Assassin's Creed III

[Losonti Tokash]

If you want to play a modern day Assassin's Creed, then look into Watch Dogs. That was the original concept of the game before it was made into its own property, and it's still visible in the E3 demo with the Animus lines and social stealth mechanics.

[Havok]

A lot of people feel the same way, because they saw the series as a whole as moving forward into the modern day.

To be honest I think the braindead story wouldn't really allow this, and it's safer and easier to sell a historical game.

I felt that the biggest barrier to bringing it into the modern world would be creating the modern cities that would feel as alive as the historical cities. I may be off on this though, because of games like Prototype and Saints Row and such.

[Stark]

Games like that have people (although the density is too low) but they don't do anywhere near as much as the Ass guys. Imagine 5,000 people in a street in Shanghai in Ass and you can see why it wouldn't really work.

You could always set it in small America Towns. People would love that. Under old farmer Ted's barn is ... TEMPLAR DOOMS!

[Losonti Tokash]

Yeah, pop density is part of why they left Philadelphia out. Since it was planned out on a grid system unlike Boston or New York at the time, everything was way closer together and they couldn't really get any decent performance on the consoles. The other cities are more spread out piles of crap so it's easier to have big empty bits in the middle.

[Ziggy Stardust]

The economy. Not the whole economy, perhaps, but shipping and crafting and the like. The whole process is considerably time intensive and incredibly annoying.

Yes, that was one of the worst parts of the game. It was a neat idea, in its way, and through those menus you have the ability to get special items and upgrades, which I like. However, they made it almost impossible complicated (if any of you have payed Escape Velocity: Nova, it is almost like that, in that there are hundreds of possible resources, with no real way of knowing what is important/valuable). Also, not only does it take hours of scrolling through menus to figure any of it out, there is no method of automating convoys, which means you have to go back to the General Store and flip through that menu every time. Considering how easy it is to get money through other routes in the game, it basically is not worth it at all to bother with the convoys.

Condensed controls. This has been a problem with all AC games, really, and it's a product of these games being used for other platforms. As a PC gamer, I'm used to having a large bank of controls, not limited to only a few. The afore mentioned DCS World uses every key and nearly every combination of keys. This title, adding more abilities, further constrains the controls. Certain abilities that used to be separate keys are now mashed together, and sometimes makes for more frustrated play.

Hm, I don't agree with you, here, though I am playing on PS3. What abilities do you feel were constrained? Personally, I feel like they improved the controls and made them more flexible. The only thing they really did that I could tell is replace "R1+X" (on PS3) with just "R1" for free running. For the combat, they definitely added to it, as it used to be just counter+attack, now there are various combos.

But I always took those as interesting "what-ifs" whereas this was a more well-documented history that could have been done better. Sea combat during rough seas though was particularly fun and enjoyable.

The speed aspect of the naval ships was a little weird, I agree. But they were gorgeously rendered, especially the storms, and the Caribbean sequences.

Bobcats and wolves and Bears, oh my. Combat with these things annoys the crap out of me, but mostly because I hate games that force you into combating in this certain way. The "you must hit these keys in this order or you fail" meme is annoying as fuck. It encourages me to try and kill these animals in more stealthy ways, but the problem is that there is often more than one of them around. The way they do this makes fighting these animals much harder than fighting any human, which seems idiotic given the tools you have.

I agree with you that the button combo killing of animals was annoying, but I very strongly disagree that it made fighting them HARDER. If anything, it made fighting them too easy, so there was no fun in it. As soon as you get within a certain distance of one, it just gives you the buttons to press, and it's generally 2-3 buttons for the kill, and it is the same every time. It just made going after them tedious and boring, though generally I liked the hunting stuff.

Desmond. I was really hoping a separate game would involve Desmond's quest throughout modern world. It's clear that such a thing was theoretically possible given what we see in this series, but ultimate the modern setting was too subdued and wasted an opportunity.

I liked that they gave Desmond more to do. I liked all of the sequences with him in the real world. Spoiler

Especially exploring the Grand Temple, and the mission at Abstergo.

