identity. No pressure!

From Dust for PS3 (PSN)

From Dust for PS3 (PSN)From Dust for PS3 (PSN)

Creator Éric ChahiI (much celebrated for his pioneering work on Out of This World and PSone classic Heart of Darkness gave me a private demonstration of the core mechanics in From Dust. I watched as he effortlessly molded the terrain and surfaces of an island environment using an interface that will be familiar to fans of ModNation Racer’s Track Studio tools. Chahil raised and lowered terrain with a quick button press, and the terrain responded realistically, as water pooled into crevices or spilled back into the surf. The visuals are undeniably impressive: water ripples and undulates, lava oozes menacingly, sand crumbles convincingly.

These natural elements serve as a painter’s palette in your efforts to protect the tribe from natural disasters and help them on their quest. If a nearby magma-spewing volcano threatens the tribe, you can suck up a large sphere of water from the ocean to put out the fires. In a river is threatening to drown the tribe, you might build a dam with gobs of earth or sand to redirect the rapids. The final game will feature a variety of environments, including deserts, islands, and more. Chahil is leaving the door open for possible PlayStation Move support post-launch, and it would seem to be a great fit for this ambitious title. Look for it on PSN in 2011. –Sid

Outland

This visually striking PSN title combines elements of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (sword-based action-adventure with platforming) with “Bullet Hell” games such as Gundemonium.

Outland

Outland’s story is still tightly under wraps, but I learned some cryptic clues. Despite the fantastical landscape you — surprise! — play as a modern-day character. Plagued by nightmarish visions, you wander the jungle and stumble across ruins of an ancient civilization, in the process learning about your role in a timeless battle between Light and Dark. How, and why, you are chosen is a key riddle in the game that will be revealed as you discover hieroglyphics scattered throughout the ancient city. The storyline elements are completely optional, though, and you can instead focus on running, jumping, and slicing giant spiders with your sword.

But there’s a twist. The gameplay revolves entirely around the theme of Light and Dark, represented by the colors blue and red, respectively. You swap between Light and Dark at will with a quick tap of R1, and you’ll need to do so with military precision in order to survive the ever-changing world around you. When you’re in the Dark form, red is your “friend.” Red platforms creak into life, red projectiles inflict no damage, and blue enemies can be defeated with a few sword swings. So far, so good, but then things start getting nuts: cascading waves of alternating blue-and-red projectiles fill the screen, requiring you to flip between red and blue in fractions of a second. Add in simultaneous platform jumping and combat with multiple enemies of multiple colors and you’ve got a formula that will make even seasoned gamers sweat. Outland will invade PSN sometime in 2011- Sid

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106 Comments

  • I’m looking into From Dust. Looking pretty interesting. Hopefully it’s not a full retail priced game, though. :)

  • I was wondering about Move support for From Dust too. Sounds like just the sort of thing it would be suited for. And there isn’t a great deal to do with these light-sticks at the moment. (Clearly, you’ve already gone far beyond the lackluster PS Eye support, so are we looking at the new PSP?)

  • OMG BG&E

  • Looking forward to From Dust

  • Nice! That all sounds awesome!

  • They didn’t have any information on the Prince of Persia Trilogy HD collection? Also no mention of Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes HD? How odd.

    I never got into Assassin’s Creed, the first one has such a flimsy story and characters, and I found the gameplay to be quite tedious.

    Regardless, I will be pre-ordering Beyond Good & Evil as soon as it’s available to do so. I hope that Ubisoft provides pre-orders extras via their website like they did for the Scott Pilgrim game. Going back to original HD art and music assets for re-authoring makes this a great value. I hope the same thing is happening for Prince of Persia Trilogy.

    I’m really happy to see Scott Pilgrim get some DLC and a patch, which will also be a first-day purcahse for me. I hope it fixes some of the hard-locking issues I had at various points in the game. Does the DLC have any new music?

    From Dust looks absolutely amazing, and I will be pre-ordering that as soon as I can as well. Hopefully we’ll see a PS3-native release of Another World and/or Heart of Darkness?

