The mysterious plot of Assassin's Creed is "based on research... about the fact your genes might be able to hold memory" and features a "science company trying to... go into people's brains and find out an ancestor who used to be an assassin,” according to talkative Veronica Mars actress Kristen Bell, whose voice and likeness appears in the game. Bell unwittingly revealed the sci-fi secret at the heart of one of next year's most exciting games during an interview with IGN TV. ... » Read More

Not only does Assassin's Creed offer new stealth mechanics thanks to its social camouflage feature, it also showcases new acrobatic maneuvers using the immediate environment around Altair that haven't been seen before in a game. While there were some curious hints as to whether or not the entire game would be set solely in the Third Crusade thanks to some of the video clips that have been released, we were looking forward to potentially changing the course of history.

Or will we? Interestingly, it seems as though the medieval action title isn't exactly what it seems. Looks like there's more of a sci-fi twist to the game than we initially thought. In an interview with IGN TV, Kristen Bell, the star of Veronica Mars explains her connection to the upcoming game. She also reveals the sci-fi premise behind the game: "It's actually really interesting to me. It's sort of based on the research that's sort of happening now, about the fact that your genes might be able to hold memory. And you could argue semantics and say it's instinct, but how does a baby bird know to eat a worm, as opposed to a cockroach, if its parents don't show it? And it's about this science company trying to, Matrix-style, go into peoples brains and find out an ancestor who used to be an assassin, and sort of locate who that person is."

IGN contacted Ubisoft for a comment on Bell's disclosure, but they were unavailable at the time this story was published.
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Newsweek report says Ken Kutaragi's "slowness" allowed Assassin's Creed and GTA IV to go to the Xbox 360.
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Newsweek's N'Gai Croal describes the battle of the HD consoles with an emphasis on Microsoft, detailing the company's expectation to sell 10 million Xbox 360s before the PS3 launch. Microsoft revised the goal to 10 million units sold by the end of this year, and Croal isn't sure that'll even happen. The second and third parts of this three-part series consider why 360 software sales haven't yet boosted demands for the hardware and how Microsoft courted many titles away from PS3-exclusive status.

Croal says that Sony was too focused on Japanese developers and its national launch of the PS3 that its American and European divisions couldn't get developer negotiation approval from the Japanese mothership. Microsoft maintained contact with Rockstar and others through this Sony silence, scaring up Xbox 360 versions of third-party PlayStation mainstays. Apparently, Ubisoft wanted Assassin's Creed to be a PS3 exclusive but couldn't steal Sony's focus from the initial Japanese launch.
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In a statement, Ubisoft said, "[The launch of GRAW 2] will take the place of Assassin's Creed and Brothers In Arms Hell's Highway, which will now strengthen fiscal year 2007-08," which runs from April 2007 through March 2008.

That info implies that the highly anticipated Assassin's Creed was planned for an early 2007 release, even though it was always tagged with a "TBA" release date. Hell's Highway was expected to be released in the first quarter of 2007. Both games are in development for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.
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Assassin's Creed is likely going to be region free... and what does that mean? You can pick up the Collectors Edition for the same price as the standard edition from Play-Asia.
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Here are the top ten games across all platforms for the week of 10/1/2006 - 10/8/2006:

1.Halo Wars (X360)

2.Assassin's Creed (X360)

3.Gears of War (X360)

4.BioShock (X360)

5.Alan Wake (X360)

6.The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)

7.Mass Effect (X360)

8.Fable 2 (X360)

9.Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (X360)

10.Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
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"While the PlayStation 3 and 360 versions of Assassin's Creed are virtually identical, Raymond did say that on the 360 the team is putting a special emphasis on Achievements. And while the 360 hardware enables Ubisoft's team to use multiple threads to enhance the crowd's AI, the end result for the game on both systems will be the same. "While the method for distributing AI load is different on each platform, the AI code itself is the same. Players will experience the exact same crowd results on PS3 and Xbox360," Ubisoft explained."
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We've suspected Assassin's Creed was coming to Xbox 360 ever since its E3 unveiling, but only recently did Ubisoft disclose the poorly-kept secret to the world. What's even strange is that the Xbox 360 version will actually sport better crowd artificial intelligence, according to a report on IGN.

"While the PlayStation 3 and 360 versions of Assassin's Creed are virtually identical, Raymond did say that on the 360 the team is putting a special emphasis on achievements. The hardware also allows for improved threading, which will improve even further the crowd AI," the impressions read.
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10,000 plus.

That's how many character animations are loaded into Assassin's Creed, 700 of them alone contextual. To put things into perspective, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, developed by the same crack team at Ubisoft Montreal, features 500 character animations. And Prince remains to this day one of the finest animated games on the market. Get the picture?
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Thursday 28 September 2006 We've grabbed two brand new videos of medieval murder game Assassin's Creed for your eyes this morning. First there's a trailer featuring horse-riding hero Altair's incredible climbing skills and some great fighting, and then we've got some footage straight from Microsoft's X06 event showing off some proper gameplay, narrated by lovely Jade Redmond, the game's producer. Hit the movies tab to watch. Towards the end of the X06 footage you'll get another sneak peek at ... » Read More

Ubisoft released this first video web blog of Assassin's Creed, where the game's producer Jade Raymond interviews Patrice Désilet, creative director, about his work on this still very mysterious game.
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Ubisoft today created the surprise by announcing that YES Assassin's Creed will also be released on Xbox 360.

What an incredible and earth shattering announcement! And we even get 2 images from the 360 version!
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Assassin's Creed will launch simultaneously on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 early next year, despite common belief that the medieval murder game would be exclusive to PS3, at least for a short period of time. And, with the game being confirmed for PC yesterday it looks like the PS3-fanboy party over 'owning' Assassin's Creed is well and truly over. Set - at least primarily - in Damascus and the Middle East in 1191 AD, Assassin's Creed tells a story of the first assassins, agents of death who ... » Read More

The 360 Magazine has a World Exclusive Preview of the Xbox 360 version of Assassin's Creed.
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August 30, 2006 - When Ubisoft unveiled Assassin's Creed at E3 earlier this year, it was touted as a PlayStation 3 exclusive. And ever since then rumors have been flying around hinting that the game's "exclusivity" may be more temporary than Ubisoft initially let on. Whispers of an Xbox 360 port are nothing new, but yesterday came reports of a PC version as well.
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The Scimitar Engine, the one powering Ubisoft's beautiful Assassin's Creed, is going to be put to work on more games from the French company. Claude Langlais, technical director on Assassin's Creed (and the chap who dropped the Assassin's Creed demo tidbit to us), told 1UP that the engine powering Assassin's Creed -- the Scimitar Engine -- wasn't just going to be used for the Holy War killing game.
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Developers from Ubisoft Montreal working on Assassin's Creed wouldn't confirm the existence of an Xbox 360 version of the game (they did, however, emphatically deny reports that engineers from Microsoft were embedded at Ubisoft Montreal working on the game's development), but they did confirm that before Assassin's Creed ships in March of 2007, Ubisoft Montreal intends on releasing a demo of the game.
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More fuel to the fire has been added over the weekend with 1up's Dana Jongewaard
saying in her blog, "For the first year at least, there are very few big titles that are PS3 exclusive. GTA4 and Assassins will be available for the 360 at the same time."
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Product Manager of Ubisoft Nordic Harald Horsberg says that the game is announced exclusively for the PS3.
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