The whole "gun" issue still is a bane against this series' existence, and shows up in a glaring way here. When you see Abstergo's guards reloading their 9mm pistols after every shot like the revolutionary guards do, it's a real face-palm moment.

Yeah, that was really silly. Especially how every time they tried to shoot they stood perfectly still and took about 10 seconds to line up their pistol before firing off a shot ... at an unarmored/unprotected Desmond, who would then just grunt and stab them in the face.


------------------------

The philosophy behind the two factions was spared a lot of attention, which is a negative of the series as a whole. Overall, the Templars and the Assassins seem to both have horribly flawed ideologies. Rule peace through control, or rule peace through "freedom" which is so nebulous a term as to be meaningless. One thing that always struck me about the Assassins was that it seemed as if they were basically advocating a kind of anarchism, though never directly stated. Really, what the ideal world for the Assassins would be is pretty unknown, and I don't think even they know anymore what it should be.

I'm a little confused by what you mean here. I feel that the series, and this game in particular, has done a great job of highlighting the ideologies of each faction. Hell, there were several cut scenes in this game that were just monologues by Haytham essentially describing exactly what you claim they didn't focus on. I think they do a great job of fleshing them out, while still keeping the Templars fairly mysterious. As for the Assassins, they make it pretty clear that they are just trying to keep the world "free" from the Templars, and let people decide their own fates. I don't know what makes you think their goals are ambiguous or unknown ... and, certainly, freedom is a nebulous concept, which was basically the central moral to a large portion of this game.

---------------------------------

Anyway, I finally beat the game yesterday (I got busy and couldn't play it for a couple of weeks). So a few more notes.

The Good:

The story was excellent. I really like the way it concluded, although I do agree with CaptJordan that it was annoying that the climactic scene was really a cutscene without player interaction. Still, I liked the way they chose to end it, both for Connor and Desmond.

As I mentioned in the OP, the map design is absolutely amazing. I can't think of a game that did as good of a job creating a world, except for Red Dead Redemption and the later GTA games. But the Frontier area of the map is unrivaled; no other game that I am aware of has created such a dynamic and "living" environment.

Honestly, even though I am going to write more on what I didn't like (below) I actually loved the game, overall. But most of what I want to say about the good has already been commented on.

The Bad:

The game is quite glitchy, unfortunately. Quick Google searches show it is not just me having some of these problems. The biggest is that there is a glitch where some things just don't appear on the map - none of them are critical to the game, but it is annoying if you are trying to, say, collect all the treasure chests/almanac pages/assassin recruits/etc.

This might be just me, but I really hate how after Assassin's Creed 2/Brotherhood there haven't been any Tombs/Lairs of Romulus type levels. Revelations and 3 have cool extended chase/semi-cinematic sequences that are a lot of fun, don't get me wrong. But one of the best parts about 2 was when you were just put in, for example, a gigantic church, alone, and you just had to figure out the circuitous free running route to get to the top. Those sequences were always great, and they just phased them out of the series completely, which I really hate. The closest thing this game had were the Mayan temple (which you only got through pre-ordering the game, and was really short), and the real-world sequences with Desmond in the Grand Temple (which I really liked).

I know Subject 16 is gone, but I was hoping for more things akin to the glyph puzzles. Those were always fun to figure out, and was a clever way of giving you more backstory into the mythology of the franchise. They did a great job working various historical incidents and conspiracy theories in. In the pre-release buzz for this game, they claimed there were going to be glyph puzzle equivalents in the game, but I have yet to find any evidence of them (at the end of the game they introduce to you something called pivot points, which I haven't quite figured out yet, but from what I read online they don't appear to be the same thing).

Some of the Homestead missions are such a load of bullshit. Some of them are awesome (like running down the river to save the kid before he falls over the waterfall). But some of them are excruciatingly stupid. Like the one where you have to "heal the Sailors"? They give you a time limit that literally is not possible to fail without actively trying, because all of the sailors are within 10 feet of each other, and you just have to walk up and press a button.

