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Just finished this about ten minutes ago - I had stopped playing about two years ago when I was on Memory Block 4 (i.e. just a little over half way) because other games kept interfering - when I started playing again last week it didn't take long for me to get immersed and I finished the remaining memory blocks in no time- obviously I wasn't immersed at all in the previous rounds of assassinations so I guess I didn't have any idea where the story was going when I stopped playing, but the plot got cool in the end.

In any event, the game's investigation phase was indeed repetitive like everyone said (rescue a citizen, eavesdrop on some guys, interrogate some guy, pickpocket some guy, do some menial task for a lazy informer, rinse, repeat) but dammit, the game looked so damn good whilst doing it that I never got entirely sick of getting in a simple yet cool looking sword duel with a bunch of guards. The finishing moves were so cool, and tossing a throwing knife at a rooftop archer never got old. And the cities were so beautiful to look at.

I read on Wikipedia that some reviews considered the AI in the game 'moronic' - I can't agree. Whilst it was hardly impressive, the only stupid thing I ever saw AI enemy soldiers do was all leap to their deaths one time trying to chase me after I fell off a rooftop. Otherwise, their behavior was adequate.

I'm leaving aside the obvious believability issue of Altair walking around obviously laden with weapons yet everyone thinks he's a monk, of course- that's right up there with the Hitman series as a contrivance you just accept because - well - Altair is an awesome character design.

Now I have a hankering to play Assassin's Creed 2 so I can find out what happened to Desmond.

I have a funny feeling by the end of the series Desmond will be a full assassin purely by memories he got from his ancestors and will be some sort of cloaking shield-clad futuristic bad ass killer. There's an idea ...

Should have started with AC2; it has everything good about the first, but goes a long way towards fixing the problems with it. There's even more variety in the repetitive, hilariously easy swordfighting sequences! And now you can block with your hidden blade(s) + disarm guards when you're unarmed, so you don't even need a sword to ruin people's shit. Punching an armed guard in the nose, stealing his double handed axe and lodging it permanently in between his shoulder blades never gets old.

Ezio also managed to look cooler than Altair, which is something I didn't expect coming off how awesome Altair looks. But there it is. As far as Desmond becoming an assassin,
Spoiler

Vympel wrote:Just finished this about ten minutes ago - I had stopped playing about two years ago when I was on Memory Block 4 (i.e. just a little over half way) because other games kept interfering - when I started playing again last week it didn't take long for me to get immersed and I finished the remaining memory blocks in no time- obviously I wasn't immersed at all in the previous rounds of assassinations so I guess I didn't have any idea where the story was going when I stopped playing, but the plot got cool in the end.

For me it was the other way around. The further the game got, the more annoyed I got with the plot. I wish they'd just ditched the whole genetic memory crap and kept the game entirely in the past. You could still get a history-spanning game series out of it, but without the whole experience getting constantly sidetracked by boring crap in the present that nobody gives a shit about (well, I didn't anyway ).

Furthermore, AssCreed gets to share a certain dubious honor with KotOR2: being a game whose ending honestly made me angry. While Altair can rack up a ridiculous body count during the game, there's at least the pretension that you're Altair the assassin, not Altair the Cimmerian. At the end however, all that gets thrown away and you get to repeat counter-attack for an hour while the last plot twists seek to drive the last bit of happiness out of your soul. I've since replayed some parts of the game for fun, but I'm never ever touching that piece of shit ending again.

Yeah, I didn't dig having to actually fight the boss guy at the end - I didn't mind dueling the Templars at Arsuf, that seemed to work, but I think the ending would've been better if it had just been straight assassination.

The funniest assassination I ever pulled was the last guy in Damascus - the book burner - he ran when I attacked him - straight into a group of vigilantes. No cookie for guessing what happened next (*flying Altair stab in the street*)

I think the funniest part of the ending was when king whoever the fuck says "WE WILL LET GOD DECIDE", which consists of you fighting two thirds of England simultaneously. And then they arbitrarily made counter-kills only knock people back in that fight, for some reason.

adam_grif wrote:I think the funniest part of the ending was when king whoever the fuck says "WE WILL LET GOD DECIDE", which consists of you fighting two thirds of England simultaneously. And then they arbitrarily made counter-kills only knock people back in that fight, for some reason.

Counter-attacks do damage just like everything else. So as long as the opponent has enough health left to survive the counter-attack, you always get the knockback move. But once you've knocked a dude back a few times, you'll get your counter-kill. That's how it works throughout the entire game, the tougher soldiers never fall to the first counter you make.

But yeah, "RAR HONORABLE DUEL" followed by a dozen knights attacking you got a tired chuckle out of me as well.

EDIT: Oversimplified a bit. Basically, your counters become deadlier once you get better swords, but the toughest soldiers (knights and such) never die on first counter.

Yeah, that was such bullshit - I thought: "cool, one-on-one fight with the Templar leader" but instead every single Templar Knight present gangs up on you - this is apparently King Richard's idea of an honorable duel. And then you get to fight the Templar head honcho once you've been substantially weakened.

