Assassin's Creed

stoked to get AC2 then (back in the USA now fwiw, sadly)

condolences

yeah it's less than $15 here now, unbelievable: I thought this was new? old new I guess

really just looking for some massive 100+ hour game with a sense of ~progress~ that isn't a shooter, for 360 rather than for DS (cos I want a bit of a rest for my eyes). This may not be exactly that, but I think it'll do.

Dragon's Age might be a good candidate for that too. Def 100+ hours.

that's right! It seems to have come down in price a lot too...think I'll spring for these two (kinda intrigued by Mass Effect I/II also)

Loved Mass Effect I + II, and in general love the idea of serial videogaming that BioWare seems to be developing.

got the first one, played a couple of hours & it's legit gorgeous & I can't wait to be able to play later tonight, so that's a good sign. I had a hard time pickpocketing & am still not sure what I was doing wrong but I eventually did it.

I'm on the sixth assassination mission now & loving this game (the first one) a lot. Climbing these beautiful buildings is the best. I'm coming to hate the combat, but o/w the repetitiveness of the missions doesn't bother me: this is just a gorgeous playground to climb---I'm totally envious of my character (except for the killing part): to be able to climb like that! & to be able to climb *those* buildings!

if you like that your head will pop when you play the 2nd one

Yeah you're like "St Mark's Basilica! I'm fucking climbing that!"

I climbed the rose window of a Gothic cathedral in Acre I think & it was a "whoooooooo" moment. The Dome of the Rock was pretty amazing too. I'm a sucker for history & yeah, can't wait to get to the second one (b/c I gather the combat won't suck so bad anymore & yeah, those buildings too!).

The second one comes with a database giving you a potted history of each of the buildings & people of note, which is a nice wee distraction.

The combat is better but the entire game still suffers from the repetitiveness (though I enjoy grinding my way around the maps trying to find *everything*).

I've done all the missions so far & it's not felt like a chore until the last few save citizens, because the combat is getting harder but I don't really have anything significant & new in my own repertoire. Or else I'm just getting lazy on hitting the counters on time. Mostly I'm just trying to run from combat now b/c I love climbing so much.

Finished this tonight (the first one), or at least I think I did---the ending was pretty weird & unresolved. But I triggered the game-winning achievement so I guess that's it? Yeah, the combat on this mostly sucked, & the close-quarters combats really sucked. It was mostly just button-mashing & I'd have enjoyed this a lot more w/o it; the climbing was waaaaaaaaaay fun & imho validates the whole game. If there were some way to tie that mechanic to a non-violent game (like some kind of Spider Man game? not really non-violent but more cartoonish & less, er, fatal) I'd have dug this more. Well, the setting is tremendous; I'm going to hold onto the game for now so that I can pop into Acre etc. just to run around; even w/o GTA-like chores to keep me busy it's a wonderful place to linger.

Also I think the story on this was in the end pretty dumb & half-baked. What's the idea of this: did they think it would be more attractive to twelve year olds this way? Or is it cheaper to write a dumb game? It's not even the Animus part that's the dumbest; just the awkward betrayal story within the Crusader world. & the dialogue is terrible. Still, I'm excited to get the sequel some time soon.

I've been playing Assassin's Creed 2--it's pretty sweet. So much better and more polished than the original.

man i hated the first one, but i am loving #2 - pretty amazing job of removing all the suck from the first.

the cgi movie stuff is still pretty lolworthily awful tho - i never understand when the movie stuff is less graphically well done than the game itself.

oh shit was i supposed to give this to you :<

eh i found it for $18 so what the hell

btw peeps that dig this really might want to check out el cheapo game "the saboteur" which i have also been playing quite a bit recently - lots o climbing, but u get gunz and carz and esplosives

I'm totally stoked to get The Saboteur one of these days, b/c I actually know the locale where it takes place pretty well...kinda think my lack of interest in GTAs has been that I don't really know most of their locales very well (never played San Andreas fwiw).

started Fallout 3 last night finally though so I think it'll be a while before I leave that vault, so to speak...

yeah digging this. Only thing that deeply upsets me is that I can't PARKOUR without consequences as in the first game due to health no longer (totally) replenishing when, e.g., I fuck up a big cross-building jump or whatev.

Wait a fucking minute, did this game just make a nintendo joke?! That's fucking awesome

xxpost saboteur is excellent btw, not up to the sheer wow of AC2 but much more out & out fun than most of the big releases of late

yeah I ordered The Saboteur, as it's pretty low-priced now, & I'll keep waiting for AC2 to come further down in price.

Guys, the brotherhood demo is awesome. Anybody else a ps+ member and want to play?

Anybody? Seriously this is fucking great

i've been playing ACII a lot. it's pretty fun, every time i get bored with one aspect of the game they add something new (tired of running around in one city and stabbing people? here's a new city, and you have to ride a chariot past a bunch of guards to get there!). the tombs are especially fun. the fighting is funny though, in theory it's all complicated and has all these different maneuvers you learn to do, in practice I just jam the fight button really fast until everyone's dead.

so nobody else got into the ac brotherhood beta? cuz it's awesome.

