Ubisoft was effectively an unknown company coming out of the 32bit generation, especially when considered the sheer size of the european developer. Games such as those in the Rayman franchise recieved respectable critical acclaim and commercial success, but nothing that would make the company immediately recognizable to the majority of the gaming fanbase.
To say things have changed would be just a tad of an understatement – Ubisoft has effectively become the MVP of this hardware generation; a result of good business decisions and excellent game production. One of those decisions was the procurement of the Tom Clancy license, one which Ubisoft has exploited to it’s full potential. The spectacular [and genre redefining] Splinter Cell aside, Ubisoft created arguably the two best first person shooters on the Xbox (aside from Halo, although fans of tactical simulations would probably argue that point) in Raindow Six 3, and Ghost Recon.
The former of these two games is a Live-enable masterpiece – one which continues to dominate the Xbox Live library in terms of hours played online, and by amount of gamers playing at any given time. Given the sequel driven nature of the videogame industry, the eventual release of a sequel was a no-brainer, and from everything that has been seen thus far the game is right on track to delivering Xbox owners more of the the defining Tactical shooter experience. Check out XA’s impressions and then DL the official trailer for some cinematic moments and actual gameplay footage. We’ll see you online when this one is released!