Some of the optional objectives for 100% synchronization were stupid. Often, a new criterion would appear midway through a level, when you are in the middle of a fight or chase or something, and you wouldn't realize what you were supposed to do until it told you you failed. Sometimes they would give you optional objectives that don't even make sense, or they would fail you for no particular reason (there was one where you weren't supposed to take fire damage, and it told me I failed even though I hadn't even yet entered the area that was on fire; there was another one where you had to kill a ship captain without being detected, and since I was about to be seen I jumped in the water to hide - a tactic which works in every single ship mission up until this point in the game - and it just tells me I failed to kill the captain and teleports me back to shore and ends the mission; and in a couple missions you are supposed to do the optional objectives in a very specific order, but they don't tell you what the order is or that you will fail if you don't do them that way).

The Weird/Annoying/Miscellaneous:

The Frontiersman missions were ... odd. They are a series of side missions that mostly involve investigation paranormal phenomena (Bigfoot, a UFO, a ghost, etc.). They are not at all important to the plot, but I supposed I will spoilerize this part anyway. Spoiler

The missions all have incredibly anti-climactic endings whereby you figure out that the phenomena was fake. Which is fine, until the very last mission, when you are tracking the Headless Horseman. You find a dead body, then it just shows you a cutscene of the Headless Horseman laughing and riding away, and the mission ends. Without any explanation. It doesn't even comment on the fact that he was real, and you certainly are unable to chase him or anything.

I liked the idea, but the execution was bizarre.

There are large parts of the map without viewpoints. Which is fine for the frontier, because they want you to actively explore it. But it was strange that it was true of the cities, too. New York, especially, has a huge area of the map that is all buildings (several of which are quite tall) but no viewpoints.

The underground. Has a few cool sequences in it, but mostly it is really boring and pointless to wander around down there. I don't know why they either a) didn't put treasure chests or trinkets or other random stuff like that down there or b) why only some of the fast travel stations had puzzles/obstacles to navigate, and others you literally just walk up to. There was no real incentive to explore it all, except for a sparse few sequences of climbing.

What the fuck were the point of the Almanac pages? Also, Haytham meets Ben Franklin, so why does Connor still have to collect the pages? They give you "inventions" that serve no discernible purpose.

[Ziggy Stardust]

A couple of other notes:

On some of the Desmond missions, there is a weird "loading screen" of Desmond and the other characters driving in a car, with weird white-washed scenery outside, and no dialogue. Some of these scenes have an expository voiceover, others don't. Sometimes it was just 30-60 seconds of them sitting in silence. Very odd.

With regards to the end of Connor's story arc ..
Spoiler

It was a little confusing. After you kill Haytham, which could have been a more interesting fight to begin with, Connor is going after Charles Lee. But according to the date when you load the next Sequence, a significant amount of time has passed, with no explanation of why Connor wasn't hunting Lee during that time. Then, of course, the first thing Connor does is basically just go get captured, at which point Lee has a cartoonishly-evil speech about how he won't kill him now because he wants him to see his evil plan unfold, and obviously Connor escapes pretty quickly and chases him down. It was just a really strange sequence of events, because they didn't really make that much sense with regards to the way the characters had been developed up to that point, and there is no explanation given of the odd passage of time. The way Lee dies is pretty cool, but it is odd that they did it all via cutscene with no player input.

[CaptJodan]

Hm, I don't agree with you, here, though I am playing on PS3. What abilities do you feel were constrained? Personally, I feel like they improved the controls and made them more flexible. The only thing they really did that I could tell is replace "R1+X" (on PS3) with just "R1" for free running. For the combat, they definitely added to it, as it used to be just counter+attack, now there are various combos.

I think part of it is that interaction between characters and blocking and other effects have become all one thing. I don't know, I got used to it fairly quickly, but on PC I would hit E for an interaction, shift for, say a block, and now both are the same. It's a relatively minor annoyance, but it will impact when I go back to play others like Brotherhood.

The speed aspect of the naval ships was a little weird, I agree. But they were gorgeously rendered, especially the storms, and the Caribbean sequences.

