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E3 06: Mystery game, Wii Rayman, Red Steel lead Ubisoft's E3 lineup

Unnamed next-gen Free Radical to be unveiled in LA next week; joins Brothers in Arms sequel, Assassin's Creed, Dark Messiah, two Wii launch titles, and others.

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With the Electronic Entertainment Expo now exactly one week away, the trickle of publishers announcing their game lineups for the event is fast becoming a deluge. French publisher Ubisoft was the latest to reveal which games it will be showing off at the event--and its roster has some surprises.

Ubisoft also used today's announcement to unveil the new Rayman game from King Kong and Beyond Good & Evil designer Michel Ancel. First revealed early last month, the game will sport the alliterative moniker Rayman Raving Rabbids and will be a launch title for the Nintendo Wii. Previously, Ubisoft had said only that the game was in development at Ubisoft's Montpellier studio for "current and next-generation consoles" and would ship this coming holiday season.

Besides promising that the Wii version of the game would use the platform's "innovative controller," Ubisoft dropped some plot details about Rayman Raving Rabbids. "When the world of Rayman is threatened by a devastating invasion of crazed, out-of-control bunnies Rayman must rise up against his furry foes to foil their wicked plans," the company said in a statement. The game will allow Rayman to "control various creatures such as sharks, eagles, rhinos, spiders" in large-scale free-roaming environments in his quest to defeat his carrot-addled foes.

Another major event that will go down at Ubisoft's booth is the unveiling of the new game from Free Radical, developer of the popular TimeSplitters series. Little is known about the project, which was first announced last November, other than that it will be an all-new intellectual property and will ship for next-generation consoles and PCs during Ubisoft's current financial year, which ends in March 2007.

Rounding out Ubisoft's E3 lineup is the Wii-only slasher-shooter Red Steel, and Enchanted Arms, the Japanese Xbox 360 role-playing game from From Software. The medieval action game Assassin's Creed, which was just reannounced for the PlayStation 3 after being previously shown off at the 2005 Tokyo Game Show.

There will also be forthcoming installments in several staple Ubisoft franchises, including Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent, and Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway. But while all three are being released for various platforms--including the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3--Ubisoft did not specify which versions of the games would be playable at the event. (Platforms mentioned below are for reference only.)

UBISOFT'S E3 2006 LINEUP
Assassin's Creed (PS3, Xbox 360 - 2007)
Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway (PC, PS3, Xbox 360 - Q4 2006)
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic (PC - Q3 2006)
Enchanted Arms (Xbox 360 - Q2 2006)
"Game to be Unveiled" (Free Radical's next-gen console/PC project - TBA)
Open Season (PC, PS2, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube, DS, Game Boy Advance - September 2006)
Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wii and "current and next-gen consoles"- Holiday 2006)
Red Steel (Wii - Holiday 2006)
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double Agent (PC, PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube - September 2006)
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas (PS3, Xbox 360 - Q4 2006)

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