Assassin's Creed

I think so; I haven't come across a stage as bad as Croc. Controls aren't quite as perfect, but I rarely have problems (maybe three or four infuriating moments in 10+ hours). I really didn't like the art direction of Arkham Asylum - too many character models looked like He-Man figures.

They're both quite good though; the level of polish and world immersion are really spectacular.

Have you tried Dragon's Age yet? That's the other game I really wanna play. (I've been playing Brutal Legend recently -- very meh.)

I put Dragon's Age on hold for AC2; it's really good, but to be honest it feels a little, "been there, done that." I happen to love what it does so I love it despite the familiarity. Also, my saves all got corrupted and I had to start again after twenty hours. A little too soon to be starting over.

I watched vid's of the Brutal Legend cutscenes. I love the sense of humor but really dislike RTS; nice but no Psychonauts or any of his Lucasarts stuff.

do you still need to hold R1 and the bottom button all the time in AC2?

R1 is still the aggressive stance modifier, so yes, you use it a great deal. If you're holding it all the time than you're doing it wrong.

Started in on this tonight. A strange game to play back-to-back with Call of Duty, as they couldn't feel more different. I'm definitely enjoyed the totally laid back pace (so far), maybe partially just because of that change. To go from such an over the top, hyper-kinetic gameplay, to this calm, understated thing is a real change of pace. An interesting example of the range of experiences currently available in big games. The only turn off so far is some of the facial animation (particularly noticeable with the women characters), it really looks surprising ass. The city atmosphere and pulled back stuff is great though.

Cutscenes all look like ass. Luckily, you don't spend much time watching (as opposed to playing) the game.

Finished this - about 20 hours of trying and 4 hours of dicking around. Definite GotY candidate.

I've been playing through the first Assassin's Creed on and off for the past couple of weeks (onto Memory Block aka Level 6, I think I'm near the end). My kids are getting annoyed with me wanting to systematically get every viewpoint then every Save Citizen before doing the investigations. I'm sure if they knew the word aspie I'd have heard it by now.

still kinda want to play this b/c I love the milieu, but discouraged by how boring everyone makes the game play sound. At least it's cheap now.

I like the throwing knives and the stealth/hidden blade take-downs but the sword fighting gets really old really quickly. You can take on 8 guys at a time doing pretty much nothing but timing the counter-attack button. The free running stuff pretty good but how many thousand year old roofs can you jump between before it feels a bit samey no matter how nice it looks?

I was really enjoying it but I think I've got to a point where I'm doing it for completeness and to see where the stupid modern day 'science' bit of the story goes.

Just finished. It got a bit harder towards the end having to fight multiple bosses, and multiplied cheating big boss - but was essentially just hitting the same buttons over and over. Shitty ending as well. I can't see me going back to it to collect the remaining flags as things. Might pick up the sequel at some point when it's really cheap.

the whole ending sequence of that game is so terrible. the second one is a considerably better game. they really stripped out most of the weaker content from the first one and replaced it with mostly high quality new stuff, and even improved the parts that did work. the only exception is that the sword fighting is still as crappy as ever, but you can at least just avoid it for the most part. there was an interesting interview with the lead developer recently where he admitted that the fighting was sub-par and they wished they had time to change it.

the 2nd one is kinda mind bogglingly full, there's so much stuff to do it's kinda tiring and it's v. historically intricate

really enjoying it but it can be a bit much for extended play

Ugh. I borrowed this from a friend along with his Modern Warfare 2. I played the hell out of MW2, and figured I'd have plenty of time for AC2 before RDR came out. Then my Xbox RROD'd, RDR came out, and I have no idea when I'm gonna get to AC2. Maybe in a few months. :/

you really should put some time aside for this, it's great!

does anyone know if I can view the artworks I've bought?

They are hanging up in the villa - you can click on them and get a bigger view and artist info.

thanks ezs

woah, the assassination of the crazy monk surrounding by archers was wicked good

is it just me or did everyone assassinate every minstrel on sight?

also it's kinda ridiculous that they have this amazing engine, open world, 720p, stable framerate, ai running routines etc but the map screen crawls along at 5fps wtf

i never finished AC2, it gets kind of repetitive. also their DRM bullshit turned me off.

Really enjoying this. I switched off the Italian dialogue when I realized I couldn't hear the jokes from the ambient dialogue.

I'm kinda curious what they'll do for the next historical period: Revolutionary-era France? Dickensian London?