No arguments about the beauty of it. Honestly, when I first saw the whole ship thing, I was dreading it. I play too many sims to enjoy something that over hyped and simple, and yet...it's just good fun. The one huge thing they really missed out on was not making a free roam option for the Aquila after you beat the game. I'm hoping they do so out for DLC because I've come to like the naval missions, and I'd like to do more free roaming. Also, it wouldn't kill them to allow me the same access on my own ship that I had on Haythem's ship (Ie, a captain's cabin, below decks, something).

I'm a little confused by what you mean here. I feel that the series, and this game in particular, has done a great job of highlighting the ideologies of each faction. Hell, there were several cut scenes in this game that were just monologues by Haytham essentially describing exactly what you claim they didn't focus on. I think they do a great job of fleshing them out, while still keeping the Templars fairly mysterious. As for the Assassins, they make it pretty clear that they are just trying to keep the world "free" from the Templars, and let people decide their own fates. I don't know what makes you think their goals are ambiguous or unknown ... and, certainly, freedom is a nebulous concept, which was basically the central moral to a large portion of this game.

I'm not saying that the game didn't do better, and I loved the addition of Haytham. Yes, the Templar motives are fairly clear; conquer the world and all that, but that motivation seems a bit shallow given how much we have learned. Conquer for whom? Who leads? Who decides who leads? Worse than that is the assassins. If anything, this game highlights whats wrong with their philosophy. Stopping the Templars didn't solve shit, at least in Connors case, and it showed how offering freedom to a people may still lead to those same people oppressing and controlling others. If all the assassins are there for is to stop the Templars from using the pieces of Eden to actually mindfuck with people, ok, that I buy. But someone always has the power to control others and their freedom (as the Connor story demonstrates). Connor thought he was helping to free people by fighting mostly for the Patriots, but in the end, his allies were just as corrupt as the British and Templars, and took away his people's freedom.

To me, it seems like the assassins just want their type of leader to be put into power, which ultimately advocates their type of control.

The story was excellent. I really like the way it concluded, although I do agree with CaptJordan that it was annoying that the climactic scene was really a cutscene without player interaction. Still, I liked the way they chose to end it, both for Connor and Desmond.

Agreed. Both endings were great. I liked the depressing nature of Connor's ending, and the way they dealt with Desmond. I won't miss him much.

This might be just me, but I really hate how after Assassin's Creed 2/Brotherhood there haven't been any Tombs/Lairs of Romulus type levels.

Funny, different tastes for different people. I'm mostly thrilled about not having this around. It feel like the Captain Kidd missions seem to be the replacement for those. There's plenty of timed issues during those, a lot of chases and climbing. I've never been a fan of timed missions, so I don't enjoy these as much. I haven't gotten through all the Kidd missions yet, though, so I don't know how that ends up.

Some of the Homestead missions are such a load of bullshit. Some of them are awesome (like running down the river to save the kid before he falls over the waterfall). But some of them are excruciatingly stupid. Like the one where you have to "heal the Sailors"? They give you a time limit that literally is not possible to fail without actively trying, because all of the sailors are within 10 feet of each other, and you just have to walk up and press a button.

lol. I haven't gotten through all of them. It seems I can't. I don't know, somehow something got screwed up but I genuinely can't find my way to continue the homestead missions. I'm at the end of the game, but many of my artisans still need leveling, so I know I fucked up somewhere, but I don't know how to get back on track so... But yes, some of those missions were pretty stupid.

Some of the optional objectives for 100% synchronization were stupid. Often, a new criterion would appear midway through a level, when you are in the middle of a fight or chase or something, and you wouldn't realize what you were supposed to do until it told you you failed. Sometimes they would give you optional objectives that don't even make sense, or they would fail you for no particular reason (there was one where you weren't supposed to take fire damage, and it told me I failed even though I hadn't even yet entered the area that was on fire; there was another one where you had to kill a ship captain without being detected, and since I was about to be seen I jumped in the water to hide - a tactic which works in every single ship mission up until this point in the game - and it just tells me I failed to kill the captain and teleports me back to shore and ends the mission; and in a couple missions you are supposed to do the optional objectives in a very specific order, but they don't tell you what the order is or that you will fail if you don't do them that way).

