My Favorite News Story for May 23rd

Square Enix had some interesting things to say this week related to picking up developers in a move to grow along with the other big publishers. I thought that was somewhat predictable but what’s more important is that Japan is finally starting to acknowledge that the world has overtaken them in most areas. Technology, innovation, and great ideas are now coming from western developers and it’s been going that way for a long time. That’s the only option.

Nintendo and Sony have yet to really come close to getting a real online structure in place. Not only did Xbox have a better service 5 years ago then Sony and Nintendo do now, but even Dreamcast did it better. It’s disappointing because for so long there really were a lot of good things coming from Japan. Home is the wrong way to do it, in my opinion. Just looking at Sony, all they really have to do is lay a basic set of rules for something like cross media bars. But instead they decide to put out this MMO style thing. I know it sounds great, and makes sense in a way, but it just isn’t good enough for consoles. Live is set up so well right now. With one click on the button I can see what my friends are doing and send messages or invites. That’s what people want. Live has enough subscribers that it really makes a case for that type of system. Home will, at some point, be pointless. It just doesn’t justify the amount of time and work to get it up. But in Japan that’s what they think consumers want. I know a lot of people are excited but those resources could be put elsewhere. Free online play is all you really need to get people in, you don’t need to make another MMO.

As far as Nintendo goes, we all know it will always be about their games. That’s the one thing I can see coming from Japan that truly is great. They keep releasing the same Zelda, but it’s always awesome. Outside of that, Wii is mostly shovelware. But in both cases it’s Japanese developers holding back gaming. At least that’s how I see it. It’s not just a bunch of remade games like Mario Kart, it’s these JRPG’s that are bad. For decades now that has been the main genre everyone moved towards. It wasn’t until recently that games like Knights of the Old Republic, Oblivion, World of Warcraft, and Mass Effect managed to surpass that way of telling a story through a role-playing game. They’re getting better at it to. Whereas Final Fantasy never changed its formula. They change the way you grind. But no matter what, it’s still grinding. They are always single player games that can’t get online right. We’ve moved on.

So when a company like Square Enix comes out and says they are trying to stay relevant it’s a good sign. It means they realize they have a problem worldwide. You can have the Japanese market for yourself, but you have to realize everyone else wants something more. And it’s encouraging to see that happen. There is way more potential out there but it’s up to each developer to create that.

Exclusive Grand Theft Auto 4 Reviews (Article)

So are exclusive game reviews bad? Since when does it matter? Since GTA 4 of course. Suddenly this is out there and people realize it happens. I watched this interview with Ben Fritz from Variety on a G4 video podcast. Don’t know who the guy is but he brought up IGN having an exclusive review on GTA 4. His issue was with the integrity of the review when it was worked out to be an exclusive months ahead of time. The major problem with his argument was that exclusive reviews have been worked out since the beginning of all things related to magazines and the internet. And what’s worse is that particularly at IGN, in the past they have scored games pretty low in exclusive reviews.

If IGN had gone out of their way to give this game a perfect score and everyone else put it around 8 or 9 then sure, there would have been a valid argument in this situation. But that’s not what happened. Everyone scored it high. Too high in my opinion but it received universal praise. This was GTA 4 and it is a great game. Now, whether there was pressure from other sites to follow along with IGN and score it high could be an argument. If any major site had given the game a lower score then IGN there’s a good chance they would have felt a huge backlash from the readers. Gamespot in particular comes to mind, where the readers just keep nailing them. They couldn’t afford another issue right now. The writers there just get unfairly hit all the time, when it sounds like most criticism should be going a bit higher up. So it’s possible that other sites may have changed their positions after the IGN score went up. Looking back you know it won’t be a justified score. Not because it isn’t an amazing title, but because it isn’t a perfect title.

I understand there is this desire for journalistic integrity. I’m also sure at some point Variety has made similar stories. These magazines and websites live on the exclusives they get. It’s not secret that you have to bring in readers in any of the formats to survive. No one can say if it’s the right thing to do, but why would it ever change. If this was a game other then GTA 4 we could have never known the difference. It’s a high profile franchise and ironically, it sounds like this Variety guy was looking to get a little of the attention on his publication! It’s hard to say he didn’t have a point but it’s also pointless.