And yeah, counter-attacks never instant kill the 'beefy' enemies (those with more armor - the ones with full face helmets are especially tough) the first time, unless you've struck them with your sword / knife first.

adam_grif wrote:Should have started with AC2; it has everything good about the first, but goes a long way towards fixing the problems with it. There's even more variety in the repetitive, hilariously easy swordfighting sequences! And now you can block with your hidden blade(s) + disarm guards when you're unarmed, so you don't even need a sword to ruin people's shit. Punching an armed guard in the nose, stealing his double handed axe and lodging it permanently in between his shoulder blades never gets old.

Ezio also managed to look cooler than Altair, which is something I didn't expect coming off how awesome Altair looks. But there it is. As far as Desmond becoming an assassin,
Spoiler

Yes, happens in AC2.

For once I'm actually inclined to agree. AC2 manages to make combat much more fluid, even if it is easier. As far as Desmond I fully expect him to be the main playable character in AC3, complete with a modern setting.

IIRC the Desmond bits in AC are set in 2012, so yeah, pretty much modern. However, I read something about how it was suggested that one game have you play Desmond's female ancestor in WW2 (aka his freaking great grandmother) - leaving aside what a stupid fanboy invention that sounds like, it was rejected out of hand by the designers because they like to set the AC games in places and time periods that other games don't visit (Holy Land during the Third Crusade and Venice in the 1400s is pretty damn obscure) - so yeah, no WW2 for sure, and modern might be out until it becomes necessary to the plot.

Oh - nice faux historical touch - Richard the Lionheart speaking with a heavy French accent - closest they could get to the fact that the actual King Richard couldn't speak a word of English.

Karza wrote:

adam_grif wrote:I think the funniest part of the ending was when king whoever the fuck says "WE WILL LET GOD DECIDE", which consists of you fighting two thirds of England simultaneously. And then they arbitrarily made counter-kills only knock people back in that fight, for some reason.

Counter-attacks do damage just like everything else. So as long as the opponent has enough health left to survive the counter-attack, you always get the knockback move. But once you've knocked a dude back a few times, you'll get your counter-kill. That's how it works throughout the entire game, the tougher soldiers never fall to the first counter you make.

But yeah, "RAR HONORABLE DUEL" followed by a dozen knights attacking you got a tired chuckle out of me as well.

EDIT: Oversimplified a bit. Basically, your counters become deadlier once you get better swords, but the toughest soldiers (knights and such) never die on first counter.

Yeah, having the knights rush you made me WTF. Fighting dirty to kick the crap out of them was a lot of fun, though.

Assassin's Creed 2 is so much better on every level it's not even funny. About the only problem I have with it is that you can't replay missions like AC1.

DPDarkPrimus wrote:Assassin's Creed 2 is so much better on every level it's not even funny. About the only problem I have with it is that you can't replay missions like AC1.

The one problem I have with AC2 is the fucking evil anti-piracy measure that has prevented me from buying it over Steam. If you ever lose internet connection while playing the game - a single-player game with no on-line elements - you get kicked. Internet goes down? Kicked. Connection hiccups for a few moments too long? Kicked, and you'd better hope it doesn't happen when you're about to beat a boss. Want to play it on a laptop in an area with no wi-fi? Sorry, you're shit out of luck there, buster.

Molyneux wrote:

DPDarkPrimus wrote:Assassin's Creed 2 is so much better on every level it's not even funny. About the only problem I have with it is that you can't replay missions like AC1.

The one problem I have with AC2 is the fucking evil anti-piracy measure that has prevented me from buying it over Steam. If you ever lose internet connection while playing the game - a single-player game with no on-line elements - you get kicked. Internet goes down? Kicked. Connection hiccups for a few moments too long? Kicked, and you'd better hope it doesn't happen when you're about to beat a boss. Want to play it on a laptop in an area with no wi-fi? Sorry, you're shit out of luck there, buster.

But PC gaming's not dead right?

General Zod wrote:

Molyneux wrote:

DPDarkPrimus wrote:Assassin's Creed 2 is so much better on every level it's not even funny. About the only problem I have with it is that you can't replay missions like AC1.

The one problem I have with AC2 is the fucking evil anti-piracy measure that has prevented me from buying it over Steam. If you ever lose internet connection while playing the game - a single-player game with no on-line elements - you get kicked. Internet goes down? Kicked. Connection hiccups for a few moments too long? Kicked, and you'd better hope it doesn't happen when you're about to beat a boss. Want to play it on a laptop in an area with no wi-fi? Sorry, you're shit out of luck there, buster.

But PC gaming's not dead right?

Well, Just Cause 2 is currently kicking my ass all over its ludicrously expansive sandbox world, WoW will soon be rejoining my gaming library and Team Fortress 2 seems to be holding onto a fairly steady playerbase. You tell me.

I'm just boycotting Ubisoft until they stop pulling this bullshit with the perpetual internet connection.