    Outland looks interesting, but I’ll need to see a gameplay trailer and learn more about the story/characters before I get excited.

  • Beyond Good & Evil, all I can say is my dream has come true. Hopefully this means that we will be seeing official stuff from a sequel sometime soon.

  • I was hoping to hear something about RealMYST, Broken Sword, Sam & Max seasons 1 & 2, and/or Cold Fear coming to PS3 (via PSN or retail). Maybe next time? ;)

  • I’m also hoping that this HD release of BG&E is to start drumming up more support for the sequel, or even a hint that concrete info on the sequel will be coming out soon.

  • … and no Raving Rabbids Collection for Move?

  • Wow, where to begin. I love Out of this World as it’s my favorite game of all time so i’m interested in anything Eric Chahi creates.

    I will gladly replay Beyond Good and Evil in HD. That game so needs Move support though.

    Outland is insta-buy. Looks fantastic.

    And the Facebook integration in Assassins Creed sounds cool.

    PS anything Scott Pilgrim is delish.

  • I agree with #50 (craiglaurence) 100%, just thought I’d put that out there.
    But if I were to add anything to his post, I’d say:

    From Dust – with PS Move (even post-launch), definitely.

  • Encouraging people to interact with a game on facebook, while at work – Brilliant!

    Only problem is that when they get fired for interacting with a game on facebook, while at work – they won’t have an income with which to purchase your games.

    …not so brilliant.

  • I want online multiplayer on scott pilgrim, please! :(

  • I will be picking up all of these, I think. I own the PS2 version of Beyond Good and Evil, but I’ll download it anyway for the trophies and the new graphics.

  • Wow, these all look / sound amazing. I think I might be getting all of these as well! 2011 is going to be a Great year for gaming.

  • I was actually freaking over the Internet looking for some info on Outland and Beyond Good and Evil and couldn’t find anything substantial enough, just like short notices and speculations. Thanks for the update!

    • You’re welcome! Jeff was hassling me to finish my writeups faster, but I was trying to pack in as much hands-on detail as possible (^_^)

  • So epic cant wait!

  • glad that Beyond Good & Evil is coming to the PSN & with trophies, definitely getting it

  • hm still waiting on scott pilgrim to have online coop… that would be awesome!!!!

  • Whoa, some great announcements here. I already own BG&E, but I might just buy it to show some support (oh, and for the trophies). Scott Pilgrim DLC: Hell yeah! And the price is just right, so it’s a day one purchase for me. :D

    Thanks Ubi!

  • Sorry, but I lost all train of thought at Beyond Good and Evil in HD. This game better be coming to more than just PSN, as I need to support it with a purchase multiple times over. :-)

  • I never had the chance to play Beyond Good and Evil, great news, i’ll be buying this game then, great news.
    Can we know the price?

  • So any price points for these games? My take is that if you’re thinking about pricing Beyond Good and Evil at $15 you might as well go up to $20 so we get more trophies and a platinum one as well.

  • I remember playing good and evil a few years back and it was a good game also can’t wait to play FROM DUST seems like pocket god except for being more complex and cooler looking just hope there are a few humerus tidbits and trophies like building an extremely tall mountain and getting your tribe to try and climb it :)

  • I’m totally going to buy this BG&E HD version. OMG. This was (is) one of the best games I`ve ever played on my PS2. And now with these enhancements including trophies and online gaming, I’ll buy it for sure :)

    Thanks Ubisoft and Sony.

    ps: I still want BG&E 2, Ubisoft!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Dead Ubisoft, if they’re good enough to release, they’re good enough to put on a disc.

    Now do it, please.

  • Of all these Outland looks great. Pilgrim was sort of a let down.

  • $1.99 for the Scott Pilgrim DLC? Sold!

  • SOCOM 1 OR 2 HD…. PLEASE!