The GTA 4 reviews have all been pretty void of any real criticism. The hype was so effective that it wasn’t until turning it on you realized the looming issues the game has. It’s a unique and rare case that the industry performed this way. It probably won’t be happening again any time soon. And it’s easy to scrutinize the exclusive review, but it’s also something everyone should put behind them because those scores aren’t changing.

It’s should be noted that Metal Gear Solid 4 is right around the corner. I don’t even have a PS3 and I still think that game would be a more reasonable choice for a perfect score from what I’ve seen and heard. I am curious how that forces a reviewer into a corner. Would you give a perfect score so soon after the last one? And could you then put them side by side to make the argument of perfection? I bet you’ll see some sites avoid that simply because it doesn’t put them in a good light. Different people would obviously be reviewing each, but the sites as a whole still carry a general weight by the readers. It will be interesting to watch. My guess is they knew in advance and made sure to plan for separate reviewers on each release.

My Favorite News Story for May 16th

At the Microsoft event last week they did little more then confirm that a new Banjo and Kazooie game would be released under the title Banjo and Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. The screens were leaked well ahead of time. Rare was even forced to release a statement acknowledging them and declaring it was a platformer, not a racer. Those shots were taken out of context by a lot of people and nobody really knew what it was until that event. Now, the facts are out there. A vehicle creation platformer was not something anyone expected. It’s been pretty conflicting and really separated a lot of people. I’m very optimistic personally.

First of all, it seems everywhere I visit online someone who would go under the title Nintendo Fanboy is criticizing this franchise. Very ironic considering Nintendo owes so much success to Rare for the titles they developed over those years. They still haven’t paid off for Microsoft yet but I do think that will soon change. The impression I got was that they had created the foundation for a vehicle creation type of game. They had the physics and everything ready to go. But they couldn’t sell it as just that, so they put the Banjo name on it. That’s fine, it’s not a big deal honestly.

The idea is ambitious and different. Imagine having a car, and you stick a couple of boosters on the back with some wings on the sides. Take it into the world, and your car will eventually gain lift and fly. That opens up really just a huge number of variations in gameplay, vehicles, and objectives. It’s not quite like anything we’ve seen before. Not like this, in that it would combine so many genres.

The worlds looked big enough to do anything. They are really pushing that. Graphically it wasn’t quite there yet. They will most likely take a massive upgrade leading up to the release. But already you can see it’s a Rare game. The style and the colors were all there. And it ran pretty nicely. I liked the lighting effects. Cool sky box, things like that.

They didn’t show the motion sensitive remote there. I know a lot of people expected it to coincide with Banjo. I can’t say I’d expect it because if nobody knows any real evidence for it that leads me to believe that it’s still too early for showing it off. E3 will be interesting because if I had to guess this thing will show up there running on a few titles already announced.

So that was my favorite title for that day. There were reports of a few other games like Sonic Unleashed but since so many were negatively received my expectations for titles like that really dropped. Nothing is very original this year. Too Human is looking to be the next big game for me to get. And just as that game is getting unfairly scrutinized STILL, people are giving a pass to Killzone 2 which, from what I’ve seen and heard, probably will be disappointing a lot of folks next year unless they really get it up to a high level of performance. Some people will forever be veiled under Sony though. So those are sort of my thoughts on those events. It was nice to see some innovation, even when so many went on the attack over it.

Jumper: Griffin's Story (Xbox 360) Review

The trailer for this movie looked incredibly uninspired when I first saw it. I didn’t watch it. I think Hayden Christensen is a better actor now then he was during The Clone Wars, but the plot looked uninspired. Another movie licensed game couldn’t be bad right? Talk about a complete turn-off for a movie through a game. Now I really don’t have any interest in Jumper.

