Yesterday’s official press release by Ubisoft detailed various aspects of Assassin’s Creed II with a vague release date also announced. The game has been in development for over two years and looks set to be released in time for Christmas this year on all formats. It is set in the cities of Venice and Florence in Renaissance Italy and puts players in the shoes of Ezio, a young nobleman, whose betrayal by the rival ruling family takes him on a journey of vengeance.

A feature in this month’s Game Informer magazine has provided even more details saying that the game will have a more open-world environment this time - much criticism was levelled at the previous instalment for being too linear - with a large variety of unique side-missions and narrative content. Ezio will also have more abilities over his counterpart in the first game, Altair, being able to swim, hide underwater, fight using his fists, and attack using two hidden blades (Altair only had one). The free-running and climbing is also said to be a lot smoother this time around.

A trailer has also been released which, unfortunately, does not provide any gameplay footage or extra story information. It simply tells us a little about the setting and, rather eerily, that the “real truths lie in the shadows” and are “written in blood.” Spooky.

Ubisoft seem to be adding tonnes of new features to Assassin’s Creed II which should see it being one of 2009’s biggest sellers. The first game proved to be extremely popular selling over 8 million copies worldwide to-date since its release in November 2007.

Expect to hear more about Assassin’s Creed II at E3 later on this year.