Assassin's Creed

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.

haven't touched the multi. don't know if i want to

you should. it's all i played and it's awesome

really loving the multi, but on the PS3 game matching is plain broken.

however its nice to have a multiplayer game thats got a bit more going on upstairs.

what with the climbing and all, rite

love poisoning a guard and then throwing coins at his feet

lol i'll have to try that

i'm super ocd about this right now

I think I'm nearly finished (just at the end of sequence 11.) I do like the game but it has its issues: the map screen runs at 15fps, it's too easy to decrease your wanted level, and chiefly the boss assassination missions always seem to end up in a massive melee. if the boss does manage to get away he just runs in a loop until you catch up and assassinate him.

there's little need for actual guile when fighting the bosses. in fact, there's little opportunity for it anyway. you can sit and analyse the guard patterns and still be seen w/in seconds. mostly you just weigh in and then mash punch until the guards are dead and the sequence complete

would love for AC to have some of the /sophistication/ of the hitman games when it comes to multiple routes to the finish. would also love a ninja game in the engine, with more sophisticated stealth

yeah the stealth/hiding element is the most game-y and uninvolving.

it would really help if you weren't dressed like a fruitcake. then you wouldn't have to visualize 'blending into a crowd' with some flashy color changing business. it would just look like you're blending into a crowd. just sayin.

that said i'm totally loving this

Just got a used copy this morning. ACII was my game of the year last year so I am very happy to have this in my hands.

(I was talking about ACII just for ref, dunno if those issues have been addressed in AC:B)

naw ACB is basically the same. it's the same engine just with a lot more added to the mission and story elements. about the only thing that's different-different is kill-chaining in combat. that and... more horses.

the more i think baout this game the more i think it needed a disguise mechanic as a core element.

Is this available for PC? I have the first one, found it pretty but a bit repetitive.

not yet i don't think. brotherhood, that is.

AC2 is

I guess I'll pick up AC2, then! Totally bored w/UT now, I've been looking for something new to play for a while....

11 years? ;)

ok the conspiracy puzzle things are just kind of lame this time around. in 2 i thought they were a little too dan brown-y instead of umberto eco-y. in ACB they're more counterpunch dot org-y instead of dan brown-y :/

people have been going at some of the extraneous puzzles in the glyph segments

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/996093-assassins-creed-brotherhood/57218904

spoilers obv, but i was never going to do them and they're all pretty clever

also kinda funny watching gamefaqs dudes go to wiki to find out who kissinger and pinochet are

I got Brotherhood for Christmas, now I have to get my arse into gear and finish AC2. Good couple of hours in today but half of it was fucking around finding random shit without advancing the story.

I was still climbing around Renaissance Italy at 3a.m. :(

Same here, for me AC2 has essentially become a Tuscan Villa refurbishment sim, and when I get really bored, I go and do a story mission.
I think the reason I dont tire of it like other sandbox games is the lack of traffic lights.

After AC2, GTA seems really hemmed in with the grid structure of the roads & no crazy leaps into straw.

Up til 3:45 this morning playing Brotherhood, despite the fact that it was annoying me just as much as it gave me pleasure. There's way too much trial-and-error in the gameplay, and it gets repetitive - not enough innovation between AC2 and this. I'm almost playing it for the story; I kept finding myself longing for a 'skip this level and just gimme the effing cutscene' button.

Are there any more assassin whore nun characters in AC:B?

DETECTED

DESYNCHRONIZED

motherfucker

I will be amazed if they don't make a level out of this for the "present day" part of the next game:

http://vigilantcitizen.com/?p=58 (link via Wonkette for some reason)

another one of these. i'm in!

Fuck yeah!

http://i.imgur.com/OAhqA.jpg

can't wait to play as ezio redcorn

dammit, i wanted the french revolution. bigger cities to run about in.

Will he climb trees instead of buildings?

according to these screens, yes he will climb trees.

http://imgur.com/a/3NNkQ

kinda disappointed with this setting I gotta say

dollars to doughnuts they go future style for the next one
surprised there was no french revolution tho