E3 06: Ubisoft's booth lost in Haze

LOS ANGELES--There's been a lot of talk about covering up the booth babes for this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, but there are still a number of publishers offering nongame eye candy.

While the booth babes on either side of the Ubisoft booth's Rainbow Six Vegas trailer display wear silver outfits that could very well meet the expo's requirements, the suggestive way they dance (or simply bend over) seems a throwback to E3s of yesteryear.

On the opposite end of the booth, Ubisoft has set up a viewing room where attendees can get a look at Free Radical's upcoming first-person shooter, Haze. The game casts players as a foot soldier in a privatized army, and the viewing room was decked out as a building of the Mantel Corporation for which they fight.

Continuing the trailer motif, a disturbing litter of bugeyed, bucktoothed stuffed bunny rabbits lies alongside screens giving a first glimpse of Michel Ancel's next Rayman, while videos for Ubisoft's anticipated Wii shooter Red Steel run nearby. To actually get their hands on Red Steel, gamers have to go to Nintendo's E3 booth.

As for playable fare, a castle-like façade with menacingly warped windows was constructed for the demo of the PC first-person shooter Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, and attendees can freely get their hands on the company's latest acquisition, the Japanese Xbox 360 role-playing game Enchanted Arms. Ubisoft's booth also holds a playable build of Splinter Cell: Double Agent, but when GameSpot checked, it was only being demonstrated by the publisher's staffers.