Completely agree here. I missed a lot of 100% syncs cause the new objectives came up during the middle of a fight or run or something and I didn't have time to look to see the new objective.

What the fuck were the point of the Almanac pages? Also, Haytham meets Ben Franklin, so why does Connor still have to collect the pages? They give you "inventions" that serve no discernible purpose.

It flat seems like a lot of the extras they put in like the Almanacs and other things were just there as padding, and weren't well thought out. The courier missions seem pretty lame too. Deliver letters to random spots in the city whenever you feel like it and...what's the challenge here?

I'd say one of the more disappointing things I've noticed is the lack of season changes after you beat the game. You can do it with the weather cheat once the game is done, but it's a cheat so things won't save afterward from what I'm told. I was able to turn it on, go to winter, then turn it off again and it stayed winter till I changed settings from Boston to Frontier, but still....it's not a major cheat. Either give us slowly changing seasons, or don't make it a cheat where we can't save it. I enjoyed the snow elements.

That, and free roam for the Aquila are the two biggest things I'd like to see changed.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I think part of it is that interaction between characters and blocking and other effects have become all one thing. I don't know, I got used to it fairly quickly, but on PC I would hit E for an interaction, shift for, say a block, and now both are the same. It's a relatively minor annoyance, but it will impact when I go back to play others like Brotherhood.

In general, how is playing these games on PC? I've just played them so thoroughly on PS3 I couldn't imagine the transition.

No arguments about the beauty of it. Honestly, when I first saw the whole ship thing, I was dreading it. I play too many sims to enjoy something that over hyped and simple, and yet...it's just good fun. The one huge thing they really missed out on was not making a free roam option for the Aquila after you beat the game. I'm hoping they do so out for DLC because I've come to like the naval missions, and I'd like to do more free roaming. Also, it wouldn't kill them to allow me the same access on my own ship that I had on Haythem's ship (Ie, a captain's cabin, below decks, something).

What are some good naval combat sims, out of curiosity? I've always liked playing games that involved 18th-19th century sailing, but generally all the ones I've played kinda sucked.

Yes, the Templar motives are fairly clear; conquer the world and all that, but that motivation seems a bit shallow given how much we have learned. Conquer for whom? Who leads? Who decides who leads?

Fair enough. I have always chosen to interpret it that the Templar organization has a secret leadership that is above and beyond the level that we ever encounter, and are super mysterious and all that crap. Basically, it gives them a bit of an aura of mystery, and the sense we are only ever hitting the lower levels of their plan.

Worse than that is the assassins. If anything, this game highlights whats wrong with their philosophy. Stopping the Templars didn't solve shit, at least in Connors case, and it showed how offering freedom to a people may still lead to those same people oppressing and controlling others. If all the assassins are there for is to stop the Templars from using the pieces of Eden to actually mindfuck with people, ok, that I buy. But someone always has the power to control others and their freedom (as the Connor story demonstrates). Connor thought he was helping to free people by fighting mostly for the Patriots, but in the end, his allies were just as corrupt as the British and Templars, and took away his people's freedom.

To me, it seems like the assassins just want their type of leader to be put into power, which ultimately advocates their type of control.

I like that way of looking at it. It definitely is supported by the story arc in the games thus far. And even going back to the first Assassin's Creed, when whatever-the-fuck-the-leader-of-the-Assassins-was-called was blatantly trying to give himself the same power as the Templars.

Funny, different tastes for different people. I'm mostly thrilled about not having this around. It feel like the Captain Kidd missions seem to be the replacement for those. There's plenty of timed issues during those, a lot of chases and climbing. I've never been a fan of timed missions, so I don't enjoy these as much. I haven't gotten through all the Kidd missions yet, though, so I don't know how that ends up.

