One of the main titles that Ubisoft has been putting a lot of its weight behind this year at E3 is Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Much was being shown of what the game would be like, with an awesome cinematic trailer playing all over and even some single player game footage being demonstrated. A really cool sequence where Ezio must defend a city from enemies invading by sea really captured the eye. Adding onto that; there have been a number of minor, but key, improvements to the gameplay namely a more fluid and varied combat system.
But most of what was dominating its appearances on the show floor was the brand new multiplayer mode. This mode sounds somewhat complicated but it's actually fairly simple.
Six people enter a room together, each one taking control of one of six characters. Each character has some minor differences separating them from the others but overall they control in a fairly similar manner, a manner that anyone who plays the main game will be instantly familiar with. The city you are placed in is populated by dozens of NPCs that all look like six characters the players are controlling. This begins the mouse hunt.
Each player has a target that they must assassinate (i.e. player one is hunting player two who is hunting player three, etc.) but they have to be very careful. You are looking for the person who is behaving oddly; the one who isn't acting like one of the regular old NPCs moving along the street. Should you find who you are looking for before the one hunting you catches up then you can attempt to kill them. Just make sure it's actually them. If you should happen to accidentally kill one of the NPCs instead of your actual PC target then your position is exposed to everyone. At this point it becomes a breeze for your hunter to find you and bring you down.
This mode is an interesting take on competitive multiplayer but it doesn't seem as if it will really hold most gamers attentions for very long. While the single player is promised to be quite long, the multiplayer is likely going to be an interesting curio, examined for flavor before being abandoned for newer titles. Hopefully some of the other modes that haven't been revealed will be announced before its November release date, making the package all the more appealing.