Both of those would be great settings, which is why I'm kind of puzzled that the next one is continuing the adventures of the Italian guy from #2. The "more of the same" approach and the weirdly gratuitous addition of multiplayer was giving me a kind of Bioshock 2 vibe, but from all the stuff about the series' creator leaving Ubisoft it looks like he was the director on Brotherhood too.

you can change the language in this thing? sweet, no more stupid ass accented english, if possible, please.

but i'm enjoying the hell out of this!

gameplay is mostly great, but sometimes i have no idea what's going to happen either in free-run or with the fighting. i really don't understand the framing device (didn't play the first one; how exactly is there a hard drive with this dude from the 15th century's memories on it?) but the 'glyph' puzzle elements are really involving and freaky. i love all the classic conspiracy shit and am lol'ing at how they roped in all this cultural stuff and built all of these famous buildings just for a sandbox parkour game.

it's got a lot of info that's pretty, i dunno, dangerous, ideologically. at least for a video game. i love the notice at the beginning of the game that the developers 'come from many different faith backgrounds' or some dumb thing by way of apology.

yeah the research and history is ridiculously involved and intricate

the best bit about this game is when you scale a tall building and fill in another wee bit of the map: love the way the camera swings round as a snippet of ~evocative~ music plays

the one thing that's a little disappointing to me, for all the ooh-dangerous religious and historical mumbo jumbo, is the absence of islam. no surprise, these days, but come on, you're an ASSASSIN fighting TEMPLARS. and they've just translated that into a rebels vs. the squares fite.

like, "your father... was an assassin." "fuck, what about christmas?"

First one had loads of Muslims iirc

oh, didn't know that!

ok the basilica san marco in venice is legitimately beautiful

took a loooong time to get into but i'm really loving this game now. much more varied and interesting than the first one

but the 'glyph' puzzle elements are really involving and freaky.

these just keep getting cooler and freakier and more demanding, i'm really impressed.

the biggest disappointment to me is the hiding/guard alertness/notoriety system. it really doesn't make much sense as a whole, mainly because the character design is so flashy and fanboyish. sometimes a whole pack of guards will come after you for nothing, most of the time they are content to ignore the opera diva/armed murderer guy climbing up the walls in front of them. should have been much more of a stealth game imo.

the few things i've read about the next one suggests there's some kind of disguise mechanic.

what you're saying about this sounds great, esp. the beauty of the environment. My impression is that the first game had a beautiful environment also, & personally I'm more fascinated by its milieu than by Renaissance Italy (though I'm fascinated by that too). Given that the first game costs like $5 at this point, would it be worth my while to try it out first? Or is the first one such a stinker that it's really not worth any time/money?

no, i'd highly recommend it. the attention to detail and the atmosphere more than make up for some of the flaws in gameplay, which is already pretty strong in itself. i think it deserves its high marks.

I will look into picking this up if someone promises me that you dont spend hours pointlessly riding a horse through the countryside like you did in the first one

one other flaw, now that i think of it: riding a horse feels like the goofiest and most primitive thing ever, after playing RDR. good thing it's a very minor element

lol xp

ok hahaha

there are two 'cities' that are more like small towns with some countryside around them, so a horse can be handy if running gets boring. and there are a couple side-quests that need a horse. that's about it.

gah, been playing AC2 for about 25 hours, doing most of the sidequests and got up to the little water-logged town with the prison, just after the horse ride to the mountains... and i've just loaded up the game only to be told my savegame is corrupt.

i have a problem with my pc in that it BSODs when it reaches a certain temperature, usually after about 25 mins of playing a game and this is undoubtedly what corrupted the savegame. annoyingly AC2 only has one savegame file so this means i'm going to have to start again from the beginning. it's a long shot but does anyone have a savegame from around this area or earlier? or know of a trainer that'll let me skip all the cutscenes and help zoom through the game much quicker than normal?

ah amazing, just found a tmp folder next to my savegame folder which has a bunch of old savegames, crisis averted! while i'm here might as well repeat that this game is absolutely *awesome*

euler, you can get AC2 very cheap these days too

dunno what the sitch is like in paris (??) but in the UK it can be had for £10/12

think I'll go back to playing this tonight, not been on the xbox in a while ~summer~

here are more of my thoughts on this game

- like most conspiracy stories, it gets less fun and less compelling near the end when you find out what the big story really is. if it were me i'd find a way to make it ambiguous and full of contradictory details right to the end. a good global conspiracy should leave you knowing less at the end! more eco, less dan brown.

- i wish there was a "natural language" setting for the game. i set it to italian cos i fuckin hated the accented-english v/o (yes complete with an "it's-a me" gag from your uncle mario (spolier, sorry)). but then all the modern day shit was in italian too. no more kristen bell. come on ubi this is basic.

- neither of the DLCs are all that great. they seem rushed.

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!