First of all, the game gives you control of Griffin. I don’t know who Griffin is. I know who Hayden Christensen is. But in the Jumper game I don’t get to use him. If I watch the movie I will likely know who Griffin is. But maybe playing the game could give me that background right? Why wouldn’t there be a cut-scene to explain why I’m not Hayden. They have cut-scenes for other things. There’s a full FMV of me teleporting a guy over the grand canyon. Why can’t they do a video for the story of the game they made? More so, why aren’t there any photos or scenes from the movie? It’s hard to believe that sort of media isn’t available. All that aside, you control Griffin. He has a Scottish accent most of the time. And he delivers generic lines.

You start out in a part of this coliseum. It gives you some text boxes about the controls. The combat is basically this: Four face buttons, four sides of an enemy. Each button is each side. Red means the enemy counters. Green is the combo. Grey is regular attack. I’ll give the game credit for one thing, and that’s how oddly fun the combat can be. When you push a button, Griffin teleports from that angle and hits the guy. You don’t have any other options. But it does feel better then worse.

Looks amazing doesn't it?

Each time you enter specific rooms you get a cut-scene of Griffin walking into the rooms. Or a cut-scene of enemies coming into the room. Either way they must be load times or something. I don’t want to call them design flaws because I don’t really know if that’s the purpose. Either way, it slows down the action. Not that you’re immersed in the game anyway because it isn’t very good. But at the very least we all would want the game to flow well.

The enemies are mostly dudes with weapons. They all look the same. You also have Paladins. They all look the same. There are male and female models. They counter. Then you have a guy who doesn’t sound like Sam Jackson. This guy has two counter areas and he does pretty heavy damage. The final enemy is some guy. I say some guy because the game never says who he is. You just see him running in a few cut-scenes. He has a trench coat, and I guess he’s the leader of something. I don’t even know why they want to kill Griffin. It never says, and I don’t care.

There are four distinct levels. Unnamed Coliseum, which I guess is in Rome, Egypt, Tibet, and some laboratory/dock. It takes about ten minutes to get through the first level. There aren’t puzzles. You just clear rooms to move on. Room after cloned room. You get pickups. The typical health, and weapon upgrades. Griffin gains experience which he can use to get stronger. Beyond that it’s not much more. FMV’s randomly come up during a fight. They show you teleporting enemies around the world. They’re virtually pointless since you don’t do the killing, you just watch someone else do it.

The Sam Jackson boss fights at the end take you around the levels again. It reuses areas for that. You fight the final trench coat guy in a library. Everything is so generic. The geometry blocks you in from places. The unlocks appear in a room, at the main menu. You literally load a room, and get to see tiny items you collected. You get the option to play through again but that’s so pointless. You’re stronger each play through. It doesn’t mean the game will be any better, just funnier. It ends quicker.

Oh but this one is even better. These are early shots, but it never really changed.

My biggest issue is that it tricked people into spending a lot of money on arguably the worst game in the past year. It’s no secret movie licensed games suck. But why couldn’t Redtribe make one more character model? I mean come on, just re-skin the existing models. Do something. Wikipedia says Redtribe has 90 employees. So during a year of development you couldn’t get two people to spend one day to make all the models? One day out of 365? I’ve done that before by myself, without the tools they had. And they were better then Jumper’s. Why were all these FMV’s made when you needed help in other areas? Are actual game makers planning these games? I can see a suit right now in a conference room. Probably saying something like "Yeah, I just watched my kid play this game called Ninja Gaiden. Lets do that, but with jumper, and teleporting." And then he got in his BMW and drove home to pat himself on the back. If I was delegating a budgeted game based on a movie, I’d probably shoot for better game reviews over FMV’s. The suckers that are buying Jumper will probably buy it no matter what. Might as well give it a shot. Redtribe also made a Looney Toons title so they have an extensive library of two failures.