Brotherhood beta is online multiplayer, correct? Zero interest. Excited by the single player game though.

it's a totally unique multiplayer. You can't kill your attacker.

Read about it, not interested. I don't do multiplayer unless it's co-op. Adversarial multiplayer not my thing.

Brotherhood gets 10/10 on Eurogamer = o_O

but ACI is the best AAA game I've played on any console (well, KOTOR was pretty great too) & if ACII just improved on that & this improves on that, then I can see it! gotta get ACII soon, the price is certainly getting right. The problem with waiting to get Brotherhood is that if I wait a year or so then multi is gonna be barren = the cost of being a cheap ass.

I wish they had spent more time talking about the 20+ hour single player component. I would have been more excited as ACII was my game of the year. Now I gotta pick this up. At least nothing's been spoiled by my ignorance.

ACII was so much better than the first one which became so repetitive and boring I gave up on it about halfway through.

Looking forward to this one and have just had an email from Amazon saying it's on its way so hopefully will arrive tomorrow

i got ACII having never played ACI and it's really confusing - i'm expected to know how to do everything right away and the story makes no sense..

is this the same game that's advertised on uk tv with the friggin awful strange inappropriate dance music?

So anyone else playing this? I've played about 3 or 4 hours so far and first impressions are that it's even better than AC2. It is more of the same, but in a good way with some interesting tweaks to the gameplay mechanics.

Rome is massive and very well designed and the ability to now ride horses in the cities is awesome. Definitely recommended if you liked the previous one.

I've been playing through AC1, which I have pretty mixed feelings about. All the negative stuff is true- repetitive missions, unpredictable/inconsistent "social stealth" rules (LOOK! A MAN, ON A HORSE, RIDING ABOVE WALKING SPEED! CLEARLY HE IS OF THE ANCIENT BROTHERHOOD OF HASHASHIN!), unlikeable protagonists (Desmond is a whiner and Altair a straight-up dick), but the environments and freerunning are almost enough to justify the game's existence on their own.

I kind of want to rush through to get to the good AC games, but the obsessive completist in me won't let me rest without completing all of the viewpoints, citizen rescues and investigations. Which is nice, because there's a ton of beautiful, meticulously-rendered scenery I'd miss if I did. Who the hell makes a game where you can climb around on the Dome of the Rock and not only makes it totally optional, but easy to miss?

I'm not doing the flags beyond the ones I stumble across, though, because I am not insane.

I gave up on the first one after about 6 hours and have never regretted it.

impressed with brotherhood so far!

the symbol puzzles are really imaginative and creepy, like they were in 2. good job.

Playing "the Saboteur" now and amused by how much AC it mixes in

I bought bro'hood this weekend for the multiplayer (and eurogamer's 10). I have never played an assasins creed game so bought the AC2 for £10 yesterday.

I aim to play 2 then straight into bro. but play the multiplayer from brohood in tandem.

Is this madness?

Has anyone any tips?

skip the DLC on AC2

i'm really liking brohood!! i'm not very far in the story, and in true ocd style i've been grinding out all the side shit.

first impressions

- rome is pretty but a lot of it is ruins. i think this is accurate, for the time? pretty cool climbing around on the colosseum.

- the villains (one group of) in this game look to be some kind of anti-church old gods of rome pagan dudes, but that may be fake since the templars are behind everything. i was impressed with how they used cultural stuff in AC2; and so far the use of old roman locations, artwork, etc, has been really cool and involving too.

- the structure of this one is more "horizontal" than linear, if that makes sense. there are fewer artificial blocks on where you can't go right away, and less emphasis on moving through the story missions to unlock the side stuff. most of the side stuff is there right away, laid out all over the map. there's a ton to do. opening shop locations, buying landmarks, taking down enemy towers (a twist on the 'tower look around' thing) secret hideouts, the hidden symbol puzzles, faction missions, missions of shop owners. i'm not even to the whole 'train more assassins' part. they packed it full.

- the combat works a little better, but builds right off of AC2. you basically can do everything right away, and you kind of have to.

- it looks like a lot more is made out of the modern-day framing device. you are able to leave the past-simulation at any time and walk around the lab, even leave the building. i'm sure there's going to be a lot happening here and there are hints already of twists to the conspiracy story. there's also a bunch of virtual training stuff you can do, for the medal-obsessed.

oh and there's a really long sex cutscene pretty early on :/

1 more thing: there is slightly more horse-riding, which has been slightly improved, and you can ride horses in town. esp after RDR all horses are awful so this is kind of a negative

slightly more horse-riding

nooooooooooooo

only one segment so far where it was part of the action. there are a few spots where you kind of trot along while machiavelli talks to you

one plus side of more horsey shit is that the guards sometimes ride them and it's pretty terrifying! i can't think of a game with sword fighting where you face down a mounted attacker, which i think was kind of big deal at the time.

I have no time for these games anymore. If I wanted to put on a dress and walk around a big crowd groping people i'd go to the Santa Claus parade.

just ordered AC 2 game of the year from the UK; hoping it'll play on my USA 360 (net seems to suggest it will)

should get to Brotherhood by the time it drops in price, by which time sadly the multi'll be dead.