Yeah, I haven't quite finished that part of the game. But from what I have played of those missions, they seem to be more of the Revelations-style sequences. As in, a cinematic timed chase. And don't get me wrong, they are great. But I guess I'm the only one that liked those old-style no time limit just free-running/climbing sequences.

lol. I haven't gotten through all of them. It seems I can't. I don't know, somehow something got screwed up but I genuinely can't find my way to continue the homestead missions. I'm at the end of the game, but many of my artisans still need leveling, so I know I fucked up somewhere, but I don't know how to get back on track so... But yes, some of those missions were pretty stupid.

Yeah, I have the same issue, and I'm not sure if it is due to the way I chose to progress or if it is a glitch in the game. Its possible you need to just spam out all the homestead missions in an earlier sequence.

It flat seems like a lot of the extras they put in like the Almanacs and other things were just there as padding, and weren't well thought out. The courier missions seem pretty lame too. Deliver letters to random spots in the city whenever you feel like it and...what's the challenge here?

The one thing I like about the letter deliveries is the stock standard voice of every character you give a letter to say, "You have my everlasting thanks!"

I'd say one of the more disappointing things I've noticed is the lack of season changes after you beat the game. You can do it with the weather cheat once the game is done, but it's a cheat so things won't save afterward from what I'm told. I was able to turn it on, go to winter, then turn it off again and it stayed winter till I changed settings from Boston to Frontier, but still....it's not a major cheat. Either give us slowly changing seasons, or don't make it a cheat where we can't save it. I enjoyed the snow elements.

Damn, I haven't played enough after beating the game to notice the seasons don't change anymore. That sucks, I really liked that element.

That, and free roam for the Aquila are the two biggest things I'd like to see changed.

Indeed, free roam in the ship would be amazing, though I understand the reason why it wasn't included. It would be necessarily massive. But it would be fantastic to just prowl the coastline, explore inlets and bays, head up north to see icebergs, and have randomly generated encounters with merchants/privateers/whatever.

[Losonti Tokash]

If you keep unlocking pivots you'll get the ability to change seasons and weather at will, and far as I can tell the game doesn't care. I changed it to winter to find Washington for a challenge and it still counts.

[Block]

If you keep unlocking pivots you'll get the ability to change seasons and weather at will, and far as I can tell the game doesn't care. I changed it to winter to find Washington for a challenge and it still counts.

As far as I can tell it won't save any of the things you do, at all, while the pivots are active.

[CaptJodan]

In general, how is playing these games on PC? I've just played them so thoroughly on PS3 I couldn't imagine the transition.

Tolerable. But I'm a strictly PC gamer, so it's easier for me than it would be for those coming from a console. I've played the console version of AC2 at a friends house (it's how I got into the series) and was fumbling about massively, but I would think the transition to PC would be harder for a console gamer.

The usual wasd for movement, E for things like block and interaction (which I switched to shift), space for jump, left mouse click for attack, that sort of thing. V for eagle vision, Q for your weapon wheel, and 1-4 to pick certain weapons you assign to those keys. Of course, the PC has the ability to assign more number keys to weapons, but they don't allow that, presumably because the consoles don't have that ability.

What are some good naval combat sims, out of curiosity? I've always liked playing games that involved 18th-19th century sailing, but generally all the ones I've played kinda sucked.

After playing this game, I went in search of games like you speak of, but didn't find anything either. I've played more modern sea-going games. Ship Simulator is pretty terrible. As it is a non-combat game, you'd think they'd concentrate on the physics more, but it's terribly off. The Silent Hunter series is probably one of my favorites, as it's fairly good looking for the time they were made and the modding community is very active. Dangerous Waters is a really old modern warfare game, but wouldn't likely suffice these days.

There aren't many good ones out there, unfortunately. Graphically, AC3 comes out on tops, but then it's not a simulator and it is a big name brand so they can put a lot of money behind it. Most sims don't have that option.

Fair enough. I have always chosen to interpret it that the Templar organization has a secret leadership that is above and beyond the level that we ever encounter, and are super mysterious and all that crap. Basically, it gives them a bit of an aura of mystery, and the sense we are only ever hitting the lower levels of their plan.

