Assassin’s Creed II panel at Comic-Con

Ubisoft will host a panel about Assassin’s Creed II at Comic-Con in San Diego later this week. The panel, “Assassin’s Creed II: Video Games and Hollywood Converge,” will touch on the convergence of video games and film. Featured panelists will be Yannis Mallat, chief executive officer at Ubisoft Montreal, and Pierre Raymond, founder and chief executive officer of Hybride Technologies, the visual effects studio behind 300 and Sin City, along with special guest Corey May, Assassin’s Creed II video game scriptwriter. The panel will take place July 23 from 1:45–2:45 p.m. in Room 6A.

Assassin’s Creed II is scheduled to launch on November 17 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and Windows. A short film series called Assassin’s Creed II: Lineage will be released for Holiday 2009. Three short movies will focus on the story of Ezio’s father, Giovanni Auditore da Firenze, will preclude the Assassin’s Creed II storyline and will offer fans insight into the Assassin’s Creed II storyline and characters. For more information about Assassin’s Creed II, visit www.assassinscreed.com.

Bayonetta coming to Comic-Con

Everyone seems to be enamored with Sega’s and PlatinumGames’ upcoming action game, Bayonetta - even Scott Jones seems to be in love with it (read his E3 preview). Sega sees the writing on the wall and is bringing the game front and center in San Diego next week for Comic-Con. At Comic-Con 2009 in the San Diego Convention Center, SEGA’s Bayonetta video game will be given the star treatment with a a variety of events and activities including a developer panel, game demos, a live action model, and an attendee cosplay contest.

The hands-on demo portion of Bayonetta’s Comic-con presence will take place July 23 - 26 from 9:30am - 7 pm on all days (except 9:30-5pm on July 26) at the SEGA Booth #5229. Sega will also feature Iron Man II, Planet 51, and Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing.

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Atlus reveals Anime Expo 2009 plans

Atlus U.S.A. announced that it will be exhibiting and taking part in panels at the Anime Expo 2009, taking place at the Los Angeles Convention Center from July 2 - July 5, 2009.  In addition to exhibiting on the show floor, Atlus will also be holding a special panel for the upcoming PS3 exclusive action RPG Demon’s Souls.

The panel, Demon’s Souls: The Full Story, is scheduled for Saturday at 4:00pm and features producer Takeshi Kajii and a special video message from director Hidetaka Miyazaki, key individuals involved in the conceptualization and development of the upcoming action RPG, scheduled for release in Fall 2009. Panel attendees will be eligible to win a collectible framed canvas print of game art, autographed and presented by Mr. Kajii himself.

A special autograph signing session with Mr. Kajii will be held in the Atlus booth (#1001) at 11:00am on Sunday, July 5th. The session will be first come, first served.

Show attendees will also be able to check out Trauma Team, Demon’s Souls, SMT: Persona, SMT: Devil Survivor, Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent, and other titles at Atlus’ booth in the main exhibit hall. Finally, Atlus will hold giveaways several times a day throughout the duration of the show.

For more information regarding Anime Expo 2009, visit www.anime-expo.org.

Scott Jones GDC Panel Video, Audio

Our own Scott Jones served as Roastmaster General for the GDC panel “But What I Really Want to do is Make Games,” and it was good. And he rested. Selah. The panel featured some notable former journalists turned game developers talking about the transition from people that write about games for a living to people that make games.

The clips show some of the highlights of this panel, including some of the best advice I’ve heard from a game developer in my 11 years covering the business: “Don’t Be a Dick.” Of course one panelist didn’t agree with this advice. Check them out below, and if you want more check out the entire session in audio format at the very bottom of this story - after the break. Video provided the irrepressible Evan Narcisse.

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Killed by Friendly Fire: Game Critics Rant

Update: Evan Narcisse filmed various speakers during the panel session - you can find links to these clips after the jump sprinkled liberally throughout my notes..

We give you a rundown of one of the most explosive (and fun) panels at GDC - Killed by Friendly Fire: Critics Rant - and we give you the entire session in audio format so you can judge for yourselves. But first a rundown of all the dirty little details right after the break..

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