  • I already have BG&E from Steam on my laptop, but I will gladly buy it again for my PS3! It’s good enough that it will be in HD, and they will improve the score, but trophies? Even better! Back when the game first came out in 2003, Trophies (and Achievements) didn’t exist! Can’t imagine my gaming life without them! If we didn’t have them, we’d probably be a lot less selfish, and have smaller egos!

    Anyway, Ubisoft: if I buy this re-release, can I pleaaaase have the sequel?

  • When can we see more play footage of From Dust? Very intriguing game.

  • I can’t wait

  • Tell Konami I want MGS HD COllection, they are already working on MGS3 for 3DS, so actually do something right and make it HD with 3D support as well for people that prefer playing on the big screen.

  • Beyond Good & Evil…day one.WOW

  • Pretty sick!

  • Oh man I remember playing “Out Of This World” on my SNES and that game was a blast as was “Heart Of Darkness” which I still have and play from time to time !

    I also have “B G & E” which I never completed but I intend to ! LOL !

    Now I wish we could get “Flashback: The Quest For Identity” on the PSN ! Loved that game back in the day on my SNES !

  • Woah, awesome. Will be checking out BG&E, Outland, and the Scott Pilgrim DLC. Not bad, Ubisoft.

    But…what happened to Rayman: Origins?

  • Ok, deep breath, ok, ok…….

    YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Oh crap, was that TOO enthusiastic? Regardless, this is very, VERY AWESOME!!! Thank you, Ubisoft! Y’all didn’t have to do it, but you did. Again, THANKS!!

  • Are From Dust and Outland going to be PS3 exclusive?? For your sake, I hope so, because that is the only way to get me to buy them on PS3. :-)

  • BG&E is still one of my absolute most favorite games from the last gen, so the announcement of the HD update makes me very very happy. The only thing that would make me happier is more news on BG&E2…

  • Thanks for answering, Sid. Very interested in ‘Dust. I’ve always wanted to be God…er…whatever you believe in.

  • wow there bringing Byge back.. Its been along time.. I also wish they bring back a game called ‘KYA”.. with trophies, it also need’s a prt 2 for ps3..

    mcbuttz78 -vp of psn legionaires

  • drop in drop out coop, thank you!!!!

  • I have to agree fully with #44 – UbiSoft should packaging these title up onto a real physical disc for proper retail sale. I would purchase such a collection in a heatbeat.

    “Beyond Good & Evil” was an incredible title for its time – I still have my XB copy – but I would love to play through it again in its new format. But however much I love the title, I would ONLY do so if it was available in a physical disc format. Many consumers such as myself will NOT purchase any games available via download only, no matter how good they might be. No disc = No sale

  • any chance of a price drop for scott pilgrim around that time? only got $5 on my account to spend.

    and for from dust- is it a fps or what?

    as for outland-it looks great and i love all of housemarque’s projects and eagerly anticipate this as well

    any news for dead nation? really wanting that right now

  • Can you Sony guys get Konami to do the HD remake treatment on MGS 2 and 3? This is the kind of stuff I want to see happening with the best of PS2’s library. Really enjoyed God of War Collection.

  • Very interesting titles Ubisoft! I’m psyched about the BG&E HD re-release and Scott Pilgrim is a great game that I’m glad to see DLC and updates for (especially the drop-in co-op), but also the two other games look very interesting.

  • This news rocks. I love Scott Pilgrim Vs the World, and as if I needed a reason to keep playing, you’ve given me one. Looking forward to laying down a beating with Knives!

    Also, thank you so much for porting Beyond Good and Evil. I’ve always been aware of this game… I know a bit about it, and I’ve always wanted to play it. Just… never got around to it. I had finally told myself that I had to go find a copy somewhere, because it kept coming up (and always accompanied by praise), but now I don’t have to. Sure, I will have to wait a bit longer, but I am sure if I am going to experience the game, I may as well wait a little while longer to get it in HD with trophies ^_^.

  • WOOOOOOO! SCOTT PILGRIM RULES! can’t wait to try the dlc. thanks for the info. (the assassin’s creed brotherhood facebook app also sounds magnificent.)

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