Certainly possible. I don't mind the mystery aspect so long as we can tell that there is something bigger or more important out there pulling the strings. But the story hasn't really worked in the direction to imply there is even bigger fish in the Templar pond pulling strings. I certainly don't believe that Vidic was the brains of the operation, but at the same time the series should give us some clue that a larger group is out there. When Desmond asked his father if killing Vidic would set the Templars back, his father answered that he doubted it, but he didn't imply it was because they hadn't killed the real leaders, just that Abstergo and the Templar organization was too big to kill with just one man's death.

That's kind of the theme running through all the AC stories. It's never really implied that the Templars have this ultra secret leadership, just that they are too big and too vast to fully eradicate, and someone is always around willing to take the reins of power to control a population.

I like that way of looking at it. It definitely is supported by the story arc in the games thus far. And even going back to the first Assassin's Creed, when whatever-the-fuck-the-leader-of-the-Assassins-was-called was blatantly trying to give himself the same power as the Templars.

I just recently was able to finish the Homestead missions (one was hiding, preventing me from progressing). At one point, Connor asks Achilles something to effect of "What happens if we win?" Achilles has no answer, and neither does Connor. At the very least the series seems to acknowledge that the assassins have these flaws, and aren't just trying to sweep the flaws under the rug. And for an organization that has often been on the losing side of this 1,000+ year war, it's not surprising that they don't know what they would do if they won. But it is a flaw in their ideology and their plans nonetheless.

Yeah, I haven't quite finished that part of the game. But from what I have played of those missions, they seem to be more of the Revelations-style sequences. As in, a cinematic timed chase. And don't get me wrong, they are great. But I guess I'm the only one that liked those old-style no time limit just free-running/climbing sequences.

I never minded the non-timed one. The cathedral in I think AC2 was pretty awesome, with all that climbing, but I seem to remember some of them being timed as well. (Push a floor panel and then run before the ticking clock runs out. I hate those).

[Executor32]

I prefer to play the AssCreed series with a 360 controller, myself. I tried playing the first game with KBM and it was an exercise in frustration. I then tried using the 360 controller I originally got for emulators and found it massively easier to control, so I've never even bothered with KBM in any of the sequels. Now I use it with pretty much all third-person games except for GTA and Saint's Row.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Certainly possible. I don't mind the mystery aspect so long as we can tell that there is something bigger or more important out there pulling the strings. But the story hasn't really worked in the direction to imply there is even bigger fish in the Templar pond pulling strings. I certainly don't believe that Vidic was the brains of the operation, but at the same time the series should give us some clue that a larger group is out there. When Desmond asked his father if killing Vidic would set the Templars back, his father answered that he doubted it, but he didn't imply it was because they hadn't killed the real leaders, just that Abstergo and the Templar organization was too big to kill with just one man's death.

That's kind of the theme running through all the AC stories. It's never really implied that the Templars have this ultra secret leadership, just that they are too big and too vast to fully eradicate, and someone is always around willing to take the reins of power to control a population.

In Assassin's Creed 2, did you take the time to go and read all the e-mails in the Abstergo computers? At some point (it's been a while so I forget exactly when) as Desmond you get the chance to hack into Vidic's e-mails and read them. They are mostly just "fluff" concerning the extent of the Templars activities (interestingly, including some hints about the satellite plan that became central to the later game plots). Those e-mails, at least to me, seem to imply a secret leadership; I even believe they specifically give a name of some high-ranking Templar that even Vidic is mildly afraid of. Of course, it's been a while, so I could be misremembering. You can scrounge up those e-mails online somewhere.

[CaptJodan]

In Assassin's Creed 2, did you take the time to go and read all the e-mails in the Abstergo computers? At some point (it's been a while so I forget exactly when) as Desmond you get the chance to hack into Vidic's e-mails and read them. They are mostly just "fluff" concerning the extent of the Templars activities (interestingly, including some hints about the satellite plan that became central to the later game plots). Those e-mails, at least to me, seem to imply a secret leadership; I even believe they specifically give a name of some high-ranking Templar that even Vidic is mildly afraid of. Of course, it's been a while, so I could be misremembering. You can scrounge up those e-mails online somewhere.