I don’t even care if they defended it or felt bad about it. The fact is that people spend money on this. The general public is completely uninformed and think that it might be worth getting for the family. Or maybe someone saw this movie and it wasn’t completely awful. So they bought the game. Either way it’s bad for gaming and lowers what normal people expect from a game. It’s really sad when Cars at its worst is still more fun. Highly educated suits are literally getting paid to make crap. They should hire the guy in the art department who worked hard on this game because he has a passion for gaming. He might not be the smartest or most business savvy, but at least he knows the difference between what makes a game fun and what makes it an utter failure in every aspect.

GTA 4 Exclusive Reviews Online (Article)

So are exclusive game reviews bad? Since when does it matter? Since GTA 4 of course. Suddenly this is out there and people realize it happens. I watched this interview with Ben Fritz from Variety on a G4 video podcast. Don’t know who the guy is but he brought up IGN having an exclusive review on GTA 4. His issue was with the integrity of the review when it was worked out to be an exclusive months ahead of time. The major problem with his argument was that exclusive reviews have been worked out since the beginning of all things related to magazines and the internet. And what’s worse is that particularly at IGN, in the past they have scored games pretty low in exclusive reviews.

If IGN had gone out of their way to give this game a perfect score and everyone else put it around 8 or 9 then sure, there would have been a valid argument in this situation. But that’s not what happened. Everyone scored it high. Too high in my opinion but it received universal praise. This was GTA 4 and it is a great game. Now, whether there was pressure from other sites to follow along with IGN and score it high could be an argument. If any major site had given the game a lower score then IGN there’s a good chance they would have felt a huge backlash from the readers. Gamespot in particular comes to mind, where the readers just keep nailing them. They couldn’t afford another issue right now. The writers there just get unfairly hit all the time, when it sounds like most criticism should be going a bit higher up. So it’s possible that other sites may have changed their positions after the IGN score went up. Looking back you know it won’t be a justified score. Not because it isn’t an amazing title, but because it isn’t a perfect title.

I understand there is this desire for journalistic integrity. I’m also sure at some point Variety has made similar stories. These magazines and websites live on the exclusives they get. It’s no secret that you have to bring in readers in any of the formats to survive. No one can say if it’s the right thing to do, but why would it ever change. If this was a game other then GTA 4 we could have never known the difference. It’s a high profile franchise and ironically, it sounds like this Variety guy was looking to get a little of the attention on his publication! It’s hard to say he didn’t have a point but it’s also pointless.

The GTA 4 reviews have all been pretty void of any real criticism. The hype was so effective that it wasn’t until turning it on you realized the looming issues the game has. It’s a unique and rare case that the industry performed this way. It probably won’t be happening again any time soon. And it’s easy to scrutinize the exclusive review, but it’s also something everyone should put behind them because those scores aren’t changing.

It should be noted that Metal Gear Solid 4 is right around the corner. I don’t even have a PS3 and I still think that game would be a more reasonable choice for a perfect score from what I’ve seen and heard. I am curious how that forces a reviewer into a corner. Would you give a perfect score so soon after the last one? And could you then put them side by side to make the argument of perfection? I bet you’ll see some sites avoid that simply because it doesn’t put them in a good light. Different people would obviously be reviewing each, but the sites as a whole still carry a general weight by the readers. It will be interesting to watch. My guess is they knew in advance and made sure to plan for separate reviewers on each release.

Lost: Via Domus (Xbox 360) Review

I consider myself in the upper echelon of crazed fans for Lost. I really do have most of the show memorized as far as plot lines, locales, and characters. I never have and probably never will follow anything as close on TV again. Just right time and place. So I was pretty excited for a game that had infinite locales, ideas, and storylines to pull from.

It seems like adapting any show into a game would be difficult. Still waiting for a good Battlestar Galactica game here. How would they do it? With some shows the way it’s presented (Lost) is part of the experience. Flashbacks and how it’s formatted/written, etc. But, I’ll get to that later. I think Lost is actually a great property to recreate.

