Who said games aren’t art? Recently Ubisoft decided to show off their latest wares at their prominent Ubidays 08 event, going down in style at the Louvre Museum, Paris. Apart from lots of coverage on already known works such as Far Cry 2, a slew of promising sequels and more vague titles were announced throughout the event, so I’m going to run through what’s new to the scene from Ubisoft.

Beyond Good And Evil 2

Hailed as a failed success, the original BG&E unfortunately never met the popularity it deserved for it’s attractive and well narrated adventure. So it’s a delight to hear Ubisoft are bringing Jade, Pey’j and crew back for the Playstation 3 and XBOX 360 for another romp. Still in the hands of the original creators, the BG&E 2 announcement was backed with no release date, but a short teaser trailer showing off an impressive looking Pey’j the pig allegedly rendered in-game.

Prince Of Persia

Coming from the masters of motion and fluidity, Ubisoft Montreal are again returning to Arabian nights but this time with a whole new Prince for the PS3, 360, and PC. The new Prince is to be allied with Elika, opening new potentials for team-based gameplay. It seems this series will be taking a welcomed twist into non-linear structuring around an open-ended world so look out for this one – scheduled for release this year.

Shaun White’s Snowboarding

Expect no mention of Shaun’s previous experience in the gaming industry, with his last PS2 and GBA title being quite a flop, and also coming from Activision. This time he’s teaming up personally with Ubisoft to develop what sounds like a much more substantial and competent snowboarding outing. On all the new stuff, PS3, 360, PC and Wii, it’s interesting to see the Wii version being developed completely separately from the ground up to support the WiiFit balance board. I’m not sure if you HAVE to use the balance board but if the support is there, it could work quite nicely. Another interesting aspect is not only the open-plan mountain design but the incorporation of online players on the mountain completely separate to whatever the player is doing at the time. Single player or multi, Shaun White’s Snowboarding will still allow interaction with online players on the mountain, just for kicks. It’s a great way to use todays increasing popularity with online content. Scheduled for release this year.

Allen Carr’s Easyway To Stop Smoking

Now we’re getting into the more vague stuff. My DS is already teaching me to read, write, look, squash Goombas, now stop smoking? Sure, if you want to. I guess this is a break from the ‘family oriented’ titles, unless this is something your kids should get in to. “Published in 50 countries, Allen Carr’s Easyway to Stop Smoking book is an international best seller, and Allen Carr’s Easyway network of clinics spans the globe. Over 10 million smokers worldwide have already turned to Allen Carr’s Easyway books, clinics or DVD in order to stop smoking.” Maybe you should get your kids a DS, just in case they take up smoking. Perhaps an odd device to attack smoking addictions but hey – if it works, go for it. For now, I’m going to have a smoke.

Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party

In development for Wii and DS, the Wii version will have Balance Board support as well as Wii-mote minigames, providing yet another excitable adventure with those crazy rabbids. “The Rabbids plan to invade televisions worldwide, providing players with a variety of games and comedic exploits spoofing TV shows, pop culture and even advertisements.”

Thankfully they’re getting creative and while another mini-game, those damn rabbids are always entertaining and the mini-games are often well thought and fun. Though I don’t know if I’m a big fan of – “…the game uses the Wii Balance Board (as used by Wii Fit) in a unique way – you can play some of the games with your butt!”

My butt’s the one thing that does nothing while I game, except be scratched. Let’s not get too nuts on this balance board please, I’ve already heard enough stories of objective hilarity expressed towards users of WiiFit.

There were two more titles that Ubisoft neglected to mention in their press release, I wonder why…

My Fashion Studio

Taking a more tasteful side to a girls’ passion for fashion, My Fashion Studio lets girls (and questionable boys) design and create a variety of clothing. Neat! Of course all games aren’t without senseless violence, in this case our foe being the great General Gothmoth, the leader of a gang of moths. Check out the official website here. http://myfashionstudio.us.ubi.com/

Dogz 2008

Here’s a series that seems bent on releasing itself in as many variations across as many platforms possible over actually increasing in content or general value. Dogz 2008 comes as no surprise, this one’s on Wii! With 18 different breeds of canine to pamper and train, here’s hoping Dogz 2008 can throw in some interesting content to expand these pet games a little.