Assassin's Creed 2 for "holiday 2009"

Ubisoft has announced that Assassin's Creed 2 will be released on "all current-generation platforms" during this "holiday", which usually means the period leading up to Christmas, as opposed to, say, that week I've booked off in May.

The publisher also released a teaser trailer, which shows nothing of the game itself but announces via hammy voiceover that things are not what they seem in Renaissance Italy.

Which, of course, we already knew, because everyone gutted the Game Informer preview earlier this week, revealing that the game takes in the cities of Venice and Florence, gives you control of a young noble turned assassin called Ezio, and includes real-life figures like Leonardo da Vinci as your mate.

It also aims to improve on the first game's free-running, combat, openworld, mission structure, AI and pretty much everything else, which is very promising. There's no word on what's happened to Desmond though.

"Our creative team is working hard to top the experience of Assassin's Creed," said Patrice Desilets, creative director at Ubisoft, as the publisher reminded us that the first game sold over 8 million copies.

"We've made improvements to every aspect of the game. We've plunged ourselves into the stunning history of the Italian Renaissance so that we can offer fans a unique, varied and innovative Assassin's Creed experience."

Check out our original Assassin's Creed review to see what Ubisoft's trying to top.