So Lost: Via Domus is a pretty basic premise. You’re a survivor that was on Flight 815. One of the red shirts essentially. And along the way you are trying to recover from amnesia and find out who you are. So each episode (level) of the game adds layers to that story, while also following the timeline of the show. So you start out at the crash, then visit the cockpit, then the hatch, etc. Each level has some neat things here and there. If you are a fan, then seeing Locke’s wheelchair is kind of a neat geek moment. Same with actually visiting the cockpit. Or getting to walk around the Swan and Staff stations. So the fan service is nice.

Each episode reveals flashbacks. These are handled pretty well. Just like the show, you will see people from 815 in the flashbacks. And you can explore the flashbacks for information related to the character. So it does that well. And the story isn’t completely awful. I think if you put it up against some episodes of the show, it would be the best of the worst. Hanso makes an appearance in the game, trying to acquire information on ESP and deadly weapons. This could actually make a lot of sense when it comes to Lost and the island’s importance. The producers have also stated that the game had no bearing on the show. I hope that’s true because it would have changed everything. See, after you betray Jack at the Black Rock with Tom friendly, you save them and escape. You run down to a boat. You talk to Locke, which seems to pop up awkwardly in every episode. And you leave. You wake up back on the beach just after 815 goes down. Your girlfriend comes up to you and the game ends. So it’s Dark Tower/The Matrix. Is Jack going to wake up after the crash at the end of season six? Yea I’m hoping against it too. But I can at least respect what they wanted to do.

Between that there is the actual game. Each section of the game is connected by jungle sections. These are more or less point to point missions. I loathe this. You don’t explore the jungle, rather you "follow Vincent", "follow the compass", and "follow the wreckage". I understand the need to keep it linear and direct the player towards a goal, but after I got killed by the smoke monster for the 5th time I was just about to quit playing. At one point in the game you get dynamite from the Black Rock. Just like the show, the dynamite is highly unstable. But, while the show used it to create tension, Via Domus just makes you fall asleep. That’s because you can’t run with it. You have to walk. And it’s not just a short walk, you have to backtrack through the jungle dodging the smoke monster. It’s not any fun at all. So I’m not a fan of jungle sequences. Even with the ability to skip around after the first trip through.

I would have left combat out of this game too. I bought a gun and a clip of ammo. At the end of the game I ended up firing 5 shots. Two for a guy in a tree. Two for dynamite. And one for this dude who was beating up on Mikhail. Do it right, or don’t do it at all.

Also, each episode has a "previously on Lost" segment that recaps the last level. Problem is that some levels only took 15 minutes to complete so you are getting recapped on something you literally just finished. And if you die at the beginning of a level sometimes, then you have to watch the whole thing over again. It doesn’t let you skip any cut scene and it doesn’t remember which ones you’ve already seen.

Then there are the puzzles. These stupid fuse boxes. Remember Bioshock? Remember the unreasonably high amount of those water pipe puzzles you had to solve? Here’s another example of that. You have to pixel hunt the stupid fuses down, then solve it. You pixel hunt every item in the game, and I hate it. This leads into my other big complaint from when I got to the Flame station. The lights are out. So you navigate the darkness through the structure. Um, no thanks. Not fun. But it didn’t end there. I also had to find the fuses for the puzzle at the end. So if you miss one, you have to retrace your steps through the darkness. My little tip for this game, buy 6-7 torches at the beginning of the game, and get a lantern just in case. There are cave explorations in the dark too so you will need the help. And grab the gun/ammo from Charlie when you can. Those are the only items you’ll need. They also have you enter the numbers in this game. I expected that would come up. What I didn’t expect was Dharma Initiative Tests. For each computer you access, you are forced to do sequenced math problems or whatever. Math problems, not fun! So those are a few issues I have.

Then there’s the character interaction. No character acts the right way. I don’t know which voices they got from the real actors, but it’s blatantly obvious which ones they didn’t get. Jack is alright, Kate is passable, but Locke is pretty bad. At times you think its close, but other times he moves into "the old pervert from Family Guy." When you find Michael cutting wood in the jungle for no good reason, he wants to trade with you for supplies. The game has an economy where a book is worth $40, water is $10, and chopping wood two miles from the beach is priceless. So Michael wants equal value for the torch. They should have never bothered. See, Michael and Locke are people that would help others on the island. They would never demand something in return for their help. Not at that point in the show. So everyone immediately seems greedy, and that’s not Lost. The character models look pretty good. I think the only odd one was Juliette who looked really weird. Pale skin, lifeless eyes, and super thin. Creepy.