Oh I can completely buy that someone or something was higher in the organization than Vidic. The man was the very definition of a lackey throughout the series. His incompetence level was truly astounding and ultimately he was never someone who could lead the world. I just don't know if there's always been a "world wide" Templar Board of Directors controlling the whole thing through time. Much of how the Templars conduct their affairs seems to be almost as haphazard as the assassin's are, at least until the modern age.

It might be moot at this point and we may never know. Juno changes the nature of the game, and her inclusion in the story might radically change the Templar/Assassin dynamic. Are the Templars going to want her as an ally, or do they want control of the world and won't give it up to a First Civ bitch (I'd guess the latter, though Juno has been a great manipulator)? Connor seemed to desire trying to sue for peace between the Assassin's and Templars, and Desmond and his father had a discussion about that as well, so there's certainly a possibility for an alliance between the two groups in later games in order to take out Juno. But if Juno gets involved with modern day Templars, then she'll likely rid or control such "board of directors" herself.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I am very curious what Juno's plot will entail. All we know is that she was somehow "released" from the Grand Temple, but we have no idea what the extent of her powers, or even ability to manifest physically, are.

[Block]

I am very curious what Juno's plot will entail. All we know is that she was somehow "released" from the Grand Temple, but we have no idea what the extent of her powers, or even ability to manifest physically, are.

I don't think she can manifest physically, I think "releasing" her just let her conciousness escape into the interwebz or whatever she used to access the satellite system to create the shield, so now she's like a malicious AI. That's how it came across to me anyways.

[Darth Yan]

Actually the multiplayer in revelations reveals the Templar leading council. As of the end of the game 2 of them (Daniel Cross) and (Warren Vidic) are dead at Desmond's hand; the templars aren't critically damaged but they have been bloodied and set back. They also had to scrap their satelite plan because they lacked the piece of eden needed. This might not seem like a big deal, but it was also mentioned that they had to launch their eye satellite ahead of schedule because their accounts were in danger of being frozen. If the freeze goes through they may not recover.

And to give Vidic credit his "project siren" was actually fairly clever, failing only because he had no way of knowing that Juno would interfere the way she did. If she hadn't he may well have one.

[Darth Yan]

Actually the multiplayer in revelations reveals the Templar leading council. As of the end of the game 2 of them (Daniel Cross) and (Warren Vidic) are dead at Desmond's hand; the templars aren't critically damaged but they have been bloodied and set back. They also had to scrap their satelite plan because they lacked the piece of eden needed. This might not seem like a big deal, but it was also mentioned that they had to launch their eye satellite ahead of schedule because their accounts were in danger of being frozen. If the freeze goes through they may not recover.

And to give Vidic credit his "project siren" was actually fairly clever, failing only because he had no way of knowing that Juno would interfere the way she did. If she hadn't he may well have one.

[Losonti Tokash]

According to Juno, the satellite project wouldn't have even worked, so it was just a giant waste of time.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Actually the multiplayer in revelations reveals the Templar leading council. As of the end of the game 2 of them (Daniel Cross) and (Warren Vidic) are dead at Desmond's hand; the templars aren't critically damaged but they have been bloodied and set back. They also had to scrap their satelite plan because they lacked the piece of eden needed. This might not seem like a big deal, but it was also mentioned that they had to launch their eye satellite ahead of schedule because their accounts were in danger of being frozen. If the freeze goes through they may not recover.

Well, we only know this of Abstergo, not the Templars as a whole. That is, we don't know how major a component of Templar operations is driven by Abstergo; we know it is their biggest public "face", so to speak, but we don't know how high in the pecking order the Abstergo administration is within the Templar hierarchy, etc.

[Darth Yan]

actually it was stated that they were the templar heads (inner sanctum of the templar order). They were the whole templar leaders, and they have lost two of their leaders by the end, and their primary public face is in danger of having their assets frozen. maybe they will face justice

[Thanas]

With regards to naval combat sims set in the age of sail, the only decent ones I can remember are the Akella games, though graphics etc. are not up to todays par. That is, if you don't want to play the Pirates of the Burning Sea MMO, which is good but annoyingly ganky.