Ubisoft Montpellier

Valiant Hearts: The Great War was developed by Ubisoft Montpellier and published by Ubisoft. It was released on June 25, 2014 on Xbox 360 and Xbox One for $14.99. An Xbox One copy was provided for review purposes.

All Quiet on the Western Front aside, popular media has largely ignored World War I over the years. It’s that other world war that happened before World War II and didn’t get a Steven Spielberg movie inspiring the video game industry to make oodles of games about it. With 2014 being the 100-year anniversary of the war’s start, Ubisoft Montpellier thought it was the perfect time to step in and make a game about the brutality of trench warfare. Well, that’s half-true, at least. Valiant Hearts: The Great War is as much about this incredibly violent and semi-forgotten war as it is about those who fought it and what it took from them.

First-hand stories like those taken from Audio Director Yoan Fanise’s great-grandfather’s letters from the front helped the team add an air of authenticity to Valiant Hearts‘ campaign, which follows the war-time experiences of five characters of differing nationalities. The puzzle-adventure game’s comic book art style can feel incongruous during the game’s more somber moments, and some of the sillier game-y elements further highlight the disparity between the austere story and its lighthearted presentation. Somehow, though, Ubisoft fuses it all together into an experience that will make you feel the horrible pains of those consumed by this “great” war, and the friendships that somehow develop through it.

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We’re late, and it seems that’s become somewhat of a trend for us lately. Our Game of the Year awards weren’t doled out until January, and now our look forward at the XBLA and Xbox One XBLA-type games of 2014 is just making its way to you now in February. You were on your own when it came to planning out January’s releases, but now it’s time for our annual look ahead at the top downloadable games likely to arrive on an Xbox platform during the (remainder of) the year ahead. Read on to find out what you can expect out of Xbox over the next (not quite) 365.

Developer: RedLynx

First announced by Ubisoft at E3 2013 and heading to Xbox One and XBLA at an unannounced future date, Trials Fusion is the next game in RedLynx’s physics-based motorcycle racing series that found no small measure of success on Xbox Live Arcade. The first XBLA take on the series, Trials HD was extremely popular due to the fierce competition it inspired among players to hit the best runs on each of its 50 courses. That was nothing. RedLynx followed it up with Trials Evolution, which added an in-depth track editor and turned the franchise into a true obsession for its many fans.

With Trials Fusion‘s announcement trailer showing off player failure, it’s evident that RedLynx once again intends to scratch the competitive itch inside gamers as vehemently as motorcycle tires scratching the dirt of a Trials course.

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Analyst firm Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment (FADE) has released a new report that shows XBLA revenue increased 18 percent last year to $144 million. From Dust, created by Eric Chahi (Another World) and developed by Ubisoft Montpellier, and The Behemoth’s popular game Castle Crashers earned the most money with $4.6 million each in revenue off 308,000 and 335,000 units sold respectively. Microsoft Games Studio’s Full House Poker moved the most units with 375,000 units sold but was fourth overall in revenue with $3.6 million.

From Dust was part of Microsoft’s “Summer of Arcade” promotion and joins Bastion, Toy Soldiers: Cold War, and  Fruit Ninja Kinect among the top grossing XBLA games of 2011. In total, the Summer of Arcade games listed in the top ten sold over 1.1 million units and grossed $15 million in revenue. Hit the jump for the full list issued by FADE (ordered by units sold):

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From Dust was developed by Ubisoft Montpellier and will be released for XBLA on July 26, 2011 for 1200 Microsoft Points. The game is part of Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade promotion. A copy was provided for review purposes.

From Dust is the geo-centric strategy/god game brainchild of storied game designer Éric Chahi. It marks Chahi’s long-awaited return to the industry and—perhaps more importantly—helps fill the gaping void in quality strategy games for downloadable platforms. Read More

Éric Chahi is well-known in the industry for his innovative work on Another World (called Out of This World in the U.S.) and Heart of Darkness—and for his nearly ten-year absence from the industry. XBLA Fans sat down at E3 2011 with the legendary game designer for a quiet chat about art, inspiration, and the craft of telling stories.

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Beyond Good & Evil HD was originally developed by Ubisoft Montpellier, ported to XBLA by Ubisoft Shanghai and published by Ubisoft. It was released for XBLA on March 2nd 2011 and retails for 800MSP.

Beyond Good & Evil is considered by many to be a cult classic. It was well received by critics and gamers alike during the last generation of consoles. However it didn’t sell particularly well and as such the apparent sequel has been in limbo for a while.

The game tells the story of Jade, a photo journalist living on the planet of Hillys. Jade also runs an  orphanage for children whose parents have gone missing during attacks from the Domz, an alien race who currently have the planet under siege. A group known as IRIS soon recruit Jade to help expose a conspiracy between the Domz and the Alpha Sections who rule Hillys.

Ubisoft Shanghai were tasked with porting the game to current-gen consoles, which in this instance also meant reworking some of the games graphics. It’s this extra work that sees the game add the ‘HD’ moniker. To sweeten the deal the game has been released for the lower price point of 800 Microsoft points (with most big releases lately costing 1200). It seems Ubisoft is trying to give this game more of a chance than it got before, but does it deserve it?

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We’ve spent the past week searching the internet and hounding our industry contacts in an effort to compile the ultimate 2011 XBLA Game Release List. We anticipated on heck of a year for Xbox Live Arcade. So epic we couldn’t even fit everything on one page. So without further ado, check out the list:

Check out the rest here:

XBLA Fans Anticipated 2011 Releases: A-C
XBLA Fans Anticipated 2011 Releases: D-F
XBLA Fans Anticipated 2011 Releases: G-M
XBLA Fans Anticipated 2011 Releases: N-R
XBLA Fans Anticipated 2011 Releases: S
XBLA Fans Anticipated 2011 Releases: T-Z
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We’ve spent the past week searching the internet and hounding our industry contacts in an effort to compile the ultimate 2011 XBLA Game Release List. We anticipated on heck of a year for Xbox Live Arcade. So epic we couldn’t even fit everything on one page. So without further ado, check out the list:

Check out the rest here:

XBLA Fans Anticipated 2011 Releases: A-C
XBLA Fans Anticipated 2011 Releases: D-F
XBLA Fans Anticipated 2011 Releases: G-M
XBLA Fans Anticipated 2011 Releases: N-R
XBLA Fans Anticipated 2011 Releases: S
XBLA Fans Anticipated 2011 Releases: T-Z
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