As far as the overall graphics go they aren’t bad. The beach is condensed but it looks like the show. They even have the water holders and that big table. The Black Rock is awesome. The hatches are all recreated perfectly. Textures look nice. Jungle looks nice. Smoke monster looks like a smoke monster. I came across Hurley’s van in the jungle and that looked mostly like a van. So there’s that.

I think taking time and budget into consideration they tried their best. You can’t fault them for being given a short development with a small team. But like I said, Lost is a great property to adapt. In my perfect world, I would have done something along the lines of a sand-box game. Re-create the island in such a way that you can explore without being guided. Each island structure has landmarks that fans can instantly recognize. So if you found the open meadow where the Staff was, you’d know you reached it. If you found the sonar fence then you’d be near the others barracks. And talk to the NPC’s for missions. Let me make my own character and create his/her story at my own pace. If you’re going to separate yourself from the storyline of the show, then you might as well go all the way. But that’s how I’d do it in my way.

If you’re not a fan of the show, you’ll hate the game. If you are a fan, you’ll be disappointed because it should be more. People that have never seen Lost are going to find it all very dull. A good game could be done after the sixth season has been completed. There’s just so many easter eggs in the show and so many details that could be used. Kate’s horse, Sun’s garden, Eko’s brother’s plane. I don’t look at this game as a missed opportunity because it has its moments. But it is shallow, and that’s something Lost has never been.

Assassin's Creed (Xbox 360) Review

So here I am trying to play catch-up to most of the great games from last year. I buy a lot of racing games. Probably too many. That translates into a lot of time. And that means I rarely tread into other games until long after they’ve been forgotten.

But I’m getting around to them. And after two years of hype I finally got to play through Assassins Creed. A game that has really refined controls. It feels like Spider-man meets Prince of Persia with a little GTA thrown in for good measure. But it doesn’t outright copy any single aspect of those titles. And those parts add up to something great. It has flaws that I’ll get to but I feel like the game is owed something positive after being panned for repetition. People see it as a Ferrari without an engine and I don’t think gamers are able to understand how important the game truly is in terms of technology and storyline. There’s not another game like it around. You can’t say that very often. Usually every game gets compared to ever other game. What is Crackdown like? GTA. What is Lost Oddessy like? Final Fantasy. What is every shooter like? Every other shooter. You know what I mean.

Assassins Creed starts out almost disappointingly. I avoided spoilers for a long time so I went into it with screenshots of a roof jumping guy during the crusades literally burned into my mind. And then I started a new game. I’m a guy in the future, in a hooded sweater, beside a mind reading machine bed called the Animus. His name is Desmond. My preconceived notion of a period action game is thrown out the window. Already the game has let me down. How often does the idea of the future with flashbacks work? Hardly ever, in any form entertainment. It’s a clunky way of telling any cohesive story and comes off as goofy. This is in the future going way back. Very odd indeed!

So I hear this old guy talking about a bunch of irrelevant bits. And the women named Lucy going on about whatever. Then I start the real game I had read about. It starts out really slow for an action game. And one of my bigger complaints throughout the game is prevalent here. I’m the guy that skips cutscenes when I know they’re pointless. The intro is just that. You know your little village in the hills is under attack. Then you get to listen to the "mentor" in the story tell you a bunch of things. The game has fairly cryptic dialogue so it makes it hard to pay attention. That’s just me though. I have trouble with slow pacing. Here is where I try to act like I know what I’m talking about. It’s a grey area because you want the player to know the story, and you don’t want anything to be missed. But at the same time, it’s almost fan service for over half the cutscenes. The basic plot is outlined and inbetween is just so much information.

