Beyond Good & Evil 2: It Looks Awesome

Peep this video the good people over at 1up posted last week. It's extremely badass.



I never played the first game, but I have wanted to check it out for some time now. I plan on picking up a copy of it. Ubisoft really holds it down for videogames. Some of my favorites have been made by them, they're probably second to Capcom in the "Nick Vogt's Favorite Game Companies" list.

And, while I haven't played the 1st Beyond Good & Evil, two Ubisoft games in particular have really blown me away. One: There's Rayman 2, which is a platformer with a great art style, cool characters, and a good story. Umm, You might not know this, but video games don't usually have good stories. Especially back during the N64 (or the "fifth gen") era of videogames. Back then, the only games with good stories really were RPGs (Final Fantasies for example) or like Metal Gear Solid. Granted, Rayman's story was saturday morning cartoonish, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, the characters and the plot of Rayman really was reminiscent of some of the best saturday morning cartoons I used to watch.

Speaking of Metal Gear Solid, Rayman is also a game by a (as I like to call them) " videogame auteur". The Metal Gear series, of course, is made by the brilliant and probably insane Hideo Kojima and Rayman is by the French auteur Michel Ansel. Incidentally, Ansel is also making the totally badass-looking Beyond Good & Evil 2. Ansel is certainly a great asset for Ubisoft, and probably for the country of France in general (although France has many assets including crepes and, like kissing).

Unfortunately, after Rayman 3 (which I didn't play but it was supposed to be good), the series has kind of gone to buttsville. I am not really a big fan of the Wii Raving Rabids games. Games made up of all mini games are just uninteresting to me. I think they're way too hectic and quickly lose my interest. Although, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves for the Wii is just so bizarre (and the mini games are so short) that I think it works. That game really keeps your interest in a "what the fuck is this?" sort of way. It's good fun.

Hopefully, in the future, Rayman will return from this Rabids crap and enter get into another platforming adventure. I'm sure they could make a new Rayman platformer that's just as good. There is reason to hope for that, actually, because the upcoming Rabids game: Rabids Go Home is not gonna have Rayman in it at all. That might mean Ubisoft is moving Rayman away from the Rabids franchise and possibly back into the world of platforming.

The second Ubisoft game that is really dear to me is Assassin's Creed. Obviously, it's a very different game than Rayman. While the story of Assassin's Creed isn't nearly as interesting and absorbing as Rayman's (typical alternate history conspiracy stuff) the game play definitely is. The strangely slow but rhythmic and combat and especially the parkour movement elements of the game really made me feel like I was Altair, and like I was having his adventures and tumbling through ancient cities. I think no other game has pulled me into its action like Assassin's Creed. And, with a new Assassin's Creed on the way, I'm excited for all that to get to get taken to the next level.


I think the 2nd Beyond Good & Evil is gonna rock out, and it really is looking like a combination of two of my favorite games. From this bit of footage, I can definitely see parkour/free-running elements from Assassin's Creed will be in the game and (from what I've heard/read about the first Beyond Good & Evil) the interesting story and colorful characters (including animal people!) of Rayman. I'm looking forward to it. If you like the videogames, you should be, too.