Man, poor old Just Cause 2. Its a good game, just waaaaay too easy and gets boring really, really fast. Heaps of the stuff you 'can' do you never would because it's useless (liek 75% of the uses of the whip possibilities).

Ubi DRM never bothers me, because I just crack it.

Stark wrote:Man, poor old Just Cause 2. Its a good game, just waaaaay too easy and gets boring really, really fast. Heaps of the stuff you 'can' do you never would because it's useless (liek 75% of the uses of the whip possibilities).

Ubi DRM never bothers me, because I just crack it.

Any DRM on consoles is invisible. Consoles +1, PCs 0.

I played Settlers 7 recently on rental from EB; it was fun but a huge rush simulator.

Anyway it has some asinine login DRM thing (which to be fair tries to add value through profiles and multi etc) and I just cracked it out. Fuck that shit; I just want to tell little mans to chop wood.

General Zod wrote:

Stark wrote:Man, poor old Just Cause 2. Its a good game, just waaaaay too easy and gets boring really, really fast. Heaps of the stuff you 'can' do you never would because it's useless (liek 75% of the uses of the whip possibilities).

Ubi DRM never bothers me, because I just crack it.

Any DRM on consoles is invisible. Consoles +1, PCs 0.

PC has the entire game instead of making you pay for the game, then additional DLC.
Strike one up for the PC. At least you can crack DRM, you can't not pay for DLC, especially when the parts they've taken out are key to the story.

Minischoles wrote:

General Zod wrote:

Stark wrote:Man, poor old Just Cause 2. Its a good game, just waaaaay too easy and gets boring really, really fast. Heaps of the stuff you 'can' do you never would because it's useless (liek 75% of the uses of the whip possibilities).

Ubi DRM never bothers me, because I just crack it.

Any DRM on consoles is invisible. Consoles +1, PCs 0.

PC has the entire game instead of making you pay for the game, then additional DLC.
Strike one up for the PC. At least you can crack DRM, you can't not pay for DLC, especially when the parts they've taken out are key to the story.

I hate to break it to you, but PCs have paid DLC too. Try again.

From what I've heard, both online and according to a pair of my customers/people-coming-into-the-store, cracking Assassin's Creed 2 for PC actually makes it MORE stable. o_O

I admit that I dislike how AC2 has no New Game Plus, but that's more understandable, since a lot of the gameplay elements (i.e. assassination positions) and tools (i.e. Hidden Blade upgrades) are part of the story progression, but what I also dislike is the inability to replay completed stuff on the same playthrough -- even on account of "revisiting memories," such as particular assassination contracts that we liked, certain missions, or parts of the story... even cutscenes ( )... without starting a new playthrough. Annoying to say the least that one has to start from scratch if you missed something story-related...

At least every achievement/trophy except "Fly Swatter" (kick a guard while using the flying machine) are always available on the same playthrough. In the game normally you can only get this achievement in one mission (so if you miss it and save, gotta start ALL over), but if you have the Battle of Forli DLC, you get the flying machine again and thus another chance to try again for the achievement on that playthrough.

On the other hand, one thing AC2 has over AC1 is kickingSpoiler in the balls repeatedly. Also, if you need a challenge for "post-story" play, after the final battle Ezio no longer has a sword or dagger equipped.

Edward Yee wrote: Also, if you need a challenge for "post-story" play, after the final battle Ezio no longer has a sword or dagger equipped.

What? You can just change that when you visit your stronghold. Not that I remember having those weapons unequipped or anything, but I find killing with just your hidden blades hilariously easy. Even for the big guys.

General Zod wrote:

Edward Yee wrote: Also, if you need a challenge for "post-story" play, after the final battle Ezio no longer has a sword or dagger equipped.

What? You can just change that when you visit your stronghold. Not that I remember having those weapons unequipped or anything, but I find killing with just your hidden blades hilariously easy. Even for the big guys.

Why bother re-equipping when you can just disarm a big guy and then use his weapon to kill the other dudes?

DPDarkPrimus wrote:

General Zod wrote:

Edward Yee wrote: Also, if you need a challenge for "post-story" play, after the final battle Ezio no longer has a sword or dagger equipped.

What? You can just change that when you visit your stronghold. Not that I remember having those weapons unequipped or anything, but I find killing with just your hidden blades hilariously easy. Even for the big guys.

Why bother re-equipping when you can just disarm a big guy and then use his weapon to kill the other dudes?

Because it was way too easy to lose that weapon if you wanted to switch to anything else?

Bought AC2 for PS3 today from EB (pre-owned, $50.00). I needed my fix of the superior game, and I want to know what happens next to Desmond.

I was planning to finally play and finish Arkham Asylum next, but dammit I was really jonesing for AC2. Oh well, Arkham Asylum is right after this.

(those who follow my posts lately can probably figure out I'm burning through all my unplayed PS3 games)

AC2 and then Arkham Asylum? You've got some good days of gaming ahead.