Then you do a bunch of stuff, and finally get to leave Masyaf, the first area, after the opening temple dig thing and invasion. The horse riding mechanics are pretty bad. Tank controlling bad. Connecting each of the four major cities is a place called The Kingdom and it’s just a bunch of snaking roads with ruins spread out. Up to this point I wasn’t impressed. It was when I got to Damascus that the game finally lived up to what it promised. It’s the first city you go to and after you scale that first tall building to find targets you realize the potential. Each wall is like it’s own puzzle when you climb it. Finding ledges and areas to grab.

The three major cities, Damascus, Acre, and Jerusalem, have three separate districts. Poor, Middle, and Rich. And each district has a set of investigations, free missions (saving an innocent/lookouts), and an assassination target. You find the headquarters in each city for mission briefings. This is where the word repetition comes in. You talk to the guy, he tells you to find more info, and you go out to perform 2-3 required investigations. Those involve Pick-pocketing, interrogations, and listening in on conversations. Then you get to the assassination. That’s it. So when people talk about repeating things, that’s why. You do the same 2-3 investigations nine times. Nine targets, divided into three districts of three cities. It’s that simple.

And that’s where I draw the line on negativity because you have to look beyond that. For one, the game is gorgeous. The graphics are stunning. I never encountered frame-rate issues. Everything looks so darn good. Each city has it’s own architecture which leads to it’s own challenges. When I said climbing a wall was like a puzzle, it’s also a new puzzle for every city. In Acre for example, there’s a lot of brick walls that can’t be climbed, like a fortress. But in Damascus it feels a little older and there are cracks in the walls, more ledges, etc. And I think that’s part of the difficulty increasing. Instead of easy, normal, and hard it’s done through AI awareness and the city architecture. Even the separate districts look significantly different from each other. Poor districts tend to have more places to grab onto because of deterioration.

Climbing is as simple as holding a button and navigating the wall. Altair is so easy to control you feel like you can do anything. He’s nimble and fast. You can even assassinate people in the streets with your weapons. You choose to be stealthy or brutally violent to get any job done. You have a sword, throwing knives (I loved these), a short blade, and a retractable knife under your sleeve. With the retractable knife, the animations are a rush. You walk up behind somebody and push the assassination button. Altair then takes care of business. It just rules. Period. You can drop guys in the streets without anyone noticing. There’s also a combo system. It works the same as the counter system, in which you press X immediately after making contact with an enemy sword. It’s timing basically. Makes a one hit kill and saves time.

I defend the repetition because there’s a huge difference between doing things over and over, and having fun doing it. Here, I was repeating missions but they were fun. Key word. And attempting them in different environments. It might have been a market, a dock, or a castle. It made for different ways of executing the objective. And that’s most of the game.

So after you get to the ninth mission it slows down again. Reaching that point I felt like I would be finishing up soon. Little did I know there was about two hours of game left! This was the other huge issue. The game drags on. I was forced to jump through hoops battling off waves of enemies trying to reach the "true" final assassination. It’s there you find out that these templars (nine of them, plus one spoiler character) found something in that opening temple and it’s the Piece of Eden. You kill the spoiler character and activate the piece. It reveals a map showing where the pieces are around the world. This is what Abstego industries has been looking for, and why they kidnapped Desmond. Since Desmond’s ancestor, Altair, had seen where they were located. The game ends on a huge cliffhanger. The templars are actually the founders of Abstego industries and are looking for the pieces. If you wait around the end of the game long enough you can go into Desmonds room, use eagle vision, and see markings on his wall. The markings are for a Mayan date predicting the end of the world. Very cool.

It’s a pretty great game on every level. I listened to a pod-cast recently. One of the lead developers from Uncharted: Drakes Fortune was on. And she had mentioned that Assassins Creed gave the player too much freedom. That when you’re in a cut-scene you can walk around freely and that removes you from the game. I tend to agree with her on that and a few other choices they made. The basic premise has laid the groundwork for a wonderful franchise and these little complaints will surely be fixed in the future.